FIRE EMBLEM 16: Three Houses Retrospective - ShaneBrained

[@captainmidnight]

Congratulations on running the gauntlet and actually pulling it off! I really admire how much you put into this.

[@tonypalazzolo6552]

Last place I expected to see you was a fire emblem video, but its a welcome surprise nonetheless

[@NickCzapalay]

@@tonypalazzolo6552 captainmidnight is simply a chad.

[@sjajsjsja4523]

Far from a chad. He likes the recent Marvel movies LOL

[@elihsabah]

Didn’t realize captain midnight has been along for the ride!

[@TheMaestroMizerous]

Captainnnnnn Midnight!!!

[@VarsVerum]

It's beyond impressive to see how much effort, time, writing, recording and editing this entire journey must've took. I was shocked to see so much care put into this series. I understand very well the discouraging feeling of your first video in a new series not doing so hot, certainly not to your extent of course. But I think the beauty of KZbin is that what you plant and forget about may someday grow and bloom when you least expect it to. Trust me when I say the Fire Emblem Retrospective is a treasure that you've blessed the FE Community with, and I'm sure that from now until the end of time, countless will stumble upon any one of your episodes and smile upon discovering amazing series to binge watch. It's truly impressive; there are channels with 7-8 figures of subs who don't put even 10% of the effort that you do. Regardless of what direction you take next, you're growing your brand as one of the best game historian/documentarian channels I've ever seen. So keep going!

[@Seergun]

Didn't expect to see someone I recognize from lol of all things here

[@snolls105]

@@Seergun same, I really like vars discussion channels, and I also really like ShaneBrained's FE retrospective. I don't remember when I first saw one, but I think it was influential in getting me to try Awakening and Fates.

[@sakutaro3musik486]

Nice to see Vars here. I Watch your Smash, League and Genshin Videos, but Fire Emblem is my most beloved Franchise and you are absolutly right that this documentary of all FE Games is amazing and will Forever be special to me and many other FE fans. Vars, will you play Fire Emblem engage?

[@neilgallagher7923]

Vk

[@DelanHaar6]

You know what else is monumental? This review series. Seriously, way to stick to an idea. "In totality, some frustrations here and there do not outweigh the incredible amount of great experiences that I had in playing this game." This may be the best summary of Three Houses I've yet heard. Yes, it suffers from a scope beyond its means in all kinds of ways, but what the game does deliver just *begs* to be explored and expanded upon. And in a strange way, the incompleteness gives everyone a chance to fulfill that desire in their own way. On a more personal note, I can retroactively say that this game was a *significant* coping mechanism for me during my self-isolation in the US during the height of the pandemic. In a time where human interaction was largely secluded to faces on screens, Three Houses provided a fleshed-out world with vivid characters, a deep labyrinth of gameplay mechanics (obscured as it may sometimes be), and an online community of people who wanted to talk about it in some form or another. It helped re-ignite my desire to tell stories and share my creations with the world. It spurred me to join communities. To be less of an island. I doubt I was alone in that.

[@mrp1234]

Really good comment, I have nothing to add

[@amadoromero4823]

About the coping thing, I enthusiastically agree. 3H is vying for my favorite game of all time for keeping me grounded while still having to work 3rd shift during the pandemic with no end in sight.

[@fukunaga-kane]

I'm the same as you. Three Houses is a special game to me. It saved me during the pandemic. I played it a little late after the release. 2022. It was after Byleth’s reveal in Smash. Her character is super fun to play so immediately bought 3H with no knowledge of what the game was about. I was completely amazed by the absurd amount of content and depth of this game.

[@belgianstar]

Engage made me curious about the origins of FE and soon I found myself watching this whole series over the course of 2 weeks. I hope I’m not the only one who will be brought to this playlist this way, because you truly made a masterpiece.

[@unclebobboomergames]

2 weeks? Makes me look at the past 2 days in disgust

[@belgianstar]

@@unclebobboomergames i would have, if I didn’t have a job that sucks up most of my time

[@unclebobboomergames]

@@belgianstar i work UPS so my work is what allowed it. Still lol

[@Mr96POP]

It’s amazing to think that you’ve finally reached this game after starting this series retrospective 3 years ago. Even just listening to the opening notes of “The Edge of Dawn” at the start of this video was a bit surreal considering the number of games you had to cover along the way. On another note, Ferdinand von Aegir was my favorite character in the entire game. Rest in peace, Billy Kametz.

[@shadowmetroid18]

I definitely agree that Azure Moon feels like the most complete story of the three. Sadly I think it's the one that suffers the most in hindsight because it doesn't do anything to deal with TWSITD

[@goregia764]

Yeah pretty much like rhea they are sidelined and even through there conformation of there fate (see hapi and Dimitri support. And the killing of most of there leadership in game) but there build up in white clouds leads there ending leaving room for improvement

[@hanzou1238]

My biggest problem with AM is that it makes Edelgard look to be pure evil with zero redeeming qualities which is not how I feel an Antagonist should be written. VW does a much better job having Claude agree with her motivations while not believing that her methods are worth the outcome. Claude helps show that while misguided with her approach to reshaping the world she still has everyone's interests at heart while with Dimitri she completely shuts him out and transforms into a beast just to show how far she will go to take over Fodlan.

