Three Houses deviates from the usual Fire Emblem's formula, making it an original entry in the franchise, however, despite having some good ideas, execution leaves much to be desired.
With the house system, the game offers players multiple paths to follow, with different characters and stories, one can experience the whole game by playing each route available, or at least, this is what developers aimed for.
Sadly, the replay value is limited, until an advanced point in the game, the story remains the same for all houses. Furthermore, players can recruit students and teachers from other classes than the chosen one. Obviously it makes no sense, but somehow the suspension of disbelief is still intact, because one can understands this is mostly a choice in favor of players' experiences, allowing them to create their dream team, which is great no debate on that.
However, such feature should not be a thing for a first playthrough, instead it should have been one of the options players can buy/select to enhance new game plus, this way it would ensure that players would still have characters to discover during new game plus, also it would ensure the story is correctly delivered, not filled with nonsenses. Sadly, the story itself is somewhat predictable and quite frankly mediocre, to be fair this statement does apply to most Fire Emblem games, difference is, usually they do not focus that much on story, meaning it's normally easier to overlook such problem.
As for the characters, they are on the archetype side, from the reserved and quiet shy girl, to the wannabe comic relief guy whose only talk about food, to the teacher with big breasts, Three Houses has it all, unfortunately, only a few manage to become more nuanced. Sometime player don't even get the chance to witness their evolutions, and that's because the story contains a time skip, handy for lazy writing. Comedy peak for some, depressing fact for other, some main characters are so poorly written even the Gatekeeper might have better writing.
Regarding the gameplay, similar to its predecessors, to no one' surprise the casual mode is present, introduced during the 3DS era this optional mode disables perma deaths. What is new however is the absence of triangle weapon, meanwhile, Divine Pulse is now base kit meaning players can rewind time if they so desire, qualifying this game as a TPRG is a stretch, Three Houses is much more of a management game or a dating sim. A sad yet logical step for Intelligent System trying their best to target the widest audience possible, even if it means to sacrifice the very things that made Fire Emblem somewhat unique in its early days. Perma death and the weapon triangle, those two systems combined not only gave some weight to the decision making, it gave this franchise an identity.
In conclusion, Fire Emblem Three Houses isn't inherently bad, but it's a soulless experience which happen to focus on management and dating elements not due to a creative mind having faith in those systems or even for the likes of experiencing new things, but merely a marketing strategy trying to copycat the current trend of the time.
With the house system, the game offers players multiple paths to follow, with different characters and stories, one can experience the whole game by playing each route available, or at least, this is what developers aimed for.
Sadly, the replay value is limited, until an advanced point in the game, the story remains the same for all houses. Furthermore, players can recruit students and teachers from other classes than the chosen one. Obviously it makes no sense, but somehow the suspension of disbelief is still intact, because one can understands this is mostly a choice in favor of players' experiences, allowing them to create their dream team, which is great no debate on that.
However, such feature should not be a thing for a first playthrough, instead it should have been one of the options players can buy/select to enhance new game plus, this way it would ensure that players would still have characters to discover during new game plus, also it would ensure the story is correctly delivered, not filled with nonsenses. Sadly, the story itself is somewhat predictable and quite frankly mediocre, to be fair this statement does apply to most Fire Emblem games, difference is, usually they do not focus that much on story, meaning it's normally easier to overlook such problem.
As for the characters, they are on the archetype side, from the reserved and quiet shy girl, to the wannabe comic relief guy whose only talk about food, to the teacher with big breasts, Three Houses has it all, unfortunately, only a few manage to become more nuanced. Sometime player don't even get the chance to witness their evolutions, and that's because the story contains a time skip, handy for lazy writing. Comedy peak for some, depressing fact for other, some main characters are so poorly written even the Gatekeeper might have better writing.
Regarding the gameplay, similar to its predecessors, to no one' surprise the casual mode is present, introduced during the 3DS era this optional mode disables perma deaths. What is new however is the absence of triangle weapon, meanwhile, Divine Pulse is now base kit meaning players can rewind time if they so desire, qualifying this game as a TPRG is a stretch, Three Houses is much more of a management game or a dating sim. A sad yet logical step for Intelligent System trying their best to target the widest audience possible, even if it means to sacrifice the very things that made Fire Emblem somewhat unique in its early days. Perma death and the weapon triangle, those two systems combined not only gave some weight to the decision making, it gave this franchise an identity.
