Features:

  • A turn based, tactical RPG that puts new twists on strategic battling
  • The Officer’s Academy is home to three houses: The Black Eagles, The Blue Lions, and The Golden Deer… Which house will you choose
  • For the first time in series history, assign battalions of troops to support individual units in battle
  • Freely roam Garreg Mach Monastery, interact with students in a variety of ways—over lunch, even—to bond and gather intel
  • As a female or male professor, you’ll meet House Leaders and future rulers Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude
An absolute masterpiece...

This game is an absolute masterpiece. Right from the get go the action begins and a new story is beginning to unfold for our three troublesome houses. When I play this game, I am heavily reminded of Harry Potter, because this game like Harry Potter was divided into different houses that the students chose. The game gives me the feeling of both something new and similar. Secondly, the graphics are what we would expect of a new entry into fire emblem. They are definitely an improvement from the last fire emblem entry and from the 3DS counterparts. Also another HUGE plus is the Japanese voices, for most it may not mean much, but the game sounds much better in the original language. The gameplay is also nothing short of phenomenal. The new system veers into artes that consume weapon durability to be performed in battle. Terrain advantages seem more important than ever, (I know first hand playing on Hard/Classic) and the relationship system seems to be back in full force which was one of the most fun mechanics in terms of replay value on Awakening and Fates. If you are on the fence about buying, don't be. This game is absolutely top notch and I can't wait to finish the game and play through as other houses. 5/5

The best Fire Emblem to date!

Everything that you know and love about Fire Emblem has been massively enhanced for the Nintendo Switch. Taking away the weapon triangle and adding combat arts makes battles feel way more dynamic and fluid compared to older entries where you felt as if you could only use certain units to progress. The hub of the monastery adds a ton of depth to the non-combat portion of the game, with fun little side quests and plenty of opportunity to befriend allies. Anyone looking for a super in depth tactics game with a well written story should definitely pick this up.

Love it

New to the series. Got a switch for when I travel for work. Just the kind of rts I was looking for. Love the battalion feature, the graphics are great, everything is voice acted, there is permadeath, and most of the characters feel real and very different from each other. 5 out of 5 game

Disregard the review bombing occurring elsewhere...

As always, straight to the scores: Graphics quality: 9/10. Almost every game that releases is capable of looking better, and FE3H is no exception. However, whether it is the animated cutscenes, traversing the monastery, or engaging in large-scale tactical battles, FE3H looks great for a game on Switch. I genuinely believe this is one of the reasons the game pulled me in so quickly, and I am so happy to see that time was taken to ensure the game looks as good as it does. Animation: 9/10. Again, same thing. Beautiful. I was very happy to see things that were not previously animated, being animated. The best way I can describe this is that there are smaller things you will notice from time to time that you never thought would make a difference - like the fact that there is no longer an animation for "entering" an attack. Those things make a difference. All of the difference. Story: 9/10. "Harry Potter" is not an accurate description of this game's story, because the only thing FE3H shares with Harry Potter is a House system. House systems are a tradition of England's schooling dating back hundreds of years. If anything, FE3H is historically accurate. And I am really disappointed that some of my fellow Fire Emblem veterans have simply dismissed the game for this reason, because the nuance of the story is something I really appreciate as opposed to many of FE's former titles. I won't tell you what to do, but in short, I do not believe you can actually "play" the game and walk away thinking it is like Harry Potter, so if I were you, I would strongly disregard anyone who brings that view to the table. Characters: 10/10. Characters in this game are excellent. Dialog is snappy, and time spent with students really draws you into the world and its story. If you do not spend time with these characters, you will be missing a HUGE part of the game. Take the time to individually "instruct" them when the time comes and you will see that you care a lot about your students and their progress. You will definitely be invested in them and their lives. Customization: 10/10. Your students progress is the foundation for FE3H customization options. Every single student has the ability to become so many different classes. It is your responsibility to see to it that they achieve their goals, true. But it is also your responsibility to ensure they try new things. If you do, you will find that some characters have a knack for classes they had no interest in - just like real life. This is a really fun part of the game that I think a lot of people are overlooking, so take your time with it. Gameplay: 10/10. Honestly, FE3H feels as great as FE always has. They brought back weapon durability, which adds some busy work, in my opinion, but the classic battle system is there with just a few more layers to keep veterans interested. And its great! I also think the battle-to-schooling ratio is perfect, making battles feel more intense and more important then previous titles. Voice-acting quality: 10/10. This entire game is voice acted. This ENTIRE game. I love the voices involved and I am really happy with all of the casting choices. I recognize many of the names, but generally the voices are a "good fit" for the characters you are speaking with. Music: 8/10. The music is well implemented. There some interesting decisions with sound design in the battles that I think I just need to play more to understand, but it seems like the music shifts depending on what is occurring, which is cool. None of the tracks stand out to me so far though, which is a shame. "You are the ocean's gray waves" comes into my mind every so often, and I miss that. Price of game: 10/10. No MTX BS, no content cut before launch just to sell as DLC. Just a really great game for $60. Extrinsic positive/negatives: +0/-1 points for auto advance/auto-scroll during conversations not being as tight as it should be. This may seem like a minor nitpick to some, but when the story and the characters are this good, I just want to enjoy them like a movie, not continuously click after their lines are delivered. Average score: 9.3/10. I got the game a day early and said, "oh wth, I will just play an hour or two." I had planned to play considerably the next day, but since it came a day early, why not, right? Well, I ended up playing for five or six hours and I did not realize it. Because I was just having fun. Having said that, I am only about eight hours in now, so I will be returning to update this review as I play through the rest of the game. I hope this review helps you make an informed decision.