[@goregia764]

@@hanzou1238 Honestly I kind of disagree I think Dimitri's route Made me empathize with edelgard more. in her own route she talks Of what was done to her and the self that shed tears died long ago but we never actually get to see that former self In AM with the context of crimson flower we see the person she was before and it was before through the eyes of someone who knew her and it makes it clear that she was changed by the current system. Not only that but This is the route where a parlay between the nations happens beforehand in a attempt to end the war peacefully and it isn't like one side says oh there can only be bloodshed they both come to mutual agreement that there current world views cannot work and that a fight is the only way forward. Like it's cool for Claude to say he agrees with her vision but doesn't agree with the method but like they never actually have a conversation in the same way she amf Dimitri do, it's just a hand full of battle dialog where in the last on she kind of vaguely implies because he's a foreigner he can't understand the plight of fodlan? Not to mention I honestly loved the hedgemon husk and now given the context of 3 hopes It's a clear that the husk was designed to overtake her personality and make her mindless engine of war but because unlike in other non AMs routes she remembers the what kept her going in her darkest moment she's able to overcome it through sheer force of will and use it to fight fully for the world she believes in and I think that's honestly really bad-ass.

[@auraguard0212]

AM: the leadership dies SS: the leadership dies VW: the leadership dies CF: the leadership survives, and Edelgard pulls a Rhea and rewrites history to claim they were dealt with.

[@lpfan4491]

@@auraguard0212 No, they actually deal with the slitherers, just that we never got to play this "Crimson Flower part 3", as I like to call it. The S support with Jeritza takes place during those events.

[@Parmandur]

Silver Snow was actually the first path written, that the designers focused on as the primary bwrsion of the story: Verdant Wind is the afterthought.

[@RealityMasterRogue]

Then why is SS the complete trashfire route that makes the game worse?

[@Parmandur]

@@RealityMasterRogue probably because it was made first, and they had more ideas as they went through and iterated on the story. So it is the most barebones. It is, for sure though, what they made first and built around.

[@gameasasin]

I don't believe verdant winds was the afterthought, as while it has issues, it's one of two routes that actually feels complete, though I really fing wish they had given the shamballa and nemesis chapters to CF instead, woulda made way more sense.

[@Parmandur]

@gameasasin well, it's not a matter of speculation, the developers have said that Verdant Wind was the last of the four they put together.

[@BravoSquid]

​@@Parmandurdo you have a source for this? I'd love to read/watch the first-hand account.

[@foolishlyfoolishfolly3209]

This review series has actually inspired me to marathon through every Fire Emblem game as well (skipping FE1 because I hate lack of weapon info too much). I love this franchise so much, and your work was one of the things that first got me into it. I think it was your video on Sacred Stones that convinced me to give Fire Emblem Fates a shot. It's been a wild ride, thanks for everything!

[@NashTheChill]

This is facts, I want to find a different series to do like this that I love

[@jesusofsuburbia3675]

actually did this thanks to this guy and now im in FE7 (Gaiden was my favorite and FE7 currently)

[@jk-2053]

Months late, but since FE11 is a remake of FE1, FE12 is a remake of FE3, and FE15 is a remake of FE2, you could just start at FE4.

[@unclebobboomergames]

@@jk-2053 yeah but theyre so much more that they deserve to be separate. At least of the gameplay is your drive which it is for me.

[@liliththedivinedragon]

Do you have a discord? Cause I'd like to talk to you about fire emblem ngl

[@bearerofbadnews1375]

From the initial trailers I didn’t like Dimitri very much. Then seeing his time skip design and playing Azure Moon he became my favorite of the three lords.

[@orvaldurgumundson1809]

He became my favourite character in the entire series.

[@runefaustblack]

I haven't had the chance to play past, like, chapter 5, but I've seen Dimitri's post-timeskip design and I find it pretty terrible xD

[@orvaldurgumundson1809]

@@runefaustblack you are free to keep your opinion but i don't agree with you

[@bellamango6708]

I laughed at spaghetti hair and now he's one of my top five characters from any franchise

[@jmaster4941]

@@bellamango6708 It's interesting because a poll from a while back that asked about people's favorite Nintendo characters and Dimitri was up there alongside the likes of Mario, Yoshi, and Kirby!

[@BryonAutry]

Well worth the wait! I am so glad you decided to keep going after the early disappointment in growth and return. I cannot express enough how much I appreciate all of the work, blood, sweat and tears that obviously went into this entire series. I am super excited to hear you are planning to create separate uploads for the stories of the games, too. I feel like I will definitely get alot of use out of those. :) Thank you for all you have done over these last 3 years, and I hope you continue to enjoy future releases in the series for years to come!

[@snarkygoblin7894]

Three houses got me into Fire Emblem, I'm now a massive fan of the series and can't wait for the next one. I really hope they learn from the mistakes they made with three houses.

[@Dstag]

Engage was kinda mid ngl. It's a joy to play but the characters don't compare

[@RiverdudeCovers]

Damn that ending got me, it felt so great to find this channel and series about a year or two ago that covered all these amazing games. Thank you for all the great content and I can't wait to see what you'll do next!!!!

