Fell Xenologue, the final planned DLC forFire Emblem Engage,is available now. Unlike previous waves of DLC that focused on adding new equipable Emblem Bracelets, the Fell Xenologue adds new characters, classes, and a new story chapter to play through. These added characters, including alternate versions of the base game’s villains, are not only interesting and fun to play as.Fire Emblem Engagealso avoids one mistake that the series' previous bonus content sometimes featured given the new characters have plenty of Support Conversations, letting them feel similarly fleshed out compared to other playable characters.
In the Fell Xenologue,Divine Dragon Alearfinds themselves in an alternate version of Elyos where the villainous Four Hounds are now the heroic Four Winds, but the land’s royals have become antagonistic in their stead. This story centers around collecting the seven Emblem Bracelets released in each previous DLC wave, and after it’s over five new characters - Zelestia, Madeline, Gregory, Nel, and Rafal - can be recruited in the main story. Each of them has a number of extra Support Conversations that let them feel like a true part of the story.
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Previous Fire Emblem DLC, Bonus Characters Often Lacked Supports
TheFire Emblemseries has regularly bonus post-game content. Many earlyFire Emblemgames, such asThe Sacred StonesorThe Binding Blade,allowed villainous or deceased characters to be unlocked for battles after completing the story. Beginning withFire Emblem Awakening,new characters and maps were added to the games in the form of paid DLC. However, one major complaint has long been that these characters often lacked Supports with other characters, even ones who they should naturally interact with.
Fire Emblem Awakeningfeatured six bonus characters, all of whom could Support only the player-character protagonist Robin. This left some notable gaps, such as former Exalt Emmeryn being unable to have a conversation with her own siblings Chrom and Lissa.Fire Emblem Fatesdid not add any characters via DLC; they were instead unlocked via upgrading structures in the My Castle online feature. These characters were fun to experiment with in battle, but did not feature in Supports. Most notably, Flora - one of Corrin’s many retainers - did not speak to any other retainers, and Hoshidan advisor Yukimura did not interact with his prince Ryoma.
Fell Xenologue Characters Follow The Ashen Wolves' Precedent
Fire Emblem: Three Housessomewhat fixed this issue. One of its DLC characters, recurring series staple Anna, had no Support Conversations at all - not even with protagonist Byleth. However, others like Jeritza and members of the Ashen Wolves house had plenty of Supports, and felt like a true part of the story. This was furthered when the Ashen Wolves became non-DLC characters in the spin-off titleFire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes,with even more Support conversations added.
The Four Winds and new additions Nel and Rafalare fully realized characters who each have several Supports inFire Emblem Engage. In addition to Alear and one another, these new characters can interact with Veyle (also closely tied to the Fell Dragon Sombron) and Mauvier, the only member of the Four Hounds who joins Alear in the game’s main campaign. Nel and Rafal speak with several of the game’s royals, including Prince Diamant of Brodia and Princess Timerra of Solm. These conversations highlight differences between the primary and alternate Elyos, and provide background on what drove the primary timeline versions of the Four Hounds to villainy.
The new characters also have brief conversations with the Emblems, playable characters from previousFire Emblemtitles, including the Emblems released in three prior waves of DLC. If Intelligent Systems continues this style of expansion going forward, the Fell Xenologue should set a standard to verify future characters get just as much time in the spotlight.
Fire Emblem Engageis available now for Nintendo Switch.
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