Fire Emblem: Three Houses Preview Thread (Including Opening Cinematic)

[Sterok]

I generally think Fates's cast has plenty of depth to them, more than your usual GBA character at least. Not necessarily better characters, but there's meat to even the blandest ones. More due to the extreme number of supports than sharper writing, but hey, content is content.

 

[Xavi]

One of the previews showed a glimpse of Sylvain's brother:

Spoiler

That's a hero relic, all right. According to one of the previews, his name is Miklan.

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Spoiler

Does he turn into a beast?

 

[DecoReturns]

Birthright. I wanted to play as the Japanese characters.

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Ah. I see.

Birthright is just Awakening 2.0. With slightly better gameplay but overall boring. And a boring story to boot. (I'm also in the minority that Birthright cast isn't as good as Conquest)

Conquest is much better, plus the Maps design is great since you're invading Hoshido.

 

[NSESN]

I generally think Fates's cast has plenty of depth to them, more than your usual GBA character at least. Not necessarily better characters, but there's meat to even the blandest ones. More due to the extreme number of supports than sharper writing, but hey, content is content.

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Does it matter if all that depth isnt very cohesive and hardly matters for the plot? Like in one support you a very good conversation develops the character and on another you have a very bad one that make the character look worse.
Fates extreme number of supports is definitely something that works against it

 

[rhandino]

The only terribad bad characters in Fates are the children and Corrin if you pick Conquest (he/she is ok in the other 2 routes)

 

[Sterok]

The kids are generally good characters that even take advantage of the way they were brought in. It's just that the babyrealms are so stupid as a concept that it doesn't matter how good the writing is (which is decent, but not that good).

CQ Corrin is best Corrin, in that she's interesting and a deviation from a normal lord as a half-hearted villain protagonist dealing with the dumb Vallite curse and Gooron plot points. BR Corn is functional, but he's ultimately Eliwood tier of bland. Rev Corn is the only one that approaches being a sue, and takes on the emptiness that is Rev in a nutshell.

 

[Oddish1]

Does it matter if all that depth isnt very cohesive and hardly matters for the plot? Like in one support you a very good conversation develops the character and on another you have a very bad one that make the character look worse.
Fates extreme number of supports is definitely something that works against it

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I'm going to say that no it doesn't matter if a character has bad supports in addition to their good ones. People will generally remember and talk about the good ones and eventually forget about or just not talk about the bad ones. Leon in Echoes had a genuinely fantastic support with Valbar with additional base conversations that fully flesh him out and make him likable. It's enough to make people forget that his sole other support with Kamui is absolute garbage where they constantly rehash an unfunny joke about Leon thinking Kamui hitting on him.

Which actually leads to another point. Fewer supports doesn't mean the overall percentage of good and bad supports change. Only half of Leon's supports are good and he only has two. There are more bad or forgettable supports in the newer games but there are also far more good or at least enjoyable ones.

 

[NSESN]

I think azura is way worse than corrin

 

[Effect]

I find the dislike toward Fates to be really hyperbolic. Does it have some issues? Yes. Is it BS it's split into three games? Yeah. Is it horrible or mediocre? Hell no.

 

[Linde]

i revisited my fates save and remembered there is maybe a handful of characters i dont actively hate. the conquest cast in unbearable, to the point that it was difficult to pair anyone up. and in birthright two (or three?) of the more tolerable characters just straight up die for contrived plot reasons
im grateful for the games existence because it means i can skip more banners in heroes though

also id definitely take limited supports over garbage ones

 

[Tfritz]

still can't get over the fact that kagero and orochi can't s-rank even though they are very obviously dating

 

[theprodigy]

I'm going to say that no it doesn't matter if a character has bad supports in addition to their good ones. People will generally remember and talk about the good ones and eventually forget about or just not talk about the bad ones. Leon in Echoes had a genuinely fantastic support with Valbar with additional base conversations that fully flesh him out and make him likable. It's enough to make people forget that his sole other support with Kamui is absolute garbage where they constantly rehash an unfunny joke about Leon thinking Kamui hitting on him.

