Fire Emblem Catch All

I haven't been doing as much min/maxing, but I've finally reached a point where everyone's nearly maxed out with one another on support. My typical go-to for Adjutants is to see who is lowest in experience that's not in the battle, and then assign them based on who they're compatible with in support. Doesn't work so well when 99% of those are already at their limit.

I'm curious to see who will pair with who. I think maybe you can get an idea based on their Roster card, where in the "Notes" tab it lists the top three allies. Crossing fingers Ashe and Annette get together! Really, though, most of the pairings I'm uncertain who I'd want to match make. I'm not even decided on who I want Byleth to go with! I'm so indecisive...

Also makes me feel like this:

Started my NG+

Maddening is living up to it's name. Finished the mock battle with literally one person left standing. Might have to turn permadeath off.

Or burn a bunch of renown leveling skills.

Latest update to force these characters to make kissy face:

I've been debating whether I'm gonna have my male Byleth marry either Catherine or Shamir. It was always gonna be one of these two. They are best.

But then I maxed out their support.

It's adorable.

I think I have to let them just be together.

My heart.

I did not let them be together. When the option came to choose a spouse I looked at all the options available and made a panic selection. Byleth got with Shamir, and I regret that decision, though largely because the game limited your text options in such a manner that had me thinking "Ooooh no, this isn't romantic at all..." Ruined the buzz, and also left me wondering more than ever in this game why I was given text options. Like, I kind of get why in earlier parts, but... yeah.

Should have let Shamir and Catherine hook up.

Ah well.


Saw the credits roll not too long ago. Roughly 91 hours total to complete my initial Blue Lions run. I was victorious with 0 fatalities and 9-10 time rewinds remaining (I keep forgetting the actual name for some reason). As a reminder, I played on Normal/Permadeath. The final battle was a sudden spike in difficulty, surprisingly so actually, yet I still managed to make it through.

Nonetheless, in those final hours I began to get a real sense of everything I should have done to build a more efficient team. This contributes to some of what I really liked about Three Houses, which is that it feels like it's easier to intuit and figure out how to better optimize classes and builds than in the prior games – particularly as those titles relied completely on child units for it full optimization. I had already commented on it well earlier in the thread, but the school setting with full roster pages allows you to see character-specific buffs/traits which can encourage you to use and steer a character a certain way.

However, it's easy to see where you "made mistakes" or "went wrong" in the character building simply due to what is unavailable or more difficult to achieve. I began to realize that a lot of my earlier tutoring sessions were wasted upon traits that the character would naturally excel in, or turning certain traits into specialties without proper consideration of what they'd be later down the line. I was able to turn Sylvain into a Dark Knight, but only because I stumbled across that possibility. I turned Manuela into a Mortal Savant, but I had to focus a lot of time on her "Reason" skill. That she was pretty decent in the role indicates how much this game allows for customization, and given that she is rather capable with a sword when you first get her, I think this is certainly a route they allow you to take. Nonetheless, I cannot help but wonder if Holy Knight would have been more fitting. Felix was one of my best units as a brawler, but I feel like reason was a stronger trait of his and so steering him towards Mortal Savant might have been a better idea. Also: I kind of forced Catherine to level up reason enough so that she could become a Mortal Savant since I had no other idea what to do with her. Perhaps I should have steered Shamir towards being a Pegasus Knight. Etc.

I don't think the game has "intended" roles for the different characters, but I do think some are easier to direct than others. I'd like to go back and replay the game with their Master Class in mind, or at least Master Class possibilities.

Additionally, towards the end I boosted Hilda from a ground unit to Wyvern Lord... only she didn't have enough Authority for any of the Battalions that fly. No problem, right? Well, her chance-to-hit and her avoidance both took a nose dive without a battalion present to give her a boost. I had a feeling Battalions would prove more valuable on higher difficulties, but this really proved to me just how strong they could be. On Normal you can kind of get away without much focus on Authority and its boosts, but I imagine they'll be all the more necessary on higher difficulties. The only characters that were fine without Battalions were Felix and Catherine, who get boosts for not having a Battalion attached.