Fire Emblem: Three Visual Novels + Great Tactical Game

I logged 91 hours only on Blue Lions route, and I will definitely be going back to do Claude & Edelgard's route. FE3H is a full complete game without hidden story DLC for your to buy on release. Good bang for your buck. FE3H is very much an amalgamation of all the Fire Emblem game that came before; it has the ambitious story scope and character roster of Fates, some maps are challenging akin to Radiant Dawn, great detailed world-building. But it stands alone unique and on its own merit, not a mere copy-paste. ============================================================================================= +++ Pros +++ + Story: it is full of intrigue and hidden depths especially when you build supports from various students and faculty. You can just skim through the main story, but the details in the profiles and interactions between characters greatly adds to worldbuilding and understanding of the overall story. One playthrough will not be enough to understand what is happening in Fodlan. The story is gripping and sucks you in. + Unit customization: FE3H maybe the most customizable FE game yet in terms of class, abilities, and weapons (rank and type). While Fates does have relatively more, but I thought FE3H balances it quite well. The game makes it much easier to have certain units catch up to a certain rank for them to class in something to be effective like you want them to. + Big Maps (but not too big): the maps and how the battles are set up are quite interesting. While many of them are "defeat all enemy commanders", there are couple of maps with sub-objectives that gives bonus at the end. Although I had a hard time navigating on the zoomed-in-on-the-ground view, I appreciate the feature of seeing units as if they are truly on the battlefield. The perspective adds to the huge scope. It is a nice feature albeit it cuts into the frame rate. + Characters: while a couple do follow some of the trope you see in anime and previous FE, there are nuances added to give them some depth. But that depends on how much supports (not just protagonist's) you are willing to put in the work. There are various ways within the game to get those support points, not just on the battlefield. Choir practice, dining hall, group goals. Find ways to pair them together and build support points. + Art and art direction: I especially liked the art work from when the chapters begin. The style is so much different from previous FE titles. It looks straight out of a medieval history book. Or it has that style. + Battle system: FE3H took out the weapon triangle, but has the weapon durability. Battle system is in similar veins as Shadows of Valentia, and I'm not complaining. It's fun to play. Gambit is the new feature, and it's different. For one, it gives more customizability to a unit, and having battalions on a battlefield, makes the map more of a battlefield like FE has us to believe. It took some getting used to, but can be an effective tool. + Voice Acting: everything (except protagonist) is voiced. EVERYTHING. English AND Japanese. Wow. And the acting is fantastic. I played with dubbed voice cast the first time, and I had a blast being with these characters. --- Cons --- - Small texts on the big screen: the texts are so tiny on my TV and I could not find an option to change the font size. It was so frustrating. - Drains Switch's battery: fiddle with brightness to save the battery or carry the charger with you. - Lip flaps: talking audio and lip flats doesn't match. I got used to it, but it was jarring the first time. - Cutscenes, or its style: I thought there was relatively more smoothness compared to how it was in Valentia. But there's certain edge and sharpness to the animation. Personally, I am not a hug fan of such a style especially in tender moments, but it works well during action sequences. ============================================================================================= There's no another blue-haired Lord character. So, that's a big change already. There were a couple of story beats that had me scratching my head like troops traveling too fast, too easily across the continent without opposition or monsters. Or how the protagonist has too much special-ness like Corrin from Fates where everyone likes him or her out the gate. Overall, I really like the game and recommend it to those who like FE or strategy games. Even to those who like Visual Novels because FE3H has those elements as well. There is a casual mode and time-undo feature (Divine Pulse) to redo certain moves. The game balances out difficulty for both veterans and newcomers. FE3H has a lot of replay value. Highly recommended.