[@lotnegative]

Three Houses was my first Fire Emblem game and I finished my third and final run yesterday. I absolutely loved it. I came from the Persona series, so running around in the monastery and spending time with the students and other characters was right up my alley.I didn't get tired of it even once throughout the 200 hours I invested into this game. My favorite route was Verdant Wind. I believe the reason my impression of this route was so different from yours is that it was my first play-through. I chose the house whose lord I was most interested in. So my impression wasn't "clone", it was "Claude". I didn't even know there was a church route at first. My sister told me and quickly finished that remark with: "It's basically a copy of the Golden Deer route with slightly more information on Byleth you can just watch on KZbin to find out." I have no intention of playing Silver Snow, because the little bit of information I am missing from that route, can be pieced together from Rhea's C support and one of Alois's supports with either Byleth or Leonie (I can't remember who). Rhea mentions she saved Jeralt's life and Alois states he had received a blood transfusion that lengthened his life-span, making him over 100 years old before he passed away. It doesn't take a detective to piece this together. I also played the DLC on top of that. Claude remained my favorite lord until the very end and so did the route VW. I played in the order VW -> CF -> AM and that's also the order of which routes I liked the best, though the difference of how much I like each of them is absolutely minimal, I loved them all. Crimson Flower was certainly the most interesting route, simply because it's the most different, but with VW's knowledge, the misinformation Edelgard acted on did have me frustrated at times (not in an annoyed, but in a painful, sad way). I felt bad about being the "bad guy" in the first half of the second part, but it did get much better over time. I came to really enjoy this game's moral ambiguity. No side is completely good or bad. I personally think playing two routes is the absolute minimum for this game and one of them should be Crimson Flower. For the sake of lore, I would probably recommend Verdant Wind over Azure Moon, simply because you don't get any information from Rhea in the latter, but really I believe it's best to play all three. I don't deem Silver Snow necessary. Side notes: Funnily enough, I never noticed the crooked background images in the support conversations, which might partially be because I often listened to them whilst doing other things, like brushing my teeth, as opposed to actually looking at the screen. When I did look at the screen, my focus was on the characters, so I wasn't attentive enough to notice. One thing I find crazy about this game is how EVERYTHING is voiced. Each and every line is being spoken, even if it's just a random NPC in the monastery. The budget for this game must have been huge.

[@ixlness]

3 Houses was my first Fire Emblem game, and after putting hundreds of hours into the game, I went on my own journey to play every mainline FE game. I went the opposite way and went backwards, but I was able to complete my journey earlier this year. I found this series last year, and every time I finished a mainline game, I would hop onto your video of the game I played to get your opinions on the game. The retrospectives added to my Fire Emblem journey and I am forever grateful for that. Feels so satisfying coming to the “end” of your retrospective series, but when the next mainline game comes, I’m hoping we’ll get a retrospective video from you.

[@kamsulaman7007]

best FE games list?

[@THENikNak]

So fun fact about crimson flower since you didn’t mention it in the story section. Seteth and Flayn can be spared by taking out Seteth first and letting Flayn do her thing. They end up going back into hiding afterward. Doesn’t change the story at all similar to Claude’s sparing but it’s a thing. Edit: I was wrong here. You can spare them but you just need to have blurry engage one of them and they will both flee.

[@dwaynesmith8300]

Not true. You can engage Seteth or Flayn in either order, but at some point you MUST let Byleth engage one of them. If that happens, they'll both flee once defeated.

[@THENikNak]

@@dwaynesmith8300 thanks. It’s been ages since I played it. I knew it was something like that but I couldn’t remember specifically.

[@the_detective_prince46]

this retrospective series is how i discovered this channel and binged all of them up to Fates (Echoes and this video weren't out yet) when i got covid last year and absolutely love the work you've done, very excited to see what comes next

[@kipame]

One thing i like to add while watching it, Silver Snow was the first developed path of Three Houses by Intelligent Systems while Verdant Wind and the others were made after by Koei Tecmo

[@auraguard0212]

So is Intelligent Systems incapable of writing? Or is Koei incapable of writing?

[@lpfan4491]

@@auraguard0212 The writers of FEWarriors are incapable of writing. Or at least iirc, they are the ones who also wrote Three Houses for some godforsaken reason.

[@Flopdoodle]

@@auraguard0212 IS cannot write for shit, evident with Silver Snow and FE: Engage. If Koei's writers handled the others, then they are obviously the ones with good ideas. Azure Moon, Verdant Wind and CF would all fall on them. Considering they actually wrote a pretty good story in Three Hopes as well (although rushed ending problems there too), I am inclined to believe IS should just leave the writing to them on a permanent basis.

[@reginlief1]

I can’t imagine the sheer adrenaline fuelled pay off that verdant wind’s final battle on maddening would be.

[@strawberrypuddin8919]

It is the most delicious catharsis I have ever experienced! Definitely almost through my remote through the television many times though

[@MFMegaZeroX7]

My long and rambly thoughts on topics not covered in the video (mostly about the fanbase response): 1) Surprisingly, the split between favorite house/route is actually fairly evenly divided among the fan community. Polls regularly put around 1/3 for each house and each route (well, other than Silver Snow), which is shockingly balanced. 2) The fact that debate around Edelgard and her ambitions has saw (and still sees) the amount of debate it does is kind of incredible. It's pretty rare when video game morality ever gets contentious at all, let alone to this level. If the goal was to make Edelgard morally divisive, then mission achieved. 3) The fact that basically every character is someone's favorite, and that favorite character lists are pretty competitive also helps illustrate how much they nailed the character writing, and how good the localization and voice acting was. If I was to create a top 20 FE character list, the majority of them would be from Three Houses. 4) Three Houses, surprisingly, unified the, at the time, fractured fanbase between the "elitist" long-time Fire Emblem fans and the casual newer fans. Before it's release, there was a lot of friction, and the "elitists" were often bitter with the direction the series was going, particularly after Fates. While Three Houses certainly didn't see a return to classic FE style (by a long shot), the character writing mellowed the "elitists" and often encouraged the "casuals" to check out the earlier entries. I like to say jokingly that Awakening saved the Fire Emblem franchise but Three houses saved the Fire Emblem fanbase. 5) Three Houses saw a bit of a Fire Emblem fanfiction renaissance. After Awakening was the first explosion of fanfiction, mostly in the world of Ylisse, but also the other games, and mostly centered on fanfiction.net, which eventually amounted to maybe around 10,000 fanfictions in total. With Three Houses, there has been over 38,000 fanfictions in the world of Fodlan on AO3 alone since its release, which is more than every other FE setting combined. My personal favorite is the in progress Crimson Flower novelization "On Black Wings." 6) I'm am absolutely appalled that FERDINAND VON AEGIR wasn't in your top 3 from the Black Eagles. You are putting his nobility to shame, and for that slight I'm afraid I'll have to unsubscribe. :P

