Board 8 > Fire Emblem: Three Houses Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

You can sell them.
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Man Chapters 8-10 are wild, and I assume this will carry on. So this is what it's like to care about what's happening in a Fire Emblem game, it's been too long.
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I'm up to the trailer point in post timeskip Blue Lions, and so far, it's had the exact same maps as golden deer (besides a few paralogue missions, which all took place on the same map)

So so far it's pretty safe to say that map superiority between houses isn't really a thing (or is completely negligible since there's only like five maps post trailer point IIRC)
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I just got to the time skip. Interesting how they handled it. I wasn't ready for characters to gain levels even though I knew about some of the class changes.

In general, it's jarring for Byleth to always have access to the convoy, even when the situation makes it inappropriate.
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I'm leveling up too fast and a bunch of my units have reached level 20+ without being able to reclass to advanced classes (or they can but the RNG's being a bitch, like my Marianne failing a 77% exam two weeks in a row). My poor Byleth ain't even close due to me focusing so much on raising my Professor Level.

It's kinda my fault though. I was thinking I'm still early enough in the game that a C+ is good enough for now, so I start branching out and now I have only a few characters with any Bs so far.
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Did you try save scumming for the certifications?
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I could, but no. Save scumming for exams is annoying, since you can't save right before taking the exam. The outcome is decided when the week starts, so you have to save before ending the previous week and re-do whatever happens between Sundays to try again if you fail.
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I did not know that. I did find it odd to fail a 77% chance three times.
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You still wanna save scum to avoid wasting seals, though...
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Seals aren't hard to come by, though.
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Oh well yeah, I definitely still do that. At least for the ones that are still limited.
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Post Chapter 14 Black Eagles

I knew I made the right call sparing Claude. Alas, I couldn't avoid Hilda so I had to take her out.

And we get our anime rom com moment with Edelgard drawing pictures of Byleth and trying to hide them. Hah, pretty cute.
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OK uhhh no plot spoilers but for those who have beaten a route or been looking into this stuff, but am I reading right that there's actually 4 routes, one for each side plus a 4th for Rhea, or am I misunderstanding this? I kind of assumed it was just "Side with Edlegard" or "Side with the church".
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I got to the big plot split.

This is wild. I am super curious how the other paths would have turned out

Team Edelgard
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LapisLazuli posted...

am I reading right

I'm only on part 2 of the GD route, but if you count each house as a route (and there are different story beats for each), then they each count as a "route". What you referred to is only a possibility in one of those routes.

masterplum posted...

I am super curious how the other paths would have turned out

Same, but I don't want to ask because I kind of want to find out for myself how it's handled differently from other points of view.
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General Part 2 Route Spoilers

From my understanding, the BE Church route is similar to the Golden Deer route. It's just more personal going against Edelgard as her former house than alongside an outsider.
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I'm basically trying to figure out what order I should do things to see the most content, and which class I should pick 3rd that would make the most since to have as my "final" class where I could have renown to pull off getting everyone, and have a save for back at the decision that I could go back to rather than having to play a 4th time and double play through the same house.
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LapisLazuli posted...

I could go back to rather than having to play a 4th time and double play through the same house.

Again, i haven't personally done either of those routes, but I've heard that it's caused by a conversation you have during exploration in one of the final months
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Ughhhh dammit I just found out the answer.

The church route is Back Eagles exclusive. The other routes don't have the decision found in Black Eagles at all. Looks like I'm going to have to fo a 4th no matter what.
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I mean pre timeskip all the houses are practically the same, and being able to skip all cutscenes make the game so much shorter
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The game also seems easy enough even on hard classic that I imagine in a new game plus where you keep your skills and therefore every student research gets professor bonus you could probably just skip through everything not essential.

If I am correct that is now NG+ works
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Black Eagles Chapter 11 spoilers

In a way, the Church route is the default BE path, since there are a few hoops you have to jump through to side with Edelgard.

And the game doesn't really give you much incentive to side with Edelgard, given that she attacked you in the previous chapter.

The problem with the Church route is that everything it does is better accomplished in the BL/GD routes.
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Would you say that I shouldn't even bother with the church route if I've done Edlegard and both other houses?
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omg fishing when it's the bountiful harvest event. I had two months worth of bait and earned like 5000 professor exp. Also ugh still only two battles a week.
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You can do the free battles that don't cost anything, too.
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Doing free battles doesn't get me through my paralogue backlog, lol.

And I mean the game is so easy, the only reason I've found myself doing the free battles is to score some free smithing stones.
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LapisLazuli posted...

You can do the free battles that don't cost anything, too.

That's only on normal
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LapisLazuli posted...

Would you say that I shouldn't even bother with the church route if I've done Edlegard and both other houses?

