This past week marked the second anniversary of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the latest entry in Intelligent Systems’ popular tactics series. Ten years ago, you would’ve been forgiven for believing that the Fire Emblem series was going the way of the dinosaur, and yet Three Houses now sits at somewhere around 3 million units sold, following the success of three (well, sort of five) critically acclaimed 3DS entries. It may not be as widely appealing as Animal Crossing or as outwardly exciting as Monster Hunter, but let’s take a brief moment to reflect on why we connected so strongly with the franchise’s latest outing.
Three Houses actually began as a 3DS title before it was planned for the Switch, and that shift in development brought with it greater expectations. As the first new entry on a home console in over a decade, Three Houses needed to deliver a little something more to justify the jump to better hardware. Just adding better graphics and flashier battles to the old foundations wouldn’t cut it, so Intelligent Systems needed something that would prove the series had evolved beyond its humble origins.
One would naturally think this would be something to showcase the hardware, perhaps like an expansion of the dungeon crawling of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia or even an experiment into some kind of open world structure. But no, Intelligent Systems instead opted for one of the most popular (and perhaps divisive…) elements of the first two 3DS games: the social sim gameplay. At first blush, one might even be inclined to think of this as a mistake, but the development team ultimately showcased a grander vision that previous entries only hinted at.
The Support systems in Awakening and Fates were almost completely optional, yet they were critical to drawing the player into the world. Not only did all the subplots grant some tasty stat benefits in battle, but the stories did a lot of work towards fleshing out the crew in a way that earlier games did not. Still, the method behind these interactions was a bit limited. You were pretty much chained down to just having characters fight together and then reading an interaction between them later on. And yeah, you could, uh, touch some characters’… faces… in Fates, but let’s all try to forget that happened. Suffice to say, Supports still felt like an auxiliary idea to the main course of tactics gameplay; they were there, but you didn’t really need them.
Your team wasn’t just a ragtag group of mercenaries, warriors, and dignitaries anymore, they were now kids that would look up to you and heed your instructions.
Three Houses changed all of that by making Supports the foundation of not just the gameplay, but the story, too. Putting you in the role of a teacher of a group of students saddled you with something the previous games didn’t: responsibility. Your team wasn’t just a ragtag group of mercenaries, warriors, and dignitaries anymore, they were now kids that would look up to you and heed your instructions. Kids being placed under your care for the purpose of their betterment. Framing the story this way granted a natural and meaningful reason to place more emphasis on the importance of Supports, as the relationships your character formed now weren’t merely being made for frivolous reasons.
And on the gameplay side of things, Supports grew far beyond just fighting on adjacent tiles. While running to meet someone or reach another building, you might happen to pass by someone stepping out of their dorm room and pause for a brief chat. You could go horseback riding with your students. You could give them one on one tutoring sessions in subjects they struggled with. You could have a nice conversation with them over an afternoon tea. All these extra options helped to make the development of relationships feel more natural, as you now didn’t only bond over teaming up to murder a man you managed to corner together. You still bonded over that, but now you could cook a nice meal afterward.
Sure, you could make an argument that removing the option for characters to have children dulled the perceived effect of the Support system compared to Three Houses’ predecessors, but any losses there were easily made back by this more organically integrated approach to relationships within the team. Intelligent Systems finally discovered a way to not only make the interactions more natural, but to have them included as part of the core rhythm of the game as each chapter rolled by. They weren’t just a fun side thing where you could make your favorite ships happen anymore - Supports became an important pillar that drove both the gameplay and story forward.
If the broad audience reaction is anything to go by, it certainly seems that Intelligent Systems made the right call in making that change. Three Houses went on to become the best-selling release in the franchise yet, all while attracting plenty of acclaim. And though the Fire Emblem series is currently in its off-season, it’s no exaggeration to say that things have never looked better for Nintendo’s biggest tactics franchise. No doubt Intelligent Systems has got something good in the oven right now for the next entry, and we can’t wait to see how the team continues to push the boundaries of what a tactics game can be. And while we wait, we have this deeply engaging and extremely replayable entry to play in the meantime, which you seriously need to try out if you haven’t yet.
