Fire Emblem Heroes Gets New Characters And Some Fan-Friendly Improvements

Good news for fans of Nintendo's latest mobile game, Fire Emblem Heroes: in addition to new characters and fresh story content that arrived earlier today, Nintendo announced that the game's launch promotion has been extended "indefinitely."

That means that it won't cost extra to grind away in Fire Emblem Heroes' Training Tower, and that your characters will be able to learn and equip skills without spending any precious stamina, one of Fire Emblem Heroes' in-game currencies. Previously, Nintendo said that the current stamina costs for both the Training Tower and skill adjustments were a limited-time "favor" to thank early adopters, and that prices would be rising relatively soon.

Additionally, Fire Emblem Heroes' bonus launch event, which gives players two precious orbs every day just for logging in, will be extended through March 14. Players will receive rewards for fighting in the Training Tower starting on February 20, while characters will receive more experience after battling low-level opponents sometime in March.

Finally, Fire Emblem Heroes' first limited-time story event launched with a batch of characters from the Game Boy Advance title, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. The "Family Bonds" character pool and the event-exclusive levels will be live through February 26.

Like many other free-to-play games, Fire Emblem Heroes has a number of systems designed to limit how much free users can play, encouraging customers to pay real money to get the most out of their gaming experience. Entering battles, which comprise the bulk of Fire Emblem's gameplay, costs stamina, while orbs are used to gamble on new, more powerful characters.

Fire Emblem Heroes is a faithful, if simple, adaptation of Nintendo's long-running turn-based strategy franchise, but as the game's honeymoon period draws to a close, fans have started complaining about the game's high stamina costs. While the early levels are incredibly welcoming, harder missions can only be enjoyed a few times before draining a player's stamina pool completely. Even so, Fire Emblem Heroes is still a little bit more forgiving than its console counterparts—unlike the mainline Fire Emblem games, Fire Emblem Heroes doesn't seriously punish you for dying.