In conclusion, Fire Emblem Three Houses isn't inherently bad, but it's a soulless experience which happen to focus on management and dating elements not due to a creative mind having faith in those systems or even for the likes of experiencing new things, but merely a marketing strategy trying to copycat the current trend of the time.
Aburrido
I think this has to have been the most boring of the FE games I've played. The maps were extremely unmemorable, lots of dialogue that never felt like it was going anywhere pre-timeskip, and I swear the whole monastery intermissions exist just to waste your time. I wouldn't say it's bad by any means, but just very bland and mediocre. There were lots of good concepts that I enjoyed and could've added a lot to the game like the calendar system, but they were all just way too repetitive in execution with too little actual, meaningful moments to keep you engaged unless you like having character discourse on Twitter.
Ended up leaving midway through Edelgard's route post-timeskip, I just couldn't take it any more.
Ended up leaving midway through Edelgard's route post-timeskip, I just couldn't take it any more.
Game long...
I really liked the teacher/student dynamic between the player's avatar and the other units. I was a little tired of having my unit be social equals to the units that he commands on the battlefield, and I like the way that the students have an amount of respect for the player that maintains a social barrier between them.
One of the greatest games i've ever played
Played it like three times over! Probably the best Fire Emblem I've played.
was good when i was a fire emblem fan, but now looking back it’s a fire emblem game. that exists. i like dimitri
I haven't played an FE game in 6 years, and I never really thought I'd end up playing another let alone actually enjoying it.
I'm genuinely shocked by how much I enjoyed this game, the gameplay is actually fun, which is saying a lot since I'm not an rpg guy. The characters are all so fun and have something that I love about each of them, they're probably the best part of the game. The story (for blue lions) is really damn good too, at no point did it ever feel boring or uninteresting, just an amazing ride through out.
My only real complaint is the last 5th of the game was a bit slow, and some months went by without it feeling like much happened outside of the main map at the end, which could just be my fault for not spacing out content well.
Overall it's a fantastic game and I'd recommend it to anyone, even people who don't like Fire Emblem or rpgs (literally me).
I'm genuinely shocked by how much I enjoyed this game, the gameplay is actually fun, which is saying a lot since I'm not an rpg guy. The characters are all so fun and have something that I love about each of them, they're probably the best part of the game. The story (for blue lions) is really damn good too, at no point did it ever feel boring or uninteresting, just an amazing ride through out.
My only real complaint is the last 5th of the game was a bit slow, and some months went by without it feeling like much happened outside of the main map at the end, which could just be my fault for not spacing out content well.
Overall it's a fantastic game and I'd recommend it to anyone, even people who don't like Fire Emblem or rpgs (literally me).
First route is great but this game just gets worse and worse the more time you dump into it.
Either you love this game or you hate it. It's my first Fire Emblem so when playing, I never had any prior exceptions about what a Fire Emblem game should be. I first played on Normal-Classic. While playing I loved the concept of raising my students to become insanely busted units over the span of 40-50 hours, so much so that I refused to use any other units if they weren't apart of my class. Each character has good lore and has connections to other characters in and out of their house. Learning about them through the Persona like social sim activities is a controversial element, but slowing down the chapter to chapter gameplay makes you appreciate the characters more. I remember most units from Three Houses while for other Fire Emblem games, I only remember the most notable ones. The story is great and only gets better when you play all four routes, though I recommend spacing out runs and using the NG+ features. If I played a Fire Emblem before this, I might not have liked it as much as I do, but this is a strategy game with great writing, gameplay, soundtrack, and replay-ability. Golden Deer on top
This review contains spoilers
Well, I finally finished the game’s main campaign. I followed the Claude (or Golden Deer) route that seemed the most appropriate and I didn’t regret it one bit. I can say that among the 3 endings that the game shows, Claude’s appears to be the most complete and without a doubt the most satisfying for both Fodlan and Byleth.
The game’s characters are all very unique and full of individualism. It’s impressive how you can see every type of personality within a game with less than 50 hours of gameplay on average; it’s absurd how unique each character is and its development. I feel like it’s a shame that I can’t fully explore the character of the other houses without being part of them; that would certainly please me more, but I understand the studio’s strategy in encouraging the player to follow other routes, so not only does their knowledge about the other characters but also what it could have been like for you to support the other side.
