Fire Emblem Catch All

Wow, that is a GoTY-contender glowing review. I almost suspect a trick, but here's hoping it's real.

Buuuuunch of previews went up on Three Houses. Seems pretty clear Engadget's article went up a day early by accident.

We've Played Fire Emblem: Three Houses for 20+ Hours! - Hands-On Preview
* Interesting impressions.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses confirmed to have same-sex romance options

Nintendo of America has confirmed that Fire Emblem: Three Houses will include same-sex relationships are possible for select characters in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. At this time, the company is keeping quiet on specifics so that the game isn’t spoiled for players.

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/fir...

Also from USGamer, and their impressions of the early to mid-game. It sounds like Three Houses is now definitely a continuation of the post-Awakening games where it leans into the RPG part while somewhat deemphasizing the tactics (Conquest excluded). As someone who preferred the tactics of the GBA and Gamecube era.......Disappointed is too strong of a word, but I would prefer if they had gone the other way. I prefer positioning and team composition to grinding. But this has been the trend now, and it's what helped revitalize the franchise, so I really can't be surprised.

That said, I'll still probably get it eventually, just on sale. I've played almost all of the FE games that have come stateside, and I imagine I'll get this at some point. I'll be keeping an eye on the thread and on reviews to see what everyone's impressions are, and who knows, I might be surprised.

Also, apparently the three routes are actually fairly distinct, and some are more varied and challenging than others, so that seems like a good thing. Kind of like Fates having 3 routes where you get to pick the experience you want to have, but in a single package this time.

Not to be pedantic, but it's been fairly clear that old style FE is long dead. It didn't sell enough with Awakening revitalizing the series.

But the basic structure of Three Houses made it clear that something akin to Fates was coming in. To me it sounds like they've pared things back to a better balance, as Kat said. That may not be good enough for you, and it maybe isn't what I want either, but I'm going to reserve judgment until folks get past the midpoint. I'm beginning to believe that while a large portion of the game may be throwaway maps due to training students, I still think they great maps are coming for the latter half of the game and the open-ended customization of the characters means there's possibly near infinite replayability.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Welcome to the Golden Deer House

40 Hours Later and I'm OBSESSED w/ Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Preview

I went ahead and prepurchased the digital version. I loved Awakening but stalled out on Fates. I think this was more to do with me being over the 3DS when Fates released than the actual quality of Fates.

No, Fates was definitely the problem.

Also in with pre-order. Saw Luigi's Mansion has been added to the Voucher game list and went ahead and got it for this and that.

This will be my first Fire Emblem game. Looking forward to checking it out.

PWAlessi wrote:

This will be my first Fire Emblem game. Looking forward to checking it out.

You’re going to be surprised when you find out that Fire Emblem is a dating simulator.

Three Houses popped up in the mobile game today. You can choose one of the 3 for your castle decorations and the first batch of heroes is in the summons.

I preordered it a few days ago. Looking forward to it. Glad it doesn't have the online 3DS stuff of Fates which really felt like mobile game BS in hindsight.

Honestly looking back, I feel like the My Castle stuff really left a bad feel in that game. Since it was necessary to upgrade weapons you did not really have an option not to interact with it. And because they just handed it out and you could visit 20 castles a day the upgrade costs were very high. Hopefully this Three Houses is more respectful of our time and doesn't have that daily login nonsense.

It's traded daily login stuff for a school setting. Apparently. Intelligent Design is a decade behind trends. Next game will feature VR and streaming.

Review embargo is up on Three Houses. Seems to be getting good scores.

The fact that Kat Bailey was real positive on it is all the review you need. She's been critical of Awakenings and Fates and was not particularly hyped for this one on Axe of the Blood God.

Yeah, Kat's take was interesting. There were a couple sentences I wanted to pull out and post here, but figured yall would read the review anyway, so...

I was content to wait a month or two before picking this up but maybe I'll get it this weekend.

Edit: I keep seeing/hearing maps aren't interesting, they're just grinds.

garion333 wrote:

Edit: I keep seeing/hearing maps aren't interesting, they're just grinds.

I was worried about this when I saw the screenshots of the battlefield. I was worried stylistic choices we cause them to favor open battlefields where they could show multiple soldiers.

I hope that's not why.

I think it has more to do with the skills and upgrade system being wide open, honestly. That's what I mean about a grind, it's just about using your team to go kill stuff and less about interesting scenarios.

Ah. I see.

O. M. G.

They put in a Souls-esque lite MP feature in that you can see on the battlefield. Waiting on those spaces gives you a buff, etc.

DSGamer wrote:

Ah. I see.

Keep in mind, I haven't played it. Just the impression I'm getting, but there's also seemi gly more terrain effects than in recent iterations.

I'm hoping to get this later in the year. I'd like to get more Switch-exclusive games for the BF and I to play. We got Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 the other day.

Well an hour until unlock. Thinking about trying prologue tonight.

Anybody decide which house they are joining first yet?

It unlocks tonight?? Oh dear.

Stele wrote:

Well an hour until unlock. Thinking about trying prologue tonight.

Anybody decide which house they are joining first yet?

Axe the Blood God mentioned NOT joining the black something house your first playthrough for... reasons. No idea why that would be.

AotBG also mentioned in a podcast that the word on the street from Japan is that the Golden Deer had more interesting maps than the other two routes.

Servers overwhelmed.

Earlier tonight I tried just for fun and it said game not released and pointed me to the eShop to check the date. Now it's just throwing a "you cannot play this game" and nothing about the eShop. So I'm guessing they are swarmed with people trying to verify their purchase and play.

EDIT: Finally got in at 12:09 after trying since 12:03

Austin Walker had some good things to say about Three Houses. The idea that they are replacing a hard weapons triangle with stats that accomplish a similar thing is an interesting concept. Spoilers for some of the story structure are in the later half of the review, but some of it has been in the marketing material already, so ymmv.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/j...