Topic: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Just finished Radiant Dawn, finally! Only took me, what, fifteen years? Lol. In any case, the endgame sequence of chapters was great and more than made up for the lackluster early game (honestly Part I and II could be dropped altogether). Being able to field a full team of Laguz Royals was incredible and fully-powered up Ike is a doombringer. Maybe someday I'll play it again to unlock the extra story stuff I've been hearing about.

Now I'm ready to pick up Three Houses! Will it take me fifteen years to finish this one? Time will tell!

I must admit I was a bit skeptical if I'd like Three Houses or not and was not sure if I'd get it at launch but since my friend got it and I had a voucher, I went for it. And I'm so glad I did. I'm 8 hours in, in the middle of third month, I think, and I'm really enjoying my time with it.

I love just running around the monastery and discovering new things to do. I don't really know what's going to happen after the year ends but I hope there's still some exploration afterwards since I currently enjoy it more than the battles. There's nothing wrong with the battles, they are just as fun as in previous games but I'm just delighted to have much more freedom outside the battles.

One slight nitpick I have with the game though. This is in regards to the visuals. I don't really mind the still image backgrounds in support conversations and stuff but I really wish the characters would emote more with their eyes. The blank stare is so unnatural. Their character portraits have facial emotion but the character models don't. It's just a weird inconsistency with otherwise great character animation.

@Late
It can be a little rough around the edges at times, but given where we were visually with the 3DS entries (Echoes was like a point and click adventure, it was just a still image and you move the cursor on the screen to select items or a door to go through), I feel like I really can’t complain. And the series is only going to improve moving forward. This game has a humongous budget compared to previous games, and perhaps being their first foray into an intermediate-tier console game, it was a learning experience. With the game doing so well and bringing so many new players into the series, I think both IS and Nintendo will feel 100% confident in an even higher budget with more manpower for future entries. The possibilities are exciting just thinking about...

@Matroska
Oh man... that sucks. I definitely would have played on HARD mode then. Oh well. It feels good for me on Normal so I’m happy.

@Matroska At least it's not the reverse like Radiant Dawn where the actual difficulty is harder than the difficulty stated (Easy = Normal, Normal = Hard, Hard = Lunatic).

I wouldn't hold out for some sort of technically ambitious FE game any time soon. I imagine they'll want to use the Three Houses engine for the next several games. It's not like anybody has ever played FE for the state-of-the-art graphics.

It's a big jump over 3DS, and that's enough for me.

@Matroska Yeah, I figured out that it was my Roy amiibo, unfortunately. The Switch recognizes all my other amiibos. Just not that one.

@JaxonH Wouldn't it make more sense to start the player off with several charges and then slowly lower the number over the course of the game as you're improving and to prevent the player from using them as a crutch?

So how many divine pulse charges do you get over the course of the game? I've only used it once thus far. Or do you just get four potential uses every battle forever?

@Ralizah
Early game is easier, so you really shouldn’t need more in the beginning. The scaling difficulty is what eases you in. I think for the first half of the game they should give you one (instead of two), and later half of the game they should give you two (instead of four). And it’s a “per map” usage, meaning later in the game you could rewind it four times on every single map without penalty.

If they instead did 1-2 instead of 2-4, it would basically just give you an extra redo later on because the chapters get much more difficult. Four seems grossly excessive. I don’t think I’ve ever played a map in my life where I made 4 blunders to the point I lost somebody 4 times.

What type of additional episodes will be included with the Expansion Pass?

Yokota: These will be spin-offs that won’t affect the main story or the post-game either. We’re also thinking about introducing some new characters. We’re talking something fairly big here, so I think fans might have to wait a while.

This confirms it. Huge Xenoblade 2 style expansion. The hype is most definitely real.

Alright. All of my units (+ the one I snagged early on from another house) are level 5 or higher, meaning I was able to upgrade all of my units before the second major story battle!

@JaxonH Eh, players are more likely to make stupid mistakes early on as they're first learning and engaging with the mechanics. Once the player's skill improves and they learn how best to use the pulses, their reliance on them will lessen.

Either way, I'm just glad I no longer have to choose between losing a unit or replaying an incredibly difficult map because of a random crit from a strong unit any more. Casual mode has no stakes, and thus wasn't really a good option for me. These pulses, even if they could stand to be adjusted, are a great compromise.

@Ralizah
How did you manage to level up so fast? I’m just entering first real battle and I’m level 6 for Byleth, 4 for Edelgard and 2 for everyone else (maybe 3 for one person). And did you focus on skills you normally wouldn’t have just to recruit the person or did you just find a person to recruit that happen to align with the skills you were already focusing on?

