Fire Emblem Three Houses

[Pathfinder]

So starting this thread to hear everyone's thoughts on the new FE game! Any mechanics you hope they carry over from prior games? Any you hope they don't? Anything in the trailer you are particularly excited about or dreading?

Here are my thoughts. I hope they keep the personal skills from Fire Emblem Fates. I like making builds that fit the character, so taking a personal skill and building a whole series of skills to amplify that was always a lot of fun. I hope they also keep the class variety/range of reclassing that was in Fates. I think the trailer hints that they will, though without involving marriages having to be prerequisites. I think you could potentially train anyone into any class depending on their weapon ranks, which if the case, I think is an awesome idea. Finally I really hope they carry over the greater depth in story from Fire Emblem Awakening, and make the Avatar have a greater personality as seen in Awakening than Fates. 

Let me know what you all think!

[+Invocation]

I agree with everything you've said here. 

[Jaywalk]

I’ve loved everything I’ve seen so far. I like the anime cutscenes they’re carrying over from Echoes, but I’d kill for those animated cutscenes from Awakening and Fates that even looked amazing on the 3ds screen.

[Pathfinder]

On 2/15/2019 at 3:46 PM, Invocation said:

I agree with everything you've said here. 

 

On 2/17/2019 at 9:31 PM, Jaywalk said:

I’ve loved everything I’ve seen so far. I like the anime cutscenes they’re carrying over from Echoes, but I’d kill for those animated cutscenes from Awakening and Fates that even looked amazing on the 3ds screen.

This reply is for both Invocation and Jaywalk. Thanks! I have been watching as many trailer analysis videos as I can. It looks like so far each house gets about 8 characters. I hope you are not either just limited to 8 total when you pick a house, or by picking a house it just means which 8 you get first, and then you get the other 8 from another house and then the other 8 later. It would feel like replaying would be pointless to me if that was the case. That is why I hope each house has its own autonomous path, occasionally running into each other during missions, but each house would also recruit their own unique additional characters along the way so each house would have their own full unique roster. I know it is a lot to ask for, but I am hopeful that is why they asked for extra time. 

[Jaywalk]

I think the developers have learned from their questionable design choices in Fates, so I assume each house will play a large role in the story, with regular options for recruitment.

I really don’t want three separate plotlines.

[Use the Falchion]

I'm of a lot of minds on this. When I was watching the Direct, I was thinking about how similar this game might feel to Persona (TMS#FE was FE in Atlus, now it's time for Atlus in FE!), with the house system reminding me of Harry Potter (c'mon, when the red eagle as a house faction came up, don't tell me y'all didn't think GRYFFINDOR). And I LOVE all of those things, but I'm not sure how I feel about them in my Fire Emblem. I think it might be the pretty stationary setting of the school; PoR, RD, Awakening, and Fates all had home bases, but (with the exception of Fates), the barracks felt more...mobile due to the story. Having an actual home-base in the form of the academy feels...weird. Not bad, just different.

 

The gameplay I can't speak for at the moment, but it looks really interesting. I'm super excited to see what they can do - it looks a lot like Shadow Dragon in the sense that every character can turn into a nearly every class, but each character has their own strengths and weaknesses. 

 

In terms of the Avatar, I don't know how to feel yet. Mark in FE7 was a good tutorial character; Robin in Awakening was a great character on his/her own; Corrin was burdened by trying to be too much at once (the Lord of the game, the Avatar, and the Manakete). Hopefully Byleth will stay in the vein of Mark or Robin. Not being an Aristocrat is a good start.

In terms of other characters...I'm not sold yet. I want to say it's the colorful hair, but that honestly never bothered me before. I guess it's the hair combined with the animation style this time. I'm also worried about the cast of characters. Are we getting a full cast for each house? I personally don't want this because it can spread the characterization too thin. Awakening pushed the characterization to the limits and that paid off. Different supports talked about different things with characters, and it felt fresh and fun and increased the replay value.* With Fates...nearly every support felt like it rehashed the same gimmick to varying degrees of success. The supports then became dependent on the strength of the character rather than the support creating that strength.

