Topic: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

@DarthNocturnal
There's always Roy? Binding Blade is probably closest you're gonna get. Not sure if it shares same music though

@Ryu_Niiyama Honestly, at this point, even if I had all the money in the world, I still wouldn't have the time to play all the stuff I want to play that's coming out relatively soon.

@SNES64DD Same here. Between Persona, SMT, other spinoff properties, and the Etrian Odyssey series, I can honestly say that Atlus is my all-time favorite JRPG developer. The way they prioritize challenge, discovery, and the gameplay experience overall fundamentally jives with my gaming preferences.

@Ralizah Oh there is never enough time. I keep hoping I'll hit my get off my lawn old lady moment with gaming and then I'll have stacks of games in my backlog to play through. My realistic hope is that for me releases will be kinda crap next year and thus I can catch up. I'll have my tv back by then anyway.

On Topic. Excited for the amiibo usage in game. I'm on a media black out in general so my opinions are really generic right now. I'll be on here vomiting rainbows when the game releases however.

I wish there was a Lyn amiibo now though...

Also unpopular opinion: I feel that the European aesthetic works quite well for FE but I wish that there was a spin off series for the Eastern/Japanese aesthetic introduced by if/Fates.

I think we'll see these for music tracks:

• Marth/Tiki - Advance
• Alm - March to Deliverance (Shadows of Valentia version)
• Celica - With Mila's Divine Protection (Shadows of Valentia version)
• Roy - Beyond Distant Skies
• Ike - Eternal Bond
• Chrom - Prelude (Ablaze)
• Lucina - Duty (Ablaze)
• Robin - Id (Purpose)
• Corrin - Lost in Thoughts All Alone

To be honest, I wasn't even mad until I saw this:

My immediate gut reaction was: "You can just Google it. It requires very little of your time, and you'll learn something new. What have you got to lose?" And that influenced the tone and direction of my last post.

I'm sorry if my responses have come off as more agressive than I intended. It looked more like you were trying to twist words you don't understand, while continuing to remain ignorant to the subject you were talking about - which is an action I find to be utterly reprehensible. However, if you were willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, I suppose I should do the same, and assume you meant that you have no interest in the time period or how it might effect the game's narrative by including it in its setting - or that historically set stories in general don't interest you. Either way, there were a number of different ways I could've interpretted your statement. I didn't need to fall on the worst possible outcome, so for that, I apologize.

Honestly, it's not like I'm a huge fan of Sakura Wars. My intention was never to tell you to love it, only to help you understand why others love it, because that's what I do: I constantly strive to understand why people love certain games, even ones I myself don't care for. In the past, whenever I've said "I could never get the appeal of x series," that was always said out of sheer frustration - I NEED to know what makes it appealing. Honestly, this is the first time in quite a while that I've had to be reminded that not every gamer feels that way - sometimes, they don't understand, but also don't care...and I just need to accept that.

EDIT: I mean, for pete's sake, I used to hate the Fire Emblem franchise, but that never stopped me from trying to understand why it was so beloved, and now that the franchise has evolved to such an extent, I'm looking forward to the latest entry with breathless anticipation!

Just to dip my toe into it. Part of the appeal is the genre busting which is more common now but wasn't really back then. For a gamer that might have the mind for a strategy game but not the tolerance for that solely as the reason to play games it is a breath of fresh air to get another gameplay mechanic to flesh out what can be for some people, dry gameplay. (Its like wanting a story in fighting game to an extent...totally not the purpose of the game at all but it helps people that may not be fighting diehards care about the game and give it a go.) Modern Fire emblem in its own way has borrowed from Sakura Taisen with the more interactive character development and bonding.

For me I happen to be a history nut so long as it isn't American history and the Taisho period is rather interesting but you toss in the rando steampunk and mechs flavor and its just a delightful fantasy romp semi grounded in a Historical Period. Also I'm a Takarazuka Revue nut and while this has men ('Zuka is all female) in it the style is similar. Plus it invokes the Sailor Moon Shoujo aesthetic, of female heroes without emulating males and slapping on pink for every single one of them. (Part of the reason Naoko Takeuchi wrote sailor moon is she loved the Sentai/rangers shows but got sick of them being the five man band and the token woman and essentially being focused on the interests/issues/mindset of men. And Shoujo manga suffers from great character development and slow plot/no action.)

