The latest of Japan’s tactical RPG series, Fire Emblem: Three Houses has recently released so there’s no better time to talk about it. Fire Emblem as a whole has gained many fans, particularly with Awakening and it looks like Three Houses will continue to create new fans amongst those new to the series.
Three Houses looks to have learned from its predecessors, from both their great strengths and weaknesses. For those of you who are still unsure on whether the game is worth it and who don’t want any sort of story spoilers, here are 10 things everyone completely missed in Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
10 The Return Of Dismounting And Durability
Each new Fire Emblem game brings something new and Three Houses is no different, but each of these new things doesn’t always reappear in future games. Three houses, however, does bring some of these now old things back into the series for another chance.
From a few of the older games, the ability for your mounted units to dismount makes a return. This allows you to ignore enemies that would gain a bonus vs mounted and flying units at the cost of extra movement. Weapon durability used to be a mainstay but disappeared in the past couple of games. It now returns slightly changed - now when your weapon breaks, you can still use it but with reduced effectiveness.
9 A New Class And Weapon Type
The newest weapon type from Three Houses is known simply as Brawl. It might be a strange name to call it but that doesn’t mean its not a strong addition to the game. Requiring you to pass the certification exam, you will gain access to the Brawler class which uses this weapon to great effect. The advanced promotion of this class is the Grappler.
The Brawler is a fast and hard-hitting class that can’t really take a hit, especially if that hit is magically based. This isn’t this the first time Fire Emblem has introduced a new weapon but in previous instances, there was often something to build upon. Fates had shurikens/knives but that was more making what was previously a secondary weapon into a full-fledged one.
8 Battalions And Gambits
One of the newest and most interesting features in Three Houses are the battalions. They are a group of soldiers who you can assign to your characters to improve them in some way. There is a large variety of these groups to choose from and which one of them you choose has an impact on your chances for victory. Though they don’t specifically fight enemies for you, they do increase your stats and unlock the powerful Gambit abilities.
Gambits are powerful but limited, not just by their Battalion requirement but also in how many times you can use them per battle. Though they are limited, they also come with a unique characteristic - they can’t be countered. So feel free to use them when you’re not confident in your characters ability to take out the enemy in one strike.
7 There Are Three Choices And Only One Game
Very quickly, you will discover that you must make a choice of which house you follow. This choice will impact which characters you use and which story you partake in but don’t fear, you can always replay the game and choose the other houses later.
However, unlike Fire Emblem Fates, which required you to buy three separate games (even if they were cheaper than one full-priced game), Three Houses only requires you to buy it once. There will, of course, be DLC’s but its a relief to know that the additional choices are not locked behind further payments. Simply buy it once and enjoy.
6 Extra Activities
Fire Emblem has always been a simple game, not in combat but rather in concept. You’re guided by the story, sometimes making choices, your characters talk and you engage in combat in various battlefields. Three Houses has decided that it wants to let you do a little more than simply fight and talk. To that end you can now do other activities.
The Monastery is where you’ll be staying when not in combat and it’s here that you get to have a little side-tracked fun. Other than the typical professor tasks that you must do here, you can also fish and garden. Both of these activities, in addition to being a harmless distraction, can also impart benefits to your professor level and in the form of items.
5 A More Forgiving Way To Play
Particularly with the older games, Fire Emblem has been known to be rather unforgiving. When a unit dies, it’s gone, you have to accept that (or reset the whole level). But as of more recent Fire emblem titles, the developers have seen fit to give you more ways to supersede your mistakes.
Awakening introduced Casual mode to the western audience and its been here to stay ever since. Three Houses is no different here and it is this, along with one other feature, that allow those who are more casually inclined to still enjoy the game. The second feature is called Divine Pulse and it functionally the same as Shadows of Valentia’s Mila’s Turnwheel.
4 Fog Of War And Canto
One of the greatest things about the Fire Emblem series is that it’s not afraid to leave certain mechanics behind as well as bring them back later. A couple more of these mechanics are the Fog of War and Canto. Both of these mechanics have been in some older games but not all of them. More specifically, they’ve been absent from the most recent games.
Fog of War is, simply said, a mechanic that makes it difficult for you to see. However, the enemy forces have traditionally been unaffected. This has not always been the most popular of mechanics but it does present a unique challenge. Canto is much more popular as it allows any mounted unit to move again after completing an action, so long as they have any movement points left.
3 It’s Not Inspired By Harry Potter
Despite the obvious similarities between Harry Potter and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the newest game was apparently not inspired by Harry Potter. It was also not inspired by Persona or any other game set within a school that lets you interact and build relations with those around you.
The game was actually inspired by a previous Fire Emblem game, Genealogy of the Holy War, in which three childhood friends: Eldigan, Sigurd and Quan grow up together in the Royal Academy of Belhalla. In this same game they end up on opposing sides of a war later on. The similarities between the two games are quire obvious when you compare them.
2 Combat Abilities And Arts
Fire Emblem continues to iterate and attempt to improve how easily you can customize your characters abilities and Three Houses give you a lot of options. There are personal, class and standard abilities. Personal are tied to the specific character, class to the class and standard are fully customizable.
Because of the flexibility of the class system in Three Houses, with basically anyone able to be any class, which skills you choose have also become dramatically more flexible. You have a certain amount of abilities that you can freely attach to a particular character. This means that even within specific classes, you can give yourself customization options such as a surprisingly tanky pegasus knight.
1 Relationships And Time
It’s well known that this newest game in the series has very persona-like relationship building. There have always been relations you can build within your army but in Three Houses it’s particularly emphasized because of how much it can change, not just in battle but within the story itself. Minor spoiler/s ahead.
The secret but not so secret part of this game is that, at a certain point in the story, you will skip ahead five years. This means that the first part of the game, pre-timeskip, is particularly important for building up your relationships. The characters that you get to know and that grow on you will age and you will be forced to make difficult decisions depending on your actions. But that’s one of the most interesting parts of it all, now isn’t it?
NEXT: Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ Most Important Choice Comes Way Too Soon
