Fire Emblem: Three Houses

It doesn't excel in any area particularly, but Three Houses was an enjoyable tactical experience with a decent story and some interesting characters.

Look, my main issue with this game is that for a game that pushes you to play it multiple times to experience every House and its cast of characters, there's almost no variation with the levels in the game. You just replay the same scenarios again and again. And those scenarios themselves are not very well designed, some of the weakest map design in the series. All that being said, this was a great evolution of the series. The daily tasks and the whole being a teacher at a school thing was a great move to add variety and character. Makes it a lot of fun to level up your student's skills. The fruit texture, if you know you know.

Some people say this has great writing, which is a little funny to me because the story is all over the place, trying extremely hard to be serious and imitating a particular type of plot that is clearly not equiped to do, not to mention a lore that I cannot imagine someone liking. The idea of having different routes is fine and makes sense from a mechanics perspective, but the pacing is atrocius as basically half the game is an introduction, and all the systems with which you interact with the characters aren’t as enjoyable to do them three or even four times. Any additional playthrough will have you spending at least five hours of repetitive chores. The other part of the writing has no right being as good as it is; the characters. At the beginning I honestly thougth they were written by the programing department, but as you advance they reveal all their personal trauma and funny querks, which I found extremely endeering. It is probably the best part of the game. The combat is good, but not excellent; I’m missing the regular rock-paper-scisors dynamic of weapons of other games in the series, or something similar. The maps are mediocre and lack some variety, so that’s something to keep in mind. The unit specialization system is complex but in my opinion not tremendously well implemented. The graphics are merely acceptable and the performance is poor.

The Fire Emblem series has always been about unit progression and customization, and using each mission as efficiently as possible, for me, and I doubt Im alone. This game understands that more than any other in the series I've played, granting players endless options to tweak their own units, equipment, ect. Not only that, its got a sprawling story, good art design, and countless systems and side distractions.

I personally cant imagine playing this game twice though: getting through the story is a chore, even though its good, and from watching snippits of the other routes, there's not much else there. This isnt fully a complaint either, as the first run gives you plenty of options to recruit almost whoever you want, and tailor them in almost any way you want.

I have plenty of minor complaints, but they do little to tarnish the experience, and are most often a symptom of something I like about the game. The main issue I have is that money and resources get away from you quickly, if you are dedicating time to side content. Maybe thats a "feature not a bug", for new game plus, and letting you choose your own difficulty, but it made parts of the game feel bloated and "grindy", or like homework.

My experience with this series goes back further than it does for most other fans of the series. For my eleventh birthday I wanted Advance Wars 2 for the Gameboy Advance, considering I loved the first one and I loved getting games for my GBA as it was one of the last gifts my parents ever got me before both of them had passed away. My uncle (He was my legal guardian) was unable to find Advance Wars 2, but the guy at the game store directed him to Fire Emblem 7 The Blazing Blade, or just known here in the states as "Fire Emblem", seeing as it was the first game in the series. He told my uncle it was made by the same studio, and played similarly. I got it for my birthday and was mildly disappointed, but he told me to give it a shot, and if I didn't like it we could take it back and get me a new game. I agreed and I tried it out. From the moment I played Lyn's story I fell in love with the world, it's characters and the series. I have since played and beaten every main entry in the series, including the impossibly hard Tharcia 776. I have played and beaten almost every spin off. (still playing Three Hopes and the Megami Tensei crossover) and I have probably sunk hundreds of hours into the series, not even counting this game. Ike's games, particularly the one on the Wii was one of my favorites, so to find out we were getting another home console Fire Emblem game was exciting news.

Originally planned for the 3ds, they decided to wait until they got a Switch dev kit, so they could fully realize the scope of the game better. They used what they had worked on for this 3ds prototype and turned it into a remake of the second game. (which turned the second game from the ugly duckling I loved so much into my second favorite game in the series behind this one) When this was announced I thought it looked good, but I was bit disappointed I thought they were changing stuff where it didn't need to be changed, just to appeal to a casual audience, because after all the switch proved that any series that gets a new entry on it will already sell way better than it did before. I had even accused Fates of trying to widen the appeal of the series a little too much. My excitement rose again when I saw Koei Tecmo was assisting in development of the game. As we saw more trailers I decided I needed to play for myself to decide. So I bought the game day one and rushed home. I gave myself a big bowl of Cheetos and a big two liter of RC cola because I was pregnant, got strong cravings and figured this would be a good cheat day. I turned on the game on and was thrust into a cutscene that gave us mystery and action, yet showed us events that seemingly had no importance on the story, or at least at first glance.

