Fire Emblem Three Houses

If it's a video game it goes here.

Moderators: LawBeefaroni, Arcanis, $iljanus

Post Reply
User avatar
Scraper
Posts: 2711
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 4:59 pm

Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Scraper »

Picked this one up based on the glowing reviews and the fact that I didn't have any Switch games I was currently playing. I'm about 9 hours in. So far I have to say I find the game rather bland and I'm wondering what the heck I'm missing. I'm not new to this genre, I generally like the tactical turn based style of games, but I've never played a Fire Emblem game before.

I just got to the part where:

Spoiler
Spoiler:
The main character gets his magical sword
So my question is, does the game get more interesting from there or is it just more of the same? If it's more of the same I'm not sure I'll make it through this one.
FTE
User avatar
Paingod
Posts: 13132
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:58 am

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Paingod »

I've been seriously thinking about getting a Switch just for this game based on reviews. I still have my old Game Boy DS and Fire Emblem on that is one of my favorites (besides Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics). I'm very interested to hear more on the actual game.
Black Lives Matter

2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
User avatar
Skinypupy
Posts: 20333
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 10:12 am
Location: Utah

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Skinypupy »

I gave it a shot based on the stellar reviews. I'm about 6 hours in.

My main issue with the game is there's just so damn much of it, and I simply can't wrap my head around how all the social systems actually work together. I don't understand how all the training, events, and interactions actually work to develop characters, and have mostly come away with the overwhelming feeling that I'm gimping my party in a horrible way because I don't know WTF I'm doing.

I'm probably going to shelve it for now and come back later when there's some more in-depth guides on character development that I can follow. Or at least get the slightest idea of what the hell to do.

Combat's pretty fun though.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
User avatar
Scraper
Posts: 2711
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 4:59 pm

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Scraper »

Skinypupy wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2019 10:21 am I gave it a shot based on the stellar reviews. I'm about 6 hours in.

My main issue with the game is there's just so damn much of it, and I simply can't wrap my head around how all the social systems actually work together. I don't understand how all the training, events, and interactions actually work to develop characters, and have mostly come away with the overwhelming feeling that I'm gimping my party in a horrible way because I don't know WTF I'm doing.

I'm probably going to shelve it for now and come back later when there's some more in-depth guides on character development that I can follow. Or at least get the slightest idea of what the hell to do.

Combat's pretty fun though.
The social interaction part hasn't bothered me. For the most part I just run through every option I can until it tells me I'm out of allowed activities. Also, the game will let you auto lecture. Which helps if you don't want to be bothered with that aspect. The problem with this part of the game for me is that it's not terribly interesting.

At 9 hours in I'm starting to figure out character progression and how I want to build each character and luckily I didn't gimp anyone. I actually don't think it's possible to gimp them that much because you get to pick new classes throughout the game.
FTE
User avatar
rittchard
Posts: 1664
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:16 pm

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by rittchard »

I was so excited for this game but thus far it just hasn't grabbed me. I love the main combat but it seems like I have to work so hard to get to it. Talk talk talk, fetch, talk, train, blah blah blah. I'm hoping that opens up as the game progresses, but as noted, it hasn't sufficiently pulled me away from other games. It would be nice if you had the option to focus more on the combat and whatever the main story is. On a side note it's also a little annoying I can't romance the guy I think is the cutest, but I guess that's a normal part of life lmao.
Torfish
Posts: 871
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:29 pm
Location: Somewhere

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Torfish »

I'm really enjoying it. It's one of the best RPG's I've played in a long time. The story and combat are deep. There are so many stats and combat options from all the different classes... I like it.

I'm not very far in, but it's likely I'm in it til the end.
User avatar
Z-Corn
Posts: 4894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:16 pm

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Z-Corn »

I'm trying to figure out why I'm getting notices for this game on my iPhone.

It's not coming on iOS is it?

I've got FE Heroes on my phone but this is kinda pushing the cross promotion a bit.
User avatar
Paingod
Posts: 13132
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:58 am

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Paingod »

I picked this up to go with my Switch Lite and have been enjoying it. I've fought exactly two combats, though - the Intro and the House Brawl. My next mission is to hunt bandits. I've got my difficulty set to "Hard" as I think I count as an experienced player looking for more challenge.

