Fire Emblem: Three Houses

[Ventidius]

Story/characters/etc is tolerable. That is, compared to the "every nanosecond of this actively destroys all of my brain cells" Fates: Conquest. It's still painfully one-dimensional weeaboos in a monkeys-at-typewriter generic story. "Hi I'm big muscled dumb fighter with heart of gold and I love to eat haha!" "Ohhhhh but I'm so shyyyy ohhh". But you can skip most of it very quickly as always.

There's some good characters tho. One of my favorites is Ferdinand Von Aegir, his supports are great.

I mean, let's be fair. While they are all cardboard cutout characters, that's partly a necessity when you have 30 students you have to get to know & recruit, which is a cool system.

And some stereotypes can be fun enough. Ferdinand is fine, Felix is OK, Edelgard is OK, and so on. The ones that are unbearable are the "aaaah! im so shy and scared arent i cute????" types like Flayn, and the stupid "oh hey im a bikini clad girl in your mind with the mental age of a 4 year old also im a goddess!!!" thing.

I'm usually more focused on gameplay than on other things, but I couldn't help but notice just how much of an improvement this one was over Fates/Awakening in this regard. There are some characters that behave like actual, relatively normal people, like Hanneman, Gilbert, or Hubert. Some characters like Alois and Balthus are not particularly layered but still make for good "bro" characters that are fun to drag along. A few of the female characters like Ingrid and Annette even seem to be more than waifu fap material for degenerates. Etc.
Heck, Hanneman is actually a Codexer character: an autistic, monocled gentleman who patrols thots. Plus, the guy has a surprisingly tragic backstory that nonetheless doesn't seem over-the-top or forced, as in the case of some of the gimmick characters who clearly had something like this as an attempt to make them seem less gimmicky.

Most of the characters succeed in not grating on my nerves, and even the meme characters are not as annoying as most of the cast of Awakening or Fates. I think part of it is due to the more detailed world-building, which gives the writers some tools to contextualize the issues that each member of the cast is grappling with (e.g. the caste system, Crests, relics, the different political systems, some major past events/crises, the differences and conflicts between Fodlan and foreign cultures, etc.)

I don't have a problem with gender-locked classes per se. Wizardry and its clones usually do it well, for example. The issue here is the implementation, and particularly the fact that males got screwed: females get Gremory (the best magical class in the game) and earlier access to plus two different options for flier classes (arguably the best type of unit in the game). Males get very little to compensate. War Master is fine, but there are very few units that can take it that aren't better off doing something else; and out of the three units that it best fits, only one is any good (Balthus).

It's weird how they did all that work to make Dark Seals a difficult & unique reward to chase after, and then you realise if you don't have a male mage it's a completely useless item.

Funnily, I actually blindly managed to squeeze some good use out of my Dark Seals during my first playthrough, which was on Crimson Flower, by using them on Hubert, who actually makes for a pretty solid unit as Dark Bishop. Of course, Lysithea would likely be better, but she is still one of the best units in the game as Gremory. The issue with Hubert was the lack of availability of Dark Seals on the CS route, though this has been remedied somewhat by the Wave 3 patch that added Jeritza as a playable unit on CS, since he comes with a Dark Seal in his inventory. Nevertheless, I do agree that it makes for some seriously discordant design, not only because Lysithea is perfect for the Dark Seal classes, but also because of how good she is at countering the Death Knight.

The fact is, unless you plan on using Hubert, beating the Death Knight is more of a fun extra challenge than anything in most cases.

 

[Tigranes]

That's fair. I'm a bit harsh, I think. It's certainly dialed down the DRAMA from Fates/Awakening.

Gameplay-wise, curious what weird / funny builds people have worked out, rather than necessarily the most optimal.

I'm a big fan of bowyers in all FE, and it's nice to be able to have tanks like Dedue then Shove them out of danger after they decimate enemies with expanded range and 2x attack.

Trying out brawling now with the PC and it seems extremely powerful - much easier to get 2x attacks and then the ability to do follow-up attacks first. Ironically the actual Brawler classes suck, but...

