Topic: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

@NEStalgia
Ah, I have the opposite experience. Maybe I'm just really bad at building my characters in rpgs lol I almost always make dumb decisions on stat points and gear and stuff, which hurts doubly in games like this where some of that stuff is permanent. Then when I play a second time I know exactly what not to do haha

At the end of my first playthrough for Three Houses, for example, I didn't have a single student in the highest-tier jobs because I botched the progression so badly. Lol. Honestly I don't even know how I managed it, but I still beat the red path with nobody dying (but lots of restarts in the final missions).

@rallydefault It's funny how when we as "hardcore gamers" talk about the difficulty level of a game, we don't really recognize how much of that skill is something innate built up through years, or decades of experience, much like real world skills that would have been much better use of the past few decades we spent honing video game skills

Most RPGs, to me, are basically VN adventures....they kind of play themselves except for a handful of key battles. I don't even realize that they "play themselves" because I've worked out so many systems and perceptions that I just do the "right" things without even giving it a thought. Except Monolith games. Screw them and their bizarre fascination with over-complicated sub-systems. And FFVIII which is just a mess.

I tend to, like with FE, "hoard" my upgrade points and money if the game lets me, and then just keep playing with what I've got....I fight the uphill battle until I get butchered, and that's when I evaluate where my weaknesses are and I need to spend the points. Then I just buff out those abilities with my points stockpiles and tank right through the troublesome boss until I need something else. Except if it's something like D&D, Fallout, etc that has a "charm" or "charisma" type stat. I can't help but pump every point into that because I love when games let you talk your way through the fight....the extra dialogue is the fun!

FE, OTOH....I get the vague sense there's a ton of stats, and they mean something....and giving my sword wielder a bunch of archer points obviously doesn't help, but I also feel like the game is presenting it to me because I should be... And I never know how to spend the re-classing points! I do imagine I'm going ot end up in the same situation with nobody in the high tier....I'm just kind of randomizing and automating progression wherever it lets me because I have no clue what I'm doing or what I even would try to build if I could.

@NEStalgia
In the certifications menu, go down to the master class and look at the stats needed to obtain it. You’ll know what each character should shoot for, generally speaking. If you have somebody with a learning buff in swords, teach them swords to become a Swordmaster, and if you want to hit a master class, teach them reason as well (unless they have a deficiency, then just stick with Advanced class).

If someone is good with a bow, teach them bows to become a Sniper. If you check the certifications menu you will see there is a master class for the Bose skill called Bow Knight, and they also need A in riding and C in lance. Obviously focus on the bow first and riding second, because you won’t need lance until end game for the final class.

Basically you just teach them whatever they have proficiencies in. Unless you really really want to make a certain character something else. Which you can totally do even if they have a deficiency. Although personally I would not bother teaching someone a skill they have a deficiency in and less it has the three stars which shows a hidden talent, which will turn into a proficiency if you teach them enough in that area.

You can also use a guide to show you what’s recommended although the game itself will actually suggest to you what skills the students want to focus on. Sometimes in between weeks a Student will say hey, I want to focus on lances and riding to become a cavalier, should I Switch my goals? If that sounds good to you select yes and roll with it. Or if you’re really determined to go with something else select no.

There’s only a small handful of stats in the game, and if you hit X in the status menu you can cursor over to the stats and the game will literally tell you what each one of them does.

Str = physical attack
Mag = magic attack
Dex = hits and crits
Spd = avoidance
Lck = crit avoidance
Def = physical defense
Res = magic defense
Cha = gambit strength, hit rate and avoidance

Shields will either provide Protection (adds to physical defense post calculations) or Resilience (adds to magic defense post calculations), and there’s a formula for double hitting that takes speed minus weight into account. If your speed minus weight is X amount higher (5 higher? Can’t remember, it’s been a while) than the enemy’s speed minus weight, you double attack.

I’m actually playing the game again on my second playthrough. Black Eagles church route was my first. Now it’s Blue Lions, and I have to say, I like the Blue Lions route more so far. It’s like the game was designed for it to be the main route. You get extra dialogue in shared scenes that all three routes participate in.

Man I forgot how much I love this game. It’s so good. I treasure this game, And playing it through again has just made me love it even more.

Oh my gosh.

I’m on chapter 6 and was wondering where Annette went, and Dedue. Haven’t seen them around in a while.