I tip-toed through the Intro fight, following directions. I chose Black Eagle (the Empress). In the House Brawl, though, I had to liberally use my healing items to keep a couple people from being KO'd. I ran to the right instead of left and got a "Oh, so you want to fight both houses at once?" message. That wasn't the actual result, though - as I chewed through the easier to get to enemies on the right before the ones on the left got to me. It just didn't afford me any time to reposition and heal before they did. It took 10 turns to finish.

I think I'm spending more time running around the school, though, and not enough time fighting. While I don't mind the social aspects (though I'm barely getting it aside from "Heart You" being good) there's an awful lot of time spent at the school just running around talking to people. I don't know if every interaction has a "Good" (heart) and "Bad" (nothing) answer, but maybe 1/3 of my answers are netting me nothing positive - some people want to joke and you can't be too serious while others want serious and no joking, some people seem to want humility while others want assertiveness. I don't really have an easy way to know which is which yet.

If I keep spending this much time in the school, the game will feel more like a Dating Sim with a tactical combat angle instead of a Tactical Combat game with a dating sim angle.
Black Lives Matter

2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
User avatar
Baroquen
Posts: 4709
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:45 pm

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Baroquen »

Yeah, I feel the same way. I generally like the social interactions between characters, but the amount of time running around the school in between battles just got exhausting. That's probably the biggest reason I've stalled out on my play-through. I'm hoping to get back to it, but haven't had the urge. Other than that, I've really enjoyed the game.
User avatar
Skinypupy
Posts: 20333
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 10:12 am
Location: Utah

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Skinypupy »

Paingod wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 7:29 am If I keep spending this much time in the school, the game will feel more like a Dating Sim with a tactical combat angle instead of a Tactical Combat game with a dating sim angle.
I bounced off this game twice, for this exact reason. The battles were fun, but I got quite bored with the whole social/dating/managing the social lives of teenagers aspect.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.
User avatar
wonderpug
Posts: 10342
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:38 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by wonderpug »

Skinypupy wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 8:41 am
Paingod wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 7:29 am If I keep spending this much time in the school, the game will feel more like a Dating Sim with a tactical combat angle instead of a Tactical Combat game with a dating sim angle.
I bounced off this game twice, for this exact reason. The battles were fun, but I got quite bored with the whole social/dating/managing the social lives of teenagers aspect.
Count me in the club as well. I like having some kind of out-of-battle activities in a game to change up the pacing, but the ratio just seemed way off in this game.
User avatar
Paingod
Posts: 13132
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:58 am

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Paingod »

I read somewhere that an average playthrough is 80 hours per house. At my current rate of Dating Sim to Tactical, I'm probably looking at 50 hours of Dating and 30 hours of Tactical. Not a great average. I'm not burned out on it yet and at least find the complexity and potential it offers compelling in a way - so far. If it wasn't as complex as it is with something akin to a learning curve, I'd probably ditch the game. By far the least enjoyable aspect of the game is running around the school looking for people to talk to and trying to guess at the conversational options they'll like most. This does let me find the occasional little trinket item in bushes and boxes, but it hardly seems worth it. I'd rather just have a list of people to talk to and work down through it. It would save hours of running around on a map.

I'm working on grasping the aspect of teaching my students, working out skills, and shifting classes. As Black Eagle, my house is heavy on magic users - which is fine with me, but very light on archers and heavy melee. My main character and the Empress character are both the highest level characters I have as both are pretty durable and hard-hitting. Like my prior experiences in Fire Emblem, though, I'm working hard to spread out the level and skill gains from combat.

The Instructing aspect is interesting to a degree. I really like that you can sculpt your allies and make them exactly as you want and they aren't specifically locked into a class - for example, all of my mages have some form of melee weapon on them "just in case" during a fight. Some students have "Budding Talents" that let them break out in an entirely different direction. All of them have preferences that they learn faster. It takes planning to maximize this, though. Every time I can train them, I need to look at who I want to focus on, review their preferences, specifically work on making them happy, and then Instruct them for maximum benefit. I can see where it'll be easy to accidentally make one or two characters amazing while leaving others to lurch forward.