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that's one out of two supports

the problem is when it's more like one out of five, also I'm not even sure your point is true in general (i.e. Soleil, Nah)

 

[Oddish1]

that's one out of two supports

the problem is when it's more like one out of five, also I'm not even sure your point is true in general (i.e. Soleil, Nah)

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I mean, that's true for every game. Does Ilyana have a single good support? Nephenee is one of the my favorite characters and it sure isn't because of her supports.

 

[Morlas]

Conquest Corrin is a dumbass...that is all

 

[Dale Copper]

Conquest Corrin is a dumbass...that is all

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Conquest's plot is just dumb

 

[Ultraviolence]

Honestly I think Shadows of Valentia is better than Fates.

 

[Disclaimer]

Spoiler

Does he turn into a beast?

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Spoiler

Unknown, but he's on the same tile as the Black Beast was, so... draw your own conclusions, haha. My guess is he probably tries to use the Hero Relic as you approach him and a cutscene triggers where the miasma comes out of the Relic's crest stone, turning him into a Beast.

 

[Oddish1]

Conquest Corrin is a dumbass...that is all

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I honestly kinda like that about her. It's refreshing for a Fire Emblem protagonist to try something and it just blowing up in their face like that. The problem is they shouldn't have made her an avatar for the player, she should've just been a regular lord unit.

 

[HBK]

Conquest's plot is just dumb

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The whole Fates plot underdelivered. The "3 acts" idea is neat in theory but was just badly executed. The first act is the plainest but the least worst. And then the second act is "Cognitive Dissonance : The Video Game". And the third act is just disappointing in that it's all very predictable and cliche, poorly told, and just not an especially interesting story to begin with.

As for Fates characters, I think one of the main issues is that due to the children mechanics (exacerbated by the "3 games" separation) they had to write A TON of supports, many of which are just utterly uninteresting, thus making it hard to care.

But they're not necessarily bad characters per se (even if they all came out of the same waifu/husbando factory).

Edit: As for Three Houses, I won't lie, all I'm reading makes we very worried about the game. The beauty of Fire Emblem was its simplicity (even though the latest games introduced additional mechanics with castles and children, they were pretty much optional). I'm not sure I'd like a "Personaified" Fire Emblem with a ton of banter and what seems to be convoluted leveling mechanics with agenda management and such. But we'll see, I'm a sucker for SRPGs anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[SuperFakerBros]

Honestly I think Shadows of Valentia is better than Fates.

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That's not exactly a controversial opinion :P

I liked it much more than Birthright myself

Not sure why we're on about Fates tho. We should be talking about how we're hyped for Three Houses and I myself am very hyped. Keeping my fingers crossed for the same level of coice acting we got in Shadows of Valentia

 

[Manwell]

Every fucking FE thread always derails into shitting on Fates without fail lol. Anyway, I am very hyped from the preview videos. I'm gonna spend crazy amounts of hours in the academy customizing all my students. Its gonna be wild and I cannot wait.

 

[spiritfox]

We're going to get to Fire Emblem 19 and people will still shit on Fates.

 

[Bonejack]

We're going to get to Fire Emblem 19 and people will still shit on Fates.

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Only if IS isn't making another Fates-tier mainline game until then.

Though, if we do get Jugdral remasters/remakes next, as basically everything implies, they have their own share of controversial stuff that sure might take away focus from Fates. ^^

 

[Ramsay]

We're going to get to Fire Emblem 19 and people will still shit on Fates.

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True, although to be fair, this is probably because of the fact Fates' story is probably the only aspect in any Fire Emblem game that was outright abysmal (I genuinely don't think Fates' story was properly proofread, if at all), to the point where it overshadowed Fates' gameplay to many (Even Awakening and Echoes' map design wasn't nearly as poor as Fates' story).
The only way Fates won't get trashed on in the future is for IS to screw up worse in another FE, which is difficult to imagine.

 

[HBK]

We're going to get to Fire Emblem 19 and people will still shit on Fates.

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On the gameplay side of things, Fates is great, and I mean great. And yes, including all three routes.

On the story side of things though, not so much.

 

[chechi]

After all the previews and some good warm-up-fun with Wargroove: I'm hyped! Havent played a FE game since Awakening.

 

[LunaSerena]

Let's leave the Fates discussion for another threaf since we will only derail this one.
I have the LE preordered, I'm a sucker for those artbooks.

