Fire Emblem: Three Houses

 Switch
User Score
8.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2891 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,540 out of 2891
  2. Mixed: 124 out of 2891
  3. Negative: 227 out of 2891
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  1. Germaniumer
    Jul 26, 2019
    1
    Graphics and animations have progressed from those of FEs on 3DS.
    But level design,system, and UI became worse.
  2. GloriaVic
    Jul 26, 2019
    0
    It's not the best Fire Emblem, and nor is't close to being one of the best, this saga has lost every drop of its essence and original charm. I've played it for several hours and I can come to the conclusion that it's more of the same anime weaboo pandering, Fire Emblem will be Fire Emblem again when they worry about creating mature stories and stop implementing dating systems.
  3. ToshiKusakihara
    Jul 26, 2019
    0
    I only played a few hours and I have said that it has been a disappointing experience, I was sparing a better graphic performance for a Switch game, but this seems like PS2 game, and the story seems pretty boring, it doesn't hook me.
  4. SharonMeier
    Jul 26, 2019
    0
    I thought it would be a good fusion of what Tellius was on the Wii with the mechanics of handheld consoles, but the central mechanics of the game have not finished curdling for me. Previous games like Shadows of Valentia were much better, people are giving this game a very high score. I think it's a pretty deficient Fire Emblem to call it the "best."
  5. KarlitoZans
    Jul 26, 2019
    0
    It's ridiculous how they overvalue this game, it's really not that good, the story is not the best in the saga, the artstyle is poor and generic, and the gameplay is somewhat broken.
  6. AceAscendus
    Jul 26, 2019
    0
    This is not REAL Fire Emblem, it is some Harry Potter style school nonsense! Bring back Path of Radiance era Fire Emblem.
  7. TheGuyWhoHats
    Apr 21, 2023
    0
    Three Houses has a lot of problems, the monastery sections get boring after a few chapters, Some routes aren't finished, The gameplay is not as good as other games like Engage or Fates: Conquest. But i don't really care because I can make Ashe a great knight and I think that's funny.
  8. tobias007
    Nov 19, 2019
    4
    This game is WAY too freaking easy. Jesus Christ... I returned it after about 20 hours with the intention of rebuying when they finally get around to adding Lunatic/Infernal difficulty. "Hard mode" has literally never felt easier in a FE game before. This is like "baby's first Fire Emblem" in all honesty.

    A bit of a nitpick, but the graphics and art style really leave a lot to be    This game is WAY too freaking easy. Jesus Christ... I returned it after about 20 hours with the intention of rebuying when they finally get around to adding Lunatic/Infernal difficulty. "Hard mode" has literally never felt easier in a FE game before. This is like "baby's first Fire Emblem" in all honesty.

    A bit of a nitpick, but the graphics and art style really leave a lot to be desired. The game looks even more lackluster than Pokemon Sword/Shield. Well, at least 3 Houses has plenty of content to keep the player busy (unlike Pokemon). Credit where it's due.    … Expand
  9. Ughduty
    Jun 11, 2020
    4
    There is one bad thing that stands out and that is the handheld support. A lot of texts are far too small to be read comfortably.

    Further the tutorial is lacking and the in game documentation too. The learning curve at least for newcomers will therefore be relatively high. Other than that it is a very nice game so far. Currently around 15 hours in. The characters have a lot of    There is one bad thing that stands out and that is the handheld support. A lot of texts are far too small to be read comfortably.

    Further the tutorial is lacking and the in game documentation too. The learning curve at least for newcomers will therefore be relatively high.

    Other than that it is a very nice game so far. Currently around 15 hours in. The characters have a lot of personality and the longer the game goes on the more you are going to care about them. The things you can do between battle missions by exploring the monastery, talking to people, catch fish, grow plants and so on are a welcoming change. The strategic part of the game is demanding if you play the game on the hard difficulty. I chose to play in classic mode which means that if someone in battle dies he will be dead for good. However because you have a time turner to your availability that lets you go back up to 3 turns this is not such a big challenge. Up until now I haven‘t lost anyone.