I really look forward to trying to advance in classes, too. My main character has already become a Myrmidon. I'm considering shifting some focus to Faith so he can also perform healing during fights and maybe become something akin to a Paladin. I think the Brawl skill is wildly under-represented in Black Eagle (as in not at all) as I found two Gauntlet weapons and have come to really like the way they look and work. I'm currently trying to try to create a pair of Pegasus Knights using school training - one a caster and the other an archer, both with melee options. I haven't noticed the old "Rock-Paper-Scissors" game where Swords > Axes > Lances > Swords, though.

Support is a feature I'm still working out - two of my students have formed a "C" class bond now, which I assume means they'll work better in combat together. I think this also means I need to keep shuffling people around on the battlefield so I don't neglect support structures between other allies.

I've also noted that the game doesn't seem to care if I dawdle in a fight. In my last Fire Emblem game, on the DS, I was ranked by how quickly I completed each fight and how tactically sound my choices were. That seems to be nowhere in sight - which removes a deal of stress from needing to sometimes take a round to re-organize and heal up.

Going online seems largely pointless - except that you get a tiny bit of EXP, a random junk weapon, and some Gambit power back from stepping on certain tiles in the battlefield that the game claims other people either succeeded or died on.

All in all, I'm enjoying my time with the game and am getting more engrossed the longer I play, which I think amounts to maybe 6-7 hours now. Whether or not I stay the course despite the Dating Sim aspect remains to be seen. It might be the end of me.

*2020-05-21 Edit: I timed it, and last night all I accomplished was completing all the "Social" aspects of the game for a month. That took almost 2.5 hours. This included conversations with everyone on the map that wanted to chat, looking for blue glowing spots (items), returning every item I found to their rightful owner (using an online guide), performing the fishing and planting quest, running other fetch quests, feeding a bunch of cats for 4 arcane stones, spending my Professor points on Choir and Dinner, and running through Instruction with students. If I'm right, I should have three other "activity" days this month, which will all be battles. I think that should add up to more combat than social time - but this is pretty much the first time that's happened in close to 10 hours of play.
Black Lives Matter

2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
User avatar
Paingod
Posts: 13132
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:58 am

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Paingod »

Okay then.

I wanted to provide a little update for anyone who has this and bounced off the Dating Sim aspect, and include some more detail about how things are going. After the first few months force you in and out of the Dating Sim aspect of the game for more than half your playtime, it settles down. Relationships are, unfortunately, fairly important in and out of combat so I can't advise just skipping the Dating Sim angle entirely when you have the choice. It's pretty well integrated with the game. 2020-06-02 Edit: Beyond "Dating Sim" there's a good bit of backstory and detail that starts to unfold in the interactions as well. Some later months do include almost as much talking as fighting, it seems.