That'd actually be pretty nice, yeah. Kind of like a Sengoku FE...

@CanisWolfred exactly!!! I blame Pokémon conquest but I need Nintendo to do more of this.

Alright so who is starting out with classic difficulty first?

I always do a seat of my pants run first and then the "I am a flawless tactician because there is a reset button run". (I know they added the modes where you can turn off the permadeath but that feels worse somehow to me.)

At risk of alienating myself from half the people in this thread, I actually wasn’t a fan of the Japanese flavor of Birthright. I’ve never really liked the kind of hyper-Japanese style or games that embrace it. I much prefer the European flavor. It’s part of what draws me to FE. I was ok with Fates Birthright as a one off thing- it was an ok change of pace, but generally speaking the medieval look is what I prefer most (partly why I never really liked Advanced Wars)

I think I’m gonna do a classic difficulty run, which I usually never do if given the choice, just because I hate losing people and restarting is a pain. But with the new Mila’s Turnwheel, I think I’m gonna go for it. The tension is insane with permadeath. As long as I know I can make a mistake or two I’ll be alright.

@CanisWolfred
I appreciate the response.

@Ryu_Niiyama I always play with permadeath enabled. These games have traditionally been balanced around the idea that your units are precious and need to be managed carefully. The game design in something like Advance Wars is radically different in numerous ways precisely because the game considers individual units to be expendable pawns.

I mean, people can play however they like, but playing without permadeath enabled doesn't feel right to me in FE.

@JaxonH Honestly, while I enjoy these games, I hate medieval European or traditional fantasy settings. I'd love to get a Fire Emblem game inspired by a different cultural environment.

It's the biggest reason I haven't played games like Wargroove or The Witcher 3 yet.

I would absolutely adore a science-fiction themed Fire Emblem, but that's never happening.

With that said, Three Houses' focus is different enough that it feels fresh to me. I really dig the military academy thing they're starting out the game with.

@JaxonH Nobody is gonna get mad at you for liking what you like, so long as no names are called lol. Like I said I'd like a spin off series...I'd never want FE to lose the European/fantasy flair (I grew up on Tolkien so I like my Western swords and dragons and castles) but for me personally it feels over saturated at this point. I feel like aside from a few franchises that are consistent, Nobunaga no Yabou for instance, that there has been a dearth of purely Japanese culture/setting inspired games. And the ones that are made by folks in the West (except for Ghost of Tsushima...so ready for that) tend to feel very ...Ninja Turtle-esque. It's Japanese because they say Ninja and arigatou but that's about it. I felt that the ps2 era had more Japanese games (and other cultures as well) and for me, Medieval European is becoming the next version of Boring McBoring brown haired, middle aged white guy protag or Zombies...please make that stop somebody. That was what got me into Assassins Creed, looking at other cultures even if you spend most of it stabbing people from haystacks. Even if some were European at least we got different locals, cultures and periods. Then again, way of the samurai, onimusha, Nobunaga no Yabou, and tenchu are some of my favorite franchises .

@Ralizah While I can't see sci fi FE I could see a revival of Advanced wars in SciFi. Days of ruin was kinda that anyway.

Edit: What the heck autocorrect?!

Sorry to double post but:

https://serenesforest.net/2019/07/05/three-houses-jeuxvideo-i...
https://nintendoeverything.com/fire-emblem-three-houses-devs-...

On the weapon triangle…

Yokota: The weapon triangle system hasn’t disappeared, it’s just less visible. Will we see it again in future games is difficult to say since we’re working on themes and game mechanics first before thinking about importing features in it. What we wanted to do in Three Houses is to give player freedom in tutoring their students, so that the player can give their favorites students whatever they want in weapons and skills. It helps the player identify with the team they’re raising.

On how the Switch’s hardware allowed for concepts that would have been impossible for the 3DS…

Kasukihara: Thanks to the improved technical capabilities and screen resolution over the Nintendo 3DS, we could add more visual elements. For example, the use of battalions that support each unit – this was not possible beforehand. That said, there is another perhaps surprising side effect from switching to Nintendo Switch. As there’s a full HD screen, it was nice that we could show more text, like putting the names of each combatant on the screen. In addition, as we have more space for text, we could add pages that delve into the backstories of the characters, to enrich the game’s lore.

On the amount of time to complete the game…

Kasukihara: To complete the game with just one of the three houses, it took me 80 hours. I did not skip the dialogue or cutscenes, of course. So if you want to do the three paths, it can take you more than 200 hours.

