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Three Houses is a game with faults, but it was also a rousing, smashing success. Let's sing the game's praises and shine a light on all the things Fire Emblem: Three Houses did right.
If you enjoyed this video, please consider helping it out with a like and a comment, it really helps out the channel!
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Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the latest entry in the tactical role-playing series developed by Intelligent Systems with support from Koei Tecmo Games. The game is the sixteenth game in the Fire Emblem series, and the first for home consoles since Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Three Houses is set on the continent of Fódlan, divided between three rival nations now at peace, connected through the Gareg Mach Monastery. Taking the role of a former mercenary and new tutor at Gareg Mach Monastery, the player must choose a nation to support and guide them through a series of battles. Will your strategies prevail?
#3H #fireemblem #fireemblemthreehouses
I gotta be honest guys, I did not expect to come back to this level of positivity on a video such as this. I’m so glad that all the hard work I put into this paid off, and I hope you enjoyed it. Still, if you think I was being a little too mean, you can always go watch me praise the game here: tinyurl.com/y8hk2owp
Because the points you made are 100% valid. If this video came out during the honeymoon phase of 3H you’d probably get more flak lol
I think the flaws become more apparent after you've sunk a lot more hours into it. But by that time, you're already too invested in the game and like it too much to stop.
I stopped after one play through because everything that you mention was pretty much a deal breaker for me. I hate to say it, but 3H has to be one of my least favorite FEs. Before the game even came out, I knew it was going to be a MASSIVE chore from the trailers. I hate micromanaging in games, and this is basically micromanaging: the game. The character animations are reused across every character: we have female animations and we have male animations. No character is unique. The story telling is bland and boring, and to its detriment, the improved graphics just seemed to take me out of the world even more, with its low res backdrops, stiff character animations (or even lack thereof). At least with the GBA versions, there was an excuse for no character animations due to hardware limitations, and it left room for imagination.
It's a well thought out video, even if people disagree with a few points of it. The flaws definitely become worse if you go after multiple routes.
Mangs, there's 17 FE games. Mirage Sessions is a FE game as well (It's got a character in Heroes, after all. Heck, Heroes could be considered a main game as well). Also, did you really not like Robin? They were a really good Avatar character, IMO. They had a character to them.
Being able to criticize something you love, shows what you actually love about it.
Yup. IS will look at these videos, and make there next game even better than the previous one. Not to diss the fan base, but I wish Pokémon would do the same
Naeshaun Edwards As an avid Pokemon fan. I have to agree.
IS will FOR SURE not take anything a KZhead video has to say into account for the next game
It's very true, but sadly on the internet you get bashed even for legitimate criticism about something you love...
More people should think like this 😢
"Three Houses is more like one house with three similar rooms." It's say Three Houses is more like One Byleth, Three Divorces
ahahahaha this is perfect, kinda true
Was anybody else expecting the scene where Solon tries to seal Byleth away was going to lead into the timeskip? That would have made more sense. You break free from the darkness, but those five minutes inside were actually five years outside.
Adding in a suggestion from the video to further utilize that idea, why not have a mini survival map inside the darkness instead of the map when you escape? Maybe like survive 5 turns to build up power to escape. Then you escape, random man finds you because without the church the area is no longer off limits, and you find out time has left you behind. Leaving before the Empire's attack on the Church also adds the idea that the lords developed into fighting on their own. This is being written after an all-nighter, so feel free to tell me I wrote something dumb.
this makes way too much sense.
@@anonymousname5860 which is why it could never be a part of this games story ;)
I went into the game nearly blind, all I knew was that there was a time skip. So I fully expected us being trapped in nothing to feel like 5 minutes but was actually 5 years.
@@katherinegearing5188 That would be interesting and all, but then we wouldn't get to see Dimitri's awesome mental breakdown scene.
I really wish FE would move away from silent protagonists. It's so weird for other characters to say "You care so much about your students, you work so hard, everyone is drawn to you" and yet you stare at them with dead eyes and no voice. I think Robin, while flawed in his/her own way, at least shows a protagonist with a personality isn't impossible and can be good if given the proper support dialogue and in game text to establish a complex character. I get silent protagonists are "safer" self inserts, but they aren't very interested and hinder the story most of the time.
Shit I wish EVERY game would move away from silent protagonists. Give me an ACTUAL character for link for FUCKS sake!! Lol.
@@johnathanera5863 Link has been getting character for a long time though.
@@johnathanera5863 Link didn't bother me too much until Breath of the Wild. The flashbacks with Zelda were really good, until the moment where any sentient lifeform would say something back to her but Link couldn't because it was a voiced scene. But in general I do hate silent protagonists in any non-comedy game where other characters talk (Hello Gordon). I'm baffled by the notion that people find it immersion breaking for the player character to say things that are maybe different from what they would say themselves, but don't bat an eye when the player character does not say a word while NPCs talk, plan, and fall in love with them. By way of example, here's what I wanted my main character in FEAR to say: "No, you dumb shits, this platoon of soldiers wasn't reduced to skeletons and a fresh coat of red paint on the wall by a "chemical agent". It's the Ring-knockoff ghost girl that I've been seeing do just that for the entire day. We're supposed to be the army unit specifically tasked with fighting paranormal threats, why are we entirely staffed by Agent Scully's? For fuck sake, she's right behind you on the balcony!"
I didn't mind because I actually see Byleth as a very silent person, who don't speak if not needed but who always listen to others. But I'm a bit disturbed when in the support with Dedue, Byleth says it is hard to have a conversation with Dedue. Which is hard because Dedue doesn't talk a lot neither, so Byleth has nothing to listen and doesn't know what to do now, so blame on Byleth too.
Robin was a breath of fresh air if im being honest TvT and the fact that there was a slight difference in character between female and male Robin. Female Robin was kind of crazier and more out there, where as male robin felt like the army therapist that gets into trouble from time to time with the misfits. Gosh I miss that game 😭
To be fair, 90% of the dialogue options are obvious in the fact that they won’t change the story such as a reaction to a joke. Although, I do agree that the 10% that do give that illusion should’ve been cut when they knew the route splits were solidified.
I'm not going to lie, disliking dialogue options as a design choice is fine... getting angry that your intelligence is being insulted a hundred times, that's something else, though. It's likely just a dialogue pacing trick, making things participative to keep the player's attention, no more, no less. Assuming there's a promise being made and subsequently blaming the game when it doesn't come to fruition, that doesn't seem fair to me. With that being said, the Gilbert choice tricked me as well, probably because there are direct gameplay implications there, and the game really hammers home that you have to make a choice. I can get why one'd be mad at that one in particular(same for Emmeryn)... but not all of them.
@@CyclonSilver It's the infamous "illusion of choice", giving you option that do jack shit, but since it SOUNDS like it would make a difference, it's fine. In reality, it's not fine, at all.
@@AzureRoxe That's the issue, you're assuming it's an illusion of choice, but what's the most likely, that the devs think you're that stupid that they'd try to fool you dozens of times with the exact same trick, or that it's a pacing tool?
What are you talking about? Most dialogue choises DO matter. You get or lose support points based on the results often enough. Yes it could be way better and there is clear evidence of cut corners, but acting like its an illusion where you choises dont matter is going tad far.
The reason the dialogue options are there is so you can better identify with Byleth, by letting you respond in certain ways. Note that Byleth does not talk outside of these. It's used quite often in JRPGs. A game that actually does this well is Devil Survivor 2, for example. If you ask me, these were never supposed to be 'choices'.
To summarize all the flaws: It was rushed. And felt like it was meant to be a far larger project. It makes me wonder what even three months difference could have changed. Everything was already set up, so it would have simply been executing it, but hitting the deadline took precedent. A right shame.
It was delayed twice, if a development team can't finish a game after such a long period it's the fault of devs, not the publishers, at least in this case
Vanja Galović nah man, can’t blame it like that on the devs, clearly they were short on time, the project was far too ambitious compared to what they could afford in time and resources
@@lightbrand_ That's on them as well. Understanding what you can accomplish with the time and resources you have is an important part of doing a project. They're being so ambitious is good, but being realistic is needed too
@@somasora7 anyway, if that project started before 2017, its not like nintendo had a lot of money at that point to free a big budget to this game. 4 million * more or less 40 us because of the seller share, thats 160 million in revenu maximum. Considering that when the project started, they probably didnt think it would sell that much, the fact that fans want games each months, the fact that nintendo didnt get that much money before end of 2017. Its easy why the game may have been cut a little short.
I think this might have been Nintendo's fault, considering how Pokemon SW/SH turned out.
I just wish that in Edelgard route post time skip, instead of the monastery, we should’ve been in enbarr in her castle for the explorations and interactions with students
@Destiny FateKnight budget problem I think, fire emblem isn't a very big franchise. Infact the game has a lot of problem
Three houses is like my cookies in the oven. They are cooked on the outside, crispy and deceiving. But when you pull them out, you realize they are still raw inside. Needed more time to cook? Sorry, the oven is already off.
Lol
The cookies are still good though.
@@alextankersley5838 Yes, they are delicious. But when you imagine what they could have been...
YES! Such a good comparison
Yes, delicious but could be better
According to interviews with the creators, you actually have it completely backwards in regards to Crimson Flower. Silver Snow was the first route they wrote and all the others were ways to expand on that base. They really wanted Edelgard to be this antagonistic reflection of Byleth with her also having the Crest of Flames. In fact, apparently at some point in development there was an idea that Edelgard would be able to use her Creat of Flames to negate your ability to use divine pulses on maps where you fought her. Which I’m kinda disappointed they didn’t do cause that sounds like such a cool idea. But yeah Crimson Flower was added much later in development due to both play testers and development staff identifying so strongly with Edelgard and her ideals that they wished they could join her. Unfortunately that meant CF was probably pretty rushed.
Accurate. And, to be honest, I'm disappointed that Mangs didn't look into this before finalizing his script
@@SharurFoF I'm sure he'll mention it in the next video since he tends to check the comment section
yeah, I started with Silver snow first (I was originally going CF but due to misreading how to I ended up with it SS) and silver snow does get flack as "Golden Deer but worse" and I would say they are about on par to each other personally and even though they are the somewhat the same they have slight differences here and there of course I won't deny the similar parts are lazy and that distate should be noted it seems the blame is placed on SS which if we are going by SS was made before GD the blame should be on GD not SS, but then again it was inetivable since Rhea had no hype for her and that we all believed they were 3 routes of those characters and logically people will pick the respective ones of the trio. And can just say I like Rhea changes in SS she does somewhat pull a Sanaki (maybe farfetched but don't take it to seriously I just know the basic premise of POR with Sanaki's ordeal)
Actually with the divine pulse idea...i think it would be cool if it went like this When you use a divine pulse, everyone except Edelgard moves to their previous spots, her hp will be restored each time you pulse as well Now that's what I call time shenanigans
Actually, looking at the internal files, it seems that Silver Snow and Crimson Flower were the original two routes, Azure Moon was the third route, and Verdant Wind was developed later in development. This is consistent with an interview where one of the directors mentioned that the original concept of the game was the choice between siding with or against Edelgard. Also according to that interview, they ended up focusing more heavily on worldbuilding in Silver Snow (with the insinuation that this took attention away from Crimson Flower) and route splits for other paths were never seriously considered, with the Black Eagles always being a path that led to two outcomes, which is further evidence that in the early concepts of the game Azure Moon and especially Verdant Wind likely didn’t exist.
This game definitely needed more time, and the route splits honestly prove that. The problem with route splits is that you are essentially separating the narrative into multiple paths instead of just 1 singular story, so you have to make each route stand on it's own and offer a unique perspective. The routes do offer unique perspectives, but most of the them are also severely flawed and seem unfinished. We are probably going to get an announcement for the next FE game by the end of this year, and judging by past releases it's probably going to be a remake, just hope IS continues to improve and not repeat mistakes as for how many flaws this game has it really did make this series explode even more.
What remake are they on now? 4? They did 1, 2, and 3.
Ironically, Sacred Stones did split paths correctly, giving you a full story on each path without heavily implying that there's stuff you haven't seen. It's also ridiculously short compared to many other games. Let's also not forget how the game introduces Those Who Slither In The Dark as the true antagonists, yet completely ignore them in 1 route [Dimitri's], do nothing about them in another [Edelgard where it's implies it's all done in the background after the game ends] and only 1 bothers to handle it [Claude's]. It feels like they tried to make 2 completely different games, 3 if you count the horrible Cindered Shadows DLC.
Only Crimson Flower was unfinished actually, what do you mean by that? Golden Deer, and Blue lion had amazing needing a that related to their stories.
