Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Nintendo Switch)

This was on my grandsons list for a gift. He was so happy to get it he actually wanted me to watch him play for awhile. This never happens but I can say he has really enjoyed it, plus we have had conversations about his gaming. Who knew a game could open a conversation with a teenager.

Hadn’t spent 400 hours on a game on my switch before until now

I have come to the conclusion that people who really enjoy this game just dont really play other games and thats why it has as high of a rating it does without truly deserving it. Firstly, this is supposed to be a triple A game thats a collaboration between IS and Nintendo, making it a first-party game and its been pushed as a must-play but Im going to be honest, while this is one of the better games for the switch, theres really not much competition, considering theres like enough first party nintendo games I can count with two hands and the rest are indie games thats been out on the pc for years or ports from the ps2/ps3 era. This is a very standard SRPG. Its actual battle mechanics are kind of fun, because it involves some logic and strategy. Theres a list of things that work and things that definitely dont work. Ill make a list arguing the pros and cons of what I saw. Pros: -the tactical style game play at its core is fun but srpg with a developed battle system is fun at its core -the rank up scenes between characters (Not the MC) are actually pretty fleshed out and fun -this game is fully voiced, like every single line, even the random npcs who show up as castle guards so they definitely tried (which is kind of a strange move to me imo because npcs rarely say something compelling) -the time skip mechanic for everyone (other than the MC) is pretty cool. Its nice to see their characters change and develop. -each route/ characters being morally good or bad is subjective Cons: -the graphics - playing on the docked switch, the characters models have a lot of pixelated lines, which could have been fixed with anti aliasing. This was a 2019 game but the 3D graphics are worse than the PS2 era games because of the above reason. Background graphics are not much better either. -the main character is an obvious self-insert and has the personality and emotional depth of a wet sponge. FYI, you can definitely write silent protagonists with personalities better than Byleth. Its not difficult, just have actual dialogue choices that are funny and interesting and have cut scenes and backstories that are enjoyable with the same MC. -the fanbase, aka people who think byleth is a good silent protagoinist because it allows them to self insert and s-rank one of their students. NOT to mention how weird it is that youre playing as a professor, looking to get engaged to someone who is one of your students, but Im not going into the questionable technicalities of that since there is a time skip but that doesnt remove the weird teacher-student power dynamic -The Timeskip, the intro, aka everything involving the writing. It just feels very flat and theres a lot of jumps forwards and backwards in time that dont really add to the story. Theres at least 3 deus ex machinas in this story, which to me screams bad writing. -people Ive talked to advertise this game as one with a lot of content, but what they mean is you need to restart the game from the start and grind through part 1 to play through each route but its really just a lot of rehashed recycled ideas with some new endings. The tea party is the same mechanic, just with different character models swapped out and I do not understand how you can praise someone and have that make compelling conversation when they ask you a completely unrelated question. Overall, If you enjoyed Pokemon Sword/Shield without stressing too much about it, you will enjoy this game. If you thought the new pokemon game was low effort and bad, then maybe this game is not the game for you. 3H has slightly better game play experience than Pokemon SwSh. I would give it a solid 3/5.

A great entry title for the Fire Emblem series. Full voice acting, engaging characters, and multiple routes make for hundreds of hours worth of gameplay. Treat yourself to a trip to Fodlan, you won’t be disappointed.

He is super pleased with the game

1) If you played final fantasy tactics at any point of your life, stop reading get it! you will love this 100% If not keep reading 3 houses, factions, groups of characters that are memorable, funny and diverse. You pick one faction to lead for the whole game. There is new game plus so you can play it two more times to get to play the other houses. Each house is unique in what class of characters it represents. (I.E Knights on horesback, archers, mages etc) Your characters can promote to new classes to take on new roles for your team. 3 Houses is a strategy game that takes the time to teach you how to play. All dialog is both in text and spoken out loud. Other games this is like besides final fantasy tactics include vandal hearts, disgaea, fellblade just to name a few. final tip, if you get this, play it on casual difficulty first time through, reason is if your characters die in battle on normal, they are deal forever!! If they fall in battle on casual, they will come back after the battle.

Career choices are very free, and of course the character personality should also be suitable. Randomly improve attributes, which makes me S&L many times.

This game was the main reason why I bought a switch. It was my first fire emblem game and I absolutely love it!

My son is enjoying this product

Bought it for a friend. She loved it! Just as expected.