ThiophenSJ Posted August 14, 2019 Posted August 14, 2019 On 8/4/2019 at 1:10 PM, Hero-of-Time said: I've been reading impressions from those who have already finished all 3 story arcs and it seems that the Blue Lion's story comes out on top, so i'm glad I got to experience that first because i'm not too sure if I will play through the game another 2 times, at least not for a while. Given the events of the story, I do wonder how the Black Eagle story actually plays out though? I'm very intrigued to see if you do indeed play as... Reveal hidden contents ...the bad guys. If that is the case then i'm even happier that I picked a different route. Expand I played as the Black Eagles, so... Reveal hidden contents Basically there are overall 4 story arcs. The Black Eagles route will lead you into following the church and to fight against Egelgard, but you can actually choose to go with Edelgard. I just finished my Black Eagles story arc after 45 hours and I'll definitely start a NG+ soon, testing out the other route.
Tim B Posted August 20, 2019 Posted August 20, 2019 The Golden Deer House? Completed it mate. Took around 45 hours, which seems about the same amount of time as it took others. Though this is way shy of the 60-70 hours that some of the reviews seemed to suggest it might. Hmm. Normal mode is too easy, and this is coming from a former Fire Emblem virgin. I did play through Mario + Rabbids this time last year, which may have honed my strategy skills somewhat, but I do think that the amount of items and things you can do in the monastery makes you generally overpowered for a lot of the game. Only a handful of the mission battles gave me any trouble whatsoever. I also got a little bit fatigued by the end of my play through. The exploring in particular became a bit of a chore, so I'm in no rush to try one of the other two Houses. I admire the stamina of anyone who jumps straight in for another go! CEX are offering £32 for a trade-in right now, so I'll probably sell it to them tomorrow and just start looking forward to Astral Chain. I'm not ruling out picking it up again in a couple of years and playing through another route on Hard difficulty, and/or if the paid DLC turns out to be unmissable. A fine gaming experience overall. Would strongly recommend anyone picking it up later to play through the game on Hard. I really wish this series hadn't passed me by now. Oh well, better late than never etc.
Hero-of-Time Posted August 21, 2019 Posted August 21, 2019 On 8/20/2019 at 10:15 PM, Tim B said: Only a handful of the mission battles gave me any trouble whatsoever. I also got a little bit fatigued by the end of my play through. The exploring in particular became a bit of a chore, so I'm in no rush to try one of the other two Houses. I admire the stamina of anyone who jumps straight in for another go! Expand I certainly felt that fatigue creep in during the course of my play through and i've read many other people express the same thing. I mentioned this when I was playing it, that you can slowly see the stats of those who skip the exploration part of the game go up as you progress further into the game. By the end of it the majority of people ( again, according to the stats ) were just skipping it in favour of either battling or doing lectures. For me, I was so OP by the end of the game that I was quite happy to just get the story moving forward and felt no need to run around the place anymore.