Probably, unless you really want to see everything. For me, after I'm done with this BE Edel run, I'm going to do a NG+ Golden Deer run and that will be it. I'll catch LPs of the other two
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I need to redo the BE church route because you can save Rhea in the end.
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I have a new favourite strategy: warping Edelgard (as a fortress knight) into the middle of the enemy ranks and watching the ensuing slaughter. She's a beast.
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Ok, so I beat blue lions. Married Annette, who also didn't have a nose in her marriage picture. Do all the characters lose their nose or is it just the ones I want to marry? I'm probably going to load a past save and marry her dad too, just because thats a ship that makes zero sense.

My theory of "first couple to get an A support gets a pair ending" didn't work this time because I paired Lorenz and Mercedes first, but she got married to Silvain, so if you're trying to get a paired ending just be weary of getting those second A ranks.

Time to do Edelgard's route! Then I can finally take a break from this game.
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Aww yeah, Hubert clutched out a 30% success on the Master Cert to Dark Knight.

Hubert/Edelgard Support Spoilers
I can't tell if Edelgard was being sarcastic or being a dumbass. Of course the person Hubert loves is you, ya dipshit!

(For now anyways. He's currently got a paired ending with Bernadetta lined up. They had a cute support line)
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Black Eagle path finished. Yeah, definitely feel like that may have not been the best one to start with, feels like a lot is left out and that it's more of a "bonus" route. A bunch of major characters and factions just completely left out. Still, it's where my heart took me.

Dimitri time.
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Yes.

It's also one of the best parts of the game. You can of course skip through no problem but there's a lot there you might miss. Worth noting that base stuff has been in the series since Path of Radiance this just expands it out a lot and makes it not menu-based.
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LapisLazuli posted...

Black Eagle path finished. Yeah, definitely feel like that may have not been the best one to start with, feels like a lot is left out and that it's more of a "bonus" route. A bunch of major characters and factions just completely left out. Still, it's where my heart took me.

A bunch of major characters are left out of all the storylines. I've beat the game twice and I still have no idea whats going on with at least half the game's mysteries.

Lightning Strikes posted...

t's also one of the best parts of the game. You can of course skip through no problem but there's a lot there you might miss.

Skip through "no problem" might be a little disingenuous given how crazy the load times are (and you have to load things you're not interested in before skipping them)
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Been moving at a snail's pace lately because real life has gotten in the way but I'm into post-timeskip now and man Chasing Daybreak is a wonderful piece of music.
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UltimaterializerX posted...

Finally started.

I am loving the combat. The potential is there for best in the series, and Ive only gotten up to the mock battle. Like this is EVERYTHING I enjoy. Exp for hitting walls? Yes please.

My problem is all the useless filler. This stuff with the monastery and 726 daily quests is not Fire Emblem. Give me a big grid and big fights with big units. Its all I care about. Does it stay like this for the entire game where Im spending hours between each battle?

And you were saying how you didnt want play this game because of the dating sim aspect...

Well, good to see you turn around.

I plan on starting it myself pretty soon. Maybe even tonight if I have time.

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UltimaterializerX posted...

Finally started.

I am loving the combat. The potential is there for best in the series, and Ive only gotten up to the mock battle. Like this is EVERYTHING I enjoy. Exp for hitting walls? Yes please.

My problem is all the useless filler. This stuff with the monastery and 726 daily quests is not Fire Emblem. Give me a big grid and big fights with big units. Its all I care about. Does it stay like this for the entire game where Im spending hours between each battle?

Mmm, yes and no. Yes if you want to slightly optimize stat growths and such. I havent found the game hard enough yet on Hard/Classic that it really matters (Im on chapter 14?)

So you could probably just skip through most of it. With the caveat there is one very big missable on one route that permanently changes the game if you miss it.

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LapisLazuli posted...

Black Eagle path finished. Yeah, definitely feel like that may have not been the best one to start with, feels like a lot is left out and that it's more of a "bonus" route. A bunch of major characters and factions just completely left out. Still, it's where my heart took me.

Dimitri time.

There's a few things that make me think the route you took was likely the last part developed.

As if someone in the dev team went "Oh shit, people might be mad if they're never allowed to keep Edelgard, we better come up with something."
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The fact that major cutscenes are static in that route instead of fully animated is telling.
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Wait, seriously? That sounds... less than great.
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Oh I just figured that was what I should expect from the game, lol.
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Yeah, it's blatantly obvious around the timeskip.

The church route has an animated fight between Byleth and Edelgard while the Edel route just has a CG still of Edelgard hugging Byleth.

I'm keeping a save for before the timeskip just in case they add things later.
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Shadow Dino posted...

Yeah, it's blatantly obvious around the timeskip.

who greets you in the monastery after the timeskip in the church route? I assume Edel does in the Edel route
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still edel
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https://www.polygon.com/nintendo-switch/2019/8/6/20756796/fire-emblem-three-houses-romance-ranked
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ninkendo posted...

https://www.polygon.com/nintendo-switch/2019/8/6/20756796/fire-emblem-three-houses-romance-ranked

*Sees #1*

Yeah, that checks out.
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