[@GamesBrained]

Very interesting to read, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Well, except about FERDINAND VON AEGIR!

[@GamesBrained]

I'm also unsubscribing from myself

[@THENikNak]

Honestly feels like an end of an era. Thanks for making these massive videos. I’m excited to see what direction the channel takes over time especially as you reach the end of the spin offs.

[@ninjaguyweaver]

Man, we REALLY need an engage video

[@aes6474]

This was one of the best KZbin series I have ever had the joy of experiencing. they time and energy and passion you put into the FE games is truly admirable, and I feel both sad and happy to see you come to Three Houses as I've been anticipating it for so long but also dreading the end of your retrospective videos on the series. I can't wait to see your Engage retrospective. Keep up the good work. Side note, you beat the majority of the FE games and also completed all Three Houses routes before I even finished 3 of the routes. Congrats, you pulled me back into the Three Houses rabbit hole with this one.

[@niallrowe6407]

Amazing series that had me a bit emotional there at the end. The little story about the history of the retrospective itself at the end was also lovely and shoutout to the FE community was lovely. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for everything you have coming next and best of luck 😊

[@dangalfthedruid]

I'm so glad this is here! I've marathoned this series in anticipation of this, and I've really appreciated how well you carried your previous experiences into each review while also allowing each game to show its own merits. The amount of effort that's gone into this series is amazing, bravo!

[@dayman4152]

Thanks for the long format. I love sleeping to them, and are very entertaining when I'm not sleepy. Much love ❤

[@JDN910]

Hey Shane, I dont know if you'll end up seeing this or not but, I just want to thank you for this amazing journey, while I had a few pushes here and there from other people, I can say that overall, you're the one who got me interested in this wonderful series.

[@gabe9426]

WE FINALLY GOT IT SHANE BRAINED IS THE MAN

[@PrincessAmanda2290]

you did it! other have tried but you are the first on youtube to do all the fire emblem Retrospective in all the games in the core series it was a fun ride and i cant wait to see what comes next! remember to grab all the 3ds DLC before the e shop closes next year

[@yuzuboy]

I'm so excited to watch this later today! I've gotta say this is one of the best review series I've seen in a long time. I love the dedication and I'm so glad that you stuck through with it. You did a bang up job my dude, seriously :)

[@spara7401]

Thank you so much for this series! Every single video has been great, and it's very refreshing to hear the thoughts of someone who has played through the series in a way few people have in the West. I'm excited to see where your content goes next. Stay awesome, Shane!

[@GobaGNon]

It’s incredible how efficient you were in making this video, I really appreciate the time and effort it must have taken and look forward to what you’ve got in store

[@charaznable8072]

Watching this makes me wanna go back and replay it for the fourth time but damn there is so much fluff in between battles.

[@bificommander7472]

Rather than playing lunatic without Ng+, for my last playthrough I picked hard but without tedious yet useful activities like fishing or lost items. And "bronzeman", i.e. not using the rewind except for deaths to crits, because seriously, fuck rng-fueled triple damage in a game with permadeath.

[@vivid8979]

I say this to every retrospective video and I will say it again... The fact that creators put god how many hours crafting this kind of content and still take their time to put time-stamp themselves are just dedication unparalleled. Good Job with this one.

[@miacasual1263]

Hey, thank you for this series. I, like many others, started this series with Awakening when I was only 11 years old. I didn’t understand how literally any of the mechanics worked but the heart put into the game kept my interest in the series as I’ve played through several over the past 9 years (9 years holy fuck). I deeply appreciate this retrospective series as it’s a fresh perspective from many other fire emblem fans out there. I’m glad this series has had such an impact on you as well and I’m excited to see what you do in the future. After a break bc jesus christ a lot went into this

[@King_Deadpoolio]

God I just came back to watch this series a second time and it’s made me feel so good. This is such a comfort series to even run in the background. I can’t praise you enough for all the work you put into this.

[@Dakress23]

Congrats for finally getting to review Three Houses! Sacred Stones was my first FE game, and while I have a soft spot for that game + Awakening and Conquest, Three Houses is by far my favorite and most replayed game of the four. Also, something interesting about CF trivia wise is that, even though you and a good chunck of the fanbase consider the route unfinished, the post-launch DLC waves doubled down on the fact that TWSITD is defeated after the main story (being Jeritza's S-rank support the biggest offender), almost as if the devs were trying to tell the fanbase: "Yes, Edelgard's route is a complete experience. No, we're not adding more chapters to it so stop asking!".