Potentially my favorite game of all time

I played Fire Emblem: Three Houses for 38 hours after only 3 days of it being released. Yes, you read that right. I spent on average 12.67 hours/day over 3 days. Needless to say, I LOVE this game. There are 3 routes (4 if you count a shorter, secret route) that are about the same length. It took me 44 hours of playing at what I consider to be an average speed to beat one of the routes on hard difficulty. Basically what I'm trying to say is that you'll be getting many hours out of this game if you enjoy it. For anyone who has played any Fire Emblem games in the past, you might be skeptical to hear that this game changes up the formula in more ways than one. For example, the weapon triangle (swords > axes > lances > swords) was removed and magic tomes aren't items anymore (they're more like skills with charges now). Do NOT be dissuaded by these changes because they ultimately improve the gameplay experience. For newcomers to the Fire Emblem franchise, this is a great entry to start with. Compared to the previous titles, Three Houses definitely feels much easier. Not only are enemies not as strong, but new mechanics such as Divine Pulse, which lets you turn back time to fix mistakes, were added. To conclude, there are tons of dialogue in Three Houses and ALL of them are voice acted by very capable voice actors. Rather than moving on to the next text box after I finished reading, I found myself letting the text auto-advance so I could appreciate the voice acting. It absolutely blows my mind how Fire Emblem went from mostly having grunting noises and short phrases such as "yes" to this masterfully voice acted game. TL;DR: Buy this game.

Must have for fire emblem fans

Best Fire Emblem yet. Each of the three paths has 60+ hours of gameplay, half of which is completely unique.

So worth it

I've put in 50 hours, and I'm still not halfway through the game on one house. Maybe this game is saving me money because I don't think I'll be buying another video game for a while. I will be buying the DLC as well. Some people are complaining about how slow it is but you can literally skip almost everything straight to the battles, do I don't get it? Also, a huge plus is auto progression (you wouldn't have to click "Next" like 50 times) which I LOVE. A great game for commuting. One complaint - the text is small so get your glasses out! I can read it but the first time I put it in handheld mode I was shocked - how did this get past testing? Patch please!

This is my life now

This thing scratches both my itch for tactical RPGs and my itch for relationship/life sims. I've been joking with friends and coworkers that I now live to play Fire Emblem: Three Houses, & the game and I are in a committed relationship. I just came off of a Fire Emblem: Awakening playthrough, and this feels like a natural extension. There is far less matchmaking involved (only your character can marry anyone, and not everyone is an option), but I don't feel any real loss. There are even a few same-sex relationship options, and, at least from what I've seen for female main characters, they're even good options. #hottiesForAll I find the battles strangely engrossing; I tend to watch the combat animations--although sped up--whereas I'd turned them off for the vast majority of Awakening. I feel a sense of pride when my housemates pull off a clutch move or hit that turning point where they cease to be a liability and start to become a BAMF. "Free time" at the monastery is fun for me, if a bit formulaic (gotta run and check literally every corner for random items/quests/relationship-boosting dialog). I can see where it might get old for some, but I usually look forward to having tea time with my soldiers, singing in the choir (otherwise known as boosting my faith/authority stats), answering anonymous letters advice-column style, and picking whichever sycophantic dialog option makes a character like me more. I will agree with the general consensus that the menu system can be hella clunky and unintuitive (for instance, did you know you reclass characters by going into the Inventory system?), but it's nothing you can't learn to get along with. And, there's a lot to learn to maximize your time (figuratively and literally, as the game has a calendar system that restricts what you can choose to do in any given month) and resources. There's no shortage of loading screens, which I'm not a huge fan of, but at least the information therein can go a long way towards helping you figure out things, especially when you first start. The game tries to walk you through new mechanics as they occur, but it's easy to miss a concept now and again (at least for me). Now, one new mechanic, which may or may not be to the fandom's liking, is the Divine Pulse. Divine Pulse is an ability allows you to rewind time in battle, stepping back as many turns as you want to go. You can start off from that point as if nothing ever happened. You only have so many charges of Divine Pulse per battle, but the default 3 is generally enough, and you can unlock more. This is the only way I am getting through Hardcore/Classic mode. I refuse to let characters die, and even in Awakening's Casual mode, I save-scummed so that no character ever died. This lets me feel like the kid gloves are off, but I still can, carefully, retry some riskier maneuvers. (You'll understand when you meet a certain recurring optional boss. The one with great defense, great resistance, lethal and accurate attacks in a huge range, and counters to everything except for Gambits.) In any event, can't recommend this game enough. It's entered my top 5 games of all time, even unseating some old favorites. Once the "new" wears off, I'll have to consider if it is worth the #1 slot, but it's really doing it for me--it's got one heck of a shot at it.

A Longtime RPG Fan? This is essential for your gaming experience!

Do you want a game that has a great story line, great characters, great gameplay AND great battle gameplay? Or how about a game that allows for multiple story lines, a somewhat "choose your own adventure" that puts you in control of the entire game? If you like great games, if you like RPGs, you'll love this game. I've been playing video games and collecting since the SNES, and this game gives me a nostalgic feel, while adding on layers and layers of gameplay and customization options. It's truly a RPG fan's dream come true. Even if you're not familiar with the Fire Emblem series (I am not well versed, this is only my second game), you'll still love this. You don't need a background in the game's history to get pulled into this game for hours and hours! A must have! A++

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