@@mazokuwolf1279 eeeeh debatable. Azure Moon last quarter feels rushed, plenty of people have problems with the execution of ch 17 and completely ignores one of pillar characters of the game while Verdant Wind is a copy paste of Silver Snow and doesnt explore Claude enought......to the point we still learn thing about him from interviews
I would like if they remaked Genealogy, a lot of people say good stuff about it, but I've never tried it But being as new fan more or less, I think I would struggle with it xd
One of the things I will ALWAYS stay by is: “It’s better to have a protagonist to empathize with over a self insert to relate to” We grow as people through learning from others not having what we know and believe already being repeated to us
But which of the two makes money? I agree, though. Words to live by.
Eh... some of the most popular game characters ever have been silent. I think a lot of players prefer it when the protagonist keeps their trap shut and lets them play. I really liked the tactician in FE7, who never once said a word. Of course, they made Byleth a silent character with a ton of dialogue... I'm not a fan of that. I also didn't like Robin much (they're ok, I guess), and nobody likes Corin or Chris.
For real tho, I don’t understand at all why developers are so set on including self insert protagonists in video games, I’ve seen this in Awakening, three houses, heck even Xenoblade Chronicles X and it NEVER works, I don’t relate to a character that looks like me, or that I have my name to. It always ends up feeling like the game would be better without them, in Awakening I don’t remember well, too long ago, but in Xenoblade x for instance, I end up frustrated that Elma ( the actual main character ) gets all the praise for the actions my character does, but that’s only a problem because my character exists when she really should’ve been the main character instead. In three houses I don’t relate to some soulless character that can do no wrong and is litterally god, I can however relate to a character with flaws, that has opinions etc. I don’t know if anyone likes self inserts and if those people only do because they find their real life so pathetic that they need to be praised endlessly in a virtual world to feel good about themselves, but I really wish that developers would understand that almost nobody likes self inserts to begin with
In my opinion persona/shin megami tensei get the right balance (sort of) with the protagonists (well I mostly mean the anime (certain ones😒) and spin-offs (again certain ones) especially the P4 ones (again not perfect but it succeeds somewhat And you get other silent protags like Link for example, but he has a different appeal and funny enough hints of a personality (in certain games that is) and isn’t just a self insert but can work as one at the same time
@@lightbrand_ This is why Byleth is such a bland character. Similar procedures for Robin and Corrin. They are the avatar, the story revolves around them, yet the actual influence they have just feels so minor because they are supported by other lords with far more knowledge and influence in their FE games. That is why I like the GBA games Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones much more. They lack avatars and the lords make mistakes, learn from them and gain more emotional growth. In doing so, they are pulling the player into the game better than a self-insert character that knows nothing of the world and still can do no wrong in the eyes of others.
The "your choices don't matter" that made me most upset was in Azure Moon, "Wanna go to Enbarr" or "Recapture the Capital" I genuinely saved twice and redid the same Valley of Torment map hoping to see a difference... And then it wasn't a split
Seteth: Whatever you decide, processor, we will follow. (Proceeds to let the psycho murderhobo overrule you)
murderhobo lol@@SuperZez
Honestly, it feels like deciding which house to go with should have been at the timeskip. The first half of the game is almost identical regardless of which house you pick anyway. But also, I don't feel a lot of attachment to the students from the other houses. It doesn't feel like I'm forced to fight my own students, it feels like I'm forced to fight students I never taught and don't care about. To that end, I also don't like being able to poach characters from the other houses either. It doesn't make that much sense in lore, with how you can leave a house with a single student apparently, but it also forces each character's role post timeskip to be rather small. It would be a lot cooler if the students felt like they mattered a lot in the war phase, but when you actually encounter them, they tend to just be minibosses at best with no role in the story. Only Hubert, Hilda and Dudue feel like they actually somewhat matter in the story post-timeskip.
and the first part would have been so much more intense if we had had to explore everybody's motivations and different perspectives before making our choice. Here, the important decision is made 30 minute inside the game, it would have been so much better to have the opportunity to learn about everybody and to make a hard choice based on what you think about them instead of having to choose on their face
it really should have been balanced out by allowing other classes to poach your units if you neglect them.
Theirs even leftover code where Felix and Anette leave the party in the Azure moon route, and you get to face them and you may possibly kill them. But I guess that would be painful if that were the case. so they probably didn't continue that.
The only way you feel much for the students in other houses is if you end up poaching just one or two from each. It really sunk in to me on my first playthrough of Blue Lions, i had recruited a measly 3 students from other houses total, Lysithea, Ingnatz, and Dorothea. After playing a rather tense match on the Bridge of Myrddin, having fought both Lorenz and Ferdinand on the map, with the clear condition not being met without fighting them, Dorothea had something to say. She was extremely upset, we KILLED Ferdie. He's gone. It felt bad having had to fight a student for real this time, sure. But what really felt bad was that I had killed Dorothea's friend, a good man who was just doing his duty. I do understand what you mean, but there is something to be said about interactions with students from the other houses.
Keep in mind that although you only control 8 students and the story revolves around them each house has more students. Idk how the logistics of that would work in world but there are other students besides the ones you control. Maybe you just focus on the generals and the others follow suit?
I refuse to believe Byleth was the one who pulled Dimitri out of his hole rather than Rodrigue entirely. He just stole the kill.
I feel like people ignore some of the factors in play to act like byleth 'fixed' him when the real problem isnt the reason given its that he completely fucking 180s into his new characterisation in 1 cutscene His fall is done so much better with the implication that he already knows about edelgard hes just running ragged trying to deny it until faced with indisputable evidence
@@alexlee4154 That's because he literally IS partially fixed the moment Byleth returns. Rodrigue is simply the one that fully got him out of his funk, but it was Byleth that began that journey.
I don't think it was Rodrigue himself, but more what caused it. It was Dimitri realizing that vengeance breeds only more vengeance. He realized that by killing the girl's brother (I forget their names) that he made the little girl into what he was, a monster, and that is what made him see the light.
@@alexanderbarnes2734 (they're names were Randolph and Fleche btw) It think it was also that Dmitri realized his bloodlust had resulted in the death of someone he cared about greatly, the very thing he was trying to prevent in the first place and failed miserably
Alexander Barnes the thing is though in GD and SS we kill Randolph too but Flèche never comes for vengeance but she goes bat shit crazy in BL. I know it’s like you said to show Dimitri, vengeance breeds vengeance, but that stuck out to me and never made sense.
My main problem with 3H is the fact that Sothis is so hyped up as the goddess and is made out to be so important... but in reality she just isn’t, she pops in from time to time early game and insults you or just gives plain information that you likely already know, then she just leaves, and it leaves much to be desired
I disagree with almost all your points 1. I do think they should have shown Holst and maybe even Claude's mother because of his support with Balthus. They did put a image during Ignatz and Marianne support 2. Only Verdant Wind and Silver Snow is too similar, same maps. 3. I'm glad there is the church route because I can't support someone that starts a war regardless of the reason. Edelgard's route seems undercooked but I don't mind 4. It makes sense for me that Hilda goes in to report. That was how it was back then in the past, your retainer would report to you problems that happen that you aren't aware of. I didn't like Hilda as a character as all but this makes sense. Showing would take a lot of budget and I rather it not be so omniscience. 5. Same point as before, I only have a problem with Verdant Wind and Silver Snow being the exact same except the final one 6. Choices don't matter. This isn't a big enough deal to be on the list. It still presents different dialogue outcomes from what you pick half or most of the time 7. You said Byleth was weird. Of course he is because his heart literally isn't beating and because of his odd birth circumstance, he never cried and had almost no emotions. That's just how it's supposed to be, he isn't a normal human unlike previous protagonists. I do prefer female Byleth though because she isn't as emotionless and male Byleth is just too tall for me. I'm a girl anyway so I play as a girl. 2 times as female and once a male 8. How is that a negative? 9. I don't think Jeralt was poorly handled at all. I cried for his death each of the 3 times I played. I did wish I wasn't spoiled by the opening but oh well, still cried 10. How are the cinematics dissapointing. I found all of them literally amazing, 10/10. Very smooth and crisp. It didn't look slow to me. 60 fps looks too fast for me anyway. Both Awakening and Three Houses cutscenes are great 11. Apart from Ingrid/Dorothea and Mercedes/Caspar paralogue, I found them all good or fine. I did wish there was more for Petra. Some of the paralogues were really cool like you said so it balances it out so it's not a negative anymore 12. I do agree with this. Monastery becomes a chore. Especially during the first run of the game. Pre time skip is the worst for me. Too many boring quests. Flayn's fishing tournament is annoying in all routes 13. Game mechanics is a positive for me, no negative 14. Game mechanics is a positive for me, no negative. Maddening is too hard though. It's more like trial and error instead of strategy 15. It's not weird that Byleth woke up exactly 5 years because even in Persona 3, when everyone forgot their memories at the end, during the day of the promise, they remembered to meet each other on the rooftop even when they completely forgot each other. The power of promise is just strong, not a weird concept in games especially with fantasy involved. Also of course because of Sothis. Yeah I guess there could have been a map before Byleth waking up again but idk how they would implement them because everyone is separated before the reunion 16. I didn't mind the too many divine pulses because sometimes I want to play the game even when my brain is fried or sleepy but I want to go through the mission to see how the story unfolds. You can always choose to not use the pulses or restart if you want to limit it to 3 17. I do think hard is not as hard as it should be and that maddening is too hard. There def should have been a middle ground between those 2 difficulties 18. Yeah I think maddening was there for Fire Emblem veteren elitists 19. Cindered Shadows story is pretty good but I always felt under leveled when playing it or it was just more difficult than the current main story. My favourite character in the game is Yuri. Balthus is good too, I like his support with Claude and Hilda. Couldn't care less about Hapi and Constance but that's normal, to have characters you don't like. It's not a negative. Just because the maps were harder for me too can't make this a negative
The game is A tier to me, not S tier. Def not as good as Fire Emblem Awakening and Echoes but it's still a pretty amazing game. Awakening and Echoes are S tier games for me So my only negatives and positives about the game are 1. I do think they should have shown Holst and maybe even Claude's mother because of his support with Balthus. They did put a image during Ignatz and Marianne support 2. Only Verdant Wind and Silver Snow is too similar, same maps. The rest I find alright 3. Monastery is a chore pre time skip and first run. Fishing tournament was annoying Positives 1. AMAZING cutscenes 2. Great story 3. A lot of good cast of characters. Only liked Ignatz and Claude in Golden Deer but that's my problem. Blue Lions will always be my house even though I do prefer Claude more than Dimitri after the time skip 4. I love the timeskip, especially because less monastery missions but the monastery did look better pre timeskip, no yellowness. 5. I'm glad for Cindered Shadows because more backstory and my favourite character, Yuri. Just a bit unfortunate he wears makeup but oh well, I'll overlook it because it's anime art style
Something i feel like i never heard anybody talk about is that I feel like Sothis was very very underutilized as both a character and not utilized as a unit. She has 0 agency of her own once the game starts and her existence only serves for the games backstory, part of Rhea's motivation, and to justify having the divine pulse as a mechanic which i feel was actually a larger part than you might think. Other than those, she doesn't really have any weight in the story. And since she effectively dies before the time skip in every route, she looses any chance for characterization or impact once the story really kicks off. And obviously as a unit she doesn't exist. I really wish she could have come into the game at some point as the games manakete unit which don't exist in this game for some reason. Hell, have her be a church exclusive unit where reviving her becomes a main focus of plot as a goal of the church. It would do a large part in making the church route feel justified in existing as it really doesn't have one as it is. I just ultimately feel like Sothis didn't need to exist either at all or in Byleth's head.
She should have definitely been more important
I was really disappointed, in particular in Crimson Flower. A confrontation between Sothis and Rhea could have been very interesting.
No joke, I feel that she disappearing to the second half at the game was... bad, I would be nice she stayed there, even if it is only to give her opinion on the war. She is too important to Byleth (not only they were friends, Byleth was alive because she was there) to disappear and not show up again. As for the Manakete thing, it's understandable, the only one capable of turning into a dragon was Rhea, and she wasn't a unit, Seteth and Flayn couldn't do it anymore and the rest of the childs are... you know
I really wanted her to trash talk rhea
Sothis is practically that little voice in your head, but you can actually marry
If only Ladlegards route had you fight those who slither in the dark afterwards instead of all that happening off screen it wouldn't be so short. I mean hubert actually says it's time to fight them then basically goes to end credits.
