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Fire Emblem: Three Houses Discussion (Nintendo Switch) [game]
 
Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Switch
6.6/10 from 4 user ratings

Welcome to the official discussion thread for Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Switch!

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Has anybody picked this game up? I've been very critical of Fire Emblem's recent history. When I learned that this game would be based around an academy, I was ready to write this one off. But the E3 trailer did a lot to win me over, showing that this title might have some edge and care put into its writing. What sealed the deal was hearing that the game was inspired by Fire Emblem 4, wanting to portray the story of young heir who were close before political machinations led them to opposing sides of war later in life. So I went in cautiously, prepared to return this game for a refund if it put me off in the same way Fates did.

With that in mind, Three Houses has been pretty damn great. The writing is leagues ahead of Fates or Awakening. Characters do have their sort of gimmicky hook (the shut in, the workaholic, the gentle giant, ect), but there's more to these people than the surface level traits that make them stand out. There's a pathos and a true sense of life experience that has led people to develop the simpler face they present to the world. Annette works hard all the time because that's what she was rewarded for as a child. And she pursues magic as a way of trying to find her father who taught her that work ethic. Dedue is a particularly complicated case. The survivor of a racially motivated genocide, he has been taught by experience to eliminate any sense of animosity, not even showing any reaction to overt racism. He serves the Dimitri despite the kingdom's violence against Duscur because Dimitri was personally kind to Dedue. And he chooses to combat stereotypes at an individual by being a reserved, loyal soldier who is reticent to discuss his cultural history. A charitable reading would call him the product of societal trauma, doing what he has to in order to survive, but living a life comparable to native americans who underwent the US's cultural assimilation programs. While a negative reading would call him an uncle tom. Granted, a lot of my reading of Dedue is based on subtext, but that's my point. For the first time in a long time, there is subtext to this story. And it also works because the people who benefit from the subtextual injustice aren't going to explicitly spell it out for you. That's not how privilege works. If you're not the target of oppression, the way it works isn't going to be made apparent for you without any effort. This kind of writing makes me want to play as the other houses I kind find out about the experiences that led them to portray the surface level features I've come to know them by.

Related to that is the academy itself. Early on, I had it explained to me by one of the characters (Dimitri, I think) that the academy takes in war orphans and educates them to become knights of the church. That's some straight up war economy atrocity. But the guy who explained it to me as an altruistic act. Which makes sense because he is a part of that institution. They train his soldiers and give him power. Of course he isn't going to think critically about this. Additionally, the institution of the academy is basically an theocratic nation-state with a bloated military who acts on behalf of their imperial benefactors while kill rebels who may actually have a good point. Which maaaybe reminded me of a certain real world nation in the middle east that I'm not sure I want to make an explicit connection to at the moment . So, to my delight, the big incident that kicked off is someone deciding that they've had enough of the church and want to throw out the current system. In the Blue Lion route she's portrayed pretty unfavorably. But that's likely because I've been made to fight on behalf of the church as heir-apparent to the title of pope. I'm sure the other route will offer a convincing perspective.

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08/01/19, 07:45    Edited: 08/01/19, 09:51
 
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Very slowly playing this. Chose Golden Deer. I love how focused on character and story this is. Great music.

My first FE game.
08/01/19, 12:17   
@carlosrox

Oh sweet! What do you think of the gameplay? People’s first FE tends to be special to them. Kind of like how a lot of people are soft toward their first final fantasy.
08/02/19, 00:27   
@Hero_Of_Hyrule I honestly had the reverse experience. My first Fire Emblem (the first GBA one) I was like eh, this is ok, Advance Wars is way better though. But the series grew on me over time.
08/04/19, 00:55   
Money has been tight lately or I would be all over this. Looking forward to getting it later this month hopefully.

Great to hear the writing is so strong.

Looks like it's going to be a long seller more than a big launch seller thanks to the word of mouth. The brand is only getting stronger though.
08/05/19, 14:24   
Edited: 08/05/19, 14:28
Infinitywave said:
Money has been tight lately or I would be all over this.

Same. I will probably borrow it from the library eventually.
08/05/19, 16:16   
@Hero_Of_Hyrule
I go slow so I've still only done the first major combat mission where you deal with the bandits (third or fourth battle overall?).

But I really enjoy it! My bro is helping me out a bit when I text him for help as he played at least one other FE game.

I'm doing pretty well. Getting the hang of things more and more and picking up various rules.

I really do like the focus on characters and story. Such a great world.

Makes me want an FE adventure game like Zelda.
08/06/19, 10:53   
I'll probably get this eventually, but I still have more Fire Emblems to play on the 3DS first.
08/06/19, 19:22   
I’m about seven hours into this so far, and I am enjoying the heck out of it! I’m amazed at how much time you can spend not in battles. So far I’ve only done 3, and only one of those was a ‘real’ battle. Part of me wants to be battling more, but I’m having fun with the school stuff. I haven’t quite decided how extensively I want to get involved in the school stuff or if I want to just press forward with the story, but we’ll see. I imagine I’ll be spending a lot of time with this game. Which kinda stinks because I still want to spend so much more time in Mario Maker 2 and Dragon Quest Builders 2.
08/09/19, 05:08   
@Brandon

Builders 2 has completely devoured my game time, that game is ridiculously addictive! I may have to put Three Houses on hold until after I finish Dragon Quest XI later this year, because I don't plan on buying anything else after Sep 27, so that can be my holiday title.