I view all this as a good thing, though. It fires me up to replay the game for more than just the story mode, of which there is plenty of reason. In some ways I feel like Blue Lions is a good starter route, as some of the big story moments will be given additional little info and teases and give a decent enough "happy ending" despite some bitter sweetness. At the same time, I really do feel like the ending was a bit... lacking after 90 hours spent playing it. I hope there is a more "definitive" ending along one of these routes so I don't spend hundreds of hours seeing the different routes only for it to be as minimalist.

Either way, really enjoyed my time with it, and feeling 50% glad to have seen the credits and take a rest from it for a while and 50% like I want to dive right back in.


And now for some silly "who got paired with who".

Spoiler:

Byleth x Shamir: As noted, I kind of panicked and just selected Shamir, but then it feels like the entire set of text options available from Byleth in that scene was "What, that's it? C'mon, this is supposed to be special!" Like, bro, how can you wanna marry the chick and not understand that she's very stoic and pragmatic? Kind of put a damper on the whole thing. Also: given the quality of art I'd seen for other characters for this whole marriage thing, Shamir's was... not bad, but certainly not to the same quality, and her face looked quite different than all other renderings of her. Really had me wishing I chose someone else and let Catherine and Shamir have their adorable little lady marriage.

Annette x Gilbert: So not an actual marriage, and one that kind of disappointed me since I was really hoping for Annette and Ash to hook up. Annette was never on the table for Byleth to marry because she's so adorable and innocent and I cannot sully that. She sings about blowing up the library! And it's adorable! Anyway, I was still happy with this, though, as it was a good ending for both Annette and Gilbert where their family gets back together.

Ash x Dedue: Another non-marriage where Ash decides "screw all y'all racists", quits being a knight, and opens an inn specializing in Duscur cuisine in which Dedue frequents. The two basically become best buds and help crush the power of racism with food. Oh, if only it were that easy...

Ingrid x Seteth: This surprised me. I was beginning to wonder if it was a possibility, but their final Support conversation did not really feel like it was leading to romance like so many others did. Yet Ingrid chose her life as a knight, worked with Seteth, and then the two settled! ...even though I'm pretty sure Ingrid died and Seteth hardly aged because, ya know.

Sylvain x Mercedes: Not the top hook-up I was hoping for, but certainly a good one where the two seemed to come from mirrored backgrounds. I am okay with this.

Felix x Dorothea: Also not the hook-up I was hoping for (I thought Leonie would be a good match, but sadly Leonie is lonely ), but a satisfactory one nonetheless.

Hilda x Cyril: Oddly enough, this really did seem like the best pairing for the two as time progressed. There was just no one that seemed as suitable, though I was beginning to wonder if Hilda x Seteth might be a possibility. In fact, I think I like that one better, in hindsight. Regardless, these two had some cute support conversations, and Cyril got his reason to live beyond service to Rhea.

Hanneman x Manuela: Because I just cannot see either of these with anyone else.

Dimitri x Catherine: If you asked me about this pairing in the earlier hours of the game I'd look at you as if you were nuts. However, discovering more and more of Catherine's background and her prior relationship with Dimitri, it makes a sort of sense. That said, I didn't really know if I was hoping for Dimitri to get with anyone in particular, so I wasn't going to be unhappy with whatever ending he got.

