Fire Emblem

The models aren't really that bad, but look at the amount of voice acting, maps, amount of units, ambitious plot, and branching paths.

Three Houses is legit one of the most ambitious games in the series.

Too ambitious for it's own good. 3 routes should be consolidated into 1 route so we can have 2 fleshed out routes instead of 4 mediocre ones.

The amount of reused maps are insane. The game barely has more unique maps than the GBA games. The first half of every route is identical.

The monastery should be cut off entirely too.

The models are Pokemon SWSH level. The attack animations are Gamecube level.

Edited by RAlexa21th on Jul 1st 2020 at 6:59:28 AM

Aside from the voice acting I felt that Fates was more ambitious. Three routes that have substantially different stories, lots of creative maps that follow the gameplay philosophy of their routes, a dramatic shakeup in the weapon triangle and weapon durability, tightly-knit systems that make it both satisfying as a strategy game and an RPG without the RPG elements completely taking over if you didn't want it to, rebalancing Awakening's mechanics to make them more strategically interesting, a home base you could explore with a strong online component, and a narrative where it really is hard to fight your enemies because of moral and personal conflicts.

Obviously this ambition meant charging more than standard prices, and I don't think I have to go over a lot of the stuff that didn't work out (what a narrative), but you can't accuse IS of aiming low with Fates.

I actually like Fates despite some jabs.

Like it's clear they wanted to surpass Awakening and escape it's shadow.

Though the less said about the Children, the better.

Speaking off, making a ninja Corrin build, +Spd -LCK. hoping to make a dread fighter. Who would make the best support partner?

Good Kana optional, not looking to recruit any child units. Revelation run.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Jul 1st 2020 at 7:08:49 AM

Yeah, if Three Houses was supposed to have good production, they squandered it. Fates looked better despite a lot of... decisions.

I feel like whenever they make another Fire Emblem game on the Switch, it'll look better. I'm giving them slack because it's the first time they did a console Fire Emblem game since the Gamecube.

2nd actually.

This game is based on the work of Warriors.

I personally felt Three Houses looked just fine. Then again, I've never been one to pay too much attention to graphics as long as I think the overall product looks fine.

I do hope to see future games have battle animations close to the ones from Fates; that game still has my favorite battle animations of all time, and I hope at least one future game gets a Basara-like class for those epic "Wow, how's their back still intact?!" flops.

But Warriors is a different beast from Three Houses.

Fair.

Granted, i'm pretty sure the Demonic Beasts are only a thing so Koei Tecmo could reuse their monster assets.

My biggest complaint with 3H's graphics was the way the characters eyes were drawn. Flayn was my favorite character, but having the camera zoom in on her face made her look creepy.

Yeah look. I love Three Houses. It's a great game.

But it is ugly as sin. The world is made with a pallet of three colors and all the models really need work from the ground up. And while the character design is stellar, the environment gives The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion a run for its money in the "Blandest looking universe that's supposed to be High Fantasy" championship. And yes, the ambition it has wasn't quite realized.

Playing through it was actually interesting because it's the first time I ever played through a new game knowing that it would be remade in a decade.

Edited by ShirowShirow on Jul 1st 2020 at 11:13:45 AM

The locales when in the support conversations are really bad. Say, Hanneman, my guy, either your office has grown or we've shrunk.

Environmental design has often been a weak point of Fire Emblem. Look at Path of Radiance or Shadows of Valencia.

Edited by MisterTambourineMan on Jul 1st 2020 at 8:24:56 AM

Valentia that was a feature not a bug.

They wanted the maps to be similar to the original game. Were lucky they even changed as much as they did.

I think all the women in three houses have this soulless look.

Graphics don’t really bother me two much, though I suppose they could stand to be better. I will agree that having three or more routes probably does strain the resources a bit. I do like having multiple paths and factions - it’s fun choosing which you like more - but having just two next time will probably help keep things more manageable.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I’ll see if I can work it out. That said, I’m kind of in the mood for a GBA game replay... Which do you guys think I should go with, Blazing Blade or Sacred Stones?

Sacred Stones. Short but sweet.

Graphics are an evil blight that creates only suffering and agony!

If not for graphics right now I could be playing several SMT spinoffs with brand new games instead of them pouring everything into the evil that is the bloated beached beast that is Purrsona!

For a blurry 3DS game Fates managed to have some really memorable environments. Valentia wasn't as good there, but it made up for it with some surprisingly smooth animations to draw my attention.

Personally, I think in a visual medium that graphics are definitely important. That said, while I preferred Fates's graphics, I don't really mind Three Houses's graphics too much.

As for which game I like better as a whole? While I only played Bithright I also never even finished any of Three Houses's routes despite getting it on release day. Of course, that's mostly because I wanted to beat CF first but gave up on the last chapter. I guess I prefer Fate's difficulty, design, and overall story to at the very least CF's but I'm not sure I feel comfortable comparing the two when I never even beat a route of Three Houses compared to actually beating the version of Fates I played.

I don't mind the game looking like ass, cause that mas mostly okay, but I really regret how every single weapon art has the exact same animation, tied to weapon type, to the exception of things like the creator's sword's personnal. It sucked all the fun out of using them, for me.

Also, why they didn't reused fates's greatest idea of dynamic music that kept flowing through the battles and maps seamlessly I don't understand. Or am I mixing that one up with echoes ? It certainly was dumb in echoes.

three houses is certainly an ambitious game, but it doesn't really has the means to do so, aside from the voice acting department.

Three Houses has the dynamic music like Fates and Awakening. The map music is the Rain version. The battle music is the Thunder version.

I don't like dynamic music at all. Vastly prefer battle music and enemy phase music.

I prefer dynamic.

If you have really good map music, it should play throughout, not constantly get cut off by another song playing each turn, forcing it to restart.

I really like how Three Houses handled boss music too.