Fire Emblem: Three Houses Is Now The Best-Selling Entry In The Entire Series

Awesome! Three houses is my very first emblem game and i very much enjoyed it! Though it can be such a chore to play somtimes

This is definitely one of my favorite switch games thus far! I loved everything about it, and I just hope the next main series entry will be able to live up to it.

It was my first mainline FE game. It took me a while to figure out as it is rather complex but I really loved it once I did. When I have time I want to go back and play another path.

Best game on the swtch

Great game, on second playthrough now. Having to play it four times to see all the story is a great idea!

Still haven’t finished it. Just bummed me out, plot wise. Some decent gameplay improvements though. I preferred Awakening, FE7 and even Echoes for what it was. I’ll finish it at some point.

So happy this series is continuing to thrive more and more. I started my playthrough for black eagles when it came out and I’m not sure why but I got super sidetracked. I finally found the time and Im pretty close to beating my first playthrough. Such a great game, been having a magical experience. Might not be my favorite FE game so far, but it’s it’s own thing imo like how BOTW is. Hopefully I can do two playthrough’s before calamity!

Excellent game, my favorite in the series which I started on with Awakening. Imo, has the best lineup of characters in the series.

I still haven't even bought it! I'm almost done Awakening..I think? I loved the two GBA ones, Path of Radiance on Gamecube, fell off a bit but got back in for Awakening. Will pick up Three Houses at some point. I just take a long time. Glad the game sold well.

This is my favorite game on Switch. Didn’t really expect that going in, as prior to Three Houses I had only played a few hours of the first GBA game and a bit of the Awakening demo and neither really clicked with me. But man, I loved this game.

Rightfully deserved. This series has been through so many highs and lows that it deserves its success. From being completely unknown in the West due to Japanese exclusivity to selling decently around the world, to nearly being cancelled after Radiant Dawn's poor sales, to being saved by Awakening, and winning multiple awards with Three Houses, this franchise is officially one of Nintendo's biggest and I couldn't be happier.

Now that Nintendo knew Fire Emblem is a seller for them they need to start remaking or remastering them older FE games from SNES, GBA, GameCube, and Wii.

Great game, but I still personally think Awakening is better. Congrats to the devs for the sales achievement though! Hope this means we'll get remakes of the Japan exclusive/older games.

Huh, thought Fates did better than Awakening, then again, they split that one into three games so I guess that would inflate the numbers. Edit: Yeah, just checked a few sites and they all say that Fates did 3.00 Million and Awakening did 2.31 Million. Obviously then, Awakening sold better as an individual game than Fates did, but I'm not seeing a 2.94 Million for Awakening anywhere. Where is that number coming from, I am genuinely curious.

Maybe they can use all that money to actually finish the next game

Yes! Absolutely love this game and glad to see fire emblem's popularity continuing to rise. Also, XC2 passed 2 million! The switch can't be stopped!

Congrats, I’ve put in a lot of hours in this game. I might just do another play through just for the heck of it.

It's not my number one favorite FE game but it was still a fun game.

@Thundertron55 I would like that!
And Awakening is my 1# favorite too

I would like a new Mario golf game

@BLD
You should probably be telling that to Gamefreak instead.

Great game! Still need to finish the 2 other houses not Black Eagles.

I hate this and I love this. I hate this because it is my least favourite modern FE game, it was just too mindnumbingly easy and it lacked the sense of mature themes I loved about the GC games, while also being too convoluted and waifu'y for it's own good to compete with the classics like Sacred Stone or sumthing.

I love it becaue it means the series will continue to go strong for a while longer and we might have a shot of getting some collection on the Switch one day (it is beyond me utterly beyond me why that has not happened already), plus maybe there is a chance we get a SMT/Persona situation, where people who liked the games for their epic tales and challenging tactical gameplay will be satisfied just as much as the folks who like anime characters and their group dynamics.

I am not saying that the latter is necessarily worse than the former, but that they are very, very different beasts.