[@megamanzero29]

I don't think any other retrospective on the Fire Emblem series will top this one.

[@loyal_dogs]

I rarely cry at movies but I cried an ocean playing 3 houses. Never once did I cry after the first second of a KZbin video until now 😭 This game is so special, it means the world to me 💙💙

[@minefish]

I was so surprised when I saw this, I thought it would take wayy longer for it to release. I'm super happy that it's out, but also sad cuz it will be the last video of a mainline game in a while

[@weepingdalek2568]

Tbf I'm pretty sure he waited until this was ready to release the Echoes one

[@krysmphoenix6010]

Something I appreciate on a meta level is that if you don't recruit literally everyone, a lot of the stronger units in the enemy army in Act 2 is your former students and colleagues. For example, my lady Byleth never recruited Sylvain, and when I faced him again, he told me that he regretted that ne never got a chance to flirt with me, and now he was going to have to kill me instead. I didn't care for him because I thought being a flirt was all he was, but this single interaction made me realize that all of the students grew up to become better people. But the tragedy of destiny meant that their virtues stood in my way. While heartbreaking, it's a unique reward - and punishment - for focusing on a small and likely initial roster (I like Supports, and large casts intimidate me). Seeing your old friends go out in a blaze of glory, even against you.

[@vishuprathikanti9352]

Thanks for making this great series of videos. I think I've seen your thracia video like 5 times now, and it was seriously the thing that finally pushed me into playing it. Now it's my favorite in the series and I've got 2 fe friends into it! Excited to see what you've got cooking in the future!

[@elihsabah]

Playing three houses was what brought me to these videos and got me to replay a good chunk of the previous entires. Thanks for the last 2 years of this series and congrats on getting here!

[@Solid_Brownies]

This is genuinely one of my favorite series on youtube, cingratulations on finishing it!

[@petertilton7004]

Fun facts: 1. On the Blue Lions route, there's a character paralogue focusing on Dedue. Whether or not you do this determines Dedue's fate for the war phase. If you do choose to do this before the War Phase, then Dedue will join you on a later chapter. It's as the Duscran said before departing "We never forget our grudges, no do we forget to repay our debts." 2. On the Garreg Mach map in the Crimson Flower route, you can spare Seteth and Flayn and they will live as nomads once again. 3. Being whatever class you want is unique, yet when it comes to Byleth, while male Byleth can have Darting Blow, Female Byleth does not gain any Dark Mage or Dark Bishop skills.

[@IanJulian02]

I was watching this video cause it got recommended on my page, and I swore I had heard your voice before but this was a new video so I was like meh I’m imagining it, but then in the end when you talked about how you made those guides I WAS SHOCKED. I used to watch those guides and use them for my playthroughs of the Nintendo warriors games! It was such a lovely surprise to see your channel again, and I am very excited to watch through all your other FE retrospectives. Thank you for doing this for us. It must’ve taken so much of your time, and I hope to maybe one day hear your thoughts on three hopes too.

[@daedalus6796]

Just got through the whole video, now I've seen the whole Fire Emblem retrospective series from you, and it's been a great ride. I'll be sticking around for whatever comes next.

[@jakesmith2708]

Massive props for this series. It's an impressive feat, and I'm glad to have another addition to the Fire Emblem family!

[@majikalmcmuffin6258]

would love a 13 hour long compilation of the whole series, would be the most comprehensive single fire emblem video!

[@imnotnarcian]

Kaga saga should definitely be next, they make the most sense

[@fredportcullis]

as someone who started following this series since gaiden, it feels sort of surreal seeing you get to this. mad respect for seeing the idea all the way through

[@Sootielove]

I understand how Silver Snow was the first route they planned, but if they were going to make Verdant Wind identical and people were obviously going to want to explore Edelgard's story, they should have cut it. Redistributing those assets and time might have helped the three routes feel more equal because, despite each route having incredible characters, Azure Moon is the only one with an actual story to engage those characters

[@jacobdresback2946]

I just spent the last three days listening to your Retrospective series at work and I'm so glad that I did. Fire Emblem is my most favorite series and these videos are so perfect 😭 Thank you so much for doing these videos.

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

Why do you lie? You didn't watch any of it

[@argosleuf]

