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Title Fire Emblem: Three Houses Developer Intelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo Games Co. Ltd Publisher Nintendo Release Date July 26th, 2019 Genre Strategy RPG Platform Nintendo Switch Age Rating T for Teen – Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence Official Website

In a way, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a culmination of the Fire Emblem games that have released over the past decade. It builds upon the previous entries in interesting ways, takes elements from several and generally excels. Three Houses has combat and a magic system that reminds me of Fire Emblem Echoes, without the focus on a Weapon Triangle and a ton of flexibility. Story-wise it reminds me a lot of the mystery and menace of Awakening, whereas the multiple narrative routes distinctly reminded me of Fates. There’s a lot of inspiration in this game, and for the most part they do a tremendous job. Which brings us to the question – is this the best Fire Emblem game in a decade? Or is Three Houses less than the sum of its parts?

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The story starts with a massive battle being joined by two armies. One is guided by the gruff Nemesis, wielding the Soulcalibur-esque Sword of the Creator. The other is guided by the green haired, furious beauty, named Seiros. You’d think she was the weaker of the two leaders, but after an epic fight she comes out the victor, brutally murdering Nemesis with several angry thrusts of her dagger. Then we’re dragged from the scene of battle, seemingly through time to another green haired woman laying at rest in a throne. Without too many spoilers, her name is Sothis, and she’s vitally important to the story and your main character in particular. For some reason, she’s a sort of guardian angel for the hero, Byleth. You can hear her in your head and she’s seemingly able to protect you from harm. But we won’t linger too much on that, for the sake of those who haven’t played Fire Emblem: Three Houses yet. Instead, let’s move onto the larger plot of the game.

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You play as the young mercenary Byleth. Working with your father, Jeralt, you’ve roved the land and earned your bloody keep for many years. But your whole life changes when three young wards, Dimitri, Edelgard and Claude, beg for your assistance in the dead of night. Turns out, they are all students attending the school at Garreg Mach Monastery. Not only that, but they’re all royalty (well, two out of three are), and after you aid them with a bandit problem, they all implore you to come with them to the Monastery. Once you arrive, you’re introduced to the basics and given a choice of which House you’ll instruct. Your choices are the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions and the Golden Deer. Depending on your decision, the flow and narrative focus of the game will change dramatically. My first time I chose Blue Lions, and was made professor of Dimitri’s band of goofballs. Their story is one of duty and adherence to religion and ideals. But no matter which House you choose, you’ll grow quite fond of the students whose lives you instruct. Not only that, but you’ll also go into battle with and watch them grow from fledgling fighters into battle-hardened warriors.

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Before we get too far into combat, we need to spend some time talking about Garreg Mach Monastery. It’s the seat of power for the Church of Serios, and each of the three Houses of the Officer’s Academy therein represents a different faction. Dimitri is set to become King of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, Edelgard is princess of the Adrestian Empire and Claude leads the disparate band that is the Leicster Alliance. While they all play together nicely in the first part of the game, some very dramatic events change all that for the second, and final, part of the game. Your goal in the interim is to spend time doing odd jobs and instructing your pupils. In a weird way, it almost seems like Three Houses takes nods from the Persona series. Each month, you can explore, grow closer to your wards, and fulfill quests for the Church. As you do, more options open up, and you’re rewarded with Renown. At first it seemed superfluous, but later on you can spend it at holy Statues to increase the growth rate for your students. You can make it so they learn how to use a Bow or Axe faster, for example. This is especially useful since all these attributes are used to determine which class your students can become.

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Like in previous games, you’ll need Seals to promote units. One way it’s different is that there’s not always a guaranteed chance your unit will be promoted. It depends on how closely you adhere to the class’ recommended attributes. If you want to become a Pegasus Knight, you’ll need a good Lance and Riding proficiency, for example. Quick note, if you liked Archers before, you’ll love them now, especially since they all learn Close Counter early, which lets them retaliate if attacked head on. Another way this game is different is the use of magic. Unlike previous ones, it’s not tied to a weapon. As you level up your Reason or Faith attribute, you’ll learn Black and White magical spells. These have a set number of uses in each battle, but thankfully that refreshes upon completion. Once learned, you can use your magical spells with any class, so long as that class is capable of using magic. I admit this took me a while to wrap my head around, but thankfully there’s a lot of choices for classes that can multitask this way. Though such classes tend to be squishier than physical only ones, they make up for it with a versatility of options, such as healing others with Heal or Restore, putting protective Wards on allies or draining health with Nosferatu. Or if you prefer Black magic, there’s tons of attack spells, such as Wind, Fire, Thoron and much more.

