RttP: Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Finally Finishing this 100 Hour Game

[SolVanderlyn]

I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan. I love the OG games. I love the GBA games. I love the Gamecube/Wii era games. I love the 3DS games.

Spoiler

The DS games were ok, I guess.

I think they all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

I like the political drama of Genealogy of the Holy War. I love the fantasy vibe of the Tellius saga. I like choosing a route with Fates. I like the support system in Awakening/Fates. The music has always been fantastic, but starting with Awakening it became mind blowingly good. Like, holy shit, the Fire in Fire Emblem must refer to the music.

Three Houses basically took everything I love about Fire Emblem and put it all into one game. And there's THREE routes? All of them the length of a full game? For the price of one, this time! And they all give you a glimpse of Fodlan's rich lore and history. I was so enamored with this that I made this infographic that gave me Reddit Gold or whatever it is because people liked it.

I chose Blue Lions first. Loved it. Then Black Eagles (Church route). I regret playing that one next because it is, in my opinion, the weakest route and it burned me out on the game before I could get to Crimson Flower or the Golden Deer route. I left the game hanging midway through Crimson Flower because, as much as I loved it, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

So now the Musou is out, and it's inspired me to go back and finish the game. I'm on the Golden Deer route, now. It's New Game+, I have a shit ton of renown, and I don't have to grind out supports with the students from the other houses anymore. I can just recruit whoever I want! Which... I feel kind of cheapens the story a bit. I never liked the fact that you can poach students from other houses. It puts a damper on the tragedy of war theme the game has going on if you don't end up fighting the people you went to school with. For this reason, I barely recruited anyone in my Black Eagles routes. Regardless, I am poaching every single student this time just because I can. I hope Edelgard enjoys Hubert's company, because everyone else is coming with me.

Anyway, this game still rules. I love the lore, I love the supports, the voice acting is a knockout in Japanese and English, and the writing has gone back to the more mature vibe of the Tellius games that I loved so much. I'm playing on Hard/Casual, as I have been for every route. And on NG+, for my fourth route, it's too easy. But I've played enough of this game that I can feel burnout creeping in again regardless of the fact that I am an unstoppable force of nature in this playthrough. I guess that's what NG+ is for.

TL;DR - game good. Too much of game. Had to put game down because too long. Different routes fun. Best part of game. Claude is funny.

 

[King Dodongo]

Indeed. I always feel bad for anyone not picking Blue Lions first

Spoiler

and it not being their favorite house

May do a Golden deer run after three hopes.

 

[Lunar Wolf]

I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan. I love the OG games. I love the GBA games. I love the Gamecube/Wii era games. I love the 3DS games.

Spoiler

The DS games were ok, I guess.

I think they all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

I like the political drama of Genealogy of the Holy War. I love the fantasy vibe of the Tellius saga. I like choosing a route with Fates. I like the support system in Awakening/Fates. The music has always been fantastic, but starting with Awakening it became mind blowingly good. Like, holy shit, the Fire in Fire Emblem must refer to the music.

Three Houses basically took everything I love about Fire Emblem and put it all into one game. And there's THREE routes? All of them the length of a full game? For the price of one, this time! And they all give you a glimpse of Fodlan's rich lore and history. I was so enamored with this that I made this infographic that gave me Reddit Gold or whatever it is because people liked it.

I chose Blue Lions first. Loved it. Then Black Eagles (Church route). I regret playing that one next because it is, in my opinion, the weakest route and it burned me out on the game before I could get to Crimson Flower or the Golden Deer route. I left the game hanging midway through Crimson Flower because, as much as I loved it, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

So now the Musou is out, and it's inspired me to go back and finish the game. I'm on the Golden Deer route, now. It's New Game+, I have a shit ton of renown, and I don't have to grind out supports with the students from the other houses anymore. I can just recruit whoever I want! Which... I feel kind of cheapens the story a bit. I never liked the fact that you can poach students from other houses. It puts a damper on the tragedy of war theme the game has going on if you don't end up fighting the people you went to school with. For this reason, I barely recruited anyone in my Black Eagles routes. Regardless, I am poaching every single student this time just because I can. I hope Edelgard enjoys Hubert's company, because everyone else is coming with me.

Anyway, this game still rules. I love the lore, I love the supports, the voice acting is a knockout in Japanese and English, and the writing has gone back to the more mature vibe of the Tellius games that I loved so much. I'm playing on Hard/Casual, as I have been for every route. And on NG+, for my fourth route, it's too easy. But I've played enough of this game that I can feel burnout creeping in again regardless of the fact that I am an unstoppable force of nature in this playthrough. I guess that's what NG+ is for.

TL;DR - game good. Too much of game. Had to put game down because too long. Different routes fun. Best part of game. Claude is funny.

Click to shrink...

Three Hopes fixed that by making it limited recruitment in Three Houses. Characters that it makes sense to defect will defect rather than almost everyone being willing to defect.

