Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo, and published by Nintendo. It is the sixteenth installment for the Fire Emblem franchise. It was released for the Nintendo Switch on July 26, 2019.
Setting
The game takes place on the continent of Fódlan. The landmass is divided into three rival nations who are now at peace: the Adrestian Empire to the southwest, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus to the north, and the Leicester Alliance to the east. At the center of the continent is the Garreg Mach Monastery, a neutral territory home to both the Church of Seiros and the Officers Academy. The game's "Three Houses" refer to the three boarding houses of the academy, the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions, and the Golden Deer, each populated with students from the three main nations.
The game is set during two time periods. The first begins in Imperial Year 1180, during the characters' time as students at the Officers Academy. The story then jumps five years later to the time of a promised reunion between the three house leaders, only for their respective nations to now be seemingly at war with each other.
Development
On January 18, 2017, the then unnamed sixteenth Fire Emblem game was announced briefly in a special Fire Emblem Nintendo Direct without any footage, and with an estimated release in 2018. On June 12, 2018, the first gameplay trailer debuted during the E3 2018 Nintendo Direct video presentation, and the game's title, Fire Emblem: Three Houses was revealed. The estimated release date was also updated to Spring 2019. Three Houses will be the first Fire Emblem title in over a decade to release on a Nintendo home console since Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn released for the Wii in 2008.
The E3 trailer revealed that the game will feature some manner of free-roaming exploration outside of combat, expanding on the My Castle portions of Fire Emblem Fates and the dungeons of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Cutscenes in the game are depicted in outlined CG animation, also much like Shadows of Valentia, giving off an illusion of hand-drawn 2D animation. The tactical gameplay, however, is depicted entirely with polygonal models, as in previous titles like Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
During a Nintendo Direct on February 13, 2019 new information on Three Houses was released. The trailer stated that the central character Byleth will act as a teacher to one of the three houses of the Officers Academy. The plot will in part focus on Byleth's connection to a mysterious figure known as Sothis. The game introduces many new gameplay mechanics and features, as listed below. During the Nintendo Direct, it was also announced that the date for Three Houses was pushed to July 26, 2019. On July 17, 2019, Patrick Seitz announced he served as voice director of the English dub cast.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses was developed with assistance from Koei Tecmo. The company had previously partnered with Intelligent Systems on Fire Emblem Warriors. Intelligent Systems staff focused on characters and story, while Koei Tecmo's Kou Shibusawa studio, the team behind the company's historical strategy games, performed the bulk of the development effort, with hands in programming, game design, and writing. The character designer for Three Houses is illustrator Chinatsu Kurahana. Sanzigen was in charge of animating the 3D cutscenes.
According to game director Toshiyuki Kusakihara, the premise was partially inspired by the friendship of Sigurd, Quan, and Eldigan from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. Their story of attending the Belhalla Royal Academy in their youth, only to have their friendship tested by war in adulthood was influential to Three Houses.
Gameplay
Three Houses has changed much of the gameplay elements of the series, more so than any game in the past. The game itself is no longer focused on solely on constant map battles, but also a school setting which ultimately creates two different phases.
School Phase
The player will spend time with a portion of the playable cast as a Professor, instructing them in the art of war and improving their combat capabilities. This allows the player to shape the playable cast in a manner of their own choosing through Tutoring, leading them down different weapon/unit type proficiency and ultimately, different class paths when they take Certification Exams. Players can free roam the Garreg Mach Monastery interacting with the cast of characters, doing tasks, and doing various side activities to improve stats, form supports, and participate other activities to improve performance in combat. Though a player is given eight students from the house they are chosen, they are able to recruit most students from other classes as well if they reach certain weapon, unit type, and/or stat levels.
