I'll be brief.

Aren't hobbies supposed to pass time, instead of filling it? What it means to finish a game? Specifically, I almost never finish at 100% of progress games for lack of practicality, but if you consider the games I play, like Tactics Ogre, and their inane prerequisites for a 100% clear, you can see where I come from. One thing is achievement hunting, one thing is saying "yep, there's nothing else left in this for me". Hope I make sense.

Why then does Fire Emblem: Three Houses, or as the fans call it, 100% Walkthrough, ALL ROUTES, keep locking content behind routes? I understand the need to have a complex and definitive experience, with no clear canon, but the clumsiness and game design show another picture. There's three routes in the game, of which ... only one could be considered necessary. Repetitiveness of gameplay loop between monastery trips, fun for the first five minutes, and recycled battle maps can do only so much good for enjoyment.

I felt like I had to play this game just to be done with it and it's not a good indicator of enjoyment and fun. I stepped back, took a break from games altogether, came back last week and cleared all routes. It's frustrating, yes, because there's merit in it. There's a sparkle of good characterization, clear understanding of what makes a good Fire Emblem, but then it's snapped back to reality thanks to awkward choices.

Here's a couple examples:

- I feel like this game is bloated with content, while keeping to a single route and developing that single one Blue Lions would've done wonders, it would've addressed so many odd moments in the other routes as well. No spoilers, but if you know, you know.
- There was no need to choose the route to pick so early in the game. I hope you enjoy playing the same 10-12 chapters each new game!! when there's also BUILT IN a way to borrow units around your level. Huhhhh let me PLEASE have all units have that standard build and let me skip half the game please.
- Map design is barren. There are probably two or three good maps, and while other games in the franchise like Awakening like to at least present you a set piece, Three Houses really likes to put you through unimpressive ground and grass textures all the time.

These kind of flaws really shine through once you realize, in order to experience the full brunt of the game, you have to play through all three four routes. It leads to confusion, it leads to frustration; for goodness' sake choosing the Golden Deer faction because you like their characters (fair enough) is paramount to NOT understanding important plot points because it takes for granted that you've played the other two routes, and now you're ready for a third point of view.

I understand where the love for the game comes from. The soundtrack is stellar, the game's very accessible and the battles and classes are very hands-off, reward experimentation and being able to influence units' growth is also very fun. The characters and themes of the game give a lot of think about and offer interesting counterpoints to each other in their support conversations and there's no clear best or worst unit in terms of balance, characterization (except a very dull middle aged man) and build. Still, no reason to put permadeath when all characters are supposed to be important, but you do you, "Intelligent" System, this kind of game design doesn't incentivize iron man runs, at all.

I don't want to be bitter, I think I liked this game. I'll talk about the DLC in another review, at least I'll be able to skip all the monastery chicanery and jump straight to the maps, which made me not want to play the game ever again after 200 hours.

just played nothing but this game for a week straight, [picked golden deer]. and it was very very fun.

i think this game was a little too ambitious with all the stuff you can do, as its a little overwhelming.. [especially with the next game, engage, being a lot simpler].

all of my problems are just tiny things that are annoying over time, [weapon durability and how the level up screen pops up SUPER often and takes like 5 seconds, istg by the end of the game i wasted an HOUR just because of those screens..]

very very fun, can recommend, especially [prepare for a niche group of people that i happen to fall under..] for people who want to get into the series, and have played the persona games.

The saying "it's the journey, not the destination" couldn't be more true. After over 70 hours, I was kind of surprised how abruptly everything wrapped up. 18 chapters about political intrigue and war, only for the final battle with Edlegard to kind of just happen without much fanfare. Then, the big baddies are finally revealed, only to immediately kill them lol. But wait there's more! A world ending threat appears?! That's shouldn't take more than exactly one chapter to deal with.

Aside from the ending (which I thought was quite sloppy) the writing throughout the rest of the game was a bit hit or miss. The political backdrop was actually quite interesting, and seeing characters switch sides depending on where their houses allegiance was some of the best writing I've seen in a Fire Emblem game (or dare I say, in gaming in general). Then there are certain parts and dialogues (particularly in support conversations) that vary from stiff to down right comical.

Gameplay follows the writing in the middle of the road aspect. There is so much to do and so many options given to you in the "monastery" portion of the game that allow you to get stat boosting items, improve support ranks, boost skills, gain useful items and gold... only to be paired with one of the easiest Fire Emblems I've played. Ultimately the added gameplay elements introduced feel more like fluff more than anything. They added 20 or so hours to my playthrough probably, only for it to feel like it wasn't at all necessary. I maxed the supports on most of my team by the 3/4 mark without even trying for most of the playthrough, but I still have hundreds of gifts, lost items, teas, and ingredients sitting in my inventory.

Overall, really great Fire Emblem for the cast of characters and interesting story introduced, but ultimately against the larger landscape of games it doesn't hold up so well. I would suggest fans of the series to start off on a higher difficulty to avoid steamrolling the entire game and not getting much out of all the extra mechanics added.

An excellent and refreshing take on the franchise with one of the strongest and most compelling ensemble casts I have ever seen. The story & characters are handled incredibly well, and the combat & class system is opened up in a way that feels extremely fluid & fun (at first). Unfortunately, that's where the game's main drawbacks lie - the fluidity of the classes and lowered dependency on systems like the weapons triangles leads to much of the combat ending up feeling very static once you settle into things. Add in a sparse rotation of only a small number of maps and it begins to feel incredibly repetitive as you approach the latter parts of the game, however luckily the story keeps things interesting enough to make it well worth following through on. However, the story, as a whole, requires playing multiple paths to get the full bredth of, and while the New Game+ functionality allows you to skip a lot of the downtime stuff in the Monastary that soaks up a lot of time, it doesn't do anything to make the combat more interesting, the amount of changed dialogue between the paths is quite sparse also, making a hard sell to really consider pursuing. Don't get me wrong though - it's still a lot of fun, and the best tactical RPG I've played in a long time, it's just that it's main flaws in combat & class systems unfortunately kill all sense of replayability, despite the game otherwise being set up perfectly for it.

This one is a dozy, and for reference I only played Blue Lions like 2 years ago. It's a good game by all means, but it felt dull at times. Like I'd say 75% of the game is spent doing stuff around the monastery and the other 25% is actually playing Fire Emblem.

Characters are, fine? Edelgard was weird. Like your step-brother is sitting here offering you mercy after trying to kill you for 5 years, and after you turned into a giant monster and tried to kill him. And what does Edelgard do? Chuck a knife at the guy, promptly getting her killed. It makes no sense!

Other than repetitiveness and odd story choices, it's a fine game.

"I have been dead, more or less..."

A touching game with an emotional story and a lovable cast, my first play through was Blue Lions, and I loved it. Dimitri's development is incredible, and as someone who also always wanted to help people, the feeling of hopelessness and being powerless really makes you bitter and hateful. That's why I resonated so much with Dimitri; he's the nicest guy who just wants to help, but life doesn't make that easy. That's why you get so angry, and it's so easy to stop smiling.

Claude is the sanest of the three main characters. I also resonate with him, but not that much. Still, he's lovable and literally wants to end racism.

Edelgard... well, I hate her and won't ever play her route; I refuse.