Also good luck on your last route and hope you join us in the 3 Hopes thread soon.

 

[Doggg]

Loved this game, too. It took me an insane amount of time, but I liked it so much that I was willing to grind through maddening difficulty. Outstanding OST, too.

 

[ryseing]

Part 1 being so repetitive kills the replayability for me unfortunately.

Have you played Cindered Shadows OP? It's worth it.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Part 1 being so repetitive kills the replayability for me unfortunately.

Have you played Cindered Shadows OP? It's worth it.

Click to shrink...

Taking a three year break before starting my last route has made Part 1 nice to play again. I forgot a lot of stuff.

I did play Cindered Shadows! I really liked it - especially having the three lords together for the only time since the prologue.

 

[Katbobo]

It's a game i've always really wanted to replay, but I could barely get through the super slow monastery sections in my first playthrough, and I imagine it'd only be worse on a replay. Having it be a 3d space felt like it just slowed pacing so much and was needless, i'd much prefer to have just selected people from a menu to talk to instead of having to run around talking to everyone.

Playing through the musou and enjoying it, but might try going back for another playthrough of 3H and see if it makes me bounce off as much as I fear.

 

[Tavernade]

I got stuck on the DLC route and need t go back and finish it. I beat Edelgard's route.

I'm going with her again in Three Hopes and I think I'll then pause, do Blue Lions and the DLC in Three Houses, play that route in Hopes, then do Golden Deer and then finish that in Hopes.

At least until I burn out.

Love this game.

 

[Danby]

Of the FEs I've played this is my favorite. I want to go back and do another route someday, but I have so many other games to play.

 

[Personablue]

I completed Blue lions and Golden deer route, didn't have the zeal to do a third playthrough for Black eagle, can i play the Black eagle route in Three hopes instead of Three house?

 

[Worldshaker]

Congrats OP! I like everything about this game minus the monastery sections :-(

I need to try getting back into it one more time.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I only got around to doing my third playthrough the other month in preparation for Three Hopes
Went in the order of Crimson Flower, Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, which was that latest run
Of those I think Azure Moon makes for the best story and campaign, I also low key appreciate it sorta snubbing/glossing over those who slither in the dark because my least liked part of any FE story are the loser dark mage brigade being generically evil.

Upon finishing that third playthrough, I had to really stop and consider if Three Houses had become my fave Fire Emblem game.
Path of Radiance has held that spot for so long, I actually went back to it shortly after (let me tell you, only having Gamecube RBY leads plugged into an older HD tv, makes the already kinda ugly PoR pretty gruelling to look at!) and while I enjoyed my brief revisit through the first ten chapters of that game, it basically confirmed Three Houses as my new lord via snappier gameplay alone.

Turns out I actually really like the academy arc, the vibes of the monastery, figuring out OPTIMAL TEA, the cast which is far and away the best the series has seen for me.
And Fodlan has like actual lore, it was beginning to feel like Tellius' more layered than usual world and story was a one off for the series boilerplate war stories, especially after whatever in the celestial fuck fates was. Pleasingly three hopes pushes this aspect of Fodlan even further.
And there's just a lot of other smaller things that complete the whole, be it arguably the best voice acting in a Nintendo game (going against xenoblade 1 and Kid Icarus Uprising), the monthly tapestry bits to start a chapter, the fact its OST is banger central and how much more interesting its supports tend to be.


The only thing I didn't really feel all that hot on was the Cindered Shadows DLC, but then even that got redeemed as I got greater character depth out of the four newcomers there by bringing them into verdant wind.
Also Grapplers must remain a class or so help me

 

[TΛPIVVΛ]

100hrs? Oh you sweet summer child..

Also Blue Lions family 4 lyfe.

 

[Veil]

This game is so Blue Lions focused it's not even funny. Almost all of the Blue Lions kid have direct connections to the stuff you do in the first half of the game (Ashe's adoptive father, Sylvains brother, Mercedes' brother, Annette and Felix's father show up). If you combine this with Golden Deer's and Church's second half being basically the same as Blue Lions but with 2 extra lore fights at the end which could have easily been given to Dimitri, it's pretty telling imo that most of the game's initial planning was made with Blue Lion's in mind and then the rest got the scraps.

And then the Edelgard route is so short and doesn't even get any final cutscene?

I know this game got delayed a bit but man they sold us 3 games in 1 and we got one and a half.

 

[Cudpug]

I like Three Houses and I like the social elements they added. Great voice acting and good characters elevate it.

That said, it has bland maps and it's too easy. The game is too short IMO and would have been better as two stories of 30ish chapters, rather than 3 stories of 20ish. It's bizarre how some routes like Edelgard's are short. I've also found that the class system means you can just make everyone the same couple of overpowered mounted classes and boss every map. It's not a particularly good strategy game. Hoping the next one is more traditional FE.