I chose black eagles, and as I played through I fell in love with the characters, world and story. It was as if I was discovering the franchise all over again, but at it's core, it's still Fire Emblem.

I'll probably provide edits and updates as I play through more paths, as this review was written after one play through siding with the church, one playthrough siding with the empire. (still midway through a playthrough siding with the alliance.) and one playthrough of the DLC introducing the fourth class at the church. First thing I'll talk about is the gameplay, and then I'll talk about my favorite characters and the story, which will be totally skippable if you wish to avoid spoilers.


Not only is this the first Fire Emblem on home consoles since the Wii, but it is also the first in the series to be fully voice acted. As is everywhere in the marketing, you are a teacher at a school located in the central church. The school teaches it's students in combat and more, but the combat training is a big part of it. The school is called the officer's academy after all. There are three classes, each with students from one of the three factions on the continent of Fodlan, The Black Eagles class with students from the Empire, The Blue Lions class with students from the Kingdom, and the Golden Deer class with students from the alliance. Each of the three classes has a different story, different students, (a few characters are path exclusive, though you can recruit most characters not in your class to join) different levels/missions (particularly in the second half of the game) and different stuff to experience outside of combat. As a teacher it is your job to teach your students skills that will aid them in combat. You teach them all throughout the week, but only playthrough one of these classes every week. During this you get to choose a number of students (how many depends on your teacher level, which levels up over time) and teach each something of your choice, which allows them more skill in that thing. This can mean using higher quality weapons of that weapon class, learning new skills you can equip to them, or new special moves to learn in combat. This means that everything you do in class has an effect on how each student fairs in battle. Once they are skilled enough in a certain thing they can upgrade to a better class of unit to use in battle, one that specializes in whatever it is they are good at. I.E. upgrading a student who you have taught to do well with a sword from a myrmidon to a swordmaster. Every weekend you get to go around the monastery and do whatever you want. You can do jobs to earn money, spend time with your students, go fishing, have a tea party with other characters, generally whatever. If you do something with another character than odds are that it will affect their stats or feelings. Characters who work together often will increase bonds and you can see conversations play out showing them as better friends. It really makes your actions feel impactful knowing everything you do has an impact on the rest of the game in some form, and you can do whatever you want in that time on days like these. This feedback loop reminds me in many ways of Persona 5, which is why I loved that game when it came out. On the last day of every month you and your class are sent on a mission from the church. Doing this progresses the story by one chapter. These missions can be anything from kill some hiding bandits, get an ancient relic back, and more. Each character also has optional story missions you can do on the weekends at different points in the story (depending on what path you choose of course), which not only strengthens your bond with them, but gives you exclusive character specific rewards. Without getting into spoilers I just want to say that the further you get into the game, the more that it becomes about so much more than just being a teacher

