Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Just like the title says: this game was voted by gamers as Best Game of the Year. Not the critics, the PLAYERS voted for it so, yeah, it wasn't an award they bought. From what I understand, this is the first Fire Emblem title to hit it big anywhere outside of Japan and, having played it, I'm glad the devs got some recognition. At first glance (or first couple hours of play time) the game seems straightforward enough. It's a turn based RPG. Pretty much 'nough said in most cases. You either like them or you don't. But. When you're "released" from the normal and necessary exposition and tutorial that always comes with starting an RPG, and you can wander around you meet all the usual characters. Of course you do. It's an RPG. Yeah, this time the premise seems interesting and the "downtime" activities might be a little unusual-- voice acting is certainly a solid notch above what you usually get in an RPG but it's still an RPG though. I mean, you even have the standard archtypes (if quite a few more than usual): the jock, the socially awkward girl, medieval cheerleaders, geek with the glasses in the back.... They're all there. At least, that's how it STARTS... As you start playing though, between managing inventory, leveling, combat, and, of course, unraveling the main plot etc, etc, etc-- something starts to happen. The One Dimensional archtypes that you've written off actually start taking on... well, DEPTH. And the STORY actually starts getting interesting too!!!! I won't front, it had been SO LONG since I had seen this level of good writing that I had honestly forgotten that it was even possible in an RPG. And the acting is just... WOW. Ok. Yeah. Graphics won't make you weep at the beauty and magesty of realistic 4k as you count the individual hairs on the back of your character's head but... that story and that acting more than make up for it. First off you canNOT hope to get through everything on just one playthrough. Forget multiple ENDINGS, this game has MULTIPLE PLOTS. No joke. The WHOLE STORY is different depending on what you pick in the first few hours. Now, you want multiple endings? OMFG!!! Apparently, after spending do NOT tell me how many hours with these characters, the game actually generates a little ending for each and every single character you have gotten to know based on what YOU were doing during your playthrough. Computer-wise, it probably didn't take that long but the writing chops to go through and figure out what would happen to every single possible pairing of 40 characters and never miss a single beat... Wow. Just. Wow. You have REALLY got to have a definitive idea of who these characters are in your head and remain true to that idea in order to do that- I mean, Hollywood has a hard time doing that with less than FIVE over 90 minutes a lotta times. So, yeah, hat's off there. Lol. So, the writing and the acting rocks but, this is a GAME, how's that gameplay, you're asking... I haven't had this much fun with a turned based in a long, long time. The loads of menus IS a little intimidating at first but it's honestly not that difficult to get the hang of things. Tiny touches and flourishes make things both a little easier to pick up and a little rewarding as you do. I love the real time prediction mechanic that shows you how much damage a character can make to an enemy and how much damage they can do back so you can experiment a bit BEFORE you confirm a command. Another nice touch is the little action cutscenes when an attack is made. You CAN turn them off if you want but I left them on because they actually seemed to add a little more drama to the fights. Now, I will admit that this game is a Completionist's NIGHTMARE. Because of all of the different characters and all of the different details and all of the different plots. I tried to do my normal grinding for levels, etc but eventually learned that that's NOT how you're supposed to play this game. You're supposed to just play the game and pretty much let the cards fall where they may when it comes to the details. And that is how I recommend playing it. Also, folks who gots ta has their eye-candy and/or looove that space bar when it comes to playing on the computer (skip cut scenes alot) will NOT find any fun here. Nor is this a good game for action junkies. Y'all got Devil May Cry, etc for that. Go enjoy Astral Chain. Great game too and far more enjoyable for button mashing. You want to wander through a great story with interesting characters and excellent acting though? Yeah. Stop debating, just hit that buy button and-- well, cancel any future plans you got for the next few months. U gon b buzy. :D

