Topic: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

@JaxonH NL posted about it.

I like Tetris 99 a lot anyway, so, yeah, I'm pretty excited for this. I love all of the crossover themes and whatnot it's getting.

Still need a Zelda x Tetris 99 event, though.

Ok, one thing I really hate about this game is no touch screen controls.
It would be perfect fit for handheld play.

Really.. why did they bother to make Switch touchscreen anyway?! 95% of games doesn’t even support touchscreen anyway.

I mean, may as well. Even if a lot of games don’t use it, it’s better to have it and get used sometimes than not have it at all.

All I ever use it for is entering eShop credit codes, and Mario Maker 2. And that’s cool. I’d prefer they allow gyro for entering codes like PS4 (ironically, given practically nothing on that system uses motion well if at all, while Switch has gyro for half the games that release, yet that’s the one system that actually uses it right for entering codes... go figure).

Anyways, about to beat the game. I made it through the final month and started the final battle. I just haven’t actually made my first move yet.

I’ve just started Part II, and I’m hooked. The story is engaging and now I’m more invested. I’ve already got 50 hours in.

Hey!!! I beat Fire Emblem! Nice wrap up. I liked Hanneman, Manuela, Caspar and Dorothea’s endings.

Just in time for the DQXIS demo too.

Hmm, I just noticed I went to an intermediate class too early, without mastering and unlocking its skill first, and I have no earlier safe to go to this game needs more safe files lol).

Btw, I like that when you assign an adjutant, he/she is also in you battalion. It’s a nice little detail.

Update: oh wait, reclass is a thing. And it doesn’t seem to cost anything. I did find an interesting discussion about “mastering” vs “continue to the next class”. Your rates seem to increase when you go to a higher a class, so I guess it’s a bit of a give and take.
Speaking of rates, I seem to have such poor luck when lvling up. Most of the time I only get 3 skills that increase. I almost feel like this run gets ruined by the time I get near the end and won’t be strong enough.

@Spanjard
You dont need to revert to an older save (btw there are 6 save files which is plenty). Just reclass back to your previous class. You're free to switch classes back and forth as many times as you wish. This is 't like previous games where it's a one way street.

Plus you made the right choice anyways. No sense mastering those early classes- the skills from mastering are crap and will just be phased out anyways once you master better classes.

Did not know about adjuvants showing up in battalions. That's really cool.

Finished my first playthrough yesterday! Good, bad, and final thoughts:

Good: Game is awesome. Already started my second playthrough and I STILL can't wait to play every time. Just such a massive game with so many possibilities. Lovable characters, awesome tactical battle system, so many items and different phases of play. Such an incredible game, especially if you're a stickler for game/money value.

Bad: I still think the game is pretty easy, even on hard and classic. I only lost one battle (ran out of rewinds) near the end of the game; basically just put myself into a situation I couldn't get out of without losing a character. Otherwise, the battles were easy and I didn't lose a single character. For most battles, even story battles, I didn't have to rewind at all. I also didn't even have the majority of my characters as master classes at the end of the game: I didn't have a single flying unit and still managed to win the final few battles pretty easily, even with limited mobility.

Also, the exploration and social elements of the game are not as robust as you would initially believe. They are nice distractions/additions, but ultimately the monastery is just a minimap with chat bubbles to check off, and the social system is just a ladder with pretty good dialogue sequences every now and then.

Final thoughts: It may seem like the bads are really bad, but honestly the game is still fantastic. People who know me on this forum know I HATE dlc, but I'm getting this dlc 100%. I'm also not really a new game+ kind of guy, but the new game+ really changes things and give you lots of cool options the second time around. So even though it's a bit easy and the social elements aren't that complex, the core of the game, the battle system, is addictive. The abilities and combat skills and items and classes are what makes this game fantastic, and that only makes sense because it's a tactical RPG lol

I guess for people who want more difficulty, that's not an issue since Lunatic and Maddening are being added in.

Overall the game was easier, but I died at least a dozen times overall (6 on a single map with the Death Knight on ch 18/19, somewhere around there). I'm scared of Hard Mode now, cause I barely scraped by without losing a character permanently on Normal. Nonetheless I'm gonna try Hard Classic Blue Lions. But ya, Lunatic is pretty much the answer to the better players who want even more. I'm tempted to try Lunatic in casual. Just try to make it through period.

I found the game too easy until you get to the final boss on the church path on hard, that bloody thing is impossible to kill, I'm on the 4th attempt now.

Where is Lunatic and Maddening? I started my new game+ and still only saw normal and hard. Do I have to start a completely new file I guess?

I slowed down a bit somewhere around the time skip but have picked up the pace once again. I'm in Chapter 17. Caspar and Mercedes's paralogue was interesting. It was the first battle that really gave me trouble. In part thanks to bad luck. Had to rewind at least 5 times. I was surprised to see a focus on one of the villains in a non-story battle.

Also as a side note, I'm really excited for the new Fire Emblem Cipher set which features cards from Three Houses. They started doing card reveals this Monday and I'm unsure if I should follow the reveals or wait until the set releases in September and go in blind. That would also mean I'd have to wait for the cards to ship from Japan though... To those who are not aware of what I'm talking about, Cipher is a trading card game. Here are today's card reveals as an example of what the cards look like: https://twitter.com/FEcipher/status/1164809550840487936?s=19

@rallydefault Those modes haven't been added to the game yet.

