Fire Emblem: Three Houses Review

Title: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Genre: Tactical RPG
Released: 2019
Rating: 9/10

Welcome to Fódlan… where three powerful nations vie for control. Meet Byleth… a mysterious mercenary-turned-professor at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery. Prepare yourself… as the mentor for your chosen house, you will navigate complex relationships, unearth mysteries and secrets, and confront the moral dilemmas of war.

Pros
Replayability
This game is almost four in one. Depending on which house you pick, your playthrough will be different, especially in part two. I played the game twice choosing the Blue Lion path and the Black Eagle monastery path and I can easily see myself playing the game a third time. Each playthrough provides more answers as to Byleth’s background and the students’ situations. 

Balance of Fighting and Exploring
For me, the game found a perfect balance of fighting and exploring. Each week, you can choose if you want to explore the monastery, battle enemies, or have a different teacher provide a seminar. That variety was essential because I could choose to  improve relationships and skills of the students or level them up in battles. It’s sort of a “choose your own adventure” approach. 

Characters
I absolutely adore so many of the students. Sylvain, Annette, Felix, Lysithea, and Hilda are some of my favorites. Their unique personalities, interests, battle commentary, and support conversations are top notch. 

Team Customization 
One of my favorite parts of the game is how you can recruit students to your team and I love building out my team with some all-star favorites. Depending on the house that I pick, I make sure to recruit some of the strongest and unique students. It adds an extra challenge in part one to reach a skill level and relationship level that allow you to successfully recruit. 

New Game+
New Game+ makes part one so much easier! You can immediately become an A+ professor so you have plenty of slots to eat with students, improve your skills, host tea parties, and so much more. It also allows you to retain your battalions that you earned in your first playthrough, use renown to improve your skills and relationship levels, and change your team’s appearance. 

Cons
Railroaded 
The game lacks the ultimate part two path. When you choose the Black Eagle monastery path, I wish there was the chance to partner up with Dimitri and Claude to fight together. There’s a moment in part two where you’re asked to assist Dimitri and Claude but are blocked from actually doing so. The game could have benefitted from having more player-choice moments that guided the future events. 

The Endings
No matter which ending you get, you’ll still have questions left unanswered. In the Blue Lions playthrough, I got next to zero information about Byleth’s past. In the Black Eagle monastery path, some moments were never fully addressed or returned to. It’s irritating that the developers didn’t wrap it all up making the endings seem somewhat rushed. 

The 5 year time skip 
I can’t go into much detail to avoid spoilers. But what Byleth was doing and where Byleth was during the five years is… one of the weakest points in the game. Mostly in that it’s not ever really addressed. 

Overall…
Fire Emblem: Three Houses was my first tactical RPG and it was absolutely phenomenal. The relationship development options, battle features, and storyline are extremely enjoyable. I look forward to the next Fire Emblem that should hopefully come out in 2025!