Quick Look: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I am more convinced that Dan would love Persona if he tried it.

No..honestly this is a really strong contender. It is thoroughly Fire Emblem with a lot of really solid quality of life improvements and a really smart system to further control how your units turn out instead of ONLY relying on their stat growths.

That said the absolute best place to start might always just be Fire Emblem 7 for the GBA.

But whatever you do, the answer is definitely not Fates.

Yeah, but she's also scared of bunnies? She goes hunting in one of her supports of Petra and ends up running away from rabbits that she's hunting.

Dan's genuine enthusiasm for Three Houses and Vinny and Abby's banter makes me want to see a playthrough of this or something like Persona 5 with this cast as soon as possible.

For sure.

Shadow of Valentia on 3DS should not be forgotten. The game was the first one to introduce the convenient auto play during the visual novel section in the series. The lack of that function is among the reasons I stopped playing Valkyria Chronicles 4 last year.

I'm interested in this, but it seems like it would take like 150 hours to complete. Maybe I'll pick this up in the summer video game drought next year.

Have you not seen Holy Grail? Bunnies are vicious killers.

I feel like Dan driving a game with so many mechanics sometimes leads to confusing the others in on the quick look. But then again Ben also kinda struggled with this with Three Houses on the Bombcast so I am totally sympathetic to how hard it is to explain in the best way.

@steveurkel: Awakening is very good but this one is exceptional. Also, not really sure where Harry Potter is coming from other than the fact that it takes place at a school.

@robpigott: You are getting this confused with another case. There are two platonic S supports both with men, which some had assumed pre-release had been romances. They are identical whether you are male or female. Not an intentional bait and switch but should have been signposted better.

Every time I try to get into a Fire Emblem game I give up because too lazy and dumb to actually learn fancy stuff like strategy and tactics or whatever, but this seems like it has some pretty neat hooks to it.

It's kinda ugly looking, though, damn.

@steveurkel: This is the best FE released in the last fifteen years. Awakening is fun though.

Fates in particular was pandering trash.

Everybody assuming Dan would like Persona 5 now just because he likes this game... uh... I seriously don't think the old school turn-based JRPG battle and grinding systems would gel for him as much as the tactical/strategy RPG gameplay of Fire Emblem. I love P5 but Persona fans seem to forget that Persona games are more than just anime high school sims. Also, the daily schedule/activity alotment stuff in Persona is waaaaay more rigid than this. It can be extremely frustrating when trying to min/max how you spend each day of the calendar because of how rapidly things push you forward, at times unexpectedly so.

The lack of voice for Byleth is due to the voice actor being canned because he's a sexual abuser, right? It's so jarring him being so silent. I hear they're gonna patch in a new guy in the future.

After everything shown of this game in Nintendo Directs and E3 I did NOT expect to leave this QL really wanting this game.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-07-29-fire-emblem-voice-actor-dropped-for-abusive-behavior

More info for people who want to read about the main voice actor. Good riddance!

dan just completely missed what vinnie was hinting at when he said "ah it's blue and red and then it's purple!"

this game probably could use some color blindness settings

I'm pretty sure he was just referring to the red and blue coloured tiles and how mixing the colours creates the purple "danger zone".

But yes all games need colour blindness settings for sure.

Well Byleth is a silent protagonist anyway so if they do the only think you'll hear is unit selection and some level up quotes. They weren't made a silent protagonist because of this.

Great QL you guys! Having never played an FE game before I might just have to bite on this one. Need to finish working through some of my backlog first tho.

@garwalk said:

Wasn't he a fan of Octopath Traveler? I think if they put P4G or P5 on Switch he'd get way into it, particularly now that he's apparently been utterly corrupted by anime. Or was always into anime because of MGS. One of those.

Everybody is talking about this game, it truly is Marth Madness

I think Dan did a good job explaining everything overall. Hell, there's entire section he never even got to (like lessons). Watching this QL made me realize there's a TON of systems the game throws at you, but also I kinda didn't really notice them when playing. They all kinda work together.

