Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Thoughts on the game.
One of the great things about being married to someone who's also a huge Fire Emblem fan is that I've been able to experience all four routes of the game already, despite only playing two myself. I've played Crimson Flower and Verdant Winds, and I watched my wife play Azure Moon and Silver Snow.
Gameplay
I really want to talk about the story, but I'll speak about the gameplay first. It's solid, as Fire Emblem usually is. It's not the best game in the series for this, but it's far from the worst. I'll assume anyone reading this is broadly familiar with FE gameplay, and just talk about what's new/different.
-The game adds enemy "aggro lines" (which is really just informing you who the AI will target and how much damage/hit they will have) and they are a wonderful QOL improvement.
-Like Echoes and unlike all previous games, the option to rewind time is present. I'm mixed about it. As I get older I really appreciate that I can play the game in such a way that I don't have to redo half an hour because of one mistake. At the same time, I think it does encourage me to be a lazier player, since the consequences for failure are less dire. I'd like to play the game without this feature at some point, when I'm not motivated just to get through to the end and see everything.
-Weapon durability is back and is kinda used as a balancing feature for legendary weapons (which are fairly powerful, and often have really powerful special abilities). It's probably the best implementation of weapon durability because of the "repair" option (in fairness, FE4 did this too, then it mysteriously vanished for nearly two decades). That said, after two FEs that didn't have weapon durability, I must say I didn't need it to return, even if it serves a purpose here.
-A skill system similar to Awakening/Fates returns. I like that it's easier to get skills; in Awakening/Fates it was entirely possible to never reach your cap of five equipped skills. And as soon as you get more than five you of course start having interesting choices about how to build your characters. I don't like that, for some baffling reason, when you learn a skill mid-battle you don't get a chance to equip it (unlike Awakening/Fates) and have to remember to do so between battles.
-The menu system is a bit janky and inconsistent (some important information like class exp and skill prerequisites aren't available in some settings, sometimes you can't scroll through characters using L/R). That said I did start eventually figuring out my way around things, and it does keep with the general FE tradition of making most info available somewhere.
-The game is pretty easy, even on Hard Classic, for a while, but does ramp up nicely as time goes on. It's never one of the harder FEs, so I'm glad a Lunatic patch is coming, but I definitely prefer its overall trajectory to the games which start decently difficult then get easier.
Finally, I should talk about the monastery / inter-battle gameplay.
Fates was taking baby steps in this direction, but Three Houses embraces it completely: a significant part of the game is spent wandering your home base, doing your shopping, talking to all your friends, doing quests, training your PCs, etc., etc. There's a LOT to do here, and it's the main reason the game's time (both runs took me 55-60 hours) is higher than most games in the series, even before considering multiple playthroughs for the different routes. And y'know by and large it's pretty enjoyable. Talking to everyone and seeing their thoughts after each battle adds a lot of characterization, the training part of the game adds a nice level of control over how you build your characters. Some of the other monastery interactions (quests, gardening, motivation boosting) feel kinda time-wasty or are necessary evils. Basically there's a lot of enjoyable content here, but I kinda feel like it could be streamlined a bit. That said, as a player you do have the option to streamline it a LOT if you wish (it's sub-optimal for character building, but you'd do fine) so I respect that.
Writing
The writing is the best in the series, to such a degree that I find dissenting opinions almost laughable. The setting is FAR stronger than anything the series has done before: the three nations of Fodlan, their cultures, and their relationships with each other, their neighbouring territories, and the Church, are very well-fleshed out. The character work is also easily the strongest; even the supporting characters tend to, on average, be remarkably multi-faceted. As I learned more about characters like Dorothea, Sylvain, Felix, and Lysithea, I felt like I was peeling through the layers of an onion, steadily learning more about what makes them tick, and often having to re-evaluate what I thought about them. And the main characters... I'll say more about them in the in-depth analysis, but wow. Edelgard and Dimitri are absolutely compelling and are not just the best characters in the series, but two of the best I've seen in fiction. Claude is a bit weaker but honestly only by comparison; he's still a remarkably unique character, and he like the other two commands your attention as a player.
The silent main is a choice which is awkward even though I can see why it was done. Obviously, it takes something out of some scenes and sequences that Byleth is not a fully-fleshed out character. On the other hand, sometimes s/he works as an observer; there are plenty of times where the game doesn't want you to know everything that the lord (i.e. Edel/Dimi/Claude) knows, and being able to walk around and talk to everyone and get their opinion on what the lord is doing is something that only comes naturally because you aren't playing as the lord. And from a more cynical standpoint, I rather suspect that the lords would never be written the way they were if the game wanted you to fully embrace them as a player stand-in, because they do some dark things which I think would make some players very uncomfortable. (That's arguably a bit of an excuse, though; this argument didn't stop Tales of Berseria being written the way it was, for instance.) Also fair warning that, like most games with stand-in protagonists these days, there are some awkward scenes of player worship. Please stop, games.
