Nintendo has announced an expansion pass for Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave that will deliver on its original concept of having eight main characters. The DLC adds four additional story routes for the game's sub-lords: Bertrand, Talimun, Anatolia, and Orchel, bringing the total number of main characters to eight.
A massive game gets even bigger
Between its four different character routes, Fortune's Weave can easily take over 100 hours to see everything, making it one of the biggest video games of the year. HowLongToBeat estimates that it would take 161 hours to see absolutely everything in the game.
Nintendo hasn't specified if these new story routes will be as long as the original four, but the expansion pass's store listing mentions 'new allies, unit classes and more' will be included.
Original vision restored
Fortune's Weave was originally going to feature eight main characters to start with. Director Toshiyuki Kusakihara and producer Genki Yokota revealed this in one of Nintendo's Ask the Developer interviews, ahead of the game's launch, but said it proved too difficult to implement.
'With eight protagonists, there was almost too much we could do… It seemed like players would have a lot to keep track of, which could make the game feel complicated. So, we decided to put the focus on four of those protagonists instead,' said Yokota.
Release schedule and pricing
The new story content won't come out until an unspecified date in 2027. However, the expansion pass will add two waves of smaller content updates before that. Firstly, four weapons based on the Heroes' Relics from Fire Emblem: Three Houses are already available, with each of the four leads – Cai, Dietrich, Theodora, and Leda – receiving one by completing new side quests.
The second wave is scheduled for this winter and will add new outfits for the four leads and their allies, as well as three new units to take into battle – the gods Aurora, Smyrnos, and Jurah. Players will need to complete new quests to recruit them, and they'll only be available during the final act of the game.
The expansion pass is available for purchase right now for £29.99. Considering the base game is already £58.99 digitally and £66.99 physically, that's a lot to spend on Fire Emblem, but you're certainly getting your money's worth. Nintendo is also offering a digital bundle for newcomers that contains both the base game and the expansion pass, but at £88.98, it's no cheaper than buying a digital copy of the game and the DLC separately.
