Oh...my...gosh. They did it. They freaking did it! Intelligent Systems actually made a new Fire Emblem game that surpassed Holy War. I didn't even know that was possible! Bravo Intelligent Systems. Bravo.
Fire Emblem Three Houses is a spectacular addition to the franchise that managed to give me what I wanted out of a Fire Emblem: Moral Gray, a well characterized cast of characters, and a sense of world-building and politics that had actual effort put into it. I did not expect the game to be THIS GOOD.
So why do I like this game so much? Well to put it succinctly:
- The Conflict is Thought Provoking: A plot cannot happen without conflict. Good stories have engaging conflicts that draw you into their world. This is one of the major strengths of the plot of Three Houses; the conflict actually makes you think. There's a lot of ambiguity here about who was right, who was wrong, and how one would go about solving the problems of this world. This is the type of story where someone can actually side with the main villain and actually produce good arguments to support their position. No other Fire Emblem game has given us this. This is how you write a compelling story that involves Moral Ambiguity: You break the base. And that's what this game with its main villain.
2. Top Notch Worldbuilding: Fodlan is the love child of Tellius and Jugdral when it comes to worldbuilding. There's a lot of messed up stuff that happens in-universe. What makes this even better is that said messed up events have ramifications that affect the present course of the plot. Fodlan is a deeply broken society and its in dire need of a major change. The worldbuilding provides the sorely needed context that drives the conflict of the story. Because we see just how messed up this system is, and what its effects on the characters are, we are able to see why the cast acts the way that they do. We also see why so many people want to change the system. In conclusion, Three Houses's plot only works as well as it does because it effectively establishes the context the player needs to see just how screwed up its world is and why its in such dire need of being changed.
3. Fantastic Characterization: Another major strength of Three Houses lies in its characters. This game gets my vote for the honor of being the "Best Characterization in the Series". The game does a great job spelling out the motivations of these characters. You totally get where they're coming from. Furthermore, Three Houses also adds layers to most of its cast. There were a lot of times in this game where my first impression of a character was one thing, but after reading their supports and getting to know that character, I came away with a very different opinion of them. You really do feel like you need to read all the supports in this game, because even in the latter supports you're still learning new things about them. Three Houses does a great job at showing its characters evolve and change their views on certain issues. As a result, this cast feels like it's populated with real people. It also helps that the voice acting breathes new life into these characters too. Shout out to Chris Hackney, the voice actor of Dimitri. Another major positive for this game comes from the fact that the supports are really, really good. The character interactions are solid and there's a variety of different emotions and character interactions you can experience in a given support.
4. Interesting takes on classic Fire Emblem Tropes: Another element of the writing in Three Houses that I noticed is how this game managed to take the same type of tropes that we've seen before in Fire Emblem and manages to spin that trope in an interesting direction. The narrative is better off for it, and it helps to set Three Houses apart from the other entries in this franchise.
5. Interesting Gameplay Tweaks: From a gameplay perspective there's a lot of neat little tweaks that Three Houses makes to standard Fire Emblem gameplay. Not all of them work for reasons that will be discussed later, but the ones that do work make this game immersive and interesting to play. The two immediate examples that come to mind are how Three Houses handles weapon ranks and recruitment. Three Houses takes two different elements of Fire Emblem gameplay, and it manages to make them more engaging. This is also emblematic of how Three Houses took a lot of different risks, and I think these risks paid off big time.
If this all sounds vague to you now, then keep in mind that this post is more designed to act as a preview of what's to come. This is the spoiler free version too, so I'm limiting myself on what I plan to say because I know that a lot of people reading this haven't finished the game yet. But trust me when I tell you that I have A LOT to say about this game. Once I finished the Spoiler Free version I'll be able to delve into more juicy details and discussion when the spoiler filled version arrives.
In the meantime, feel free to ask me questions about things you'd like for me to talk about. I'd be more than happy to include it somewhere on this blog.