Arise thread! The Fire Emblem clone from one of the series' older developers is finally out after god knows how many years. Vesteria Saga part 1 is out on steam. It's very much closer gameplay wise to Fire Emblems 1-7 or so, and a lot of people are comparing it to 2 or 4. I thought those who might want a call back to how the game used to be, or for those who never played the GBA versions of the games might want to check it out. It's a little buggy but it's very nice and a has a few QoL changes, such as in game saves every 5 turns (before you move) while still have permadeath. It's definitely different from three houses, and even Echoes, but I highly recommend it to anyone who has $20 to spend and wants an old school turn based tactical RPG. I've spent the last 4 hours or so trying to optimize my run thru while going blind and man, it's possible but it's so difficult. One thing I did learn that will be helpful is that if you rewind time it resets the stat growths AND the RNG for attacks. So even if your unit is trapped when you save, it is possible (in some cases: where you can get a healer to them quickly) for that unit to survive. Weapon durability is thing, but AFAIK there is no weapon triangle. The classes and stat system are similar but not quite the same and there are personal and class skills that are more on the FE 4 side of things than current. I apologize if there is a thread for this game specifically but this was the closest I could find.

oops, doublepost, sorry. Btw I forgot to mention that they have 100 save slots, which is useful for the multiple endings based on who died and what events you do.

Thanks for the heads up!

I asked this in the Switch thread but didn't get a response, so I'll be needy and ask about it here. Anyone have opinions on the DLC season pass?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I asked this in the Switch thread but didn't get a response, so I'll be needy and ask about it here. Anyone have opinions on the DLC season pass?

So far, big ol' waste of money

I bought it after finishing it the second time, so I can't judge yet. I've played a little bit of a 3rd playthrough and so far all I'm seeing is an unlockable character, you can pet cats. There's more, but I haven't gone far enough to tell if it's worth it.

The fourth and final part is supposedly the big one, but that isn't out yet. What's released so far isn't bad, but not worth the price yet in my opinion.

Yeah I haven't seen anything yet that looks worth the money. Maybe the final story bit. But by the time it is finally out I should be 150+ hours and very done with the game for a while.

Yeah I keep forgetting there was an expansion pass for this game simply because there's already so much game to play. I'm curious if the DLC sales were weak for this one in comparison to other games.

It has to have sold better than the wild $50 DLC pack for Echoes. It cost more than the game!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

The fourth DLC drop for Fire Emblem: Three House's expansion pass is... a secret fourth house of mole people? Basically four students living under Garreg Mach Monastery that can join your party, and seem to have their own little mini-campaign.

Interesting.....I’m interested to see if they are something standalone, or if you can do their quests as a part of another houses story. Maybe just a lot of paralogues, plus new section of the monastery to explore. If I could recruit them while doing a future BL run, I’m probably down. Either way, I’m probably still waiting to hear about the quality of the new content.

I don’t expect them to get their own war phase, but I could see how they might tie in to a certain other faction that isn’t fully explored.

Well, the video shows them interacting with a full Golden Deer cast, so I'm guessing it will be an add on to any of the existing paths.

Incidentally, given what I know about what happens later in Golden Deer, I suspect that even if they can be brought in to the other two, Golden Deer might make the most sense for them story wise. Kind of annoys me that where I left off was near the end of the school phase of my Golden Deer run. Granted, I do think I'll do at least a Blue Lions run eventually, if not a Church run as well, but still.

Must have missed them interacting with other classes. Good to know.

Talking about the mole people a bit in spoilers now, since I want to talk specifics about story beats from late game BE and GD.

Spoiler:

So I think the read here Is they will fill in the gaps about those who slither in the dark. They were barely explored in the main game, especially BE and GD which I played. I don’t know if these students will be spies that are brought around through the power of the main character, or possible recruits for the slithers, or how that will work yet. But since they’re underground, this is the perfect tie in.

But I’m really interested in how they react to the story. You have multiple run ins with the slithers in the school phase, none good. How do they react to Jeralt getting killed, if they have ties to the slithers? Are they shocked and saddened that their people did it? How do they get along with Hubert and Edelgard if they have slither ties, since those two want to ultimately wipe out the slithers? How much do they like dubstep and hard drops? Questions like these could be really interesting. And it’s possible they have no explicit preexisting ties, but discover something along the way with their mini campaign.