As always, straight to the scores: Graphics quality: 9/10. Almost every game that releases is capable of looking better, and FE3H is no exception. However, whether it is the animated cutscenes, traversing the monastery, or engaging in large-scale tactical battles, FE3H looks great for a game on Switch. I genuinely believe this is one of the reasons the game pulled me in so quickly, and I am so happy to see that time was taken to ensure the game looks as good as it does. Animation: 9/10. Again, same thing. Beautiful. I was very happy to see things that were not previously animated, being animated. The best way I can describe this is that there are smaller things you will notice from time to time that you never thought would make a difference - like the fact that there is no longer an animation for "entering" an attack. Those things make a difference. All of the difference. Story: 9/10. "Harry Potter" is not an accurate description of this game's story, because the only thing FE3H shares with Harry Potter is a House system. House systems are a tradition of England's schooling dating back hundreds of years. If anything, FE3H is historically accurate. And I am really disappointed that some of my fellow Fire Emblem veterans have simply dismissed the game for this reason, because the nuance of the story is something I really appreciate as opposed to many of FE's former titles. I won't tell you what to do, but in short, I do not believe you can actually "play" the game and walk away thinking it is like Harry Potter, so if I were you, I would strongly disregard anyone who brings that view to the table. Characters: 10/10. Characters in this game are excellent. Dialog is snappy, and time spent with students really draws you into the world and its story. If you do not spend time with these characters, you will be missing a HUGE part of the game. Take the time to individually "instruct" them when the time comes and you will see that you care a lot about your students and their progress. You will definitely be invested in them and their lives. Customization: 10/10. Your students progress is the foundation for FE3H customization options. Every single student has the ability to become so many different classes. It is your responsibility to see to it that they achieve their goals, true. But it is also your responsibility to ensure they try new things. If you do, you will find that some characters have a knack for classes they had no interest in - just like real life. This is a really fun part of the game that I think a lot of people are overlooking, so take your time with it. Gameplay: 10/10. Honestly, FE3H feels as great as FE always has. They brought back weapon durability, which adds some busy work, in my opinion, but the classic battle system is there with just a few more layers to keep veterans interested. And its great! I also think the battle-to-schooling ratio is perfect, making battles feel more intense and more important then previous titles. Voice-acting quality: 10/10. This entire game is voice acted. This ENTIRE game. I love the voices involved and I am really happy with all of the casting choices. I recognize many of the names, but generally the voices are a "good fit" for the characters you are speaking with. Music: 8/10. The music is well implemented. There some interesting decisions with sound design in the battles that I think I just need to play more to understand, but it seems like the music shifts depending on what is occurring, which is cool. None of the tracks stand out to me so far though, which is a shame. "You are the ocean's gray waves" comes into my mind every so often, and I miss that. Price of game: 10/10. No MTX BS, no content cut before launch just to sell as DLC. Just a really great game for $60. Extrinsic positive/negatives: +0/-1 points for auto advance/auto-scroll during conversations not being as tight as it should be. This may seem like a minor nitpick to some, but when the story and the characters are this good, I just want to enjoy them like a movie, not continuously click after their lines are delivered. Average score: 9.3/10. I got the game a day early and said, "oh wth, I will just play an hour or two." I had planned to play considerably the next day, but since it came a day early, why not, right? Well, I ended up playing for five or six hours and I did not realize it. Because I was just having fun. Having said that, I am only about eight hours in now, so I will be returning to update this review as I play through the rest of the game. I hope this review helps you make an informed decision.

