How does Fire Emblem: Three Houses hold up 5 years later?

[@martinmarvinii3139]

God dammit it’s been 5 years!?

[@CobraCodex]

Same lol

[@lsrrr3857]

Byleth has awakened from his slumber

[@barbaimbaraboom5233]

I mean I only played fire emblem three houses out of all the fire emblem games. The story gripped me, the characters were amazing honestly and the game over all has that mature theme. I couldn’t get into Engage no matter how hard I tried but I did enjoy Engage’s gameplay more than 3h so idk give me an engage gameplay x FE3H theme Nintendo 🤔

[@Mr.Jacket]

8:56 Silver Snow was comfirmed to be first route in a May 2020 issue of Nintendo Dream. It has some pretty intresting tidbits. It also seems that the Edelgard route was very last minute thanks to a lot of the development team wanting to 'walk with Edelgard'. A bit more on the theory/not comfirmed but I cant help but wonder if some chapters in white clouds were actually split at one point. Ex. Underground chamber + Salvation at the chapel maybe being a Silver Snow/Crimson flower exclusive as to explain why edelgard gets monsters. Also I cant help but wonder if Fleche and Randolph were meant to replace Flayn and Seteth but sorta ran out of time.

[@fz_dracohart1255]

Tbh very based decision of the part of the dev to consider creating Edelgard route, and not just selling cheap "haha your waifu lord is betraying you" schtick they had in initial development stage. Azure Moon route is great as character-driven story don't get me wrong and I love my good boi and chad boar Dimitri, but Edelgard is the main driver for 3 Houses popularity, for better or for worse. Partly because waifu yes, but partly also because she's a also a fresh break from typical good blue lord prince facing hardships to ascend the throne much like other traditional FE lords. They really did see their errors in their way and flesh Edelgard's route in 3 Hopes. I imagine if 3 Houses only have things like e.g. Blue Lions as sole route (because it has traditional "prince to lord" hero's journey with a good dose of personal drama) and Edelgard as traditional red emperor villain of FE, 3 Houses and FE in general wouldn't have been booming like today. Just ugh I wish Claude isn't there just as throwaway third lord just because Koei Tecmo wants quasi-Three Kingdoms situation. It's a bit of meme yes, but we gotta thank Edelgard discourse as it's really what catapult 3 Houses to extreme popularity that they're still memorable even after 5 years (aside for Engage while doing good in sales, is really meh in terms of being stand out)

[@CobraCodex]

Interesting tidbit, Verdant Wind being a copy of Silver Snow and not vice versa makes a lot more sense given the main theme is literally about Edelgard.

[@yaboidashyt9374]

I would love to see a continuation to the three houses story in a future fire emblem. The world building and lore was done so well that I would rather come back to this world and it's lore over the idea of a whole new country with all new lore that happens when u transition between games. It was a great feeling to return to familiar lore when playing the ike hero fire emblem games. I am also a huge fan personally of academy student troupe added to the series and would like to see it again. Ideally I would want two skip ahead a generation or 2 so that we can have time for more lore to be created but so that we can also be familiar with focus on all new characters. I would like to see three houses characters return but not be the main focus. They would be older more established in their tittles and ranks, you would know how powerful they are if they step on the battlefield, they would have ties and bonds with the newer characters by being fathers, mothers friends or family, if you had to fight against them it would hit so much harder when one of the three houses characters dies or rushes to your aid to save you as a ally. Another thing that could be expanded on lore wise is the crest. They were a big part of a lot of things that happened in the story and there is plenty more than they could do with that.

[@pcas3187]

@@Mr.Jacket My very first run was fortunately Silver Snow. I felt that it was a great first route.

[@Yarharsuperpirate]

My main gripe with 3 houses, is the first half of the game being pretty much the exact same in every single route with no real differences gameplay wise. Which seriously tanks the replayability. Even if they wanted to keep the chapters themselves identical for story purposes, they could have done some minor variations to spice up the gameplay in them.

[@CobraCodex]

Exactly, doesn’t help that the game is long af especially if you try to participate in the minutia which is borderline necessary on maddening imo

[@charmishing]

It would have been nice if there was at least one pre time skip mission unique to each house.

