Topic: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

@chipia
Mmmm... I'm on chapter 4 and can definitively say you have to time dodges when fighting captains in maps. They charge up attacks, so you can either dodge out of the way (a perfect time dodge slows time for a second) or attempt a perfect guard. When multiple captains are fighting you at once it's easy to get overwhelmed if you're not actively paying attention and dodging their attacks.

It is button spammy, but no more than any other Warriors game. It uses the same combos every title in the series uses- Y for light and X for strong, chaining up to 4 Y attacks with an X to finish. Of course, there's way more to combat in this game than other Warriors. Class actions pressing or holding X without combo-ing into it first, abilities and arts from the R menu that cost weapon durability, critical attacks after breaking guard with X, big attacks with A, charged up mode from R menu once meter builds, special ZR move, adjutant attacks... there's so much depth to the combat beyond just mashing Y.

Personally, I found Age of Calamity moves to be flashy but impractical and sluggish. This game had far better movesets mechanically, in addition to the fact it doesn't have the same clone issues AoC had. By switching classes you change your moveset, and promoting to new classes does as well. Plus, even if two characters have the same class, their character specific skills differentiate them so that no two characters feel the same.

As for challenge, it feels about the same as any other Warriors game, but I chose Normal Classic with permadeath to up the anti. Battles feel a lot more tense when a death means losing a character forever, especially when you're constantly issuing orders for other characters to seize strongholds by themselves, and with the weapon triangle and weaknesses against certain weapons, there's always that risk your Pegasus knight is going to get slaughtered by archers, for example.

Someone put up a video comparison for Three Hopes comparing mClassic to raw video output.

It seems to sharpen the game up quite a bit.

What is the advantage to mastering a class before switching? In Three Houses you'd unlock exclusive skills. But is that also the case in Three Hopes? I can't seem to find any info on exclusive abilities learned from mastering a class, or what those abilities are.

Not entirely sure, @JaxonH .... Tutorial said something about it & I've seen some difference between the skills for people maxing the same class but I dunno quite how it works yet
You'd have to see if every time the same person maxes the same class they get the same skills or not
Feel free to do a guide on it for us

Ya know what I think has helped this game click whereas previous Warriors games haven't? Aside from the thorough FETH mechanics integration, it's the fact I've learned to ignore enemy mobs and solely focus on the captains and main enemies.

In other games I'd always get sidetracked mowing down mobs and wouldn't focus on the mission. But in this game I've taken an approach where I just run past everyone until I get to my objective. Though I will take out most captains I run into along the way. Even so, I focus on captains. Mobs are just fodder to look cool while you're fighting captains.

@BruceCM
Dedue is at 90% of maxing his base class, but I already promoted. So I'll note his current skills in the new class, switch to the base class and max out, then switch back and see if anything is different.

I'm thinking mastering a class gives you a permanent class skill, since there's a section for equippable skills, where you choose which ones you want and can only equip so many, but have room to amass much more.

Where are all those skills coming from if not from class mastery?

Well, some could be level based as well & then there certainly might be some unique skills for at least the main characters, @JaxonH .... It's very early for such detailed & deep analysis but I'm sure such guides will appear
I can't believe how much there is to do in the demo

Can you recruit characters from other houses again? I would assume probably not. I am a Blue Lion kinda guy, but I think I would jump ship for Lysithea.

I got it. OK.

So mastering the class gave Dimitri (not Dedue, I misspoke) the Combat Art called Wheelsweep. And after switching back to the intermediate class, the combat art is still in my list.

So that's the advantage. Every star ranking you master within a class (presumably) seems to grant a new combat art. Definitely get one for mastering all 3 stars though.

Finished the demo. It was so good. Soooo good.

All my characters are level 13 now, and I unlocked all items on the War Map. That last one was tough- you had to complete all side missions in each of the 3 battles available. I've also unlocked 3 or 4 support conversations so far.

I just wanna play more Fire Emblem Three Hopes now. Ugh. And this presents a serious problem now, too. Because there's only 1 week between Three Hopes and Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak. I'm not gonna have enough time to finish this before Sunbreak.