Speaking of Claude’s route, I’m a little sad about the ending of the characters from the other houses. I don’t know if it’s like that in the other routes, but the fact that they canonically die in battles after the timeskip (with the exception of a few), unless you recruit them to your side, is quite sad. I was saddened by many deaths because I knew that that result was just a matter of a single choice at the beginning of the game and that they would have been in your team’s place supporting you if you had chosen them.
The story and plot of the game are quite interesting. I would say that the biggest plot twist is without a doubt the fact that the academy traitor is Edelgard. I was a little surprised by her being the enemy. Although I haven’t ventured into her route yet to understand her motivations in depth, but from what I saw of Claude’s route, her goals were VERY similar and she appears to have a similar background to Lysithea, which makes her even more of an interesting character. I would say that among the 3 leaders, Edelgard is without a doubt the one who appears to be the most interesting. As for Dimitri, I’m sad about the situation he ended up in. Mad with revenge and killed by spears, even the characters found his death sad and brutal, but an unavoidable fate for those driven by revenge.
As it was my first tactical RPG, I had a little difficulty at first, but nothing that stopped me; after all, it’s still an RPG. All you need to know is when to attack and retreat, as well as knowing how to use buffs, healing, and knowing how to choose character classes well.
Well, overall the game has some basic problems like graphics that look like they came from a PS3, the story seems to be a bit slow at times but nothing too absurd.
All in all, it’s a good game; my rating would probably be higher if I had played the 3 other routes.
The game’s characters are all very unique and full of individualism. It’s impressive how you can see every type of personality within a game with less than 50 hours of gameplay on average; it’s absurd how unique each character is and its development. I feel like it’s a shame that I can’t fully explore the character of the other houses without being part of them; that would certainly please me more, but I understand the studio’s strategy in encouraging the player to follow other routes, so not only does their knowledge about the other characters but also what it could have been like for you to support the other side.
Speaking of Claude’s route, I’m a little sad about the ending of the characters from the other houses. I don’t know if it’s like that in the other routes, but the fact that they canonically die in battles after the timeskip (with the exception of a few), unless you recruit them to your side, is quite sad. I was saddened by many deaths because I knew that that result was just a matter of a single choice at the beginning of the game and that they would have been in your team’s place supporting you if you had chosen them.
The story and plot of the game are quite interesting. I would say that the biggest plot twist is without a doubt the fact that the academy traitor is Edelgard. I was a little surprised by her being the enemy. Although I haven’t ventured into her route yet to understand her motivations in depth, but from what I saw of Claude’s route, her goals were VERY similar and she appears to have a similar background to Lysithea, which makes her even more of an interesting character. I would say that among the 3 leaders, Edelgard is without a doubt the one who appears to be the most interesting. As for Dimitri, I’m sad about the situation he ended up in. Mad with revenge and killed by spears, even the characters found his death sad and brutal, but an unavoidable fate for those driven by revenge.
As it was my first tactical RPG, I had a little difficulty at first, but nothing that stopped me; after all, it’s still an RPG. All you need to know is when to attack and retreat, as well as knowing how to use buffs, healing, and knowing how to choose character classes well.
Well, overall the game has some basic problems like graphics that look like they came from a PS3, the story seems to be a bit slow at times but nothing too absurd.
All in all, it’s a good game; my rating would probably be higher if I had played the 3 other routes.
peak houses
Endlessly entertaining.
Jueguen principalmente la ruta de Dimitri y la Ruta secreta donde decides apoyar a Edelgard qué es donde está el kinocore.
Tengo mis quejas con la de alianza así que déjenla de último o no la jueguen si ya se hartaron xd.
No recomiendo para nada la ruta de la Iglesia.
Tengo mis quejas con la de alianza así que déjenla de último o no la jueguen si ya se hartaron xd.
No recomiendo para nada la ruta de la Iglesia.
ermmm
intelligent systems can make the worst game ever but they can never make a game as bad as valorant
I hate fe3h discourse on twitter
Narratively speaking, Three Houses is by far the most ambitious Fire Emblem I’ve played, although I’ve played a relatively low percentage of the series so far. Radiant Dawn is the only one that comes close in terms of scale and the volume of important characters; a mix of endearing, heartbreaking, and philosophically challenging—with many characters being all three at once.