Anyone struggle with the small font size. I'm handheld only, and gave up in the end as it looked like a PC game on a 6 inch screen.

Are they including fates as one entry then? That seems odd, especially when Birthright, Conquest and Revelations are all pretty seperate yet Pokémon versions are practically identical and always seperated in sales figures :/

This game made me a fire emblem fan! I'm really glad to hear it's doing so well! Looking forward to Shadow Dragon in December!

Praise Sothis!

One of my favorite FE games (and I have not done all the routes yet) and I feel like they nailed the multiple routes hinged on the My Unit idea much better than Fates. I think they still try too hard to obscure the story based “the reveal” on the My Unit which makes things vague where it shouldn’t be but still overall well done. Silver Snow all the way!

It absolutely deserves it. It's one of, if not, the best fire emblem game, if you haven't played a fire emblem game and you kinda want to, please please PLEASE try this one. Really really amazing

We.need.a.new.ADVANCE.WARS!!!!

This must be my favorite Switch game as I played through it seven times lol. Glad to see it doing well!

I still haven't got this. Maybe once my backlog is finished.

As for many others, this was also my first fire emblem game. I couldn’t quite get into it to start with and put it aside after about 10 hours. Went back earlier this year and so glad I did. I’ve still only finished one route but have gone back and played lots of the older games. I’ve just reached the final level of Awakening.

If they hadn’t made the school hub so dull and grindy they probably would have sold more. Also playing as other houses could have been more rewarding as it’s very samey.

Wonderful game, I took a chance on it and found it a good way to get into the series, especially the handheld titles. In fact I've just started playing Radiant Dawn on the Wii. Revisiting Galaxy in All-stars had me hooking up the Wii to play Galaxy 2. It happens again and again that a Switch game (re)awakens some interest in a franchise or genre 🙂

@fafonio
Eggcellent idea! All those FE games block us from getting a new Advance Wars game. Wargroove proved there is a viable market, as they broke even in 3 days.

Love the gameplay and story for FE3H but really wish the graphics were a lot better. Still very pixely. Hate having to keep sacrificing graphics when I know they have the time, money and dev teams to make it look even better! Excited for the next game

Amazing so wonderful, great music and characters.
Now Dorethea for smash!

@Liam_Doolan is there a timeline for the FE series that you guys at NL have written? I get confused on the order of games and which are remakes so would definitely help to make sense of it all. Kind of like the Hyrule Timeline for Zelda

I am too lazy to check it, but I have a feeling that the worst game in the series: Fire Emblem Heroes is far more profitable.

Three Houses is still in on my wishlist. It's one of those games I put off playing because of how long it is. My favourite Fire Emblem game so far is Path of Radiance on the GameCube, I liked how the battle music changed half way through the game.

Glad to hear, it's a very good game.
Now, what they have to do is expand the exploration areas; the worst thing about this game is that we only have the monastery to visit freely. It's good for a couple hours, but ay the end, I didn't want to go around again and again. I want towns! I want dungeons like in FE Echoes!

So good to hear! I jumped on the FE bandwagen with Awakening and I've loved all entries since, 3 houses especially. Still not done playing, I'm at my 3rd route xD

I still think Awakening is the best balance of tactical battles to role-playing/relationship sim. 3H makes you spend a little too much time noodling around the monastery and befriending people. I dig the tea parties and all, but they went a little overboard.

Still an amazing game, though.

@Liam_Doolan that would be awesome! Would definitely help in buying them in the right order. Appreciate it!

@nessisonett Why did the plot bum you out?

@Ralek85 this and I love this. I hate this because it is my least favourite modern FE game, it was just too mindnumbingly easy and it lacked the sense of mature themes I loved about the GC games, while also being too convoluted and waifu'y for it's own good to compete with the classics like Sacred Stone or sumthing.

Obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I just find it a little surprising you think it lacks mature themes. Three Houses deals with so many deep, mature themes, particularly with the interpersonal relationships of many of the characters. And I really don't see how it's convoluted. Also, I have to flatly disagree that it's "too waifu'y for its own good".