Each game "Month" on Sundays you can opt to Explore the campus, take on extra Battles (for profit and items), engage in Seminars for skill, or Rest. This selection is also a good time to check up on Support relations, review inventory status, outfit allies, set learning Goals, and change classes. So far, at the end of each "Month" I've had a planned mission combat. The goal of the month is to make your allies stronger, level up, and be ready for the big fight at the end. Instructing students happens regularly and can be "Auto" passed, but I like seeing it work.
  • Exploring the campus each month takes me about 2-3 hours of play. It's possible that you could skip this and never do it again except when the game forces you to, but you'd miss out on a lot of benefits. You can only undertake most Exploration activities once per month, so doing this multiple times has limited usefulness. This includes minigames (fishing, farming), talking with everyone who wants to chat, completing Fetch quests, and hunting for blue glowies.
Expanded explaination:
Spoiler:
  • Hunting for blue glowies yields the following: fishing lures, seeds for planting, crafting materials, Professor XP, and Lost Items.
  • The fishing minigame is super easy and quick to push through for some free "food" materials. When a fish bites, the icon in the pool indicates how big it will be. Blue is small/medium/large. Red is "giant" and Gold is "Special". You can let the bait get nibbled up to three times while waiting for a better fish to catch.
  • The farming mechanic is easier than the fishing game. Choose some seeds, an expensive cultivation method, and leave. Harvest/plant next month.
  • At some point (maybe a DLC?) I unlocked the ability to jam food into the mouths of small animals and hope they'd spew out crafting materials. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this, but it gives me a place to stick my unwanted or unused groceries.
  • Crafting materials can be used to upgrade and repair weapons, but not make them from scratch as far as I've seen. It's taken a while to unlock the Blacksmith as an option.
    • Equipment can be upgraded; Iron equipment can be turned into Steel equipment. I'm sure Steel may become something later.
    • Rusty equipment can be cleaned and repurposed as whatever it says it is when you examine it. This could be good, could be crap. You do get to know before you try. This stuff is found when you're "Online" in battle and stop on purple wisps.
    • Broken equipment can be repaired, but upgraded weapons come fully repaired and typically cost a little more than a repair and take almost the same materials.
    • Enhanced(+) equipment can't be Upgraded to the next material step. That Iron+ weapon will always be Iron+. This isn't a bad thing, though, as it means you'll often have a LOT of good choices for weapons as you level the skills of a character moving to a new class.
  • Each person that wants to chat has a chat bubble icon over their dot on the map, making them easy to find (though I find the controls in this mode abysmal). Chatting with people typically only offers a chance at selecting the right dialog to improve your relationship with that person.
  • Fetch quests are clearly marked on the map and always worth doing as they can unlock things and provide items - and are very easy.
  • Professor XP really helps get your main character up to a point where they can do multiple "things" per Exploration before running out of action points. You often have to explore out-of-the-way nooks and crannies to find these. Things that take action points are...
    • Training the main character and a couple students with another Instructor to improve training stats substantially.
    • Inviting students to a lunch meal to improve relations and motivation (for training).
    • Inviting people to tea to drastically improve relations, if you can arcanely guess the right conversational topics.
    • Utilizing the Sauna to increase teaching "power" later by being relaxed while improving relations with someone - requires DLC.
    • Sending someone in to an Arena tournament, which gives them combat experience with the selected weapon type and earns some cash.
    • Singing with two other students in the Choir to raise your Faith stat (generally hard to increase without being a Healer).
    • There may something else I either can't recall or haven't bumped into.
  • If you're Online, you can send someone (a clone, not the character) off with an item to sell to any random person they find who might want it. In return, a few clones from other people appear in your school and offer items for you to buy. I've acquired some rare ores and a couple nice looking swords this way, though I lack the skill to use them yet.
  • Lost Items can be returned to their owners for a substantial Relationship and Motivation boost. If someone's Motivation is full, consider waiting until it's not. I don't, but these are a cheap Motivation boost. I just hand them all back to their owners each month I can.
  • I have to admit that I'm using an online guide to help me through conversations to pick the "right" choices and to deliver Lost Items to people without a lot of guesswork. If you took the time to really study the Bio of each person, you could probably bypass this.
  • Seminars are quick ways to develop skills for a block of students and improve their morale, but are largely uncontrolled. It's impossible to select all of your students for this, but it is easy skill gain.
  • Battles are nice ways to level up characters before the next big fight, but if you're already at or over the level of the combat it's going to be of limited usefulness - except for a brick of cash, some minor skill increases, and relationship boosts.
  • Resting is also of limited use, really only being worth it if your characters are maxed out and/or you have items that are repaired by Rest.
  • Setting Goals and changing classes, regular menu items, can be done anytime. This lets you look through the class list to see what the prerequisits for each advanced class are and then set your students on learning paths that align them with those classes.
  • Instructing students requires that they be Motivated, which means they've had a good time through the week talking and interacting with you - or you were the MVP in battle and earned their respect. You spend Motivation by selecting skills you want to train them specifically in. The success of this seems to be based on how much better than them you are at that skill, how much they like you, and what their interest in the skill is. A "Perfect" skill gain is like a big free boost as you instantly increase their Motivation with praise.
As soon as I had the choice, I took a lot of Sunday Battles and now my characters are at or exceeding the levels of the enemies I face. I did buy the DLC, so I also have some options baked in that others may not have. I'm not even sure I have everything unlocked yet and there may be more to go. The Dating Sim has settled down from being the majority of the game to only being 1/4 to 1/3 of the game - and it's less "Dating Sim" and more "third person running around". The rest is spent fighting and planning character development.

This is all the stuff that makes up the "Out of Combat" game so far, and it's a lot to take in. Combat is still proving to be good fun, though - very much the Fire Emblem style I remember.

