Fire Emblem: Three Houses – First Impression
Hello everyone! It’s been a while. I’m actually going to review something for once, but it isn’t an otome game. I’ve been playing a lot more RPGs lately, especially with Shadowbringers releasing for FFXIV (thanks SE for beating me emotionally with a bat, I’m still suffering to this day) and with FE3H releasing.
I actually wasn’t originally going to buy FE3H because although it looked very fun and interesting, I wasn’t super into any of the characters at first? I’m not the biggest Fire Emblem fan but I do like the games. I actually typically HATE tactical RPG games, but FE is the one series I’ll willingly play them. My first FE game was Awakening, which I adored to the heavens and back, and I have a bunch of the other FE games on DS (Fates series, Echoes etc) but I just don’t tend to prioritize FE games.
Well, I got a gift card for my bday and FE Warriors was on sale and so I was like why not buy FE3H while I’m at it?
SO GLAD I DID.
I’m not done with the first arc of the game yet, but I’m almost done – I’m on Chapter 8 and I believe arc 2 starts at Chapter 12. So this is just a first impressions so far of the game play/mechanics, and characters/story from what I’ve seen so far.
Mild spoilers ahead, I think…. LOL. And some mild cussing, probably. That you should expect by now though… ^q^;;
Story 
So you control the character Byleth, which you can change the name of and also pick your gender. Byleth was originally a mercenary alongside their father, Jeralt, but through a series of circumstances eventually becomes a professor at the Garreg Mach Monastery. They will choose one of the Three Houses that represent the Three Factions of Fodlan to teach and guide.
The three houses are as follows:
The Black Eagles, led by Edelgard, the Crown Princess of the Adrestian Empire
The Golden Deer, led by Claude, the next leader of the Leicester Alliance
and finally The Blue Lions, led by Dmitri, the Crown Prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus.
I chose The Blue Lions because DMITRI #1.
For me, the story behind FE3H was pretty predictable in a lot of places. For example, when I saw Sothis, and heard the story about the Goddess and all that other stuff, I knew preeettyyy much immediately where the story was going to head with this. That being said, I can’t completely figure out the Archbishop, Lady Rhea, and I also questioned Byleth’s origins (their father is Captain Jeralt) and if their parents were really… you know, Captain Jeralt and Byleth’s deceased mother.
Regardless of whether or not many points in the story are predictable to me, I still enjoy it nonetheless. I particularly dislike betrayal or other themes along that in my story lines, and I get attached to characters very quickly so I’ve pretty much been playing nervously along terrified someone is going to die. I’m low key traumatized too from FFXIV because… yeah. Thanks SE
It’s funny, because at first I was like “pfft I’ll probs have to kill one of these students later on in Arc 2 but I DON’T CARE CUS I’M HEARTLESS” then, you know, the next day I’m like “No they have to all survive don’t hurt my children” so yeah. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for me ^q^….
Anyways, I’ve been very much anticipating seeing the entire story unravel itself, because right now there seems to be a lot going on and not much that I’m figuring out. I think that major plot points are very obvious to me, but the nuances of the story are harder for me to predict and that’s what’s keeping me on my toes. I’m enjoying it a lot!
The story keeps me engaged, but mostly importantly are the different characters. There are three classes, and you can interact with them plus the different teachers and other faculty.
Characters
Let me say it again. DMITRI #1. He is number one in my heart and nobody can take that spot away!!!! I know before the game released that out of all the characters, Dmitri would be my first pic if I ever got the game. I know everybody was obsessed with Claude, but he’s a little too stereotypical flirty funny guy who’s actually hiding some scheming mind behind him.
Then again, a lot of the characters are the typical stereotypes/cliches you’ll see in any story.
Does that make them bad? LOL HELL NO
The characters make this game. The character interaction you see in support dialogues between the various characters make this game great. I like pretty much everybody in Blue Lions, and characters I thought would be boring or uninteresting to me I ended up liking a lot after witnessing their support scenes with either Byleth or other characters.
Also there were a few twists that surprised me, specifically Dmitri and Edelgard and their relationship.
I also liked Sylvain more than I expected. I knew he was going to be that stupid flirty guy that actually has some dark shit going on underneath so I wasn’t too interested in him at first, but I enjoyed him the more I saw the support dialogues between him, Dedue, Dmitri, etc.
That being said… there is one person I dislike in Blue Lions. And that’s Ingrid. Oh my god, Ingrid.
I’m sorry right now if you like Ingrid but I find her SO fucking boring.
It’s weird because everyone else in Blue Lions is interesting, cute, has great personalities, and just really stand out to me, but Ingrid? Oh man, Ingrid. I just can’t like her. I thought maybe it was because I hadn’t seen enough of her support dialogues with Byleth/other people because I pretty much ignored her until maybe part 4 or 5? She just never got used in any of my fights. If I could only have so many people and had to leave one character out, I pretty much ALWAYS left Ingrid out.