First off, for its own good would seem to indicate that it has suffered in some way and this is the cause. Yet, it's beloved by many and the best selling in the series. So even if it is very "waifu'y", it's apparently just waifu'y enough for its own good, to garner success.

Secondly, I feel like it's absolutely the least waifu oriented of the modern games, particularly because you aren't incubating children. That and the female characters are far less provocative and sexually drawn in general. Even the game's most "alluring" character, Dorothea, is more than way in personality rather than actual artistic design. I personally thought it was a step in a much better direction than the last few entries.

Stilll, as a fan of the classic games, I do understand having some issues with the modern games.

@Liam_Doolan I read it last week and started looking into the 3DS buys but was still confused even after reading the article. BUT it did get me interested in making a few more purchases so thought I'd ask here first 😁

Honestly, I am glad for everybody who likes it, but for people like me who can't stand the babysitting and just want some battlefield strategy, this is troubling, because it makes it less likely we'll get any FE games like that.

@sandman89 my 2021 wish list.... Madden, Mk9 and Mario Golf....

Would anybody recommend this game to someone who’s never played a fire emblem game before?

so happy that now with Switch, franchises that usually sold very poorly is now the best/highest selling game of they franchises, this give me hope when Metroid Prime 4 is finally released on Switch or it sucessor, it become the best/highest selling game of the Metroid franchise, Fire Emblem already did this with Fire Emblem Three House, now is Metroid turn to have it best/highest selling game with Metroid Prime 4 or a 2D Metroid game that continues the Metroid Fusion history or both games.

I plan to get Fire Emblem: Three Houses soon. I loved Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance so I wasn't sure if I'd like the twist on the new game.

I bought Paper Mario: The Origimi King on launch though, and it is great fun. I'd love to try Paper Mario: Color Splash next.

@Kilamanjaro You can typically buy them in any order since so many are disconnected from each other. However, if you still want to, then it's generally Awakening, then Fates as far as 3DS games are concerned. It won't make sense until you play Fates why that is.

Echoes is a remake of Garden, so it's not only separate from Awakening and Fates, but plays the most different from them. If you want, you play Shadow Dragon first first before Echoes, since the original Garden was made as a side story to the original and is actually a sequel once you get further into the game (it will make more sense).

As for remakes, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (FE1), Garden (FE2), and Mystery of the Emblem (FE3) have all gotten remakes in the form of Shadow Dragon (FE11 on the DS, also on the Wii U Virtual Console), New Mystery of the Emblem (FE12 on the DS, but never localized), and Echoes (FE15 on the 3DS). A good chunk of games are the VC for the Wii U, with Blazing Blade (FE7 just called Fire Emblem since it was the first in the west), Sacred Stones (FE8), and Shadow Dragon.

I would recommend playing FE7 first, just so you can get Lyn Mode out of the way. Lyn Mode is a forced tutorial in the first 11 chapters that you need to go through, so it's better to do it now before you put it down, because the rest of the game is fantastic.

Playing the game currently and absolutely loving it. My wife bought it for me last Christmas and I've whittled my way throught it since.

@Deltath I really hate plot devices where they introduce characters and get you to love them then get you to kill them. I spent way too much time trying to recruit every unit from every house so I didn’t have to kill anyone.

@Slinkoy1 Indeed I would. In fact, earlier this year, I gifted Fire Emblem: Three Houses to a friend of mine who had never played a Fire Emblem game before. In fact, he's not really a fan of JRPG's or even SRPG's, but I had a feeling this game would resonate with him. He was able to complete the game in roughly a month without much trouble at all. Took him about 60 or so hours to complete. He said he absolutely loved it and he immediately wanted to go back and play another route in the story, which he did.