Grazza Posted August 21, 2019 Posted August 21, 2019 On 8/20/2019 at 10:15 PM, Tim B said: The Golden Deer House? Completed it mate. Took around 45 hours, which seems about the same amount of time as it took others. Though this is way shy of the 60-70 hours that some of the reviews seemed to suggest it might. Hmm. Normal mode is too easy, and this is coming from a former Fire Emblem virgin. I did play through Mario + Rabbids this time last year, which may have honed my strategy skills somewhat, but I do think that the amount of items and things you can do in the monastery makes you generally overpowered for a lot of the game. Expand I feel like you must have been particularly good at it, because this is my third Fire Emblem game and it did take me about 60 hours. It's just too tempting not to grind! Even so, with a lot of grinding, I still only found it easy/medium. 14 hours ago, Tim B said: Only a handful of the mission battles gave me any trouble whatsoever. I also got a little bit fatigued by the end of my play through. The exploring in particular became a bit of a chore, so I'm in no rush to try one of the other two Houses. I admire the stamina of anyone who jumps straight in for another go! Expand I completed it with Black Eagles, then jumped straight back in with Blue Lions! In fact, I was going to share some thoughts, but I just don't know what I think of the game. My overall feeling is that, although it's an excellent piece of software, the whole experience is just a bit too "much". There are so many twists and turns to the (rather dark) story, I ended up not really knowing who was right or wrong. Although Fire Emblem has always been fantasy, I feel they must have been overly influenced by Game Of Thrones this time around, just in terms of the rival factions etc. There is so much plot - probably too much - and loads of pointless fighting between those who should be allies. The exploration and teaching is another thing I don't know what to think about, as it is another layer of complication, but undoubtedly makes the experience richer. Even now, I still feel a genuine bond with Dorothea, Bernadetta, Petra... it actually feels weird tutoring a rival class. It's one thing for a game to have a gripping story, but I don't think I've ever felt so involved before. On balance, I probably prefer the old class system, with less choice (get to level 20, then choose between two classes to advance to). I was disappointed there wasn't a male Sage class - in fact, the men seemed to have less choice in general - they can't be Falco Knights, yet women can be Falco Knights and Wyvern Lords. Is there actually a class the women can't be? Brawler/Grappler, I think, but that's probably because Nintendo didn't want to make the equivalent outfits. Overall, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a really stunning experience, the storyline of which might even be remembered along the lines of, say, Final Fantasy VII. I don't know if I'll fondly look back on it as one of my favourites, but I was certainly impressed. 1 1
Shorty Posted August 23, 2019 Posted August 23, 2019 The more I play this the more I'm shocked by the presentation. The blurry stitched-together screenshots used as the background during "cutscenes", the lazy animations like any archer beyond the starting class putting an arrow into a non-existent quiver. It's just sloppy and not the polish I expect from Nintendo.
Dcubed Posted August 23, 2019 Posted August 23, 2019 On 8/23/2019 at 9:58 AM, Shorty said: The more I play this the more I'm shocked by the presentation. The blurry stitched-together screenshots used as the background during "cutscenes", the lazy animations like any archer beyond the starting class putting an arrow into a non-existent quiver. It's just sloppy and not the polish I expect from Nintendo. Expand That's because it wasn't made by them. It was made by Tecmo Koei (specifically the team behind the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series); with almost no involvement from Intelligent Systems whatsoever.
Hero-of-Time Posted August 23, 2019 Posted August 23, 2019 On 8/23/2019 at 11:10 AM, Dcubed said: That's because it wasn't made by them. It was made by Tecmo Koei (specifically the team behind the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series); with almost no involvement from Intelligent Systems whatsoever. Expand Yeah but it still has the Nintendo name attached to it. You would think they would want the game to look half decent. I loved the game to bits but there's no denying that there is certainly a budget look to it at times. The game was already delayed so I suppose it was just a question of getting it out the door.
Tim B Posted August 23, 2019 Posted August 23, 2019 I’m working at Insomnia 65 this weekend (unfortunately not for Nintendo, but the other huge gaming brand with a presence there). As I was walking into the hall for work this morning, all I could hear was the Fire Emblem: Three Houses music blasting out of the Nintendo main stage. Not because they were playing that particular game, but Tetris 99 in the Fire Emblem promotional mode. Was a pretty awesome start to the day, I have to say 1
LazyBoy Posted August 26, 2019 Posted August 26, 2019 (edited) I'm liking this game a lot more than I thought I would. The combat system is still solid, and the depth is impressive. But my word is it easy. I'm playing on classic, and by choice am not using the rewind mechanism at all. Think I'm at chapter 4, and I am just demolishing missions, to the extent that I'm not really having to utilise the various mechanics on offer. The second GBA game had this problem - because you could grind you could just overlevel. Going to continue on with this difficulty, do the story elements, and then come back on difficult and cut out all the monestary bits (which are just shit). Edited August 26, 2019 by LazyBoy 1
ThiophenSJ Posted August 27, 2019 Posted August 27, 2019 (edited) Overall I'm at 85 hours in this game and I'm on my third playthrough. I played the Black Eagles twice (first playthrough 45 hours, second then 30 h), now I chose the Blue Lions. Reveal hidden contents I was actually shocked how differently my two Black Eagles turned out. In my first playthrough, were I chose the Church Route, I basically united the whole world under the church and killed Edelgard, becoming the leader of Fodlan. I also defeated the ancient evil that the shadow people are and learned more about them and the children of the goddess. In my second playthrough I chose the Empire Route and while I decided to let Claude live, I killed Dimitri and nearly all Church followers including Rhea of course. Since I married Edelgard in that playthrough, I basically became the leader of Fodlan again, together with Edelgard this time. The defeat of the shadow people however, with which Edelgard kinda worked together, was only told in the aftermath, which suprised me. Spoilerfree I can say after two playthroughs that this game doesn't seem to have any right or wrong. It's more a story of "winners write the history". You, as the player, always get the feeling to be in the right in the end, even if there are some wrongdoings along the way. I am excited to see how differently the story will be on the Blue Lions route. Edited August 27, 2019 by ThiophenSJ
Ike Posted September 11, 2019 Posted September 11, 2019 There's an update available with a new difficulty level. You don't need to buy the DLC or anything to get it.