I get that the fight against Rhea should be the emotional climax. But that can still work: Given how much advanced tech TWSITD have, it would actually be very dangerous to first defeat the divine enemy that they actually fear before dealing with them. In fact, I can totally see Hubert justifying striking at them before you beat Rhea, because they'll be expecting it afterwards. It's not like Edelgard is particuarly subtle about how much she despises them, and she outright tells them how they're working together "for now". Getting the drop on them before they are ready is by far the best bet.
1 gripe I have with Edelgards route is she isnt the authoritarian, all ends justify the means, willing to sacrifice anyone person as she is on all the other routes. Instead she is whitewashed into a better person. Dimitri is still a cold blooded, ruthless murderer initially post time skip when you choose his route, and Claude is well, Claude when you dont choose him, just slightly more resigned.
@@louiesatterwhite3885 I think it is (heavily) implied that Byleth's influence and friendship soften her authoritarian tendencies in CF, while that is absent in every other route.
@@louiesatterwhite3885 in CF, Edelgard is a sympathetic character, but Rhea goes crazy- they both take on totally different personalities from the other routes t. guy that replies to old posts
Honestly this video made me remember how much I miss a main lord as the primary main character and not the avatar. Granted I mean, Chrom was technically the main lord of his game but let’s be real, he took the back seat in the second arc and Robin became more important. I genuinely miss watching the main lord grow into a great leader, facing hardships, and development. One of the main problems with the avatar is that they almost always remain static and I really miss my dynamic Lords :(
Agreed! I hate avatars.
Having replayed Awakening recently, i was surprised how much of a backseat Robin actually has in the game. Usually he just talks when prompted to do so or is the sole conversation partner of the scene. Chrom clearly leads the first Arc. The Lucina comes around and she kinda takes over from there. Only in the last bit, where Robin is actually central, he's more on the forefront. But i do agree with you on wanting the Lords as singular main back. I really enjoyed Fe7 (i didn't notice the.. questionable storytelling :D) because Eliwood, Hector and mostly third Wheel Lyn had such a interesting dynamic going on. (But without Lyn something probably would have been missing) I also very much enjoyed Echoes (horrible maps aside) mostly due to the small cast and the focus on the main lords.
I don't fully agree with that. I mean watching a young prince or whatever grow into a great leader may be fun the first few times but it already grew dull for me. For me, we need something ENTIRELY new. Maybe a lord with a darker side, not evil, but a darker personality. Someone who isn't always nice
@@Ultimabuster92 You mean.. dimitri? Or Edelgard? Or do you mean somebody who is legit mean to people as a main character?
@@Aurirang they are still portrayed as heroes in their routes, they have a justification of means to an end, they are not just mean they either have a past that they overcome as a journey or are doing things they disagree with but the circunstances forced their hand, we have never ever had an antiihero main character, i would love to see that, someone who feels real, whos not perfect or that their inperfections are forced upon them, someone who chooses to be inperfect because thats how he feels like, that would be a great character.
Regarding Edelgard/Church route: They confirmed in ND interview (don't know if you saw it) that the Church route was originally the first and ORIGINAL route of the entire game. So the reason for Edelgard's own route being so undercooked is because it is actually a split route of an original route (Church). Kinda like that secret route thing basically. Hence why it has the least effort put into it. Which is honestly...stupid move? I mean, they marketed Black Eagles the most. This is basically the MGS2 move in which they marketed one thing when in reality it ended up being another. I just think that they shouldn't have pushed Black Eagles so hard if they never had it in their plan to make it into an actual fully realized route. Edit: I mixed Famitsu and ND interviews up. It was ND interview from two months ago that talked about Church being their first route, not Famitsu one which was about DLC instead. Here is the direct quote from it: Q: Can you tell us which route was made first in order to expand and explore the world? Kusakihara: The first and second parts of the Empire route.. which is called by the userbase as the "Church Route", Silver Snow. The progression of Class Leader Edelgard to become the antagonist... that is what we initially decided upon. It was from there, that every route's story and the progression of other Lords as characters were expanded by the Koei Tecmo Scenario Team. As the Class Leader would leave, the Black Eagles were initially decided to be the most difficult route as imagined (gameplay difficulty).
Silver Snow being the first path made confirms that the game was supposed to be vastly different. If the first path WAS joining the Church, then the game itself was heavily changed without them bothering to change this path since you're constantly getting hints that Rhea should not be trusted.
My theory for marketing Black Eagles that much is so that people won't miss Crimson Flower and if they didn't do so, it will make Edelgard's route look even more underwhelming than it already is
@@AzureRoxe the entire idea that Rhea couldn't be trusted was a red herring, since it ultimately turns out that the things Jeralt didn't trust her for (the circumstances of how his wife and your mother died) was at her own request to save Byleths life. Rhea definitely is missguided but also definitely not all bad unless you make her snap by stabbing her in the back and making the Seiros personality take over. You can say whatever you want but she kept peace for 1000 years and wasn't directly at fault for the crest system. The elites stole them. Edelgard ultimately is wrong because she doesn't have all the information (she is adamant Rhea is just complete evil and Nemesis & the 10 Elites were good guys, for just one example), which is a shame imo. With more chapters stuff like that couldve been sorted out.
@@chrisf.9595 it's not a red herring if you go through Edelgard's route, where it's confirmed Rhea only wanted to bring back Sothis even if it meant your death. It's also revealed that the Church has an absurd amount of power and happily abuses it. We even see this in one of the first Chapter, where the Knights of Seiros obliterate another Church even after it's quite clear that they were manipulated. It gets to the point she pretty much uses Dimitri and the Kingdom as pawns just to weaken you and has no qualms with destroying the Kingdom's capital if it means slowing you down.
That interview showed they fuckedd upp and rushed the game and being lazy
I would've been sooooo shocked if Jeralt lived all the way through the story. Everyone who has played fire emblem before knew he was a dead man. I think it would've been interesting to see him react to learning what Rhea actually did to the Byleth and Sitri. Then you could also fight him in the church route ending. Definitely a shame that they didn't fully explore that character
21:57 funny thing is that Jeralt was indeed playable. Him, Rhea and Sothis all have fully voiced playable versions of themselves in the game which can be modded in (victory quotes, select quotes,different level up quotes, Jeralt even has a tea time voice line about you not expecting him to be a tea type of guy, with Sothis having a more generic "alright" recorded as well.) the voice lines being in both english and japanese.
I feel like getting rid of byleth and doing a "pokemon mystery dungeon quiz" type thing to choose your main character would be cool.
Oh, nice idea you have there
Dude hell yeah!!! But it's all fun and games until u get the ugly waifu lol
Heck yeah! If we're going for the "ideal self insert" game, it would cool if we can costumize the character's looks, and make them have different dialogue and reactions to scenarios based on the result to a personality test in the beginning of the game. It would be cool if your personality type mattered like if you're meek, you don't have the option to talk back to someone, but if you're on the impulsive type, you can't help but open your mouth, or something like that. There would still be dialogue choices in the game, but some dialogues are exclusive to a type! But of course, that takes a lot of work and making a silent protag is a lot easier to write and saves more money, heh...
My number one hope for the next game is that there is no route split. I'd just like a single path that is long, complete, and satisfying. The split paths in Three Houses felt too incomplete on their own while reusing stuff from other routes.
I wouldn't mind a route split if they do it like Sacred Stones, 2 complete paths where they do not fuck over each other. In Sacred Stones, you not doing the other paths doesn't lose you ANYTHING in the other, you instead just learn MORE, about the world, about the characters [like the fact Joshua is actually a Prince if you go through Eirika's route]. THAT is what should have been done here, but neither 3H nor Fates did it.
Yes. I'm sick of them
Route splits aren't the problem. It's the way they execute them. Three Houses your choices don't matter, going through all the routes will feel like doing the same thing with only minor changes again. If they want to do route splits then they need to be very different and offer a unique experience. Either a totally different story or a way to show more of the world and characters without losing anything of value.
About the Avatar being a self insert character, I’d like to say my opinion of it. First off, I dislike Byleth as a self insert. You only get to customize his name and date of birth, unlike other games where you choose hair color, height, stats, etc. if IS is gonna remove the character customization of a self insert, then why make them a self insert to begin with?They could have made him an actual character. In fact, he almost was. He is an emotionaless character who couldn’t express himself cause he had Sothis’ heart inside him. I feel like this could have been something that’s a could have been a little more interesting and had a bit of missing potential . Secondly, personally I wish Byleth wasn’t a part of the story to begin with. Honestly I think the game could have been better if you were to choose a lord as your protagonist in the beginning of the game, rather than being a character that chooses which lord they are going to team up with. Picking a protagonist could have been better as you get a better perspective as to what each lord is thinking. Plus imagine playing as dimitri while he was murdering bandits like a “wild boar” too see how bad he truely was, or playing as Edelgard during her preparation for war instead of having it be a sudden twist. Or as Claude as he struggles to keep the alliance at piece while he tries his best to maintain a neutral position Finally, there is one more thing i want to say. I know I said I wished for more customization for byleth, but honestly, I think being unable to customize him is a blessing in disguise, as IS seems to be giving us more and more restrictions on customizing character to the point where eventually, we might end up getting actual characters instead of self insert like in past games. Personally, I hope they bring original characters back, I don’t mind the character not being a self insert if it means bringing a potentially interesting character instead
Just don't make the avatar the lord or be connected to the story makes everyone happy. People get their self inserts without the story being negatively affected. Avatars can be a good main character if you put in the work to make their choices matter but IS seems to struggle with that.
@@votefranz3233 Robin was the only good Avatar imo, because they managed to be vital to the story without stealing Chrom's spotlight. Robin also had a legitimate personality that we got a lot of insight into - obviously Corrin did too, but most can agree Corrin was just a far weaker character. I'd go so far as to say Byleth is even worse than Corrin because they lack a personality entirely, and as Jose said, the decision to remove customization elements while dialing back on personality seems like a really confusing decision. Either go full custom Avatar, or give us a proper protagonist.
@@ThiefofCrystals "[Robin] managed to be vital to the story without stealing Chrom's spotlight" yeeeeeah no. I'm pretty sure at the point where the final boss is quite literally Evil Robin, it's crossed the line of Robin being the main character.
Just don’t give the main character a sword so we can break the smash bros curse. Better yet make tiki the next main character
Well said, couldn't agree more. I really don't get the obsession with these uninteresting self insert types, like I'd rather have a great character to play as than some blank slate
In the least reductive way possible, Three Houses really needed more time in the oven. They bit off far more than they could chew and the more you play the game, the more obvious it's shortcomings become. It's still in my top 3 FE's (like Mangs), but if it was delayed to the holiday season of 2019 and given the time it needed to flesh out it's ideas even more, I have no doubt it would've been my favorite.
I wonder if they will tone down the ambitious games. Fire emblem doesn't always need to be about fighting another country.
@Gustavo Tellez I can't even imagine what a mess 3H would've been if they tried to hit the initial targeted release date. The game as is feels about 3/4 complete and that was with 2 delays.
You can see them cutting corners in pretty much every part of the game. It's usually not too terrible but there's some really eyebrow raising jank like the backgrounds.
The crests must be to blame for these flaws...
All of these, are caused by the Fell Star
I Edelgard Von Hresvelg will change the franchise for the better, I swear it!
@Tiny Buzzard ???
@Tiny Buzzard so Edelgard is a capitalist?
honestly i don't think anything in this video is controversial :P
Hey Mekkah, your video on Edelgard was fantastic btw.
I feel wanting to get rid of Avatars is a bit. Half the fan base wants them and half the fanbase wants them gone. Personally I think they can work but you need to put alot of work into them if they're the main character otherwise just have them be a side character not really connected to the story.
Professor Layton I have a lot of fun with character creation, but it’s hard for the story to actually involve the characters when customization is an option. Byleth was a strange case, you couldn’t customize their appearance but you could customize their classes. Honestly, I just think there should be a bit of both but separately. Instead of Byleth’s amalgamation, which didn’t seem to work too well, we could have avatars with full customization in some games while others have characters like Marth, Roy, or Alm that take center-stage.
I feel like the most controversial thing he said was that it was the best FE in a long time. Personally, I couldn't even get through thirty hours of the slogfest that is 3H
@@professorlayton8529 i want the avatar system to be more of a mix of robin and kris. a simple personality that is easy to relate to, but still enough character to actually be a character (robin) and important to the plot, but still plays second fiddle to the protagonist (kris). simply put, the avatar is a sidekick to the lord, making important choices while not hogging the spotlight. robin almost nailed it, but then the grimleal arc happened
I could literally rant for hours about things I don’t like in fire emblem but that just shows how much passion I have for this franchise
Nah that's just being a FE fan
@@criosovereign No one can rant about the series like a fan can.