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Since you’re a professor at Garreg Mach, it stands to reason you need to actually teach your students. At the start of each week, you’re given the opportunity to teach them. Depending on their Motivation level, they can get more sessions in. These are incredibly simple to do, you just pick an attribute such as Sword proficiency or Charisma, and the student will improve a bit in that category. Usually they’ll get a Good or Great, meaning they only earn a bit of experience, but sometimes they snag a Perfect, which gives you another chance to teach them. They’ll also get Bad on occasion, but by properly reading the student, and either critiquing or consoling them, they’ll rally through. You can also set Goals for each student, and they’ll focus on improving those stats at the end of each week. If that all sounds too complicated, you can always choose auto instruct, though I preferred just figuring it out through trial and error. As you move through each week, you’ll celebrate student’s birthdays, answer their pressing questions and attend ceremonial events. You can also invite other professors to teach Seminars, helping increase your student’s proficiency in their areas of strength.

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Besides all that teaching, there’s other things to do. You have the option to Explore a few times each month, which lets you wander around Garreg Mach picking up odd tasks and further bonding with students. You’re able to eat with them, sing in choir with them, garden and fish (which is surprisingly fun), and lots more besides. Though your focus is your small group of students, you can also befriend characters from other Houses. If you can impress them with specific accomplishments in attributes they respect, you’re able to recruit them to your House. Just expect a lot of effort to get your stats up to task. As you progress, more areas are unlocked in the Monastery, opening up even more options. Thankfully, you get the ability to fast travel to any location you’ve visited, which makes running around Garreg Mach far less of a chore. You also are able to take on optional quests and Paralogues, which reward you with items and increased Motivation for your students. Frankly, there’s more things to do than I can spend talking about in this review, but suffice to say, you can spend your time in Three Houses pretty much how you choose. The only thing you can’t avoid are the story battles that occur towards the end of each month. They start pretty easy and ramp up slowly. For most of Part I, I had little to no problem winning battles. But the farther I got, the more wrinkles they add, such as reinforcements and blinding fog. There’s other things I can’t mention, so just be wary and never expect any mission to be as simple as it first seems. Oh and if Part I is too easy for you, just wait for the battles in Part II.

More Fire Emblem on Page 2 ->

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Now, let’s touch upon the combat. Fire Emblem games live or die based on their battles, and I can say those in Three Houses are very satisfying. While I will always miss the Weapon Triangle, I also don’t feel its loss too keenly. Maybe that’s because the last Fire Emblem I played was Echoes, but regardless the tactical component of the game is no joke. While your weapon choice won’t dramatically affect your performance, there’s tons of other factors to keep in mind. As you grow, all your units will learn new abilities based on their class. You can also learn budding talents unique to certain characters, usually by having them focus on a weaker attribute. Proximity to your students will also improve their efficiency in battle, more so if you’re emotionally close with them. One of the coolest new mechanics in the game is the Divine Pulse. Essentially it lets you rewind the clock in battle, undoing a stupid mistake or saving a character who suffered an ignominious defeat. There’s a limit to how many times you can do this per battle, though that can be increased over time. Most importantly, it gives older Fire Emblem fans who are used to resetting their games anyway a more seamless way of doing so.

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As far as the interface, that’s also wonderfully efficient. You can rotate the camera, as well as zoom in or out on any map, and by zooming out completely, you get a full view of the area. It displays enemy positions, numbers, you goal and factors which cause you to fail the mission. You are even able to enter the Marketplace or your Convoy before you start the mission proper, which is a nice touch. Pretty much the only thing you can’t do is take Certifications to change your class, so make sure to do that before you accept any mission. Also a nice touch, you can use the shoulder buttons to both toggle the enemy’s entire attack radius as well as shifting between units. One nice new feature is that you can see a glowing red line which indicates which units enemies will target for attack next turn. You can even see a preview of how much damage you’ll receive, which is a life saver. Another new feature unique to Three Houses are Battalions. You can equip these like weapons, and they’ll provide the equipped character boosted stats and the option to use Gambits. These are powerful attacks involving hordes of soldiers that usually inflict a status effect, such as poison or freezing a foe in place. Battalions level up with your characters, up to level 5, and they can be pretty helpful. Similar are Adjutants, which lets you support one of your units with another that isn’t taking direct action in combat. Adjutants will sometimes attack with their ally, and other times support them with special effects, such as healing them, or deflecting an attack against them. Finally, there’s Combat Arts, which lets you sacrifice item durability to utilize powerful attacks. You’ll learn these as you get more proficient with any weapon, and they directly parallel how you learn spells. I liked the give and take of Combat Arts, but found most of them somewhat underwhelming. Especially since when you’ve used up a weapon, they don’t disappear entirely, and can be repaired at the Blacksmith, which hurts the urgency of using them for Combat Arts.