Comments 90
this was the game that got me into playing rpgs tbh, i believe the second to last month before timeskip was the one that hooked me in and i adored playing it, blasted through it in just over a month
My favorite in the series. Planning to jump back in soon to get my tactical fix and play the blue lions scenario. Great game.
Edit - Sega needs to bring back Shining Force properly please and thank you. Heck, a port of a complete Shining Force 3 game would make me and strategy RPG fans very happy.
This is my favorite RPG of all time and my favorite Switch game. Above Odyssey, Mario Maker, Smash, Animal Crossing, and all of Nintendo's other games. Three Houses isn't perfect, but it is amazing.
Very Nice Read 💯
Finishing up my 3rd path now, and I have to admit that this game is now my favorite in the series (even over Awakening).
One of my S-Support games for sure. What a class act this was (pun intended).
I was just thinking about playing my third path. Really an amazing game.
@shining_nexus I second that! A Shining Force III Complete Edition with all three scenarios would be amazing.
Oh I forgot about this. Made it about three quarters of the way through Dimitri’s route. I dunno, I’m a big FE fan (classics too ofc) but the story didn’t grab me as much.
I beat Crimson Flower in 4 days. I am halfway though silver snow and I just got to say, WYVERN ASHE IS OVERPOWERED Like I killed Solon in hard with only Ashe in one turn
I loved this game but the LGBTQ+ representation touted by Nintendo was extremely lacklustre. It was a mistake to not make all of the heads of the houses marriage candidates to the main player regardless of your gender. Instead all we got was Edelgard able to romance a female main character. At the very least, Claude should have been able to marry male Byloth. Hopefully if the series continues, Nintendo will start actually doing meaningful representation instead of just paying lip-service. Also I'm actually kind of happy Fire Emblem is taking a bit of a break so that Advance Wars can have a new lease on life this Christmas!
I liked the idea of children used in Awakening and Fates and thought it was a mistake to kill it. But this way ls indeed much better. I like the feel of accomplishment of saw ALL the dialogues in three houses (not yet really, but I'm close, someday I'll finish it). In Fates and Awakening I would needed to play almost the same game thousands of times to accomplish the same thing.
Good timing. After putting Fire Emblem down for a couple years after playing through one house, i finally got around to completing the other 2 houses a few weeks ago. I'm now going through Edelgard's story again for her Alt Ending. Think I've managed to log a total of over 200 hrs in this thing.
I adore this game and series. Easily among my favorites of all time. <3
As a Persona player I adjusted pretty quickly to the Support system. I never really played Fire Emblem for all the banter in between battling as much as the battling itself so it was a nice change of pace. I do hope that they don't fall into Persona's trappings where at times it feels like certain characters aren't really serviced in the main story because they save lots of pivotal progression for particular people in their own support link instead of it just being a side story that fleshes them out more
Honestly a top 3 game on the Switch for me (with SMO and BOTW obv)
I wish the graphics were even better, I loved the game in my 70+ hours with it but really felt like the graphics were lacking for 2019 compared to other major Nintendo releases.
It built strongly on the foundations of Awakening, If, and Echoes.
Which of course built on the foundations of the games that came before, but the 2013-onward titles really have a new feel to them.
Awakening made supports more critical and versatile than ever before letting the players create their own ship pairings (something viable in a few other games, but usually for only a limited number of units and each unit with only a very limited number of pairings); it also revived the repeatable and explorable world map from Gaiden and TSS which would lay the foundation for the games being a bit more open world. And it introduced children, a real consequential choice for pairings.
If gave us a three-way story fork that vastly changed the nature of the game, while carrying over the pair supports systems from Awakening and the children (while jettisoning the explorable map to an extent).
Echoes revived the dungeons and explorable towns that had been missing since Gaiden (which Echoes was a remake of). In that sense, Three Houses learns the best lessons from its direct predecessors (minus maybe Heroes and Unrivalled, which I still think probably influenced it). It still has some shortcomings (Crimson Flower feels like it's missing several chapters for the end dealing with TWSITD, for example), but most of its initial shortcomings were rectified by DLC (like adding Jeritza as a PC unit in Crimson Flower.
