Reminiscing About Fire Emblem Three Houses - Five Year Anniversary!

[@17Master]

The Monastery really could have benefitted from allowing players to auto-collect their things and activate events from a menu. At least on subsequent playthroughs. I could feel myself getting tired of it early in my second playthrough and the third it was a big factor to me checking out completely, even after I took a break from the game.

[@17Master]

That said, Three Houses certainly has more going in its favor than against it and was an enjoyable ride until I decided to hop off. Probably my favorite Fire Emblem to release in the last fifteen years.

[@techpriest6962]

I have to agree, the Monastery could have been the background. Though instead of walking to everyone, the camera just shifted between the different location options in that month. At least more like My Castle from Fates.

[@kalosianporygon]

Five years!? Darn, time flied fast.

[@lsrrr3857]

It is like Byleth only just wake up from his/her slumber

[@randalthor6872]

I'm 5 years late because I've only just started it! haha wow Incredible so far

[@medusawitchful]

as if i was in slumber....wow...this is must what Byleth feel

[@xoidbergskywalker9139]

I hate the whole "Bernadetta doesnt change enough post time skip" discussion. What's wrong with her isn't a personality quirk that's just going to disappear in five years. I agree that they could have handled it better and that it's played for laughs too often, but if anything I commend the writers for not just magically making her better post time skip. She's going to live with her illness her whole life, she can work on it, learn strategies to mitigate and manage it, but it will always be there.

[@ninjakirby777]

@@xoidbergskywalker9139 yeah people don’t just magically “get over” their ptsd or whatever, imagine telling someone who fought in a war to “get over it” because it happened 5 years ago, you’d sound so cruel.

[@tyomega9939]

I very much agree with the criticism that way too many of her C supports are played for laughs, and in quick succession, can easily make her obnoxious and seemingly bad as a character. Really wish they changed that. However her B and A ranks are generally waaaaay better, and don't think I agree with linking here, she's far more lax and not as terrified post timeskip compared to academy period.

[@yunuss58]

Your criticism about Edelgard needing Byleth is also applicable to the other lords.

[@ThePsh07]

2:05 *Three Hopes has entered the chat*

[@Dakress23]

Lol starting with a bang huh? Anyways for your first point: It's not that Edelgard is an incompetent leader in her route - outside CF, we're shown she almost won if it wasn't for Byleth showing up - but that 1. circumstances change the post-timeskip of the Kingdom so it's not as weakened as the other routes (quite the opposite actually), and 2. she's been holding out to hope for Byleth to return because otherwise, the other alternative is relying on the Agarthans even more during the war, which complicates things considering she's intending to dispose them all once they've served their role. Scarlet Blaze even drives home that Edelgard and by proxy, the Empire, cannot actually wreck the kingdom (nor the alliance on that matter) on it's own without some support, and it isn't up until Edelgard and Claude ally together that the tides of the war start turning in her favor.

[@MetalGearRaxis]

I do wanna hit on the point of Edelgard being incompetent without Byleth. It's interesting you say this, considering Edelgard is the ONLY leader who keeps her class together and cohesive through the time skip. Also, she wasn't just twiddling her thumbs, waiting for Byleth to come back; the Eagles were already prepared to invade the Alliance when Byleth returns, Byleth just happens to show back up just as the war was already about to get out its deadlocked state.

[@Redbean_Redbean_]

I love this game so much I hope we will get another game like that

[@saintlugia]

To be fair to bernie she does come out of her room in cf showing she has grown post timeskip, but that's cf only so it is misssable.

[@rockowlgamer631]

2:00 I feel like I figured out why Edelgard went down the quick route was instead of doing the more methodical way. She was low on time, like Lysithea before her, she was short on years and decided to get things done while she's still alive. Is it morally correct? Far from it, I'm sure if it were up to her, she would've done it the proper way of bringing the empire to a more self-sustaining methodology of hard work over Crests. However, due to Those Who Slither In the Dark probably would've undone anything she would've set out to do. So, she brute forced it. Though I feel like she should've asked for the church for help FIRST to deal with the Agarthans (like she did in Three Hopes) THEN tell the church off and replace the church, with some resistance from the Kingdom and probably joining forces with the Alliance now turned Federation. I think if Rhea has made the background story for the "sacred weapons" about protecting instead of making it a privilege for some noble kid with the crest becoming the new head of a noble's house and now there's 13....sacred weapons for defending Fodlan as a whole instead of it being splits across the country. That would've taken the whole favoritism out of noble society and made into more of a protector role. Now nobles like Sylvain's brother Miklan would've probably been head of the house while Sylvain focuses on becoming a protector of Fodlan, etc. That's just my opinion on how that could've worked. Also Mercedes, Petra, and Marianne are best girls especially Marianne when she asks YOUR hand in marriage, shyly of course, but considering how introverted and depressed she was to how she blossomed into a brighter and more beautiful woman to the point she willing to speak up about having you as a spouse in the S rank support makes her so wonderful. I kinda agree on how annoyingly portrayed Bernie came out as.

