Fire Emblem: Three Houses

♥	This article is dedicated to Billy Kametz (1987-2022).

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical role-playing game co-developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo, and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch in 2019. It is the seventeenth installment in the Fire Emblem series overall, and the tenth to be released in the West. It is also the first home console entry in the series since 2007's Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses
"Reach for my hand, I'll soar away, into the dawn, oh, I wish I could stay..." — Main theme
Protagonist(s): Byleth Genre(s): Tactical role-playing Platform(s): Nintendo Switch Release Date: July 26, 2019 Developer(s): Intelligent Systems Nintendo SPD Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Fire Emblem Predecessor: Fire Emblem Fates Successor: Fire Emblem: Engage

Why These Houses Are Yours To Stay

1. This game has different paths like Fates. It lets you choose a house to train in and each house comes with characters from a certain nation:
   • The Black Eagle house has students from the Adrestian Empire.
   • The Golden Deer house has students from the Leicester Alliance.
   • The Blue Lions house has students from the Holy Kingdom Of Faerghus.
2. Incredibly deep and beautiful story that isn't afraid to be dark when it needs to be.
3. Voice acting of high quality. Dimitri's voice actor, Chris Hackney, is especially praised for how he manages to use several different tones to match with Dimitri's mental state, and he's considered to have the best voice performance in the game.
4. Absolutely beautiful and lovely cel-shaded graphics, art-style, and environments for a Nintendo Switch game.
5. New and returning mechanics to improve gameplay, these include:
   • The return of Casual Mode which prevents defeated units from dying.
   • Every character has a personal skill exclusive to them, similar to characters in Fates. For example, Ashe has Lockpick, which lets him open chests or doors without having to be a Thief.
   • Renown which can be used on the saint statues for upgrades.
   • Professor level which can be earned from doing activities and gives Byleth points for them and auxiliary battles and adjutants if it's high enough.
   • Weapon durability, a staple of the series that was missing in the previous installments, makes a return here and is implemented much better. Instead of instantly losing a weapon that has no uses, you can keep using it, at the cost of lower damage and accuracy. Like in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, you can visit a blacksmith to repair your weapons, in exchange for materials that can be found.
   • Units can now use any weapon they want no matter the class.
   • Gambits are introduced, allowing the player to recruit Battalions and call them in battle to use powerful attacks that deal heavy damage and negative effects on the target. The higher a unit's Authority skill level, the stronger the Battalions they are able to recruit. Battalions also increase a unit's stats, however will retreat after the unit has taken too much damage (though the player has the chance to pay to revive them)
   • The Crest mechanic allows for several special abilities to activate for people who have a Crest in battle.
   • Units with a Crest can also use the Relic weapons with ease, powering them up if their Crest is compatible and unlocking their exclusive Combat Arts (for example, giving the Sword of the Creator to Byleth will allow them to use the Supreme Heaven Combat Art)
   • Gauntlets are introduced to in this game and they can be used to punch with a brave effect. They're quite strong too.
6. The titular Fire Emblem returns in this game, and unlike older games, where it was an item, it's now one of the strongest Crests.
7. The gameplay core is virtually the same as its predecessors, with a series of enhancements.
8. Most improvements to the combat that were done in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia return in this game:
   • Archers aren't restricted to attacking enemies only one tile away from them, and instead have a broader range, at the cost of lower accuracy.
   • Combat Arts return, and instead of using HP they consume weapon uses. Also, unlike Fire Emblem Echoes, you don't need to equip a weapon to use its abilities, instead you learn them by increasing your weapon skill level.
   • Mila's Turnwheel, which allows you to rewind time to correct any mistakes, returns in the form of the Divine Pulse, which serves mostly the same function.
   • Like older installments in the series, Magic has limited uses like weapons, and when you run out of uses, you can't cast it anymore. However, as soon as the battle ends, they will be replenished.
   • The fatigue system used in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 returns in the form of motivation, which allows you to tutor your students more times. Resting on free days, inviting your students to eat, supporting them during classes or viewing support conversations with them will increase their motivation.
9. The combat amimations are well animated and quite fun to watch.
10. Unimaginably endearing, well written, and memorable characters. There are also many new activities to attend with them in order to bond with them and flesh them out, compared to the previous games. Examples include
    • Byleth Eisner, the player and main character is kind to teach and help the students to do better.
    • Ferdinand Von Aegir, a confident, yet loyal noble who strives to better than Edelgard.
    • Petra Macneary, a intelligent, yet steadu girl from Brigid who is kind to make new friends in Fodlan and tries to learn new things.
    • Dedue Molinaro, a calm, yet stern man from Duscur who is polite to others and is compassionate towards Dimitri
    • Annette Fantine Dominic, a cheerful, yet kind girl close to Mercedes and gets along well with her, though she can be clumsy at times.
