Fire Emblem Heroes just played its fanbase with its best event yet

Fire Emblem Heroes’ moneymaking gimmick has never been more clear than today, with the release of its latest character-collecting event. Four of the game’s most powerful, coveted heroes are finally easily obtainable — days after the long-awaited release of Ike, the most popular Fire Emblem character, who is both not as strong and not as easy to collect.

Takumi, Hector, Azura and Ryoma are the starring heroes of the new event, which is dubbed “Hero Fest.” Although players must still spend their in-game money in the hopes of grabbing any of these characters at random, the odds to win them are the best they ever have been in the grab bag-style game.

This would typically be great news. All four of these characters make easy picks for a powerful team in the role-playing game, which is all about collecting and strengthening the best heroes from across the Fire Emblem series. But the launch of the Hero Fest event stings a bit when it comes a little more than 48 hours after the long-anticipated release of Ike.

Ike is one of Fire Emblem’s most iconic characters, taking the top spot in Fire Emblem Heroes’ popularity poll just before launch. Although that collectible event is still running, the likelihood that anyone will pull a top-notch Ike from the game’s grab bag is slim — a three percent chance compared to the five-percent odds of winning Hero Fest’s top brass.

As my colleague and fellow Fire Emblem Heroes buff Russ Frushtick put it to me this morning:

It’s especially striking that the launch of an event that makes it comparatively easy to win the strongest characters in the game follows Nintendo’s fiscal year report. The company revealed that, although Fire Emblem Heroes hasn’t been downloaded as much as Super Mario Run, the mobile game has turned huge profits for the company. When players feel compelled to go spend cash on more in-game funds after they wasted them all trying to get Ike, that all starts to make sense.