Fire Emblem when it gets serious !
Seriously speaking i have a lot of respect for this title. It made me realize what a good story and a great cast of characters are like in a series like this. My first entry in the series was Fire Emblem fates , then proceeded to play Shadows of Valentia. I'm still a sort of newbie to the FE , but i get to love the most hardcore aspect of this saga.
Three Houses story was really good and highlights how complex a topic like war can be. Non of the three factions you're presented are the perfect picture of justice. Each of them represent the amount of sacrifices , struggles and awful decisions it takes to bring your ideal of peace to light.
You can choose between 3 nations each with their story. The game needs to be replayed more times in order to have a complete picture of the plot.
While i like having multiple choices i have to say that for the first half of the game all the routes feel too similiar with 2 of them being almost identical in terms of writing if not for a different finale. Black eagles route in particular suffers of a rush compared to the rest of the game and it's a shame since it was the one with the most interesting perspective to me.Another thing i don't appreciate and it's a problem of the series it's how they're making everithing in their power to spoil you plot twists in blatant ways that feels unneccesary.
Three Houses gives a lot of freedom in terms of team and unit building.
Freedom is a concept that is being utilized a lot in theese years and sometimes it can be beneficial or completely screw other vital aspects of the game. A new addition to the series is the monastery with all of it's activities. It function like a normal base where you can explore from a third person perspective. The game take some inspiration from the Persona formula where you have a sort of calendar and limited time at your disposal for growing your units before important battles. In this span of time you can train your units in battle or via monastery activities. Here you can also interact in many different ways with the other students and deepen relationships. Fortunately i found the cast of three houses really good making monastery exploration and activities fun ... the first time (we'll get to it later). Support conversations where really good and i enjoyed the vast majority of them. The real problem of the monastery is that after the first half of the game it become a lot monotonous and repetitive to the point you'll want to skip exploration. It's a good concept that can be expanded and made less repetitive , but since it's vital for character progression at some point it start to feel like a chore.
Map design isn't it's strongest point either. A lot of maps are just recycled in all three routes and are structured in such an open way to accomodate the theme of having great flexibility in terms of strategies. Customization and unit building in this game is awesome and i had a lot of fun constantly experimenting wacky ideas after the other. Gambits are also a fun (and cheesy) way of dealing with huge hordes of enemies.
One thing i want to point out is how badly difficulty in this game is managed. Normal mode feels like auto battle braindead gameplay. I can understand casual players facing their first Fire Emblem having difficulties at grasping all the different mechanics , but loosing here means not reading anything at all.
Hard mode is really balanced for every type of player to the point it feels like Normal Mode.
Maddening sky rockets the difficulty to absurd levels compared to hard. I love the challenge the game and Fire Emblem in general provides , but i can't surpass how progression is badly managed here. The first 5 chapters are probably the most horrendous an tedious part of the game. Your units are weak and enemies have inflated stats and hard abilities to deal with (poison strike on archers on chapter 3). The biggest offenders here are ambush spawns wich are meant to burn your divine impulses away.
Despite the numerous problems and imperfections i can't ignore how much this title meant to me. I spent so much time goofing around and studing almost every detail the world of Fodlàan had to offer. On top of all theese things add a great cast of characters and the numerous emotions it made me feel. It's a special game and i'll never forget it.
[ 10 / 10 ]
Seriously speaking i have a lot of respect for this title. It made me realize what a good story and a great cast of characters are like in a series like this. My first entry in the series was Fire Emblem fates , then proceeded to play Shadows of Valentia. I'm still a sort of newbie to the FE , but i get to love the most hardcore aspect of this saga.
Three Houses story was really good and highlights how complex a topic like war can be. Non of the three factions you're presented are the perfect picture of justice. Each of them represent the amount of sacrifices , struggles and awful decisions it takes to bring your ideal of peace to light.
You can choose between 3 nations each with their story. The game needs to be replayed more times in order to have a complete picture of the plot.
While i like having multiple choices i have to say that for the first half of the game all the routes feel too similiar with 2 of them being almost identical in terms of writing if not for a different finale. Black eagles route in particular suffers of a rush compared to the rest of the game and it's a shame since it was the one with the most interesting perspective to me.Another thing i don't appreciate and it's a problem of the series it's how they're making everithing in their power to spoil you plot twists in blatant ways that feels unneccesary.
Three Houses gives a lot of freedom in terms of team and unit building.
Freedom is a concept that is being utilized a lot in theese years and sometimes it can be beneficial or completely screw other vital aspects of the game. A new addition to the series is the monastery with all of it's activities. It function like a normal base where you can explore from a third person perspective. The game take some inspiration from the Persona formula where you have a sort of calendar and limited time at your disposal for growing your units before important battles. In this span of time you can train your units in battle or via monastery activities. Here you can also interact in many different ways with the other students and deepen relationships. Fortunately i found the cast of three houses really good making monastery exploration and activities fun ... the first time (we'll get to it later). Support conversations where really good and i enjoyed the vast majority of them. The real problem of the monastery is that after the first half of the game it become a lot monotonous and repetitive to the point you'll want to skip exploration. It's a good concept that can be expanded and made less repetitive , but since it's vital for character progression at some point it start to feel like a chore.
Map design isn't it's strongest point either. A lot of maps are just recycled in all three routes and are structured in such an open way to accomodate the theme of having great flexibility in terms of strategies. Customization and unit building in this game is awesome and i had a lot of fun constantly experimenting wacky ideas after the other. Gambits are also a fun (and cheesy) way of dealing with huge hordes of enemies.
One thing i want to point out is how badly difficulty in this game is managed. Normal mode feels like auto battle braindead gameplay. I can understand casual players facing their first Fire Emblem having difficulties at grasping all the different mechanics , but loosing here means not reading anything at all.
Hard mode is really balanced for every type of player to the point it feels like Normal Mode.
Maddening sky rockets the difficulty to absurd levels compared to hard. I love the challenge the game and Fire Emblem in general provides , but i can't surpass how progression is badly managed here. The first 5 chapters are probably the most horrendous an tedious part of the game. Your units are weak and enemies have inflated stats and hard abilities to deal with (poison strike on archers on chapter 3). The biggest offenders here are ambush spawns wich are meant to burn your divine impulses away.
Despite the numerous problems and imperfections i can't ignore how much this title meant to me. I spent so much time goofing around and studing almost every detail the world of Fodlàan had to offer. On top of all theese things add a great cast of characters and the numerous emotions it made me feel. It's a special game and i'll never forget it.
[ 10 / 10 ]