I've mentioned it before on a Mamodxx video on routes, I'll mention it again. Branching narratives, while nice in concept, if executed poorly can really disincentivize replays for different routes. In Fates, the story was not there, but differing objectives in Conquest were fun, different mechanics in Revelation were...something at least, and Birthright was...ok. In Three Houses, there was a good idea, but it was dragged down by retreading the same old maps and rushed development (even if it was taking forever to come out, I think it would have been worth the wait for a better product). I think the real issue is that when you don't limit the extent of your story, it is not an unlikely possibility that it will collapse in on itself due to the expectations of the game placed on it both by the developers and the players. When game development companies place a deadline on a product, it makes it hard to realize the ideas envisioned by the developers. When I watched Mekkah's video of plinkett reviews for Kouhei Maeda, I understood why he had the criticisms he did when discussing the amount of material cut from Fates' story. But realistically, I understand why Fates development team chose to do what they did given that at the end of the day, the goal of the company is to turn a profit, and taking too long with extensive resources to develop a product worries investors and higher-ups at Nintendo. Take for example Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. It is my favorite game of all time, but the amount of work that went into it was not conducive to a profit, seeing as it is (to this day) the lowest selling game in the Fire Emblem series. Kaga took what was originally conceived as a smaller spinoff game and kept adding more and more to it. Nintendo likely wanted him to release it and move on with the next project, as shown by Nintendo discussing Fire Emblem 64 before Intelligent Systems released Thracia 776. By the time Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 was developed, the Nintendo 64 was well into it's lifespan. There were files in the game indicating that Kaga wanted to do even more with it as seen with unused character portraits, but at the point that the decision was made to finalize production it was likely already too late for development to make it to market in the SNES' lifespan. To make an art requires time, and I think everyone understands that, but to make a product requires investment and an investment is made in the hopes of producing profit. If profit is not assured or seen as likely, it makes the funders antsy and worried, which is why higher-ups push for deadlines. There needs to be a balance. If Three Houses came out on its original release date, it probably would have been more of a mess than it is, due to the magnitude of the vision the developers had for it requiring more time for them to properly execute. (Not to say Three Houses is bad, it just has noticeable issues like reused maps and similar plot beats for Verdant Wind and Silver Snow.) I do think that multiple narratives in Fire Emblem can be done properly without intertwining, but to this day it has not really happened. Do I think they should stick to single story narratives instead? Yea. That's not to say that I don't want them to succeed in producing a polished product with practical branching narratives that don't intersect, but I think for now, they should stay away from that idea, seeing as the games in the past have suffered for that decision.

[@troykv96]

Thracia 776 was likely the last original game released for the Super Famicom, it released so late (the game's had a run in 1999 via Nintendo Power service, 2000 for actual retail) that Thracia actually got to have a website. How many SNES games got to have their own website? xD

[@TechnoFall42]

@@troykv96 I was going to say that it's not, but now that I looked at the wiki, the only games to come after it are some kinds of picross puzzle games and a remake of an adventure game for Famicom. So, yeah, it's literally the last original game lol.

[@brazilianorange]

Verdant wind is by far my favorite of the 3 routes I played

[@ForsythtobeReckonedWith]

Wow this was an awesome series Shane. I really really enjoyed all the videos in this series, and I am so impressed by the dedication and love that you have put into all this. Please please don't stop doing what you're doing cause you're great at what you do!

[@TheExtremeRocker456]

thank you so much for this series, it was a really massive treat to watch through these over the last 2 years!

[@adamgonzalez9138]

I’m so glad this series exists. Thanks for your hard work

[@RPGFort]

Over the last couple of weeks I have watched all of these videos. These are some of my favourite videos on all of KZbin. Thank you so much for your dedication Shane.

[@SMAnthonyW]

as a fellow 250+ hour three house player, thanks for this super detailed retrospective

[@NantenJex]

Congrats on finally making it to Three Houses! It was a great series and I'm looking forward to the remaining videos, as well as whatever series of retrospectives you decide to do next!

[@youngpawdowanaep]

This was the series of videos that got me into the fire emblem series. The passion you put into these videos got me to try my first fire emblem game. I discovered these videos around the time of the 30th anniversary release of shadow dragon and the blade of light on switch and because of your videos I bought it and played through it several times.

[@Hikariinu124]

i came into this channel because a friend recommended your Genealogy video to me. I was playing thru the now release FE engage and had never played any game before FE6, and I was curious what those games were like. I'd seen screenshots and some game footage plenty of times but never had the patience to go back and play any of them. having watched most of your videos on this series it put this series in a whole new light for me, I reflected on parts of older games that I thought were good or bad and reaffirmed or changed my thinking on them because It's been actual years since i'd played the GBA ones. I played Awakening and Fates to death; I played the radiant games a few times, but I barely remembered them. I usually play a fire emblem game at least 2 times before moving on, and its fulfilling for me to do that. I have mad respect for your commitment to playing all these games in order from the first one. I hope you are enjoying engage!

[@SeelkadoomandJokic00]

This was a great journey. Infact I had marathoned it a couple 2 weeks ago before you finished it with these last 2 videos. It was a surprise to me but I'm glad to have been able to recap this whole journey right as you wrapped it up.

[@RougeMephilesClone]

I haven't started going through the Retrospective yet, but I have a reason to now that it's done. Great work on sticking to it after all these years. I can't imagine how hard this project must have been, but you made it. Even if it wasn't a career victory, I hope it feels like a personal one.

[@qazentro4444]

Man... what a journey indeed. You started this series while I was still working on my bachelor's degree, and just a few months ago I finally graduated, and this retrospective has been there for most of it. I was always checking back on your channel to see if the next parts were up yet. I really appreciate you working on this series and giving FE, a series very near and dear to my heart, a chance. it was great hearing your thoughts. Looking forward to seeing what you cook up in the future.

[@El_Surge]

I remember seeing the first episode of this series and being so hyped since I pove fire emblem and i love your content. Its been a long time coming. 2+ years of quality content. Thank you for all the hard work Shane

[@teezee9387]

I immensely respect that you played every single game in this series, keep up the good work, looking forward to Engage's review.

[@jacobbonner2502]

You have been one of the most impressive KZbinrs I’ve seen in a while. Huge congratulations to you for choosing a goal and sticking with it! I love your analysis and your videos have been a fresh take on my favorite series!

[@TFalconwing]

I have watched every one of these videos and I can do nothing but applaud the conclusion of this saga. Thank you for your analysis and views on this series I love so much. Know that every time I saw a new episode I made sure that I set aside the time to listen to the full thing.