I truly do feel that Fire Emblem: Three Houses is an excellent starting point for anyone who is remotely interested in the franchise. It's fully voiced, has multiple difficulty options and customization, and has a crap ton of replayability with each of the routes being quite different, primarily once you reach a certain point in the game. I highly recommend it to you or anyone else who is on the fence about this game.

Never could get immersed in this game like the older titles but I'm glad it sold well.

Good to see the series is flourishing. I hope they abandon the school hub in the next game, though. To Intelligent Systems' credit, you can opt to skip the hub. You're slightly punished for doing so, but a good player can rise above that.

Why the heck would you guys only post the Fire Emblem numbers when there's much more numbers available from resetera on the same post you sourced? My god, be more competent on your "reports"!

It's amazing how Nintendo Everything is so much better than this site, and they are even faster to do it at the same time.

@Xeno_Emblem Thanks for the recommendation, might have to buy it and check it out now!

If I hadn't just bought Ni No Kuni I'd probably go back for a third play through of this.

@Deltath I don't deny it is popular, in fact, that was kind of the entire second half of my statement - just to be clear ^^ You are right about their attempt at focusing on interpersonal relationships. I think that part is also a strong analogue to Persona (compared to SMT Mainseries). Play something like Nocturne in particular and you will be confronted with really heavy themes of religion, philosophy and really criticism of religion. That is not to say that I did not luv, luv, luv Persona 3 and 5. I sure did!

Anyways, I was never a big fan of the dialogues in the game to be honest. I think Awakening was pretty charm for the most part. Three Houses often struck me as more awkward, but that might be personal taste. I certainly stopped using some aspects like tea time stuff, because it felt like a waste of time, plus heavy on the cringe.

Aside of the obvious Persona comparison, I would also refer to Game of Thrones (TV). While the first seasons were driven by societal themes, they pivoted later on to a form of emotional narrative. I found the former far more engaging than the later, even though in many respects productions values were always consistently great, might even have increased later on.

In that sense I really enjoyed (for example) Path of Radiance take on the ideas of "just war" and how it dealth with societal/political topics like slavery and racism, particular in respect to the Laguz. I also liked the (mostly superfical but still exisiting) parallels between PoR and Berserk in respect to the whole Golden Age Arc of Berserk and Ike's mercenary band. Again, personal taste though.

I am not saying that any of what Three Houses does here is objectively worse, just different and yes, subjectively worse.

What I found objectively worse where the changes to combat. I don't want to get into detail here, since I feel enough has been said on the issue, but the game felt less complex and in consequence less rewarding to play for me. I am not hung up on the weapon triangle, but the lack of it was felt harshly as the system repalcing it was much more shallow and more importantly, more often than not, optional.

As for waifu in particular, well, mabye it is less offensive than Fates. It might, I did not stick all that long with Fates to be honest, even if it was a major step up from Awakening as far as the map design went. I think it worth noting that aside of Fates and Awakening, the whole waifu-issue was as far as I am concerend never an issue with FE at all. There has been fandom sure, but that came after the fact. It was never anticipated or intentionally stoked by the games, their design, the characters behavior and such. That is a big difference compared to these three recent games, which were made in part at least for the tumblr sphere.

@Deltath I thoroughly enjoyed FE Echoes of Valentia btw. Really, the fate wheel seemed like a much better compromise to increase accessibility. It kept the challenge were it was but made the whole execution less tedious. Basically, like a souls gme cutting loading times in half. Same challenge, but less time wasted executing. Also, it just felt less: "Let's talk about that cute boy over there, you know, the handsome one with the golden bow, while we stand here amongst the corpses of the enemy soldiers we had just slaughtered during our launch break." That kind of ludonarrative dissonance (yes, there I said, sorry for that ^^) never sat right by me. Not in awakening and certainly not in three houses.

The whole hours early on with that sense of Go-Happy-Hogwarts was super weirdly at odds with what was actually happening. Of course that was not the case with the story-related dialogue as such, not to that degree at least, but still.