I don't think they'll be bad, but they might take some getting used to for me, and I want them to be memorable outside of this game.

 

Story-wise, we'll see. I'm cautiously optimistic. I haven't watched a lot of analysis videos yet (I've only read Serenes Forest's breakdown. Gamexplain and Lucky Crit are next on my list) but one thing that was pointed out was the monster in the trailer seems to be connected to the Crests, and Byleth's sword does as well. So maybe the sword is the Crest Killer in a way? Part of the theme seems to be the corruption of the church or something like that - the church is CLEARLY evil, Byleth is a variation of the name Beleth - the king of Hell. The Crests are supposed to be holy, so maybe we're the historical bad guys or something? 

A different thought I had is that maybe Byleth's sword changes shapes/powers depending on the crest used with it. That's all speculation, but I think it'd be a cool thing to do. 

So in the end for the story, I honestly doubt it'll be groundbreaking - PoR and RD already covered the corruption of a church pretty thoroughly, and this wouldn't be the first time the church as an evil organization will have popped up in an anime-themed story (FIRE EMBLEM IS AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN INSPIRED BY ANIME), so they'll have to do something REALLY great to shock me here. But I'm also not that hard to impress either. Tell the story decently (and cover it with some great gameplay). 

 

On ‎2‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 10:37 AM, Jaywalk said:

I think the developers have learned from their questionable design choices in Fates, so I assume each house will play a large role in the story, with regular options for recruitment.

I really don’t want three separate plotlines.

Neither do I, so here's to hoping they learned! I just get a tad cynical because of how popular the characters in Fates are. I'm a little afraid IS will lean into that even more. And Fates is probably the game I've played the second-most! First is Awakening. 

 

Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic. I'll buy and play it regardless, but I reserve judgement! 

 

*My favorite example for Awakening is Sully. Sully at first glance just looks like your regular tomboy (or as TV Tropes might put it, your Hard Drinking Party Girl). And then you read her supports and see how she doesn't need to be a knight in the field. Her family name could have her knighted by itself, but she wants to earn it. Then you see her supports with Sumia about finding common similarities with Pegasi and horses - a small thing, but it shows that she can find common ground with people who are vastly different from her. Her supports with Miriel are all about her insecurities with her tomboy nature, and her supports with Chrom - and their S support is one of the best -  highlight this in a different light (Miriel says Sully is fine as she is; Chrom says that to be a good wife/partner there's no requirement to be feminine). 

[Jaywalk]

23 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

I just get a tad cynical because of how popular the characters in Fates are.

I didn’t think they were really that popular, but I do love a lot of them—Takumi, Kaze, Azuma(I think that’s his name, he’s my favorite).

[Use the Falchion]

31 minutes ago, Jaywalk said:

I didn’t think they were really that popular, but I do love a lot of them—Takumi, Kaze, Azuma(I think that’s his name, he’s my favorite).

I guess I'm referring more to Heroes. Guess I'm a bit of a curmudgeon! I think Kaze's great and Azama's hilarious too. Not a fan of Takumi, but I see why people like him.   

[Jaywalk]

36 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

I guess I'm referring more to Heroes. Guess I'm a bit of a curmudgeon! I think Kaze's great and Azama's hilarious too. Not a fan of Takumi, but I see why people like him.   

Wait, not Azama. I meant the guy with the white and black hair that uses a bow, whose dream is to rebuild his civilization. I forgot his name.

He has a fun personality.

[Use the Falchion]

1 minute ago, Jaywalk said:

Wait, not Azama. I meant the guy with the white and black hair that uses a bow, whose dream is to rebuild his civilization. I forgot his name.

He has a fun personality.

Oh Shura!

[Jaywalk]

14 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

Oh Shura!

Yes! Him!

I just found him so compelling as a character. I’d take an entire game about him.