[@ninjakirby777]

Bernie was fine y’all are just expecting too much from an introvert

[@keslerjenkins9683]

my favorite game of all time

[@RubyChiang]

Can't believe it's been five years!

[@AlexT7916]

Three Houses just needed some more time in the oven to cook

[@pigeonleader]

Three Hopes should've been that time to cook but they still didn't finish it

[@calvinmcneil9824]

It really sucks that everything could have been fixed if the leaders actually did actively try to work together especially since Edelgard, Demetri and Rhea all have a common enemy in the Slithery people

[@squatch1565]

While I do think that a lot of the criticisms people have made against 3H are pretty valid, I still think the game works well as the whole package. The different routes encourage you to use different groups of characters to unlock all the supports (even if you can just use NG+ to get everyone but the lords and retainers on one team), the class system lets you make some fun builds with skills and class Combat Arts, and I think that, of the four stories, Azure Moon is an amazing character story about Dimitri's redemption, Verdant Wind and Silver Snow are about equally good (since the chapters are all the same)*, and Crimson Flower I can't give a good opinion on since I haven't played it in a few years. And whether I love them or they're Lorenz, all of the characters are great. I'd even make a slight case for Bernie, though it wouldn't be much and part of my argument is just "This anime girl is cute, I will protect her." One change I would make that wouldn't even be a massive overhaul of the story is just switching the final maps of Verdant Wind and Silver Snow. While Claude's battle against the past of Fodlan embodied in Nemesis makes sense, it would make just as much sense to have that be who you fight alongside Rhea, while Claude's grievances with the Church could be better seen/explored if he fought Rhea. Maybe his prodding and accusations after so much time spent as a prisoner of war would just be the last straw for her, instead of whatever happened in SS (I think it was that dragon madness that other FE dragons have experienced?)

[@LinkKing7]

I agree, I think the game achieved a lot with the ambition it had, but because of that, the expectations were through the roof and it just needed a bit more finesse to deliver them. Maybe for the next REAL installment we'll get that, who knows. Idk if I agree entirely with the final boss swap around, it does kind of need a bunch of story rewrite around that to make it works as well

[@joeyjose727]

I don’t 100% agree with Claude not having a route of his own, but I do like your proposal! Also they didn’t handle his route well, it feels like such an afterthought. I still love the game but I feel dissatisfied with the story in the end

[@Redbean_Redbean_]

I personally like three routes because I had the chance to playing with every character in the game. Other fire emblem games have this problem of to many characters that got forgotten.

[@MarkJBarret]

Three Houses got me back in the series from the GBA era. Afterwards i played all 3DS titles, and the Tellius games. I subscribed to a lot of content creators i follow to this day, like you! This game means a lot and hope this series can rekindle its fanbase with more bangers. Cheers

[@zenone9698]

Did you know both Three Houses and Valkyria Chronicles 4 were recorded at same time and studio and share dub VAs.

[@absoul112]

I learned something new

[@thomasnguyen4427]

Oh, so that explains why Japan Day Tripper's analysis of VC4's horrendous translation has extremely similar vibes when recalling the EN translation of FE3H. It was probably the same fanfiction writers who delivered their interpretation to that same location!

[@nathanmcclung3564]

I feel claude's role could of been better. My idea is that he can be an alley or enemy depending on certain things you do in the story. If you got his supports up to a certain point and helped out him on specific missions he could have shown up in the post time skip as an alley that would help you with a certain amount of troops or his classmates if you did not recruit them. If you was instead unsupportive and did things in the wrong way you would show up later as an enemy and maybe this could have effected specific members of the golden deer preventing them from being recruitable.

[@skavenslayer1933]

When I first played this it blew my mind. Swore up and down it was the best RPG I ever played. And now? Yeah pretty much the same. However at this point would throw it in a "top 3" somewhere. Still near and dear.