Point being, want more of Valentia. That does NOT mean I begrudge you or anyone else their Three Houses. I DON'T! I am okay with having to wait a few years longer between each entry of "MY" FE game. I would be ... miffed if all we were to ever get now, is games set in the same tone as Awakening, largely Fates and Three Houses, particular the first half.

Hell, if you doubt me, I LUVED TMS#FE, in fact I double dipped on it on the Switch, having already finished it on WiiU just to support it. So I am not generally opposed to some fan service, cringe, sexualistion or any of that. But it has to fit with the rest of the game, and that can never replace a franchises core.

I would very much be upset if TMS#FE would turn out to have SMT as such for good. In fact, that is what equally worries me about the success of Persona 5. I loved the game, spend 200hours on it, even own the OST, some collectibles, you name it. But if it kills of Mainline SMT post the upcoming Switch game (should that fail to move some serious units all in all), I would be very much ... I dunno angry with myself and the world I guess.

@nessisonett I guess I felt like the complexity of the politics and why you end up on different sides is much more compelling than what a lot of stories do, which is just to have a generic bad guy who's evil for evil's sake. I like villains who are people with realistic motives. It's why sometimes Final Fantasy bothers me. So many of the minor antagonists, bosses and even larger villains are just big monolithic creatures without distinct, even sympathetic personas.

I suppose that's also why I like a lot of the Tales games (particularly older ones), because the villains are usually decent people and sometimes even have incredibly valid reasons for their actions, it's just they tend to go about it perhaps in the wrong way.

Bought the collectors JPN, EU, NA but only niece has played it. Still have to get my grubby hands to play it.

@Ralek85 Yeah, I hear you. It's hard to say what exactly will come, though while a few months ago I would have said that the structure and style of Three Houses was here to stay, because it has hit such broad scale appeal beyond many earlier installments, however...the decision to still show off and translate the original Fire Emblem demonstrates a desire not to throw away the roots, even treating it to a somewhat elaborate special edition.

It's a little like The Legend of Zelda, with the differences between the 3D and 2D Zeldas, except honestly I don't think Fire Emblem as a franchise makes enough money to really have that kind of duality exist in the franchise and see releases of many different types. We'll see though. I like it all.

And I hear you with SMT and Persona as well. Though I think (I hope) that the remaster of III and the new exclusive V on Switch will see the same kind of renaissance many franchises have seen on the Switch, hopefully turning into the two best selling entries yet in their series, securing a place for that style going forward.

On a side note, I just picked up Strange Journey Redux on a sale and I'm looking forward to finally playing it.

@Ralek85 Oh and I had meant to say.. I always kind of felt "ludonarrative dissonance" was Fire Emblem's thing in general. The structure of how the narrative plays out pre and post battle always felt that way to me. Honestly, I remember thinking decades ago how it often reminded me of how in Dragon Ball Z the characters would be in a city, but then suddenly they'd fly half a mile in any direction in be in a limitless wasteland expanse to talk and fight. I kind of imagined the reverse though, where in Fire Emblem it was like "battle's over, let's walk ten feet this way to the discussion forum where everyone congregates for lengthy chats!"

I couldn't get into it - I HATE being put on a timer in RPGs. It's like they said "let's make Persona but with Fire Emblem characters instead".

My biggest switch timesink. Even before botw and xenoblade 1&2

Wonderful game. I've done two runs, but still need to go back and play the other two. Hundreds of hours of gameplay in already.

It's another FE game i picked up because "so many people can't be wrong about the series" and "i generally like trpg's"...

And much like every other FE i played, it lasted only a few hours before it was shelved again.
The series simply doesn't manage to hook me in any capacity whatsoever.
This constant balancing act of trying to level this absurdly huge roster equally in case one of them gets axed in an unforeseen ambush simply gets on my nerves.
Three Houses gets extra points for its time management aspects, which i generally dislike in any game (The reason i never got into the Persona (3-5) series. I love the SMT gameplay, but the social stuff is just not my cup of tea)

Congrats to Nintendo for yet another 1st. party smash hit and i'm happy for everyone who enjoyed it but i fear that FE and i will never be friends

@Deltath I dunno whether FE has what it takes to support multiple branches. But looking at SMT which does Persona, Mainline SMT, stuff like Devil Summoner, Dancing Games, Etrian-Odyssey'esque dungeon crawling like what you mentioned with Strange Journey or the excellent Persona Q (2) ... except for Persona none of these are like chart topping entries. They just (used to) sell enough to justify their existence.