[Pathfinder]

I watched a podcast that I think brought up an interesting point. The trailers do focus on the main continent, but there are three to four other continents grayed out on the map. The church, or each others nations could be the "villians" in the story, but also so could those outside nations. Personally I still would like to see three autonomous stories to increase replay-ability, otherwise I do not see the point of which house you pick mattering, especially if you end up with all the same units in the end regardless. I could see the story going that you pick a house, and when the land is either invaded, or the church turns against others, you help defend the land associated with your house. Then you either travel to the other country, or travel to the lands associated with the other houses to liberate them from the other country's or the church's control. So you would still run into the other houses eventually, but the maps, and story would be different depending on which house you start out with. 

[Jaywalk]

On 2/22/2019 at 10:42 AM, Pathfinder said:

I watched a podcast that I think brought up an interesting point. The trailers do focus on the main continent, but there are three to four other continents grayed out on the map. The church, or each others nations could be the "villians" in the story, but also so could those outside nations. Personally I still would like to see three autonomous stories to increase replay-ability, otherwise I do not see the point of which house you pick mattering, especially if you end up with all the same units in the end regardless. I could see the story going that you pick a house, and when the land is either invaded, or the church turns against others, you help defend the land associated with your house. Then you either travel to the other country, or travel to the lands associated with the other houses to liberate them from the other country's or the church's control. So you would still run into the other houses eventually, but the maps, and story would be different depending on which house you start out with. 

I like your point about the autonomous plotlines. I’d still prefer to have a single long story, mainly because I already have more than enough games to play.

[Pathfinder]

On 2/23/2019 at 4:27 PM, Jaywalk said:

I like your point about the autonomous plotlines. I’d still prefer to have a single long story, mainly because I already have more than enough games to play.

LOL, touche. 

[Jaywalk]

No matter what they do—unless they really mess it up—I’m over the moon excited about it.

The GameXplain analysis made me even more so. I love all the directions the game could go.

And the fact that the time travel mechanic is—not technically confirmed, but I have little doubt—back from Echoes! YES!

[Pathfinder]

On 2/27/2019 at 10:20 PM, Jaywalk said:

No matter what they do—unless they really mess it up—I’m over the moon excited about it.

The GameXplain analysis made me even more so. I love all the directions the game could go.

And the fact that the time travel mechanic is—not technically confirmed, but I have little doubt—back from Echoes! YES!

I think the time travel mechanic could also help new players get into the genre and potentially try out classic mode without every "roll of the dice" feeling as potentially punishing, so I am definitely hopeful for it as well. At the end of the day we want to keep the original fans happy, but at the same time attract new ones to keep the series going for years to come. 

[Jaywalk]

1 minute ago, Pathfinder said:

I think the time travel mechanic could also help new players get into the genre and potentially try out classic mode without every "roll of the dice" feeling as potentially punishing, so I am definitely hopeful for it as well. At the end of the day we want to keep the original fans happy, but at the same time attract new ones to keep the series going for years to come. 

I really enjoyed Echoes. The time travel mechanic made a brutal game a bit more bearable.

[Wyndlerunner]

Is Fire Emblem worth getting into? I'm fairly unwise to the ways of JRPG's- I stayed away because I don't enjoy anime. 

However, I really loved Octopath Traveler for the Switch (If my 100+ hours of gameplay say anything), so Fire Emblem intrigues me to say the least.

[Pathfinder]

On 3/26/2019 at 7:38 PM, Wyndlerunner said:

Is Fire Emblem worth getting into? I'm fairly unwise to the ways of JRPG's- I stayed away because I don't enjoy anime. 

However, I really loved Octopath Traveler for the Switch (If my 100+ hours of gameplay say anything), so Fire Emblem intrigues me to say the least.

I started to write a reply when I realized what I should do first. What was it about Octopath Traveler that made you love it? Then based on those answers I can say whether or not what you love about one game could apply to the other game. I personally love both games, but that is because I love customization and character builds coupled with strategy. So let me know what you liked about Octopath Traveler and hopefully I will be able to help. 