Fire Emblem uses a standard tactical RPG combat system. In other words levels are played out by moving characters along tiled spaces on a turn by turn basis and moving them to an enemy character to attack. This gameplay has turned a lot of people off to the series. The second one tried building upon this by adding more traditional RPG elements and other new things all built off the formula established by the first game in order to add a bigger sense of adventure, but it was maligned for doing so and being different, with most of it's changes and additions gone in the third game. Awakening and Fates on the 3ds both tried giving you good out of combat stuff you can do. Each game has managed to stay great though, thanks to great stories, and great characters who you want to see succeed. The game has an optional mode where characters die permanently if they die in a mission, which is the mode purists prefer because basically every FE game up until a decade or so ago did this by default. (meaning I have restarted many a level in classic FE games in an attempt at doing the level again without a minor character I like dying. The combat and levels here are just as you remember them, but with an added difference. Previous games all had an established rock paper scissors system with battles to help add another layer of strategy to the game, this being known as the weapon triangle. Basically characters using a sword are super effective against characters with axes, characters with axes are super effective against characters with lances, and characters with lances are super effective against characters with swords. This goes in reverse too, just replace "super effective" with "weak against".. However in Three Houses the weapon triangle is gone. Sure units with a certain a weapon can learn skills that make their weapon of choice more effective against what would be super effective against on the weapon triangle, but overall battles are decided by so much more now. Another new addition are special attacks you can use in battle that do more damage and often have a special power with it, but take a lot of durability out of the characters' weapon. This adds another level of strategy, as I.E. one character can have a special attack that is really good against beasts, so you may want them to use it, but not too much or else their weapon will break. This change makes tackling harder or troublesome enemies much easier. but adds another layer of strategy. Another neat addition is battalions. They are small squads of units you assign to a character, and they add to said character's stats. However Battalions have an ability you can use once per turn, which varies depending on the battalion and it's success rate varies depending on the battalion's durability, which goes down with each usage. Again, another completely optional to use change to the battle system that makes it easier for newer players, but adds new layers of strategy for returning fans of the series. The levels themselves are also more dynamic than ever. Previous games had enemies with keys who would drop them once defeated, and then you could use said key to open a door, gate or treasure chest. Three Houses still has that, but now we have things like levers activating traps and things on the other side of the map. The maps are also much more expansive, and now include things like teleporters, are ranged weapons like ballistas that characters can use if they are proficient enough in that weapon type. Major changes were made here from previous games, and those that were made were for the better. They have taken away the pair up system from the 3ds games. (two units would join together as one unit and attack jointly. You could switch which one was the one moving around the battlefield and instigating combat at anytime) In the pair up system's place is a new system called the adjutant system, working much like how the pair up system did in the original Fire Emblem Warriors, but a little differently too. You at the start of the battle assign a character to be an adjutant to another character.. The adjutant could do things like increase stats, or heal them a little after a battle. I don't like it more, but it's a fine replacement for the pair up system. The last major change is that boss fights are a bit different. In most previous games most bosses were an extra powerful unit who would sit at a stationary point in the map, equipped with a strong weapon and give you a good item if you beat them. Most boss fights in game are still like that, but now there are a new type of supplemental bosses, which take up multiple tiles and require multiple attacks or different strategies to break their shields before you can damage them, in addition they also have multiple health bars. These are another fantastic addition, adding new powerful enemies that take a lot of thought to take out beyond just sending your strongest units and most advantageous units to go all out on a guy in the corner of the map. They are more common than I make them sound, and make for a fun challenge. Overall combat in the series has never been better. They've added so many great changes.

The best part is that if you want to spend most of your time in battles you can do that, if you want to only do battles to further the story and prefer to focus on other stuff you can do that too. You can tailor the game and the characters there in around how you prefer to play. It's this level of additions and customization that make this accessible and a strong innovation from previous entries. Though either way an average playthrough of the game could take you as little as seventy hours, eighty on average or as many as a hundred plus hours if you want to be thorough and experience everything your chosen path has to offer, again the game is made in a way wear you can tailor your experience around how you want to, even going as far as to skipping doing anything on weekends all together if you just want to go through the story and nothing else. (as ill advised as it may be)

They've also added a DLC pack where you find a fourth class. This presents a new side story that should take about six or seven hours, a little over ten if you want to go through it as a completionist. It contains a new hub area to explore, four new students exclusive to the school's hidden fourth class, which you can only pick in the DLC story. It's story is canon, and is made ambiguous as to when it takes place or what house you chose as to make it fit within whatever story you went through. It's good short and sweet campaign that introduces four great characters. Beating this campaign allows you to access this new hub area, recruit the four new students from the DLC to your class in the story, as well as introduce four DLC exclusive classes you can give characters. In addition you get access to content previously cut from the game due to time constraints such as the ability to feed any dogs and cats you find in the church, the ability to recruit Anna, (for those who don't know she has a cameo and/or major appearance in every FE game) the ability to spend time with another character in the sauna, where depending on what you do you can make them feel relaxed and double what they learn in class. You also get some new general stuff like new jobs and quests asked of you by people at the church, new items to equip to characters, new optional battles with great rewards, and a bunch of new costumes for everyone, which you can equip from a menu you access at your character's desk. Overall I'd say the DLC isn't required to experience the game, but it makes your experience full and complete, especially when the new characters are just great.

Now onto the spoiler stuff, for those wishing to remain spoiler free, please skip to the final paragraph of the review.