@@kodymcbride6901 well smash fans sick of FE characters
@@criosovereign they do that because they care, and because they know Sakurai and Nintendo can do much better than just adding boring blue haired FE swordsmen
@@criosovereign They certainly can do better with those FE characters if four of them weren't based off Marth's moveset.
The only thing I really REALLY don't like about three houses is how all of the routes left untouched story points within them for no logical reason. If you play all of them you get the full picture, sure, but if certain conflicts were the focus on certain routes it doesn't make sense that all of the endings are of an united Fodlan if not everything gets resolved. And to be honest, tying loose ends like TWSITD with the ending narrations and end cards is a really cheap move and doesn't feel earned at all.
how does it not make sense? if all the leaders of every nation are defeated, unification happens, no matter how well you understand anyone both inside and outside the trio.
@@Omnirok12 My problem is that /not/ every leader or threat is defeated on each route once we know who they are. CF: We don't defeat TWSITD and Nemesis within the story, why? (TWSITD are dealt with in the ending narration and endcards and that's cheap). SS: We don't defeat Nemesis and Cornelia, why? AZ: We don't defeat TWSITD and Nemesis, and Rhea is not a threat for some reason, why? (TWSITD are dealt with in Hapi's end cards and that's cheap). VW: We don't defeat Cornelia and Rhea is not a threat for some reason, why? I just think it's too convenient for threats to pop out in certain routes and not in others and once defeated everything else is fine or dealt with within little paragraphs in endcards, so anticlimactic.
@@ZeroSuitSnow cornelia is only relevant in azure moon because we're talking about the kingdom capital. its a matter of pride. cornelia is only tackled in cf because the game wants to reiterate the point that many still miss: edelgard hates those who slither in the dark and will be rid of them at the earliest convenience. thus, you kill cornelia before tackling the kingdom capital. no reason to worry about cornelia or the kingdom capital in the other two routes as you are not the kingdom forces and your enemy is the empire. as far as byleth knows, shes an empire pawn. nemesis is only revived in vw because the ritual fails in SS, and in azure moon you inadvertedly kill thales in derdriu. also fighting nemesis in every route would make the boss less special in verdant wind. rhea is not a threat outside of SS and CF, and only in SS due to her health which is essentially a dice roll. she doesnt need to be dealt with in the others, and the church is not a loose knot cuz byleth is obvioualy the next leader with their godly powers. as for those who slither not being confronted in CF outside of end dialogue, adding more stuff after the battle with the immaculate one would only bring down the importance of that battle in favor of possubly just shambahla and nemesis again. which would devalue their uniqueness.
@Omnirok12 I agree with Rhea not being a threat especially since she specifically chose to step down. She snapped in CF because Byleth, who had part of her mother, betrayed her. I also agree with Cornelia. We don’t need to kill off every possible threat in the game if they are not a direct threat. She was also a pawn like Edelgard’s uncle. They don’t pose long-standing threats like in CF or AM. However, while I agree that it makes sense why Nemesis wasn’t in other routes, how do you know the “ritual” failed in SS and how do you inadvertently kill Thales in AM?
@@Omnirok12 In silver Moon, you kill Arundel, it is never adressed that you actually destroyed an acient organization.
The biggest problem I have with the game's story is how much it relies on the player's meta-relationship with characters. Like, Edelgard was likely the first house leader you chose, she's forefront in the advertising and she's the first one you talk to. So the player likely has an attachment to her. But that doesn't really explain why she still seems to have a good opinion of Byleth in the Church or Golden Deer routes post time skip, or why Golden Deer students feel bad for her immediately after she dies, considering they've just come out of a five year war.
Sorry, a bit late but, while I don't disagree that this is a problem, I think your examples were poorly picked; it's important to keep in mind that Byleth saves Edelgard's life at the start of the game(I'm baffled at how many people don't take this into account to be honest, it's a big deal), also crest of flames kinship and all. And the students do spend an entire year together at the academy, where everyone knows Edelgard since she's a house leader.
@@CyclonSilver It's just kinda jarring that El is obssesed over Byleth just because he/she saved her life. Alm saves multiple wome in his game too, but they don't wanna marry him immeadiately because of that
I don’t think Awakening is even in my top 10 favorite FE games list but here we go. To me Awakening proved that a choice can still add to the story despite not changing anything. I am not talking about the Emmeryn scene which I still think should have been executed better, I am talking about Lucina’s judgement. It doesn’t really change anything yet it has so much emotional impact on the characters AND you. And the avatar part. Awakening had the *only* avatar that made me go “Hmm I actually like this character”. Robin (while sometimes suffering from the “Flawless MC” curse) is actually a “character” unlike the other avatars. He/she feels like it is in the story for good reasons while the other avatars are either just seen as perfect beings or someone that has no impact on the story.
That scene was absolute trash to me because I had paired up robin with Lucina... like it didn’t make any kind of sense and I absolutely hated it
Brambles the scene changes if Robin is Lucina’s lover. You can see Lucina not wanting to do it and even if you say “My life is yours, it always has been” Lucina will not do anything to Robin(even without Chrom stopping her). I would even go out of my way to say that it makes that sense 10 times more powerful.
I'm 1 year late sorry but erm ... what's your top 10 FE games? 👀
@@ayasolaris4971 1. Binding Blade 2. Echoes 3. Genealogy of the Holy War 4. Thracia 776 5. Path of Radiance 6. Radiant Dawn 7. Shadow Dragon 8. New Mystery of the Emblem 9. Three Houses 10. Fates Conquest I mostly put it together on the spot
@@andromeda0388 thanks , you're a legend
When you zoomed in on your profile picture logo thing at 00:32 I just now realized its an egg with buff arms! Always thought it was some kind of helmet.
I like how people are pointing out their issues with the game, stuff like that is very important. If I were to add a big issue I had was the wasted potential of Claude. His backstory is so interesting with the Almyra/Fodlan connection and how these territories are in conflict, and yet he never really grows as a character. He doesn't even do all that much in his OWN route. I feel like he could've been written even better than Dimitri.
Agreed. VW is almost the same as silver snow. I think he was supposed to be the middle between dimi and edel and he kinda is but hes much more on dimis side. He kinda feels like a third wheel in the kingdom and empire conflict. i also dont like the way they described almyra much.
His route was pretty much the TWSITD route.
Claude honestly could've had his own game altogether. Almyra and Fodlan's transnational tensions and internal political strife and conflict would've been super interesting if Claude was a middle man between the two. It would have been nice to see two sides of the same coin in terms of nobility too
It's a shame that, while the conflict between Edelgard and Dimitri is an emotional rollercoaster, Claude's entire role in the conflict is "being in Edelgard's way". If you attack Edelgard with Claude in the last battle, he outright says they basically want the same thing. My hotfix: Merge Almyra and Duscur. Not to make this an "they all look alike to me"-remark, but within the story Duscur and Almyra have very similar roles. They're both foreign lands whose darker skinned people aren't well understood by are mistrusted by most people in Fodlan. Now imagine if Claude was a survivor of the massacre of Duscur by the kingdom, due to the machinations of Edelgard's backers. That opens up some opportunities for emotional stakes. And "your kingdom slaughtered my family, and it turns out I'm still pissed of about it" is a better excuse than "I didn't get your message asking for a truce, so just to be on the safe side I'm going to shoot you first and feel sorry later while you're fighting our invader" for him attacking you during the Battle of the Eagle and Lion rematch. And my second hotfix: In VW, don't have Edelgard bullshit retreat AGAIN from said Eagle and Lion battle. The actual final battle against Edelgard had less emotional impact than that "forced to fight your classmates" battle anyway. That gives you 4 missions to properly flesh out TWSITD. I know they were established bad guys and all, but suddenly shifting the focus to them two missions before the end was still jarring. Made worse by the decision to only dedicate a single mission to them, before rolling out ANOTHER final enemy for the last mission, and one that makes a lot less sense to boot. (Why didn't TWSITD use him if he was so strong? Why is he so strong when he was supposed to be a schmuck until he got the sword of the creator, which he no longer has?)
I mean, I understand Dimitri, I understand Edelgard, I never really got Claude. I'm like "Who are you?"
About Point 9 with Jeralt: My sister and I actually started the game together, she was playing and I was watching. And NONE of us understood that Byleth was Jeralts child!!! We got to the point where Alois asks you who you are and my sister JOKINGLY replied with "I'm his son". We were *SO* surprised when it was actually true! Ever since then this is my example how to NOT write a relationship of ANY kind.
so, the game is to blame for you and your sister to be too dumb to understand something that is clearly explained in the first minutes of the game??
??? It was stated multiple times before you arrive at that point that Byleth is Jeralt's child
What about the Silver Snow Final boss Spoiler: Rhea just goes mad and you have to fight her, this should have been the route you fight nemesis. But instead we get to fight the leader of the faction your supporting.
He hasn't played it afaik. I'd assume this and maybe a few more things would have made the list if he had.
The fact that the final map of that route is just a reused (and common) map sucks so much First time I saw the fight I thought it was on the schools rooftops (for some reason) and got real disappointed when it was just the front of the school again
@@OriginalGameteer Church' final map is actually my favorite
I agree. Even though I think it's the hardest map of all of the final maps (and I really love the music). The ending feels just out of place.
Also, this bossfight is not any fun.
Actually Mangs your theory was debunked by the devs over a month ago. Silver Snow is actually the first route that was created and is the default route for Black Eagles, and the one that the entire game was based around. Crimson Flower is in fact a not so secret route that the devs made easier to unlock ironically because of they realized that many people would want to join Edelgard because they pushed her so hard. The entire game was written on the basis of Edelgard betraying you. The reason why VW is so likely so similar to SS is likely because of the changes made to the personalities of the Golden Deer including Claude. You can read the interview here. amp.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/fres3g/someone_has_translated_the_full_nintendo_dream/
And one of the problems with silver snow is that you can't play as Rhea who could have explained a lot of the game's story. Instead, you NEED to play both ss and Claude's route to understand everything.
I believe CF was developed last also. As well was a pain to get in since someone high up in project didn’t want CF in. So I believe they sneak in it. ( don’t quote me on this as I was unable to find the source for this again.)
Also, the game’s Japanese name implies 4 routes
@@lukestarford7608 According to an interview, CF was planned pretty early on. So it's safe to assume that it's the second planned route rather than the last. But it could have been developed last which explains the things it's missing
@@ark7806 That's more likely. CF was the greatest deviation from the main story and we already know that AM was planned to be the direct opposite of CF.
I think that crimson flower was too short and needed to be more fleshed out more, I also don’t like how you could miss your chance to get supports with other characters
That's the thing I'm most angry about. CF is still my favourite route because of its themes and Byleth's role regarding Edelgard actually triggered an emotional response from me. But man do I hate that it's so short!
The way the game trailers advertised Edelgard’s route more than the other ones reminds me of that scene in The Simpsons where the kids are shown in school a sex ed video that ends with: “now that you know how to do it... don’t do it”. That’s basically the CF route, now that they told us to play it, go instead with the route where you don’t have to betray the Church, or the two routes that are just more complete.
the agarthans were curbed so hard
I 100% agree this is too true I wish it had way more chapters.
I also don’t like how Edelgard never gets her views and goals challenged like Claude and Dimitri do.
Seteth is my favorite character in the game because he’s the only character that doesn’t worship Byleth as soon as he sees them. He only warms up to Byleth after they save Flayn and as a result his trust in Byleth going forward feels earned.
"Byleth is a living McGuffin" Crest of Flames=Fire Emblem, so that makes sense. Nearly every FE game has said Emblem as a plot important item, so it's somewhat surprising to see it have a starring role as an avatar but with about the same personality as an item.
damn i paused a Chris-chan video for this. Been curious to see. I suppose to pinpoint what I dislike in one breath, it's fundamentally the route splits. While the devs had clear ideas for every lord and their routes, the strain of having three lords is pretty obvious - Silver Snow and Verdant Wind are near identical, Azure Moon is like 70% the same route, or something. Edelgard's personal route, arguably the most different of the four, is only 18 chapters compared to the 21/22 of the others. In addition, White Clouds play the same no matter what you choose, so replaying this game can feel like a chore. 50% of each route has the same map order and story beats. I really love the three lords, don't get me wrong, but I do believe IntSys has to take a break with branching perspectives with future titles, to make things more cohesive as a whole. I like the idea of picking up some plotpoints in one route others gloss off, to get the whole perspective, but again, the strain is visible.
