Fire Emblem: Three Houses Review

There’s always time for tea.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a game of many faces, whose name is just as indicative of the gameplay direction as it is of the plot. Splitting time between tactical, grid-based battles, base and inventory management, and forming relationships (romantic and otherwise) between your main character and the secondary cast (and between the cast members themselves), Three Houses runs the risk of losing focus and falling apart. Not only does it stand strong in the face of these disparate identities, but each facet of the game helps prop the others up to reach some truly excellent highs.

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Intelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo

Platform: Played on Nintendo Switch

Availability: Released on July 26, 2019 for Nintendo Switch

The three leaders of the monastery class houses, from left to right: Claude of the Golden Deer, Dimitri of the Blue Lions, and Edelgard of the Black Eagles.

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The opening chapters of the game feature your player character, whose name and sex you can determine, teaching classes in a massive monastery to a group of students from three separate kingdoms — the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance. Each of these kingdoms has its own ideals and representatives within your class. Edelgard is the calculating (and oftentimes cold) leader of the Adrestian empire, Dimitri is the seemingly kind and passionate prince of Faerghus, and Claude is a cheerful and warm fellow, whose surface demeanor belies his true nature as a calculating and shrewd tactical mind. 

The fate of each faction, their leaders, and even their subordinates depends upon who you side with, the relationships you’ve formed, and your actions in battle. There are 4 main paths in the story: side with the Empire, Faerghus, Alliance, or the church, with each having its own story, characters to recruit, and battles. For my playthrough, I went with the Blue Lions (the monastery house populated by students from the Kingdom of Faerghus), and have come away satisfied with my decision. 

At its heart, the central conflict of Three Houses is a battle of ideals, not just the nations in play. Each main faction leader has complex motives or things they strive to uphold, and that puts them in conflict with the other houses, even if they’re friendly on a personal level. The way these ideals are presented in-game is a bit surface-level, but there is so much going on in the background that you can read up on. With such a deep history of the world to explore, you can get much more out of the game’s events if you make the effort to dig a little deeper. The game strays away from the more grounded, political aspects a bit in the back half — opting instead for a more standard fantastical approach and introducing a “these are very obviously the bad guys” group, but retains much of its charm throughout.

Tea dates offer multiple choices to further the conversation. Strong bonds with characters leads to support conversations, which can be funny, sweet, or even sad.

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A large part of that appeal is the “support” portion of the game. This is the part of the game that revolves around your character forming bonds/relationships with the other characters, and fostering similar bonds between the supporting characters themselves. This is done in myriad ways – engaging in combat with said character close to you or having them set as an adjutant, giving them gifts, and even inviting them to spend time with you (tea parties, eating meals, etc.). When two characters get enough affection for one another, they unlock a support scene in which they converse, after which their rank goes up – conveying benefits specific to that support in combat. Additionally, while characters may leave you during the second half of the game under normal circumstances, recruiting them early on in the game and forging bonds with them allows you to recruit them in the second half. For the main character, some characters can also be romanced, which culminates in a sweet, unique scene between you and your love interest.

I would say that a large majority of the gameplay experience revolves around this part of the game. Most of my time was spent running around, doing errands and bonding with the characters to level up relationships. I often dragged out battles in order to set up situations to gain more affection between characters, and went on little tea dates with the entire crew. It was fun. That said, it is a bit disappointing that most of the characters come off as one-note. A majority of the cast falls into your usual anime archetypes, with little or no growth as the game goes on – even if you level up their support, or pair them with other characters. That’s not really a big issue, though. The cast is so large and varied (with multiple story routes in play), it feels interesting enough to see how these characters play off one another, rather than forcing any specific changes or growth.

Separately, the combat ties into the overarching narrative and relationship-building quite well. In fact, combat is the convergence point for basically every other aspect of the game. While the structure of the battles is rarely anything beyond ‘kill x enemy,’ your actions in battles can have severe consequences – killing an enemy you may not need to could prevent you from recruiting them or upset your party members, moving too slow may lead to reinforcements appearing for the enemy and cause you to lose a unit, and so on. On top of this, the supports you forge outside of combat can play a role within it, with link attacks or other benefits arising from those strengthened relationships. All of that effort you put into building up your forces, running errands, and instructing your class is demonstrated through the battles you face. It’s impressive how cohesive all of this is.

While the battles may be tactical, the scenes that play during each attack or ability keep the action visually engaging.

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If you’ve played a Fire Emblem game before, the way these battles work will be familiar to you, with Three Houses returning with the turn-based, tactical combat and weapon triangle the series is most well-known for – albeit with some tweaks to the formula. Most notably, Three Houses features battalions, which are small squads attached to one of your units that can then be used to assist you by performing gambits — moves with special effects that are used in lieu of your normal attacks. Gambits can also be empowered by performing them near allied units – just another reason to keep your team close. Combat skills have made their return, but now cost weapon durability, rather than health. Every action you take in combat will grant some experience and progress toward certain skills, which is all a part of your growth and power-scaling.

Also notable is that there’s a way to improve your unit's capabilities outside of combat through tutoring and weekend lessons. In these sessions, you choose a study focus for your students by assigning goals and activities, and then can help them improve on certain skills like riding or swords. These skills improve not only how your unit performs on the field, but also act as breakpoints for changing classes by gaining certifications.

With so many systems in play, it can seem daunting to just jump in, but I think it’s more than doable. Despite carrying on the Fire Emblem legacy, Fire Emblem: Three Houses exists within its own lane, being detached enough from the other games in the series to be a fully functional work alone. There are references and nods here and there that will be recognizable to longtime fans, but ultimately this is a standalone adventure that welcomes newcomers with open arms. Thankfully, the entire game comes together nicely for players new and old, creating a rewarding and thrilling journey to put your heart into.

Verdict

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a deep, complex, and ultimately enthralling Strategy RPG. With so many different characters to engage with, and ways to approach combat, you’ll never feel like you’re running out of things to do or see. While the characters may be mostly one-dimensional, I find them endearing, and trying to curry favor through little dates is probably the biggest draw for many players. I was ultimately most impressed with how thoughtful and well put-together all of the disparate systems seemed to be, with nothing feeling like an afterthought. If you like strategy RPGs, games with dating mechanics, or both — this is an excellent choice. 

Image Credits: Taylor Rioux