 

[Nightbird]

Ah. I see.

Birthright is just Awakening 2.0. With slightly better gameplay but overall boring. And a boring story to boot

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I'd rather replay Awakening than Birthright.


Anyway, it's been a wild ride with my excitement for the game.


Just a few days before the first preview was leaked, I canceled my pre-order. But ever since the previews started releasing, my Hype for this game started constantly rising, eventually beating Dragon Quest 11S, which was the game I was most excited for this year.

It truly is impressive.

 

[PK Gaming]

still can't get over the fact that kagero and orochi can't s-rank even though they are very obviously dating

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[Genetrik]

I repost my post question in case someone knows more?

I read the polygon article about the classes which was interesting. But it didn't really answer my main question how often I can level up a unit to a higher class. Sacred Stones had the best system for me where it offered not only 2 class changes but also gave choice.

I got the impression that choice is available again (however in a different form) but do we know how often I can upgrade a character to a higher class like in the past?

 

[LunaSerena]

I repost my post question in case someone knows more?

I read the polygon article about the classes which was interesting. But it didn't really answer my main question how often I can level up a unit to a higher class. Sacred Stones had the best system for me where it offered not only 2 class changes but also gave choice.

I got the impression that choice is available again (however in a different form) but do we know how often I can upgrade a character to a higher class like in the past?

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You can literally change a character class to whatever you want as long as they fulfill certain requirements so they can "certificate" themselves. To advance to higher level classes, they have to meet criteria with weapon skill and skill in things like riding, flying, armor, etc. They develop those skills through battle and through your tutelage during classes.

As long as you have the seals that allow you to reclassify, and the character meets the requirements you can upgrade or change classes. No level restriction so far.

 

[Fendoreo1]

You can literally change a character class to whatever you want as long as they fulfill certain requirements so they can "certificate" themselves. To advance to higher level classes, they have to meet criteria with weapon skill and skill in things like riding, flying, armor, etc. They develop those skills through battle and through your tutelage during classes.

As long as you have the seals that allow you to reclassify, and the character meets the requirements you can upgrade or change classes. No level restriction so far.

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There is a level restriction, lvl 5 for tier 2, lvl 10 for tier 3, lvl 20 for tier 4, and above 24 for tier 5

 

[Moltres006]

Does the Latin American version have its own dub or are they unfortunately stuck with the Castilian Spanish dub?

 

[Holundrian]

There is a level restriction, lvl 5 for tier 2, lvl 10 for tier 3, lvl 20 for tier 4, and above 24 for tier 5

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there is 5 tiers of classes what :-O?
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Listening to the 40 questions answered by game explain video I'm super curious about how you'd optimize and prioritize raising units during the school part especially if you're recruiting outside your chosen house allegiance.

 

[Andri]

there is 5 tiers of classes what :-O?
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Listening to the 40 questions answered by game explain video I'm super curious about how you'd optimize and prioritize raising units during the school part especially if you're recruiting outside your chosen house allegiance.

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There are 2? Base classes that most characters start out with(noble and pleb(aka commoner) then 4 tiers to go up to, first base, then advanced then intermediate and finally master.

I think they even said in an interview that they want all/most characters introduced early on, so you can plan and optimize most characters from the get go, rather than getting units in chapter 15/21, meaning you wont have them for most battles, and they will have to be high level to even be relevant when they do get introduced.

I personally looked at the students not from my house(starting with BE), and besides Lysithea who i want for bestgirlness, i think i will recruit people who complement things my initial students will lack.
Will Probably pick up Marianne or Ingrid, to get a Flier Unit since i dont plan to make Petra one.

 

[Holundrian]

There are 2? Base classes that most characters start out with(noble and pleb(aka commoner) then 4 tiers to go up to, first base, then advanced then intermediate and finally master.

I think they even said in an interview that they want all/most characters introduced early on, so you can plan and optimize most characters from the get go, rather than getting units in chapter 15/21, meaning you wont have them for most battles, and they will have to be high level to even be relevant when they do get introduced.

I personally looked at the students not from my house(starting with BE), and besides Lysithea who i want for bestgirlness, i think i will recruit people who complement things my initial students will lack.
Will Probably pick up Marianne or Ingrid, to get a Flier Unit since i dont plan to make Petra one.