I have already 110 hours in this game and its very well deserved. I wont claim its a masterpiece but I will say compare to the other Fire Emblem games this is has been the most enjoyable in a lot of areas. Specifically in the replayability department and story along with length. I have nothing but good things to say about this game and as much I love it there are some flaws which could turn off some type of players. The game is miles away from what Fire Emblem use to be in terms of how it plays and progresses. Everything has been change but as scared as I was to find out how much it changed, cant say Im disappointed. The story still has the Fire Emblem flare to it, in fact it I feel what has been done is mainly adding more depth to the game as whole and characters and even going as far as making 3 seperate stories that all play differently. Absolutely breathtaking :D There are some cons that I wish were handled better but also some that come with the changes. -Classes definitely lost a lot of their uniqueness due to being accessible to everyone. But now you can have a team full of only mages if your intention is to turn the game into Hogwarts haha. -There are a lot of technical issues but never crash nor cause any huge inconvenience most were just graphic issues I experienced. -Graphically the game isnt that impressive but thats been a problem since the change to 3D. -The roaming in the game becomes tiresome and pointless at a certain point but I appreciate the feature and I have a feeling next installment will have this greatly improved. - Lastly the animations dont really pack a punch and as much as previous series before Shadows of Valentia,, past entries had really great animation for characters that really gave characters personality in the battlefield. In this game you dont really notice it Pros - It's by far the longest Fire Emblem game I played even if you skip the roaming and instructions.. theres just so much more to the game now then heading to mission and starting it. Doing Paralogues and so forth.. the game is fantastic in the replayability field and even game length. -Characters have soooo much more personality and you know who is who and hard to really mix them up.. They feel like part of the story and feel genuinely interesting. I had more fun watching through the supports event scenes opposed to playing the game. -Weapon durability is back and Magic doesnt cost health nor are they items so it wont waste space in inventory which was a problem in Awakening. -Although the weapon triangle is gone theres is a new aspect to the game that I like and that is weapon skills have more personality and allows more diversity in what you want to use and who you should use. -No corrin... or lucina.. or forced story elements like kids appearing out of nowhere. Instead you get to see your students grown up which is so nice and I really hope this will be more expanded upon in next entries. -too many pros to list.. Im a die hard Fire Emblem fan and I really thought this one was going to suck but Im so glad Im wrong.. and honestly impressed and I cant recommended enough specially if you never tried a tactical RPG style game,, this one has anime written all over it to with visual novel like so it has something for everyone.. only people I can see disliking this game.. is Someone who utterly despises anime and turn rpg games in general which i dont know why they would even consider this game but maybe it does chane your mind.

This thing scratches both my itch for tactical RPGs and my itch for relationship/life sims. I've been joking with friends and coworkers that I now live to play Fire Emblem: Three Houses, & the game and I are in a committed relationship. I just came off of a Fire Emblem: Awakening playthrough, and this feels like a natural extension. There is far less matchmaking involved (only your character can marry anyone, and not everyone is an option), but I don't feel any real loss. There are even a few same-sex relationship options, and, at least from what I've seen for female main characters, they're even good options. #hottiesForAll I find the battles strangely engrossing; I tend to watch the combat animations--although sped up--whereas I'd turned them off for the vast majority of Awakening. I feel a sense of pride when my housemates pull off a clutch move or hit that turning point where they cease to be a liability and start to become a BAMF. "Free time" at the monastery is fun for me, if a bit formulaic (gotta run and check literally every corner for random items/quests/relationship-boosting dialog). I can see where it might get old for some, but I usually look forward to having tea time with my soldiers, singing in the choir (otherwise known as boosting my faith/authority stats), answering anonymous letters advice-column style, and picking whichever sycophantic dialog option makes a character like me more. I will agree with the general consensus that the menu system can be hella clunky and unintuitive (for instance, did you know you reclass characters by going into the Inventory system?), but it's nothing you can't learn to get along with. And, there's a lot to learn to maximize your time (figuratively and literally, as the game has a calendar system that restricts what you can choose to do in any given month) and resources. There's no shortage of loading screens, which I'm not a huge fan of, but at least the information therein can go a long way towards helping you figure out things, especially when you first start. The game tries to walk you through new mechanics as they occur, but it's easy to miss a concept now and again (at least for me). Now, one new mechanic, which may or may not be to the fandom's liking, is the Divine Pulse. Divine Pulse is an ability allows you to rewind time in battle, stepping back as many turns as you want to go. You can start off from that point as if nothing ever happened. You only have so many charges of Divine Pulse per battle, but the default 3 is generally enough, and you can unlock more. This is the only way I am getting through Hardcore/Classic mode. I refuse to let characters die, and even in Awakening's Casual mode, I save-scummed so that no character ever died. This lets me feel like the kid gloves are off, but I still can, carefully, retry some riskier maneuvers. (You'll understand when you meet a certain recurring optional boss. The one with great defense, great resistance, lethal and accurate attacks in a huge range, and counters to everything except for Gambits.) In any event, can't recommend this game enough. It's entered my top 5 games of all time, even unseating some old favorites. Once the "new" wears off, I'll have to consider if it is worth the #1 slot, but it's really doing it for me--it's got one heck of a shot at it.