Combat Phase
Classic map battles featured in all past Fire Emblem games still makes a return but with many new revamped combat features, mainly involving the usage of Battalions as an additional battle tactic to boost allies or weaken enemies. Unlike previous games, each class are generally free use any weapon they see fit, such as Archers also using Swords and Axes. Weapon proficiency not only provide bonuses to characters when using weapons the have stronger experience in, but also allow the player to reclass into specific classes when they reach a certain level. Magic is also a separate command through Reason. Rather than requiring a Tome or a certain HP amount to cast, every character who learns magic has a set number of castings of a spell per battle.
Returning Features
- For the fifth time in the main series, Three Houses features a playable Avatar character, Byleth.
- This is also the second time the player avatar is also the main character, following Corrin.
- While absent in the past two titles, Weapon Durability returns in Three Houses. Weapons that run out of durability break but are still usable with reduced stats, as was the case in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.
- Weapon Arts, a battle mechanic introduced in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, return as Combat Arts. In Three Houses, Combat Arts consume weapon durability instead of HP and are limited by the remaining uses of a weapon.
- Additionally, enemy units can use Combat Arts.
- Divine Pulse serves as the Three Houses version of Mila's Turnwheel.
- As featured in Heroes, the player can toggle on Auto-Battle through the battle menu and turn it off via the ZL button.
- Like Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia, the Weapon Triangle is not featured in this game, though certain skills do replicate the sword-axe-lance dynamic.
- Expanding on the free-roaming exploration mechanics of My Castle in Fates and the dungeons in Shadows of Valentia, the player can freely roam Garreg Mach Monastery, interact with NPCs, and take part in side-activities and events.
- However, the Monastery cannot be customized like My Castle.
- Dismounting, Canto, Fog of War, and Casual Mode make a return.
- Certain enemy units can be recruited during battle.
- Supports are featured and romance options are possible, however romance can only occur after the five year time-skip.
- Some supports require multiple conversations to progress between levels.
- Only Byleth can reach S-support with another character.
- Some supports require multiple conversations to progress between levels.
- Three Houses will have dual audio features, supporting both the Japanese and English voice cast. This is the second time this feature has been in a main series title, with Awakening being the first and only other.
- Paralogue chapters are featured, containing optional side stories that grant rewards, but ultimately do not affect the plot of the game as a whole.
- All playable characters have an exclusive Personal Skill similar to the playable cast of Fates.
- Similar to Fates, the story branches into different paths based on the chosen house.
- There are four distinct story paths.
- Returning classes include: Mercenary, Thief, Knight, Cavalier, Brigand, Archer, Mage, Priest, Myrmidon, Soldier, Fighter, Monk, Wyvern Rider, Pegasus Knight, Dancer, and Lord.
New Features
- There is an in-game calendar divided into twelve seasons that correspond to months that progresses day-by-day with the narrative. Certain events and activities take place on specific calendar days.
- There is a gauge tied to Byleth that determines how many activities they can take part in during a single day.
- Special events, such as student birthdays, are observed on the calendar and the player can choose to celebrate them.
- Characters can change into a variety of classes, no longer restricted to a set for each character, though certain classes are gender-restricted.
- Characters must pass Certification Exams in order to reclass. The chances of passing a certification exam are dependent on how well a character meets the prerequisites, and the first time a character promotes or reclasses into a new class, a seal item is required.
- Once a character has passed an exam, they can change into that class at any time without the need of another item.
- Characters learn a variety of weapon types through Tutoring, increasing their skills with Weapons, Magic, Healing, and even special unit types like Riding, Heavy Armor, and Flying.
- A new weapon type called Brawl, which focuses on fist weapons. This weapon class can only be wielded by non-mounted units.
- New classes include: Noble, Commoner, Brawler, Grappler, Fortress Knight, and Warlock.
- Improved graphics, visually displaying characters moving within their tile squares when idle and when zoomed in, will display them with the battalion if they are deployed.
- These battalions can be called upon to perform a Gambit, which becomes more effective if done beside adjacent units. The number of times a Gambit can be performed depends on the Authority level of the unit they're assigned to. Battalions take damage alongside their assigned unit and the battalion will be lost if their Endurance reaches 0. Enemies can use Gambits as well.