Looks like I'll be playing both concurrently. I don't think I have it in me to shelf either one to the backlog.

@relinqued
Partial data mine suggests some characters may be recruitable, yes. But not all. Some can only be recruited to certain houses, others to any house, and still yet others can't be recruited at all.

Non-students are less clear. I suspect staff, professors and other non-students will be playable characters added as part of the season pass. Which, it's definitely getting one. These games always do. And it'll need characters. With all students in the game, including the 4th house, the only ones left to use are the non-students. So I expect Catherine, Alois, Cyril, Rhea, Seteth, Manuela, Hanneman, etc to be added as playable in the season pass.

I was originally going to hold off on this, but I think I'll grab it day 1. Strikers is fun, but I'm not sure it'll hold my attention for a few weeks, at least not continuously. If anything, I'll play it sporadically. That'll leave some time for 3 hopes.

@NintendoByNature
You played through the demo, right? What did you think. Have you played Three Houses before?

Cool, @JaxonH .... Will be interesting to see guides on that stuff once the full game is out & people have had time to really look into it all better I'm sure at least the main cast have some unique skills & with all the options that will be available, there's a lot to study there

@BruceCM
Oh definitely. This game is chocked to the hilt with depth and content. I've gotten more playtime from just 1/3 of this demo as some full priced games. 11 hrs from one route? That's 30 hrs from all 3 (well, maybe 20 since I expect the others to go faster now without tutorials). That's still the biggest demo I've ever seen.

@JaxonH haven't played the demo, but im fairly certain I'll be enjoying it. I like musou games and from what I've read from you guys and gals, its even a step beyond a Standard musou game. 3H is one of my favorite switch games( top 5 at least). So I'll be fully engulfed in no time once I play 3 hopes.

Yeah, it's almost worrying how long the 'full' game might turn out to be, @JaxonH .... Especially for anyone that wants to try all 3 houses

Started a new save file, this time going with Black Eagles. It's going by much quicker when I can skip tutorials and cutscenes I've already seen.

Ok, I gotta admit, the Black Eagles route is exceptionally good. Just as good as Blue Lions, if not better.

I felt Blue Lions was better in Three Houses, but it's now clear to me KT viewed Black Eagles as the most popular path chosen, and has thus taken extra care with the story in Three Hopes. You also get playable Monica, Manuela and Jeritza, vs Blue Lions giving you Rodrigue. Of course, it's hard to say who else will join who after the demo.

This path also has a character who specifically mentions the 4th House. Since you're going to be fighting the church, they say the church has enlisted the 4th House to help them, and says to "be sure to recruit any of them you run into on the battlefield".

The story is so compelling in both Blue Lions and Black Eagles, I'm actually starting to think I may give Golden Deer a run too in the demo. I gotta see how it plays out. Plus, that would mean having 3 save files through chapter 4, which would be perfect for transferring to the main game. Could easily hop right in to any path at will.

I decided this weekend to go back and play more of Three Houses to prepare myself for Three Hopes. The last time I played Three Houses was right at launch, and I only completed the Golden Deer route, so I figured it was time to both refresh myself on the story, play the DLC, and try a new route.

Just completed the Ashen Wolves story tonight and decided to go with Black Eagles this time. I'd like to do all 4 paths if possible, but I doubt I'll have time for Blue Lions before Three Hopes launches. I might have to read a summary of the Golden Deer route too since I mainly only remember the big plot reveals. I do remember finishing the game with some unanswered questions, so I hope doing the other routes fills in the gaps.

@Cynas
While Three Hopes seems to be an alternate timeline where events play out assuming Byleth had never saved the 3 lords, and instead Shez saved them, it does otherwise fill in plot holes. Characters that were never shown on screen in Three Houses play prominent roles in Three Hopes. Lore and motivations not revealed in the main game are also in Three Hopes.

It really feels like the perfect companion game, perhaps the best companion spinoff ever released.