My little gang are all level 10-13 now and working pretty well. Playing down the Black Eagle path, I've got two people on horseback already, a couple dedicated Mages, a (disturbingly strong and lethal) Thief, a couple healers, and a couple fighters. Archers are incidental as I give bows to a number of people and no one's really focusing on them.

2020-06-01 Edit: Last night I encountered my first Monster.
Spoiler:
After a very cool cut scene I was instructed on how to fight them (mostly using Battalions) and then faced off with it. It never actually got a chance to hit me. I killed it the turn it spawned. Felt a little anti-climatic. For all the Combat I take each month, my team are now all above the level of enemies. I'm playing on Hard.
2020-06-02 Edit: NG+ so relax
Spoiler:
On Reddit someone said the clerk at the store where they bought the game told them "Just enjoy your playthrough. Do whatever you want and don't stress over it. The game has a NG+ after you beat it and is designed to be played multiple times, taking different paths" and this is sage advice. This isn't a "one-and-done" game. With three houses to follow in story mode, and each having a split path at a certain point, there's a fair bit to do. I've been religiously trying to maintain relationships with every single character, selecting the "best" dialog options according to a Wiki and giving them the "best" gifts and lost items when I get them. I'm guessing that by my first NG+ I won't have any relationship maintenance to perform (assuming this carries over). I'm not sure how I feel about that, actually.
2020-06-03 Edit: 3 Hours of Exploration, Instructing, Dialog and Skill thoughts.
Spoiler:
It took me exactly 3 hours of play last night to complete the "Exploration" portion of the month - but it included a "Fishing Tournament" and I went through something like 80 fish bait trying to farm little dregs of Instructor Experience. Having hit Instructor Level 5, my "activities" for the month included Choir, Sauna, Lunch, and attempting the Tournament twice (failed both times). Moving around the monastery is more fluid; I use the "R" button to quick jump between major areas and run on foot between points inside to ensure I pick up blue glowies. I have to admit that now that I'm familiar with the campus, navigating is easier and the "Exploration" is less tedious. I'm enjoying all the voice work they've included for the interactions and feel like every character has their own motivations written well for them, except Bernadetta. I'm getting tired of her constant screaming and feelings of complete inadequacy.

I rolled into Instruction with almost all of my students perfectly Motivated and made some good headway. I have exactly one person with a "B" ranked skill, and that's my Healer with his Faith stat. My Mage has such high magic resist that he can pretty much stand immune to enemy magic attacks. The two Calvary I have are solid at tanking physical hits, but poor at absorbing magic damage. I did just pick someone up who can transition into a Pegasus Knight, but I want her to learn the basics of being a Monk first so she can use "Draw Back" - a skill that lets them move up to an ally and pull them back one square. On the equipment front, moving up as a C+ Instructor opened up new weapons to use and craft, which makes things a little more interesting - I can't wait to deploy them. This also highlights the disparity I have in some characters - some are only a "D" or "E+" rank with their primary physical weapon (my casters) and can't make use of the "C" ranked new stuff.

Because I used a Dialog Guide, it did warn me about grabbing Dark Seals from a certain extremely fatal enemy you encounter repeatedly. As far as I can tell, you're not supposed to actually fight him as he de-spawns when the mission criteria are met and engaging with him results in one-hit-kills for your team. But this gives me two Dark Seals so far, stolen from him using perfect timing with a Thief and ending the stage to make the lethal guy de-spawn and using the Thief to steal a Seal and then a Monk to "Draw Back" that Thief to safety. I can make a Dark Mage, which can become a Dark Knight. I want to use this on my main character, but he's leagues away from being able to use them, so they'll likely go to my best Mage to make him a monster.

I've also started picking up a few items that can be equipped to boost stats or skills - like +10 accuracy or +2 Magic. The only one I'm using, though, is the one that gives +1 Move (move an extra tile in combat? Yes please). The problem with these is that they can't be used alongside the Shields you can buy early on. These shields boost Defense by +1 or +2 - which is nice for surviving attacks (and I think the Iron shield helps develop Heavy Armor skill). They'd be a LOT more useful if I could equip a Shield and another item.
2020-06-05 Edit: Exploration order of operations thoughts:
Spoiler:
At Instructor level C+ you can perform two battles per weekend day. I wager that at Instructor level A+ you can do three. This doubles or triples the options for shifting the ratio of combat to Exploration (Dating Sim). The only drawback is that these unscripted fights are pretty repetitive. You mostly just face leveled-up enemies on the same maps you saw last month. I keep getting "Quest" combats that are at least different maps and challenges, but not enough for 4-6 combats monthly. Getting in more fights also gives you the option to Explore a second time, which is mostly about harvesting/planting in the Greenhouse, turning in completed quests, and checking training objectives and progress.

