WhenFire Emblem Engagewas first announced earlier in 2022, fan responses were mixed. Some were excited to see that iconic characters from throughout theFire Emblemfranchise would be appearing as summonable “Emblems,” while others were disappointed that only twelve characters, one from each main series game, were chosen to appear. Luckily, a trailer shown during the 2022 Game Awards confirmed that new Emblems will be added toFire Emblem Engagein the form of paid DLC. Fans are hoping that these DLC characters might include some memorable villains from throughout the series, including some which have not been previously available as playable characters.
Fire Emblem Engagecenters around the new protagonists, led by the Divine Dragon Alear, summoning “Emblems” from various other worlds to aid them in battle. Each Emblem lends its wielder unique abilities in battle, with some Emblems even being able to perform devastating team attacks alongside the user if they are powered up properly. The main game will feature twelve Emblems, one each from themain games in theFire Emblemseries. The first wave of paid DLC, revealed during the Game Awards, showed off four new characters: house leadersEdelgard, Dimitri, and Claude fromFire Emblem: Three Houses,working together as a single Emblem, and Tiki, a young dragon who fights alongside Marth inFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light.More waves of DLC forEngageare expected, leading some to hope that the series' villains might get their time to shine.
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Fire Emblem’s Villains Have Been Shafted in Spinoffs
While theFire Emblemseries has plenty of memorable villains, some of which even become playable in post-game missions in their home games, they tend to play a frustratingly limited role in spin-offs and crossovers. The twoWarriors-style spinoffs,Fire Emblem WarriorsandFire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes,both featured villains from previous games as bosses to be defeated, but not as playable characters. While some fans still hold out hope that villains such as Thales, Solon, or Kronya will be added as DLC characters forThree Hopes,so far no such DLC has been announced. This was especially disappointing as the latest main series titles,FatesandThree Houses,seemingly ended the tradition of making villains playable for post-game or other bonus maps.
Another spinoff that minimized the role of villains wasTokyo Mirage Sessions #FE,which featured new characters teaming up with characters fromFire Emblem AwakeningandFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Lightas “Mirages,” a concept inspired by Personas from the Atlus series of the same name. While many of the games' antagonists were paired up with villains, no villainous Mirages were playable. While villains do appear as summonable and playable characters in the mobile gameFire Emblem Heroes,they are generally lower-rarity lower-strength characters that are often given away for free.
Villains Could Pair Well With a Dragon Protagonist
The absence (so far) of villainous Emblems is particularly disappointing given that the game will featureAlear, the first Divine Dragonto be a main character in aFire Emblemgame. Historically, manyFire Emblemgames have had a powerful dragon as a major enemy or even the final boss. These include Medeus fromFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light,Duma fromFire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia,and Rhea / The Immaculate One fromFire Emblem: Three Houses.It would be interesting to see Alear interact with other dragons who play an antagonistic role in their worlds, especially as Alear is venerated as a hero and savior in the world ofFire Emblem Engage
It is likely that the next wave ofDLC forFire Emblem Engagewill not be announced until after the game releases in early 2023, with the DLC announced during the Game Awards being the only announcement of its kind. Hopefully, this future DLC will finally give the villains of theFire Emblemseries their time to shine.
Fire Emblem Engagewill release on June 11, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch.
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