I do agree that LGBTQ+ reps were the biggest shortcoming. Crimson Flower is my favourite route because Beles x Edelgard is my OTP ship for the game. But there should be more. The only option for Beleth in the base game is Linhardt. Claude WOULD have been a wise choice. I also think Dimitri and Seteth should have been available as love interests for Beleth too. But beyond the PC, there should be more romancing in general, and every LGBTQ+ character in this game is Bi or Pansexual. Echoes at least got it right with having at least one character who was solely gay (though he was relegated to the poor longing gay boy pining over straight man trope). And it's far bettern than the situation with Nils in If. We need LOTs of options in the next main series title, and if they remake Genealogy+Thracia or Blazing+Binding, I should hope at least some of the Gen I pairings are allowed to be opened up to non-reproductive pairs. Or let them adopt and find alternative family styles! Holy Blood lines of descent are part of the problem, and 3H makes that clear in its narrative. I should hope that would mean that they recognise that you don't need to be able to have different reproductive organs to have a good story ending or successors in the next generation of the game. Maybe they adopt a successor nephew or niece or apprentice instead to take up their combat style and inherit their abilities.
At the very least, we shouldn't have to choose between having LGBTQ+ supports and having all the characters possible in the game. That was one place 3H really learned from the errors of If (please also: don't screw us out of a child unit by choosing to pair up two obvious story characters like Kamui and Aqua just because you're short on units of "one gender").
I'm hoping this is the year that they show off the next major project, whether that's a new game or another 'Echoes' remake of one of the Japan only games. I really liked the dungeon crawling aspects of Echoes, hopefully they can bring that back in some fashion with whatever they do next!
I rarely get gaming time, so I'm still on my third play through but I got this on Xmas in 2019. Great game, hoping we get another FE on Switch soon.
I dropped this game so fast once the gameplay loop started to really set in. idk, just so monotonous going through all that dialogue and schooling. had fun for about 10 hours, so good enough i think
Worst Fire Emblem game by far in my eyes.
Way too much focus was put on things other than the main strategy gameplay, the monastery and the things it bring with it being the biggest offender. Just in general the game tosses one of the biggest appeals that almost all of the prior entries had which is the quick, almost arcade like, pacing (relative to the genre of course) where the gameplay is fast paced and I can move on from a map right onto another with little down time... The monastery, the studying system and whatnot all work against that. And while I do understand the appeal of customizing a handful of blank slates into your units, it also makes the early game in particular very lame to play when all your units are goddamn near identical and I definitely do miss being able to recruit new units into my party through the campaign, for me that was always one of the most exciting things and trying out all the different units is what gave the games such great replay value. The far lower party size also makes the game extremely unfit to actually be played with permadeath.
The more "open" design also leads to far more general map design, since the player make-up can vary so greatly between all the customization and optional maps with rewards and whatnot... It's basically impossible to really craft any real challenges that are tailor made to make the player utilize the resources available to them, instead most maps in this game feel like they're just fields with enemies haphazardly placed here and there.
My favorite video games are this and Clu Clu Land
Next up: a remake of Genealogy of the Holy War, please.
Not every FE needs to feature children characters. It was ok in Awakening, forced in Fates and really just not necessary. If an FE game has a generational gap then children characters make sense but it's not what FE is about.
Fantastic game. Still need to do the other two routes(I did Black Eagles the first time) but my backlog got in the way of that.
@Expa0
I agree with some of whatcha said. Although, I rank 3 Houses high in my list of FE favs (RD and PoR get the top 2 slots with Houses in third), I do miss recruitable characters from the battle maps. RD had the best maps and battles to me, 3 Houses battles are good but never live up to past battle maps.
It’s great but the hub is just such dreadful bore.
First fire emblem game and loved it. Parts of the monastery were great fun once I realised what i was doing. It gave me a good chance to care about my team.. (Raphael the gentle giant 😢).. Too involved in my students to ever attempt perma death. I hope Switch gets a follow up that captures the best of the series. Surprised not to have seen a port even.
Awakening is still my favorite, but 3H does have the best leveling up and class system.
