Game Commentary: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Fire Emblem Three Houses is a game that I never thought I could even play, much less at launch. I never had a Nintendo Switch and I didn't see myself getting one in the near future. But of course, I feel blessed to have someone willing to gift one to me as an early birthday present just in time for the game's release. It was absolutely stunning and I managed to snag the steelbook edition of Three Houses for the price of the regular thanks to a great deal.

This was my first FE game ever. I've played one as a child but I never finished it and honestly, I can't even remember anything about it. I have, however, been catching up with FE news. I have friends who adore the franchise and any great JRPG will always be on my radar regardless of whether or not I play it. Except Pokemon. I don't touch that.

*Minor spoilers below*

I clocked in around 70 hours to reach the game's ending. I played the path of the Black Eagles because I already knew who I wanted to waifu before the game's release. Upon finishing, I gave the other story paths a read to summarise the entire plot in my head and I believe I'm in an adequate position to offer a game commentary on it.

Let's just dive right into the characters and story. There's so much to unpack here that it gives Persona a run for its money. These sort of war epics are usually filled with tons of lore to begin with but when you stick a timeskip into the game and are presented with the options of choosing multiple different story paths, the game's content can get a bit intense. Before the start of the game, during the game's events, during the timeskip, post war? There's so much story and lore here that the richness bleeds out of the screen by the end. You'd find yourself Googling backstories, YouTubing alternate scenes and datamining for info that never made it into the final cut. This is wonderful!

Which is why it pains me to say that the fact that each story path drastically changes the outcome of the game means that none of the paths are canonical (that is, if they want to avoid fan backlash). All the paths change things differently with different major figures being involved and even resulting in very important information not being disclosed. It makes the outcome of any given story path come up short and feel a little disingenuous. I love the Black Eagles storyline so much so that I'm refusing to touch the others for now not because I'm lazy to slog through about 70 hours of the game but because it will downright change the storyline of the entire game. The game sadly does not present a Revelations scenario a la FE Fates. It is what you make of it.

And again, another reason why the multiple story paths pain me is because I absolutely love all the characters in the game. Some more than others but most of them are wonderful! From Edelgard's cold but rational personality to Lysithea's arrogant but caring attitude; from Bernadetta's shy and genuine nature to Ferdinand's need to comply to the noblesse oblige. They all have their likes and dislikes, they each perform differently on the battlefield and you get unique character missions for each of them that add just a little more to their character growth. It's definitely no Persona-level of detail but I'm honestly missing them only a day after completing the game.

So why do I say it pains me? Because each character gets affected drastically differently depending on the path you've chosen to pursue. I don't like that. Not having a canonical ending means that I don't get much of a closure. But worse than that is the fact that none of my precious students get any closure either! This is very much a video game thing but that's why I kinda preferred JRPGs to begin with! They're usually linear with a set canonical storyline. Whether or not Byleth is canonical male or female is fine by me. They can decide that. But if they touch any of the routes then it'll be as I said before: fan backlash.

The gameplay for Three Houses is about as rich as the story as well. Tons of things to do, a set schedule to follow, bonding points that can be expended and many more. It took me well into the game to actually learn it all and by the time that happened, the timeskip occurred. It's almost as if a second playthrough is required but I suppose learning the mechanics was also part of the experience. I had fun learning my students' hobbies, lecturing them to improve their stats and balancing their character growth to ensure I had a balanced army whenever we went into battle.

Speaking of combat, I sort of knew what I was getting into but there were quite a few nuances that I didn't expect that most certainly added a lot of depth to the fighting. What with weapon durability, combat skills, passive abilities, battalions and gambits, there was just so much to do that you never get around to utilising all of the mechanics in any one go. I played it on normal difficulty with classic perma-death but I probably should have tried it out on the harder difficulty. It was just a little bit easy. I even read that Black Eagles is the more difficult house to manage out of the bunch but I only ever felt that during the first few battles before I got used to the combat. Whatever it is, it was a hell of a fun time. I really just wished the battles were longer, more difficult and more varied in terms of environmental obstacles.

Let's now talk about the music and performance because holy hell is the music great. I love the soundtrack with its dark hymns and grand orchestras. It was simply a wonderful time and actually, let me just listen to it right now as I type the rest of this out. It captures the emotions, the coming of age, the war, the friendship and the sacrifices of the entire game. Wonderful compositions with stellar music direction.

As for the performance, expect lags, pop-ins and overall frame rate mess-ups especially if you're playing it docked. The game looks beautiful for what it is don't get me wrong but it was most certainly limited by the power of the Switch itself. Which is rather unfortunate I have to say but it didn't really affect my impression of the game whatsoever. The lag during fishing raised my blood pressure though.

Overall, I honestly can't praise the game more. I would have preferred if the Black Eagles storyline was a little longer much like the others and I wanted a few more cutscenes to really solidify a lot of the story beats but I'm not complaining with what I've got. There's already a game worth over 200 hours if you intend on playing through all routes. And a new game plus system most definitely helps there.

Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to now chain my FE cartridge in an out of reach place so I stop getting tempted to start a new route. After all, I have Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Breath of the Wild to catch up to!

Oh? Who's best girl? That's got to be Bernadetta but my waifu? Come on, why did you think I picked Black Eagles?

I also kind of like the following design a lot. I'm not sure but I suppose the pixie nose combined with that face model design really resonates well with me.