So this means the series will be always be full on anime waifu/husbando going fwd?
Not necessarily, if they're smart at least cause that's not likely a growth market, and Three Houses doesn't look like it's going down that road so far. At least with the limited amount we've seen, never know what might be in store even if the general art direction and design appears rather conservative. Plenty of other characters may turn out to be crap in either design or characterization.
I do fear that between Warriors and Heroes, which both rely on the same kind pandering that was present in Awakening, and increased in Fates, to an even more extreme degree that it will be near impossible to escape that in Three Houses, but I'm holding out hope nonetheless.Awakening and Fates did well for a lot of other much more important reasons than pandering characterizations and character designs. Strong marketing, strong overall art/graphics direction, new mechanics and features that players really enjoyed like player avatar, casual mode, pair ups, grinding and the actual mechanics of marriages and offspring allowing for super soldiers were all a lot more important. That's not to say people don't loving shipping characters and everything surrounding Supports as there is certainly a very vocal group surrounding that, but that alone should not be the take away as to why Awakening/Fates did so well and how they'll succeed in the future.
I think it's the lack of a number of those major features that resulted in Echoes failing to do anywhere near as well as the prior two games beyond the timing of its release and lack of marketing.
I'm hoping that Three Houses develops and expands upon those things both Awakening/Fates and Echoes did so well, especially Echoes with the likes of explorable environments, dungeons and a more organic way of story telling and plot progression. Not mention well developed characters and a decent main plot and overall writing, which has been rather abysmal to say the least and could really help grow the series.