[@nxtboy96]

I'll note something here, which is only sort of related to your point about Claude: I thought that Claude's route actually wound up exploring Byleth's characterization better than the other 2 routes, in a weird way. Byleth's entire characterization is meant to be centered around the fact that he/she is... kinda dead inside? It's established that we barely feel emotion when the story starts, and are slowly discovering our humanity as the story goes along. I always thought that Claude's back-and-forth with Byleth did a much better job exploring that than either of the other lords, who are very busy with their own inner (and outer) demons. tl;dr Claude's existence as a foil to Byleth means that his route is my favorite for reasons that are only tangentially related to him.

[@LinkKing7]

You raise a great point, but don't you think that two well fleshed out routes could accomplish that along with the other objectives, instead of dedicating dev time to 4 and splitting the quality?

[@nxtboy96]

@@LinkKing7 They could! My point was more that they haven't, and I wouldn't want to lose that entirely. With the idea you mentioned, though, Claude could still serve that role as an ally, rather than the main lord. I just wanted to get that out there, since a lot of the people who dislike Claude's route also criticize Byleth's characterization, and I do think there's a connection there.

[@kyrroti]

Edelgard is my Minecraft skin

[@saintlugia]

Why do you keep blowing up flayn's house?

[@CameronFulkerson]

How is it already Five years old? It feels like we had a time skip.

[@jackybos4890]

yoooo linking video pog

[@rhymeswithmoose228]

I understand the logic behind two route three houses, but I think in my ideal Three Houses, instead of removing Golden Deer, they'd just...write the story better to give him more connection to the main plot (this, of course, assumes infinite development time and money, and also as a Golden Deer stan I love him too much). Oh, also let him S rank male byleth.

[@War_On_Fats]

My biggest criticism of Three Houses was the monastery. It was novel the first time around, but I hated every second of it every subsequent run. I'm a compulsive completionist, so I couldn't help myself from doing absolutely everything I could do before moving on to the next chapter, and it ruined the experience for me. At least it was still better than Xenoblade in that regard, I couldn't even get through half the game before dropping it. Edit: I also happen to be working on an Awakening reverse recruitment mod. Priam will be replacing Chrom, so I'd like some feedback about adding an optional version where I replace the three Falchions with Ragnells of varying might. I have a couple ideas about how to go about making the initial Ragnell. I'd either give it 2-3 might, 65-70 hit, 1~2 range, and +0 defence, or I give it 5 might, 70 hit, 1 range, and +2 defence. The former would easily turn him into an S-tier unit, whereas the latter wouldn't be as novel, which is the point of the mod. Which one do you think is better? Also, if you have another idea, I'd like to hear it.

[@hylianfelldragon1308]

Is it weird to say that I agree on the Three Houses monastery take but highly disagree on the Xenoblade take?

[@War_On_Fats]

@@hylianfelldragon1308 It's not weird at all. If you want to play all paths, you have to do the same monastery nonsense 4 times, whereas you don't have to repeat quests in Xenoblade. There were just way too many side quests in Xenoblade, many requiring me to walk through a large map multiple times for a chance of picking up a rare item from the ground. Edit: Even worse is that I had to talk to all the NPCs, and track some down because they move all over the place depending on the time. Too many things were locked behind unmarked conversations.

[@LinkKing7]

It hurts my soul that you think Xenoblade isn't fun because it's one of my favorite games of all time, probably in my top 3! If you're playing the original trying to do all the side quests then yeah, it's gonna be a bad time, they don't add much, but they improve them in 2 and 3. In terms of reverse recruitment, I have no idea tbh, I haven't played Awakening in a looooong time so I wouldn't even know how to advise you about that. But I will say, going for unique is great, as long as it doesn't destroy balance!

[@War_On_Fats]

@@LinkKing7 Thanks for the advice. Maybe once I reach the play testing phase of the mod, I'll give Xenoblade another try in my off time and force myself to ignore most of the unimportant side quests.

[@heime1990]

what are the differences between sword, lance and axe? for fernando, he has proficiency of all three. which one to choose?

[@michaelhowell2809]

I remembered the hype and it got me in the franchise again. Tho i wish the story was better, it was awesome enough looking back

[@techpriest6962]

3:50 you're forgetting the need for a Agarthian route. If anyone needed to be much better written, it's TWSITD as their backstory is great. Their actual behavior and actions in the plot were shallow and generic villain.