[@mercenarybdu]

It still holds up to a certain extent. But FE16 is the 2nd mainline game with lackluster maps. The mass of the game went too far in the home base direction and spent barely any effort on the maps and challenges other than mass recycling skirmish maps when doing side quests. I would respect it more if the extra time they spent was for maps with challenges to it. But as the team that worked on it didn't despite all the extra time they were given to fix all the problems with the game is why it is 2nd towards the bottom on my tier list.

[@royalcamel8167]

I have recently come back to 3H after a few years and have been watching a lot of FE videos lately, and I believe that I remember hearing that it was actually Silver Snow that was the first route developed and that Crimson Flower was the one that was sort of rushed towards the end of development, and it shows. Still Three Houses is really great. I have done like 7 runs of it over the course of literally hundreds of hours, and I still find it to be a very interesting and engaging game that I still really love and watch videos about after so many years. Three Hopes was also quite good for a Warriors game, and I like both of them so much more than I enjoyed Engage.

[@CobraCodex]

My main issue is how long a playthrough can take. Obviously difficulty selection plays a role in this and new game plus can speed things up in some regards, but this most recent play reminded me how much of part one I used to skip through to make it bearable past my initial runs of each route.

[@pcas3187]

Just started Engage this week. I bought it last year but just kept playing Three Houses.

[@CobraCodex]

Engage didn’t do much to gain my interest pre-release. I’m willing to give it a chance for what it is, but I’ve been dragging my feet on playing it as well lol

[@therealjaystone2344]

The storyline sucked so much that it struggled to keep me up. Took me over a year later to beat it and the dlc too.

[@pcas3187]

@@CobraCodex I'm very new to Fire Emblem as a whole. 3H was my first game and I loved it mostly because of the story and characters. The gameplay was really fun for me but it wasn't what won me over

[@pcas3187]

@@therealjaystone2344 I keep hearing about the story's low quality. I recently started Engage and I'm very early into the game. I do NOT enjoy the MC worship and I've only played the practice maps

[@delhen21]

​@@pcas3187 Same here just started my first playthrough of FE3H loving it so far the story is so emotional 😢.

[@takarahayashi4124]

just new game plus, and you can easily skip to the each main battles, as you can just buy their skill ranks.

[@valentinlira1567]

I really liked 3H , and all the other games after awekening , but awekening its my number one period .

[@orkiso1]

the amazing lore and characters aren't enough to coverup the shortcomings of this game. meanwhile engage is a brilliant game despite a horrible story and a meh cast. it just tells me that the gameplay and presentation matter more for a fire emblem game

[@jordanquimby854]

Well that isn't the majority opinion

[@orkiso1]

@ but its mine so its correct

[@jordanquimby854]

@@orkiso1 We'll it doesn't change 3h us reviewed better and sold more so future titles will probably be more like 3h than engage just saying

[@maziio646]

3H was fun, but people made it seems like it should be FE's new gold standard and stuff like that

[@CobraCodex]

It's to be expected when a game quickly becomes the best selling entry in a series. Thankfully IS is typically good about not keeping experimental mechanics around for too long (biorhythm, pair up, etc.).

[@laranintendogaming]