Exploration (Dating Sim) is pretty formulaic now that I've gotten used to it completely.
  1. Jump to an area and explore it, chatting with everyone and looking for blue glowies.
  2. Run to the next area, looking for blue glowies in side rooms, halls, box piles, wells and shrubs.
  3. Optionally feed animals bits of food "Until Full" to get very small amounts of smithing supplies.
  4. Talk to everyone in this area. Repeat steps 2-4 until all conversations are spent.
  5. Turn in every quest you've completed by talking to everyone or delivering their letters.
  6. Check the Greenhouse. Harvest, replant Veggies/Fruits/Flowers and Cultivate with best option.
  7. Hit the stores; repair items on the verge of breaking, buy out fishing bait, check Battalions, etc.
  8. Go fishing and exhaust all bait for some modest Instructor XP.
  9. Check my Inventory for "Lost Items" that I can return to students. I use an online guide to see who wants what to cut through the clutter.
  10. Optionally give normal "Gifts" to improve motivation; certain characters like certain gifts more than others.
  11. Only after completing quests and returning items should you engage in "Motivation" boosting activities; these can boost motivation naturally.
2020-06-08 Edit: Character advancement and combat thoughts
Spoiler:
I'm not sure how long I'll keep talking to myself in this thread, but I'm still going strong with the game and can see myself beating it and maybe doing a NG+ to see how it plays, maybe try a different house. Last night I hit a point where I've returned enough lost items to other people in other houses that they're starting to open up and bond with me. I'm still failing to recruit any of them, though. I hit a milestone, too, in that Petra has opened the Wyvern Rider (74%) and Assassin (100%) classes should I choose to use them. Aside from Byleth and Edelgard, Petra is my #3 monster with huge strength and speed, she hits like a truck and often does so twice. Edelgard is simply a great fighter with solid Defense. I can deploy her against most things to easily hold a line.

Byleth is a different story entirely. Last night he kicked the crap out of a recurring enemy that was still able to one-shot anyone else on my team with the help of a touch of healing. According to the Interwebs, Byleth starts with HP 27, Move 4, Strength 13, Magic 6, Dexterity 9, Speed 8, Luck 8, Defense 6, Resist 6, and Charm 7. My Level 23 Byleth is currently at HP 53/Mv 5/St 23/Ma 15/Dx 22/Sp 24/Lk 16/Df 18/Rs 15/Ch 24. Dude is a force of nature on the battlefield. I can safely deploy him alone to almost any situation and know he'll either trounce everything or survive long enough that all he'll need is a little remote healing. I actually need to consider reigning him in so other people can get experience. Oddly, because of how I've diversified his skills (not stats) he can only be 6 classes, including the basic 4. I need to let him grow into a new class or two so he can keep acquiring abilities.

I've tousled with a few more Monsters, too, and it's an interesting change of pace for combat. They typically require a little more thought and planning - and if you break down all their "glowing" edges before killing them, you get a crafting item. I like that some standards apply, too. My high Resist characters are good at tanking some special ranged attacks, while my high Defense characters are good at face-to-face force application with them. Battalions are still essential to beating them easily, but I discovered that most of my characters have powerful "one shot" Battalions equipped and not multiple-use low-end Battalions that would be more "Monster Friendly" so I had to use them carefully.
2020-06-09 Edit: Cindered Shadows DLC
Spoiler:
I only *just* discovered that to unlock this in the main game as a thing to do, you need to first get through a portion of the Side Quest available through the main menu. I had assumed it was an add-on and would just magically appear as a thing to do in the main area. Nope.
I think, though, that now hat I've visited this place and poked around through a couple of combats it'll be a regular thing in the main area. I'd have to check. It's supposed to take place between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of the "White Cloud" segment, so it has some minor spoilers to that story (but nothing big I've found). I'm seeing a few more characters to bring into combat with more voice work, and some different advanced classes that can be opened using Abyss tokens (which come with the new characters once, but then you can buy them with Renown in the Abyss later).