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Dang. That sounds big coming off of Fates/Awakening where it's just 2 tiers.

I wish there was more info out I kind of want to start planning stuff instead of having to do that as I play(cause I love to min/max these games, figuring out optimized pairings for optimized children was something I liked doing in awakening)

 

[Bonejack]

Isn't it 4 tiers as a whole, including Commoner/Noble, so possible 3 times for a promotion? Myrmidon-example path:

Commoner/Noble -> Myrmidon -> Swordmaster -> Trueblade/Dread Fighter/Whatever it's called

The Polygon class preview made me think it's like this, at least. Feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, though.

 

[Andri]

Dang. That sounds big coming off of Fates/Awakening where it's just 2 tiers.

I wish there was more info out I kind of want to start planning stuff instead of having to do that as I play(cause I love to min/max these games, figuring out optimized pairings for optimized children was something I liked doing in awakening)

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I mean, there is already this doc Planner that has all known stuff in neat charts, but until there is a datamine/leak of the full game, or it releases, it will be impossible to know all the stats.

The kind of optimized stuff always comes post release, when the data people can crunch the numbers.

 

[Holundrian]

I mean, there is already this doc Planner that has all known stuff in neat charts, but until there is a datamine/leak of the full game, or it releases, it will be impossible to know all the stats.

The kind of optimized stuff always comes post release, when the data people can crunch the numbers.

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For Fates actually I believe I remember stuff being datamined really fast(JP release, that's the version I played). There was a good amount of info out there before the release. Not sure if it was because a dataminer got an early copy or just because there was more similarities to awakening. But that's basically why I'm hoping that some info bombs are going to drop any day nowö.

 

[Andri]

Isn't it 4 tiers as a whole, including Commoner/Noble, so possible 3 times for a promotion? Myrmidon-example path:

Commoner/Noble -> Myrmidon -> Swordmaster -> Trueblade/Dread Fighter/Whatever it's called

The Polygon class preview made me think it's like this, at least. Feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, though.

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You missed a step, at lease i would guess so, since Merc has not been revealed to be restricted.

Commoner->Myrmidon->Mercenary->Swordmaster->Mortal Savant.

But some lines would only have 4 steps, for example Bow does not really have a Base class, you would have to pick fighter there since that also has a Bow focus.

 

[Andri]

For Fates actually I believe I remember stuff being datamined really fast(JP release, that's the version I played). There was a good amount of info out there before the release. Not sure if it was because a dataminer got an early copy or just because there was more similarities to awakening. But that's basically why I'm hoping that some info bombs are going to drop any day nowö.

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3DS games were really easy to datamine, since irc once it was up on the Eshop it was basically free pickings for Data miners.

 

[Fendoreo1]

For Fates actually I believe I remember stuff being datamined really fast(JP release, that's the version I played). There was a good amount of info out there before the release. Not sure if it was because a dataminer got an early copy or just because there was more similarities to awakening. But that's basically why I'm hoping that some info bombs are going to drop any day nowö.

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I think the game has a chance of leaking 2-4 days early, but not before that, even though I really hope it does leak earlier.

 

[DecoReturns]

10 work days left till we get to play this.

Hope we get some more music uploads. Usually happens around this time

 

[MOTHGOD]

I have the Seasons of Warfare Edition preordered but I've been itching to see an unboxing of that bad boy. For some reason seeing unboxings and things like that for a game im excited for only makes me more hyped for it. Hopefully we start seeing some of them soon before release like how some reviewers and youtubers get it early.

 

[Bonejack]

You missed a step, at lease i would guess so, since Merc has not been revealed to be restricted.

Commoner->Myrmidon->Mercenary->Swordmaster->Mortal Savant.

But some lines would only have 4 steps, for example Bow does not really have a Base class, you would have to pick fighter there since that also has a Bow focus.

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Yeah you might be right. Base classes are, from what i can remember, Myrmidon, Fighter, Soldier and Monk. And in the IGN video showing all classes, there's enough time between Myrmidon and Swordmaster for there to be a whole tier in between. Making the Merc a 2nd promotion, Swordmaster 3rd and Mortal Savant 4th.