    • Claude Von Riegan, an easygoing, yet cool guy who loves interacting with others.
    • Marianne Von Edmund, a shy yet kind hearted girl who doesn't like talking to others, but can communicate with animals.
    • Flayn, an adorable, yet sweet girl who loves making new friends and is close to Seteth whom she considers her brother.
11. Amazing, yet stellar soundtrack, with many memorable and catchy songs, such as The Edge Of Dawn, Fodlan Winds, Chasing Daybreak, and even God-Shattering Star.
12. Nice cinematic anime like cutscenes.
13. Supports are now animated and voice acted with characters interacting with others and even gives them fleshed out personalities too. Byleth can also give responses to increase or decrease their support points.
14. Lots of funny and memorable scenes, espically in supports, such as Petra trying out Ignatz's glasses and Dimitri claiming to take back Faerghus.
15. Tea Party which lets you spend some time and interact with a unit in which in this case increases your bond with them.
16. On weekdays, you can choose who between your students you want to tutor during classes or assign to a task, which will increase their weapon level, movement type and support level. Sometimes, students will ask you questions, and if you answer correctly, your support level with them will increase.
17. On free days, you can choose whether you want to visit the academy and receive side-quests from other people, head to battle (which is required to complete some quests, including Paralogues), have one of your students hold a seminar (which increases skill level and motivation of those who attend), have some of your units take the certification exam to promote, or rest (which replenishes a certain number of uses for the Sword of the Creator and increases your students' motivation).
18. A huge number of side-quests and side activities to do. Paralogues and side battles return, and have been improved from previous installments. Paralogues also have side stories of their own and focus on several characters, fleshing out their personality even more.
19. Completing Paralogues will earn you new Relics, special weapons usable only by those with the corresponding Crest, akin to the Divine Weapons in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
20. Every Paralogue also contains some scenes that expand the main story.
21. Each of your students has a Skill Goal that determines his or her stat growth and which class is more suitable for him or her. You can modify their Skill Goal at any time, determining which stats have a higher growth.
22. The fishing minigame, though it can be tedious, is quite fun to play as you must tap at the right time to collect them.
23. Amazing voice acting in both Japanese and English, which you can choose from the menu.
24. Memorable and funny lines, such as Dimitri's "Is this some kind of twisted joke?"
25. Each route has a different goal the house leaders want to achieve, Claude wants to bring peace to Fodlan, Dimitri wants to save Faerghus, his homeland, and Edelgard wants to put an end to the church. Despite not a house leader, if not sided with Edelgard, Seteth wants to save Rhea and protect Fodlan.
26. The promotion system is greatly improved from previous games: every ten levels, the character will be able to take the Certification exam to obtain access to a new class of different strength, depending from the character's level (for example, a character can take the Intermediate exam at level 10, and the Advanced exam at level 20). However, the promotion occurs only if they pass the exam, which depends from their skill level (for example, taking the certification for the Mortal Savant class requires the player to have a skill level of B+ or higher in Reason, and a skill level of A or higher in Sword to guarantee that the unit passes)
27. Movement types are introduced, and are required for an optimal use of some classes. The three movement types (Heavy Armor, Flying and Riding) also have their own skill level, unlike previous installments.
28. Most of the S-Support conversations which happen once Byleth and the character's support level are high enough are heartwarming to watch and have a nice picture to look at too. If one unit and another's are high enough, they can even get a paired ending where anything (mostly good things), can happen to them.
29. From the DLC, you get outfits that almost any character can wear in combat and outside of combat.
30. The DLC comes with returning classes from Awakening and a new Cindered Shadows side story with new characters from the Abyss known as the Ashen Wolves which the player can use as they complete the chapters of the game. Once it's finished, the Chalice Of Beginnings, which is a weapon that lets characters counterattack other enemies is rewarded. The Wolves also have supports and a connection to some of the students too.
31. Besides new recruits that join you as the game goes on, you can even recruit students from the other houses too. To do this, you must reach their required skill and stats to have them in your house, however, you can also get a high enough support rank with them to reduce the requirement or if your support is high enough with them, they may even join you with you having to say yes or no. This move is a pretty cool move to recruit new units onto the team.
32. Once the game is finished, you have New Game+ which lets you have access to a lot of things such as increasing skill levels, professor levels, and recruiting units easily by Renown. This can be seen as a way for players to recruit units easily and even grind out their skills of they want to when they try out the next house.
33. There are four (with an additional fifth as DLC) different routes, each of which with its own ending.
34. There is tons of replay value as you can even try out a new house and route too or go for all sorts of challenges.
35. The game also got a Warriors spinoff as well.

Bad Qualities

1. Chris Niosi, the English voice of Male Byleth got recasted for his behavior towards his friends some time after the game came out, being replaced with Zach Aguilar.
2. Byleth falls flat as a character with the lack of personality and feels like a plot device most of the time. If they were voiced in the cutscenes, maybe there would be more character development
3. The academy phase can be tiresome and repetitive to play again and again, even if you've picked a new house.
4. Even the war phase, three of the four routes are almost all the same for the first half.
5. The game has rather linear map objectives, usually only being a rout or kill boss map.
6. Edelgard's route, Crimson Flower is much shorter than the others by 4 chapters for Verdant Wind and Azure Moon and 3 for Silver Snow with only one animated cutscene. While it could be rushed, the other routes seem to suffer the same problems as it as Azure Moon has only two cutscenes exclusive to that route whereas Verdant Wind and Silver Snow have more.
   • On the other hand, Verdant Wind and Silver Snow use the same maps and chapters with little to no changes and minor differences. Silver Snow doesn't have the Battle Of The Eagle And Lion rematch and instead just skips the month and goes to the next one. Verdant Wind has Nemesis fought whereas Silver Snow has Rhea.
7. Silver Snow, while not a bad route, doesn't give Claude or Dimitri any screen time nor do they even help the Church at all and instead Claude is given a message to Byleth, telling them to visit Judith. Claude goes missing and dimitri gets killed in the Battle Of The Eagle And Lion rematch and shows up in what appears to be Byleth's dream before disappearing. It doesn't even have an exclusive paralogue at all. Another problem with this route is that despite this being the Church Of Seiros route, most of the church characters don't get enough screentime and instead gets taken over by the Black Eagles who could've sided with Edelgard. They don't even show up in the scene where Rhea transforms at all despite having unique dialogue in the battle against her. It is also never explained what causes Rhea to go insane to the point where she has to be dealt with despite being saved.
   • The final map can be quite challenging at times as White Beasts need to be dealt with, otherwise, Rhea will heal. It also annoys the player with the Miracle ability on the enemies too, therefore, the unit must be careful when dealing with them. Rhea is also a lot tougher in this one since she will replenish her barriers every turn and also only uses Hoarfrost every turn.
   • While it is possible to make her survive by getting a high enough support her, why isn't there a different cutscene when Byleth's support is high enough with her so she can survive? Makes the cutscene of her passing with Byleth's hands pointless to begin with.
   • Despite Rhea being able to get supports with Byleth and even S-Support them, it still doesn't feel right since she's not playable at all. Since there are files with her as the playable character, this could prove the developers may have originally planned her to be playable in his route.
8. The developers chose quantity over quality and they cut corners like when they recycled maps. To be fair, this happens when the recycled maps are in the same location, but this doesn't mean that they have to be the exact same map layout.
9. The game's story has a problem with too much telling and not enough showing. Lots of plot holes are explored.
10. Plot hole: When Thales explains to Kronya when he had revealed the death and including his identity, but how would Kronya have her disguise faded if she had died?
11. Choppy and inconsistent frame rate, for example if you were in combat the FPS would go like 23-25fps, which can be a problem.
12. The requirements to recruit certain characters can be quite frustrating to access. Ferdinand and Caspar's supports are locked in the timeskip, therefore, can only be recruited by reaching their requirements. It's even worse knowing paralogues are locked behind them too if unrecruited, but it's not a big deal if you're playing Silver Snow or are using New Game+. Hilda is only recruitable after a route split in the Black Eagles house for only one chapter, and while the game does tell you that supports lower requirements, it doesn't tell you how much.
13. Some enemy bosses have skill sets that the player cannot gain access to. During the second battle of Garreg Mach in the Crimson Flower route, Shamir has both Bowrange+1 and Bowrange+2, the latter of which is exclusive to the Bow Knight class, despite Shamir being of the Sniper class. Both skills also stack with each other, despite being clearly stated in their descriptions that their effects are mutually exclusive. This gives her a range of 6 tiles (7 if using a Long Bow), allowing her to damage your units from behind enemy lines with no fear of retaliation, which can be detrimental for any fliers in your army.
14. Some characters are unlikable, like Gilbert who abandoned his wife and is a bad father to Annette, and Cyril, while not a bad character by all means, can come off as annoying when he brings up Rhea.
15. Maddening mode has reintroduced same turn reinforcements, which is often accused of being fake difficulty.