Yeah, I’m kinda talking myself from maybe getting this to probably getting this

Also, I’ve been thinking about some of the music in Golden Deer, and how they get some of the best and most varied tracks in the second half. Musical spoilers and references to some GD missions inside.

Spoiler:

They get three of the best timeskip songs.

There’s Between Heaven and Earth, which is the second three-way fight, which might be my favorite track in the game.

They get Shambala, which is debatably good, but the electronica is such a wild swerve for the fire emblem series that it’s highly memorable.

And they get God Shattering Star, which is a Viking singing and chanting over epic orchestral music. I think that’s the best if the final boss themes, since the other is mostly a remix of one of the battle themes.

But this game has good music in general.

Thanks, ccesareno!

I'm still chugging through my Crimson Flower playthrough so if the new content can be bolted on to where I am (chapter 15 IIRC), that might be tempting. And is that a flying mage I saw in the trailer?

On the other hand, it would have to be very good to justify the price of the DLC...

Dr Incurable, how did you go with Vestaria Saga? I've had it on my Steam wishlist for a little while.

Sundown, I'm looking forward to finishing my run so I can read your spoilered comments

Mind Elemental wrote:

Thanks, ccesareno!

I'm still chugging through my Crimson Flower playthrough so if the new content can be bolted on to where I am (chapter 15 IIRC), that might be tempting. And is that a flying mage I saw in the trailer?

On the other hand, it would have to be very good to justify the price of the DLC...

Dr Incurable, how did you go with Vestaria Saga? I've had it on my Steam wishlist for a little while.

Sundown, I'm looking forward to finishing my run so I can read your spoilered comments

It’s great, very puzzle like. You will use all 100 save files in various play throughs. Definitely a throw back to FE 4 with qol improvements.

Well, apparently the new DLC is standalone, and takes place as a side story to the main campaign pre timeskip. It doesn’t look like it integrates into the main game.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...

So yeah, to answer that question from before, pass on the DLC.

I'm mostly curious if the extra classes (flying magic users, for example) will be available in the main game. I'm guessing yes?

Thanks, Sundown!

The article also mentions no teaching phase in the DLC, which makes me leery. How can its design succeed if it rips out half of the game's systems? (Whilst that still leaves the battles a la previous Fire Emblems, I would argue that the calendar management is a key part of the pacing and flow of the game and the overall package would be much less interesting without it.)

Stele, I can see your point...

Stele wrote:

So yeah, to answer that question from before, pass on the DLC.

I'm honestly not that put off by what I've read so far. Expansions that don't integrate into the main game and mix up the core mechanics have been the basis for some of the best expansions (hell, the best gaming experiences) I've had in the last few years. Things like The Last of Us: Left Behind, the DLC campaigns for Dishonored, and the Torna expansion for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 have been great.

So I'm honestly in wait and see mode. If the add-on for Fire Emblem is good in and of itself, I'll happily get it.

So fire emblem heroes is starting a subscription in year 3

Some other news in there, 3 Houses heroes coming soon, free 5* heroes during the anniversary month celebration in Feb., etc.

I still hop on there quite often as my go to time waster on my phone. But man the sub stuff is a turnoff. I quit the Mario Kart mobile game after using a free 2 week trial of the sub, then going back to the plain game and the difference was staggering. The same was crippled without it. Hopefully this won't trend that direction.

Nintendo's mobile subs have been meager offerings, at best.

I am perpetually disappointed by their mobile games.

I actually just uninstalled FEH from my phone about a month ago after lightly playing it for 2 years. Sounds like I got out at the right time.

I have ONLY ever played one FE games and that is Awakening on the 3DS, I did like it... Now I have started Conquest.... I am by no means expert on teh series... and chose the SAFE way to play it where characters do not die.. but return after a while.... boy oh boy... i have lost like 5 so far in the first few missions... any suggestions or ideas?

I am new to the series like I said and how much does it affect story wise if i have MANY of my allies die?