And what free time exercises did you do to regain motivation? I’m still trying to get a grasp on the right approach here

@JaxonH I'm engaging in optional battles when possible (although Monastery exploration takes priority). You can collect EXP from places in the battlefields where other players have fallen. Plus, I'm making sure to level up my characters fairly evenly. So I almost always pair my lower level characters with higher level ones and arrange it so that my lower level ones take the killing shot on an enemy. Standard FE stuff.

RE: motivation, besides resting them (which I haven't actually done yet), you can also engage in activities with them throughout the monastery that fully level up their motivation levels, such as those special events where you invite two other students to dine with you in the cafeteria. I believe singing in the choir also increases their motivation. And, finally, I know that becoming the MVP in a given battle will also boost their motivation levels.

Don't forget to have Byleth learn from other professors so that his/her skills aren't neglected, either.

Gave this game a solid try but don't think it's for us. Has some cool things going for it though can definitely see why it's popular. Glad I got to check it out.

This game is so addicting! I've been really enjoying it so far.

Man, this game does such a great job of making you feel like you are really in the role as the professor of Garag Mach Monastery.

It’s a role playing game, and as such I am guiding my students toward the goals I feel they would excel at based on their talents. But in that journey sometimes a student comes up to me and says hey, I want to be a Sniper for reasons XYZ consistent with their character. And being a video game I could just say no and force them to stay on the path they are on, but that doesn’t feel right given I’m playing the role. And in that role, as their professor, I feel the correct response is to listen to my students and respect the subject matter they wish to study. I have helped guide them and I already had her learning the bow, but I was also having her learn how to ride, as I remember Rath from FE7 as a Nomad bow knight was pretty awesome. But if she wants to be a sniper I feel like I need to respect those wishes. It’s consistent with her character and what kind of professor would I be if I forced her to do what she didn’t want to and did not allow her to pursue her desires?

I love this freaking game.

@JaxonH I've had three students suggest slight changes to their study focus thus far, and have granted all three as they've been basically consistent with what their skillset is leading them toward anyway. I can and will say no to the first one that suggests something stupid, though, and I'm preparing for that eventuality.

I really like how alive the Monastery feels. People all over the place, animals, people eating their lunches, etc. It's all very cool.

@Ralizah
Yes. Fire emblem games have always sucked me into the world and story, but this one is like two cuts above.

Just unlocked ton of support conversations. I love Bernadetta, or Bernie as I call her. Best character in the series since Lissa. This game feels like the BotW of the Fire Emblem series. I’m sure there will be plenty of people who will debate that, but I mean that loosely as the game that really elevates the series to the next level it needed to go to for this new console generation. I feel like almost every major title Nintendo is releasing is doing that. They are making a game a cut above what’s come before. Zelda did it. Pokemon’s doing it (I don’t care about the Pokédex controversy, I still say that game looks miles beyond what’s come before), Mario Odyssey did it, Fire Emblem did it, Astral Chain seems to be doing it (up until now it’s all been pure action, like Bayonetta and Wonderful 101, but this one is finally offering more as a full game with quests and missions and a world to explore and branching paths, and just using excellent combat in addition to). Dragon Quest XI S did it (granted that’s not a Nintendo game but it’s a major Nintendo semi-exclusive), I’m sure SMTV and Metroid Prime 4 will do the same thing, and while games like Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Animal Crossing are largely the same they are still an evolution of what’s come before. Bigger, better, and more perfected.

It’s just been a really good console generation for Nintendo. They’ve always made good games but it did seem like they were lagging behind for a while during the Wii U/3DS era as far as keeping up with modern expectations. Switch feels like a market correction.

I like how they manage to make each FE game feel quite different even though it's following such a simple formula.

My copy should be arriving on monday I hope.

Lucky enough to get the game day 1! My problem is: Male or Female Byleth?

Anyone who has played the game and likes it, do the game a favor and hit a score on MC. I happened upon the page as I was leaving a review, and saw over 100 of the 400 user reviews were 0/10 or 1/10. Typical salty fanboy review bombing on one of the greatest video games I’ve played in years. It’s an utter shame the human race has devolved to this point. Anyways, just thought I’d throw that out there because there’s enough people who love this game that such tactics could be relegated ineffective.

Leave Review

I haven't played it yet, but when I do, I'll leave an honest review @JaxonH. I agree, review bombing is awful.

Awesome game. The fact that I have such a massive backlog yet I can't stop playing this is a true testament to this game.
Also, I'm playing on a 65inch tv and it looks great to me. To each their own I guess.
Petra is my fav so far.
Black Eagles FTW!!