Japanese Charts: Fire Emblem: Three Houses' Dominance Continues With Another Number One

Fire Emblem Awakening is one of my favourite 3DS games but I'm afraid of Three Houses' font size in handheld mode/Switch Lite.

Well deserved, easily GOTY so far for me!

Good for it! Sounds like it deserves the high sales. I'm curious to see how it's doing in the west though. This game has the potential to set records for the franchise.

This is so boring with how digital is this huge (3k yen switch promotion + voucher)

some games in Japan are more expensive than others (FE3H being one of them) so the voucher would give a massive disscount (like 2000 yen, which is like $17 USD) on this and supposedly Astral Chain.

There's no tell how it actually did until October, we will have to wait

either way i think this game will do way better in the west (the setting) while being slighlty lower in Japan (Overall, above awakening & fates, no doubt about it)

Also, no way to tell if some FE fans are just flatout waiting for the Lite to come out

Can't stand the dull monestary explore sections

A psv game on the top 10 2 weeks in a row, wow 😮

Good job for FE3H! But it is weird that it didn’t push hardware at all....

@Tantani Fire Emblem Switch was relatively early announced, I assume most FE fans already have a switch or are still waiting since they lost faith with Fates

@BlueOcean Yeah it is pretty small. I would wish games had a larger font settings, for people like me with bad eye sight, that would be really helpful

@Tantani there's a version coming for the same price with almost double the battery life & a version that's $100 less.

If they aren't dropping, that's a good sign

@Tantani I imagine that’s because the Mini is coming and also a revised Switch is coming so Nintendo is slowing down distribution

@tech7 My eye sight is not bad but games with small font give me a headache, probably because of the brightness of LCD screens. Even if it's not a big problem for me, developers should really fix this. They develop games in front of the computer and assume that big enough to be legible is good enough for every gamer on every screen.

@BlueOcean I've not had any issues in handheld mode on the Switch.

I don't know if the Lite's smaller screen will make the difference in that regard, though.

Hope you have a big TV, though. Mine is big, and I can't see the text from the couch when I'm playing docked.

And my copy hasn't arrived yet, I'm so sad...

@Ralizah "I've not had any issues in handheld mode on the Switch".

As I said, even if it's not a big issue for everybody, it should be fixed.

@BlueOcean I don't disagree. I think the text size is too small all around. Just don't want people to think it can't be properly enjoyed when undocked.

@Ralizah Yes. My plan is to play Three Houses on Switch Lite. Look at the 3DS entries with a bigger font on smaller screens! I would even say that a game is more enjoyable with a decent font size. I love Xenoblade Chronicles X (extreme but relevant example) but text size on the TV require players to get closer and I doubt that there is a person in the world that can read the texts on the GamePad (not guessing the words).

@Faruko
In Japan, buying Three Houses and Astral Chain separately at retail would cost ~￥14000, at least according to Amazon JP. The Switch Online Voucher for 2 games costs ￥9800. There is no reason to buy those two titles physically when buying them via the vouchers will save you ￥4000+.

That explains why Three Houses retail launch sales are down considerably from Awakening and Fates in Japan.

In the west, the Switch Online voucher program is nowhere near as compelling, so that's why Three Houses retail launch sales are much higher than that of Awakening and Fates in the west.

If Microsoft ever bothers to even sell Scarlett in Japan, I'll be surprised. I know Xbox has been a joke over there for years, but I don't know how they can look at those numbers and think it's worth selling their hardware in Japan.

@westman98

Jesus, that's a lot, 4k yen is like $40.

Yeah, i guess digital should be quite a lot higher.

The Japanese really enjoy baseball, huh?

Fire Emblem is DEFINITELY GOTY.

I expected more (Japan continually disappoints with Switch software sales that aren't the big million seller first party titles), but it could be a large incentive for digital + waiting for Switch Lite.

Western sales, however, continue to impress and surpass expectations.

@BlueOcean
It's a bit small, thankfully that update added system level zoom, which has worked wonders for reading small text in handheld mode. Just double tap HOME and it zooms in, with a slider to adjust size, so you can adjust to get it perfect, then just double tap to zoom in and out as needed.

It's a system level fix for a systemic issue affecting a large majority of games. I do recommend making use of it. Of course we all hope games with small text can be patched, but until then, use that zoom feature.

Happy to hear, the game deserves every sale it gets. So Good!

Eh, it's alright.

I'm kinda sick of these boring monastery bits though that feel like you almost have to do them or you're missing out on growing your units. Also way too much sitting and watching cutscenes for my liking, not to mention it constantly giving you dialogue choices that either aren't a choice, are basically the same answer or there's clearly a 'correct' answer but there's absolutely no hint to what it is.

5 hours in and it feels like its barely let me play a Fire Emblem game.

Fates 260.000
Awakening 240.000
Three houses 140.000 ?

That's a huge drop... what happend ?
Probablably a question of low framerate coupled with the "too bland" graphics. :/
Thank you Koei Tecmo.

I don't think this is surprising to anyone.

I don't understand why they're delaying the Olympics game until 2020 for the West when it includes English support out of the box.

One would think that they would want to sell as many of them as possible before the Olympics as these games drastically drop in value after the fact.

@PCkid not exactly, Japan is very much going digital as the switch is both portable and can be upgraded to have a lot of storage, according to the last fiscal report, 38.3% of all switch games that were being sold last quarter were digital, and with the vouchers that Nintendo are selling the number of digital first party games probably increased

@PCkid
The NSO voucher deal is ridiculously good in Japan.

For example...