 

[Ventidius]

Brawlers are actually surprisingly good in Maddening mode, due to their ability to attack multiple times regardless of speed. That, and the high speed of enemies mean that the lackluster speed of most of the natural brawler units isn't as much of an issue (in comparative terms) as in other difficulties. My only issue with the type is the units themselves.

Raphael and Caspar are pretty bad in terms of bases and growths (though Raphael can do pretty well on Maddening due to his Strength and how good brawling is in that mode). Dedue is okay and he was the best unit for the Brawler line before the DLC, provided you chose to build him offensively. However, some players may instead choose to go the tanky route with him, as you seem to have. Balthus is an improvement over all other potential brawlers except for Byleth, and having him either as Grappler or War Master makes for great fun. If you dig brawlers, then that's probably all the more reason to clear the DLC and unlock him.

Byleth can definitely do very well by taking the Brawler road and ending up as War Master, though I personally think male Byleth is slightly better off as Enlightened One than WM. To be fair, EO can actually also brawl pretty well. Still, I'm usually partial to the sword route as I prefer the abilities and growths of sword-related classes (rushing Windsweep early is also great). I also think female Byleth is a better option, gameplay-wise, than male Byleth, due to her access to the Pegasus Knight class line and the fact that she gets Sylvain (a top tier unit) for free in non-Blue Lions routes.

The bottom line is that there are precious few units that are both top tier and also include brawling-related classes as one of their best options. Compare with the infamous Wyvern Lord, which is pretty much its polar opposite, as it has at least five powerful units that count it among their best possible paths.

Still, it should be noted that TH has some of the best unit balance in the series, so there are few units (if any) that are completely unusable. Even Raphael is perfectly usable in Maddening mode. In that sense, I think the game does encourage people to mess around with weird and off-kilter builds. I think in my next replay I might try to go for that Wyvern Lord Bolt Axe Annette build people talk about so much.

 

[Endemic]

Some interesting tidbits on localization differences here, and an alternate translation (middle column in the posts) if you care for it: http://kagiyama.threebards.com/fire-emblem/1316

 

[Tigranes]

Some interesting tidbits on localization differences here, and an alternate translation (middle column in the posts) if you care for it: http://kagiyama.threebards.com/fire-emblem/1316

Cool. Though the alternate is ... very literal. It even tries to keep the exact order of phrases & clauses as much as possible despite the major differences in word order between EN & JP. The result is actually a worse translation than the official one, unless you specifically want to basically read the Japanese script as closely as possible and never mind the awkwardness:

Jeralt: Wonder many years it’s been since I last came here. Being made to face that person again…

Jeralt: Good grief… I unintentionally returned to the Knights of Seiros again.

 

[cruel]

Almost 3 million copies sold, impressive.

https://www.siliconera.com/fire-emb...-87-million-before-its-first-anniversary/amp/

Btw, all Codex tacticians would be very happy with chapter 6 of Cindered Shadows on hard or above. 4 mages with bolting in the middle, wtf.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Why the fuck are archers and mages able to shoot through walls in this gaem. This is extremely retarded.

The tactical part is OK, but all the tea parties and finding/giving lost items and gifts is giving me cancer.

I'm really torn here, but it's definitely closest I ever were to liking a tactical jrpg.

 

[GhostCow]

Tea parties and gift giving are completely optional. I never bothered with that stuff and I still got to S rank with everyone that I wanted to on each playthrough.

 

[Ventidius]

Tea parties actually do have gameplay utility in that they raise Charm, which in turn influences gambit effectiveness. That said, only the most autistic minmaxers would say that this boost is essential or necessary, even on Maddening mode.

 

[Tigranes]

You can ignore fishing, tea parties, lost items, and all that other shit if you want to focus on the combat. You won't miss a thing - you'll still be more than fine for Maddening. My entire Monastery routine was "use meals to get motivation up" -> "plant & harvest shit" -> "talk to 1 or 2 people and spam gifts to recruit them". That's it. 5 minutes max each time.

My favourite run so far has been the Ferdinand Dancer trained in Sword, Flying & Riding. Equip Fetters of Dromi, the Movement+1 ability from Riding, Sword Avo+20%, gorge on every speed boost imaginable. Every battle he walks (10 mvmt) into the midst of 30 enemies, ends turn, and dodges every single attack. I think he hit 50 Speed soon after the timeskip and after that there was no point even checking enemy stats & attack values. DIdn't build him quite right so he wasn't always optimal at killing them in return, though.