I did begin a file on my sister-in-law's copy and went with Golden Deer though.
08/09/19, 05:19   
@TriforceBun

Argh, I was really beginning to get in the groove of DQB2 too! I definitely need to play that more. I’m really going to have to try to split my time between the two games a little better.
08/09/19, 05:29   
First session: "Wow, the voice acting is better than I was expecting, these characters feel pretty grounded. Nice presentation. Maybe I'll stick with this."

Second session: "Alright, now I have to wander around a school... and talk to anime characters... and... oh, now I'm in a battle... and I have to use my brain? Uuuuugh strategy games are so much work, yeeeaaah I dunno about this..."

*a few days go by, sees tweet from Tyler Glaiel*

Tyler Glaiel said:
Why would you play a game that takes 100 hours to learn? cause the learning part of a game is usually some of the most fun times you have playing one, when you get to experiment and figure out how everything works

Third session: "Yeah, okay, Tyler has a point, I'll give this game one more shot and just mess around with it, maybe figuring out how everything interlocks could be fun. Oh, okay, this magic user has ranged attacks. And every time you use a particular type of attack, that stat goes up? Wait, it looks like certain characters are proficient in certain areas, so I should focus on those. Oh wait, no, they're focused on certain areas by default, but if you investigate their profile closely, you can see that some characters have triple stars next to one of their non-default areas, so I should switch them over so that they're training in one area they're naturally gifted in and one area that they have an unlockable special ability in. But wait, then I need to switch everyone's weapons around, which means I need more money, so I should probably..."

Okay, yeah, I'm hooked.
08/19/19, 20:14   
@Secret_Tunnel

Ha, that’s how they get you! I thought the DQ XI demo would be a briefer diversion than it is turning into, but I am loving this game so far and itching to get back into it.
08/28/19, 05:24   
@J.K. Riki
I DID borrow it from the library! It impressed me enough to make it to the Buy List.

@carlosrox
If you don't mind dumb musou games, Fire Emblem Warriors is actually decent.
08/28/19, 14:43   
Edited: 08/28/19, 14:45
Heads up, some weird glitch for expansion pass players, incoming fix.

09/10/19, 01:59   
I've been playing this lately since I'm holed up in the house with the flu. So far, I'm about a dozen hours in. It seems like a very solid and extensive Fire Emblem, although it can be a tad overwhelming at times. I've played through Awakening and Fates and bits and pieces of other games, but even as a FE vet I feel a bit in over my head at points. I imagine series newcomers may struggle for quite a while.

I don't know if it's because I'm older or because the localization is different, but the writing feels a bit uneven to me in this one. The way the characters talk and interact seems oddly unnatural, occasionally stilted at worst. It's got that vague anime-esque feeling of something being "off" that I didn't get with Awakening. Anyone else having this problem?

Still enjoying it lots though. Some of these scenarios are vaguely inappropriate for a teacher to be doing though! Looking at you, tea time canoodling! Well, whatever gets me to rank S with Leonie.
12/09/19, 00:14   
Edited: 12/09/19, 07:29
So I'm finally playing this due to my brother actually buying one of his own games for once and me borrowing it from him. (He usually just waits until I buy something and borrows it for me.)

It seems pretty good so far. This is my first Fire Emblem since the only Fire Emblem I played and didn't finish, Birthright, which I found kind of boring. So I got a bit hesitant on the series after that. But it feels like I'm already liking this one more.

But WOW there are a lot of different things going on in this game. I feel like I already forgot half the things I was told exist so I'm probably going to miss out doing a lot of the various in between battles stuff correctly. I hope that won't screw me.

@Hero_Of_Hyrule @Secret_Tunnel Hmm, both of you had pretty positive impressions above but gave it average to low scores, did you sour on the game?!
03/15/21, 00:16   
Edited: 03/15/21, 00:16
@Zero For what it may be worth, Birthright is the weakest Fire Emblem game on 3DS. I personally think Awakening is a lot better, and Shadows of Valentia is pretty good too, but as a remake of an NES title it's a bit more simplistic.
03/15/21, 00:51   
@Zero

Secret_Tunnel said:
Okay, yeah, I'm hooked.

...and then I never played it again!

I don't think strategy is the genre for me. Maybe I should take Guillaume's advice:

Guillaume said:
Play Into the Breach.
03/15/21, 02:18   
Yes, do that! I like Fire Emblem but I LOVE Into the Breach. It's such a quick-paced, streamlined version of what these games like Fire Emblem are doing. I always vaguely thought strategy games had too much bloat but it was tough to imagine them otherwise, so actually playing a game that scales things down and just makes it a nice, tight package is really refreshing.

And if you like that, then STAY TUNED FOR MY NEXT GAME. Which is... probably not going to that close to Into the Breach. But I do really want to make it a quick-paced, streamlined turn-based strategy game, so Into the Breach is a huge inspiration there.
03/15/21, 02:36   
Edited: 03/15/21, 02:37
This is a good game. Fun strategy, ridiculous amount of content. The problem I had with it is that it's so bloated that I really got fatigue about 2/3rds of the way into just one of the routes. The monastery/teaching stuff starts off novel but soon becomes rote and repetitive.

But I appreciate how much content they crammed in by including all three routes on one cart.
03/15/21, 04:13   
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