Even after seeing some of her support dialogues though, I still find her boring as fuck.
She’s just such a flat character to me. She wants to be a knight, she likes reading and she likes to eat. That’s it. She’s childhood friends with Dmitri, Sylvain, and Felix, so you’d think she’d be a bit more interesting, but I guess Dmitri/Sylvain/Felix were too interesting so they had to balance the childhood square by making one person boring and flat as fuck.
And that’s what Ingrid is. Boring and her personality is flat as fuck. Honestly, if they took Ingrid out, it wouldn’t even fucking matter because there’s just no point to her. You’d think she’d have more interesting stories or I don’t know, just be more interesting in general considering she’s a childhood friend to those three, but god she’s so boring.
Everybody else seems to have some sort of interesting story and purpose and background, and then there’s just…. Ingrid.
Anyways….
Also low key disliked Seteth for a long time. He’s just this dick wad overbearing siscon that talks shit to me the entire time. So exhausting lol it only isn’t until after you save his little sister he becomes a bit more bearable, but lord did I hate him for a while ^q^;;
Felix also pissed me off whenever he said shit about Dmitri, like how dare you talk shit about my son. But Felix has definitely grown on me over the course of the game and yeah I love him now. 
But yes, the characters are great and I cannot wait to marry Dmitri I am seriously so impatient I’m trying to rush through Arc 1 so the five year time skip can happen and I can eventually S Support that sweet sweet summer child who will eventually turn into a psychopath.
Legit Dmitri was made for my taste LOL I GET THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS MY FRIENDS SWEET AT FIRST CRAZY LATER AYYYY
Game Play & Mechanics 
This is a tactical RPG, so all matches are held on a grid battle. You move your characters around to engage them against other characters. There is a battalion feature, as well as Gambits which are what Battalions use.
Obviously, there’s also stat raising, support / marriage, and a variety of other things to do in the game.
Honestly, there’s a lot. It’s kind of overwhelming when you think about it.
Luckily though the game introduces you slowly to everything. You don’t have access to every feature available right from the get go, but only get them as you go through the game. I don’t think I unlocked the Tea Party function til like a few chapters in.
Each month you have one rest day while the rest of the week is dedicated to instructing the students and group activities.
Students can switch classes, and they have Goals that basically set where their weekly EXP from Byleth’s lectures go to which skills. These can be adjusted manually, or through dialogue options after instructing the students.
You can instruct manually or automatically.
On the rest day, you have a choice of either Exploring the monastery, Battling (paralogues or other side missions), Seminar (with the other professors – some students will join – to earn EXP for certain skills), or Resting. You can also visit the market place, do your certifications or just skip the week as well.
The main mission of each month is almost always hosted the last week or last day of the month.
That leaves the rest of the free days to do whatever. As you level up your professor level, you gain more “turns” to do things. You start out with like, one or two, and get more as your prof level goes up. This is nice because too few “turns” means I can’t get very much done on a free day….
I didn’t struggle with this very much, but as I continue through the game, I realize now that I think… my characters might be a little overpowered? I almost always do Paralogue battles, and I tend to do the battle missions as well. I rest very little (which sucks cus I’ve overused my Sword of the Creator rip) and instead I’m either Exploring or doing Battles. I’ve only done a few Seminars.
In fact, in terms of leveling my skills up on Byleth, I’ve fallen behind compared to my students LMAO RIP.
That being said, the game is pretty easy overall. I’m on Casual mode/Normal though, because I’m not a fan of Classic where if someone dies in battle you lose them forever. My heart just couldn’t handle that kind of thing, you know? ^q^
Final Thoughts 
This game is worth every fucking cent I spent on it and I’m actually mad at myself that I didn’t buy it sooner.
Even if you don’t really like TRPG games, I would still recommend FE:3H to you. I normally dislike the tactical rpg genre as well, but Fire Emblem: Three Houses gives a wonderful story as well as great character interaction that it’s worth it in my opinion.
Plus, honestly, the game isn’t that hard. It’s a pretty easy game to play and it’s easy to win. It’s pretty hard to lose, even if you’re greatly outnumbered… usually because your characters are probs way overpowered compared to the enemies. In all honestly, it should probably be a little bit harder (enemies should scale, for example) but ayyyy it’s fine.
If you’ve never played a TRPG before, I’d say FE:3H would be a pretty decent game to venture into the TRPG genre. Or you could try FE Awakening if you have a DS which is also a wonderful game.
Also, the voice acting in this game – both EN and JP – was really good. I normally prefer to listen to the JP voices because I’m a big fan of a lot of the seiyuu (and I’m mostly unfamiliar with the EN VA scene) but I really enjoyed the EN VAs! They all suit their characters perfectly and in fact, I disliked some of the JP VA for some of the characters (cough Bernadetta cough).
If you were interested in FE3H before but haven’t bought it yet, I’d definitely encourage you to get it!
Anyways, thanks for reading!
s t a r r y e y e d 