Shorty Posted September 13, 2019 Posted September 13, 2019 On 9/11/2019 at 8:16 PM, Ike said: There's an update available with a new difficulty level. You don't need to buy the DLC or anything to get it. Expand I'm playing through it on Hard and I accidentally locked out Rhea's max relationship level. Now I guess I have a reason to give it another playthrough
Sméagol Posted September 13, 2019 Posted September 13, 2019 The update also changed some of the dialogue on bernie's support scenes.. Big <sigh>
Ike Posted September 13, 2019 Posted September 13, 2019 On 9/13/2019 at 1:34 PM, Sméagol said: The update also changed some of the dialogue on bernie's support scenes.. Big <sigh> Expand It's a bit weird considering the game is pretty dark already. What's worse is they just half-arsed it, it wouldn't be as bad if they put a bit of effort in.
LazyBoy Posted September 18, 2019 Posted September 18, 2019 Just finished the church route in my first playthrough (didn't realise it was an option until I was 5 chapters in). Couldn't feel like I could really appreciate the systems because it was so easy. So I've now started with the Blue Lions on the new Maddening difficultly, and bugger me its difficult. I'm on the first chapter, and have seen the game over screen for the first time (and then like 10 times since). Anyone else trying it?
Ike Posted September 18, 2019 Posted September 18, 2019 On 9/18/2019 at 5:15 PM, LazyBoy said: Just finished the church route in my first playthrough (didn't realise it was an option until I was 5 chapters in). Couldn't feel like I could really appreciate the systems because it was so easy. So I've now started with the Blue Lions on the new Maddening difficultly, and bugger me its difficult. I'm on the first chapter, and have seen the game over screen for the first time (and then like 10 times since). Anyone else trying it? Expand Are you doing New Game+ or a fresh run? I'm gonna take a break first before trying it, play Link's Awakening first.
LazyBoy Posted September 19, 2019 Posted September 19, 2019 On 9/18/2019 at 8:56 PM, Ike said: Are you doing New Game+ or a fresh run? I'm gonna take a break first before trying it, play Link's Awakening first. Expand New Game+, and thank god I did. It was the Battalions that tipped the whole thing in my favour eventually (though I still lost a unit in the process).
Gadwin Posted October 13, 2019 Posted October 13, 2019 I started playing this game yesterday. Nearly spent 10 hours playing it so far. It's the first fire emblem I've played. I started on normal mode/casual mode but restarted on classic after playing for the first 5 hours. Feels much more tactical on classic now that I have to think about what I'm doing. It's a nice change from what I'm used to playing disgaea where you can make one overpowered unit to plough the battlefield. Keeping it on hard/classic for now to see how it goes. 1 1
LazyBoy Posted October 13, 2019 Posted October 13, 2019 On 10/13/2019 at 1:04 PM, Gadwin said: I started playing this game yesterday. Nearly spent 10 hours playing it so far. It's the first fire emblem I've played. I started on normal mode/casual mode but restarted on classic after playing for the first 5 hours. Feels much more tactical on classic now that I have to think about what I'm doing. It's a nice change from what I'm used to playing disgaea where you can make one overpowered unit to plough the battlefield. Keeping it on hard/classic for now to see how it goes. Expand Keep us updated with your progress and impressions. Especially as a you're a first timer with FE, would be great to know what you think as a first entry. What route/house you taking?