@Maulbert I dunno, I love Genealogy but I worry that the new style and watered down content might make it end up more Shadow Dragon than Echoes.
I appreciate all the new fans 3H brought to the series but with each passing month the flaws in the gameplay, story and writing all become more apparent.
But I'm tired of harping on all those, so instead - yeah I agree the premise of the game is great at integrating a wide cast of characters, and the monastery is a good idea on paper to drip-feed lore to the players. I think it could've been done ten thousand times better, but I'm in love with the concepts at least.
My favorite Switch game and Fire Emblem game! I loved the cast of characters and the replayability with 3 different houses made the game that much more worth it to me. I'm on my second playthrough now (Golden Deers, I did Black Eagles the first time) and it's amazing how fresh it feels despite the early battles being the same. I also thought the social sim stuff was done well, and I actually came to really like all of my troops by the end of the game. This game also basically got me into the RPG genre because I loved it so much, so I'll always be thankful to it for that as well. I just hope the next Fire Emblem game can match this quality!
My first Fire Emblem and SRPG/tactics game. Was unsure of the Persona-y stuff, but ended up loving the game and craving more. Can only pray for a follow up.
Yea, this is a fantastic game. It's actually my most-played Switch game, and even though it's more streamlined in some of the tactical elements, it just takes me right back to the gold era of the first FF Tactics.
The exploration elements are what actually drew me in in the first place. I played some FE on my 3DS and enjoyed the games, but didn't love them or go back to play them more after I beat them. With Three Houses, every time I beat a path I immediately start a new one (I'm on my blue path now, still need to do the other red).
Objectively speaking, BotW is the finest game on the Switch, but, subjectively, Three Houses is the only game on the console to top it. Absolutely love the game.
I really enjoyed the fact that they didn't lock characters into one specific class. It's a neat decision to be able to say, "No. I'm already full-up for ranged fighters. Put on a pair of gauntlets and get in there, Bernadetta!"
I bounced off it. Too much tinkering, recruiting kids, talking to people, walking around in the castle. Overwhelmed by options and things to do that weren't the actual battles and strategy in them.
For real, I haven't even started it yet only my niece has played it.
And I got CE for NA, JPN, EU versions of it.
I really loved this game. I had a quick look online and couldn't find any stock in any shops. Maybe Nintendo should do another run.
I loved this game. It had it's flaws, but everything does. My second favorite in the series, right behind Awakening. I think that one only wins because it was my first real dip the series. I played the Wii one, but it stopped working within the first week
Haven’t played the game yet (it sits wrapped on my shelf), but can someone please tell me: Is the Expansion Pass worth the extra money? Will it unlock extras and items from the start of the core game, or is everything contained to the DLC?
I think back to Fallout 3 and how when you start the main story with all the DLC installed, you get a ton of bonuses that help you from the start.
Top-3 Switch game for me.
there's a new trailer for SMT V and this page doesn't notice
Got stuck in the hub, never figured out how to advance the story lol
It truly was a great game, but one that I don't see myself ever replaying. Those Persona-school-sim sections in between levels are just too time consuming. Sure you can skip them, but you miss out on much needed stat upgrades. So yea, great game, but not very replayable.
I have most of the Fire Emblem series and love it very much. It's one of my favorite genres and I can't wait for the next installment! Also, I wish Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battle would come to the Switch!
Too bad the class system stinks and the maps are boring.
I am a fan of Fire Emblem, but Three Houses is not my favourite.
Like Mario, Fire emblem needs little in the way of a story, it is a strategy game like Chess and Advance Wars. Like Mario goes from one level to another Fire Emblem is about battle.to battle.
Ok there is always a bit of a story between battles but not a whole new game like Three Houses monastery SIM.
I understand how gamers like the SIM element of the game, but for others it detracts from the strategy part of the game. I would rather level up with additional battles and not by fishing, tea parties etc.
It is what it is and changes either work or they don't. But games that sell well initially may not continue their momentum into a follow up game.
I was a big fan of earlier FE games, up to and including Awakening. But Fates put me off, I really didn’t like much about it and the direction FE has taken. I haven’t played this but I don’t think I’ll like it.
