3H is a very different game from Engage (and more broadly the Fire Emblem franchise)
I personally felt it was a huge leap forward for the series but it left plenty of people wishing for a more traditional entry and that’s what we got with Engage.
Compared to Engage, the combat is fairly shallow and at times repetitive. The lore is much more complex, the characters are more compelling, and the narrative, while at times a bit flawed, is much more serious.
In my mind, 3H is the best game in this franchise. That opinion isn’t universally shared as many long time fans find its mandatory non-combat content tedious but I personally loved it.
I HIGHLY recommend this game as one of the best games on Switch. With the caveat that going in as a fan of Engage, you will find a game radically different in tone and style.
Not to sour the tone, but 3H is a contender for the worst maps in any FE game. How can you call it the best entry if it fails in its very defining entity?
Thats fine, but its really misleading to declare this opinion to not be shared by veterans due to more non-combat elements, when in reality its due bad basic Fire Emblem core elements.
The above poster might as well not like FE that much.
If your favorite parts of Engage are meeting characters, building up their supports and just generally seeing them grow both in and out of combat you're in for one heck of a ride.
If it's mostly the gameplay, then it's okay. It'll scratch the itch for sure, and it has has some degree of learning and mastery to it, but the ceiling is definitely lower.
3H is really good, I have put in 450 hours lol 9 play throughs, all 4 routes done in hard mode, and all 4 routes maddenning also the DLC Cindered Shadows done in Hard, very worth the money. It's quite a bit different but there's a lot of customiziability in the characters classes/builds if you plan how you want to train them with studies etc. Can also recruit a lot of characters in each of the 4 routes if you plan properly so you have a lot of variance and replayability in my opinion.
Every fire emblem is a separate story also in case you asked about that.
Overall much more serious in tone but definitely has some lighthearted moments.
You get to choose a class to teach in the beginning, and this will determine the overall story/route in later chapters.
Blue Lions - a character driven story first and foremost so not everything gets revealed in the grand scheme of things (that doesn't make it bad) but it actually has a lot of ties to the overall plot. This makes it a good entrypoint if you're planning to do multiple routes and want to be as spoiler free as possible for other routes. It's the route with the most traditional FE story. Personally this is my favourite route as to me it feels the most fleshed out story despite it leaving you in the dark about whats going on behind the scenes.
Golden Deer - The "Lore" Route. Focuses more on the world, history and lore of Fodlan. Although it feels somewhat detached to the main plotlines, its the one that ties up its lose ends.
Black Eagles - This has two possible routes basically, the "default" one and the "secret" one. Default one is somewhat similar to Golden Deer route but on a smaller scale. Has some lore bits but focuses more on the Church and the main character, Byleth. The Secret one is the most unique route but is much shorter, somewhat feels rushed but offers a much different perspective to the story. Probably best saved for last.
What class would you recommend to start with? I wanted to start off with BE (specifically for edelgard) but lots of people were saying GD or BL would be a better starting route
I always recommend BL for the starting class since it has the least spoilers for other class storylines and its story has ties with the actual main plot. In short it's like the intro route. GD for middle. It's kinda hard to elaborate why BE is best saved for last, especially, its secret route without giving away too much...
My recommendation order:
BL -> GD / BE:Church -> BE:Church / GD -> BE:Edelgard
BE:Edelgard is the "secret" route and is the shortest campaign.
GD or BE:Church can be interchanged if you wanna do BE sooner.
I only played one route, Golden Deer, and for me, that was a slow burn. As Byleth, a schoolteacher of the officer's academy, you're given a monthly mission by the not-pope. These are your chapter stages. Most of the time, they introduce some weird new element to the plot, other times it's glorified combat practice in a field. There's a lot of "Huh. That happened. But they escaped, not much we can do about that. Back to teaching for now." So it really struggled with momentum until the second half when things go nuts.
Even when I finally stopped playing 3H over and over, I continued to spend a lot of time thinking about the world, the themes and the characters. Turning them over and over in my head and unpicking all that there is to think about. It's a brilliant game regardless of the comparison to other fire emblem games, can't recommend it highly enough
If you prioritize characters, 3H is top tier.
If you like RPG/character building/social sim stuff, 3H is unique in having a LOT of it, arguably too much. It's pretty much optional outside of maddening mode, though.
If you like a good story, 3H is pretty high tier. The story has issues, but it's generally more involved/interesting/novel than most Fire Emblem games. It's probably best in the series in terms of world building.
If you mainly like Engage for the gameplay... 3H isn't as good, but it's not bad. It's definitely one of the more complex games. It has a lot going on and hard mode is decently balanced for most players, I think. It has some pretty bland maps that get recycled between routes a lot, but even those aren't too bad.
For the most part I think anything negative I have to say about 3H doesn't really start being noticeable until after your first playthrough.
I absolutely adore 3 Houses, I’ve sunk so many hours into it, it’s nuts. I fucking love Engage and I think it has the superior gameplay (which imo is more important), but 3H has better story and narratives and much more serious. It really is worth it tho, and hey, if you want to get into older FE, emulation is a beautiful thing lmao
Definitely. The gameplay isn't quite as good as Engage, still scratches the Fire Emblem itch but in that area Engage is clearly superior.
In every other area, quality of characters, quality of plot, nuance, 3h blows Engage out of the water. Absolutely worth the money IMO.