The first fight into the Abyss was a hard one. I had to use 4 Divine Interventions and roll back my game several turns at one point. It actually led to me kiting some enemies that were murdering my folks all too easily. Bumping into high speed casters with fighters sucks (hit twice for 24), and then having those backed by fast moving heavy hitters that can smear ranged characters is brutal. The only counter I could come up with was to hit and displace and not give them targets, using walls and corners to snipe the ranged combatants before they could get to my melee front-line.

While I'm poking at this with a stick to see how I feel about it, my main game is on hold at the dance competition phase. I've got Dorothea set up to be my Dancer; she's a natural with good Charm and modest Sword skills along with some Magic training.

I also discovered last night that not all casters get the same spells? Some focus on fire, others on lightning. Same for healers, I think. One might get an AoE Recover that negates status effects while another gets a Protect type spell for the same level. This means it's even more important to have caster variety. I'm trying to recruit casters from other houses, but Byleth's Reason and Faith are too low to interest them just yet. As a fallback, I'm recruiting a few Archers (who get along fine with him). I've already nabbed Ignatz (a solid Archer), Professor Hanneman (Bows/Casting, Crest knowledge), and Shamir (sniper from a DLC). My front-line fighters are pretty rugged. What they need most is fire support, and those archers will do nicely.

For as much of a badass as my Byleth is, he needs to spend some time "Lurking" and just healing people or casting each turn. The temptation to push him up front and stick a Sword in his hand has been overwhelming in some scenarios. When he masters Fighter in a battle or two, I'm dumping him back to Monk for some training in spells.
Black Lives Matter

2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
User avatar
stessier
Posts: 29816
Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:30 pm
Location: SC

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by stessier »

I just started playing this over the weekend. It is my first attempt at any Fire Emblem game. Paingod's post from May 20th made me feel better - I thought I must be doing something wrong as in 7 hours of play, I've only been in 3 battles. I haven't read all the comments in the thread as I don't want to spoil anything, but it's not the game I was expecting. It looks like it might be much deeper than I thought and I wonder if I'm going to regret not taking notes. Also, the lack of being able to save in battle is annoying. It takes like 2 hours to get to a battle, then 30-45 minutes in a battle. Coming by that much free time is going to make this game a luxury I don't get to play very much.
I require a reminder as to why raining arcane destruction is not an appropriate response to all of life's indignities. - Vaarsuvius
Global Steam Wishmaslist Tracking
Running____2014: 1300.55 miles____2015: 2036.13 miles____2016: 1012.75 miles____2017: 1105.82 miles____2018: 1318.91 miles__2019: 2000.00 miles
User avatar
Octavious
Posts: 20035
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 2:50 pm

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Octavious »

It's really more a game about the story than the actual fighting. They made this one a lot like a Persona game which means you will spend A LOT of time just running around and talking to people. Some... No a lot of people love that style of game, but I generally get burnt out pretty quick by it. I do plan on giving it another shot at some point. FYI each house has a different story so there's like 100's of hours of you want to play through all 3 houses. I know I would never end up doing it. :lol:
Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.

Shameless plug for my website: www.nettphoto.com
User avatar
Paingod
Posts: 13132
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:58 am

Re: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Post by Paingod »

stessier wrote: Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:26 pmIt looks like it might be much deeper than I thought and I wonder if I'm going to regret not taking notes.
That was often my issue. To achieve optimal performance in the game, you need to know:
  • Who likes what - items, food, dialog (aggressive, passive, playful, serious)
  • What your training plans were for each character so you can continue those month-to-month
I gave up and used an online guide for the first. Outside of that I tried to put everyone beside everyone else somewhere during the battle so they could bond that way too. For training I could only guesstimate at what my previous plans were based on skills and army composition when I picked the game back up after a while of being away.

The overall storyline, item hunt, character locations, etc. are all fairly static and easy to follow through in-game cues. The map easily shows you where active characters you can have a dialog with are in the school, and you can quicktravel between map sections. If you do, though, you'll miss glowie items (strictly to improve relationships). Glowies do stay put month-to-month, though - so if you miss one the month it pops up, it'll be there forever until you find it.
Black Lives Matter

2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
Post Reply