I DO have to half-disagree with you on the supports Mangs. It's definitely true the voice-acting and being able to get multiple Cs at once would make you experience the similar scene more times than you should, but I remember a lot more "wow, interesting" supports versus "ha ha bernadetta scared". to paint a picture, awakening/fates has a lot of everyone/everyone supports, with fewer exceptions. 3H has supports that only go up to B or so. Take let's say, Edelgard. Edelgard supports her seven Black Eagles students, byleth, and only a couple of of non-BE students. I feel if this was Awakening, she would be supporting ALL Black Eagle, Golden Deer, and Blue Lion students you know? Let's look at Fates. Revelations has let's say....75 units you can get your hands on? 3H has 8 x 3 house students, Byleth, Seteth, Manuela, Hanneman, Cyril, Gilbert, Alois, Flayn, Rhea, Sothis, Catherine, Shamir, ashen wolves and Jertiza if you wanna be technical. 24 + 17? = 41. That's nearly HALF the cast size, and again, an individual 3H character does not share the same amount of supports as a individual Fates one. To be clear I'm not disagreeing that some cases you just get support fatigue, especially BECAUSE you can pop multiple ones in succession, I'm reminded of you and Chaz sitting for an hour+ to read a whole bunch. Better flags and timing on those would do a lot wonder on that front, I even think C ranks should've been locked after the time skip. I'm only saying comparatively (3H still has more supports than say, Path of Radiance or the GBA games), 3H has less support bloat versus Awakening and Fates. I do understand a lot of this IS ultimately subjective. Once again I do agree with half of your overall point.
I think the 3 House choice personally should've been done in a SINGLE campaign, with several choice/action points that will ultimately affect which house leader you side with. I think it would've helped make the experience feel more dynamic. The maps probably could've been divided better, and this way, you can load save points at points to quicker get through a lot of the repetition in cutscenes and maps. People are harping on the 3 house thing a bit too much, expecting it to be birthright/conquest, and forgetting that it is a SINGLE game and it can only hold so much. It's like complaining that you're not getting a fully different experience depending which of the 3 starters you pick in Pokemon. You bought ONE game, and ought to expect a one game experience with variations for further replayability. I think putting all this in a single experience with all the narrative points would've been a simple way to make it all the more effective.
To add on to what you mentioned about White Clouds, when I first played the game on Blue Lions route I was initially impressed at how almost each chapter was tied to the BL students. We had a chapter that had Lord Lonato, who has ties with Ashe, and we had the Miklan chapter, whereby Miklan is Sylvain's brother (and I thought it was cool how you can get the Lance of Ruin earlier with him in your party). And then I played NG+ and tried the other routes and realized White Clouds is the same for all of them, and it was honestly kinda disappointing.
@@Warmaster00 Sadly this is the pain of the system in general, the games can't integrate the development of the supports because there's too many variables. It cannot assume what you proc.
@@NovaBlazerZX I agree with this
I really love this game but i got to admit, i don't feel like playing all the 4 routes.. Doing all the monastery again 4 times is not a joyful perspective xD. But i agree with most of your points
I did two in 2019. This year I have done another one. And maybe next year I will do the remaining one. It's been incredible to revisit the game after two years.
About the timeskip: I was really looking forward to seeing what my students had all been up to for five years. One of my biggest disappointments was discovering that apparently they hadn’t been doing anything? Had they been fighting in the war? I don’t know, the game just neglects to explain. It seems like the game didn’t need a timeskip at all, it was just an excuse for new outfits and for everyone to be old enough to marry now.
When number 8 came on I immediately thought of Sylvain and Dimitri support. Like it’s funny and all with the whole courting thing, but it’s Sylvain and Dimitri. Two of your best written characters ( in my personal opinion) with a pre-existing relationship before the game. There was so much potential.
Did anyone else save right before the route split in Black Eagles so they wouldn't have to replay White Clouds again?
Yep.. did just that. I played Blue Lions first so i came to the idea that every houses first year was individual (since most really does take place there) and it was a real bummer for me to learn that all houses share the same first chapters. Even more of a bummer was, that the church route is practically just Dimitris rooute rehashed. (I didn't play the entirety of the church due to that, only like the first 3-4 chapters.) Edlegards route was more than lacking, when you came from Dimitris route, where you go through trouble, mental issues, learning processes and a ton of geourgous cutscenes. Her Path was like an arrow shot. Fast, merciless and without any sort of decoration. (Did it even have a cutscene?) I haven't played Claudes route yet.
I kept telling myself that I should do that during white clouds, but then I fucking forgot. Guess I won't be playing Crimson Flower anytime soon.
I did. And then I replayed it anyway, I wanted to try out other builds.
I was so glad that I could do that. Edelgard was my last route and I would have hated to play through the first part again to play SS.
Yep. White Clouds is simply way too long. It should've been like 3 or 4 Chapters at best and leave the rest for the actual Houses.
All those points were honestly very fair, and I agree with almost everything you said. Overall, most of the game’s flaws can be summed up with “they bit off more than they could chew”. They clearly put a lot of effort into that game, but a lot of things still feel lazy or rushed. After all, this type of 3D environment is completely new to IS (and Koei Tecmo aren’t really great with detailed backgrounds and such) and selling one game with four routes is a lot of work. The game was also delayed twice, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to delay it more but realistically couldn’t. As a result, I think the game can be forgiven for it’s faults because they clearly aren’t there for lack of trying, and overall it is still a very enjoyable experience. Hopefully they learned a lot for the next one.
One of the duties as a developer of any piece of medium is to know your limitations. 3H was delayed twice, yet still came out very unfinished, if you bit off more than you could chew than that's your fault and people have every right to criticize you for it
Vanja Galović the criticisms are fair and I agree with them, as I stated. When I say that I forgive them I mean that it wasn’t like Pokemon for instance where it was a case of greediness or laziness, they’re clearly trying to innovate and they put effort into this game. That gives me more hope for future games especially since they will have more experience with the switch.
Dude hope they stop with chose ur house and family type of thing. It was okay the first time.
I think for the next Fire Emblem IS needs to dial things back. Make for a smaller but more personal/intimate experience for the player. The games have been getting more and more bloated and it's hard to care about it.
@@romitalia3088 I agree with you. Even though I personally am not a fan of 3 houses and hope future games will learn from this tailor themselves to improving, I can't hate IS for what they gave us. There is effort even if things were rushed. Full voice acting, great graphics, good gameplay. It's all there and then some. Pokemon is lazy beyond belief and I hate the newer games (despite getting some enjoyment out of them.) Because I know Gamefreak can do better. With 3 Houses I feel like this was the best IS could do with what they had and we're going for. It's not good, but they'll do better.
#1 Finally! Glad I wasn't the only one that had this issue. I remember saying in the discord that I prefer the 2D style support convos in the GBA and DS games more than the 3D ones and got called dumb for it. Sure it's cool to see 3D models in cutscenes but at least in the 2D ones they feel more human and not two robots doing cheesy actions. Less is more.
3D cutscenes can easily be superior to 2 cheap portraits looking at each other but that naturally needs lot more work, while unfortunately 3H clearly didn't even get that work as characters can't even hold a sword on screen even tho they literally have multiple sword models and sword attack animations using the exact same models...
Absolutely agree on Jeralt, it was hard to feel any attachment and the entire time I was doubting whether he's actually Byleth's dad at all. (might be intentionall sure, but doesn't make the important scene any less ineffective). Wrt to crimson flower, I thought it was acceptable, the only thing that didn't make sense to me was, that I was waiting for when do we deal with TWSITD because Edelgard always had a plan for them (as seen in Silver Snow, letter you receive from her). But that arc just completely fizzles out in her route. :\ Also, cool fog of war mechanic, I saw it exactly once in my silver snow and crimson flower runs...
No joke, the first time I played, when after the tutorial Alois asked me if I was Jeralt's kid, I answered he was a stranger because I genuinely didn't know if he was supposed to be my dad. He calls you "kid", but I thought that could just be because I was a younger soldier in his band.
I'm glad that you made this. 3H was pretty good, but there was a lot that it didn't do well, and aknowledging that will help being able to know how the series can grow.
I feel that Byleth could’ve worked had they just voice acted his/her lines and created a personality, you know an actual character. This would’ve been a better idea, if we’re factoring that someone must roam the monastery. Think of the chapter where Byleth seeks revenge on Monica after Jeralt dies. We could’ve had some Shulk type writing. We could see Byleth’s emotions take over his/her rationally through his/her dialogue and not the other characters saying that he/her is not acting rational (Granted there was other reasons for Shulk.). We could see how Byleth is much more of this great friend and guide to his companions. Not just a few words and characters telling you how important you are to their development. I truly think Byleth had potential and making him an avatar was unnecessary. I’m a fan of male Byleth’s design, but in no way am I fan of how he was implemented in any form regarding character or story.
I agree that Byleth would’ve been better had he had character especially since the characters in this game are so good. I’m not accepting the fact that they state he couldn’t express feelings well just because the plot says so. That being said, I feel like they used Byleth well as a plot device. Even tho you can’t see how Byleth affects some of the characters so much, through Byleth’s support conversations and with the three house leaders, we see more of each character through Byleth’s eyes. I feel the support conversations with Byleth show us how each character truly is while other supports give us certain aspects of other characters. I will also commend the writers for giving Byleth an interesting backstory that made sense. Byleth for sure is not a good character, but he at least doesn’t inherently hurt the game.
@@epsilon1372 that's just protagonist things. He never really speaks much either if im stating this right
It comes down to preference. I’m sure that many players new to the franchise would enjoy a ‘blank’ character that they can project themselves onto. Personally, I’d really like an actual character with personality and development. I feel that Robin (though a bit boring) worked out well towards that end. A character that’s not just a plot device, fully voiced and maybe even customizable. I’d be down for that
I honestly wished that Byleth was his own actual character instead of an avatar character
Lol I find it funny how most people hate Byleth but I like him. He has an interesting backstory and has enough personality to where I can clearly see how he's supposed to be. I would have liked if Byleth was a real character but I think IS keeps making avatars so that they can marry everyone. Throw the marriage stuff out and we can get a real character.
very long but not a rage or hate thing. Im just lengthy there is a tldr for a topic ^^ frankly, I liked Silver Snow route. I started Black Eagles because I hadnt really any strict feelings for anyone yet, we each wanted to start with different routes and my other two did for people in GD and BL. I didn't really suspect the whole plot twist. I thought to begin with, Rhea was the BBEG in general or the more ultimate evil in this. I was ready to support edelgard and her endeavors but when Edelgard revealed herself to be the flame emperor, aligned with those who slither in the dark. I was enraged and felt betrayed, believing in the ideals but believing she was going the worst way around it. and pratically supporting everything that was done to wrong her (like all the effed up expitaments and how beasts were created. edit: but yes I know better now obviously) only to be broken up over her and hubert, still being them in the end, and wanting to snuff out those who slither as well. and rhea, while being honestly batshit crazy, wasnt the worst person either. Everything just ended on a somber and sad note, very bittersweet, which, in my opinion, was really great. TLDR; SS was my first route, and I actually liked it, made me feel feels. also. I like Byleth and Robin, HOWEVER. I dont view them as the main character necessarily, well honestly robin more of a main character than byleth but, I feel like it makes the game 2nd person P.O.V. in a way. makes the player feel involved while others are the main character and they support them and still affect the story. Important but not quite protagonist. At least by like, literal literary standards. As the other "main characters" grow and such around them. I feel like ironically the most main character route byleth DOES have IS SS. Given everything that happens in it. and I personally, dont mind the "fan service" as it was honestly my favorite addition to the series since awakening (well full on supporting/able to even s support any character. as well, we do have Kris. Who I often forget about unless I think of marth's games) I would always imagine how I'd interact with characters with an oc/sona and such. So the avatars act like a bit of a catalyst versus having to really shoehorn things in. even if ultimately our choices matter very little. also i often forgot divine pulse was a thing. but those are just my opinion really, as while I've been in fire emblem for a while, aka pre-awakening, I am a VERY different type of player than mangs. ^^ I'm the stereotypical (any kind of) series fangirl who likes fanfics of favorite ships and likes to imagine alternate universes and the like.
