The release of a new Fire Emblem game is usually a big deal, so I was more than a little intrigued--but mostly confused--when I happened to glance at the Nintendo Today app calendar on September 24 and it said "Fire Emblem Shadows Available." There had just been a Nintendo Direct on September 12, after all, where Nintendo announced the next mainline entry in the series for Switch 2, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. There was no mention of Fire Emblem Shadows. And after playing it, I can see why Nintendo wouldn't showcase it on that big stage
I assumed it was referring to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, the 2009 remake of the first game in the series, and went on with my day. It was only later that evening I learned that Fire Emblem Shadows was actually a brand-new mobile entry in the series: one where players manage "real-time strategy and social deduction at the same time."
The idea of a new game in the long-running tactics series arriving out of the blue had me eager to install it and see what it was about. I had a decent time with Fire Emblem Heroes, Nintendo's previous attempt at translating Fire Emblem to the world of free-to-play mobile games (and one that would go on to become Nintendo's first mobile game to hit $1 billion in revenue). As such, I was curious to see how Shadows, which is also free to play, would differ. Unfortunately, the monkey paw soon curled, and I found myself dumbfounded by all the ways Fire Emblem Shadows is Fire Emblem in name only.
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