Ahh so they did make a QL of this after all, I may watch it in the future but I think I'm already decided on buying this game

I beat FE3H over the weekend with Claude and the Golden Deer and I thought I would clear some things up...

Each route is around ~40 hours.

Byleth's age is revealed around half-way through.

As far as romance goes, you can only romance 1 person at the very end of the game post time-skip and everyone is around ~20 not including the teachers.

As far as (m) same-sex relationships go, there is only 1 option, Lindhardt. The other two are ~twice your age and result in you marrying a random female villager. Not super jazzed. Also odd, that Lindhardt's relationship is the EXACT same for male and female Byleth (MC). It's not good. :'(

As far as difficulty, I'm a OG FE fan, and I found Normal to be overly easy and the game shows you pretty much everything that is going to transpire ahead of time clearly. It is very similar to Into the Breach. Hits are pretty much guaranteed in Normal, but not so much in Hard.

My only complaint about this game is how early it makes you choose houses. It was definitely the fastest I've ever gone from "start brand new game" to "google a dialog option"

Just put "Anime was a mistake and are for jerks." in the description field for all anime games from now on.

Legitimately surprised that it seems Black Eagles are the fan-favorite house. I went with Golden Dear and can't imagine playing any other. The cast is so good and having a big brawler is a game-changer; my brawler (forget name) wrecks everyone, it feels broken as he'll do 17x2 damage while my next strongest character only does 23.

I'm playing and really enjoying it. It's my first FE game so I wasn't sure what to expect. I really enjoy the gameplay loop. I seem to spend half my time lecturing my students, eating/having tea with my students, trying to recruit others, basically all the school stuff. And then go into battle with new skills, and hopefully new characters. Then return back to school, and start the loop all over again. I think the way this game has that structure will limit my personal fatigue.

I love the school stuff. I love that you learn why your characters act the way they do. Bernadetta is pretty one note at the beginning, but 18hrs I've finally had a conversation that explains why she is terrified of the world and the people in it. I have a much deeper affection for her now, after learning her tragic upbringing. Eldgard's personal story is also tragic, and gives some major insight into her relentlessness.

I have 26ish total hours and I am total engrossed with this game. This is my GOTY so far and I can honestly see my self playing at least one of the other routes. I just want to spend time with the other houses to get the other students stories. It may all fall apart in Act II, but so far it's been a hellva ride.

I normally have no interest in these style tactics games, or Persona games. That said I picked this up and I'm having a BLAST with it. I think I might be having a Dan style "actually anime is cool" moment.

@lonelyspacepanda: That's basically how Edelgard is, she'll one hit kill just about everyone in my game

God I want this sooo much, also gonna need a switch I guess...

Fire Emblem is much, much better than Advance Wars. AW is fun but everything can be cheesed too easily, it doesn't have the same depth and it has too much fog of war. Fight me!

There are quite few misinformation within this QL and i hope can shed some light on few things I can remember:

- None of the Console Fire Emblem games are offshoots, all of them are Canon and main entries in the series.

- The series have been a thing since the NES. It has more console entries than Handheld entries. In the west, one could say FE is an handheld series, but overall, it had appeared on many systems

- This game does have Japanese Voice option

- The stats boost, when characters level up is not random, but each character has a base stats that levels up more than others. Hence why its important to chose a suitable class and weapons that synergises well with the base stats.

- Fog of Far is a military term. means uncertainty in situational awareness when Soldiers are deployed.

- Everyone is can be romanced. Its a bit creepy (like Abbey Alluded to) that the teacher can have such relationship with students, but if it helps, the romance option triggers when the students become older as there is a timeskip.

- This Fire Emblem game can be played without knowledge of any previous entry as its self contained story. However lorewise (and maybe some plot wise as well, I am not sure) its has some connection to the SNES Fire Emblem, Genealogy of the Holy War

1. Dude, she is 15

2. That is a damned nice fishing minigame

3. So is the ritual a full on Eclipse moment that will let them work a time skip into the plot?

Still, I have to say: This QL kind of made me want this game. I enjoy basic Front Mission/FFTactics gameplay (not my preferred strategy, but I like it more than nu-xcom's model), that is some awesome ass fishing, and I think I could really enjoy the base management aspects. Might scratch that JRPG-on-Switch itch I'ver been having for a few months now.