Here are some things I believe that Three Houses did wrong and things I want to comment on: - The monastery. To deal with this, they could of treated the route like a regular FE game during the war phase. OR have the player choose at the beginning of the game whether or not they want to play that way and then balance the game around that. I personally don't like having to spend so much time at the monastery to play optimally. - Maddening Ambush Spawns. I don't think balancing the game difficulty around divine pulse charges makes the game difficult. It just gets the player frustrated. They should at least give the player time to react. I say they either scrap that concept of charges or lower the charge cap because it's making gameplay go in a weird direction as far as difficulty is concerned. - Edelgard's route. It's my favorite route but I have to admit, it wasn't satisfying at the end because you didn't get to see her get her justice for what happened to her. Don't like how it was treated. I'm sure everyone who played/liked the route would agree that it's wasted potential. - About choices and Byleth: A cool thing they could do, is allow you to make choices at the beginning and then give your character a personality based around that, where after a certain point they'll start responding and making decisions in cutscenes based on their personality and make it affect the ending at least. This game specifically could have explored Byleth's growing personality after their father dies. It could of be a turning point because Byleth has to experience very strong emotional trauma without any real emotional experience to work with. When the lord of your house comes to check on you, they should give you the option to choose how Byleth will be for most, if not the rest of the game. Dimitri goes literally insane when he learns about the Flame Emperor but Byleth's dad dies, who he's spent his whole life with, and he just cries for a week or so and gets over it? Looking forward to seeing the next video!!
Imagine if what answer you give to sothis determines what house you get assigned to.
I thought it was going to affect growths.
I think people would riot. I honestly thought that when Byleths meets the 3 Lords would be the moment that you pick the house.
I mean I don’t know what it would add to the game...
What if it affected the difficulty?
Imagine playing 3 chapters with all 3 main characters/their sidekicks and some random ones and then after you feel them out you choose with whom to go,and have actual different routes where choices matter.
What I don't understand about Byleth the most.. All 3 lords are perfectly fine MCs. Byleth should've just been a Robin instead of a Link because he really takes away from the other main characters. One of my favorite Wii games is Sengoku Basara partly because story elements are given from both the POV of the heroes and villains without the unnecessary middleman. Byleth is especially bothersome to me for that reason.
Honestly I hated Byleth, she wasn’t even a character. Just pixels on a screen which characters dumped lore and praise onto.
My biggest gripe with this game is the classes and how most of them feel underwhelming to promote into due to either: - Lack of decent growth rate boosts: One example is the Cavalry line up. I DESPISE the fact that it gives a -10 penalty to speed, as it just discourages me from wanting use it as much in fear of being RNG screwed with units that could actually get the most out of the stat - Lack of diversity due to the imbalance of decent classes: The fact that Wyvern Lord growth rates and overall utility is vastly superior to the majority of what the other classes has to offer just speaks to that testament - The underwhelming mastery skills: I can count on my hand the few skills that you get from mastering a class that are actually worth using. The majority of them are either very situational or just blatantly worthless compared to the few that are.
I assumed that Holst's constant absence was meant as an intentional joke. He's hyped up as this big hero, but he's always inconveniently absent.
I guess but I just wish we saw his face at least once. We even got to see Dimitri's father twice
"it's not just fe4 or 5" -chaz probably
You shouldn't copypaste another game, can you...? But what makes Genealogy and Thracia so great? It is the difficulty? The maps? The characters? I don't know much from those games, but I want to know
@@Fermin-hw5pd head to the channel of a beautiful man in that first reply to find out
I unironically would love a Mangs video of him just doing two line summaries of every 3H support
"Oh no, my painting just a silly hobby. It's sad, but I'm going to have to give it up, not matter what others say." "You're looking in my general direction? AAAAHH, I angered you and you'll kill me!" "What do you think of Saint Cethleann? Oh, no reason, asking for a friend." "Did Lady Rhea send you? If not, then fuck off and let me do my chores." "Have I ever told you about my homeland of Duscur? Oh, I have?" "It's been too long since my last nap to bother thinking of a second sentence."
Imagine if Byleth was voiced. You can still have dialogue options every now and then that affect the dialogue (without the illusion that they affect the story) but largely he/she is a normal character like everyone else. This makes them less of a brick wall while still having the player identify with them. I think of how the dialogue works in games like the Witcher and that it would have fit really well in 3H
I want to hear his/her voice more, considering they speak in Smash and Heroes, I would like to hear them actually talking about the situations and all
the cinematics always reminded me of Berserk 2017 LMAO
Damn, that's brutal
What bothers me the most about this game, is that the monastery is a game-long mechanic, when it would have worked 3x better as a phase instead. Pre Timeskip should be sorta like Gen 1 FE4's pairing/inheriting prep for your babies, instead, you would tune your students into their endgame classes for the War phase, it got pretty tiresome to continuously having to micro for all of my students FOR THE ENTIRE GAME, seriously IS, let me take the War phase more seriously, I don't need to eat 9 times on the same day or hear another "hey Lysithea isnt it past your bedtime?" joke over and over
There was no substitute units even though there’s literally a bunch of other students in the school... Makes the game really hard to do a Ironman run.
That, and the fact that the devs clearly assumed everyone would be using divine pulse and wouldn't mind shit like ambush spawns and tripwire reinforcements and a chapter that _fucking lies to you about the win condition and then all but kills you for reaching it._
@@chillstoneblakeblast3172 Foreign Land and Sky, Petra and Bernadetta's paralogue. It says you can win either by rout or by getting Petra to the highlighted space, but if you get anywhere near there, not only does it spawn tripwire reinforcements in the middle of your turn, but _the glowing space disappears and the victory conditions update to just rout._
@@SuperZez they designed the game with the divine pulse in mind. Is part of the story, and a core mechanic, so they thought nobody would mind surprises, since you have the tool to react to them and is introduce as such in the story Why is it a flaw? I get that some people doesn't like it, but I wouldn't call that a flaw
@@sasir2013 It's a flaw because it makes the game feel very unfair in many areas. Ambush spawn were cut in Fates because of the many complaints it got and Conques still managed to be challenging without them, but in 3H Divine Pulse makes you play riskyer and using it is literally free of any cost, heck the game actively punishes you for not using it. The reliance on divine pulse makes the overall map design much weaker
@@sasir2013 What Vanja said, but also, calling it "part of the story" is a bit of a stretch. Suppose Byleth didn't have divine pulse, and simply had the reflexes of a proper soldier during that scene when the bandit attacks Edelgard, and stopped him the first time around. What, after that point, would have changed if Byleth couldn't rewind time? That's right. Literally nothing. He never uses it to accomplish anything in a cutscene ever again. Not when he's banished to the shadow realm, not when he's falling off a cliff, not when he's facing down against any of the final bosses, _never._ The only time he ever uses it, it _doesn't work._ It's shoehorned into the story because they felt the need to do that for some reason in order to justify the mechanic, even though games like Invisible, Inc have rewind functions (which are optional, by the way, and can be disabled entirely) without any story justification at all.
Just to add on to the point you made about Edelgard's route being rushed, Black Eagles was not meant to have a route split at first. In an interview with the 3H developers translated by Nintendo Everything, the church route was the first route to be developed, and was meant to be the hardest route since you lose your house leader halfway through the game. The developers felt that it may be too harsh for players to suddenly lose a character that they have been putting effort into building, and many members of the development team themselves wanted to join Edelgard, which is why Crimson Flower was written in later. This is entirely my speculation, but inserting a 4th route with a story that was largely different from the other 3 routes probably took more time and effort than expected. It is no wonder that Crimson Flower felt so rushed. Tl;dr Crimson Flower has fewer cutscenes and is shorter because it was a rushed job
I agree with you Mangs. While i absolutely love Three Houses (played it 8 times), i have several problems with it. And you pretty much summed them up. I don't like the fact, that one route is so much like the other routes in the first half. And even after the timeskip there are only slight differences. We get the same battle on the great bridge, in 3 of the 4 routes we get the valley of torment FOR THE EXACT SAME REASON. It's dull, honestly. But look at it this way, in the next Fire Emblem, they can improve yet again. Let's just hope, they took notes from Three Houses and aknowledge its mistakes
I remember reading in the interview where Claude’s real name was revealed that they actually started out with Church Route and Then planned the rest- which makes the development choices for Verdant Wind and Crimson Flower interesting (for better or worse)
Is it odd that I find some of these flaws actually kinda charming and hilarious? Like Dimitri dying off screen did him so dirty to the point that I couldn't help but laugh, honestly it just adds to how punished Dimitri is in a meta sort of way.
Some of the flaws are indeed gutbustingly hilarious in a "so bad it's good" kind of way. You can even see Mangs laughing his ass off at the game's stupidity in a few of the clips he shows. Doesn't change the fact that it would have been a better game without those flaws.
Three Houses does improve tremendously if you take the piss out of it. Jeralt is a random alcoholic pub crawler granted immortality after one crazy night at a church, just trying to cope. Edelgard is a stupid teenager surrounded by people too afraid of being executed to point out how bad her ideas are. Claude started hitting the Almyran pipe in the timeskip, and is just burnt out of his mind forever afterwards. Rhea has severe mommy issues, and much like Edelgard, has a bunch of terrified enblers she will eat if they refuse her increasingly insane plans to get her mom back. Byleth really does never have any idea what's going on, and is just trying not to be called out for it. Dimitri is just constantly having 'nam flashbacks. Nemesis actually did nothing wrong, and is just an old man trying to get his planet back from an insane alien dragon with mommy issues before getting killed by Byleth, who is still just trying to not be found out for being a fraud.
I find hard to imagine Dimitri got defeated, he was represented as a monster while fighting, he could only let his guard down for a second, sure, but...
Here’s my hot take. Crimson Flower is bad and lazy, but Verdant Wind is even worse. It’s all copypasted from Silver Snow with Claude awkwardly forced in Seteth’s place, and a new final boss that makes zero sense in the story and creates several plot holes. The worst offender being when Edelgard has dialogue with Byleth that only makes sense in the context of Byleth being the former Black Eagles teacher, which was clearly written for Silver Snow but was kept in Verdant Wind.
I'd say that Azure Moon is the best route just because a) they really put a lot of work into Dimitri's character b)they put a lot of work in the relationships between the blue lions.That's it. But they do such a good job with those two points that you kinda forget about the fact that it's the weakest route in the lore aspect, which they completely sidelined to focus on character development. The true bad guys? They died like dogs, with your whole party wiping them out without even knowing.
@@lookatthiscutekittyc2903 Post time skip Dimitri actually really annoyed me. They could've handled him much better. Like, I dunno, actually giving you a chance to interact with him and use some of the supports to break him out of his revenge fueled survivor's guilt. Instead it's just Bam! Bam! Bam! Do the fighting and deal with this whiny, moody, annoying pain in the neck. He needed SO MUCH THERAPY but nooo he can't actually get a chance to DEAL with his issues in a healthy way, he just kinda suddenly has a change of heart about killing everyone when it's convenient. Then suddenly you can S rank him (if you picked female) just in time for some "happy ever after" vibes but all it really is, is an unhealthy relationship in which he uses female byleth as a crutch to keep his depression at bay. They just dress it up all pretty like.
I played Verdant Wind first but imma have to agree with you on the final boss and Edelgard’s death scene-neither of them make any sense. But real talk, Intelligent Systems kinda just did Claude dirty overall-he doesn’t make any significant impact in the story unless you side with him, and even then he specifically states that while he’s the one that comes up with the schemes, you’re the one who actually puts them into action and that without you, he’d be useless. They clearly put much more effort into Edelgard and Dimitri’s characters and kinda just brushed off Claude. It’s a shame really, since he does have interesting traits, an admirable dream, and a backstory they could’ve done way more with.
@@aweirdcat577 I THOUGHT THE SAME THING. As someone training to be a counselor, it gets so frustrating. There were literal times through out the game that I got uncomfortable. That I regretted picking AM, because his psychotic break was real but like you could do nothing to really help. You didn't quell shit- and in the war phase its largely the same. You're a support and sure death can be a motivation to change- but ugh. There was so much growth that Dimitri still needed. The S rank feels nice, but like something that should happen months if not years later. We needed some sort of conversation about therapy, of Dimitri finally getting the help he desperately needed. Not, Byleth being a goddess and clearing his depression. And like, sure, it can be argued that largely everyone in the route (gilbert, rodrigue, EVERYONE) enables him and leaves byleth with the pieces, but it can be argued that Byleth does literally the same thing. The game doesn't illustrate anyone getting through to him in any real healthy way. So, yeah, I did S rank Dimitri. But idk he needed a lot more help before realistically being able to s-rank or be a king that's more than a figure head.
@@therealkenny6 I agree! Claude is a really interesting character- and playing his route got painful at times. You can tell that in comparison the GD house isn't as connected as the BL or . He is the least developed lord, hell we don't even learn about or see his life in Almyra or even his real name in the game. Claude is largely used to provide lore, which is good to learn more, but I feel like the game could reward you with lore in other less obvious and at times painful ways. I also wish Claude posed more of a threat in other routes, or was even able to join you in AM. Having Claude come in and save the day during AM could have fixed a lot his strategizing- and properly illustrate his intelligence and cunning. But while also showing that the mad king was ruling through a deficit. I think it could have also helped with the lack of control one feels in AM. so, idk just some thoughts.