From here on I go into spoiler territory, as I'll talk about the main characters and the game's plot and themes.
Edelgard: The Revolutionary Emperor
It's a game about three houses and three lords, but there's little doubt that Edelgard lies at its core. She's potentially both the main protagonist and the main antagonist, and excels at both roles. I don't think it's unfair to say that the game is about her choice and what the player thinks about it.
White Clouds, the game's title for the first half of the game, plays out broadly similarly in all routes. While the characters are nominally at school, they're also very much acting as an arm of the Church of Seiros, stamping out threats to it. You get a close look at Rhea, the archbishop (leader) of the Church, a woman who, while not overtly evil, has an influence on the world which is unsettling. She props up a system in which people are elevated for having special bloodlines, and ruthlessly cuts down those she deems enemies of the church, likening opposition against the Church of Seiros to "pointing a sword at the Goddess herself" and executing her opponents without trial. You learn about the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, the most religious of the three nations, which is also a patriarchal mess of toxic ideas of honour and chivalry, and see Rhea's lack of concern for, or perhaps even awareness of, these problems.
Edelgard will have none of it. Though she spends most of part 1 quietly pretending to be a loyal follower of the Church, she is in fact actually working to undermine it. In a striking "heel turn" late in part 1, she reveals that she is in fact the masked leader of a group which opposes the Church of Seiros, has seized the throne in a coup in her home nation of Adrestia, and makes a declaration of war to rid the continent of Fodlan of Rhea and the Church of Seiros. Thanks to preparations she has made during Part 1 she is initially successful and seizes Garreg Mach, the seat of the church. How the rest of the story plays out depends on the route, though in all cases, there is a five-year timeskip before Part 2. There are four routes; I'll detail each one in turn.
Crimson Flower
In the previous section I mentioned that Edelgard makes a "heel turn", and I used quote marks for a reason. Is it actually a heel turn? The game builds the case throughout Part 1 for Edelgard's actions. There's little doubt that her declaration of war leads to much loss of life, because war sucks (and this is something the game does NOT shy away from). But to remove a caustic influence on the continent which has led to centuries of low-grade suffering, suffering which continues to this day and promises to stretch into the future indefinitely, is war justified?
In Crimson Flower, the player follows Edelgard on her quest to rid the world of Rhea and the Church of Seiros. The route is the shortest one; Edelgard begins the war in a position of strength. Her main antagonist is of course Rhea, who has fled to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. Rhea serves as the obstacle Edelgard must overcome. As the route winds on, Edelgard's thesis about the need to remove her becomes increasingly justified; we learn that Rhea is in fact over a millenium old and has secretly shifted identities to maintain her de facto rule of the continent. As Rhea is driven to despair as her close allies are killed, she becomes increasingly unhinged, allowing the loyal King Dimitri and his close allies to die in her service and finally burning down the Holy Kingdom's capital city in a last attempt to stop Edelgard, which serves as the stunning backdrop to the final battle.
Rhea's death on this route is cathartic, both politically for Edelgard, but also personally for Byleth. Byleth's importance stems from the fact that Rhea planted the soul of the goddess Sothis (who, it turns out, is Rhea's mother) into Byleth as a baby, essentially replacing Byleth's heart with the magically fossilized remains of that of Sothis. This left Byleth without a beating heart (literally and figuratively): an emotionless husk, and Rhea's most fervent wish is that his/her body would be taken over by Sothis who could thus return to the land of the living. Though this truth is revealed on other routes, Crimson Flower is the only route which truly seems to understand what a violation this is. In the ending of Crimson Flower (and only Crimson Flower), Byleth's artificially implanted heart disintegrates and his/her own reappears and starts beating, and his/her hair returns to its original colour, signifying his/her freedom from the goddess, which parallels the path that s/he and Edelgard chose for the world.
Was Edelgard right? Her own route would seem to justify her actions. At the same time, the game will constantly remind you that war is hell; you are forced to watch person after person whm you knew as a friend or ally at Garreg Mach before the war die opposing you, knowing that your (Edelgard's) choices led to their death. Although understated, Edelgard herself is obviously worn down by the weight of what she is doing. She believes she is justified, and there's little doubt that, if you were to ask her at the end of the game, that she would tell you it was worth it. Do I agree? I initially wasn't sure, but as I've had time to digest it, I tend to think that I do, which surprises me as someone who would usually favour the path of the incrementalist over the path of the revolutionary. But of course, others feel differently. (I won't speak too much about the fan reaction to the game, but suffice to say that the debates on the morality of Edelgard's path are both frequent and passionate, which in my view speaks to how well the game handled this issue.)