S.C.G Posted October 13, 2019 Posted October 13, 2019 On 10/13/2019 at 1:04 PM, Gadwin said: I started playing this game yesterday. Nearly spent 10 hours playing it so far. It's the first fire emblem I've played. I started on normal mode/casual mode but restarted on classic after playing for the first 5 hours. Feels much more tactical on classic now that I have to think about what I'm doing. It's a nice change from what I'm used to playing disgaea where you can make one overpowered unit to plough the battlefield. Keeping it on hard/classic for now to see how it goes. Expand I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying it, I thought you probably would once you started it. I think classic is a more accurate representation of how Fire Emblem games have been set up traditionally but it's nice that there are different ways to play the game now. I started on Classic as well, but you've already got further than me, I do like the game, it's just that there's so much to play, this got added to the Switch pile but I'll go back to it. Conversely... I still haven't played a Disgaea game, despite you recommending them to me, I must do that at some point soon, especially as the first game is on the Switch as well now. I'd be interested to hear how you get on with this Fire Emblem title as it's the first title to really break with a lot of traditions (I think?) My experience with the series is still limited... I've only really played some of Path of Radiance on the GC, the GBA games and Fire Emblem Awakening on the 3DS.
Gadwin Posted October 13, 2019 Posted October 13, 2019 I'm doing the blue lions route at the moment for my first play through. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted October 13, 2019 Posted October 13, 2019 On 10/13/2019 at 2:20 PM, Gadwin said: I'm doing the blue lions route at the moment for my first play through. Expand You chose well. You're in for a treat.
Gadwin Posted October 14, 2019 Posted October 14, 2019 I'm up to chapter 4 so far with no deaths yet on blue lions route. I'm not sure if others enjoy it but I quite like having my units like students where you roleplay as their professor. I think my professor rank is D+ so far. Battles have taken many turns probably due to being over cautious planning my attacks. Most of my units are between level 5 to 8 on hard/classic. My general strategy so far has been my strongest melee units in front with spellcasters and archers attacking from behind. Game has been enjoyable so far, glad I restarted on higher difficulty now. 2
ThiophenSJ Posted October 16, 2019 Posted October 16, 2019 150 hours, now I completed all game scenarios. My final verdict: The top story is the Golden Deer, closely followed by the Blue Lions. The Black Eagles routes are far inferior. More inside the spoiler tag. Reveal hidden contents In my opinion, the Golden Deer Route and and Blue Lion Route can both be considered the true endings of the game. While the Golden Deer Route focuses on the true history and the mysteries behind the Goddess, the Relics, Crests, Rhea and so on (and answers them all!), the Blue Lion Route focuses on the current world and its people, giving Fodlan true unity. As such, both routes leave the other thing behind. When playing the Blue Lions you feel like you truly did the best for Fodlan, but you are left in the dark about "Those who slither in the Dark", which leaves a bad taste behind in my opinion. On the other hand, Claudes first priority in the Golden Deer route is truly answering all questions, which he accomplishes. The state of Fodlan (specifically the Kingdom and the Empire) however is left for the epilogue. The Black Eagles are splitted in two routes. The Church Route is kinda senseless, as it does everything the Golden Deer Route does, only with less information, less battles and a different endboss. The Empire Route is more interesting, as it is the counterpart of the Blue Lions Route, but also with less information in the end. It's interesting to learn a bit more about Edelgard though. 1
gaggle64 Posted October 27, 2019 Posted October 27, 2019 Recently finished my first play through of Blue Lions, after 80 hours I cant play any more of that game and simultaneously desperately want to. I'm afraid to go near my Switch because there's other games I want to play and things I need to do. It does a decent job of creating a world where people have reasons to fight and, after checking a wiki, also hiding the full picture behind the different routes & viewpoints of each faction.
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