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There’s one last thing I need to mention regarding battle, and that’s the demonic beasts in the game. These reminded me fondly of the many monsters in Sacred Stones, though these tend to be much more powerful. For one thing, each demonic beast has multiple layers of armor you’ll need to slice through to finally kill them. For another, they get more dangerous the less armor they have. There’s a wide variety of these creatures in the game, and they’re massive and terrifying in equal measure. To beat them you’ll usually need to surround them with units and pray they don’t kill anyone in the process. Around the time you first encounter them in the game, you can expect things to get a lot more challenging.

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The plot in Three Houses starts strong but ends on a weak note. Part I seems very well organized and purposeful, giving players a glimpse of the world of Fódlan and the secret machinations happening on the shadowy periphery. I quickly grew very suspicious of the Church of Seiros’ motivations during the game, but there are other more immediate threats you face, such as the Flame Emperor, the Death Knight and Those Who Slither. I liked the how the game kept you constantly guessing as to who you could trust, and had dramatic unmaskings for certain characters. There are great aspects such as magical Crests passed through bloodlines which determine nobility. What I liked less was how the story dropped the ball towards the end of the game. Several mysteries were left unaddressed, such as the character of Sothis, the identity of the Death Knight, the story behind the Flame Emperor’s creation and much more. Frankly, I was a bit shocked there wasn’t a part III to the game, cause I truly felt there were too many unresolved dangling plot threads. While it’s certainly possible these will be clarified by playing through the other two routes, I can’t help but feel the plot was somewhat incomplete for not addressing them. Also, fun fact, while you can romance and marry your own waifu or husbando, you literally don’t get married til the very end of the game. That struck me as incredibly awkward and anticlimactic. Having said that, there’s still a lot to enjoy here, but you’ll mostly be invested for the characters, not the story. Which is a shame, since it initially seemed like it was going to be an incredible one.

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On the point of aesthetics, this is a very pretty game. They have a cel shaded visual style, and animation during combat is very fluid and fierce. Each character also has a great design, though that can change dramatically after the time jump you’ll encounter. Some characters age well, others less so. I personally loved the design for the demonic beasts in the game. Some are scurrying rat-like creatures, others are winged fiends and some are even heavily armored titans. Likewise, the villains in the game all look dramatic and eye-catching, from the least important to the most significant. A good example is Cornelia, who is dressed like a Victorian call girl, and who I would gladly make my waifu if she wasn’t such an evil bitch. Another cool and very distinct artistic touch are the illustrated scenes that display at the start of each chapter, which all look like they could have come from a beautiful old book. Musically, this is a very enjoyable game. The music differs wildly depending on the the tone of the scene, and it’s always catchy. The voice acting is wonderful as well, though the faceless narrator can be a bit mechanical at times. Put together, this is a very attractive package.

This happened way too late in the game.

While there’s very few serious complaints I have about Three Houses, I want to address some minor inconveniences. While it’s true the user interface is mostly pretty helpful, there are some areas it’s less than intuitive. Such as how you need to press X before you can move the cursor over menus to get a more clear view regarding details about abilities or stats. Another is that Unique classes, which are only available for certain characters, can be hard to find on some menus. Furthermore, it wasn’t clear at first that the star by a class meant it had been mastered. I was a bit disappointed that, in such a big game, the pleased animation while instructing characters is the same for all boys and all girls. It felt strange to see an older woman like Manuela leaping for joy just like the sprightly young Annette. Mostly I felt this hurt their individuality somewhat. Also, if you liked visiting villages and homes to acquire items and save villagers in other games, you’ll be sad to hear that feature is absent here. Which is strange, since supposedly the Church of Seiros’ primary goal is to help those in need. Also, there are significantly less playable characters than in previous games, only about 8 per House compared to Awakening, which had around 40 playable characters, or even Echoes which had around 15. That said, this does make you care more deeply about your students and work harder at keeping them alive, as well as making recruiting other characters far more important.

At first, I honestly thought Fire Emblem: Three Houses was going to get a perfect score. There’s a lot of great stuff here, both old and new. Unfortunately, a few minor issues coupled with an ultimately disappointing story kept it from those lofty heights. That said, I’m still very impressed with the game. I spent about 48 hours to beat my Blue Lions campaign, and you can multiply that by 3 to fully beat the game. Then there’s New Game+ which lets you get through the game faster and bring over hard to get items with you. If that wasn’t enough, there’s cool features such as finding spirits that provide weapons and extra experience when you play the game while connected to the internet. And that’s not even talking about the DLC and amiibo functionality. When you factor all those in, you get a lot of game for $59.99. I’m happy I was able to play this latest Fire Emblem, even if it stops short of being perfect. Even then, this easily might be the best Fire Emblem game in a decade. If you’re a returning fan or just like strategy RPGs, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Nintendo

REVIEW: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Title Fire Emblem: Three Houses

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