I have Valentia still to play on 3DS, I think I’ll like that as it doesn’t seem to have a lot of the guff from Fates I hated.
I’m currently playing Vandal Hearts on the PS1 and I must say I like it very much, more so than FE. Shame that series never went anywhere.
@GravyThief
Three Houses is nothing like Fates. Trust me, everyone loves it for a reason.
I didn't like this game. Something about it just didn't grab me, which is odd, because it had a lot of things I usually enjoy in games — tactical combat, exploration, RPG style character development — but after a solid 8-hours with it, I simply wasn't having fun. Nothing against the game since by all other accounts it's terrific, but I guess it just wasn't for me.
I think one of the problems with Garreg Mach is that while the story says that war has scarred it, it's mostly the same as it was before the time-skip. I wish that there was a post time-skip version of the Monastery to line up with the story. As for the LGBTQ+ pairings, unless it's with Byleth, they seem to be sweeped under the rug, even in the ending logs.
As for what's next for Fire Emblem? I'm going to buck the trend and say that a remake of 6 and 7 would be the next step for an "Echoes" like remake. I can see the player being able to switch back and forth between Eliwood's and Roy's campaigns influencing both of them as you go along. Heck, I would even dare to suggest to make "Mark" into "Morgan" from Awakening just to spice it up a bit.
@Mitch - While you can certainly get two students to go do "Stables Duty" and take care of horses. There is no horse back riding in game aside from pairing up with on a horse.
Good article. I hope next time the side stuff is maybe more pick and choose as the monastery takes a while. Of course playing with no new game+ makes it much faster.
Bought Three Houses last week as my first Fire Emblem game and now I'm addicted. Love the characters and the interactions with them as well as the tactical gameplay. One of my favorite games now.
I would probably buy it if it had a playable demo to make sure I liked it first. I hate to spend $60 non-refundable for a digital copy I'll never play.
I've played since 7 came to America and I love Three Houses. 200 hours in and I think I've still got a third path in me.
This game is amazing! Story, characters, setting, gameplay, music – all top notch! The only negative things are the graphical inconsistencies (some parts are beautiful, others really ugly) and the framerate issues in some sections of the monastery.
@nessisonett same, i went the blonde female route, can't remember her name, lol, but never really got hooked by the story. The setting felt forced to me, but i still love fire emblem & will buy the next one.
@Aqueous how does playing without a new game plus make it faster?
@Meteoroid that's my issue, there's no way i have time to play through it again. I'd have to give up playing other games & i have a huge backlog also.
@Meteoroid Yea I got hella other games to play and as good as Three Houses is, it's not good enough to revisit, especially with the school sim stuff
This is one of the most well-written games I have ever played in its themes of war, and how there are always multiple sides to each one with completely different perspectives. I’m also really attached to the actual physical copy of the game that I have because I bought it in person directly from the NY Nintendo store.
@ManaOwls I tried to watch Let’s Play videos of the other 2 scenarios in English and I just couldn’t finish it. I really want to experience those games properly someday and I even bought the Japanese copies just in case. Shining Force is so good.
It's my fav game of all time, and I'm not ashamed to say my current hour count is 545 hours; and on my eleventh play through(4th Golden Deer)
So far I've gotten Dorothea, Mercedes, Dimitri, Edelgard, Claude, Constance, Seteth, Manuela, Sothis, and Ingrid's S Support scenes so far.
Hoping to one day get all of the S Supports.
Removed - inappropriate
I love fire emblem, but this entry I haven’t played. I’m extremely intimidated by all the supposed between mission dialogue and micro managing. I do feel the series needed something like this to shake things up so it’s not just rehashing everything so I get it… but also I read about the game and all the in between stuff and my first thought is, “oooooof I don’t have time for that…”
That’s a personal problem. Maybe I’ll give it a go someday.
The battles were great, character development was fantastic. But god that gameplay loop became insanely tedious really fast.
The monastary sections just ruined the whole game for me, every time I got to one I took increasingly longer breaks from the game. To the point where I had to really push myself to finish one path.
I can't see myself every doing a second playthrough, even tho there was a lot about the game that I really loved.