Meh, I'm still not feeling this despite loving the previous entries but I can't articulate why.

@jump
Have you checked out the recent 10 min video Nintendo Japan uploaded?

@Ryu_Niiyama
Whew. 200 hours? That’s what I’m talkin about. And info is coming out the first half definitely is just a change of perspective, but story events will be completely different in the second half of the game depending on your choice. I thought it was going to be like Fates where the same story plays out but you’re just on a different side, and while I’m sure that is still the case to an extent , it seems like it’s really different in the second half of the game. Maybe I will do multiple playthroughs after all.

The European Fantasy is definitely saturated now, but I’ve always had a soft spot for it growing up on The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And I got into this series before the setting exploded in popularity, so even though it’s saturated I feel like I can never get enough, as long as it’s done well. I like the Japanese take on medieval Europe more than the western take, though. The way they dress the characters up just has way more flare.

But I do enjoy different cultural settings in games, I guess it just depends on which one it is. Assassin’s Creed 3 I was very fond of, for example. And settings like Xenoblade where it’s this strange, Pandora-like alien planet where earthlings crash land. Love that too.

@Ralizah
I like the military academy too. Very Persona-esque, or at least sets it up to have Persona-esque mechanics. And I love Persona so, that’s a huge plus in my book (I’ve heard others criticize it despite Persona doing the same thing, which is weird).

I think this game is going to sell a ton. The previous two games (barring the remake Shadows of Valentia) broke 2 mil and Fates came close to 3 mil, and that was physical only afaIk. This game has been in the top 100 on Amazon for months. And now is at like #20 in Amazon US Best Sellers List, even 3 weeks away from launch. That’s like, as good if not better than Mario Maker 2. And on the eShop, after going live like 48 hours ago, is already at #23 in the best sellers list..

This game could punch through 4-5 million lifetime sales, accounting for digital also. Which... is ridiculous to even think about. Fire emblem has become mainstream.

@JaxonH I'm only annoyed because I have all these games to buy but I think realistically I am going to play Marvel, FE, DQ and maybe Link's awakening and that's it. Not because I don't want to but instead because 200 hours for the dev is like 500-1000 for me. It is a good problem to have. I grew up on a lot of the old school JRPGs and I am a DQ fan (semi-translated V over the course of a year as a kid) so I think I have likely spent too much time in the Japanese Europe settings, especially since they find it so exotic. So that may be part of the burn out for me. That being said I will be missing for at least a week when this comes out so my complaint is essentially empty. Would I love a different setting? Sure. Am I going to skip FE over that? Um you'll have to take out my remaining eye...and even then I think I'd figure out how to play it blind.

@Ryu_Niiyama Yeah. Agreed.

Fire Emblem has borrowed heavy from Sakura Wars especially with the romance simulation and story elements. Sakura Wars also executes a lot of things right whether it be its portrayal of women/people or even its fantasy mech elements.

@JaxonH It's a fun game all around.
Also the games actually doesn't look that bad just the shadier is a bit darker than expected; I would suggest starting from Sakura Wars: So Long My Love as a good starting point. Fire Emblem had no feet and worst graphics at one point.

Edit: Just realise I was a page or so behind when commenting.

@SNES64DD I've played most of the Sakura Taisen games and all of the Fire Emblem games already. I was just chiming in on my view of Sakura Taisen.

@Ralizah "I mean, people can play however they like, but playing without permadeath enabled doesn't feel right to me in FE."

I kind of do both? I've tried playing with permadeath on (with Awakening) and permadeath off (with Fates). I've found that I still load like a mad man regardless of whichever one I use so for me it makes little or no difference that character die in the story. I'm a perfectionist and a completist and must have all units by end of the game.

"Honestly, while I enjoy these games, I hate medieval European or traditional fantasy settings. I'd love to get a Fire Emblem game inspired by a different cultural environment."
Medieval Europe is a bit overdone. Wargroove is pretty cool actually. It isn't just a traditional European fantasy setting. I'm personally also for a sci-fi Fire Emblem...preferably a mix of both?
That would be pretty cool to see.

@Ryu_Niiyama Yeah. Just realised I was a page behind with my comments and that I forgot to tag the other guy. Its been fixed now.

@SNES64DD Lol no biggie, we all love games here.