Fire Emblem: Three Houses

A battle during the first half of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, showing one of the playable units about to engage in combat with a generic enemy unit.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical role-playing game in which players control a player character whose gender and name are chosen at the beginning of the game. During the opening hours, the player character is asked to teach at the Garreg Mach Monastery, which acts as a hub for game activities. Choosing a particular school house to teach impacts the narrative from that point on.[1] The player's time is divided between story-based battles that advance the main narrative, and periods in Garreg Mach where they interact with students and staff members there.[2] While the opening half of the game focuses on this school system, the story skips ahead five years and focuses more on battle, with the player being locked to the house they chose during the opening half.[3]

During the periods between storyline battles, the player has a set number of days marked on a calendar, which can be used for a variety of activities from teaching classes and field exercises to planting seeds in the greenhouse and fishing in the pond.[4] The player also has free time events, where they can socially interact with students and build up relationships with them. Building a relationship is done through Support actions, with actions and dialogue choices impacting a character's Support level. If the relationship is strong enough, this can lead to the two marrying after a story-based time skip event.[1][2] By raising particular attributes through actions in battle and within the Academy, the player can recruit students from other houses, alongside other characters.[5] Each action during academy sections costs points, with a set number of points available each day and more activities than can be covered by the points available. The player must choose which events to trigger, losing access to others in consequence.[1]

As with other Fire Emblem games, Three Houses uses a turn-based battle system; players take control of a set number of unique units. They move across a grid, transitioning from a top-down perspective to a third-person view when a battle is triggered. A new feature to the series allows player to hire Battalions, additional troops that can support a chosen unit. Battalions have passive abilities which grant character buffs to the lead unit, and can perform special moves called Gambits, which can range from healing multiple units to stunning powerful enemies.[1][3][6] Players can also zoom in on the battlefield to assess individual battalions.[1][3][6] As with other entries, there is a "Classic" mode where characters who fall in battle are subjected to permanent death, and a "Casual" mode where fallen characters are resurrected after each battle. After a certain point in the story, players can undo a set amount of turn actions per battle using the Divine Pulse ability.[1]

Every unit is assigned a character class, which can be customised. While characters have starting abilities which naturally grant them a class, they can be taught additional skills which alter their class; class changes are available upon a student's "graduation" during the school segments.[2][3] Rather than the previously-established Weapon Triangle of earlier Fire Emblem games, different units have weapon-based skills called Combat Arts they can be taught during the school segments. Weapons have a set number of uses before they degrade and have their stats reduced.[4][6] Combat Arts are activated in exchange for some of a weapon's durability and learned by becoming proficient in a type of weapon. They deal higher damage than standard attacks.[6]

Following the unexpected success of Fire Emblem Awakening for the Nintendo 3DS—which helped save the series from cancellation after flagging sales of earlier entries—the Fire Emblem series gained renewed commercial value and prompted developer Intelligent Systems and publisher Nintendo to bring the series back to home consoles for the first time since Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn in 2007.[15] Concept development for Three Houses began in 2015 following the completion of Fire Emblem Fates for the 3DS.[16] The team originally planned for Three Houses to be another 3DS title. This was scrapped when production began on Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, resulting in Three Houses being briefly put on hold.[16][9] When the team learned of the Nintendo Switch, they decided to make the game for home consoles.[16] The team wanted the game to be the biggest and best in the series, and due to it being for home consoles they felt they could not make it alone. With this in mind, they decided to bring in help from Koei Tecmo.[15] At this time, Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo were collaborating on the spin-off game Fire Emblem Warriors. After consultation, Koei Tecmo's internal team led by Kou Shibusawa was recommended to them.[16] The biggest challenge for the developers was bringing the series to a high-definition console, a first for the series. Koei Tecmo was deeply concerned in this aspect of development.[17] Full production began in 2017 when Shadows of Valentia was finished, with Toshiyuki Kusakihara and Genki Yokota—respective directors for Intelligent Systems and Nintendo EPD— returning to direct the game.[16]

The game's scenario was written by Koei Tecmo's Yuki Ikeno, Ryohei Hayashi and Mari Okamoto. All three previously worked on the scenario for Warriors and were brought onto the development of Three Houses to help assist Intelligent Systems in writing the social segments of the game.[18][19] The narrative was written in the vein of a dark fantasy, with the mature aspects of the narrative showing through the conflict between the three factions.[9] Voice recording took three months; Kusakihara estimated the amount of voice acting for the Japanese version as five times that of Fire Emblem Echoes.[18] Two key parts of the game, the school sections and a time skip late in the story, were directly inspired by the 1996 entry Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War; the narrative in Three Houses of characters who were friends in their youth coming into conflict during their older years was almost directly lifted from Genealogy of the Holy War.[17] Kusakihara also admitted influence from the Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Koei Tecmo's adaptation of it in the Dynasty Warriors game series; this came about after Intelligent Systems looked at the narrative and world designs used by the Kou Shibusawa unit.[16][15] The game's native subtitle, a chengyu representing the seasons, was chosen to represent the narrative's four paths. As it translated awkwardly, it was replaced by the title Three Houses in English.[16]