 

[Andri]

Some things i noticed is that the currently revealed Master classes are kinda limited in two major ways.

First that most master units are Mounted, with only 3 being Infantry.
That could mean lategame it will be kinda manatory to get all mounted, since otherwise 2-3 of your units will just be left behind due to lower range.

Second is that for all the Sword Fire Emblem jokes people like to make, only 2 master classes have a specialisation in Swords, with one of them being Female only(the Falconknight).
That means Male units that want to wield swords are currently stuck on being Mortal Savants.
Since there are 3 classes that have a Sword proficency in the tier bellow Master(Hero, Swordmaster and Paladin) it would really surprise me if they all had to become that, especially since that would mean their previous class requirements would go down the drain(the lance and riding for Paladin, and the Axe for Hero), since Mortal Savant does not need either of them.

Then there is the fact that the Lords and Byleth are essentially gurarnteed to have unique Master Classes, since anything else would be really surprising(my guess is a non mounted Master Heavy Armor for Edelguard, a Master Paladin Dimitry and a Bow Wielding Wyvern Knight for Claude.)

All in all it feels like they still have a bunch of Classes to reveal, since otherwise a multitude of class upgrade paths just look stunted or feel like they waste previous requirements.

 

[Andri]

Yeah you might be right. Base classes are, from what i can remember, Myrmidon, Fighter, Soldier and Monk. And in the IGN video showing all classes, there's enough time between Myrmidon and Swordmaster for there to be a whole tier in between. Making the Merc a 2nd promotion, Swordmaster 3rd and Mortal Savant 4th.

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This wiki has them neatly arranged by tier, and is what i based much of my previous post about.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Some things i noticed is that the currently revealed Master classes are kinda limited in two major ways.

First that most master units are Mounted, with only 3 being Infantry.
That could mean lategame it will be kinda manatory to get all mounted, since otherwise 2-3 of your units will just be left behind due to lower range.

Second is that for all the Sword Fire Emblem jokes people like to make, only 2 master classes have a specialisation in Swords, with one of them being Female only(the Falconknight).
That means Male units that want to wield swords are currently stuck on being Mortal Savants.
Since there are 3 classes that have a Sword proficency in the tier bellow Master(Hero, Swordmaster and Paladin) it would really surprise me if they all had to become that, especially since that would mean their previous class requirements would go down the drain(the lance and riding for Paladin, and the Axe for Hero), since Mortal Savant does not need either of them.

Then there is the fact that the Lords and Byleth are essentially gurarnteed to have unique Master Classes, since anything else would be really surprising(my guess is a non mounted Master Heavy Armor for Edelguard, a Master Paladin Dimitry and a Bow Wielding Wyvern Knight for Claude.)

All in all it feels like they still have a bunch of Classes to reveal, since otherwise a multitude of class upgrade paths just look stunted or feel like they waste previous requirements.

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A reminder that weapons aren't locked to classes with proficiency. The only weapons with class restrictions are magic being locked to magic classes and gauntlet being locked to infantry

 

[Bonejack]

This wiki has them neatly arranged by tier, and is what i based much of my previous post about.

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I see. Though i find it kinda awkward that you promote your Commoner/Noble into a Myrmidon (single proficiency), then into a advanced class that does add a second weapon proficiency (Merc or Thief), only to go back to a single weapon specialization that removes the second weapon proficiency. And a Swordmaster with a lance also looks awkward. ;D

Aaronrules380 Aw, i just wanted to make the joke about FEH having IS notice that they have too many Sword units and they try to move away from that. ^^

 

[Andri]

I tried to come up with full 5 step paths that make use of all revealed

A reminder that weapons aren't locked to classes with proficiency. The only weapons with class restrictions are magic being locked to magic classes and gauntlet being locked to infantry

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That i know, but it would be strange to not have Master classes that fit Intermediate classes proficiencies.

Like why have a straight upgrade path that adds various extra requirements going from soldies, cavalier to paladin, to then have to either drop Lance and riding to go Mortal Savant, or drop Swords and add Axe and HA to go Great Knight.
Especially when there was an equivalent to a master tier class that would fit the Paladin line with the Gold Knight form FE2/SOV