Fire Emblem Echoes DLC season pass costs as much as the game

Nintendo has detailed its DLC plans for its upcoming 3DS title, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and it turns out the season pass for all five pieces of additional content will cost as much as the game itself, or more if you buy each item individually.

Five "major" DLC packs will be released in the weeks following the game’s release, allowing players to earn more gold and experience points, explore new regions of the game world, and recruit new playable characters. The first pack is due to arrive on launch day on May 19th and will be priced at 7.19. Two more will then follow on May 25th priced at 8.99 and 13.49, with another on June 1st (11.69) and the final pack (4.49) at a later, currently unknown, date.

Together, that’s 45.85 worth of DLC – 5.86 more than the cost of the game itself on Nintendo’s own official store, which is currently priced at 39.99.Nintendo will also be offering a season pass containing all five packs, however, also priced at 39.99 (giving players a saving of over 30 per cent compared to purchasing each pack separately), so fans who want to buy them all needn’t pay over the odds for it.

Nintendo says the decision to make them available separately was to give players the flexibility to buy as many or as little as they please – a strategy it’s employed in the past with Fire Emblem Fates, which offered multiple maps and an entire new storyline in the form of Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation as individual pieces of DLC. Fates’ Map packs were also bundled together for 16.19 and 7.19 to help players save money compared to buying them all separately.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentiashifted over 133,000 copies in its first week in Japan, andwent straight in at No.1 in the Japanese charts. While it’s harder to predict how the title will do in the UK (Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright debuted at No.5 in the UK charts when it launched in May 2016, with its companion title Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest entering the charts at No.11), it’sclear from Nintendo’s extensive DLC plans that it has high hopes for the latest entry in its turn-based strategy series and plans to keep players actively engaged with the title long after its release.

A limited edition of the game will also be available from Nintendo’s official store priced at 74.99, which includes a copy of the game, areversible cover, an artbook, three metal pixel pin badges, a soundtrack selection CD, and the Alm and Celica amiibo figures. The latter two figures will also be available at retail individually.