[Wyndlerunner]

8 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

I started to write a reply when I realized what I should do first. What was it about Octopath Traveler that made you love it? Then based on those answers I can say whether or not what you love about one game could apply to the other game. I personally love both games, but that is because I love customization and character builds coupled with strategy. So let me know what you liked about Octopath Traveler and hopefully I will be able to help. 

I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the story, and the turn-based combat system (I also really loved the characters, but pretty sure FE won't have them)

[Pathfinder]

12 hours ago, Wyndlerunner said:

I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the story, and the turn-based combat system (I also really loved the characters, but pretty sure FE won't have them)

Awakening had a particularly good story, and there are a main cast/group of characters you play with that get fleshed out over the course of the story. They are in a lot of ways fleshed out even more than in Octopath Traveler. The development tends to focus more on a bunch of ten or so central characters, but there is also development for the other side characters as well. So as long as they keep the narrative going from how Awakening handled it, then I could see Three Houses being right up your alley. As to the turn based system, the only real different is your position and weapons matter more than in Octopath Traveler. Although Fire Emblem does not have the weakness mechanic where if you hit enough times with the right weapon you stun the enemy, it does have the weapon triangle that results in extra damage if you counter the right unit/weapon with it. Also like Octopath Traveler you can have a physical weapon, that uniquely triggers off of a magic stat so you can get "spellblade" builds if you so desire. The great thing about Nintendo is they tend to release demos for all their games, so I am sure when Fire Emblem Three Houses comes out, there will be a demo you can try to see how you like the game play. The story at this point, we just gotta hope! lol

[Wyndlerunner]

4 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

Awakening had a particularly good story, and there are a main cast/group of characters you play with that get fleshed out over the course of the story. They are in a lot of ways fleshed out even more than in Octopath Traveler. The development tends to focus more on a bunch of ten or so central characters, but there is also development for the other side characters as well. So as long as they keep the narrative going from how Awakening handled it, then I could see Three Houses being right up your alley. As to the turn based system, the only real different is your position and weapons matter more than in Octopath Traveler. Although Fire Emblem does not have the weakness mechanic where if you hit enough times with the right weapon you stun the enemy, it does have the weapon triangle that results in extra damage if you counter the right unit/weapon with it. Also like Octopath Traveler you can have a physical weapon, that uniquely triggers off of a magic stat so you can get "spellblade" builds if you so desire. The great thing about Nintendo is they tend to release demos for all their games, so I am sure when Fire Emblem Three Houses comes out, there will be a demo you can try to see how you like the game play. The story at this point, we just gotta hope! lol

Cool! Thanks man. So glad that JRPG's have been opened to me

[Pathfinder]

More updates! The time wheel is confirmed though it looks like the uses will be limited (not as much as in echos). Any class can use any weapon, but some will benefit more or require certain levels of weapons to enter said class. Character models do change to reflect class change. Level will carry over regardless the class change. Will add as I recall more updates. 

[Jaywalk]

3 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

More updates! The time wheel is confirmed though it looks like the uses will be limited (not as much as in echos). Any class can use any weapon, but some will benefit more or require certain levels of weapons to enter said class. Character models do change to reflect class change. Level will carry over regardless the class change. Will add as I recall more updates. 

YES! TIME WHEEL IS BACK!

The class stuff is interesting too.

[Pathfinder]

On 4/26/2019 at 3:34 PM, Jaywalk said:

YES! TIME WHEEL IS BACK!

The class stuff is interesting too.

Definitely looking forward to Fire Emblem Expo this saturday for more details. I like that it seems like they are keeping the class customization from Fire Emblem Fates. The weapons being the determining factor of the percent chance of "passing" your test to change classes I like and dislike at the same time. I like it because it allows for greater flexibility, but at the same time I could imagine people save spamming a very low probability just so they don't have to put too much effort in the prerequisites. Instead of gaining an A rank in swords for instance to get into the bandit class with a 90 percent chance to get in (all hypothetical), the person could have an E rank in the swords, for a 5 percent chance to get into the bandit class, but keep reloading till it works. I feel like there might be more to it to prevent that.