NintendoFire Emblem has long been one of Nintendo’s most quietly innovative series. Whether you’re talking about the dense themes of prejudice and privilege in Path of Radiance, or the brilliant way Three Houses twisted Persona’s time management with strategy, Fire Emblem has consistently thought outside the tactical RPG box. That experimental nature is part of what’s made it such a favorite to me, and what makes Fire Emblem Shadows such a colossal disappointment. Ostensibly an Among Us meets Fire Emblem experience, Shadows lacks any real depth but is more than happy to shove aggressive monetization in your face. I’m not against the idea of an Among Us-Fire Emblem hybrid, and I’m not even against the idea of completely changing the series’ gameplay. A Fire Emblem game doesn’t have to be a tactical RPG as long as it has some kind of depth, like the Fire Emblem Warriors games. But the crucial issue with Shadows is that it feels like there’s nothing here. Once you’ve played five matches, you’ve seen everything. It’s a baffling experience that feels vapid in every sense of the word. If you’d told me this was a new IP that failed in development, prompting Nintendo to slap Fire Emblem branding on it and shove it out the door, I’d believe you.The core problem is that Shadows’ gameplay is too simplistic to be interesting. “Battles” are bite-sized affairs where your character and two allies take down a few enemies. You don’t have direct control over units, as everyone moves and attacks on their own, but you can use rechargeable magic spells to influence the battle. The twist is that one person on your team is a traitor, and you need to figure out who it is between rounds. If you do, you get a health boost. If you don’t, you simply face the traitor without any extra power. The idea isn’t bad, but if you thought a traitor system with just three characters sounds weird, you’d be right. You can unlock new characters and equipment, but matches only ever use three characters, and that grows stale in mere minutes. The whole traitor gimmick doesn’t just feel underused, but boring, which is a genuine shame. Shadows is far too simple and gimmicky to be worth your time. | NintendoA more complex game could’ve used this idea in a novel way. Fire Emblem Heroes, for all its predatory gacha systems, has a lot of depth thanks to its wide array of skills, characters, and weapons. The game’s meta is constantly debated by its dedicated fan base.Shadows doesn’t have any of that depth, because the core strategic experience is just so hopelessly simple. That’s bizarre when you look at some of the things the game does well. There’s a strong Fire Emblem-y soundtrack, impressive character art, and a voice-acted (albeit largely nonsensical) story. That’s a lot of effort that simply doesn’t feel reflected in the core gameplay.This crucial flaw is compounded by the game’s extremely aggressive monetization, which gets shoved in your face the second you beat the prologue. While Shadows isn’t a gacha game like Heroes, it has Season Passes. The first content pass is called Wind of the Plains, and has both a free and paid version (the latter costs roughly $9). While you can ostensibly obtain a lot of the game’s materials and characters for free, you’ll need to put in hours upon hours for that to happen. Shadows has some stellar art and music, but is failed by its simplistic gameplay. | NintendoThe Season Pass centers on Lyn, one of the franchise’s most popular characters, and I’m fairly certain there’s no way to get Lyn without buying the paid version. You simply can’t get enough of the relevant items without paying. And the game shoves the Season Pass in your face, presumably to make you feel like you might be “missing out” if you don’t get Lyn, as there’s no indication she’ll stick around after the pass ends.I’ve had mixed feelings about Fire Emblem Heroes for years, because the game has commodified the series’ most unique aspect: distinct characters that are easy to grow attached to. Heroes preys on the chase for “favorite” characters with its gacha systems, and I can’t shake the feeling that this is why Shadows exists as well; to sell you “new” versions of your beloved characters. That’s a bit gross, but what’s worse is that getting those characters gives you absolutely nothing. Battles have no stakes and aren’t engaging in the slightest, so there’s no advantage to using Lyn over anyone else. Shadows has the hallmarks of bad mobile games: aggressive monetization and a confounding mess of collectable materials. | NintendoFire Emblem Shadows is one of the most bizarre Nintendo games I’ve ever seen, and it’s little surprise that the game was dropped with no fanfare. Frankly, I don’t know why this game exists at all. Its premise sounds experimental, but it does the bare minimum to qualify as an “imposter” game, and it’s hard not to see Shadows as a cynical cash grab. And that’s a genuine shame for a series like Fire Emblem, which has consistently pursued fresh ideas. Even Heroes has become Nintendo’s sole mobile game to stick around in its original version. I’m not going to decry the state of Fire Emblem, as the new Switch 2 game Fortune’s Weave looks plenty ambitious on its own. But compared to that big new game, it’s disappointing to see Fire Emblem also play the part of Nintendo’s generic mobile game cow. I hope we see more of the former, and a lot less of the latter.Fire Emblem Shadows is available on iOS and Android.