Fire Emblem: Three Houses — A Newcomer’s Review
Over the many years I have been playing games on the GameBoy and DS, one franchise I just couldn’t get into was Fire Emblem. I had heard a lot about it, and it has had a very dedicated fanbase, but I was never able to find the appeal. That was until Three Houses and played my first playthrough for 80hours straight. I could not put this game down.
Fire Emblem is a strategic RPG and has been the torchbearer for this genre. For newcomers, it had been an intimidating franchise, tasking you to be both good in tactical combat and also people management. The concept of perma-death meant that mistakes you make would have dire consequences for the characters you’ve spent so much time nurturing. In Three Houses, this remains true, where you have to manage each part of the game, but when they all come together, the gameplay clicks, and it’s an incredibly rewarding experience.
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, you start as a mercenary who finds a group of teenagers being attacked. You learn that they are students of the Garreg Mach Monastery, specifically the house leaders of the titular three houses: Blue Lions, Black Eagles and Golden Deer. You eventually become a professor at Garreg Mach and have to choose which of the three houses you will lead, primarily preparing your students for combat. This determines which of the four storylines you will be…