[@brazilianorange]

I’ve played 200 hours of Three Houses and do as many support convos as possible and literally never noticed the stretched backgrounds 😭 RIP to future play throughs

[@13nessuk]

Bro I love this series, what a saga!

[@ranranover]

Thank you so much for this series! I ended up watching it in order, and I’m now inspired both to replay all the past games I’ve loved and to play the ones I’ve missed along the way

[@sneslive1556]

I respect the commitment. 5 playthroughs would be rough for me. Never managed to complete a second one.

[@reicorner5319]

Ty so much for all fire emblem series video, i love it.

[@LegoPack99]

Woo! One of my most anticipated KZbin videos of all time!

[@terrywright884]

What a fantastic series of analysis' and what an achievement. Every video so enjoyable, thank you very much! Rest, you've earned it

[@WaiGee_]

Regarding garreg mach monastery as a hub, i actually love it. Downtime is really important in video games, helps pace everything to make sure you don't get overwhelmed

[@GSoulNight]

I remember watching the series just looking for a review, now we're at the point its been its own truly special series, can't remember the last time I watched something like it And can personally relate to putting alot of time into a video, particularly an FE one and being a bit dissatisfied with its returns early on 😅 I've got a strange sense of nostalgia for 3H, lots of fun memories even if 2 years later, its flaws emerged further. But without it? I wouldn't have fully tried the series, and wouldn't have all the memories of azure moon's story and the stuff that stuck with me. Having done it personally, good on you for finishing all 4 routes, and presumably one on maddening!

[@melmacianmage]

I've been with you on this journey since the very beginning of this retrospective (and even before that from the Warriors only days). I'm so happy to see you finish the journey through this beautiful series. So much respect for your work in this series, and I look forward to any future content you make!

[@fluffyraven2097]

I'm surprised the highly controversial new art style wasn't mentioned at all

[@shaterlemming2549]

I found your channel because 3 Houses was my first Fire Emblem game I played and wanted to learn more about the series as a whole. Thank you for the retrospectives it was a good ride.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

Thank you for the ride, it was lots of fun to watch every episode and share comments with others regarding your content It would be cool to see a tier list of your favorite games in the series while explaining why

[@erikm9224]

I’m surprised this came out so quickly, it was fun seeing each new video and see how playing a blind series by release affects someone’s view, it was truly amazing seeing your dedication to this project. Also some fun facts after seeing you talk on some of the topics mentioned: The master classes actually WERE originally gonna be called combined classes. I’m not sure why the change but I believe it was mentioned in an art book. On the topic of routes like SS vs VW and CF’s short run. If I remember right from interviews, Silver Snow was the first route created and the “hardest” due to less unit slots. All the other routes kinda branches off it, and CF actually was kinda an afterthought, hence it’s shorter run and lack of cutscenes. And apparently the White Clouds thing and repeat runs, apparently in one of the last interviews it was revealed the Devs really expected players to only do one run or something along those lines. Which is super odd.

[@MLESoup]

This series was so awesome to watch! So happy you stuck with it :)

[@djdjinn6340]

So exciting that you got to Three Houses right as Three Hopes came out. What a great fit for you!

[@Mayahiime]

Similar to another comment I read, this series inspired me to do the same thing but with the final fantasy series. I’ve been watching this series since episode 1 first came out and it’s been extremely fun to watch these videos evolve along the games

[@remitemmos9165]

thanks for the excellent serie of videos! i’m afraid berwick saga will need and deserve its own full blown video, you’ll understand when you play it. can’t wait for it!

[@TheAurgelmir]

I prefer that you choose house early. Partly because it does cause the player to get a different perspective on the House leaders. Someone argued in another video that your view on Edelgard very much depends on if you chose Black Eagles as your first house. Heck I went Silver Snow in Part 2, and I still have so much sympathy for Edelgard (The only reason I went Silver Snow was that I accidentally made Flayn my dancer, and wasn't about to lose that class...) What I would have liked was to maybe get three short missions one with the complete roster of each house before you choose. That would maybe not solve the issue Shane has with the choice, but I still think choosing early and still "slogging through" Part 1 is important. And, I think Part 1 needs to be long, because it's where you set a lot of the setting and characters without a major looming threat. Contrasting that to Engage, whose early characters are horribly shallow at first, and where you are drip fed characters for most of the game, I never felt anything really mattered. There was no real connection between the characters.

[@NeeyahahaMM]

Thanks for all your hard work making these. I'm a few years late finding them, but it's been great going through all your FE videos over the past month

[@murph_archer1129]

Congrats on completing this masterpiece of a series. I've been following you since the orignal hyrule warriors days and its been awesome seeing your journey. Looking forward to where you go next

[@juanjvelazquez2595]

Thank you so much for this series it has been a blast to watch this over these 4 years. I am excited for what is to come especially the Kaga games but personally I would really love to see a video ranking all 16 main entries to conmemorate finishing all the main games. (also the story synopsis would be great I wanted to show a friend who isn’t interested in the series a synopsis for Geneology of the Holy War and there weren’t any I found satisfying so I was planning on using the synopsis from your review to show the story to my friend so having it as a video by itself would be great for situations like this one)

[@king_pigeon]

This was amazing. This whole series was amazing. I love it so much. It's the series that convinced me to give FE7 another try after my disastrous first run. Thank you so much for making this, I can't wait to see everything else

[@vishuprathikanti9352]

I'm a bit sad you didn't really cover byleth that much in the story section. They have such a weird role in each story, sometimes to the point of not making much sense (how they just kinda go along for the ride in silver snow despite being the supposed leader). I think it would've been better if they were a real character instead of a silent protagonist.