Then I realize I’m playing on classic mode, not casual. And they got sacrificed against the death night to get a dark seal. And now I’ve overwritten my save. Oh my gosh. Dedue I can live with but, Annette? Come on. I want to start the whole Playthrough over now, but I don’t want to go through it all over again. Oh my gosh. I can’t believe I did that.

edit
I had a save! I can fix my mistake! Have to redo 2 hrs of playtime but, I’ll take it. Screw that Dark Seal. I don’t need a dark mage anyways.

@JaxonH I hate when that happens😱 I reset my 3DS sooooo many times on the last game ( I refuse to play casual ) and I loved the time reverse mechanic in three houses. Just be thankful it wasn’t Mercedes. That would be a crime to not have her anymore.

Having played Fire Emblem since the GBA days, the only way to go with them is to save-scum until you get to the final battle, and then you can let most of your squad die a heroic death without having to worry about who you're going to train up as replacements.

Using Sothis just speeds up that process a bit, but casual mode feels a bit like cheating.

@Blooper987
I don’t mind casual- I usually do my first playthrough on casual just to enjoy the game. Then hard classic, although in this case, I had to turn it down to Normal because I couldn’t even beat the mock battle at the beginning of the game! I died twice in a row and finally turned it down to normal, and then died on normal lol! Not sure why that battle was so tough this time around. I don’t recall having issues with it on my first run.

Mercedes is so powerful. Both she and Annette are Gremory material, without question. Use Dark Seal on Hanneman, if he can be recruited in Blue Lions too, which I assume he can, and that it wasn’t just for the church route.

@Matt_Barber
The time rewind is a great feature, especially making classic more viable (who wants to lose an hour progress over one single mistake). The problem is when you forget you’re actually playing on classic mode and don’t realize you’re permanently missing people until 3 chapters later

@JaxonH I think casual mode is a great addition in terms of broadening the popularity of the series. It's just that using Sothis to rewind time is much more in line with how the games prior to Awakening were played.

That mock battle is one of the most difficult in the game. If you ever play on maddening mode, it's the hardest by far, because there's so little you can do to prepare for it. Practically all your characters will die at the first hit, so they've all got to use bows and nearly all of them have no talent for archery either.

If you want to pick up dark seals I'd suggest recruiting Lysithea as she can usually one-shot the Death Knight with the aid of Dark Spikes. Dark Bishop/Mage aren't very good endgame classes though so they're only worth it if you value the mastery skills as part of a character build. Hanneman in particular makes a much better Warlock as it gives him double Meteor and Black Tomefaire.

@Matt_Barber
I just like the classes Dark Mage and Dark Bishop. I made Hanneman Dark Mage in my first playthrough. Unfortunately I missed my second opportunity to get a dark seal in chapter 6 because no matter who I attacked the death night with he would counter with a critical. I thought I’d made Anna a thief but, turns out I hadn’t changed classes yet because I was waiting to master the previous class which was almost done with. There will be chances later though.

@JaxonH I'll admit to using the odd sub-optimal class here and there because I liked the outfit. You only really need to worry about picking the absolute best classes when you're doing a maddening run.

I've never had much joy when it came to thieving from the Death Knight. If you've not got Lysithea or haven't leveled her up enough to one-shot him, your next best bet is for everyone to hit him with a gambit and hope that takes him low enough for someone to be able to take him down without getting hit back.

I'm currently on my second playthrough. Regular game, no new game+, on Maddening without DLC. Went with Golden Deer at launch so now I'm playing as the Black Eagle. Just did the dancing thing.

Hard was bit too easy thanks to Divine Pulses but now I've actually lost some units because I ran out of them. Or rather, one death was because of that and the others were because of my stupidity. Lost Caspar in Miklan chapter. Thought I had one more Divine Pulse and I didn't. For some reason I thought the death of students you borrow don't count and I later discovered I don't have the option to recruit them anymore. They still hang around the monastery, just like Caspar, but you can't interact with them outside of the standard dialog they have each month. I've also had to restart some battles because I've put myself into unwinnable state and sometimes it's just easier to restart rather than go back multiple turns with Divine Pulses.

The game is just as good now as it was a year ago. Judging by my time spent on each save, I'm going at the same pace. My only small gripe is that the battles are bit too long. This will likely be a game I return to every year until I've finished the complete story.

