Route: Azure Moon
A great game with annoyances that slowly pile up until you're positively relieved that it ends at all. The White Clouds section was a delight and felt vastly different from other FE titles. Love it or hate it, it is a great divergence from the formula. I like the additions of gifts, which provide a quick solution to the problem of accumulating support points. Lost items are annoying and rarely give helpful hints, but they provide a helping hand when Byleth is strapped for cash. The teaching mechanic is fun early on, and the saint statues help spice up stat choice, e.g. You could play it safe and teach Ignatz bows, or take a chance with axes since you have an applicable bonus! Monastery activities are varied and equally amusing, with the copious amount of voice acting providing life to many lines. The combat is great too, with animations being appropriately flashy and exciting whenever a crit is announced. None of the maps really stood out to me, but watching units coordinate and perform with gambits and adjutants always kept things fresh in my run.
The characters are probably the most praised part of Three Houses, and for good reason. I certainly grew attached to the Blue Lions, whose checkered pasts made for compelling drama as the game went on. Even outsiders like Lysithea enthralled me, as their connection to crests and concepts gave weight to the world of Fodlan. The supports are a mixed bag of slapstick and trauma dumping, though I will say that they land more often than not. Understanding why characters like Felix act the way they do can be rewarding, even if duds like the Annette - Mercedes support linger in the background.
The negatives are straightforward: it's too long, the music is passable at best, and the story beats can be awfully contrived to justify being in that fucking monastery for another month. I don't believe that the cast is gonna sit in a classroom or around a war table, listening to Byleth teach basic tactics for 6-7 months straight in the middle of a war (most of them are adults btw), but the game just does. The charm of raising stats shriveled up quickly in the war phase for me, it was just too much investment for repetitive results. I'd watch a cutscene of Dimitri/Gilbert discussing battle plans, some incisive strike would be decided, then one loading screen later I'm back to the godforsaken monastery for a month, force-feeding my units +1 health steak and watching them bitch about dead parents in supports.
Even so, I love it. It's a twisted mess of great characters and combat, a fully fleshed-out world, and a jumbled parade of everything else. Three Houses is a grand saga worth playing, though I doubt I'll revisit it anytime soon.
A great game with annoyances that slowly pile up until you're positively relieved that it ends at all. The White Clouds section was a delight and felt vastly different from other FE titles. Love it or hate it, it is a great divergence from the formula. I like the additions of gifts, which provide a quick solution to the problem of accumulating support points. Lost items are annoying and rarely give helpful hints, but they provide a helping hand when Byleth is strapped for cash. The teaching mechanic is fun early on, and the saint statues help spice up stat choice, e.g. You could play it safe and teach Ignatz bows, or take a chance with axes since you have an applicable bonus! Monastery activities are varied and equally amusing, with the copious amount of voice acting providing life to many lines. The combat is great too, with animations being appropriately flashy and exciting whenever a crit is announced. None of the maps really stood out to me, but watching units coordinate and perform with gambits and adjutants always kept things fresh in my run.
The characters are probably the most praised part of Three Houses, and for good reason. I certainly grew attached to the Blue Lions, whose checkered pasts made for compelling drama as the game went on. Even outsiders like Lysithea enthralled me, as their connection to crests and concepts gave weight to the world of Fodlan. The supports are a mixed bag of slapstick and trauma dumping, though I will say that they land more often than not. Understanding why characters like Felix act the way they do can be rewarding, even if duds like the Annette - Mercedes support linger in the background.
The negatives are straightforward: it's too long, the music is passable at best, and the story beats can be awfully contrived to justify being in that fucking monastery for another month. I don't believe that the cast is gonna sit in a classroom or around a war table, listening to Byleth teach basic tactics for 6-7 months straight in the middle of a war (most of them are adults btw), but the game just does. The charm of raising stats shriveled up quickly in the war phase for me, it was just too much investment for repetitive results. I'd watch a cutscene of Dimitri/Gilbert discussing battle plans, some incisive strike would be decided, then one loading screen later I'm back to the godforsaken monastery for a month, force-feeding my units +1 health steak and watching them bitch about dead parents in supports.
Even so, I love it. It's a twisted mess of great characters and combat, a fully fleshed-out world, and a jumbled parade of everything else. Three Houses is a grand saga worth playing, though I doubt I'll revisit it anytime soon.