Personally, I prefer going back to engage over three houses. Don't get me wrong, I've spent more than 400 hours playing three houses and about 250 in engage, and I liked 3 houses a lot, but Engage has more of that "3ds fire emblem feel" to me and I think the gameplay was more fun than 3 houses, where it felt like a chore at times to get through the monastery and whatnot, even in the second part of the game (I can't believe we have to do that in the second half of the game, though. There's a war going on, why did we capture this territory and go back to the monastery?? It makes no sense story wise). I'm also still salty that in silver snow Gilbert asks you whether you want to go east or west (one route being slower but safer, the other being harder but faster) and then you're forced to take the slow route bc the choice doesn't matter..... That aside, on my very first playthrough of fe3h, I actually missed the option to speak to Edelgard that unlocks crimson flower because I was bored and I wanted to skip exploring the monastery that month (figuring I wouldn't miss much). The main story battles were fine, but I only ever played on normal or hard mode, and I wasn't really struggling at all (because if there's the option to do auxiliary battles, then why wouldn't I do them? More exp means I can build my units faster, you know). I just don't like that calendar system, honestly. It works, but it just makes the game slower when it doesn't need to be. The characters in engage, although definitely nowhere as strong as 3 houses, do have a greater level of depth to them if you look at supports. I honestly found the ability to build units far more easier in Engage than 3h (a panette crit build goes crazy! lol). I think it's because when you finish a save file, like in the 3ds era you return to the spot right before the final battle. That lets you go back and change builds, which is easier with endgame resources available, compared to 3h where you go to ng+ and have to start from level 1 (and then you have to spend resources to unlock previously unlocked skills, which aren't available from the start. There's just a satisfaction seeing maxed out levels, ig). Oh and I will say, engage has a much more balanced maddening mode! Three Houses Maddening mode is like fe awakening lunatic+ with how hard it is, lol. Good luck when you start engage! 😄

[@CobraCodex]

I think the calendar system was an interesting experiment but it drags here in a way that games like Persona don't imo. I'm very curious how I'll feel about engage, I generally know what to expect so I'm prepared to accept it for what it is.

[@jtalkalot19]

Before I watch the video... i tried to go back and play this game this around summer. I stopped after 3 days. I was kinda bored. And didn't have the motivation to continue to play. I put this down and went back to play conquest and engage. I really love 3H, but I think what turns me off these days is the monastery part. And the drag that is most of part 1. It's really sad. I used to love the micro managing of it. But after playing Engage and going back to play conquest. I don't like that drag anymore.

[@CobraCodex]

I feel similarly, pacing is the real killer and the monastery/calendar stuff is mostly to blame. Still love the character building stuff, but there's a lot of fat in that process that could stand to be trimmed.

[@grayfox4819]

Hot take: I prefer Engage over Three Houses. Here's the thing: I'm very specific when it comes to a story I can enjoy and the story of Three Houses is just not my cup of tea, and without the story Three Houses is such an empty shell, because in terms of gameplay and map design is among the weakest of the series. This is why I preferred Engage vastly more, it's true the story of that one is a mess, but I had A LOT of fun with that one between the creative maps, the customization possibilities and actually strategizing. Also despite the weak story, I enjoyed a lot many of the characters thanks to the support conversations. While some of them are silly several of them have actual depth and really make the characters Shining. So yeah, it might be hot take, but I prefer Engage over Three Houses.

[@MH_Zard]

Engage is fun, and has better maps for sure, but idk about character depth. A lot of convos are samey with just characters showing their usual gag. 3H has this but I liked the character dynamics there way more and how some convos tie a lot at least a bit more into the world and state of events, which adds up because the world and story are interesting. Engages has some nice wholesome convos and some are funny, but I dont find a lot of them pretty deep besides Yunaka, Panette, or Rosado

[@grayfox4819]

I mean, Hortensia also has some of the best written supports in the game. And some characters are explained better in some specific supports (Alfred is a prime example of that. If you watch the A support with his sister, you'll see how tragic his character is). Also some really made me laugh hard like Veyle-Alfred C, or several of Timerra's ones. As I said, I found a lot of appreciate in the characters thanks to the supports of the game, even thought I do agree that the main story as whole is a mess. But if I have to chose between a messy story but with a good gameplay and characters I can enjoy in the middle, and a story that it's just not for me and a really weak game strategically and fun wise, I just go for the formers. It's as simple as that.

[@KvotheTheArcane-uo2to]

The G.O.A.T. That's it...

[@corki1017]

I just started my 3H play throughs for the first time a couple of months ago. I started with Golden Deer and after completing that campaign, my thinking was that this was a 3/5 video game that got overhyped by the internet. Did Claude even have a character arc? Why are half of my class walking 1 dimensional anime tropes? Who knows. It was fun, but I had a really hard time calling the writing good or anything. After FINALLY coming around to Blue Lion after 100 hours, I can see that THIS was the video game that everyone else was talking about. Fighting Miklan has much more weight when you have Sylvain. Battle before Dawn is much more impactful when it’s murder hobo Dimitri going up against an army of thieves. It really does feel like this is the “intended” route, and the others are bonus side stories that give alternate PoVs.

