Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the second game I'd played in the series. During its reveal, I had decided to stop exposing myself to its marketing and go into the game as blind as I could. The game is a tactical role-playing game on the Nintendo Switch and was released in 2019. It offers a rich experience in gameplay and plot, branching to four endings.
Byleth, the avatar or main character, is the son of Jeralt, a highly respected mercenary. They soon move to Garreg Mach Monastery after helping Edelgard, Dmitri, and Claude from bandits. The first part of the plot revolves around Byleth's life in the monastery as a professor of one of the three houses of his choosing. While the general feeling of this part is upbeat and light, it contains much foreshadowing of the second half of the game.
As the professor, Byleth can instruct his students and other playable characters to develop their skills according to their goals. He also has the opportunity to be instructed by the staff of the monastery. Skills are also developed on the battlefield where Byleth leads his students.
In the beginning, the playable characters only include Byleth and the house he is in charge of. But, by raising the support levels, professor level, or Byleth's skills and stats, Byleth can recruit most of the students from the other houses. I have enjoyed raising support levels and recruiting in this game with the added challenge of having limited actions in a day in a week. Each character is also interesting, and this made it also harder to prioritize one character from the other.
The combat is fairly the same as Fire Emblem: Awakening and the first Fire Emblem -- the third game of the series I am currently playing. The player can choose from a variety of classes. Everyone starts as either a noble or a commoner, but they can take certification exams and acquire better classes with specialized stat spread.
In the monastery itself, there are plenty of activities to do. Depending on how well you do in an activity, you can raise your professor level. Having a high professor level brings a lot of perks. Adjutants can be assigned to units in battle if the professor level is high enough. A rewarding fruit of raising the professor level is increasing the amount of what Byleth can do -- activities in the monastery, optional battles, and lectures/instructions all have to do with the professor level.
Casual and classic modes return in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Because of the colorful characters, I opt for casual. There are also three difficulty modes to spice up each run of the game. The optional divine pulse allows the player to roll back a turn for desired battler results. Personally, the divine pulse sees little use in the easiest difficulty in casual mode.
The second half of the game takes a darker turn as the three houses vie for their respective goals. The buildup in the first half of the game and the payoff in the second half make for a satisfying narrative, urging the player to replay the game in another story route. One of the results of having four branches of the main storyline is the depth of the characters. While gameplay remains the best motivation to play Fire Emblem games, the plot and characters make the experience unforgettable. The soundtrack and sound design are also worth praising.
There is a ton more content that was not covered by this post. The best way to know them all is to play the game. With over 80 hours for just one playthrough, this game is worth spending time on.
No comments:
Post a Comment