No good Fire Emblem game is complete without an incredible story. The story opens with a war-torn battlefield. We see a green haired girl leading one army, and a grey skinned man with facial hair and heavy armor fighting. The Green haired girl bests him in combat and reminds him of something. When he remembers she passionately kills him and longingly cradles his sword, referring to it as her mother and saying that it's over. We are then greeted to the sight of a green haired woman addressing the player and asking what they're doing there. This is a great opening, as it gives us action, and mystery all in just the opening cutscene. All to be explained should the player wish to go through the story.
This is where the game asks you to pick your gender, name etc. I'll get into more about that in my characters section. Your dad is there when you wake up and mentions you're mercenaries and got a job to do the next day. That's when three students who are the leaders of each house at the school (houses are what they refer to the school's classes in game as) show up and request help fending off bandits trying to kill them. Here you learn the green haired girl in your dream is real, her name is Sothis and she can turn back time a little bit. So the church's knights come and drag you back to the church where you learn your father was the captain of the church's knights and you are wanted as a teacher while they want your father to resume working with the knights. This is where you pick the house/class you want to teach. The first half of the game is largely the same no matter what house you pick. The main difference is the cutscenes. Before every story battle and after every story battle (and the optional character specific missions I mentioned earlier) you are presented with a cutscene of you and your students, as well as a cutscene at the beginning of each month and during each other advancement in the story. The cutscenes will play out differently because each house/class has it's own students. students not originally in your class that you recruited to it will not show up in these cutscenes either. I.E. I could recruit Mercedes from the Blue Lions class to the Black Eagles or Golden Deer, but she's only going to be in cutscenes on the Blue Lions Route. This gives incentive to replay the game, to see the differences in how cutscenes play out with different characters, as the first half of the game you are playing the same missions and going through the same story regardless of your path, but it's in the middle of the game that open up the fourth main story path and change the story in every path.

Each path is determined by which house you chose. Black Eagles has it's house leader Edelgard, Blue Lions has Dimitri and Golden Deer has Claude. I've only gone through Edelgard's path but hers can also lead to a fourth path. near the end of the first half of the game your father is killed by some grey skinned demonic girl. You kill her and her accomplice, but fall into a trap, requiring Sothis to merge with you and the two of you become one entity. This effectively gives you Sothis's power and makes you and her the same person, and it makes Byleth's hair a weird color. Midway through the game the church leader and archbishop Rhea asks you to sit on the former throne of the goddess to receive a vision, As she suspects your physical change show a link to the goddess and she thinks sitting their will give you a vision. Sitting there, you don't get a vision from the goddess because the goddess is Sothis and you and her merged into one being. While Rhea tries to figure out what is happening Edelgard and the imperial royal army burst in and try to rob the tomb. You jump to Rhea's aid and stop them of course. Then you are told to kill Edelgard and she escapes, however if you chose Edelgard's path than you can go with her on an errand to the empire. during any weekend of that month.. This errand is revealed to be her crowning, as she is now replacing her ill father as ruler of the empire, and you are standing in for Rhea, who would normally oversee such a thing. Doing so will instead generate a decision. You can say you must kill Edelgard, prompting her escape and the cutscene plays out like normal, or you can say you don't want to kill her, and Rhea is appalled that you won't do it, and brands you and your class as enemies of the church. Afterwards you prepare for a big battle. This is usually defending the monastery, but if you chose to side with Edelgard it's attacking the monastery. The mission will always end with the player character getting knocked unconscious and waking up five years later.

This is where things change. depending on your path, You wake up five years later which is coincidentally the day of a class reunion talked about five years ago and here is where the story differs.

In my first playthrough I sided with the Rhea, so in this path you encounter Edelgard and argue with her before she leaves you to be picked off by bandits. The rest of the black eagles class comes for the reunion only to find the bandits attacking you and a fun mission plays out. Upon it's completion the students you recruited to the class will be available and you'll get access to some church path exclusive characters. You'll meet up with some friends from the church, talk about making a new church out of the old one and searching for Rhea, leading to a story about your class and the former church fighting against the empire. The Kingdom and the Alliance team up to try and destroy the empire, but fail, Claude and Dimitri both go missing, and everyone else involved dies (including any students form the Blue Lions and Golden Deer that you didn't recruit) with the exception of Dimitri's handler Dedue. Your faction uses this opportunity to storm the capitol and stop Edelgard. You kill Edelgard, who laments that she just wanted to work beside you and it's a shame your goals never lined up. You save Rhea, who has been starved and weakened in captivity. You then find a note on the corpse of Edelgard's handler Hubert that he wrote addressed to you in case Edelgard lost. Here he reveals the true villain: "those who slither in the dark". For the last few levels you work with Rhea to stop this evil organization. In the last mission after you defeated those who slither in the dark Rhea explains everything to you. Including her relation to your mother, and everything that had transpired, but while explaining it she goes into shock and loses control of her power, causing her to transform into the immaculate one, a dragon type creature. You have to defeat her, and if you didn't get an A rank support with her in the first half of the game she dies, otherwise she lives. The game ends with you becoming the new king of Fodlan, which is now a one nation continent, ruling it with whichever character you decide to marry. (something I'll get into later) Then you get to read what happened to each character who was with you and what they did after the events of the game (assuming they didn't die), including your own.

This was the path I first played through and I loved it. I truly felt bad about killing Edelgard, but I felt satisfied with my path and like it was a good ending. I felt bad so many people died, but the light at the end of the tunnel was glorious. I also just love stories about small resistance groups winning against bigger factions, so this pleased me in that regard. However the whole point of the game is that there is no set canon ending, it's your experience, and whatever path you chose is the one that you need to feel as the one that actually happened, and while I loved my story path for the reason I explained, I knew there was another side to that coin, and I had to see it.

Now this path is the main reason why Edelgard haters exist, (the other paths never propagated it like the church path did) however there are far more Rhea haters, and Edlegard's path is the reason. Playing through Edlegard's path first you may never know the importance Rhea had on not only history and keeping peace, but the significance she has to your characters' origin

In Edelgard's path you two are happily reunited and then meet the rest of your class. You do a mission about fighting bandits in the ruins of the monastery, and then move on with a character called The Death Knight now in your party as a path exclusive character. The story sees you fighting everyone, the Alliance, (if you beat Claude as Byleth you can choose to spare him) the Kingdom, and most notably the church. Rhea has united all factions against the empire and throughout the story is not even herself. Rhea has now referred to herself as saint Seiros, and dawned the outfit she wore in the opening cutscene, revealing that cutscene to be the war Saint Seiros waged against those who slither in the dark all those years ago. She is blinded by grief and rage over your betrayal and what has happened. She declares that Rhea is no more, and she is now just Seiros. After defeating the alliance you fight against the Kingdom. Winning means executing Dimitri who was recently crowned as king. Dimitri to is so stricken with rage and a lust for revenge, that he is no longer than nice boy from before, but a beast of pure rage which Edelgard puts down as a mercy, Seiros sets fire to the kingdom capitol disregarding all people inside, planning to trap your forces there with the flames and finishing it all in a battle as the immaculate one. When you beat her your character returns back to her human form, losing their connection to Sothis and is told by Edelgard they are free.. From there the game ends and it is explained that Edelgard united Fodlan as a single empire and under your guidance she always saw sense and never went too far. They mention that she focused all immediate efforts to killing those who slither in the dark and then like in all the other paths are told what happened to each character that was with you, including you and the character you chose to marry.

Playing this path and seeing both sides of a then ongoing war of arguments going on between the fandom, I felt truly enlightened. Edelgard was never a villain, she was just misguided. With you there to guide her she became a good ruler, and saw sense. Rhea was never your true enemy either, Edelgard only made her one. What makes this worse was that and Edelgard and Rhea both wanted to see those who slither in the dark destroyed. They had the same enemy, and yet killed each-other instead, like they were born enemies or something. It's tragic, but this duality between paths is what makes the story so great, both have similar outcomes ultimately, but the means are so drastically different. There are similarities in both paths like the kingdom and alliance being destroyed, a united Fodlan, the destruction of those who slither in the dark, but because of this duality, people will always argue over who was in the right, Rhea or Edelgard despite their stories being two sides of the same coin.

I'll go over the DLC story and my thought on it real quick too.
Claude, Dimitri and Edelgard find a hidden entrance to underneath the monastery. They tell you and you all go down. A few other students follow and you all end up in a hidden city underneath the monastery called abyss. There you meat Yuri, Balthus, Constance and Hapi, known as the Ashen Wolves. The four think you're intruders and fight it out, only to come to an understanding. From there you help them in there endeavors for a bit, and then decide to search for a treasure hidden underneath the monastery. You meet the person supporting them Aelfric, who kind of runs abyss under Rhea's order. It turns out he was a good friend of your mother's and still isn't over her passing. He tells you plenty of stories about her and encourages you to find abyss's treasure as well as take the Ashen Wolves under your wing and add them to your class. It is later revealed he was a bad guy the whole time, using the four Ashen Wolves as part of some ritual to bring back your mother's whos corpse he found in abyss in pristine condition. The ritual fails and he turns into a monster, forcing you and everyone else to kill him. Rhea reveals a bit about your mother being an experiment of hers' that she raised as a daughter, and that she couldn't let go and kept her in body in a tomb in abyss. Rhea gives your mother a proper burial at her grave stone, and all is well again.

This is another great story that just invested me and in my mind justifies the purchase of the DLC. We learn lots of lore, meet four awesome new students and it finally gives you background on your mother, who is mention a few times in the main game, but not much is known other than she died giving birth to your character, so it's great seeing this resolution to that. Abyss is such a cool location, even if it's pretty small. After saying all of this I want to get into the final section of my over long review.

Before we start I want to mention the endings. At the end of the game you get little blurbs for each character with you at the end of the game explaining what they did after the events of the game. Characters with an A rank bond with each-other have a chance of getting a paired ending which can include marriage or just living out the rest of their lives together. However before the final level you visit your mothers' grave before your final battle and hold her wedding ring, and think about someone you love as much as your father loved your mother. From here you get the option of picking someone of the opposite gender you have an A rank bond with. (there are also a couple same same sex options as well if you chose a female avatar, and one same sex option if you chose a male avatar) After the level your Byleth goes to find the character you picked at your mother's gravestone. You talk for a little bit before presenting them with the wedding ring, and you share a moment together before the game ends. Then you are greeted to an end of game narration explaining the state of Fodlan now, and then you see the aforementioned blurbs of text showing what happened to all your allies. Originally I was apprehensive of this. Awakening on the 3ds introduced marriage between two characters, which was a very beloved mechanic that got a little hate from purists. How this worked was once you A ranked a bond with a character of the opposite gender (same sex marriage wasn't a thing until Three Houses) you had the option to marry that person if you wanted. Your bond is then changed to S rank, and you have your child, who is now there fighting along side you. (time travel shenanigans is the reason for that) I thought it was a good mechanic, and they brought it and the child thing back in Fates and while it made less sense in that game to have your aged up child with you, it was still fine. However just knowing they changed it made a little bitter. However I do know now why they did it. The main reason was to avoid any potentially uncomfortable thoughts on teacher/student relationships, so you have to wait till the end of the game where all previously underage characters are now of legal age, and they are no longer your students. Yes I know people have memed Dorothea and Sylvain being thirsty for female Byleth, but this is in fact the reason. However I think this works great. There is a scene midway through the game two months before the 5 year time skip where the character you have a romantic moment with the character you have the highest ranking bond with who meets the criteria for marriage. (you don't have to pick this person as your spouse at the end of the game, but this cutscene will play out be default and it makes your bond level up quickly, so it's good to choose someone you like early in game and go from there.) Aside from that and the scene at the ending, romance is mostly not a thing. I think that is for the best. One thing Fates is negatively accused of and rightfully so is attracting a new audience to the series who kind of treat it like Waifu Emblem. With all the characters who do make my female leaning bisexuality act up a bit, as well as it's handling of romance did kind of help give Fire Emblem the status as the weeb series punching bag casual Nintendo fans and Smash Bros fans give the series. However handling romance like this gives focus to the story, the characters and their struggles. It's still there, but mostly just serves as delicious cherry on top of the already incredible experience, one of the most memorable and one saved for last, and this aspect wouldn't feel so rewarding if it wasn't for the already great characters.

First I'll start with the player character who I will refer to by their default name Byleth. Previously Fire Emblem games were strictly scripted and had a set protagonist, that was until Awakening. Both Awakening and Fates allowed you to make a custom protagonist and had the voice acting be vague and minimal outside of cutscenes. They were still strictly scripted, but it was nice. I initially didn't like Byleth, as you do not get to customize how they looked and I thought their design was generally boring. (Sadly that didn't stop people online from being thirsty for the female Byleth) This was because Byleth is shown prominently in pre rendered cutscenes, as opposed to the 3ds games' pre rendered cutscenes either not showing the protagonist or were shown in the protagonist's point of view. The reason for this being that the protagonist of those games was highly customized, and couldn't be pre rendered without doing dozens of different versions of the cutscene, I thought this was a bit of a silly reason to remove player customization and give us this boring character design. However after doing two whole playthroughs of the game I can safely say being bland and boring is what makes Byleth such a compelling character. One of my favorite games ever is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. It's a fully voice acted RPG where all your decisions effect the world around you. The world was so well thought out and all of your actions impacted it in some way. However your character is the only one with no voice acting. This is because you are meant to read your character's dialogue out yourself in your head with a voice of your own. So every time you read aloud dialogue when choosing which dialogue option to use, it was a voice of your own reading it. Byleth's dialogue is the same way. They are only voice acted and heard when leveling up or making grunts and such. You read Byleth's dialogue choices yourself before picking one. This isn't Byleth's story, as much as it is yours you are experiencing through Byleth. This is why in contrast to the entries on the 3ds whenever I watched a character bond with Byleth or get closer to them I felt like I had gotten closer to that character. Byleth is bland because they are meant to be the player insert, even more so than the protagonist of the 3ds games like Robin and Corrin, who are distinct characters with their own personalities unlike Byleth. Robin is always going to be nice and friendly to his party members and the characters around him, but Byleth could be a bit of an ass if you wanted them to be by picking more stupid or mean dialogue options when available. This is why it felt rewarding when the game informed me someone's bond with me got deeper because I said a nice or smart thing in a dialogue option. Whenever I was faced with a serious decision it really felt like a weight was on my shoulders to pick what I thought was the right thing. So despite Byleth being boring I think they are brilliant for the same reasons I thought Revan was back in KOTOR..