    If they would make the texts better readable in handheld mode I would give the game a 9 out of 10.    … Expand
  10. Hackattaque
    Feb 20, 2022
    4
    A very good, very solid turn-based strategy game, that only suffers from a hot anime mess of a plot line (which after a great start gets bogged down in endless exposition) and a lack of surprises after the halfway point (there are only a couple of fun maps with unique mechanics like warp points).

    The idea of playing through the game again twice doesn’t appeal — in hindsight I wish the    A very good, very solid turn-based strategy game, that only suffers from a hot anime mess of a plot line (which after a great start gets bogged down in endless exposition) and a lack of surprises after the halfway point (there are only a couple of fun maps with unique mechanics like warp points).

    The idea of playing through the game again twice doesn’t appeal — in hindsight I wish the game had fewer play throughs and one single kick ass consolidated story . But still a v v good game    … Expand
  11. mattyess
    Jun 19, 2021
    1
    Why is it so hard to find a challenging, or at least ‘balanced’, strategy game these days? There is no point in using strategy in this “strategy” game. The AI is as dumb as dirt. And it is far too easy to level up your players and end up with a team that is near invincible, at which point you can spam auto-battle on each turn and just roll over your opponent. It’s such a pity because thereWhy is it so hard to find a challenging, or at least ‘balanced’, strategy game these days? There is no point in using strategy in this “strategy” game. The AI is as dumb as dirt. And it is far too easy to level up your players and end up with a team that is near invincible, at which point you can spam auto-battle on each turn and just roll over your opponent. It’s such a pity because there is so much great customisation and thought that has been poured into the skill and character class creation. But what is the point when the AI just rushes head first in to each battle and throws themselves on to your sword?

    Hugely disappointing game.    … Expand
  12. Madethistowarn
    Jul 3, 2022
    0
    By far the worst in the franchise, 0 thought went into putting the fights together. The review you see above is bought and paid for. This game is water trash
  13. s2ada
    Sep 8, 2019
    1
    Un point juste pour le fait que les histoires diffère entre la personne choisis car tout le reste est chiant.
  14. GenkiYokota
    Jan 27, 2022
    0
    The worst Fire Emblem that exists and I don't shy away from saying it.
    The graphics are terrible for the console they came out on, the story is one of the worst in the entire series, and the game has been sullied with mechanics that have nothing to do with the general essence of FE.
    A total shame.
  15. tangledwings
    Apr 4, 2020
    4
    I played through the entire game. It is such a shame that this game decides to give you 1/5th of a game in a 50 hours+ playthrough. Such a tedious, repetitive, frustrating, waste of time. It is impossible to enjoy the game because every time something interesting happens, it's always like "we'll maybe explain it in a future playthrough or paid DLC." The result is an empty, soullessI played through the entire game. It is such a shame that this game decides to give you 1/5th of a game in a 50 hours+ playthrough. Such a tedious, repetitive, frustrating, waste of time. It is impossible to enjoy the game because every time something interesting happens, it's always like "we'll maybe explain it in a future playthrough or paid DLC." The result is an empty, soulless experience where it's impossible to be emotionally invested in anything.

    During your first playthrough, you will have no idea what is going on. It's hard to put into words just how poorly the story is presented. 95% of your dialog options go like this:

    "I am person X from place Y."

    A: "Person X?"
    B: "Place Y?"

    NPC Answer: The same no matter what you pick.

    There are maybe 2 choices that actually matter, though there are few that seem huge and yet turn out to be completely meaningless:

    "Will you be my ally or my enemy?"

    A: Ally
    B: Enemy

    NPC Answer: Ok, we will be enemies regardless of what you pick.

    The player has no control over any interaction. Half-way through you will be asked to pick a side in a war where nobody explains why they are fighting or tries to convince you in any way. You will have 0 context for this decision. That is the biggest choice in the game. Even after finishing the game, I don't understand why we were fighting. I guess I can play through 5 more times to find out!

