Fire Emblem Shadows

Fire Emblem Shadows^[b] is a 2025 social deduction strategy video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for Android and iOS. It is the second mobile spin-off of the Fire Emblem series following Fire Emblem Heroes (2017). Unlike Heroes, the game forgoes the series' traditional tactical role-playing gameplay in favor of multiplayer social deduction. Players engage in combat where one of their number is secretly a traitor who can sabotage others. After combat's completion, players vote on who they think is the traitor and subsequently must fight the traitor afterwards. The game features an in-game story split in two halves; the light half focuses on Kurt, a royal who is forced to flee her home country after it is attacked by the Goddess of Shadows, Fenris, while the dark half focuses on servants of the both Fenris and the Light Goddess Naga as they engage in combat with each other.

Fire Emblem Shadows
Key artwork, featuring Zasha (left), Kurt (middle), and Hati (right)
Developer	Intelligent Systems[a]
Publisher	Nintendo
Series	Fire Emblem
Platforms	Android, iOS
Release	September 25, 2025
Genres	Strategy, social deduction
Mode	Multiplayer

The game was announced and released on September 25, 2025. The game received negative reviews from critics and fans, who felt the gameplay was simple and lacked depth in terms of its social deduction gameplay.

Gameplay and plot

Gameplay

A first in the series, Shadows features real time strategy gameplay with social deduction elements. In online multiplayer battles, three players work together against a series of enemies, with one player secretly serving the Goddess of Shadows, Fenris; this player can attack and sabotage their allies. Combat is automatic, with characters moving on their own; players can control when they use magic and healing abilities. Players can adjust the skills and weapons they use outside of combat. After combat, players must vote on who they believe is the Fenris-aligned player; if players guess correctly, they receive additional health. Players then must fight the traitor in combat; if the other players defeat the traitor, they win, but if the traitor defeats the other players, they win.^[1][2][3][4]

Plot

An image of combat in Fire Emblem Shadows, with the player controlling Kurt preparing to use a spell to attack enemies

The game is split into light and shadow stories. The player can progress each story by playing multiplayer battles.^[3]

In the light story, Kurt, the prince of the Kingdom of Ast who is actually a woman, flees the country alongside her retainers after it is invaded by servants of Fenris. Kurt and her allies seek to flee to the neighboring kingdom of Holst, where Kurt's fiancee, Rose, will grant them safety. Throughout the journey, Kurt and her allies are repeatedly attacked by servants of Fenris. The group figures out that a traitor among them is feeding information to Fenris; Gotthold, one of Kurt's retainers, reveals himself as the traitor and sacrifices himself to stop himself from fighting Kurt. The group subsequently makes it to Holst.

In the shadow story, servants of the Light Goddess Naga, Sai and Shea, encounter an amnesiac woman named Lyn, who they believe can help them fight Fenris, while servants of Fenris, Hati and Skoll, recruit others to their side. Sai, Shea, and Lyn encounter Hati and Skoll, who have recruited another amnesiac named Dimitri, who proceeds to fight Lyn.

Release and reception

Release

Fire Emblem Shadows was revealed and immediately released on September 25, 2025 in over 70 countries^[5] on multiple devices, including iOS and Android.^[3] Barring licensed releases, it is the first mobile game to be released by Nintendo in six years since the 2019 release of Mario Kart Tour.^[6] It is the second Fire Emblem game released on mobile, following the 2017 release of Fire Emblem Heroes.^[2] Shadows was developed by Intelligent Systems in conjunction with the company DeNA.^[1]

The game uses a free to play model.^[1] Unlike Heroes, a gacha game, Shadows's uses microtransactions, including a season pass, which allows players to unlock returning character Lyn. Following the release of Shadows, the game's incarnation of Lyn was added to Heroes, which caused the latter game to experience a surge in revenue.^[7]

Critical reception

Upon release, the game received negative responses from Fire Emblem fans.^[2] Hayes Madsen, writing for Inverse, criticized the game as being "simple", feeling it wouldn't be very appealing to players after playing a few rounds of gameplay.^[8] Polygon's Giovanni Colantonio also felt the gameplay lacked much depth, particularly in terms of the social elements of the game, additionally criticizing the microtransactions in the game, as players who bought stronger gear could simply overwhelm other players even if they do not engage with the social elements.^[3] GameSpot's Cameron Koch felt the games went by too quickly for the social deduction aspects to be incorporated effectively, especially since he felt that microtransactions allowed players to brute force their way into victory regardless of their success in social deduction. Though Koch highlighted the game's character designs and story, feeling that they were effective elements, he disliked the fact they were locked beyond gameplay that Koch felt was boring.^[9] Nintendo Life's PJ O'Reilly also felt that the gameplay was boring, also feeling that the story was rigid and basic compared to other Fire Emblem games.^[10]

Revenue

In the game's first week, the game made $90,000 USD in revenue, a decrease from previous Fire Emblem mobile game Heroes, which made over $400,000 USD in its first week. Over half of Shadows's revenue hails from Japanese players, with 32% hailing from players in the United States and only 1% hailing from Canada.^[7]

Notes

1. Service infrastructure and development cooperation by DeNA
2. Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム シャドウズ, Hepburn: Faiā Emuburemu Shadows