Fire Emblem: Three Houses Review - Fire Emblem Fans Only? | MojoPlays

Since the console launched in March 2017, Nintendo has maintained consistent quality with the Switch’s library. “Breath of the Wild” and “Super Mario Odyssey” took the world by storm, and while some lighter titles have satisfied our hunger for first-party titles, there hasn’t been much reason to keep turning on the Switch...well, for those of us who like to hide in a cave as we play our single-player games. While “Cadence of Hyrule” was a fun little romp for Ty, there hasn’t been much reason for him to power up the Switch again...until we told him to play the allegedly 200-hour game that is “Fire Emblem: Three Houses”. Does the game shed the Switch’s current reputation as a party toy? Will it turn our young and curmudgeon writer into a “Fire Emblem” fan?



Welcome to MojoPlays, and this is Ty’s review of “Fire Emblem: Three Houses”!



In “Fire Emblem: Three Houses”, you are a mercenary whom Nintendo defautly names “Byleth”. But I hated that name and decided to go against Nintendo’s wishes by naming him Mojonus [pronounced “Moe-Jonas”]. Anyways, Mojonus is a mercenary who has been having strange dreams about a mysterious, sleepy girl who wields magical time powers. In the middle of the night, he meets three students who need help getting of the bandits chasing them. After Mojonus impresses them with his ability to follow tutorials correctly, he finds himself taking a job as a professor for a school of knights and mages. It is at this point that the game makes its selection of a title obvious and gives you the choice of which house you’d like to teach. You can choose between the Black Eagles (the overly-ambitious preppy kids that take everything a little too seriously), the Blue Lions (who made me think more about Monty Python than the Knights of the Round Table they believe themselves to be), and the Golden Deer (basically, the medieval version of “The Breakfast Club” with its oddball crew of jokesters, troublemakers, and nerds).



Whereas most games would force you down the strictly linear path you selected, “Three Houses” is upfront and honest about how crucial your choice actually is. You’re quickly assured that no matter which house you choose, students from the other houses can be recruited through other means. Knowing this made my house selection much easier, feeling like a burden had been lifted off my shoulders. So, if you’ve been thinking long and hard about which house you’re choosing but don’t want to miss the stories of characters you fancy, the decision won’t be as difficult once you meet everyone.



If you aren’t familiar with the “Fire Emblem” games, this new entry from the tactical RPG series doesn’t change much of its combat. Move your units around a gridded area while taking down enemies or making your way to a specific section of the board. Units can perform basic attacks, special attacks, or unleash battalions, earning XP after combat or healing allies. Speaking as someone who is still fairly new to “Fire Emblem” (my first experience was the mobile game - don’t judge), it did take a bit of time for me to understand how battalions (known as “Gambits”) work, but I still managed to grasp the concept after a bit of practice.



As a tactical RPG veteran, the biggest challenge for me was the level design, and there is no negative connotation to that! While it does a good job of starting you out with a couple of basic battlegrounds, “Three Houses” quickly turned around and began throwing curveballs. It wasn’t long before I was dealing with fields of molten lava or a labyrinth of teleporters. The game demands that you be observant of its layout and leaves you to figure out how to work the battlefield in your favor. Screw up too many times and you’ll have to use “Divine Pulse” to rewind the fight back to where you think you messed up. There is a catch, though - you can only use it a certain number of times. Mess up too frequently and you’ll have to start the fight all over. “Three Houses” will not tell you when or where you messed up either! You’re going to have to figure that out for yourself...and that’s just fine by me. I’ll give a game props for mental engagement over emotional engagement any day!



If you think the game will be easy because it’s a Nintendo game, you’re living a lie. Level designs alone don’t make “Three Houses” challenging. The AI is going to give you a run for your money, as well! On top of adapting to each unique layout, you’ll have to observe your enemy’s position. There were many times where I had to think about how to make fights easier for me. Should I finish off this weakling before I tackle the stronger enemy approaching me? Or do I rush him with three of my guys and just kill the weaker one when I counter-attack him during his turn? How can I position my units to maximize the damage my battalion inflicts? Needless to say, there’s a lot to factor in, and sometimes, finishing off the closest enemy isn’t the best way to waste your turn. You’re really going to need to think about the order you play your units.



Just for a quick side note, if this doesn’t sound difficult to you, then might I suggest you play with the game’s permadeath mode? In that campaign, any unit that dies on the battlefield is dead for the ENTIRE game. So, if you let a student die, have fun playing through the rest of the game with that on your guilty conscience!



Of course, you’ll be doing more than clashing blades and watching battalions literally trample enemies. Outside of missions, you’ll be spending time at the monastery, educating your students whilst completing side quests, participating in school festivities, or trying to return any lost items you found since no one seems to keep track of their crap.



If you aren’t aware of the phrase “relaxing is a paradox”, then you’ll get to experience it first-hand in “Three Houses”! You don’t get endless hours of dining with students or training with other professors! Each week, you get one day to do whatever you want, whether exploring the campus to scavenge for items, hold seminars to increase your skills, or take your students out to fight bandits. In my case, it was picking up Lost Items and wondering how no one can keep track of their crap. Think carefully about what you want to do, though, because whichever you choose will take up the whole day! Afterwards, it’s back to lecturing and planning lessons. Although, there is a way to increase the number of activities you can do in a day. Teaching, spending time with students, and completing side quests will increase your Professor Rank, and each time you rank up, you’ll earn additional points to spend on extra battles or doing more activities. It sounds like a lot to consider, but if you played something like “Persona 5”, you should feel right at home.



To give you an idea of how I increased my Professor Rank, I spent a lot of time with the students by helping them with errands, giving them advice, or educating them in areas they were most interested in. To me, this is what makes “Three Houses” so enjoyable. Earlier in this review, I realize I may have degraded the characters, but those were my genuine first-impressions. Twenty hours later, and I’m legitimately interested in each character’s story. Every character is fully fleshed-out and brimming with personality, and the voice-acting and writing really tie everything together. The best part about these characters is how YOU can affect them through your teachings. You know how educators will talk about how proud they are of their students’ accomplishments? Well, there were a handful of times where I caught myself smiling and clapping when a student landed a critical hit or avoided a potentially fatal attack. Yes, I got super invested...and I am a total dork. I also have no shame. So, I have that going for me.



In the end, this is a video game, and if there was any complaint worth mentioning, it is the graphics. They’re not unbearably horrendous, but they’re not exactly giving off “current-gen” visuals, either; some characters will have detailed hair and outlines while other parts of their models look unfinished. What was more baffling was how much better the game looked in handheld mode. I kept thinking I was playing the port of a cancelled 3DS game! I’m not one to care about a game’s visuals too much, but when I can see the pixels of a suit of armor contrasting with smooth and colorful hair, “Three Houses” is a hell of an eye sore. Do I dare rant about the stiff and generic character animations, or the frame drops I endure whenever I strike an enemy?



I know I just expressed some loud frustration over the visuals, but “Fire Emblem: Three Houses” isn’t a terrible game, not by any stretch of the imagination. I’m only about a quarter of the way in, and I’ve had a wonderful time with the game’s well-written characters, deep combat mechanics, and how it subverts from most JRPGs with a high school setting. “Three Houses” has actually made me into a “Fire Emblem” fan, and it’s made me feel a little guilty for giving the series a lot of crap over the years (particularly for its overwhelming presence in “Smash Bros.”). Perhaps I’ll go back and play some of the other “Fire Emblem” games, but for the time being, I’m glued to my Switch once more. In other words, goodbye, friends and family! I’ll see you in about three months when I emerge from my single-player cave once again!