Fire Emblem - Three Houses
Tags: Tactical Turn-Based JRPG, Story Rich, Replay Value
Hhhhrrrnnnggg… Where do I start?!
I looove the Fire Emblem series. Current favorite is Fire Emblem Awakening, but I’ve barely scratched 3 hours into Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and it’s already a very close contender for that title! For the FE series, I’ve played:
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii): Enjoyable. Sucks that only a NG+ playthrough unlocks the “best” ending of the game, though.
- Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (NDS): Loved it when I first played through it. I’m afraid that the newer 3DS gameplay / graphics might make NDS a bit stale to me now. Never like Marth’s hairstyle, lol.
- Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem (NDS): Customizable Avatar and returning characters from Shadow Dragon were nice touches.
- Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS): Best. Fire. Emblem. Plot follows the conventional, “there’s evil lurking on the horizon, go forth and whoop its ass,” but is still intruiging and exciting. Cast of characters is great, both in terms of individual stories and fun gameplay / class abilities. Chrom and Lucina and Robin, especially, are all competent, well-intentioned leaders / protagonists. Chrom’s and Lucina’s hairstyles don’t suck. CG, animated battle scenes, and voice-overs are all well-executed. Thank you for Japanese voice-over with English subtitles, I never never never liked English dubs of any Japanese games.
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Fire Emblem Fates (3DS): Stale, compared to Awakening. Azura / Aqua’s a fine protagonist – calm, analytical, and decisive. Corrin, by comparison, comes across as an some frustrating absent-minded idealist (Note: Revelation Route). Oh, but because Corrin’s some barefoot half-dragon Mary Sue snowflake, he gets to command the armies because his blood is special. Plot revolves around two feuding factions, but what makes it boring to me is it follows the classic, uninspired East vs. West trope. Also IDK why Fates neglected to include JP voice-overs in the original / unmodded English game, but that’s another strike against it for me. Eh… I suppose it’s OST was good. Also, character inserts / including returning characters from Fates and Paralogues felt clumsy, it detracted even further from the already awkward storyline, IMO.
- PUT ON SOME DAMN SHOES CORRIN. FFS D’YOU EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH DUST THE ROADS PICK UP.
Haven’t played Shadows of Valentia. Dunno if I’ll get around to it.
Using yuzu to emulate Nintendo Switch titles like FE: Three Houses on the PC. AFAIK, the main usable Switch emulators are yuzu and Ryujinx. And, InB4 holier-than-thou piracy debates, neither emulators will work without files / dumps from a physical Switch* and neither of them condone pirating games.
Asterisk (*): There are workarounds. Google around.
Holy hell but does yuzu run hella smoooooth! At least, compared to running FE Awakening & FE Fates with Citra.
Anyway, anyway. Emulation aside, about the game–
Edelgard von Hresvelg
Holy fuck.
This woman looked in my direction once and my soul left it’s body.
Ughhh her vooooooooooice, too. It tingles the back of my brain in a very welcome sorta way.
Reminds me of Sakura Ayane’s voice, but more refined / controlled.
Also, Edelgard × Byleth, thank you I have a new yuri ship now. Bless. 
Erm… Right, about the game.
Combat Phase is standard Fire Emblem – move your units across the field and whack the opponent’s units into submission, or fulfill other objectives. Doors and Chests still require keys or Thief classes. New things that I’ve noticed:
- It’s expanded from FE Awakening / Fates with its arsenal of weapons, including Gauntlets as a new weapon type. Spells are split into Reason and Faith categories – damage-dealing and support magic respectively – for leveling.
- I think they’ve done away with the classic Sword-Lance-Axe Weapon Triangle (i.e. Rock-Paper-Scissors)? Weaknesses seem to be down to a unit-by-unit basis – at least, for the player’s team and named characters.
- Skills like Heavy Armor, Flying, and Riding now level like weapon skills from previous games. Prior to this change, these skills were class-dependent and were automatically learned if a unit changes classes.
- Class changes and advancements still require Seals, but a successful change / advancement requires the unit to level skills that pertain to the new class.
- Support between units still add stat benefits between the two. Unlike Awakening and Fates, though, units act individually and do not team up to deal extra damage or to mitigate incoming damage. Also new is that, when on the offensive, all units adjacent to the controlled unit, as well as any non-adjacent unit within range of the enemy unit being attacked (think, pincer attack), will earn support points.
- If a controlled unit is within the enemy’s attack range, a glowing red arc will sprout from said enemy unit(s) to the highlighted unit (e.g. above screenshot). If more than one controlled unit is within the enemy’s attack range, only one red arc will appear, and it seems to predict the enemy’s most likely target of attack. Previous FE titles never seemed to have this helpful (EZ Mode?) indicator.
School Phase is new to Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Rather than progressing through the story via battle-after-battle-after-endless-battle, time now follows a day-by-day school schedule. Between the battles, the players can explore the home area, hold lectures, participate in seminars, take the time to get to know their units, chill out with fishing / gardening / cooking, and complete errands for people.
- The home area is expansive, but the game eases the player into their new surroundings. Areas and new game elements are steadily unlocked as the player progresses through the game.
- There’s a limited number of activities the player can engage in while exploring. Speaking / checking up on units will never consume time, but training, cooking, sharing a meal, and choir practice – activities that raise stats or support points – will.
- Support scenes / dialogue are now enacted by the character models and take place in various locations, rather than fulfilled by static images and a generic background image as in previous games. Very welcome touch, definitely adds more character to the gameplay and more entertainment for the player.
- Starkly different from Awakening’s Robin and Fates’s Corrin, Three Houses’s Byleth seems to follow the silent protagonist trope, and they’re usually expressionless. For peepos into character customization, the most players are able to customize is their gender, name, apparel (DLC), and classes (as you gain levels). Byleth seems a’ight to me, tho, both personality and appearance-wise.
- Game starts off relatively grounded and down-to-earth, compared to Awakening and Fates. Haven’t seen any odd time or space-manipulating shenanigans (e.g. Paralogues and time-traveling offspring), aside from the voice residing inside Byleth’s head.
Need to play more for a more extensive list of changes, but the above is what stood out to me most after a short 3 hour session.
Did I mention I’m loving the game so far?
I’m having an absolute blast. Haven’t been this thrilled by a game in ages. 