Three Houses’ grand scale and lofty ambition is perhaps its greatest strength, but simultaneously its biggest weakness, although that’s not entirely the game’s own fault, funnily enough.
The amount of compelling themes and storylines coming out of this game are nothing short of impressively epic (using the word in its non-ironic, intended meaning). Paired with incredible music, consistently engaging writing, impressive voice acting, and perhaps some of the best worldbuilding I’ve seen, the game is a fantastic experience that I would even describe as unmissable for anyone remotely interested in this type of story.
However, this great ambition from the writers was unfortunately cut short by the development time of the game, if I have it right. Several story threads are left either completely hanging or resolved off-screen unsatisfyingly. Several key characters are robbed of their incredible narrative potential because of one of the storylines recylcing 90% of the same content as another. One storyline in particular was evidently done rather late in development and lacked much needed animated cutscenes that other routes did have. These and other miscellaneous missing or questionably-written components to the storylines makes it all the more disappointing how this game was not given the opportunity to reach its peak potential as perhaps one of the best narratives in video games. Several instances of oddly (or even outright incorrectly) translated important lines don’t help us English speakers. The protagonist is also not my favorite. While they have a very interesting backstory, the silent protagonist trope does not do it for me in this particular game.
Another facet where the game struggles is the art direction. The Switch hardware does not allow the game to run at an acceptable framerate with its pseudo-realism style, even at the most important set piece battles. The textures are also extremely low resolution and muddy (especially compared to the higher quality character models) to compensate for the limitations of the hardware (and perhaps the engine as well), which clearly couldn’t solve the core issues anyway. The Support conversation backgrounds are some of the most perplexing workarounds to what I can only guess was a lack of time to design and/or model full 3D spaces, despite most of them being based on pre-existing game locations… The character models, while good looking, don’t have the most impressive animations, especially while speaking in cutscenes or Supports, with odd looking canned animations that don’t flow into each other very well. Despite all this, the actual character designs and drawn portraits are almost all incredible, which is probably what is most important by far to a lot of people. I myself am still disappointed in the rest of the game’s aesthetics.
When it comes to the gameplay, I’d say it’s rather enjoyable. There are many new or reworked game mechanics, terrain types, attack types, etc. The level design does what it needs to do, but it’s no Path of Radiance when it comes to interesting layouts. Three Houses does have several standout maps, though. There are very few maps I disliked. The way you can shape your units in whatever way you please, but still based on individual strengths and weaknesses, put an interesting spin on the class system you typically see in a Fire Emblem game.
At the end of the day, Three Houses is, at the very least, a must-play to even just see a glimpse at what could have been one of the best games of all time...if they had maybe a couple of more years to work on it.
All routes completed, 300+ hours logged, and no regrets.
Three Houses’ grand scale and lofty ambition is perhaps its greatest strength, but simultaneously its biggest weakness, although that’s not entirely the game’s own fault, funnily enough.
The amount of compelling themes and storylines coming out of this game are nothing short of impressively epic (using the word in its non-ironic, intended meaning). Paired with incredible music, consistently engaging writing, impressive voice acting, and perhaps some of the best worldbuilding I’ve seen, the game is a fantastic experience that I would even describe as unmissable for anyone remotely interested in this type of story.
However, this great ambition from the writers was unfortunately cut short by the development time of the game, if I have it right. Several story threads are left either completely hanging or resolved off-screen unsatisfyingly. Several key characters are robbed of their incredible narrative potential because of one of the storylines recylcing 90% of the same content as another. One storyline in particular was evidently done rather late in development and lacked much needed animated cutscenes that other routes did have. These and other miscellaneous missing or questionably-written components to the storylines makes it all the more disappointing how this game was not given the opportunity to reach its peak potential as perhaps one of the best narratives in video games. Several instances of oddly (or even outright incorrectly) translated important lines don’t help us English speakers. The protagonist is also not my favorite. While they have a very interesting backstory, the silent protagonist trope does not do it for me in this particular game.