While Intelligent Systems staff handled the weapon and world design, freelance illustrators were brought in for other parts.[15] The team wanted a new artistic image for the series.[18] Character designs and illustrations were handled by Chinatsu Kurahara, known for Uta no Prince-sama and Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters and who was the main character designer of the game. Kazuma Koda, who had worked on both Bayonetta 2 and Nier: Automata as a concept artist, was contracted to provide concept art for the game.[15] Kurahara was in talks with Intelligent Systems prior to development, and the final decision was made as Kusakihara felt she could best illustrate the "glamorous, aristocratic society" portrayed in the game. Her influence was particularly noted in the hairstyles of characters, which differed from those seen in earlier Fire Emblem leads.[18] The anime cutscenes were directed by Takashi Sano and produced by Sanzigen, noted for their cel-shaded 3D CGI animation.[20][21] The music was co-composed by Takeru Kanazaki,[18] Hiroki Morishita[21] and Awakening composer Rei Kondoh.[22]

In an interview with Kusakihara and Yokota, Three Houses in its released form would have been difficult or impossible to make without Koei Tecmo's help. The directors particularly cited Koei Tecmo's experience developing large-scale battles for their Dynasty Warriors franchise. This experience allowed large numbers of characters to be shown on screen in battles for the first time in the series. While Koei Tecmo helped with much of the technical and programming side, Intelligent Systems still took the lead on design and other core aspects of development.[15] The new school setting allowed the team to considerably expand the series' RPG mechanics beyond the typical tactical battles which had dominated the series up to that point.[17] The social aspects went through multiple unsatisfactory builds before some team members suggested a calendar system and ability points. This version finally satisfied the team.[18]

The Weapon Triangle, a recurring system for most of the series, was discarded due to it being a "stylized" system. The new weapon-based skill system was designed to be more realistic and increase player choice.[18] Due to its status as the first home console entry in twelve years, the team were under pressure to create something new and exciting. This led to the creation of Battalions in battle and the teaching segments.[23] Time limits were suggested by Kusakihara, who was inspired by the video game Pikmin.[9] The skill growth system drew inspiration from Zill O'll, a role-playing series developed by Koei.[16] The team toyed with the idea of including child characters from romantic supports for the story's second half, a feature from Genealogy of the Holy War which they had used extensively in Awakening and Fates. They soon decided against this, opting for a support experience based around character maturation and platonic relationships.[9] While online features such as seen in the "My Castle" feature from Fates were considered, the Monastery was so expansive and its history deep enough that such customization and sharing options would be impractical to implement, so it was left out.[23]

Nintendo first announced that a new mainline Fire Emblem game was in development for the Nintendo Switch in January 2017 during a Nintendo Direct focused on the series, with a projected release date in 2018.[24] The next new information was at an E3 2018 presentation. The stated release then slipped back into early 2019, but the game's name was announced and video footage shown.[25] In February 2019, the game was showcased in another Nintendo Direct displaying new game and story details including a second delay with the game's release date falling on July 26, 2019 and the confirmation of the co-developer.[26] Another story trailer was showcased at the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation with additional gameplay being shown at Nintendo Treehouse Live later in the week.[27][28]

In July, Nintendo revealed that the game would be receiving an Expansion Pass that would contain downloadable content for the game that would be released from the game's launch until April 2020.[29] The first wave of DLC added a new "Maddening" difficulty mode, made to address concerns about the game's low level of challenge on "Hard" mode, as well as various cosmetic options.[30] It also patched in a new voice actor for Byleth, replacing Chris Niosi with Zach Aguilar following Niosi's admissions of emotional and physical abuse. The admissions included violation of a non-disclosure agreement with Nintendo about his role as Byleth.[31] Later waves of DLC added additional playable characters, additional actions within the Monastery, and a new sidequest.[32]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses has received "generally favourable" reviews holding an aggregate score of 89/100 on Metacritic, based on 101 reviews.[36] According to the site, it is the fourth highest-scoring Switch game of 2019, and the highest-rated Switch exclusive.[43]

The four reviewers for Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu all gave praise, with one giving it a perfect score of 10 and the others a 9.[38] Eurogamer's Martin Robinson said that it "really is a game of two halves, but they come together to make one incredible whole."[44] Kimberley Wallace, writing for Game Informer, praised the game's ambition and willingness to take risks with the series formula, being surprised by how willing she was to begin a new game after finishing the campaign.[39] Aron Garst of GamesRadar gave Three Houses a perfect score, praising how the game kept him invested in its characters, with his main criticism of the gameplay being its low difficulty.[41]

GameSpot's Kallie Plagge did not like the need for multiple playthroughs to see the entire narrative, but was otherwise enthusiastic about the game's story and gameplay; she called it "the kind of game that's hard to put down, even when it's over".[40] Brendan Graeber of IGN felt that its depth of characters and tactical options more than justified multiple playthroughs, particularly praising its narrative as being superior to that of Fire Emblem Fates.[5] Nintendo World Report's Daan Koopman said that, despite finding the finales of some acts disappointing, the overall narrative and gameplay kept him invested.[42]

The scenario was met with praise, being cited as a mature and ambitious narrative with strong character interactions, with many lauding the difficult choices presented when picking a side in the first half of the campaign. The two interacting gameplay styles were also positively received, with many noting the social elements as a welcome tactical addition. The game's graphics saw a mixed response, with several websites faulting them as low-quality despite strong artistic design. The music and voice acting met with a strong positive response in both versions.[39][41][40][5][42][44]

Byleth appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, released as downloadable content on January 28, 2020. Both male and female versions of Byleth are present as alternate costumes for the fighter, whose attacks are based around the use of four of the game's weapons. The Byleth DLC also includes Garreg Mach Monastery as a new stage, as well as a selection of eleven music tracks from Three Houses.[62]

• Official website