On every level this game is superior than Fates, arguably only lacking in the art style. The main premise of Fates was the ability to make a big decision that alters the "fate" of the game, but they were individual games selling at $60 for the first option and +$80 for the two other routes and DLC. In Three Houses, the options are available on this stand-alone game, which means there is hours worth in gameplay by trying different options. I've got 90+ hours in two weeks, and yes I have a job and go to school. Yikes. Going back to the art style, Awakening, Fates, and Echoes arguably had better artwork. There is nothing distinctive about the style in Three Houses and nothing to write home about. It's rather flat and generic, especially among the female case, in which case they all have large eyes and small noses. The males at least have distinctive variations. However, that's only an issue for myself as an art nerd, when the artwork was the main point of visuals on the 3DS. In Three Houses, the immersive world is racked with details in the maps and in the monastery. Because of this, the two-dimensional artwork is justified, though has potential for being better. Otherwise, gameplay is fantastic, plot is fantastic, characters are fantastic. It takes a lot of patience learning the ropes of the game, and it may come off tedious initially. It's one of those games that get better once you get in the groove of it. Highly recommend to Fire Emblem fans, to newcomers, while the story is fresh and new, the gameplay may be initially confusing, as it was for me at first.

Been a long time FE fan. Love these games. Never thought I could love one more than Path of Radiance / Radiant dawn. This game is unlike any other Fire Emblem you’ve ever played. They’ve added a lot of new game mechanics never seen before in FE. The replay value is insane. Cause there are three unique houses, with a unique storyline, and unique characters. Despite this, a single play through of the game is still super long and took me 2 weeks to play through, playing all night after work and all weekend. There’s so much to do. The voice acting is the best in any Fire Emblem game. Just PHENOMENAL (especially Dimitri, holy crap!). There’s also a relatively large amount of animated cutscenes, which I always enjoy. The character models are gorgeously designed. It’s really nice to get back to a FE where all the elements are 3D, including the battle sprites (but they still have regular sprites as a callback). This game is wholesome and gets you EXTREMELY involved with the characters of the house you choose. It’s delightful. At the same time, the stakes are higher than ever, as you form a real attachment to your characters. The game is also heartbreaking. The characters are all unique and dimensional. I had been disappointed for a while by FE games, ever since Awakening. This game was worth the wait through all those mediocre ones. I could write a short novel on what I love about this game. 10/10 for me.