    The relationship building system is also terrible. Characters will bond and trigger various cut-scenes. Half of them will be fights where the characters clearly hate each other, so it's weird to call it bonding but OK. Characters have 1 personality trait and all interactions revolve around that. The last cut-scene will largely be the characters asking other characters to consider marrying them. One character will propose to like 4-5 different people, it's so weird. At the very end, you will get a text box telling you that certain characters got married, which seems entirely random and no one really knows the formula. All my end pairings were between people I consider incompatible. The player's own marriage is awkward and sterile. And of course, lots of characters will seem to be in love with you before the last battle, because there is only one path for each relationship and all paths that can end in marriage, end in marriage. There aren't many. 3-4 very short conversations with each character.

    This was my First fire Emblem game and yeah, I hate it. I don't understand what people find appealing about this mess. The music is terrible. The player character aesthetic, ugh. The empty coat sleeves flailing about, the fishnets with holes, the open fly, the floating collar, the green hair. It's everything that's ever been wrong about JRPGs. No customization, silent cardboard protagonist, grindy, bizarre color and style choices, tries to draw inspiration from medieval Europe but ends up just making everything weird.    … Expand
  16. Klansterjander
    Sep 7, 2019
    1
    Totally predictable and disappointing, do not touch even with a stick, get away from this game, do not be fooled. The worst video game of this year for my taste.
  17. CarlTheAwesome
    Jul 29, 2019
    3
    I applaud designer's intention to be creative and want to add more mechanics to the game. But for people who are not into ACG/life sim games, or who just don't get those anime/manga culture, the academic life sim part of the game is just a waste of time. You can skip most of those, but you lose lots of benefit and reward. So the life sim part is not really optional if you want to maximizeI applaud designer's intention to be creative and want to add more mechanics to the game. But for people who are not into ACG/life sim games, or who just don't get those anime/manga culture, the academic life sim part of the game is just a waste of time. You can skip most of those, but you lose lots of benefit and reward. So the life sim part is not really optional if you want to maximize your resources. The graphics, modeling and animation is somehow much worse than Fire Emblem Warriors which has a lot more characters on screen.… Expand
  18. Ctarblu
    Nov 3, 2019
    3
    The first half of the game is almost good though easy as hell even on hard difficulty. But the second half... Let's split it into the sections
    1. Balance
    Before the time skip you don't even need to think to go through most of the missions. After the *spoiler* there is a huge difficulty spike. And no I'm not a dummy who can't do good trades or use game mechanics. Instead of creating    The first half of the game is almost good though easy as hell even on hard difficulty. But the second half... Let's split it into the sections
    1. Balance
    Before the time skip you don't even need to think to go through most of the missions. After the *spoiler* there is a huge difficulty spike. And no I'm not a dummy who can't do good trades or use game mechanics. Instead of creating difficult lay outs or introducing new game mechanics to make fights harder developers choose to make corridor maps with infinite enemy spawns. I literally had a situation where after 25 minutes of clearing mobs I had more enemies on the map than on the start of the mission. It's not a good game design it's an artificial difficulty
    2. Story
    Again the first half is fine. There is not a lot going on, but it's basically introduction to the world. The second half is the problem. I went eagle route. There is 18 chapters in it if I recall correctly. Imagine the game where right after a huge plot point progression stops for 6-8 hours in the last third of the game. That is FE:TH. 4-5 chapters at the start of second half provide no story whatsoever. And don't even try to argue "you just didn't complete those side activities". Main story should NEVER be hidden under various side activities. There are a lot of gamers who play story base games for the main story.
    3. Characters
    This one is controversial but I just didn't like them. They felt generic and almost all of them lack in character development. But I get why some people like them
    4. UI
    Some texts are unreadable in portable mod. And overall UI is far from perfect.
    5. Performance
    There a some awful looking textures, awful backgrounds and frame drops but it's not that big of a deal. The game is playable and looks fine
    Can't rate it higher. I wanted this game to be good so hard but it's not even average imo    … Expand
  19. Eve84
    Jul 28, 2019
    3
    If this was a "proper" FE game, it could actually be great, but the endless monastery free exploration and anime relationship activities just drag the game down significantly. Especially since all it does is complcate actions that older FE games let you do with two clicks.