My favourite scenes in the route are the aforementioned ending, and the scene in which Edelgard kills Dimitri after his fall in battle, telling him that if he'd been born in a more peaceful time, he would have made a wonderful king, and then shedding tears while trying to deny the emotions she feels. But for more on that connection, one has to play Azure Moon!
Azure Moon
In Azure Moon, the player follows Dimitri. Each of the lords houses a secret, and Dimitri's is that he secretly nurses a burning drive for revenge against those who killed his parents a few years prior to the game (their deaths having being nominally and wrongly blamed on an uprising). During the course of Part 1 he meets an organization whom he (correctly) deduces is responsible for his parents' deaths. Then during the big reveal at the end of Part 1, he realizes that Edelgard is allied with those people and blames her for it. For Dimitri, the betrayal of Edelgard, who had been his childhood friend and, depending on how you read things, the first woman he loved, cuts him so deeply that gives into violent rage. Edelgard escapes his grasp, however, and puts into motion her plan to capture Garreg Mach.
When we next see Dimitri, he is a haunted wreck of a man. We learn that he returned to the capital of his Kingdom only to be deposed in a coup by Cornelia, an imperial supporter, who usurped the throne; he escaped captivity but now has nothing to live for but his revenge. Rather than seek out allies within the Kingdom, he instead roams near the border of imperial territory, hoping to kill as many imperial soldiers as he can to get back at Edelgard in some small way. The story picks up just as survivors of the Holy Kingdom's resistance (including all his friends from Part 1) have found him and hope that he will lead them against Cornelia. He is a terrifying individual to behold during this time, and the game does not shy away from this. He tortures an imperial general until a disgusted Byleth puts the general out of his misery. He forcefully assumes command of the resistance movement and directs them to attacking the Empire rather than helping his own country. He talks of having his dead relatives appear before him and telling him to kill Edelgard. He cares little about killing as many of Edelgard's followers as he can, and clearly hopes to die himself. This part of the story is compelling, not just because of Dimitri, but also watching those around him. They have pinned all their hopes for saving their Kingdom on him, and can not turn against him because his presence is their key to legitimacy, but can only watch in horror and try to guide him away from madness (often in futility) as best they can.
Azure Moon is a story of how Dimitri is able to find himself again. Unlike many dark points for characters in fiction, this is not a short one. No one event can be pinpointed in helping him overcome his own demons; it takes several. Certainly the return of a friend he thought dead is a help; so is learning that Edelgard was not, in fact, his parents' killer. But perhaps the most impactful one is when the sister of the imperial general he murdered attempts to take his life, instead claiming the life of one close to him. In that moment, Dimitri realizes that his fixation on revenge, even if justified, serves nothing but to bring more misery.
Dimitri pulls himself together (though to the game's credit, it acknowledges that he will be forever haunted by what he has experienced and done), and his plucky band is able to free the Kingdom and finally take the fight to the Emperor. There, in the best scene of the game, Dimitri and Edelgard explain their differing ideologies; Edelgard, the revolutionary, wants to change the world as she sees fit, while Dimitri believes that she has no right to make that choice and will oppose her, not for revenge, but to protect the people her path would trample upon. The Dimitri we see here is one who has completely forgiven Edelgard and wishes once more to be her friend, but can not allow her to continue on the road she is walking. When he extends his hand to her in mercy in the ending after his victory in battle, she for a moment appears to consider it but only to cover one last attempt to kill him (with the knife he gave her as a gift), and he is forced to kill her instead. It puts an exclamation point on the route. Dimitri, while capable of monstrous actions, is ultimately kind-hearted, while Edelgard was willing to do absolutely anything in service of her goal. People are complicated and there is good and bad in everyone.
My favourite scenes in this route are Dimitri's horrifying rant to the captured imperial general, and his confrontations with Edelgard both before and after the battle which I detailed above. There is just so much emotionally resonant stuff in this route. It's my favourite route overall, edging out Crimson Flower in large part because it has two amazing characters, while Dimitri is relatively minor in Edelgard's route. If it were the only route, I think it would stand alone beautifully, with at most minor tweaks.
But what of the people behind the death of Dimitri's parents? To get to the bottom of them, one has to play Verdant Winds!
Verdant Winds
Verdant Winds is, sadly, not nearly as good as the other two routes. My praise for Crimson Flower and Azure Moon is almost unalloyed; this will no longer be the case from here on.