[@techpriest6962]

So 3 routes: Edelgard vs Dimitri, Church, and TWSITD Dimitri and Church vs Edelgard and TWSITD TWSITD and Edelgard vs Dimitri, Church, and Edelgard if you do not S support to get her not to turn on TWSITD. In the TWSITD route, if Edelgard turns on you that's when Nemesis breaks free to help her liberate humanity. As a main boss alongside Edelgard in the final battle. Depending on which you beat first, the other gets a cut scene where they go stage 2 as the final boss.

[@techpriest6962]

If they did a TWSITD route, it would more so be a fleshed out alternative to the Edelgard route. Kind of like how you make the choice which branches the CF route off the church route. Though in TWSITDs case the route would need to focus more on hunting down the children of sothis beyond the borders of Fodlan while the war with Fodlan is raging on and with covert assassinations / dealing with Almyra.

[@saliver5909]

Five years damn. Three Houses have quite some flaws but it is still one of my top FE games.

[@sam7559]

Two routes for three houses I would've been fine with but I absolutely disagree on the idea that Dimitri has to be a locked in first route. Dimitri is not the main character nor is Blue Lions the canon route

[@Ninjaananas]

I think Edelgard is overall right and excellently written.

[@jierdareisa4313]

I love ALL LinkKing7 videos!!!! ❤

[@darkstalker696]

First played blue lions 3h thought it was amazing, then after the 4th playthrough with crimson flower never touched it again. I overall like 3h but it's not a big GOAT as it's perceived as ( yes ik it's the best selling idc) it has good characters and a above average story for fire emblem on first playthrough

[@GaiusTulliusCatallusXXC]

People complain about the clean slate thing leading to everyone being samey but I don’t get that argument. Like sure if you want to slap everyone into Wyvern Rider it’s good but you’re gonna run out of strong flying battalions fast. Sure, most units start in Noble/Commoner but their learned Combat Arts, Spells, and Authority skills push them into specific niches if you want to play optimally. And if you’re not playing optimally then why not let everyone go into Bishop? It’s funny.

[@tylerroyster1156]

I STAND WITH EDELGARD!!!🫡🫡🫡

[@tbahr123]

Link woke up and chose VIOLENCE in this one! (You’re not wrong about Bernadetta though)

[@josephhuang1163]

We’re all waiting for the next instalment in 2029. Engage in 2023 was horrible.

[@nathankeel6667]

3H is the game that got me into fire emblem despite knowing about the francise sense awaking wail as time has gone on its my opinion on the game has lowered I still have over 400 hours in it. Wail I do think that it has some of the worst of problems modern fe seems to have unbalanced difficulty options, unit customization, waifuism/marriage thing, and moving away from perma death. It has alot of good wail it has its fair share of problems its one of the best storys and worlds in FE the charchter writing and brilliant choice to cut some supports off at B or having + versions of some supports allowing for more flexibility in the system and when it comes to combat gambits and monsters were great additions making the game extremely player phase focused and opened up to types of strategies not normally used in fe. And the monastery wail it has its fair share of problems for late game and on repeat play throughs feeling like a slog it was extremely well designed layout and just general atmosphere with charchtes giving incite on whats happing each chapter making the world feel more real.

[@absoul112]

While I disagree with Claude not having a route, it is a really interesting idea. At least to me, the idea of only being able to side with 2 of the houses feels weird . Also you’re not the only one who isn’t a fan of Bernie.

[@DoggyP00]

The only students related to the main plot beyond just happening to be in the class of edelgard and dimitri, are edelgard and the blue lions. Everyone else is old school fire emblem gimmicks. Some characters have better gimmicks that are easier to expand into interesting character moments, and others are just a personality quirk. It's just weird to single out Bernie. Bernie isn't poorly written, she just isn't a part of the main story.

[@hickorydaisy4117]

EDELGARD IS MY WIFE I LOVE HER

[@brademix]

Link is spoiling us with all these videos Seriously though looking forward to the final chapters of the fe8 co-op, even though it looks like a clean sweep for Link

[@konstantinos-iliasstrempas4594]

i'm on the rhea team

[@aggressivelymediocre350]

I feel like the Golden Deer route would’ve been better if it were more a story about the little guy trying to stay afloat in a conflict between two other giant kingdoms looking for any advantage. Don’t try to make Claude relevant when he isn’t. Make Claude’s irrelevance to the grander conflict the main drama! Although the final game has already demonstrated they wouldn’t have been able to handle that load

[@SupericeCap]

I’m am fan of al if the characters, all of them had a point.