@shining_nexus I'm a huge Shining Force fan since the first game on Mega Drive/ Genesis. Love the games so much and I really hope they bring it back. A Shining Force 4 would be awesome as well.
Surprisingly this became one of my favorite titles on Switch. I’ve played through 2 paths (which is like 120 hours total!) and Byleth is my main in Smash Bros!
Absolutely loved this game. My favourite fire emblem
@shining_nexus Yes! I have been begging for a Shining Force III trilogy port for years... decades even! It's such a tragedy that the West never got the whole trilogy and that the games are stuck on the Saturn.
It deserves any and all praise this game. It's an absolute masterpiece in every way possible.
The world and story are incredibly well handled. The characters are an absolute joy and voiced to perfection. The soundtrack is one of gaming's finest and the gameplay is truly endless. You could sink hundreds (as I have) or even thousands of hours and still have fun things to try.
I could talk about this game forever.
Its one of my favourite games of all time and if you let Fodlan and it's occupants into your heart, it'll be one of yours too 😊
From the series, I only played Shadows of Valentia on the 3DS and did not really like it, played it for 8 hours and abandoned it. Do you guys think I should give Three Houses a chance?
Gotta love all the homophobia here at Nintendo Life. Yup, definitely feel accepted here @SwitchVogel.
As someone who has sunk 500+ hours into this game, I think it’s pretty good 😆 Can’t wait for the next entry from Intelligent Systems. I’ve done just about every type of play through I can think of for Three Houses.
I really enjoyed this game, beat it on every route + DLC. I will most likely come back to this and play it one more time when there is a lul in RPGs for me.
I hope we hear something about a remake soon and would love an announcement saying a new game is being made as well. With the 3DS and Wii U FE games were launching every 2 years so if they keep that up we should hear something this year, my bet is fall direct.
@Scarko D
That depends, what didn't you like about Echoes?
This game looks great until the mention of turn-based battles which have put me off so many other games over the years.
@nessisonett It's worth trying Edelgard's route. I think I'd probably have bounced off it too if I'd tried Blue Lions first.
I put a lot of hours into this game. Easily a favorite in the series for me.
Crimson Flower was great, long live Edelgard! Oh wait, that whole “life expectancy” thing…
@SwitchVogel I was disappointed by the low number of units in all fights (I was expecting something like Advance Wars, not 5-10 units max). And I found the story and writing really dumb.
@Scarko Well, I think the Three Houses story was much better than in Echoes, so it's definitely better there. You still don't have a ton of units on the field at once, though, so maybe this series just isn't for you. Nothing wrong with that!
@twztid13 Kind of.
Playing without maxing out your professor level right off the bat cuts down on how many activities and battles one can do. As well as reduces the amount of tutoring a week. Which as a result makes things a bit faster which No New Game+ forces as you lack the ability to up your professor level.
Really a New Game+ where you buff student skill levels but don't increase one's professor level would likely be fastest.
@SwitchVogel thanks for the input! I definitely want to try it someday, but after Shadows of Valentia, Three Houses is not high on my wishlist. But it looks more appealing than the 3ds games, what with all the university/social stuff, so I might give it a chance
@SwitchVogel I just realized that you are Mitch and not some random user who switched 'mitch' for 'switch' in their username. Thanks for the answers and all the work you guys put into this site, my go-to source for Nintendo news. Keep up the good work!
@Kilamanjaro One of my big letdowns with the game wasn't the graphics specifically, but the way the weapons feel. The attacks are too 'wooshy' and they seem to just clip through enemies without any impact. You look at attacks from the 3DS games, particularly Shadows of Valentia, and every attack has the right sound and visual weight to it. Critical attacks sound like you're smacking an enemy with the power of a god, as they should.
Three Houses attacks just kind of swoosh with that same white-blue effect. It bothers me more than it should.
@Maximumbeans , yeah that makes sense. It was a good thing the story and gameplay were solid but felt a few more finishing touches on audio quality and graphics would've made it that much better
@Kilamanjaro Agreed!
I really liked this game, I just finished it a couple days ago and it's the only fire emblem game I've played (so far) but I really love it (infact if you couldn't tell I used the name Marianne for my nintenLife account lol)
Tap here to load 90 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...