[@e.angelg.caballero1798]

Mods gave a new breath of life to this game for me

[@CobraCodex]

What mods do you recommend?

[@tommycwills]

That was great! I think Three Houses may be my favorite Fire Emblem although I’ve only played about half of the games in the series. Funnily enough even though I’ve done the DLC campaign for this game I’ve never done a Blue Lions run. Guess I missed out 😅

[@CobraCodex]

Thanks Tommy! I think all the routes have their merit but Blue Lions feels the most fleshed out imo (even though some stuff still gets left out lol)

[@phoenix5054]

Playing FE Engage right now. The character designs look so weird... like there's propellers around you when you engage? And Marni and Panette looks so out of place for General / Berserker. I think I might play 3H again after Engage.

[@waddledottz]

You really need to play Engage, is 10 times better than Three houses, it surprised me for the better

[@scitails]

Depends on the person. I got near the end of Engage and couldn't be bothered to finish it. Spent hundreds of hours on 3H, though. Might go back and finish Engage eventually, but the game never made me care about the characters or plot, and that made it hard to push through as someone who always wants to play in an optimal way (so I always feel I need to spend time optimizing before battle).

[@phoenix5054]

Not really. I still miss FE3H. I like the customizability of the classes in 3H. You can use a bow as a flyer class, etc, while you are kinda limited in Engage.

[@CobraCodex]

I'm hoping to get around to it next year, it's not one that grabbed me pre-release for a number of reasons I'll get into in the inevitable video. Regardless I'm willing to accept it for what it is at this point, just not entirely sure what it is is going to be something that resonates with me.

[@StirFryTuna]

​@@CobraCodexi know how you feel when I transitioned from awakening to fates. I just couldn't get into fates or like any of the characters. I ended up just not enjoying fates and never finished a run of conquest or revelations. Despite conquest having what people consider some of the best fire emblem gameplay has to offer, I just didn't enjoy the gimmicks on each map. I ended up clicking with engage and its characters. I really enjoy it for its gameplay and discovering how to make less viable units work. I've played engage for like 500 hours now. So yea sometimes you just don't click with a game *shrug*

[@waddledottz]

@@phoenix5054 It´s way better that each character is specialized in something instead of just a dumb sandbox, I mean, it is a strategy game after all, I like to use my brain and work with the tools I have, not be able to have the same overpowered tool repeated x10 (I play without second seals)

[@Chronal-Rend]

Funny enough Max in the late stages of my no new game plus maddening classic mode crimson flower play through, so that I can finally get the golden menu card😂

[@JasonGodwin69]

It doesn't hold up. Hours of dull optimization to strengthen overpowered units to take on stat inflated foes with bullshit RNG in big empty nothing maps for nothing gameplay.

[@grayfox4819]

I agree. Of all the games I bought on the Switch (almost 50) this is the only one that disappointed me. It's a drag, it's not fun gameplay wise, and (here's a personal tastes matter thought) the story and characters are just not for me. I honestly preferred Engage a lot more, at least that one IS FUN.

[@radioact1ve808]

Unfortunately it's the only Fire Emblem game that's still worth playing in 2024. The series ages like milk. Bad overly simplistic gameplay across the board, and non-existent stories outside of 3h.

[@jordanquimby854]

Well 3h did sell more and is reviewed better than engage so nintendo will probably make the future games more like 3h

[@grayfox4819]

In that case I would be' done with the series as whole. Excuse me a lot if in a VIDEOGAME, the GAMEPLAY comes first than the story...

[@josephhuang1163]

The game is too old now!

[@Alucard12456]

no.

[@origami5609]

3h is garbage. play a REAL fire emblem game

[@lsrrr3857]

Yes, play FEH

[@filipower776]

Yes, play Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

[@CobraCodex]

🧢

[@phoenix5054]

Cope. FE3H is a real FE game... the most successful in fact.

[@Alucard12456]

you don't know fire emblem you...