[@hansgretl1787]

Regarding the 2 route structure: I would argue that if they want to make another route based game (which they should in my opinion) then they should keep it to two routes. Three Houses clearly buckled under the weight of four routes, and Fates was a similar story. But a game with exactly two routes would hit that sweet spot of giving you multiple perspectives and generating fascinating discussion, while also being small enough in scope that a development team could actually handle it. It would also help with burnout, since asking the player to play two distinct routes would be much more reasonable then asking them to play four almost identical ones.

[@alistairx811]

Minor quibble, but I distinctly remember a Nintendo Dream interview with the devs saying they were surprised how many people replayed the game, thinking that most would only play one route and leave it at that.

[@hansgretl1787]

@@alistairx811 I heard of that as well, but it proves my point. They are intimately aware now that people will replay the game to see everything it has to offer, ao acommodating (how do you spell that again?) that playstyle would be in their best interest.

[@kirker87]

Five? FIVE??????? Father Time please slow down wtf

[@victoriascholl4607]

I bought a Switch Oled the beginning of 2023 because I wanted to play the the two Fire Emblem games. I have played the Golden deer and the Blue Eagle. I never wanted to play Edelgard. 🤔

[@ninjakirby777]

I’ve played golden deer and church twice each and blue lions like 7 times… and black eagles once

[@joecoaxum3851]

I always felt that any good will Edelgard built with you in the first half of the game gets damaged in the battle under the church. Byleth could have potentially seen the other kids get seriously hurt or killed which would make joining her really awkward after that. The story basically needed Rhea to freak out on you to push you to Edelgards side. I feel like that chapter would work better if Edelgard came to save Byleth from the ritual instead of just ransacking graves.

[@Arxyee]

Three Houses would be among my favourite FE games if it had a weapon triangle and class-locked weapons. I think the ability to reclass into anything should've been new game+ exclusive. The game shouldn't give the player this much freedom especially since reunion at dawn exists, which a blind player can't prepare for. The story of the game is all over the place. Three Hopes managed to make it even worse and more confusing. Ashen Wolves DLC was great as a standalone, but it should've been integrated into the story right after Byleth falls into that hole. FE hasn't had a story I'd call "good" since Radiant Dawn. The biggest problem with monastery in the 2nd half is that there's nothing new to do outside of monthly fetch quests. If you spent time fishing while the lady of the lake or whatever event was happening, you've already maxed monastery rank and outside of meals, and gardening, there's nothing. I've been enjoying doing NG maddening runs without monastery/aux battles. I've completed Claude's and Dimitri's route so far. It's honestly a really fun challenge and a great way to test your knowledge of the game.

[@lenen9456]

Edelgard had a good idea but went about it in the wrong way.

[@Pm3m_Dia]

I honestly think edelgard discourse is futile because the writing of this game is not good enough. They were trying for this morally grey "ends justifies the means" approach but it all falls flat.

[@kiamosky4340]

oh you're so over. Golden deer slander results in punishment. Y'all suck for that. It's a great route with actually makes sense with white clouds foreshadowing and the way both clause and byleth ask questions. Specifically with a cutscene which only exists in Golden Deer where clause and byleth discuss Nemesis with Thomas (before his reveal). And honestly everyone saying golden route was irrelevant or not necessary are just racist lowk. Acting like the alliance isn't also a part of Fodlan like the empire or the kingdom which is exactly what the empire and the kingdom do in the story? which is true with history how regions are attempted to be discredited by higher powers. In addition Claude being seen as outside the plot is exactly what drives him mad? he is half almyran half alliance both halves are equal and he doesn't deserve to be discredited so. You may say that's not your reason for calling him that but be fr that's exactly how it comes off. Claude's story works with Byleth's and the world building because they balance and bounce off each other. That is why it is a mix with church route too (though that is something to critic). It is the only route where the Lord and The Player actually have a balanced goal and idea which though seem different leads to the same conclusion and epic story. Also best character work in golden deer (the way it's the only route to feature several cutscenes with only OTHER characters talking about the story with the Lord and player absent, speaks volume). IN conclusion, Golden deer is the GOAT. Golden GOAT.

[@dragoonprime9829]

I agree with edelgards critique not her approach. Ex. If i wanted to change (insert unjust USAsystem here) im not teaming up with the KKK. That causes too many faults,contradictions, and issues. Not to mention in her route the world she makes is no different than it already is. Except based on even worse lies .

[@emmastokes64]

More like Mid Houses

[@vanikkan872]

Sorry, but if dimitri was the main focus, i wouldnt have beaten the game 12 times. I think dimitri is boring and his story is not that compelling. So id rather play golden deer 5 times befor blue lions.😅