• Three Houses: ￥6500
• Astral Chain: ￥7500
• NSO Voucher for 2 games: ￥9800

Why buy those two games at retail when you can download them and save like ￥4000+?

@Tao I have to agree a bit here.
I sort of just want to tackle on battles, but I have to go around in the monastery instead.
I haven't tried the auto instruct things, and it seems there's a skip button to the next story battle.
I'm pretty sure it's possible to play the game without dedicating to roaming the monastery (except when the game forces you to)

Though I sort of stopped being annoyed by it when I see that every day, the locations of most characters change, so at least is not that repetitive. I guess it feels a bit more... real? IDK. I feel it has potential, but so far I think only the monastery is the free roam area, and I think it might get boring eventually. But hey, it's a first in the series. I'm sure they can improve on the next game.

@Tao totally agree can't stand the explore the monastry! This is just one of things that should have been down rated in the review.

@Silly_G dead in the water after the event

Well deserved. It's an amazing game!

Three Houses is a great game and super popular in Japan so no surprise

I'll say this about Fire Emblem. It's very rare nowadays that a game hooks me in to the point that I look forward to playing it every single day for at least 3 hours or more from the moment I first play it. The way I have been playing Fire Emblem reminds me of the way I would get super hooked on games when I was a kid and be looking forward to getting home from school to start playing right away. Even when a game is very fun for me to play and I have just bought it brand new, I still enjoy rotating the games I play and not focusing too much on one game unless it's truly hooked me. So far this year, the only games that have hooked me like that have been the RE2 Remake and Fire Emblem Three Houses. Fire Emblem Three Houses is a phenomenal experience so far and I can tell that this title may end up having the most hours played on my Switch to date.

Maybe bc it's my first FE game. But I don't mind the monastery stuff at all. A lot to learn for me, though, when it comes to the mechanics of the game.

@BlueOcean Cosign that. The game is really good so far but I honestly struggle to read the text in handheld mode. Of course, my vision is terrible - I wear bifocals - but I don't usually have a problem with things that are right in front of my face. I read books perfectly well without my glasses, and I do okay with most games in handheld. Three Houses is one of the notable exceptions.

I’m honestly shocked that Xbox sells so poorly in Japan!

@BanjoPickles Xbox is the foreign PS4 that's missing the PS4 exclusives and VR. Even in the west it really has very little to offer over PS4. Only the different dashboard and a handful of exclusives - none of which are popular in Japan. Switch is the hybrid, PS4 is the home console. Most Japanese gamers don't see any point to the Xbox One.

When I showed pictures of PS4 Switch and Xbone in class for an example question, many students asked why I bothered including the Xbox.

@tech7
IS redeemed themselves with SoV.

Geez those Xbox numbers.

@Tantani I was in Akihabara, Tokyo last week and I saw displays for this in quite a few stores. Baseball is huge in Japan and many big stores like Yodabashi Camera were pumping it hard. As a westerner, it's hard to believe the Vita still has new releases and is still selling lol.

@PCkid So you're just going to pretend Echoes didn't happen, or would its launch week sales of 133k just mess up your narrative?

@nukatha I completely agree with you. SoV was great, but I think that many skipped SoV due too coming late to tge 3ds and being a remake.

@BlueOcean I haven't found the font size an issue, and I play 100% handheld. Idk, it's not even that small. The only stuff that's annoying to read are the speech bubbles when you approach someone.

@JasmineDragon : "So you're just going to pretend Echoes didn't happen, or would its launch week sales of 133k just mess up your narrative?"

Are you serious ? I ask myself how it is possible to not understand the context.

Use your common sense in the right way please.

Do I have to remember you that the Nintendo Switch was released just 1 month before FE Echoes ?
I'm not going to develop, I imagine that you'll get the point by yourself...

Think long and hard before you respond...

@dleec8 I haven't played Three Houses yet but what you are describing IS EXACTLY what happened to me with Awakening.

@JasmineDragon Yep, they should fix that, definitely, especially with Switch Lite on the immediate horizon.

@Tao That's how I feel too. The "support" cut scenes feel dry, and there are so many of them! Occasionally you learn something new about a character, but for the most part it's just seeing their archetypes acted out. Oh, wow, Raphael is hungry, huge, and sort of dim...what a surprise. Only [mild spoiler!] learning about his parents was sort of engaging.

Mostly I find myself a little annoyed with having characters that are so...flat. You spend so much time getting to know them, but they're predictable. I know them after two conversations.

This is actually my first time playing a FE game, and while I'm liking it overall I'm not sure it's "GOTY" like some people are saying.

@Faruko When did they announce one with almost double the battery life? Last I head the updated version will have increased battery life, not close to double.

@PCkid Oh Cobalt, you're one funny dude.

You make a claim totally taken from the air that people in Japan don't buy the PHYSICAL version of Three Houses because of the graphics (and while I agree the graphics could have been better, seeing as I've actually played the game, I can safely say that it offers so much positive content that the graphics don't matter in the long run), but totally ignore @westman98 and @Tantani that both came with logical and well-thought-out responses to you. Instead you go on to reply to @JasmineDragon with a condescending tone instead of an actual argument.

Nice trolling, but you're more transparent than you might think and it's sadly pathetic.

But welcome to my ignore list (again?)!

@BlueOcean font size is actually quite nice in handheld. I play this game mainly in handheld and I haven't had a problem. Granted I have good eyesight and I don't know about your eyesight XD

@eman54753 It's not bad but small fonts annoy me on LCD screens. I can't understand why they chose such a small font compared to the 3DS entries.