- In addition to character level and weapon level, it is also possible to earn experience toward the character's assigned battalion.
- Various UI updates including Red "aggro lines" displaying the enemy's intended target on their upcoming turn.
- The Pair Up mechanic has been replaced by adjutants. When Byleth reaches Professor Level C, undeployed units can be attached to deployed ones and earn experience. Although adjutants ignore the deployment limit, the number of adjutants that can be attached is limited by the Professor Level.
- Adjutants occupy the same movement tile of their assigned character.
- There are new side-activities to take part in, including a fishing minigame.
- Magic has a set number of usages per battle and does not use Weapon Durability as in most previous titles or a certain amount of HP as in Gaiden and its remake.
- The Skill stat has been renamed Dexterity and a new stat, Charm, has been added.
- Three Houses is compatible with amiibo and can be used at the amiibo Gazebo. Using any amiibo grants free items, while scanning a Fire Emblem character amiibo will unlock legacy Fire Emblem music for auxiliary battles.
- Various online features including:
- Special Event Tile-like highlighted squares that display the outcomes of battles from other players also using online features
- Students of other players online can appear in castle, selling goods or repairing weapons for a fee.
- New Game+ is available upon completion of the story, granting various rewards for completing a route and allows the player to select another house.
Characters
- See main article: List of characters in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Chapters
- See main article: List of chapters in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Classes
- See main article: List of classes in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Quests
See main article: List of quests in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Collector's Editions
North America “Seasons of Warfare Edition”
North America Limited Edition
- Copy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses Sound Selection CD (33 songs)
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses Art Book
- Steelbook
- 2020 Calendar
Europe Limited Edition
Europe Limited Edition
- Copy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses Sound Selection USB stick
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses pin badge set
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses Art Book
- Steelbook
Japan “Fódlan Collection”
Japan Limited Edition
- Copy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Soundtrack CD (33 songs)
- Steelbook
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses Art Book
Downloadable Content
As with previous Fire Emblem titles since Awakening, Three Houses will feature paid DLC. The DLC will be released in four waves over the course of nine months and bundled together in a singular Expansion Pass worth $24.99 USD.
The Wave Contents are as follows:
- Wave 1 - Officers Academy uniforms for both genders of Byleth (available at launch)
- Wave 2 - Additional Auxiliary Battle maps and in-game support items, and additional content (to release by 10/31/2019)
- Wave 3 - Additional quests and costumes (to release by 12/31/2019)
- Wave 4 - New story content, playable characters, and locations (to release by 4/30/2020)
Additional bonus content will also be released as free DLC for pass holders and non-pass holders.
Launch Promotion with Fire Emblem Heroes
To celebrate the launch of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the game features a cross-promotion with Fire Emblem Heroes. Heroes players will receive a free unit, 'Byleth: Tested Professor', if they register their copy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses in order to receive My Nintendo Gold Points. To be eligible, players must play Heroes on the same Nintendo Account used to earn the points.
The promotion will run through June 29, 2020.
Voice Cast
See: List of Voice Actors in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Trivia
- The Japanese title is a reference to a Chinese poem of the same name, which was adopted in Japanese culture. The poem uses the analogy of snow, the moon, and flowers to represent winter, autumn, and spring, respectively. (See the full explanation)
- Three Houses is the first main series Fire Emblem game to see a simultaneous worldwide release.
- The Officers Academy school chime is the opening notes of the Fire Emblem theme.
- Three Houses is the third Fire Emblem game to use 3D character models instead of sprite artwork on the gameplay maps. The previous games were Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
- This is the third main Fire Emblem game to have its English voice acting recorded by Cup of Tea Productions, after Awakening and Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
- This also will be the second main Fire Emblem game to have full voice acting outside the FMV cutscenes, the first being Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
- This is the first Fire Emblem in which no names of the playable cast were changed between the Japanese and International versions of the game.
Gallery
External links
- Official website (Japanese)
- Official website (English)