 

[GhostCow]

Guy dancers are fun meme picks because most of them aren't very happy about it. The min/max choice is Marianne with her side quest sword.

 

[Tigranes]

I haven't tried it, so perhaps Marianne is better, but Ferdidancer was ridiculous on Maddening. It's a gamechanger when you have a dodgetank that has high movement, canto, and can literally aggro anything in the game without a care in the world. Given Maddening 3H's high reliance on ambushes, and the fact that the highest threat often comes from artillery or doubling units, something like Ferdidancer suddenly gives you a way to trivialise almost all significant threats.

I didn't cheese it this way, but I think I could have just gotten him to solo the last few maps on Golden Deer, for example.

Marianne paralogue also crops up a fair bit later on, no? I don't really care about builds that kick in after 60% of the game has gone. Ferdidancer is a gamechanger from the moment you get Dancer class.

 

[GhostCow]

Yeah Marianne is a late game build. She makes an incredible dodge tank with high damage and nice heals to boot though. I've also had some amazing luck with other characters and classes as dodge tanks too. Sometimes it's just how lucky you get on your stat rolls when you level up.

 

[Yosharian]

When can I play this on an emulator

 

[GhostCow]

With the Switch emulators being in their infancy probably not for another 10 years. Hell, I'm still waiting to be able to emulate Persona 4 Golden.

 

[aweigh]

switch emu is coming along... if you have an overclocked CPU capable of hitting 4.5ghz and higher then Three Houses is playable right now, tbh.

 

[GhostCow]

I can't speak for Yuzu since it's listed as not tested on their compatibility page, but I wouldn't call it playable on Ryujinx

https://github.com/Ryujinx/Ryujinx-Games-List/issues/230

 

[spekkio]

Yuzu >>>>>> Ryujinx.

 

[d1r]

Playing it right now. Is there anything really important to know that the game does't teach you about as a newcomer to the series? I am also playing on Hard with Permadeath on. How much freedom do I have on this difficulty?

 

[Bohrain]

Playing it right now. Is there anything really important to know that the game does't teach you about as a newcomer to the series? I am also playing on Hard with Permadeath on. How much freedom do I have on this difficulty?

Plenty, the game is piss easy even on hard. I had already played it through twice when nightmare difficulty was patched in, but from what I've heard it's more annoying than challenging.

 

[Ventidius]

Playing it right now. Is there anything really important to know that the game does't teach you about as a newcomer to the series? I am also playing on Hard with Permadeath on. How much freedom do I have on this difficulty?

Hard mode means grinding is limited, as you only get a few days to do activities between missions (including optional battles). But you still get plenty of time slots to do things (more with higher Professor Level). Permadeath/Classic is just traditional Fire Emblem, but you get more tactical leeway thanks to the Divine Pulse mechanic.

All around, it's probably one of the Fire Emblems that gives you the most freedom, in the sense of experimenting with builds/squad comps(lots of interesting unit and progression options here), in that of different approaches to battles, and in the sense of things to do between battles.

Maddening mode and the Cindered Shadows campaign are both more restricted due to their more difficult nature, but they are fun in their own way as well.

 

[Tigranes]

Playing it right now. Is there anything really important to know that the game does't teach you about as a newcomer to the series? I am also playing on Hard with Permadeath on. How much freedom do I have on this difficulty?

Presuming you have some experience with Fire Emblem, Hard isn't very hard at all. I would say don't grind / grind very little to maintain a decent pace to the gameplay and to maintain challenge - just do the paralogues as they come up.

Some QOL things - raising Prof level is the gateway to doing more things per timeslot, so obviously you want to prioritise it decently.

You don't have to do shit like tea parties & fishing if you don't want to! You can get superoptimised Maddening-smashing parties easily without it. I tend to only eat food and plant herbs, and do very little else. So you should do the activities you like/can tolerate.

As usual in FE there are some go-to powerful options like Wyverns, but especially on Hard you can easily get a kick out of many other unit types, like armourtank Flynn or whatnot.

 

[spekkio]

Yuzu >>>>>> Ryujinx.

As of 2021: