Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)

Over the years, I tried 5 different Fire Emblems across 4 different consoles, hoping to get into the series and always bouncing off them for various reasons. With this latest installment, I finally found the one to grab me.

This is not a 10/10 game, but nonetheless I had a great experience playing it. A few reasons why:

• The gameplay on Normal with permadeath turned off was a challenge, yet felt extremely accessible and never too punishing. By far the most approachable any strategy game has felt to me.
• Characters are really entertaining, with standout designs and personal stories that, while cliché at times, mostly ended up worthwhile. I grew quite attached to some characters through their personal and gameplay development.
• The game’s pace is excellent, always allowing you to choose what you want to do and leaving long breaks between tough encounters. The month-by-month structure makes the game impossible to put down.
• The job system and progression of characters are handled really well, just flexible enough to let you shape your party how you want it. I loved tinkering with it.

A few things I’m mixed on:

• Presentation can be hit-or-miss, with lots of awkward animations and cutscenes, as well as jarring sound effects and things that can derail serious moments.
• Voice acting can occasionally be kinda cringe in that anime type of way where they don’t talk like real people. I think I would have preferred a slightly more grounded direction for a story that gets so serious.
• Some of the systems driving interpersonal relationships are kind of ridiculous, especially the tea party minigame. Recruiting of other houses’ students being gated behind Byleth’s stats feels pretty dumb.
• Choosing how you spend each day is great, yet a bit too restrictive. I should be able to do, say, just one battle then various social activities, but I have to pick one or the other even when I have enough Activity points.

The main theme of the game, to spend half of the game building up a friendly rivalry between houses only to break out into actual war is really compelling, even though I think that allowing more onscreen mingling between houses in Act 1 would have made it more emotionally resonant. I was satisfied with my ending, in which I ended the church’s rule over the nations and spent the rest of my life with the Empress in a nice mutual respect type of relationship. It was a super fun time that was easy to binge and makes me interested to give more of the games a shot soon.

As many other switch games, FE3H as a lot of great ideas but overall it doesn't really stands out compared to Awakening which is disappointing for a console game.

Gameplay is great, there are some great characters and the school gimmick is neat but the endings feel rushed, the story doesn't go anywhere (it seems to be common to all routes) and the visuals are "meh" at best

I had a great time but I expected more from a game released 2 years after P5 that takes so much from it.

Fire Emblem Three Houses is a charming title that really keeps you hooked till the end! The characters really grow on you - especially Bernadetta whos' my spirit animal.

It's in the smaller things around the monastery that really brings the charm to the game. Fishing, of course, gardening, having meals with your students and really getting to know them. You realize the importance of these when they become beasts on the battlefield.

Advice - Make sure you go for as many battles on your free day as possible. You don't wanna miss out on the extra gold/loot.

Fire Emblem Three Houses Final Update #11

Finally beat Fire Emblem Three Houses (Black Eagles playthrough). There were definitely some decisions I was not proud of, and due to these choices the pacing felt a bit off towards the end of the game (feel like a few more chapters should have been added to flesh out some other main story components) ... but overall I had a great time :). I love the characters, I love the overall story, the gameplay and school mechanics, everything! I hope they continue to push these concepts further in the next game. Now for some spoiler tags.

The two things to note that I felt rushed were the confrontation with "those who slither in the dark" and then when Lady Rhea, the Immaculate One, goes insane and attacks you (for some reason, maybe due to poor health i dunno) and then her children of the church turn into beasts as well. I feel like they could have tied those two plots together in a more cohesive way, or create a few more chapters to build/lead into them - one campaign level to address each was just not enough. It just felt like they were tacked on, information dumped. In my opinion, at least for the Black Eagle House, it could have ended when the Professor struck down Edelgard... putting an end to her blood filled conquest to change the world through the use of violence - that was still probably one of the saddest moments for me in the game :(

I looked into the other Houses and their respective endings and you can definitely tell that each of the houses contain fragments of the story that the other ones might not have. Like you need to experience all 3 of them to truly grasp the story as a whole... I can definitely see why they did it though as it gives new perspective on the same dire situation. I just feel like the arcs of each story, and each house, should have followed this format regardless: School Days < The Great War < The Church < Those Who Slither in the Dark . With each of the arcs maybe consisting of 5-6 chapters or so to make sure there's a sufficient amount of time to address each one.

Fire Emblem Three Houses Update #10: Optimistic Thinking (Black Eagle House)

It was a long and brutal road. And for some reason a part of me kept hoping that I would be able to change the minds of the students I encountered during the war, and have them fight on my side. I had this idealistic thinking that I would be able to get the entire Officer's Academy back to the way it used to be - everyone would be friends with one another, and we would go back to simpler times .... sadly I was mistaken. The hardest part about the war was having to force myself to kill past students :(. I was hoping that there would be some sort of dialogue option if the Professor could get to each of the students on time, but it didn't matter.... I was forced to kill them regardless. I know each of these people died and fought for what they believed in... but still :(. Ashe, Lorenz, Hubert, and finally Edelgard. All of their deaths were painful to go through, but man.... watching the Professor finally cut down Edelgard... and that cut-scene of her saying she really hoped that the Professor would have walked alongside her instead of fighting her... it was so sad D: Especially since I started the game in Black Eagle House. I really wish it could have ended differently

I understand Edelgard's reasoning of getting rid of the corrupt noble society and removing crests and since they are the burden that continues to plague society, but I just didn't agree with the way she was going about it... starting an all out war, conspiring with those who have sinister intentions, and putting the lives of so many innocent people at risk... just to enact this change... I had to kill her. She demanded the Empire to spill blood now, so no further sacrifices would happen in the future.... it's tragic what happened with her, and I definitely got the same vibes from another strong female protagonist from another hit popular show lol.

Fire Emblem Three Houses Update #8: The game is painful.... it hurts so much :(. And this is why I'm afraid to get attached to characters lol. Here we go.

The day arrived where the professor was to receive the vision from the goddess. Turns out instead that Edelgard had other plans. She was the Flame Emperor this whole time!? How did I not see that coming lol. With Hubert by her side, and the new Imperial Army at her command they raided the holy tomb and began targeting the crest stones. We won the fight of course, and a decision had to be made by order of Rhea. Kill Edelgard or Protect her.

Most people who picked the Black Eagle house probably chose to protect her. But seeing as how Edelgard did all these horrible deeds and conspired behind everyone's backs, and most importantly allowed Monica to kill the Professor's dad.... nah... she was going about it all wrong. And even if the church is corrupt as she says, and that crests need to be removed in the world in order for true peace and prosperity to ensure, her methods and choices to create this change I do not agree with. Her heart is in the right place.... but she isn't thinking clearly. That's why, as the new leader of the rebellion, I need to put a stop to her and the war. Too many innocent lives are at stake. Her rule reminds me of a certain character from Game of Thrones to be honest lol.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Update #7: I am sad. Eye ball water bending has ensued.

A couple of things happened in the game since the last update, so let's start up them spoiler tags.

1. The Battle of Eagle and Lion happened. The other houses didn't stand a chance as I was practically one-shotting every single enemy I came across lol. It's weird cuz my reason for replaying levels over and over isn't because I want my characters to get stronger, but rather it's because I want the relationships between my units to grow lol.

2. Remire village, where we first started in the game, had been taken over some sort of crazy mind bending disease that causes the villagers to be violent and literally attack each other. We stopped it, people died, it's possibly our biggest failure yet. Apparently the Flame Emperor claims that he and Solon (aka old man Tomas) are working together but their objectives are not the same and that he is not responsible for the destruction of the village. Guess we'll see about that.

3. Found out that Flayn is Seteth's daughter, and not his sister!? Whoa. He keeps it secret to conceal Flayn's bloodline. Seteth looks young AF lol

4.White Heron Cup (dancing competition happened). And I selected my girl Petra ^_^! She knocked it out of the park with her "unique" dancing style xD.

5. All the students agree to meet back, 5 years from now, at Garreg Mach Monestary for the Millennium Festival. Time skip soon!??

6. Went to the ball. Lots of fancy dancing. GIF material for the Three House leaders lol. Ended up seeing Petra at the Goddess Tower (it's said that if people make a wish together there - it will comes true). We didn't really make a wish though xD... in fact Petra mainly went there to spy and observe other people to see if the rumor was true xD.

7. Students were turned into monsters and were rampaging around an abandoned church near the monestary. We knocked them out, and they turned back into students. And then.... that's when it happened... Monica, that girl we saved along with Flayn when she was kidnapped by the Death Knight, STABBED Jeralt and killed him!!! This was even more painful to watch because we tried to rewind time using Sothis' power, but we were stopped by a new enemy named Thales. So we basically had to watch Jeralt get stabbed and die twice :(.

8. And for the first time ever, the Professor cried.... and continues to mourn... this is depressing..... Those guys are going to pay!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Update #6:

1. Manuela was knocked out on the floor of Jeritza's room (I think that's his name lol xD), and there was a hidden passage leading to an underground floor behind a bookshelf (zoinks!).

2. We also found Flayn unconscious, along with another girl named Monica (a student from last year who should have graduated but mysteriously disappeared). It looks like it was the Death Knight behind it all - and it seems he's working with someone who claims he will "change the world". Many signs point to Jeritz n' Crackers being the Death Knight. And Monica seems suspicious AF.

3. For the next month. The Battle of Eagle and Lion is the main event. Time to prep, and whup the other houses' butts :). AFTER I do some fishing for the fishing competition - size matters after all lol.