    Allocating extra skill points for example could be done between missions in other entries. Now you have to run    If this was a "proper" FE game, it could actually be great, but the endless monastery free exploration and anime relationship activities just drag the game down significantly. Especially since all it does is complcate actions that older FE games let you do with two clicks.

    Allocating extra skill points for example could be done between missions in other entries. Now you have to run around for half an hour, grabbing gifts from one student, bring them to others, then get vegetables as reward, which you use at the dinner activity to bring their motivation up, so you can use the motivation to lecture them personally and raise their skill points. Its just useless.

    And combat is the easiest its ever been. There are so many crutches that you literally cannot do wrong. Not only can you turn back time, but also the game shows you exactly where and who enemies will target. Meaning that you literally cannot make a wrong move. There's no strategy involved and combat just revolves around exploiting this.    … Expand
  20. Bunniebun
    Aug 3, 2019
    4
    Start strong but falls flat. The gameplay become too repetitive and boring. Story is nice but story telling isn't very good. Art direction is also worse than previous versions.
  21. gnlarsson
    Aug 15, 2019
    3
    Let me preface by saying - I have been playing Fire Emblem since Path of Radiance. Been playing RPGs since NES. I have never reviewed a video game before, and created an account specifically for this. Love Fire Emblem series... or should I say I used to? Below is my breakdown on this game:

    Pros: -Nice graphics. -Fun additions to battles, including specialized items, new job class    Let me preface by saying - I have been playing Fire Emblem since Path of Radiance. Been playing RPGs since NES. I have never reviewed a video game before, and created an account specifically for this. Love Fire Emblem series... or should I say I used to? Below is my breakdown on this game:

    Pros:
    -Nice graphics.
    -Fun additions to battles, including specialized items, new job class promotion routes, and gambits.
    -Interesting new main plot storyline with fun characters and an interesting, fresh setting.

    Cons:
    -Exploring is tedious. Monastery feels like an early beta release. If you are obsessive like me, you will comb this monastery many many times over looking for insignificant items, only to inexplicably miss a support or story line item because it's not clear what conversation choices will be received well

    -A high focus on cheesy, terrible relationship building and chatter that is absolutely miserable to follow. This seems geared towards a small niche of people.

    -Side jobs that could be fun - gardening, fishing, building your professor ranking - seems interesting at first. Gardening is a chore with no finesse, fishing feels rushed and has no interest, and bears very little reward. Tournaments are simple - throw your strongest character in regardless of weapon (Or magic user) and smash B button to make it go fast. Also very little reward.

    -Character progression ends on some truly odd "Master classes". Sword and magic? Reason based attack classes? These demand you be poor at multiple skills instead of good or great at any one.

    -Tea time; Seminars; Instruction; weekly tasks; these are all a complete drag.

    -Shorter significant story line, which I suppose is supplemented by multiple houses (Storyline playthroughs) and all the dating-game nonsense? I hope you liked scumming the monastery for items and conversations 15+ times on your first playthrough, because there are more playthroughs after that.

    -Very, very easy.