@Late
I agree, the game is just as good as when it released. Usually I need at least five years before coming back to a game (I rarely replay games I already beat, unless it’s a really great game), but this game feels just as fresh now as it did a year ago when I was playing it. It’s just... so good.

And with 5 separate playthroughs possible, this is a game I could also return to every year until I’ve done every route. Did Black Eagles- Church and now doing Blue Lions. Next year maybe I’ll pick up my Black Eagles save at the choice and do Black Eagles- Edelgard, then the following year the DLC route. Not sure about Golden Deer since I hear it’s very similar to the Black Eagles- Church route, but we’ll see.

@JaxonH There are three unique chapters in the Golden Deer route, which is one more than the Church route has. Perhaps more importantly there's a very different storyline that'll fill in a lot of the gaps from the other routes. Still, there's a huge amount map reuse in the game, so some of them are going to look very familiar by the time you've done your fourth playthrough whichever route that is.

Golden Deer were definitely my favourite house though. I've always tried to recruit a few of them - especially Hilda, Lorenz and Lysithea - whichever route I play.

@Matt_Barber Golden Deer is the only one I haven't done yet. I was going to start it, but the repetitive beginning prevented me this time around. I think my problem was I did the 3 other paths all in a row and so much of this game is the basically the same at the beginning. Its the monastery I think that stops me. I don't want to deal with the monastery again. I do plan on trying to do golden deer sometime.

@komodo182 I don't think the first half is that bad, as at least the battles are relatively short.

They could definitely have done with a few more unique maps for each of the routes in the second half though.

@Matt_Barber
Perhaps one day I’ll get around to it then. For now, I still have a ways to go with Blue Lions, Black Eagles Edelgard from the split, and the DLC.

@JaxonH Starting Black Eagles again from the split has its own problems. While there are workable options for a lot of characters common to both routes, the principal story ones are mutually exclusive - so you've got to say goodbye to whatever you've invested in them - and you're quite likely to want a different dancer too.

Also, if you're anything like me, you'll look back in horror at some of the builds you put together on your first run. I made Petra a sniper and Ferdinand a tank while they're far better the other way around, because she can easily get 100% evasion while the game just punishes physical tanks with bad stat growths. Bernadetta and Caspar got benched because they were too fragile but they can be quite potent attackers if you go for hit and run classes with Canto. Dorothea was my Dancer, which was a waste of a great Gremory. Bishop Linhardt was the only one I picked a good finishing class for, but I still rebuilt him as a Dark Knight anyway because that gave me an extra offensive option rather than just a pure healer.

Still, I get that a lot of people find the early game to be a bit of a slog and just want to play for the story.

@Matt_Barber
Ya I can only redo the beginning so many times before losing motivation. I didn’t use dancer my first run. I gave it to Linhart and then just never used the class. This run I gave it to Flayn, and she makes a great dancer. I had planned to make her Gremory, but with both Annette and Mercedes on deck for Gremory, I felt it best to spice things up a bit because I don’t need three of them, or rather, I don’t want three of them. Manuela for Holy Knight, Hanneman for Dark Knight, but only after mastering mage and dark mage (will probably skip Dark Bishop I just don’t have enough time to master all those classes by the end of the game).

I think I made pretty good choices all around my first run, even if a bit uninspired. But I’m definitely enjoying trying new things in this blue lions route. Just got Dedue to Fortress Knight- I love Fortress Knights. Plan to take him all the way to Great Knight, of course. Shamir for Bow Knight, Ashe for Sniper, and this time I’m making Cyril a Warmaster instead of a Sniper, like in my Black Eagles run.

Ingrid is a Pegasus Knight and will eventually be a Falcon Knight. Sylvain is a Paladin alongside Dimitri.

This game is just so addictive!

@Matt_Barber @JaxonH I’m probably gonna start playing it again cause you guys made me wanna play it so much. With path should I take this time?

@Blooper987 In terms of the main characters and story, I'd rank the routes as follows:

Golden Deer (Claude, Hilda) > Blue Lions (Dimitri, Dedue) > Black Eagles (Edelgard, Hubert) > Church (Seteth, Flayn)

Mind you, Black Eagles is the most distinct route from the other three, with a lot less rehashing of maps you'll already have seen and you're going to have a very dim view of Edelgard if you only get her side of the story after you've seen two of the other routes.

Also, the DLC is worth playing before your second playthrough as it's an entirely self-contained story and unlocks a bunch of useful features for the main game.