Another facet where the game struggles is the art direction. The Switch hardware does not allow the game to run at an acceptable framerate with its pseudo-realism style, even at the most important set piece battles. The textures are also extremely low resolution and muddy (especially compared to the higher quality character models) to compensate for the limitations of the hardware (and perhaps the engine as well), which clearly couldn’t solve the core issues anyway. The Support conversation backgrounds are some of the most perplexing workarounds to what I can only guess was a lack of time to design and/or model full 3D spaces, despite most of them being based on pre-existing game locations… The character models, while good looking, don’t have the most impressive animations, especially while speaking in cutscenes or Supports, with odd looking canned animations that don’t flow into each other very well. Despite all this, the actual character designs and drawn portraits are almost all incredible, which is probably what is most important by far to a lot of people. I myself am still disappointed in the rest of the game’s aesthetics.
When it comes to the gameplay, I’d say it’s rather enjoyable. There are many new or reworked game mechanics, terrain types, attack types, etc. The level design does what it needs to do, but it’s no Path of Radiance when it comes to interesting layouts. Three Houses does have several standout maps, though. There are very few maps I disliked. The way you can shape your units in whatever way you please, but still based on individual strengths and weaknesses, put an interesting spin on the class system you typically see in a Fire Emblem game.
At the end of the day, Three Houses is, at the very least, a must-play to even just see a glimpse at what could have been one of the best games of all time...if they had maybe a couple of more years to work on it.
All routes completed, 300+ hours logged, and no regrets.
Really good, but overhyped
Church and Black Eagle route left.
this game has more enjoyable characters than any other game i've played before
GooeyScale: 90/100
GooeyScale: 90/100
i really wish this game was finished
i don't have good things to say about edelgard i'm sorry
i don't have good things to say about edelgard i'm sorry
solid srpg and very replayable. have not played all routes but i’ve played through it twice and it’s a pretty great game all around, if somewhat suffering from the lack of replayability in the first half of the game
Doing every route beginning with Black Eagles and ending with Golden Deer made the final boss experience euphoric
My favorite game in the series. Extraordinary soundtrack and pretty good and well-written characters. Only thing that limits it is the more barebones gameplay, monastery sections, and an unfinished route.
In terms of story, conversations, relationships with the characters the game is outstanding.
The gameplay does not seem to me the best, it is entertaining, but other games in the series is better in that aspect as engage.
However, the main flaw in my opinion are the routes. They are differentiated, but after a certain point and to be able to play all of them you have to see practically the same thing (they change 4 counted dialogues) about three times. I wish there was an option to skip that part.
Other than that, I think it's one of the best modern fire emblem games we have in the saga.
En lo referente a la historia, conversaciones, relaciones con los personajes el juego es sobresaliente.
La jugabilidad no me parece de la mejor, es entretenida, pero otros juegos de la saga está mejor en ese aspecto como engage.
Ahora bien, el principal fallo a mi gusto son las rutas. Son diferenciadas, pero a partir de cierto punto y para poder jugar todas tienes que verte prácticamente lo mismo (cambian 4 diálogos contados) unas tres veces. Ojalá hubiera una opción para saltar esa parte.
Fuera de eso me parece uno de los mejores fire emblem modernos que tenemos de la saga.
The gameplay does not seem to me the best, it is entertaining, but other games in the series is better in that aspect as engage.
However, the main flaw in my opinion are the routes. They are differentiated, but after a certain point and to be able to play all of them you have to see practically the same thing (they change 4 counted dialogues) about three times. I wish there was an option to skip that part.
Other than that, I think it's one of the best modern fire emblem games we have in the saga.
En lo referente a la historia, conversaciones, relaciones con los personajes el juego es sobresaliente.
La jugabilidad no me parece de la mejor, es entretenida, pero otros juegos de la saga está mejor en ese aspecto como engage.
Ahora bien, el principal fallo a mi gusto son las rutas. Son diferenciadas, pero a partir de cierto punto y para poder jugar todas tienes que verte prácticamente lo mismo (cambian 4 diálogos contados) unas tres veces. Ojalá hubiera una opción para saltar esa parte.
Fuera de eso me parece uno de los mejores fire emblem modernos que tenemos de la saga.
edelgard my sweet bbgirl
A solid long-form Fire Emblem experience. This game is exclusively the act of raising growth units--if that's what you like in Fire Emblem, like me, then you'll love this game. The character writing is immaculate, and will continue to be debated for years to come, because it is genuinely that good. Dimitri may be the best protagonist that Fire Emblem has ever had.