There is so much to say about this game. It's not bad, but it doesn't hold a candle to Three Houses. In fact, the game pretty much expects you to have played Three Houses first, which weakens the experience here.

I heard that the story changes in this are due in part to feedback taken from the fans on Three Houses' story. Man, did Nintendo ever listen to the wrong fans as the story comes across as self-insert fan fiction. So far, I have only played Edelgard's route, so I can't speak for the other houses, but her decision to throw off the shackles of Those that Slither in the Dark at the very start of her route due to the appearance of one guy is absurd, especially since TTSITD have heavily ingrained themselves into the Empire. It screams of a self-insert Gary/Mary Sue with how Shez can just come in and fix everything in one go.

This isn't even to mention the major changes in Edelgard's character. They changed her from a complex, morally gray woman, into someone that's willing to throw away years and years of planning because she met one guy. In Three Houses, she doesn't open up right away to Byleth. She knows Byleth is more than capable, but doesn't know if she can trust them yet. She spends time trying to see if Byleth is someone she can rely on and put her trust in. She just jumps right into the deep end with Shez and throws all caution into the wind. At times her reasons for trusting Shez are as weak as wet paper, but still, she choses to trust Shez for some reason.

The game does go on to do something I wished was an option in Three Houses, which is the leaders all working together (at one point at least). But that is not enough to correct what they failed to do, which is make me care about the characters. They cut the academy part way down, which is a choice based on more fan feedback as far as I can tell. But in doing that, they also cut back on any time I had in this game to get to know anyone outside of my chosen house unless I chose to recruit them. And why would I recruit them if I didn't already know them? This bit only goes to support my above statement on how they expect you to have played Three Houses. If I hadn't played Three Houses first, I wouldn't have known how great the other characters are. Why would I spend recourses recruiting them in that case?

You spend hours during the pre-war time in Three Houses as a teacher and have numerous opportunities to get to know the other students. It is a fun challenge (unless you just use a wiki) to try and recruit other students, and it feels great when they finally agree to join you. Failing to recruit someone adds immense weight when you are forced to kill them in the war. I don't think I'll ever forget my first Three Houses playthrough, where I recruited Mercedes into Black Eagle and then ended up having her kill Annette in the final battle because I didn't recognize the music-loving red head before I issued the order. There is nothing like that in Three Hopes. There is no weight at all here, especially when the only thing you need to do to recruit someone most of the time is select the option before the battle starts. There are a few times where there is a requirement to fulfil in order to recruit someone, but I can only think of two out of several. In order to recruit Mercedes, I needed to have Jeritza present in the battle. He was severely under leveled for me at that point, so I spent the resources to get him up to speed in order to recruit Mercedes. But if I hadn't already grown to love her due to Three Houses, I wouldn't have bothered here because they do nothing to endear the other students to you before throwing you into the war.

As for the decision for replacing Byleth with Shez as the main character, it still baffles me. Everyone I know feels the same. Byleth was a well-loved main character. I've seen a few people say on this site say that Byleth was boring, but that's it. Everyone else I know, or see online, loves them. If they feel Byleth is boring, I don't understand how they can enjoy Shez. The male voice actor (Japanese version) gives the most bland performance I have heard in years. He has the exact same monotone voice delivery regardless of what's going on. He gives the same emotional level (all flat) whether he's pissed and hunting down Byleth for revenge, or complementing Dorothea on her singing. Even Byleth's emotionless reactions more emotional depth than Shez. When I saw the reveal trailer for Shez, my first thought was, "Oh, another bland Warriors protagonist instead of someone I want to play." Turns out, my gut reaction was right. Shez is just a boring, self-insert character. Each mission where I didn't need to include Shez, I played as Byleth.

I also feel the need to include the complete lack of any post story for any character whatsoever. I spent all this time with these people and then there's nothing. The only thing I got was a letter from Mercedes because I gave her the merc whistle in chapter 11. I spent all this time improving the support levels of my army and they gave me nothing. I get that the ranks help out in battle, but the bonus was miniscule and part of the fun in recent Fire Emblem games is seeing what your team does after the war ends. In this one, you get nothing except one letter from someone you can pick halfway through the game.

It's not all bad. The combat is great. They streamlined the training and upgrading units. They took what they learned from the first FEW game and improved on it here. They removed the timer when selecting reactions during dates. I do feel like there isn't enough to do in camp though. That got old real fast.

In short, this game focuses too much on combat, which is fun, and not enough on character, which is why I love the Fire Emblem games.