Now I want to discuss my favorite character and the one that stuck with me the most. Rhea's story is very heavy. Originally the goddess Sothis came to earth and helped humanity prosper in Fodlan. She and her children lived in their own city, while Sothis had helped humanity advance so far that some Argathans soon saw themselves as above Sothis and wanted her power for themselves, these people became those who slither in the dark. After weakening Sothis they gave Nemesis the power needed to take her on and branded him as hero liberating humanity from under the heels of the goddess and her people. Nemesis slaughtered all of her Children except for one who got away, and killed the weakened Sothis, who hadn't recovered from her last battle. This child who got away was Rhea. Nemesis and his allies drank the blood of Sothis's children known as Nabateans, and took a fraction of their power which manifested as marks known as crests. Then he carved powerful weapons from their bones. Rhea in her vengeful state united everyone against Nemesis under her angry and vengeful persona of Seiros. She helped form the empire to help reestablish order to Fodlan when the war was done. She rewrote history and put the children of Nemesis's followers in power because they bore crests which were the last remaining sign of the Nabateans; power. She then formed the church with the last remaining Nabateans and formed a religion based around her mother, while secretly trying many questionable experiments to bring her mother back. All of these experiments failed, and never panned out. Rhea suppressed humanity's development, for fear of humanity trying to wipe out her kind again. Many of her decisions were blinded by her grief and depression. She never got over just how horrifying what had happened was. She wanted so bad to see her mother again, and she couldn't do it. So many of the bad things she has done were in the name of trying to bring back a past violently ripped away from her. The crest system is a flawed system of nobility. Letting the kingdom and alliance form was questionable decision she just let happen to try and maintain a cold peace. The poor system of ruling and unease brought about by it has spiraled out of her control by the events of the game. Rhea has done so many bad things some of which may seem unforgiveable, but they weren't malicious. She just wanted to see her mother again. I know what Rhea is going through because I know how she feels. By the end of the church path she realizes this after being held captive by Edelgard for five years, and if you meet the requirements for her to live she passes duties ruling Fodlan off to you while she goes off with her loyal knight Catherine to live a life in seclusion and peace. I too have done bad things to try and relive the past. I know what it's like to long for a lovely past that was violently ripped away from you. I know what it's like to give anything to see your mother again, but I made peace with everything and moved on. Rhea never did. She is an example of what happens when depression and grief blinds you and dictates your decisions. Because of how I related to Rhea she has not only become my favorite Fire Emblem character, but just one of my favorite game characters ever. I even got an oil painting of her hanging up in my house.

Edelgard's history is one I don't know all too well, as some of it is locked behind Dimitri's path and I have yet to play that, however Edelgard's story is also quite dark. She was experimented on as a child by those who slither in the dark, of which her uncle was one of it's members. They used Edelgard and all of her siblings as experiments to see what they could do. They engineered Edelgard to become their ultimate weapon against the church. When the empire was formed with the help of Seiros, a book of knowledge was written by the original emperor that contained the truth and not the rewritten history. Thusly Edelgard knew the truth of the church and Rhea, or at least what her ancestor knew. She never knew everything, but enough to know a lot of the bad things Rhea has done. No more shall the world be ruled by children of the goddess. Edelgard wanting to restore Fodlan to how it was before Sothis is an honorable one. Things under Rhea were getting worse, and the crest system has destroyed the lives of some people However Edelgard's means of bringing this about were violent, radical and absolute. By instigating war with the church she effectively made herself an enemy of all of Fodlan, and without Byleth guiding her she grows a bit cold and distant. Edelgard wants to make the world better, and let humanity prosper, but her way involves a complete conquest. This isn't her fault either, it's those who slither in the dark, having hardened her into the person she is. It's this that has given her a great resolve that works in her favor and too her detriment. I want to see Edelgard succeed, but not as a dictator. She's flawed, but a diamond in the rough, and one who has rightfully so become a fan favorite.

