Fire Emblem Heroes update shows Nintendo’s listening to fans

Fire Emblem Heroes received a substantial update this morning, with the addition of new characters to summon and the game’s first sidequests leading the charge. But just as exciting as more content is the announcement that energy costs for some popular features won’t be increasing as initially planned.

Buried in the news notification that accompanied today’s Fire Emblem Heroes update is a notice about several changes and tweaks to the game. These include an extension of the launch period bonus, which gives players two orbs just for logging in through March 14; upcoming rewards for the Training Tower, starting Feb. 20; and a change in experience gained when fighting lower level heroes, which comes in March.

The most important of the changes, however, is that the cost for Training Tower strata will not increase, and players will be able to continue equipping skills at no energy cost. Nintendo originally announced that these costs were a special favor to players who checked out the game during its first weeks post-launch. Instead, the launch promotion “will be extended indefinitely.”

Fans quickly decried the planned increases, as Fire Emblem Heroes was seen as a game that already made players give up way too much of their limited energy, or stamina, to perform any action. Players on the game’s subreddit campaigned to send feedback to Nintendo directly, imploring the company not to go forward with the stamina cost changes. As of this morning’s update, these users feel as though their efforts have been vindicated.

“Really nice to hear from Nintendo,” a top comment reads. “It's great that they are listening to players, but it's much more important that this shows Nintendo's willingness to actually develop this game in the long term, and not use it just as a quick cash grab.”

Other updates that are deepening the game include the more obviously promoted ones. A new set of heroes are available in the summoning grab bag, including characters from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. There are also three paralogues available from the story menu, the first of their kind in Heroes.