Today is the third anniversary of Fire Emblem Heroes, and fans came together to receive their yearly update from Nintendo. Fans looked forward to the anniversary because, like other free-to-play mobile titles anniversaries, there was supposed to be generous gifts and big reveals for the community.
In general, Intelligent Systems met expectations with special Valentine Day characters, a fan vote for the next update, and a change to gacha rarity to make it better for the community. At the end of the video, gans got an extra surprise and one they were not wanting. Fire Emblem Heroes is now receiving a new monthly subscription that locks some important content behind a paywall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POoIZWjHA-g
The new subscription has been dubbed the “Feh Pass” and will cost members $9.49 a month when it launches on February 5. There are five main benefits the patch all detailed in the announcement video.
In short, the Feh Pass is bringing old heroes back and updating them with brand new art and raised stats. These upgrades are only available through the pass and makes it the first chunk of content to be locked behind a paywall. The content of the game relies on having powerful heroes, and the pass almost adds a pay-to-win feature automatically. Fans are, to say the least, not happy.
This is not where the pay-to-win benefits end. Anyone who subscribes to the pass will gain special quests and be able to earn valuable currency twice a month. There also seems to be a form of stat-boosting built into the system allowing for the stat-boosting bonds to link with three heroes rather than the default one.
The last feature given to members of the Feh Pass is two menu options. One allows players a chance to re-do their last turn. Intelligent Systems has made it very clear this won’t apply to PvP but is an added advantage for PvE encounters. There will also be an Auto-Start option allowing players to replay a map over and over with just the tap of a button. It is essentially an auto-farm option.
Fan response across all channels has been overwhelmingly negative. Reddit users are already creating memes about the content launch, and Twitter is full of raging comments. By adding a microtransaction to a well-balanced game, many fans are seeing it as a profit over product view.
Whether or not you agree with the new pass, it will be implemented within the next few days. Only time will tell what this pass will effect in the end.