I do think FE could do the same, at least to the point, where the theory ought to be tested in my view. It's also not like these two branches have to be entirel separate entities. There is a good chance that their appeal and fandome will feed into each other. Except for the dancing games, I kinda really enjoy all the SMT games, their unique designs, excellent music, varied gameplay styles, but over all consistent tone and just style-factor. They are just in their own way cool and fun.

I think there is room then for a very much somber FE experience, that takes itself rather serious, flanked by a somewhat more playful and lighthearted (at times) kind of entry, which more focus on social interactions and such.

As for the ludonarrative dissonance, I agree it was 100% always there, but never felt it that annoying to me. The anime aesthetic, with alot of stereotypical (not bad, but well trodden) designs, plus the school setting with all those buddy-buddy or downright romantic chatter made for a ... krass contrast for tons of quite brutal slaughtersfest. Because yes, I came across tons of battles where my enemies never had a chance, where under normal circumstances, you have expected to route and surrender, but the game has no provision for that, so I basically had one or two man armies just wade through them an cut them down like dry wheat. I was really odd to see those cut childlike kid characters do that.

In TMS#FE you are not killing actual people but monsters/shadows for instance. And you might just be "dispelling" them or something, not even killing. THat just gels so much easier with the whole highschool setting, same for PErsona.

I always liked that FE was not steeped taht deeply in that kind of "fantastical" approach, and a bit more grounded. Something Awakening also rebalanced sadly vis a vis PoR and RD, which that focus on time travel and all that.

I think the your point about Zelda is apt as well: THere is room for Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, which can be playful but also tend to be more darker and grounded experiences, next to let's say Minish Camp or Wind Waker. Both are "Zelda", neither is wrong or bad or whatever. Having just one branch here again and again hitting the same notes ... I dunno, it would not be for me.

@Nemesis666 Probably because knowing this site, each other bit of info can be made into a news article, more content = more clicks. Much like they do when Nintendo posts their financials. I've seen them split the financial Q&As down into an article per paragraph before.

@Ralek85 I await the post-Three Houses Fire Emblem world with bated breath. I'm very curious what will happen with all the elements pushing the series a little more into the limelight and the success of the Switch in general. In anxious to hear news of the next mainline entry in general and hopeful for some remakes/remasters of some of the SNES titles in particular.

I still need to play the DLC, but i wonder if it will ever go on sale? For $25, I'd rather get another game on sale.

@Retro_Player_77 THIS!!!!

i bought this game for a lil bro cause he loved awakening, but he barely play it cause of how much downtime there was between battles. guess he was far more into the combat of the game than the characters/story lol

Three houses for me is a damn good FE game just because of how perspective works for each house. You get to understand the choices your students make, their reasoning and you find that you can agree to their actions. No one is ENTIRELY wrong on their reason for their actions (Edelgard and Claude) except for the real villains yet once you play their opposite routes, you can sympathize with them (Dimitri and Rhea) and you understand the reason behind them, and the same way that you agree with them, you get to understand why you disagree with them too. You see their flaws and those flaws were pretty good. I say this is the most unclear cut FE to date and it was pretty well done.

@Deltath A Path of Radiance (Radiant Dawn Collection) Release on Switch is a must for me, personally. Just as a Baten Kaitos collection. The former though, given the popularity, should be a no brainer!

@Ronwantread It was my first to I hope the switch gets ports of Fates and Awakening cause those are 2 I really wanna try out but I have a 2DS so I could go and find copies online I guess