    • What's worse about Maddening it can be incredibly frustrating to some players, espically in the academy phase since enemies are a lot stronger and harder to take out. You can get stuck in a certain point if you're not prepared, such as Hunting By Daybreak which you can get stuck there forever if Byleth and Dimitri are not strong enough.
16. While it has tons of replay value, it can be repetitive (or lackluster) at times.
    • Like Persona 5, on the other hand, all it does is to give lessons to students or study (except in battles) which can be a extremely boring and less fun, sometimes you even have to talk to certain characters to unlock some activites again.
    • Exploring the monastery can be a real drag.
    • Collecting relics again mostly by playing certain paralogues again can be tiring as the player has to do it again since they cannot carry the weapons with them once on New Game+. Crusher is even locked to Azure Moon as the developers couldn't make Annette's parlogue accessible in other routes even without Gilbert, but Anna's paralogue without Jeritza is accessible.
17. Some classes are gender locked for no reason at all! For example, Dark Bishop is locked to males but Hubert is the only male that learns dark magic. This can be frustrating to those who want to double their magic uses for Lysithea and Hapi before they become Gremories.
    • What's hypocritical about this is that, if Hilda is recruited in Azure Moon, a female War Master will be used to protect Claude, even though that class is locked to males! Heck, even Judith of all people can use the Hero class!
18. Anna isn't that good in this game since she lacks supports and her personal ability is just laughable as it only increases Luck which isn't that big of a deal. It seems she may have been rushed to be promoted through the DLC.
19. Jeritza becomes playable as a Crimson Flower exclusive months after the game came out though he should have been playable from the time the game came out.
20. Randolph and Ladislava don't do or add much to Crimson Flower and end up dying like the other routes, making them wastes of characters as they could've been playable in a way, but that would've increased the amount of exclusives for Crimson Flower.
21. Judith doesn't become playable as a Verdant Wind exclusive despite surviving in said route. She has data as a playable character in the files too.
22. The Cindered Shadows side story is kinda lackluster as despite getting the Ashen Wolves, new classes and the Chalice Of Beginnings from it, it doesn't seem to add anything new to the main story at all.
    • It also has a chapter where everyone must make it to the exit, otherwise, you have to Divine Pulse or start again, even if you're playing on Casual! This comes off as a dumb move since in the main story, it's not game over if any characters fall in battle, unless it's their paralogues.
    • Aelfric is a shallow villain as he only wants to bring back Sitri but becomes a Demonic Beast by the end.
    • The final chapter is also infamous for Aelfric (As a demonic beast) turning the place around every time and healing if any of his clones are not defeated.
    • Aelfric only shows up in the main game for a quest where you have to bring flowers for Sitri to the grave and then leaves. He is never brought up or seen again after that. It seems he just exists for nothing.
23. Some paralogues are just filler, like the Bernadetta and Petra paralogue as the game never lets the player see Petra's grandfather at all.
24. Byleth falls flat as a character with the lack of personality and feels like a plot device most of the time. If he/she was voiced in the cutscenes, maybe there would be more character development.
25. None of the Golden Deer characters can be S-supported by the same sex.
26. Files indicate that Felix and Annette would leave your team after Rodrigue dies, as the Blue Lions have unique dialogue with them, although that idea was thankfully scrapped as no characters within your house are supposed to leave.

Reception

The game was met with critical acclaim by many and was considered one of the best Fire Emblem games to date. It was praised for it's school system characters, world, story, soundtrack, mechanics, and replay value. It won as the player's choice at The Game Awards 2019.

Trivia

• According to many developers, the game was heavily influenced by Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, the fourth game in the series:
• The Crest mechanic is very similar to the Holy Blood mechanic in the latter game, and its use is very similar (allowing the bearers of Crests to use the Relics, akin to people with Holy Blood being able to use the weapons of the Twelve Crusaders)
• The Twelve Crusaders are akin to Nemesis and the 10 Elites, and their role in the story is very similar.
• Brad Venable, the English voice of Kostas and Nader died of unknown causes in January 2021. His cause of death is unknown, but some claim it could be a heart attack and Billy Kametz, the English voice of Ferdinand Von Aegir, died of colon cancer in June 2022, approximately two weeks before Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes released.

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