As much as I like this game, now that the honeymoon phase is over I honestly can’t say i enjoyed it that much in hindsight. The gameplay and maps being fairly bland along with white clouds being tedious, the routes being WAY to similar and three houses being basically impossible to ironman makes this game really hard to go back to. In my opinion the very best part of this game is the characters. Sylvain’s character really surprised me, and there are several other characters i feel are also super interesting..... but everything else just falls flat to me :(
The game is 100% possible to iron man, with sufficient memorization of where reinforcements come in, being willing to lose a unit, and knowing when to and when to not take a risk. Unless you are referring to maddening mode, where I would rather eat a hearty helping of tide pods with a 24 oz. bleach cup than try to maddening mode iron man. Literally a couple bad level ups in a row and a unit is fucked.
@@louiesatterwhite3885 every map ive played I could see being irom manned except chapter 13. Fuck chapter 13
Regarding your first point. Can we just take a moment to facepalm because REALLY important characters like Glenn and Holst dont even have a Portrait? Glenn is very important for a lot of characters and their motivations, and Holst is really important in the current story. Meanwhile we have useless noobs like Pallardo who have a Portrait.
It's fine for glenn because he's dead, but I agree about holst.
Caspar constantly hypes up his father as being this monster in battle that could have been the single deciding factor in any battle, so of course we never see him.
The Devs in an interview actually said they purposefully didnt give Glenn and Holst a portrait because they thought it was fun if there were some characters players would need their imagination to envision. Take from that what you will
@@superdawge808 That works in books, but in videogames... I'm not so sure, they should have done it and that's it, even if it's for Holst to appear once after Hilda's paralogue or something (and by the way, I imagine Holst to be a buff guy with pink twintails)
@@Fermin-hw5pd I always thought of Holst as an anime pretty boy (à la Yuri) but in full, pink-toned Hero armor. Maybe this is what IS intended for us to do
this is my favorite fire emblem game and i agreed with everything you said lol. if you can’t criticize or recognize the flaws in something you love, do you really love it?
What other FE games have you played? Genuinely interested to see where you rank the others compared to this
Bigevilshark i’ve actually played every single fire emblem game. shocking i know
@@shadow4040 yep, it does! But accepting something's flaws in the only way to love it, I think
I feel a lot of my problems with Three Houses comes down to the inclusion of Byleth and forcing the story to revolve around them. Siding with Edelgard is cool until you realize she can't win the war until you show back up and work your teacher magic. Like she declared war on the continent but the second her precious teacher shows up she's ready to hand over all credit for the war to Byleth. Now that's maybe a slight over exaggeration but as said, Byleth is a holy grail after the time skip and everybody just can't believe the swing of success the army has once Byleth shows back up. I think Crimson Flower maybe suffers the most from this because any focus on her and her struggle fighting a war is completely side lined in favor of everybody praising Byleth. I would love to see this game just without Byleth and have the three lords be the focus. Pick one to start and go through that respective path. I dunno, Byleth isn't the worst avatar but I really do think forcing an avatar did more harm than good to three houses story. Jeralt was a big point for me if only cause I'm sick to death of fire emblem parents having to die. Like I'm sure IS legally has to kill off any parent character they make but I'd rather they just have them dead before the game starts if that has to be the case. There are other issues I have but overall I'd agree with a lot said here!
That's actually incredibly interesting. I just thought about having each of the three routes' main lords being the playable main character for that route and already sounds like it'd be better without Byleth. I like Byleth a lot more than Corrin, but the Three Houses story might've really benefited from no avatar.
actually in SS edelgard technically wins the battle of gronder
@@ne0nblaze265 One problem with no avatar would be Azure Moon, where Byleth is a main reason for Dimitri to pull out of madness. I know it's part of Byleth's god role in the game, but it would legitimately make a lot less sense for Dimitri to suddenly snap out of his insanity. Claude seems fine as a playable lord, Edelgard seems a bit iffy with no one to talk her out of siding with TWSITD, but overall I think the game would need to be majorly reworked in terms of the three lords' story to make sense avatarless. I'd prefer a real character like the earlier titles, someone like Ike or Eliwood or Lyn in terms of personality. I'd also settle for a Robin-esque character.
@@emanatingauras4017 to be fair Dimitris insanity could be resolved with Dedue or even the BL members helping him out. But without Byleth, i really dont see an answer than the Empire winning in all cases. Claude only managed to use his cards when he has Byleth as a primary strength from his fractured Alliance. The only one that is plausible without Byleth is Edelgard (and possibly Dimitri), because even without Byleth she already won againts the seperate countries to begin with, its only because of Byleth that she decided to not use TWSITD troops that resulted for a more stunted army, not to mention because she couldnt take one or the other, she has to stretch her troops or else one of the borders would be prone for an invasion, and without Byleth, shed definitely utilize the TWSITD troops to easily conquer Fodlan. They really either have to nerf the Empires capability or buff the Church to be equalized, or else it feels too one sided without another factor like Byleth. Also id bet TWSITD will always be defeated either house, because none of them like those sub-Belkans.
I like mangs. See, the problem I have with most people is that when they "love" something they will rag on it for hours and hours without even saying what they like about. It goes on and on until you start to wonder if they actually like it anymore. Mangs usually always tends to be fair never over- criticizing or over-praising. He's really fair. Can't wait for the video tomorrow. Thanks mangs
Another thing about Crimson Flower. People think that Silver Snow is the 4th route, but I think Crimson Flower is the actual secret 4th route. Considering that it's the shortest out of the 4, as well as you have to speak to Edelgard at a certain point of the story to even have the option to pick it, it would make sense why it felt so rushed.
That was actually confirmed by the devs back in March.
Absolutely. Edelgard is the vilain of the story, it’s normal that her route is the “”secret”” one.
Romeo I ducked up then. Because my first play through I backed up Edelgard and had to kill Rhea at the end. My last play through was the church route.
@@romitalia3088 she is nott he villian.
I really can't bring myself to place Three Houses as one of my favorite Fire Emblem games because of the criticisms you bring up in this video. I really can't embrace it as a favorite despite all the time I put into it because all of the little issues I have with it make playing it a frustrating experience for me. Every part of the game I find praiseworthy has just a little something that makes it less than great in my eyes and encountering them during a playthrough really gets me heated because the game is so close to greatness and I can taste the potential it had to be better. I want to love Three Houses as much as some people, but I have a hard time looking past the small design decisions that just drag the experience of playing down for me.
Pretty much agree with most of this. Like you say several times, the game is massive, so some of these are understandable, but at the same time, there is definitely stuff they could have cut back on to make the rest that much better. Honestly the number one thing to me is Edelgard's route. In fact, playing it first, I was honestly so confused half the time because rather than a cutscene there would be some lazy explanation of what just happened. The time split was a big one.. Hubert just comes up and says something happened with Byleth and suddenly it's five years later. I didn't even realize he fell off a cliff until I saw other routes. At a bare minimum, they should have chopped up some of the cinematics they already had, took Dimitri and Claude out of them and maybe added a couple short bits with Edelgard's army. The time split and pillars of light are big ones where it's like, you already have this footage! You can't use all of it, of course, but you can cleverly edit it so at least there's SOMETHING.
5:18 The developers said in an interview that only the Black Eagles were planned to have a route split. While they could technically be lying, they would have had to scrap that idea pretty far into developing Azure Moon; the unused dialogue and choices that seem to have a meaning throughout AM is more indicative of at least one choice actually mattering and maybe changing the chapter order moreso than a proper route split. Here's the interview: serenesforest.net/2020/02/23/three-houses-famitsu-dlc-interview-via-nintendo-everything-bonus-questions/ "-Did you have plans to implement a story branch for the other houses? Yokota: No. We only decided it for the Black Eagle house and to keep it a secret. Edelgard is a character with a unique position, but we thought it would be more interesting to have two stories here, then we implemented the triggers for it."
I thoight that a path split would happen when Dimitiri and Gilbert were deciding whether to attsck the empire or retake the kingdom. I actually made a back up save so i couls play both at the same time. That was a disapointment.
@@ianmckee4726 odd.
5:03 Actually, the developers revealed a few months ago Silver Snow was the first route made and that every other path was done later. Not only that, but they also mentioned BE was the only route planned with a routesplit to begin with (so AM having unused enemy dialogue for defecting Felix/Annette points at something else entirely...). 14:33 And considering you haven't played the Church route as of this comment, you still haven't seen anything.
I've heard that black eagles was supposed to be the "hard" route because Edelgard wouldnt be there
Wait wasnt the comment they made just that the devs wanted the option to "side with Edelgard" which was the origin for CF,After silversnow was finished? That doesnt necessarily erase the possibility there was a plan for other routes to have one at one point, unless they did specifically mention it being the only route they had ever planned it on.
@@joaocbcneto "unless they did specifically mention it being the only route they had ever planned it on." They did actually: serenesforest.net/2020/02/23/three-houses-famitsu-dlc-interview-via-nintendo-everything-bonus-questions/ "On top of that, that route (Black Eagles) also had a hidden story branch. Yokota: We kept it hidden, but the idea to have a story branch was there since the creation of the Black Eagle route. -Did you have plans to implement a story branch for the other houses? Yokota: No. We only decided it for the Black Eagle house and to keep it a secret. Edelgard is a character with a unique position, but we thought it would be more interesting to have two stories here, then we implemented the triggers for it."
which makes claude's route just as embarrassing as edelgard's because it's obvious how copy and paste it was while cf was a rushed mess
I have a lot to critique about 3 houses but the one thing that has rubbed me the wrong ,ever since I got to the timeskip, was the lack of timeskip units. I know the game is made for you to build your units up from the start but there were characters that I thought would join you. For instance I swore Judith or Nadare would join you in golden deer but that doesn't happen, I honest to god thought that Judith would join you as a goto or athos unit in the final chapter. She just didn't for no reason. There are two kinda three units that join post timeskip and I like one of them and one doesn't even count. You got Jeritza who ,granted he's a DLC unit but he still just, joins you randomly before chapter 13 (this is sort of an issue with crimson flower because the timeskip isn't introduced via a chapter but whatever.) Two is not a timeskip original unit but it's Dedue in blue lions (as apose to Dedue in black eagles ;^) ) where he joins you later in the story. The only good post timeskip unit is gilbert because he's set upnin part one and is an original unit. I'm not asking for like 10 timeskip units per route but is 1 or 2 really too much to ask for? Yeah that's my main gripe with the game that just bugs me the most. Also the cutscenes aren't all bad, they alternate between styles and it's weird because cutscenes like when Kostas sticks an axe in Byleth's back look really fucking good but then you turn around and look at the next cutscene only to be greeted with the ugly 2 frame animation. It's weird man. That's all . .. ... .... ..... And Dimitri should have got a cutscene in golden deer. Ok I'm done this time.
I feel like Ladislava/Randolph should be set up more in Part I, so that no matter what route you pick, killing them isn't just 'oh, another annoying boss on a wyvern to kill'. Killing Gilbert in CF is quite heartbreaking because of Anette's presence and the fact you do know him (especially if you played BL beforehand). And then, of course, having them join you in CF would be a great way to bolster your roster. Maybe a paralogue with Edelgard that involves them joining as green units to assist in something happening in Enbarr, or hell, put them in the Constance/Hapi one (which takes place in Enbarr). Personally, Rodrigue and Judith/Nader seem fine in terms of story set-up (Rodrigue is done pretty well in Part II, and Judith feels... fine). They should definitely be playable, especially Rodrigue, who's a Holy Knight- it would be pretty fun to have a Holy Knight from the get-go instead of having to grind someone up for it, and it can help make up for Mercedes' weaker healing compared to Linhardt/Marianne. Judith would be interesting as a literal Hero class (assuming we remove the gender lock), since her title is the Hero of Daphnel, and Nader would be cool if he got some Almyra-exclusive wyvern class as Claude does. For Silver Snow, you get most of the church characters to make up for losing Edelgard and Hubert, but I really think Rhea should've been the replacement lord. Timeskip units would be cool, especially if they make cameos or appear in Part I (as Rodrigue and Gilbert do).
The one thing I’ve noticed about three houses is that the more I play it, the more I find to not like about it. I have a feeling that Three Houses will become the new awakening, where there will be dedicated fans that will stand by it being a fantastic game while others will have it reduced to a mid/low tier game on their list of favourites once the novelty wears off. Obviously not saying that this will happen 100% but i have a feeling that’s where it’s gonna go.
