Topic: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

@Trajan Because a large part of the game is a structured social sim where you bond with people, engage in side activities, explore a large-ish hub area, and most of your activities consume time in a day. It does feel very Persona-inspired.

The joint gambit mechanic also feels reminiscent of the All-Out Attacks in Persona 3 - 5.

Once you unlock optional battles and paralogues, I think you'll find there are PLENTY of battles in this game.

Second half of the game is feeling much more hardcore. It’s almost as if the first half of the game is the tutorial, and now, everyone is grown and the real battle begins. I love it!

The game is still sold out on Amazon US. Every time it pops back in stock (or at least, able to order with a delivery date a week or two away), it sells out immediately.

@Snaplocket
Easy there, I do see your point. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to include it. But I do see its utility relegated nearly impotent with the 6-9 rewinds. At least on Normal/Hard. Lunatic could prove casual mode useful.

@jump
There’s as much emphasis as you want there to be. Everything outside of battles can be skipped or automated. And there are unique outfits for everyone outside of battle, and yet again post timeskip. Furthermore, there are so many different classes, all of which have unique outfits, and each character has a different color combination for each class. There really is a lot of diversity.

@Trajan
Ralizah answered the first part, but to reiterate there are plenty of battles in this game, probably more so than any other game in the series. Especially when you account for all 4 routes. There are so many you’ll never even see them all. The beginning of the game takes a little bit to kick into gear because there’s a lot of mechanics to show you and they have to set up the plot at the monastery. But after that, once the monthly routine kicks into gear, it’s 50% battle/50% social sim, with the ratio skewing as high as 90%/10% if you choose to automate and skip.

I'm starting to wonder how much of the "lack of difficulty" feeling I'm getting is because of the time rewind mechanic robbing the battles of needless tedium via soft resets. Like, this last paralogue I did, where my party is separated from Bylith, and the field is swamped with demonic beasts. I actually had to rewind a few times because I misjudged the range these stupid animals can hit my characters at. I've actually used the rewind mechanic a few times throughout the game, which are all instances that I would have soft reset otherwise.

Just imo but the side stuff in Persona is so much better than Three Houses, the stuff like Tea Parties or cooking etc feels tacked on which wouldn't be so bad if it didn't feel like they were trying to make it the emphasis of the game whilst Persona it was actually enjoyable. Grinding and side missions when done correctly shouldn't feel like a chore and the difference between Persona and Fire Emblem highlights this.

Time Rewind is great in all honesty. I love Fire Emblem but many maps and turns can drag on for a while, and it tends to wear you down. I can’t count the amount of times in Conquest Hard that I was almost done but out of tiredness or simply misclicking I placed a character one tile too far. Then I could only watch as they got one rounded and I had to restart the 30 minute to hour long map all over again.

I've mentioned my issues with it above, it's not why isn't this skippable, it's that I want to skip it as it's fluff.

That would be fine if they didn't ask you to identify with a house based on generic outfits and a few seconds of dialogue screens. Character designs do great job of giving over an impression of a character which when you're asked as soon as you start the game would have been helpful.

Tbh, I did expect the decision for Houses to be later into the game, so seeing it be one of the first decisions you make was a bit of a shock for me.

Personally don’t really thinking the grinding and side stuff is unenjoyable. Albeit the Tea Parties are kind of creepy imo. My main complaint is that I do wish their was a bit more dialogue variety when eating with people and other stuff. Especially post time skip

To each their own.

But the vast majority of people love the micromanagement aspect, and I myself find it much more enjoyable than Persona. So it was definitely the right call to design the game around it. Tea parties aside, I absolutely love how much character depth is on offer, I love running around the monestary and talking to students, all fully voiced, and learning their ins and outs. The gardening, fishing, answering the note box, eating, exploring, talking to students, returning lost items, all of it combines for a much more entertaining mix than anything I recall from Persona. And perhaps that’s because I care about the characters so much more, as they do such an incredible job of making you care about the characters, because they put so much focus on character development and learning about everyone at the monestary. Not to mention the game gives you incentive as you can increase the motivation or support rank or gain useful items.

And I had no issues choosing a house. The outfits are fantastic (Dorothea, Petra, Edelgard... these are amazing outfits, honestly flummoxed at such a complaint), and you literally get to talk to each and every character before you make a choice. And it’s not even that big of a deal anyways. Pick the one that looks the coolest and run with it. If you want to experience a different house, then play a different house afterwards. You play for at least two hours before choosing. That’s plenty of time to get a feel for each of the leaders and talk to each of the students. And seeing as there is no wrong choice, that’s more than sufficient. Couple hours is more than enough dinking around to get the game rolling.