Dan's really rubbing off on Abby with questions like, "Is the fog of war a real thing?"

I think it might have to do with the different animal based houses, the teachers who teach combat and magic. The uniforms that sometimes sport flowing robes, the castle-like school with all the owls flying sround. Also that fact people that are into Harry Potter and anime will find this game ripe for shipping. I'm sure haute nobles and dark brooding malcontents are like catnip for tumblr users.

@faridmon: It's important to synergize but the stat growths are still random. Every character has a hidden growth rate for every stat that is modified by their current class and then rolled on a RNG.

So characters designed to be melee fighters may never hit a single point of strength or improbably gain magic stats that they are sub 50% in. Or my main character whos rates are dreadfully average in almost every category gained 10 nearly perfect levels and became too good to actually use in combat.

The level RNG is perhaps the most important element to Fire Emblem, I think.

Is it weird this is the first game that makes me want to buy a Nintendo console since several console generations? I don't even know anything about Fire Emblem but this quick look is really selling this to me.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I want to play this game!

For veterans of the series, do you reckon it's ok for me to jump in here? Or do I need to have played the other games first?

PS: Target (in the U.S.) is selling it for $50 from day one. Don't know how long that will last, though.

@leraa said:

With one exception (all the way back on the Wii) every game in the series that has made it stateside is very self-contained. Sometimes there's some lore referencing previous titles but it's handled more like Zelda than, say, Mass Effect, so you never really have to know it. I think this one is a pretty good jumping on point insofar as it's quite solid and has some fun new mechanics you'd have to learn regardless so, hey, you might as well go in with a blank slate.

@leraa: Walmart also has it for $50 in store only. But I’ve heard it’s been selling really well and some stores are out of stock.

Is there any benefit to completing the mission in fewer turns? I think it would be fun to split up large groups instead of having them all clumped together but this would make them susceptible to damage and a lack of buffs. Any reason you would try to flank enemies?

@frustratedlnc: Oftentimes there are additional rewards to gain if you strike out ahead and move quickly to eliminate certain units. Or maps where a steady stream of reinforcements will show up every turn until you reach a certain point.

So there's no inherent benefit but map design often favors having multiple little strike forces instead of just a big swarm of units that slowly covers the whole map.

Thank you, that's reassuring advice. Your example of it NOT being like Mass Effect, where I agree you lose a ton if you don't play all the games, makes me feel confident.

Cool, now I'm excited to play!

I think you're right about that. When I clicked over to Walmart's site, it was regular price. So I would need to go in to a store in person and it might not even be available. Gah.

Target, it is then.

Thank you, every discussion I've heard about this game references Fates as the last FE released, not Shadows of Valentia. Even upon release, it seemed like no one discussed Valentia. I think everyone discounted it because it was a remake of an older game and didn't feature the support conversations anywhere near as heavily. Instead, it had those dungeons you could run around in, JRPG-style, and it was a lot more linear.

...but I can't complain too much because I didn't actually finish Valentia myself. Something else came out a little while after I got out and I got absorbed in that instead. I should probably go back to it.

@faridmon: You are not correct on your console/handheld point. Prior to Three Houses:

Console: OG, Gaiden, Mystery of the Emblem, Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn (7)

Handheld: Binding Blade, Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones, Shadow Dragon, New Mystery of the Emblem, Awakening, Fates, Echoes (8)

ALSO only two of those console games made it to the west, while 6/8 handheld ones did. And 5/7 console games came out on the NES and SNES. So from 2001 until now 10/12 games have been handheld only. It is absolutely a handheld dominant series, although Genealogy, Path of Radiance and now Three Houses are all console games and considered up there with the best of the best.