    Summary: The main storyline has some fun aspects and battle is neat, albeit easy. But know that you are buying more of an anime dating game rather than a legitimate, gritty, difficult entry into what was an amazing series. My suggestion: Don't waste your money.    … Expand
  22. DrRob
    Jul 28, 2019
    1
    Borrrring., complicated, messy and the graphics are from an other decade. They wanted to do a game with a lot of content but at the end you don't know what to focus on. Not everything is explained which makes the game confusing
  23. crashman84
    Jul 28, 2019
    3
    - FPS drops in strategy maps as well as exploration
    - Exploration is completely unnecessary and puts the focus away from strategy maps
    - Tons of fetch quests just so you can give extra skill points to characters - Strategy maps are completely easy and without any challenge - You can turn back time as well as always know which character gets attacked before the enemies turn, removing    - FPS drops in strategy maps as well as exploration
    - Exploration is completely unnecessary and puts the focus away from strategy maps
    - Tons of fetch quests just so you can give extra skill points to characters
    - Strategy maps are completely easy and without any challenge
    - You can turn back time as well as always know which character gets attacked before the enemies turn, removing strategy aspects from the game
    - Typical anime trope school setting
    - Music is quite bad
    - Story in the last third makes no sense    … Expand
  24. velvet01
    Sep 4, 2019
    1
    muy mal juego ,, graficas pobres ,, todo repetitivo ... arrastra los mismos errores que tiene la franquicia desde el 3DS.
  25. RandomNetizen
    Jul 27, 2019
    2
    I was looking forward this game, after all the announcements about gay relationships and featuring a BoysLove artist for the character designs, but after release it became clear that this game is little progress compared to its predecessors in this regard and Nintendo still doesn't care about its anti-LGBT-messages in its games.
  26. Nowakowski
    Oct 17, 2019
    0
    This game is my biggest disappointment; possibly one of the biggest disappointments I have had from a video game. It makes very little sense and just feels half baked.
    However, the story is dreadful. Honestly, this one is a bit of a dud for me and I'm surprised.
  27. Vexxen
    Jul 27, 2019
    0
    I had to return the game once I found out it literally copied and pasted from Persona 5. The studio essentially took what Harry Potter did and implemented into their school system. Not only that but they also took alot from trails of cold steel 1 and 2 . I'll BE saving my money for an original abd innovative game like outer worlds. Devs like Obsidian that focus on making new games insteadI had to return the game once I found out it literally copied and pasted from Persona 5. The studio essentially took what Harry Potter did and implemented into their school system. Not only that but they also took alot from trails of cold steel 1 and 2 . I'll BE saving my money for an original abd innovative game like outer worlds. Devs like Obsidian that focus on making new games instead of ripping off other less known games.… Expand
  28. Calvotoxico
    Sep 5, 2019
    1
    Es un juego que objetivamente hablando no es del todo muy convincente. No me gusta la base ni los gráficos.. Quizá lo venda antes que se devalue.
  29. D3t0x15
    Sep 17, 2019
    4
    This game is a joke. I play the Fire Emblem saga since Seisen no Keifu ( who isn't even the "first one" that has been released in Europe) and many thing need to be reworked ....

    First, a lot inconsistency are present in the story telling ( so much that i've lost the count before the 10th chapter) Secondly, when you try to introduce a new game mechanic, be sure that it has a purpose.    This game is a joke. I play the Fire Emblem saga since Seisen no Keifu ( who isn't even the "first one" that has been released in Europe) and many thing need to be reworked ....

    First, a lot inconsistency are present in the story telling ( so much that i've lost the count before the 10th chapter)

    Secondly, when you try to introduce a new game mechanic, be sure that it has a purpose. Cause putting a rewind time just "broke" the game. If you want to play on perma death it's useless; and if you don't want to use the perma death it has no purpose whatsoever.

    After that, the plot twist is ..... no comment..... ( you can clearly see who's going to stab you in the back and you can clearly see some ressemblances with other Fire Emblem character and their plot twist ...)

    Then, you are obliged to wait to get deeper in certain relationship ( obliged to wait for the history to move on) You can be in a S relationship before the second half of the game ...

    After that , we could talk about bad framerate, bad graphism, the UI who S*cks balls, having more than 4 times the same map to battle on, waifus and husbandos spitting the same line of dialog over and over till you begin to hate your own waifu, and so on ....

    Finally, to all of those who give a 10 to a game like this, I just want to say one thing: You're destroying the video game industry by having no freaking opinion 'where are the explication for your 10 out of 10 ? Finish the game totally then do your review, be a little more critical and the world will be a better place were people will work harder and harder for a better result.    … Expand
  30. RPSx
    Sep 23, 2019
    1
    The text is impossibly small. It ruins the entire game experience for me. I can't read a word of the tutorials. Complete and total design 101 fail. Please, game companies... don't design on a computer monitor. Design on the device you're creating for. Seriously, couldn't play this for more than 5 minutes. Selling it immediately.
  31. DCMCboxers
    Oct 25, 2019
    4
    If you are someone who came on board with the franchise during the 3DS era and stayed there, than this game may very well come off as a masterpiece. There are improvements to the overall quality of the story and characters as well as a return of some classic gameplay elements that make maps a bit more interesting than other recent titles. However, if you look at this game in a comparisonIf you are someone who came on board with the franchise during the 3DS era and stayed there, than this game may very well come off as a masterpiece. There are improvements to the overall quality of the story and characters as well as a return of some classic gameplay elements that make maps a bit more interesting than other recent titles. However, if you look at this game in a comparison to previous console Fire Emblems, the games which the developers claimed to take great inspiration from, you'll be met with disappointment.