Talking about the crest based system made me want to talk about another character, one who's life was ruined by it, so I figured I'd talk about two who's story is intertwined. While a lot of people point to Sylvain as a prime example, I think Mercedes is a perfect example. She was born the daughter of minor noble in the empire and with a crest, but he passed away the year she was born. Her mother got remarried to another minor imperial noble and had son, this one named Emile and he also had a crest. Her and her mother were soon treated as expendable, as her stepfather only wanted a child with a crest. He grew abusive and rude. Her younger brother convinced their mother to run away with Mercedes to avoid the abuse. He stayed behind because he believed if he went with their father would hunt them down kill them. Mercedes at the age of 10 moved to a church in the kingdom where she would live out her life. Her father did try hunting them down, as he eventually did discover her location. He wanted another child with a crest to further expand his influence, and his now ex wife was past child bearing age, so he sought to kidnap Mercedes, force her into marriage and force her to bear him more children who would have crests. (marking one of the only times the topic of rape has ever been brought up in a Nintendo series) Emile found out and snapped, killing his father and everyone in the noble house. This evolved into an evil persona known as the Death Knight, who lusts for blood. Emile now had the Death Knight in his body, who had killed his father and sought to kill again Edelgard found him and changed the records of his past, and put him into her service as a knight. Jeritza allowed the Death Knight to exist so that it could protect his sister where he couldn't, something further revealed in the spin off game Three Hopes. (I haven't finished played it yet) Mercedes went to the royal school of sorcery in the kingdom and made friends with Constance and Anette. Mercedes was taken away from the church she stayed at when she was forcibly adopted by a merchant who discovered her crest. He had intended to force her to marry someone from a noble family or a wealthy family using the fact she had a crest as leverage, which happens if she dies in the perma death mode before you reach the second half of the game, The crest system has ruined her brother's life, and hurt her own, but she became a ray of sunshine to all those around he, and depending on how thing go, you can even give her brother a happy ending too (only in Edelgard's path though)



There's even more characters I want to talk about, but am saving for after I beat Claud and Dimitris' paths and add my thoughts on those paths into the review. Characters like the ones I just talked about, to me just made the game work and feel special. Every character has a well thought out and interesting back story, and depending on your actions you can help them find happiness or better themselves. It's not just the story and your impact on it, but it's the characters and your impact on their lives and their stories that made this game stand out above all other entries in the series. To me everything about this game from what I just mentioned, to the changes in how levels are now done and how battles or now down and the fulfilling feedback loop the game gives you. All of this leads to what in my opinion is a perfect experience that I have not found with any game since KOTOR, and in some ways this game left me more fulfilled than KOTOR did. This was truly a great game. While Smash Bros will always be the prime reason why Fire Emblem is the punching bag of major Nintendo franchises, this game adds so much depth to the series that you can't convince me it isn't great. This game gets my highest recommendation and is a more than worthwhile starting point to get into the series.

My first Fire Emblem, and a very enjoyable experience at that. It's my understanding much of the rest of the series is a straightforward strategy game, whereas this takes huge inspiration from Persona in how you foster the growth of your squad, but it is a fine match, and much of the game is enjoyable even for how long it is. The combat is the highlight, albeit a bit too easy on lower difficulty settings and technically not featuring any AI, just scripts to game around, but it is a cracking and tense strategy RPG regardless.

Most of the rest of the experience is enjoyable, but still bogged down by dead-end hooks or mechanics. The UI simply needed another pass; too many times, I had to back out of one menu just to check an influencing statistic in another. It might not be a spreadsheet simulator by any means, but cleaner methods of stat cross-referencing was desperately needed for things like class unlocks and battalion assignment. The game's rhythm of "explore, grow, fight" was hypnotic once I was in there but difficult to get kick started if I just felt like playing Rock Band on another given day.

And the story is simply okay, but not for lack of trying. The concept of fostering a military school is a bit hackneyed having played through the first two Trails of Cold Steel games, but Three Houses does make socialising with the students engaging and many of their social link backstories are cool, even if some of the writing is boilerplate and some character traits are annoying. An attempt at a huge paradigm shift in the second half of the game, leading to admirable moral choices with huge consequences, is somewhat undercut by moments of pure sloppiness; most every emotional death scene in the game is a joke. And I just couldn't bring myself to care about much of the auxiliary world-building, even if its themes of class warfare and church oppression do shine through. But unlike Cold Steel, there isn't much of a world out there in Fodlan. Just more battlefields.

Its flaws only stand out more because of the time commitment, but with all my grumbling, I had a blast and look forward to returning, harder difficulty and newfound knowledge of the setting in hand.