I think I'm in a similar boat to most, but here's mine: - 3H needed more time. While they bit off way more than they could chew with the route split and the tone of Part II is far more inconsistent compared to Part I, having only one route (that being Silver Snow, per the March 2020 interview) would make for a very anemic experience. - That same interview also made it clear that El's route was the "conqueror's" route, and her betrayal would serve as the game's emotional lynchpin, except several developers realized she had major marketing potential and also wanted to emphasize that part of why she's a good character was....that she's cute. Hence all the tone deaf moments in CF and the game bending over backwards to make you sympathize with her on other routes (Her whole schtick, at least to me, makes her look far less sympathetic than the game wants you to think). - TWSITD are interesting in concept but executed horribly. Their presence as an all encompassing threat is rendered as either an afterthought or, in AM, a complete joke (you kill all of their major officers without realizing it). - The "enhancing" the avatar "experience" by making what should have been an otherwise regular secondary protagonist/viewpoint character mute in a game with extensive voice acting...no. Just...no. - It should have been far more difficult to poach students to your side, especially on CF. Tied to that is that Part II loses its punch if you don't really care about those you didn't recruit. - While the monastery likely used up a LOT of resources, a lot of Fodlan, which does have a nicely established backdrop and setting, feels unexplored. - Claude's entire existence and how he was able to work despite his route being ripped from Silver Snow tells just how badly he was squandered (his route was supposedly very different early in development). VW is also the only route where Byleth's presence sort of matters. - The infamous interview in and of itself just shows how lackadaisical and weird the directors of this game are, and it really does feel that the other staff and the players were what made it enjoyable. It probably won't happen, but Kusakihara and his goons should just do the Binding Blade remake he's always wanted to do while fresh talent can come in and do future projects, including possible 3H-related ones. - Game play is fine to me for the most part, aside from Part I being identical in all routes and the lacking map variety (nowhere near Awakening/Echoes' level though) Hope you enjoyed my word vomit.
Honestly Three Houses is the kind of game you either accept the numerous flaws or don't, and whether you will or won't will affect if you like the game or not. Personally, I think it's ok, with a good mix of good and bad that make the good parts really good but the bad parts really bad, making it a pretty middle tier game for me.
Frederico Ricardo Silveira yeah i actually think we had really low expectations so when we started to realize it was gonna be good we geeked out a little too hard. Like you can’t criticize the game in the first six months too hard. People really thought this game was perfect for a really long time. Fates and Awakening must’ve set our expectations too low.
*Number one reason* It doesnt play like a fe4 remake
Eh... Not quite. Taking this comment seriously, FE4 is incredibly different compared to 3H or the other Fire Emblem games. So much to the point where one wouldn't know that it was a Fire Emblem game if it weren't for the name "Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War".
😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
One thing about Crimson Flower is that we know from interviews that Silver Snow was made first and was the basis for the routes that followed, and the devs initially wanted a route where Edelgard betrays you and you're forced to fight her. Crimson Flower was way more likely rushed because it was the route they made last.
One small but not mentioned, yet often occurring flaw (for me) was the inability to trade/equip different magic tomes. There were often times where I needed a bigger spell due to doing a few more dmg points to kill the cavalry, like Death Spikes. Because those spells are heavy, I often wanted to switch the magic user back to using Fire/Nosferatu/Miasma. But unlike the weapons, you cannot switch the order of magic tome in a trade. Just something that took a couple of Divine Pulses in my first Maddening mode, because all magic users got slowed heavily from the bigger spells, making them unable to prevent being doubled during enemy phase.
The Church route was actually created before crimson flower. Crimson flower was intended as a secret route. I believe they were doing the Farcry thing of marketing the game with the villain when they used Edelgard so heavily in the marketing.
Totally CF feels like the fourth route rather than SS
The Monastery can be even more annoying if you have access to the Holy Tomb in a NG+, while it makes the game incredibly easy you will just end up save-resetting over and over and over again until you get 4-5 stat boosters
All valid points to be honest. Another issue I'd like to add to this list is the discrepancy in mediums of cutscene animations. Sometimes we'll get full anime-style scenes like the monastery invasion as well as the four endgames, but other times, we get the more 3D style scenes like Byleth taking the hit for Edelgard in the prologue or the "kill every last one of them" scene. Mix those in with dialogue scenes where the character models look like they were xeroxed as well as awkward CG images, and you get a very inconsistent presentation of the game graphics. On another note about graphic gripes, I was under the impression that there were going to be a lot more colors and vibrant tones in the game due to the trailers showing a lot of red, green, purple, and blue in the cutscenes. The base title screen before clearing Maddening is green, the Crest of Flames as a loading screen is purple, the option highlight color is blue, and that's all fine. Then we play the actual game and it's just a ton of beige, white, and yellow. It personally feels really bad seeing the same small handful of backdrop colors as you're running through the monastery, particularly once the skies turn yellow after the timeskip. The maps are guilty of this too. The first bandit mission in Zanado, the Jeralt death map, Arianrhod, Fort Merceus, Deirdriu, Enbar, and Fhirdiad all have the same off-white paving, and it gets really boring to look at after playing through multiple routes.
3H Is still my favorite fire emblem games my biggest problem is Claudes route. I honestly feel he’s completely unnecessary to the plot and he really doesn’t add anything to it. While I do agree with Mangs on a lot of his points idc about the cutscenes being 15 frames I like the monastery a lot more than he does, and yes the crimson flower route was busted in this game
I'm with you. Edelgard and Dimitri's conflict is an emotional rollercoaster. Claude's role is "being in Edelgard's way", while he wants the same thing she does.
yeah I agree with the paralogues, I mean with the case of Dedue you actually HAVE to do it if you want him to be even alive in part 2
I can agree on most if not all these points but the Cenamatics were great in my opinion, Dimtrii going beserk on Edlagard, Edlgard's final bout with Rhea, Dimtrii's speech too Edlagard, Calude's final battle with nemesis. We're REALLY good
Some of the animated cinematics were pretty good to be fair. I genuinely loved the opening cutscene, Dimitri going berserk, and all the ending cutscenes. However, the ones in the middle of the game were not very good. Mangs showed Claude playfighting Nader as an example of one that's very choppy and generic. Overall, I believe all the cutscenes would still have looked better in a different animation style, one with a higher frame rate, one that didn't obviously use generic 3D models for every soldier, etc. If you look at Awakening's or Fates' cutscenes, they were so fluid and gorgeous in comparison to Echoes and Three Houses. Remember, they could have used a different animation style without changing the dialogue or even the cinematography. As it is right now, the animated cutscenes overall looked like they came from the same studio that did Berserk 2017... yeah.
On the point about repeating supports, I feel like IS kind of did Raphael dirty in that department. The fact that he's an orphan trying to become a knight to support his sister, and goes to school with the person who's father is responsible for that is pushed aside in favour of him being a lovable goofball who likes food and training. It would be SUPER interesting to get a support where Raphael just... talks about how maybe he feels all this pressure to support his sister back home, or how hard it felt to lose his parents to someone other than Ignatz- he doesn't even really talk about it to Ignatz, just assures him that he shouldn't feel bad because it wasn't his fault. A Raphael/Lorenz support where he and Lorenz just talk about what happened and how it makes them feel would have done so much to flesh out both characters at once! IS did Raphael dirty when his circumstances and reasons as to why he's at the academy are some of the most interesting among the Golden Deer.
I replayed radiant dawn recently, and I LOVED the cutscenes, omg they are super good! I can't believe the game is like 13 years old. Even the background art in the battle animations are so pretty and the soundtrack is really unique. I agree awakening had great looking cutscenes too.
10:01 King dragon sends his regard
Good thing i always bring a spare gun
well, to add to some of your points about laziness and how routes have similarities, you experience that in the church route as is basically the same as verdant wind (haven't finished verdant wind, but I already killed Edelgard) and the story feels the same, the biggest differences are that Claude is actively involved in verdant wind instead of pulling the strings off-screen, and that the battle at Gronder doesn't happen on the church route, instead you are told the results of it (yeah more characters killed off-screen) and then decide to go to kill Edelgard because she was injured in the battle
It’s now come out Crimson flower was the last route developed and was only made because people got too attached to Edelgard from the marketing so uh yeah, makes sense it feels rushed.
not really they all planned it from the begining.
The developper have said that the first route was the church one
I've seen some great 3H comics that gave Byleth a good personality and used 3H great world building. After reading them I remember that they are not actually in the game and then I become disappointed. They really show that 3H had almost everything going for it and how great the game could've been if the developers just did a little bit more.
This is why any time I see fan art or a comic with Byleth acting like a character I say "Oh wait, they're just a blank piece of cardboard in the actual game." Corrin and to a lesser extent Robin aren't great by any means, but at least they have some personality. At least I can see why people might give a crap about them. Byleth is so beloved by the students, but it takes me out of the story because I don't like them, how can anyone like Byleth when they're nothing?
I was little a salty when Edelgard route had the shortest chapters
I've only just now gotten onto Edelgard's route as my 3rd playthrough (with church route to finish up). I have been noticing that the chapters are faster to complete, although I thought that was just from me getting good at the game; guess it was just me haha >
Better to have a shorter route than a copy and paste from the other routes like the others did.
Ehh I just wanna say that the Awakening “Illusion of Choice” example isn’t quite the same. The choice there is of cinematic/emotional significance, and rather than your choice being denied, it’s more been TAKEN by Emmeryn (as is the point). That being said, I ALSO really hate false choices in this game especially. The whole “choose your words carefully to gain support points” is cool but not interesting enough to make me tolerate a false choice
You're not alone. When Gilbert asked me where to go I layed the controller down and thought about the descision. I was sure that if you go for Edelgard first your bond with Dimitri will increase but it will have consequences for the capital but if you go to the capital first that Dimitri would become angry and even worse Edelgard would have more time to prepare her army. And we know what she accomplished 5 years earlier at this point. I was REALLY into it. Three Houses did a great job for me if it's about the blue lions route. It feels very attached to the characters and I wouldn't wonder if it was written first. It was pretty sad that they didn't included a route split here since it would've made the route more interesting. With my knowledge now (Spoilers ahead) they could made TWSID show up on one route and not on another. Also the javelins of light should be brought up more often. Such an overpowered weapon was never seen before Three Houses and it was bearly used in the opening and two cutscenes with one of them being exclusive to one route. If they need time to prepare, show the player in the route where they conquer the capital first by destroying it directly after their success. Showing how strong the enemy is. Dimitri could've gotten even more insane and the story would've reached a very dark point (probably too dark which is why we didn't got it). Also what is the real deal with TWSID? They do something but what is their goal? I played through all routes and yes I know what and why they did what they did with the imperial family. But they are so barely onscreen I see them as some kind of side villians who doesn't matter. Like bandits with advanced technology who are too dumb to use it. They killed Jeralt, yes... But aside from a sad sad plottwist that wasn't predictable at all for someone who played more then 2 FE games at this point - the story would've worked with Jeralt as well. His death creates a cheap shock and that's it. In short they maybe do the beasts and experiments and all but... What is their biggest goal? And why do you not show it to us more often? Bring up the frozen Elites with their Replica weapons as those gods you want to revive in order to take over the world once more. And also give us a character like edelgard who grows on us as someone that shocks us when he/she betrays us and maybe wait for our revenge for her. Give us the chapter where we beat this character during the middle or the end of the timeskip and make sure that he/she does a lot of crap beforehand. Make me hate but also sympathize with such an antognist because of his actions like you did with Arvis, Julius, Ishtar, the Black Knight, Berkut and Zephiel for example. Some of them aren't that good as well. But everyone got a backstory and did more then just creating unnessecary drama. Even Idunn, no even Yarne who shows up in the second last chapter of FE6 has more dialouge and more reasons for his actions despite being part of only 1 chapter. The only things you can say about Kronya are: She kills because of fun and her design is pure fanservice. How creative. Why not getting into more detail about Monica? Why not making her recruitable in the Black Eagle route (the game really needs more recruitments aside from the students anyway)? Why hide the interesting parts about her in the library? Sure for some routes this would be good to make you theorize but on one route it would be nice to have more explanations for said topic. Edit: One last thing - having the chapter on the last day of every month and (especially after the timeskip) force the characters to go back to the monastery every time doesn't make that much sense every time. If you're in a hurry to save the capital in the azure moon route why would you return to the monastery multiple times? The golden deer route makes the most sense because it explains a lot and is one of the longest routes in the game but it would've been nice to have more then one chapter during a few month. I'm not saying the story is bad. It is a lot better then Awakenings and Fates Story. It has the best of the modern ones imo but a lot of unused potential which holds it back to become a masterpiece.