    While Three Houses is an improvement of elements from the 3DS era, it's only that. It hasn't taken a necessary departure from elements in those games which actively compromise narrative quality and coherency. Byleth is perhaps the series worst iteration of a completely unnecessary addition: the avatar. The need for a player insert to be the center focus of the plot and several character's arcs compromises much of the story's integrity (and likely greatly contributed to the framing of one route in particular). The avatar being able to support with everyone for the sake of romance was already a drain on overall support writing quality, but now character's simply talk to silent brick wall as they rattle off the interesting bits of their backstories or suddenly surpass their issues. These explorations are rarely saved for supports between actual characters where their individual quirks or past histories would make for interesting conversation.
    But even outside of Byleth, supports continue to be disappointing. While characters have moved on from having one quirk to solely portray their character, you can now generally expect two or three quirks. With one in particular being singled out for any group dialogue that happens between house members. Some conversations do manage to at least be humorous or entertaining, but rarely do anything to meaningfully expand on the depth of a particular character, explore their backstory, add to the world of Fodlan, or be tonally appropriate to the game's second act. And when a support chain does end up adding something meaningful, expect it to be rather redundantly explored again in a chain with a different character. Most A supports disappointingly follow one of two formulas: if the character's are m/f then expect some kind of forced suggestion of romance, if the character's are the same sex, then expect the conversation to go something like this "Hey remember that trivial conversation we had 5 years ago? Well..." and then another really trivial conversation. Supports tend to be better when at least one unit who is not recruitable into other routes is present, which leads to my next point of contention.

    Like in Fates, the split route idea was poorly executed and hampers the game on multiple fronts. While a less obvious money making scheme, I see little reason to have had another multiple routes game other than how easy it is to build a marketing campaign over team rivalry (and boy are people rather zealously passionate about whatever house they picked first.. so it worked). Part 1 is far too long to have to replay for each of the game's routes and replaying it only makes the narrative road bumps in it more obvious, the maps are not interesting enough to justify how many times you'll be revisiting them unless you're very invested in doing weird builds for units, part 2 of any route often shares the same story beats with one another if not the same maps outright, being able to recruit many of the characters regardless of which route you're on ruins a lot of character integrity, etc. etc. etc.
    The split routes only work on a thematic level of distinctly separating your main lords ideology, but the game itself doesn't really care about maintaining enough internal consistency or actually saying anything for this to be a good enough justification.

    Now for some sightly more petty complaints:

    Dialogue. Now this may very well be the fault of some rushed translating. The game has a lot of text and literal translations seem to be a broad issue lately with bringing over Japanese media. But man, sometimes characters say a whole lot without ever really saying anything at all. And voice acting seems to bring little clarity to this.
    Graphics. Pretty awful. 3D models technically add more to support conversations, but not enough from what you'd expect them to add. It gets tiring to see character's cycle through something like only eight different emotes. Battle animations have some nice flare but something about the choreography of attacks adds little weight to the motions themselves. And the cutscenes.... Choppy with poor direction, weirdly trying to look 2D with 3D models. Radiant Dawn and some of the 3DS cutscenes have more visual appeal than what's on display here.
    Music. It's fine if not for over-relying on one or two leitmotifs. I felt like Fates has this issue, too. However, I was really hoping for the same kind of quality as Echoes' OST.    … Expand
  32. xrenderman
    Mar 25, 2020
    3
    First of all I never played JRPGs, only tried demos of Octopath and Dragon Quest. I was prepared for annoying and outdated game mechanics but was anticipating at least great combat system. But turns out that it's shallow and easy with no real tactical depth. Even Mario and Rabbits has much more depth and variety to combat not to mention Wasteland 2, Divinity 2 and other masterpiecesFirst of all I never played JRPGs, only tried demos of Octopath and Dragon Quest. I was prepared for annoying and outdated game mechanics but was anticipating at least great combat system. But turns out that it's shallow and easy with no real tactical depth. Even Mario and Rabbits has much more depth and variety to combat not to mention Wasteland 2, Divinity 2 and other masterpieces available on switch. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is not long time JRPG fan and already got used to it. Super basic overworld, purly animated and waitless feel of main character (like they used some basic free Unity3d template to create it), invisible walls, NPCs glued to places, long fetch quests not even as a side ones, but in main storyline, clunky controls and UI etc… Expand
  33. Raisincaine
    Mar 2, 2020
    4
    There’s so much to say about this game, but it really all boils down to it having some really shining moments that dissipate due to the games extended 40+ hour duration.