Verdant Winds follows Claude, from the Leicester Alliance, smallest of the three major territories that make up Fodlan. As Claude is fond of reminding you, he is an outsider. This has two meanings: one, he was born outside Fodlan and has some different ideas about how it should be run as a result. And two, he's a bit of an outsider to the Edelgard/Rhea and Edelgard/Dimitri conflicts that lie at the core of the game.
Claude's route largely follows along the same path as Dimitri's (to the point where several maps are copy/pasted between the two); he opposes the Empire, rallies people against them, and ultimately invades them and puts an end to Edelgard's plans. But his reasons are very different. While Dimitri is motivated first by revenge and later by moral opposition, Claude's goals are much more self-serving, albeit noble. Like Edelgard, he wants to reshape Fodlan in his own image. He manipulates Byleth's connection with the church (being the vessel of the Goddess) into recruiting the powerful Knights of Seiros (despite the fact that he secretly despises organized religion). Through shrewd machinations he unifies the Alliance, the Church, and military support from his home nation of Almyra into a righteous war against the Empire, ultimately defeating them. And in the power vacuum created by the fall of the Kingdom (Dimitri dies leading his troops into a suicidal rush against Edelgard on this route) and the Empire, he plans to build a new united nation of Fodlan.
Claude is the star of the route and is kinda terrifying. On one level, he's obviously the "nicest" lord. Claude does not murder people! He's super-friendly! His war is reactive and just! The nation he plans to build is one with more social freedom, and in particular one where people (like him) won't face racial prejudice. Hard not to cheer for, right? But at the same time, he is so manipulative and controlling that it borders on sociopathic. He constantly pretends to be something he's not, he keeps secrets from everyone (even Byleth). His ultimate plan is to unite both Fodlan and his homeland of Almyra as a single borderless nation with him in control. In all three of the main routes, my wife or I ended up choosing to marry Byleth to the lord. Edelgard and Dimitri, in different ways, both make for very romantic pairings. Claude, even in this final, supposedly romantic scene, is rather clearly being sneaky and manipulative, setting her up as the ruler of Fodlan and in the epilogue returning to marry her as the ruler of Almyra.
Where the route, and indeed the game, goes wrong is with "those who slither in the dark", who serve as the final opponents of this route after Edelgard is defeated. We learn that they are an ancient race of evildoers (no, really. No route of the game expects you to have any sympathy for them as any more than that) responsible for many evils over the millenia of Fodlan's history, including many of the bad events in the game's setup. In a route about Claude's desire to build a nation without walls where none need fear racial prejudice, the presence of a race which objectively deserves a wall built around them (if not outright genocide) sabotages what would otherwise have been a key theme of the route. Also the final boss on this route, unlike Rhea and Edelgard, is both morally uncomplicated and a rather unsatisfying ass-pull; a big bad evil zombie general raised by the race of bad guys right before the final chapter.
But I have a lot of good things to say about Claude. About how he and Edelgard are both secretive people who desire control, but everything about their surface personalities manifest differently. About how he and Edelgard want strikingly similar things but approach them in opposite ways, and tragically could never have been allies because neither could have tolerated the other. About how he plays off his companions well and how this makes many of the "Claude and friends interacting" scenes fun to watch. And of course how absolutely charismatic (and gorgeous) he is, even if what this behaviour covers makes me at times uncomfortable.
Silver Snow
Silver Snow is bad and should feel bad.
You play part 1 as Edelgard's ally, but choose to side with Rhea instead of her, and from there the story follows Byleth as leader of the Knights of Seiros, with no lord character in sight. After that it's almost a complete carbon-copy of Verdant Winds, but without Claude, and if you read up and see how much praise I have for Claude, you can almost immediately tell that's going to be Bad Thing. You would think Rhea would be more present on this route, but she isn't. She does serve as the final boss though, as she randomly goes crazy at the end because I guess they thought they needed a different final boss from Verdant Winds? That's literally the only map that's different. The moment-to-moment plot of this route makes less sense because it was clearly written assuming support from the Alliance in mind. Instead the route seems to forget Claude and the Alliance even exist.
And the route ends with Byleth becoming Rhea 2.0, an immortal ruler of United Fodlan for an indefinite length of time. Great.
Conclusion
Despite my complaints about the Silver Snow route, this is obviously a great game. Fire Emblem gameplay is always a joy, the setting/chracters/supports are the best they've ever been, and there's a lot of good, thought-provoking writing in there. Since I didn't mention it anywhere else, the voice work and voice direction (special shout-out to the voice actors who played Dimitri and Dorothea, but they're far from the only good performances) are stellar. There are warts in there, but this is certainly the most complete Fire Emblem game, and as such, no other rating is possible than 10/10. One of the best games I've ever played.