First, the biggest deficit to the game is that there are 4 story routes but only 2 branch from the same route while blue and yellow require separate playthroughs for no reason. Having to play through the beginning section of and over is incredibly poor game design when there's no benefit for doing so outside the stuff from ng+. If they would change the maps for the beginning section and the story like they did in each of the 4 separate routes second halves it could have saved it. But as is I found it a slog trying to go through the yellow route after the red route when very very little was different between them even dialogue wise. tldr requiring a minimum of 3 full playthroughs was bad game design. Gameplay is next. The over all gameplay wasn't changed much since awakening/fates/echoes. They took away Awakenings and ups children mechanic and marriages, dragon pulses from fates and dungeons/towns from echoes but kept the multi classing, updated the food morale stamina system from echoes, brought back weapon usages, carried over the accessory equipment from echoes, swapped a few classes and removed some and added some different new ones and kept the rewind feature from echoes. What was newer was the new crest system and special lord weapons and accessories system. The first is most units come with a special skill crest on them that can randomly activate during battle. Most are not very useful or important. But some have higher activation rates and are useful like say blocking counter attacks or healing from a portion of damage dealt. Crest weapons and accessories are able to be used by any unit but will take 10 hp damage for ones that don't have the matching crest equipped after combat which is a major deterrent to using them on a unit without the crest. On ng+ you can purchase the crests of your units via crest stones in the renoun shop of the main characters bedroom office. This is very nice since not all units have crests and some can benefit from a crest weapon that would otherwise be useless to the character it is for. Like the swords Lysithea and Marianne can use with their matching crests but they are both mage leaning units. Or the axe Lorenz can equip which is better off on say Cyril. The arguably most important ones though are the magic staff accessories which give +2 and +3 magic attack range. The first one is only usable by Lysithea and Lorenz and the second by I believe Lin and Flayn since they each share a crest. Characters like Hubert, Dorothy etc all greatly benefit from them as well so it's nice on ng+ that you can equip them without the draw back if you use the crest stone. Voice work was a large improvement from the 3ds titles where only the beginning line or a random voiced segment would be present but the rest of the dialogue wouldn't be. But not everything is voiced still so having the hodge podge voice work is kinda disappointing. It is somewhat understandable due to there being 4 different routes and branching dialogue in most of the in game conversations. But it feels like they could have consolidated some of it to a more practical use vs having branches of dialogue many players may never even encounter go to waste. The quality is there at least with very few bad performances and I was quite surprised that some of the characters share the same voice actors between routes. Class system wise is lacking many of the staples from previous games and new editions. Though I did read that some classes were added in via the dlc such as the dark peg class but that being paid content isn't exactly a great solution. One of the returning classes Dancer is a weak one especially when the platoon skill stride can do it's job slightly better. And since you can only promote a unit to dancer once per playthrough via missable sidequest and it requires a stat check of charm to do so it hurts it further. If they had at least made the dancer function like the heron class from path of radiance and radiant dawn where it gave 1-4 units another turn that could have saved it. but as is I got very little utility from it compared to previous games where it had other benefits than giving a unit another turn. Story routes they did it probably the most questionable way they could have handled it. In each story route, it essentially branches into an alternate timeline where whomever you didn't pick opposite of the character you did pick becomes the games primary antagonist and completely loses their minds basically. With the exception of the red route, this is especially apparent for a certain unit whose design is even drastically different between the 4 routes. Other changes happen like some units die in-between routes and are never seen again who were primary characters in another route among other things. Because the routes are that drastically different than each other it doesn't feel like they all came from the same story with the same characters. Besides that, each story routes have checklists for what units you can and cannot use in them but there's little or no story justification for it outside the advisory roles 4 characters play to their respective lords. Seteth for Rhea, Dedue for Boar prince Dimitri, Hubert for Edelgard and Hilda for Claude and some minor units like Ashe for one route, Gilbert for a route and other units like Anna and Jeritza being exclusive specifically to red route only that were added in later as dlc. This part hurts the story in particular as almost none of the units are added into main story scenes for the most part and they are given little to no justification for joining other routes other than because they like the professor. You have some in cases like Lorenz and Lysithea joining the red route as they are close to empire territory and have connections to the empire. But some are outright conflicting like Petra being in any route other than the red route as that would lead to the destruction of her home country. They somewhat address that part by having her country attacked in the golden deer route during her paralogue special map and you save it from the empire vs in the red route it's someone else that attacks it. But that adds further plot holes on how they'd even get to Petras country located on an island off of enemy territory, how they would defend it and keep supply lines going among other things long term. Whatever route you pick the majority of the characters can all be recruited during the first half of the game. But once you get to the second half some or most will leave and you can have the option to recruit some them back depending on the route. Some just leave and are gone or die off screen however. Hilda is also the sole exception where she can be recruited in a route other than her own under specific conditions during the second half of the game.

This is my first Fire Emblem game, so I don't know how it compares to any other, but this was a a really great return to the kinds of games I loved the most in my teenage years. My only real complaints involve how repetitive the game is and how everyone is apparently bisexual and horny for everyone else. Many of the characters are basically cookie cutter copies of each other, from everyone having one of three or four mental disabilities to having the same character animations. The good news is that you can skip the social scenes once they get boring and only watch the ones between characters that you like. That said, I have over 200 hours in the game already thanks to the replayability of having muliple houses and story paths to choose from. The actual gameplay is fun, even if the battle animations and maps are even more repetitive than the social scenes mentioned above. Buried under it all though is an actual interesting story that mixes way-too-obvious-from-a-mile-away "reveals" to some reveals that are actually shocking and interesting. If you're looking for a highly active and energetic game, this isn't it. But if you're wanting a taste of Final Fantasy Tactics mixed with Suikoden, give it a try.

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Top 5 de los mejores juegos de switch buena historia larga duración rejugabalidad , banda sonora increible.

Great game. Arrived working and no damage to the packaging nor game.

Must buy for FE lovers, Amazing game. Bought the digital as a collector item which will be passed down for future generation

A entrega chegou bem rápido e o jogo em si é bem bom(e de fato estava na caixa). Só recomendo a todos gravarem antes abrir os pacotes com o jogo, porque as vezes o cartucho não está dentro da caixa.