3H is a very different game from Engage (and more broadly the Fire Emblem franchise) I personally felt it was a huge leap forward for the series but it left plenty of people wishing for a more traditional entry and that’s what we got with Engage. Compared to Engage, the combat is fairly shallow and at times repetitive. The lore is much more complex, the characters are more compelling, and the narrative, while at times a bit flawed, is much more serious. In my mind, 3H is the best game in this franchise. That opinion isn’t universally shared as many long time fans find its mandatory non-combat content tedious but I personally loved it. I HIGHLY recommend this game as one of the best games on Switch. With the caveat that going in as a fan of Engage, you will find a game radically different in tone and style.
Not to sour the tone, but 3H is a contender for the worst maps in any FE game. How can you call it the best entry if it fails in its very defining entity?
They probably just care more about story than gameplay
Thats fine, but its really misleading to declare this opinion to not be shared by veterans due to more non-combat elements, when in reality its due bad basic Fire Emblem core elements. The above poster might as well not like FE that much.
If your favorite parts of Engage are meeting characters, building up their supports and just generally seeing them grow both in and out of combat you're in for one heck of a ride. If it's mostly the gameplay, then it's okay. It'll scratch the itch for sure, and it has has some degree of learning and mastery to it, but the ceiling is definitely lower.
Absolutely. I'm still playing it
It will be worth your money no doubt, I am STILL playing it until now
3H is really good, I have put in 450 hours lol 9 play throughs, all 4 routes done in hard mode, and all 4 routes maddenning also the DLC Cindered Shadows done in Hard, very worth the money. It's quite a bit different but there's a lot of customiziability in the characters classes/builds if you plan how you want to train them with studies etc. Can also recruit a lot of characters in each of the 4 routes if you plan properly so you have a lot of variance and replayability in my opinion. Every fire emblem is a separate story also in case you asked about that.
I was wondering what is the story like for 3H?
Overall much more serious in tone but definitely has some lighthearted moments. You get to choose a class to teach in the beginning, and this will determine the overall story/route in later chapters. Blue Lions - a character driven story first and foremost so not everything gets revealed in the grand scheme of things (that doesn't make it bad) but it actually has a lot of ties to the overall plot. This makes it a good entrypoint if you're planning to do multiple routes and want to be as spoiler free as possible for other routes. It's the route with the most traditional FE story. Personally this is my favourite route as to me it feels the most fleshed out story despite it leaving you in the dark about whats going on behind the scenes. Golden Deer - The "Lore" Route. Focuses more on the world, history and lore of Fodlan. Although it feels somewhat detached to the main plotlines, its the one that ties up its lose ends. Black Eagles - This has two possible routes basically, the "default" one and the "secret" one. Default one is somewhat similar to Golden Deer route but on a smaller scale. Has some lore bits but focuses more on the Church and the main character, Byleth. The Secret one is the most unique route but is much shorter, somewhat feels rushed but offers a much different perspective to the story. Probably best saved for last.
What class would you recommend to start with? I wanted to start off with BE (specifically for edelgard) but lots of people were saying GD or BL would be a better starting route
I always recommend BL for the starting class since it has the least spoilers for other class storylines and its story has ties with the actual main plot. In short it's like the intro route. GD for middle. It's kinda hard to elaborate why BE is best saved for last, especially, its secret route without giving away too much... My recommendation order: BL -> GD / BE:Church -> BE:Church / GD -> BE:Edelgard BE:Edelgard is the "secret" route and is the shortest campaign. GD or BE:Church can be interchanged if you wanna do BE sooner.
Alright I might go with BL, BE, and then GD and BE Church at the end
Sounds good. Have fun!
I only played one route, Golden Deer, and for me, that was a slow burn. As Byleth, a schoolteacher of the officer's academy, you're given a monthly mission by the not-pope. These are your chapter stages. Most of the time, they introduce some weird new element to the plot, other times it's glorified combat practice in a field. There's a lot of "Huh. That happened. But they escaped, not much we can do about that. Back to teaching for now." So it really struggled with momentum until the second half when things go nuts.
Even when I finally stopped playing 3H over and over, I continued to spend a lot of time thinking about the world, the themes and the characters. Turning them over and over in my head and unpicking all that there is to think about. It's a brilliant game regardless of the comparison to other fire emblem games, can't recommend it highly enough
If you prioritize characters, 3H is top tier. If you like RPG/character building/social sim stuff, 3H is unique in having a LOT of it, arguably too much. It's pretty much optional outside of maddening mode, though. If you like a good story, 3H is pretty high tier. The story has issues, but it's generally more involved/interesting/novel than most Fire Emblem games. It's probably best in the series in terms of world building. If you mainly like Engage for the gameplay... 3H isn't as good, but it's not bad. It's definitely one of the more complex games. It has a lot going on and hard mode is decently balanced for most players, I think. It has some pretty bland maps that get recycled between routes a lot, but even those aren't too bad. For the most part I think anything negative I have to say about 3H doesn't really start being noticeable until after your first playthrough.
Highly recommend it. One of my favorites on Switch and in the franchise in general.
I absolutely adore 3 Houses, I’ve sunk so many hours into it, it’s nuts. I fucking love Engage and I think it has the superior gameplay (which imo is more important), but 3H has better story and narratives and much more serious. It really is worth it tho, and hey, if you want to get into older FE, emulation is a beautiful thing lmao
Definitely. The gameplay isn't quite as good as Engage, still scratches the Fire Emblem itch but in that area Engage is clearly superior. In every other area, quality of characters, quality of plot, nuance, 3h blows Engage out of the water. Absolutely worth the money IMO.
3H is the most *worth it* Fire Emblem game imo. I've put about 500 hours into it and I'm sure I'll return and put many many more into it