    In the first 10 hours, I was loving everything about this game! The monastery stuff was engaging and the combat was new and complex in its own way. After that, the gameplay loop started to rapidly become repetitive and    There’s so much to say about this game, but it really all boils down to it having some really shining moments that dissipate due to the games extended 40+ hour duration.

    In the first 10 hours, I was loving everything about this game! The monastery stuff was engaging and the combat was new and complex in its own way. After that, the gameplay loop started to rapidly become repetitive and I found myself trying to skip through the game's systems in the most time-efficient way possible.

    Characters and Story:

    This is my first fire emblem game, so I obviously did not have any context for the world or characters, so the entire story and lore were very skippable.

    Is it just me or were there only like 4 good characters in the whole story? I went Empire and personalities like Bernadetta, Ferdinand, Dorothea, Casper, and even your dad were so one dimensional that there was never a good connection with any of them. The relevance of any of the students seemed abysmal, and they simply followed your every move regardless of its morals. I feel like the students (besides them being your fighting party) are there just to be a showcase of different waifus.

    Even Byleth is a boring clean-slate character because the game refuses to give the player choices with how they approach the other characters in the world. You only get to make a few major story decisions, but it ends there.

    Combat:

    From the first fight, I thought this game would function better if standard party sizes were smaller by default. Having 10+ people in your party makes inventory management a nightmare and having a connection to your party members abysmal. I found myself navigating the inventory before a random auxiliary battle for 15 minutes, just trying to sell junk. I feel that having a full school of characters but only being able to choose 5 or 6 of them depending on the mission would’ve been a really interesting way to give the player more strategy and decision in how they choose to play.

    With this as my first Fire Emblem game, I chose Normal difficulty not knowing what to expect. With so many people in your party, the game was a breeze on normal. I’d probably have a better time on hard. I wish there was an option to switch difficulty on a save file from Normal to Hard.

    Also, why did they introduce the fog mechanic early on then never bring it back anywhere in the game? Are there fog levels on harder difficulties?

    The combat lacks variety in how to play. I felt like all characters were locked into whatever their specialty was from start to finish because it’s such a difficult task to reclass a character with prebuilt strengths.

    Waifus:

    The payoff for who you marry does not feel earned or satisfied at all. Also, the way they handle all the character's stories at the end of the game felt lazy.

    2/5    … Expand
  34. Sue0
    Jan 5, 2021
    0
    a shounen anime with some unrealistic poorly written characters and some stupid villains and a story filled with flaws
  35. Pestudkaru
    Jul 27, 2019
    0
    Horrible! I hate Nintendo right now! It's two thousand and effin nineteen! Get with the times Nintendo! Only one same sex relationship option!?! And even that is with a weird drunk guy?!? Also the main character is not customizable at all other than boy/girl and he's mute?!? Doesn't make a peep! This installment is at least a few steps back from the previous one!
  36. klkevinkl
    Sep 15, 2019
    4
    This game fixes some of the problems with the split story of Fire Emblem Fates, but still suffers from some of the same problems even though the story splits later on. You have a case in which three of the four paths just feel like they didn't bother to resolve all their problems while one of them does. Gameplay wise, it's a return to the older days and is more like classic Fire Emblem eraThis game fixes some of the problems with the split story of Fire Emblem Fates, but still suffers from some of the same problems even though the story splits later on. You have a case in which three of the four paths just feel like they didn't bother to resolve all their problems while one of them does. Gameplay wise, it's a return to the older days and is more like classic Fire Emblem era games than Awakening. If you were a fan of Awakening and Birthright, this is not the game for you. If you liked Conquest and the pre-Awakening era games, then Three Houses is for you.