The music in this game should win awards. Holy mother mackerel the music is sooo good! Epic, that’s the word that comes to mind. The music is epic.

Ah submenus, the very height of gaming and storytelling

Are you talking about stat management or the social sim stuff as whilst they are linked they are two different things?

This game is a masterpiece. The more I play the more I am convinced this is one of my favorite video games I’ve ever played. Part II, Chapter. 13 (I think? Maybe 14). This battle is tough, I already died on the second round and had to use Divine Pulse (@Ralizah I see what you mean with Divine Pulse now, had this been any other game in the series I would have had to restart twice now). The music is just epic, The map is incredible, and I’m fighting tooth and nail for victory.

My students are all grown up now, and we’re a force to be reckoned with. I love how some of the support conversations change after the timeskip. You actually see character development where these students are a little different, a little more mature. And I love the way they look. Their new outfits are bangin

@jump
Both.

And submenus are a great source of info. That’s why people love games like Skyrim so much. Because of the lore that you read. And it’s not just submenus, as people have already said you can talk to each and every character to get a feel for them, with full voice acting for conversations. You don’t have to know every intricate detail about every single person in the game before choosing. You just get a feel for each house and choose. You get to talk to each one, no submenus involved. Although reading about them is very appealing to many people. You’re not forced to do it but you have the option. An underlying theme with this game. It shouldn’t be make to sound like it’s some huge decision you got wrong because you weren’t given enough information. There is no wrong choice. You could quite literally flip a coin and be just fine. You don’t see anyone else complaining because all three routes are enjoyable. Everyone gets a slightly different experience.

Actually I've seen a few people "complain" even in this thread, but please take don't constructive criticism as the same thing has game bashing.

@jump
I didn’t intend it to be taken as an absolute. Of course you will find complaints about practically any aspect of any game. With nearly 8 billion people on the planet there’s always going to be someone who don’t like a certain something.

I intended it as a general statement.

Y'all don't be dunking on my tea parties. They're hilarious, and practically require more quick thinking than some of the battles.

@JaxonH Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the music so far. Particularly when the music picks up in some of the bigger battles.

@Ralizah
I don’t mind the tea parties here and there. They make for a nice change of pace. And I do rather enjoy testing my knowledge on how well I know the individual.

But it’s not something I go out of my way to do. If it’s somebody’s birthday and it asked me if I want to have tea with them, I do it. But I never choose the option when talking to an individual.

And ya, I seriously need the soundtrack for this game. I was a little concerned the soundtrack wouldn’t reach the heights of Awakening or Fates. But it’s surpassed my expectations. The Main Theme is incredible, as well as Blue Skies and a Battle, Tearing Through Heaven, Beneath the Banner, Roar of Dominion, Chasing Daybreak, Seeking New Heights... and those are just a small, small sample of the soundtrack at large.

What’s more, I unlocked all the bonus soundtracks from Amiibo. Of which there are another dozen excellent tracks.

Speaking of soundtracks, does anyone else find the audio for the music weirdly quieter than the rest of the game? I had the same complaint with the music in SSB Ultimate.

One nitpick I have with the game is the way Paralogues work. They just kinda appear without explanation. Not remotely clear what did to unlock them. Just having the associated characters or what?

@Heavyarms55
I actually turned the music down one notch, along with SFX and System Volume, to make voices a bit louder.

As for paralogs, they’re supposed to just appear as you progress. Sometimes they are unlocked by your level. So when you reach a certain level you unlock Access to the paralog. Other times they are tied to characters in your party. So if you recruit a particular individual it might unlock a special paralog, though oftentimes it is also tied to level of said character, meaning it may not unlock immediately after recruiting them.

Just play the game, and be sure to check the battles from time to time to see what new paralogs unlock as you go.

@JaxonH Really? You thought music was too loud? huh, I wonder if its my speakers then.

And I guess that unlock system gives things a more natural flow. But I kinda wish I still knew what I was doing to unlock them.

@Heavyarms55
Not so much that the music was too loud as it was the voices being too low.

The only way to remedy that was to turn everything but the voices down, since everything was already at max.

@JaxonH Weird, I feel like I have the exact reverse of that. No trouble hearing the voices but the music distinctly muted and quieter than everything else. Even when I just tried listening to the music in the "Extras" feature. I had been watching YouTube earlier, no issue, start playing FE, didn't change the volume on the TV but the opening cinematic is real quiet by comparison.