I personally can't wait for lunatic. A better challenge for veterans should've been in the game already. I'm not one to create extra rules to make games harder, like using brawling classes only or something. I use everything the game offers and because I love Fire Emblem I also did a lot of planning beforehand (I have a master file with 7 pages worth of planning for my current playthrough ) That's how I like to play Fire Emblem and it's how I beat harder modes. But with low difficulty like this it feels a bit pointless because you can just pretty much throw a lord in the middle of an army and the army is no more.

Figured I would share my thoughts here too:

I just finished my first play through of Fire Emblem Three Houses. Fire Emblem is a series I have loved since I was a child and care dearly about. When it was announced for Switch it instantly jumped right to the top of the list for my most anticipated games on the console and in general. Despite common sense telling me not to let my hopes get too high, I expected good things for this title.

And I can comfortably say that it met and exceeded my expectations! FE3H is a superb entry to the series that draws from the best the series has to offer, as well as exploring new territory that, I admit, I wasn't entirely sold on when I saw the preview videos. While the school setting does get a little repetitive after a while, they did an excellent job of making everything meaningful. None of the side features are just fluff. The game also gives you a nearly unprecedented level of freedom in choosing how to play. Never before have you had so much control over your characters skills and abilities and that alone would provide tremendous replay value.

But add to the fact that there is not one but four complete stories in the game, right out of the box?! Almost any other studio would have treated them as DLC or expansions on their own, but here you get them right away. To be fair there is likely a lot of overlap in these runs, but with a single play through being 60-80 hours depending on how you play, you're getting an incredible value even if you only play it once.

Value certainly isn't everything, the quality of the game play is top tier Fire Emblem. The difficulty varies wildly between "normal casual" and "hard classic" and there are harder modes on the way as free updates. But personally I found "normal classic" to be just right, especially in the latter half of the game. The story is very solid. Lots of moral grey areas and things to make you question if you are fighting for the right cause. A very big improvement over past titles where you were obvious, unquestioned good guys fighting obvious unquestioned bad guys.

The only negative I have with the game are the some performance issues. While the battles themselves run buttery smooth most of the time, walking around the monastery something that, in my opinion, should have been the least demanding part of the game, has noticeable chugging almost any time you fast travel and often you visibly see NPCs and your characters popping in, even in docked mode. Also there are a few areas in the game with extremely basic looking textures that seem out of place. Most notably the merchant stands with fruit baskets that look more like it's a rocks with fruit painted badly on them.

None of these issues however ever effect the game play or detract from the story, so they are forgivable but keep me from giving the game a perfect score. I can easily say this game is my second favorite title on the Nintendo Switch and an easy 9/10.

I've happily dropped 85 hours into this game, and likely will drop another 200 before I am finished. Maybe more, depending on what the DLC contains.

@Edelgard
Ah, that explains it lol

On my next playthrough I need to do a better job of actually funneling my units into master-tier classes. That will probably make the game even easier, but it'll be good practice for those harder modes whenever they come out.

@Heavyarms55
Agree about the performance dips in the monestary. Not a huge issue, but still a minor annoyance.

My only other real disappointment or criticism (if you can call it that), is that the story ending for Church of Seiros Path was kinda lame. Was hoping for something a little more epic. It’s the journey, not the destination, that matters most. But it still would’ve been nice if the destination was more intriguing. Overall it just felt like the story could have used some more cut scenes more often to flesh things out, and it seems they just didn’t have the budget for it. We got a really cool cut scene at the beginning and a really cool cut scene in the fog of war map, which really set the tone nicely, but after that they were sparse and far and few between.

Overall though, it really feels like I’m nitpicking an otherwise brilliant game that I thoroughly enjoyed. I hear the blue lions path is more traditional and the best story path of the bunch, so I started a new game plus run on hard classic. Not sure when I’ll have time to play it as I still need to finish the Edelgard Path first from the split, but it’s on the to do list for early next year after the maelstrom of Switch games dies down from this fall.

@JaxonH I didn't comment much on the story because I've only played one route to completion. What I will say is I enjoyed the story for Edelgard's route but feel they leave a lot open and unfinished in a way that heavily suggests DLC or sequel material. My plan is to take a break and play something else, then return and play Claude's route, then play something else, return and play Dimitri's route, and then same pattern and play the Church route last.

I'm in the middle of my second play-through and I'm still having lots of fun with the game. The monastery tasks get much more streamlined so you can really focus more on the battles and getting to know the newer students.

One thing I definitely regret in my first run of the game was not doing all of the available Paralogue quests. They really flesh out the character's background stories and they definitely seem to have the more interesting battles. Getting more relics is also a great bonus from doing them.

The game takes a really dark turn with the events leading into part 2. I don't know how the story unfolds had I chosen another house, but damn, did Dimitri really get twisted in the Blue Lions storyline... Love it!

This game is definitely a masterpiece, somewhat flawed, but still... a masterpiece!

@Snaplocket
Figures that I did edelgards path first lol do you mean in terms of difficulty or how so?

What is the church path? Is that basically not siding with edelgard, I assume? Do Dimitri and Claude not face a similar fork?