After clearing two routes (Black Eagles, Golden Deer) at 290 hours, I feel like I can properly talk about this.
It's a good game. After the rather weak political struggle in Fates, 3H goes hard on crafting an intricate and morally layered conflict that splits into four paths to follow. The story has its problems, but it puts its whole heart into what it's got, making it easier to miss or forgive the flaws. It's also got good visual presentation and endearing characters to recruit.
I think the most likely experience with the four routes is that the first one will feel like your real story, while any further playthroughs will have more ideal armies, thanks to the New Game Plus features. They let you continue a completed save file with various things, like your Renown, and allow you to spend that Renown to automatically raise a character's skill level to S or level their support with Byleth to A. You'll also have a better idea of how to teach your units the second time around, probably. I got through Black Eagles just fine, but my 10 fliers in Golden Deer were another story entirely.
The biggest problem with the four route system is that a significant chunk of every single one of them is exactly the same. If you feel like playing several or all of them, White Clouds may just drive you nuts. After that, though, there was enough story variation between the two I completed that it felt worth it. There were plot revelations in each that didn't come up in the other one.
This is definitely the most dense FE I've played, and that was to its detriment at times. Sometimes it felt really padded out that one chapter's main battle didn't just lead into the next one (especially at the end of Golden Deer!), and even spending the month on Skip doesn't make it go by that quickly. Prepare to either not think much and not recruit many characters, or spend a lot of time deciding how to teach your units and bonding with them around the monastery. Maybe that'll even be more fun to you than the chapter finales?
I liked it a lot, ultimately, when I felt like it wasn't just wasting my time. I would love to know how much of my 290 hours was just waiting on loading screens, though. I'm sure it'd be horrific.
It's a good game. After the rather weak political struggle in Fates, 3H goes hard on crafting an intricate and morally layered conflict that splits into four paths to follow. The story has its problems, but it puts its whole heart into what it's got, making it easier to miss or forgive the flaws. It's also got good visual presentation and endearing characters to recruit.
I think the most likely experience with the four routes is that the first one will feel like your real story, while any further playthroughs will have more ideal armies, thanks to the New Game Plus features. They let you continue a completed save file with various things, like your Renown, and allow you to spend that Renown to automatically raise a character's skill level to S or level their support with Byleth to A. You'll also have a better idea of how to teach your units the second time around, probably. I got through Black Eagles just fine, but my 10 fliers in Golden Deer were another story entirely.
The biggest problem with the four route system is that a significant chunk of every single one of them is exactly the same. If you feel like playing several or all of them, White Clouds may just drive you nuts. After that, though, there was enough story variation between the two I completed that it felt worth it. There were plot revelations in each that didn't come up in the other one.
This is definitely the most dense FE I've played, and that was to its detriment at times. Sometimes it felt really padded out that one chapter's main battle didn't just lead into the next one (especially at the end of Golden Deer!), and even spending the month on Skip doesn't make it go by that quickly. Prepare to either not think much and not recruit many characters, or spend a lot of time deciding how to teach your units and bonding with them around the monastery. Maybe that'll even be more fun to you than the chapter finales?
I liked it a lot, ultimately, when I felt like it wasn't just wasting my time. I would love to know how much of my 290 hours was just waiting on loading screens, though. I'm sure it'd be horrific.