[@nahte123456]

If you think Byleth isn't a "real character" you just blatantly didn't pat attention. Byleth isn't a politician nor strategy focused, why would they try and fail at it?

[@vishuprathikanti9352]

@@nahte123456 Um, Seteth literally asks Byleth what to do multiple times and no matter what they say, Seteth makes the call anyway. Second, Byleth isn't strategy focused? That's their primary reason for them being in the story--they're the tactician of the party. And third, none of the above really proves whether or not they're a real character. The fact of the matter is, Byleth doesn't have any hopes or dreams for the future. They don't have any independent thought or characterization besides doing what it takes to win the next battle and who they end up getting married to. It would've been nice if they didn't stick out like a sore thumb compared to the mostly rich characterization of everyone else.

[@nahte123456]

@@vishuprathikanti9352 1. All the 3 House leaders ask their House what they think of their plans multiple times. When Claude is asking how to sneak into Enbarr other people are there. Are you going to claim Raphael is mean to be in charge? Casper? Annette? Asking for advice is not the same as them being in charge. 2. "While strategy is the action plan that takes you where you want to go, the tactics are the individual steps and actions that will get you there" You are right, they are the TACTICIAN, now read the quote that defines the difference in that and what a Strategy is. 3.That isn't an argument. First Beowulf has no "hopes or dreams", Sherlock Holmes only "hopes" is to solve cases that personally entertain him, heck in this game Dimitri's only "Hope" is to kill the people responsible for Duscar in all routes but his own, and even in his own route for a good chunk. Some "plan" doesn't make a character, that is just stupid and multiple stories that are widly acclaimed don't have it. As for "independent thought or characterization", you are just admitting you didn't pay attention then. What about when talking to Hanneman they are upset about the name "Ashen Demon"? Or when Dimitri says he thought Byleth was emotionless they outright say that hurts. Them joking that they don't know Jeralt in the prologue, that isn't "independent thought"? Do you want more examples? I have more examples...The entire Kronya hunt is driven by them, no one else. Do you want more? I have more!

[@vishuprathikanti9352]

@@nahte123456 listen, I don't really want to argue with you but yeah, Sherlock isn't a super compelling character, the stories are fun for the mystery and story. 3h isn't really a story based game, it's a character based one. Most fire emblem games aren't character based, so it's acceptable when Leif just wants to stop child hunts and fight the empire. Because that story is super compelling as is. 3h doesn't really have anything as compelling as any other fe game from a story perspective, so it's gotta rely on character interactions to carry the narrative. And like I said, that's not a bad thing necessarily. I think the conflicts in this game are usually pretty impactful. But it is bad when your main character is as bland as can be by virtue of being a silent protagonist. When I think of the best story moments, they're all based on things people besides byleth do. Can byleth be funny if you pick the funny dialogue? Sure, maybe once. But will anyone comment on their sense of humor later? No, so I don't really count it for much. I don't really care if you respond to this with more instances where byleth can be funny. I'm saying that by virtue of byleth being a (mostly) silent protagonist, they are a weaker character. I think it would be impossible to argue Byleth has as much characterization as, say, Shez from 3 hopes. Hell, I might argue the byleth in 3 hopes has more characterization than byleth in 3 houses.

[@nahte123456]

@@vishuprathikanti9352 " I think it would be impossible to argue Byleth has as much characterization as, say, Shez from 3 hopes" Then you are just lying. You are saying because Byleth is silent you as a person will not pay attention. They have characterization, but you are just saying you are ignoring it because it doesn't have a voice. "Funny dialogue" isn't character, the words spoken and action shown are. I can play this game muted and the characters are all still the same, a voice does not make a character.

[@TheGgb81]

Congrats on making it! It's been fun to watch this series grow over the last few years. I'll be interested to see your thoughts on the Kaga series when you get there. Great work!

[@ElNeekoo]

Oof that intro. What a journey. Thank you so much for such a fantastic series

[@mrhbombman]

Honestly your reviews and synopses of the Fire Emblem series have been a treat. Regardless of what you do next I'm certain it'll be a joy to watch as well. Good luck on your future videos.

[@calebelliott2629]

The most impressive thing is how widely acclaimed this video series has been with countless content creators from all different KZbin spheres.

[@OkMakuTree]

Congratulations on making it through the whole FE franchise for your retrospective Shane! This must’ve taken crazy amounts of time and dedication to complete. I solute you for all your efforts and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the FE spin-offs and FE adjacent titles, especially Tokyo Mirage Sessions. While I wouldn’t count TMS among my favorite games, I had a lot of fun with its gameplay, story, and music and find that it’s often unfairly maligned by people who judge it simply based on its bizarre premise. Love it or hate it, I am sure your retrospective on the game will be fun to watch. Keep up the great work!

[@EmeraldSageCipherus47368]

What a journey. This was certainly a blast to watch unfold. Started watching when the Thracia review came out as I saw it in my reccomended, and stuck with it ever since. the journey since has been wild and I'm glad you stuck to this. I wish you luck on your next endavours my friend, see you with what you have to offer next, however long that may be. Honestly through this series and discovering your channel, I began to pick up and get better at warriors games (DW8XLCE in particular is a game I have dedicated many hours to), so you will always be remembered for both this and my warriors love, and on behalf of your audience, thank you.

[@Debloko666]

Thank you for these amazing videos!