    The game is divided into two major segments. The first is the school life where you hang around the monastery and talk to people, give them gifts, build relationships and such. This is modeled after the third person stuff they developed from Echoes and built on it. The other part is the traditional turn based systems. But like with Conquest and pre-Awakening games, you're pushed along the story with what is essentially an action limit so you are not free to take your time. The result is that even though it feels like there's a lot to do, your ability to actually do things are capped by an artificial time limit. As someone who is bigger fan of the Awakening era games, this is disappointing considering that they even said they would use Fates as the metric for determining the future of the series. The series is gradually falling back into the old ways and needs a course correction.    … Expand
  37. Profyt
    Jan 31, 2020
    2
    This game is terribly boring. The main point is to run around in circles reading dialogue, doing fetch quests and checking out the waifus. Even anime fans probably wouldn't like this game because the gameplay is soo boring! The combat isn't really innovative or very exciting, its ur typical tactical rpg stuff, deploy some dudes, run them to various terrains- use magic, melee or rangedThis game is terribly boring. The main point is to run around in circles reading dialogue, doing fetch quests and checking out the waifus. Even anime fans probably wouldn't like this game because the gameplay is soo boring! The combat isn't really innovative or very exciting, its ur typical tactical rpg stuff, deploy some dudes, run them to various terrains- use magic, melee or ranged attacks, kill the enemy- then run around hogwarts for another 20 minutes.
    idk, i guess some people are into it, but its a huge time sink just to read tons of dialogue...    … Expand
  38. Endrance09
    Jul 28, 2019
    0
    Don't waste your money on this trash game that looks like the PS2 era. Play 3 hours with 0 gameplay
  39. xaurax
    Jul 27, 2019
    0
    Malo con ganas y aburrido. Dando vueltas sin hacer nada. Si lo sé no lo compro
  40. Kleptomacer
    Oct 15, 2019
    0
    Obnoxious characters and boring story line make this game not worth playing. Avoid.
  41. Promotheus
    Oct 30, 2020
    0
    I like the Fire Emblem franchise so I decided to give this one a try out of sheer covid boredom. If you do not like anime aesthetics, or tropes when it comes to story telling and characters, give this one a pass. I understand that they are going for a Harry Potter thing with the three houses and all. But it makes zero sense to send young literally children out into war to be killed (not toI like the Fire Emblem franchise so I decided to give this one a try out of sheer covid boredom. If you do not like anime aesthetics, or tropes when it comes to story telling and characters, give this one a pass. I understand that they are going for a Harry Potter thing with the three houses and all. But it makes zero sense to send young literally children out into war to be killed (not to mention everyone being so casual about it).

    The characters are very stereotypical and predictable, you have your awkward shy emo girl who self quarantines even though there’s no pandemic and so on. The male characters are pretty much all this Japanese male ideal of being very thin and effeminate, which is fine it’s just a bit jarring as a westener.

    If you are Gen Z, and/or a weeb, you will love this game. Otherwise you will probably hate it like I do. It’s sad because the standard Fire Emblem tactical gameplay is fine, if only you didn’t have to deal with the chore of the dating sim/visual novel **** John Carmack said it best: ”Video games need a story just as much as a porn movie does”. I wish I could refund this but alas.    … Expand
  42. bruddawakka
    Jul 28, 2019
    0
    Awful graphics, awful romance options, broken unbalanced gameplay, way too easy,fix this immediately.
  43. s1w1s
    Jul 30, 2019
    0
    Cons
    - Koei developer
    - Worst graphic
    - Worst user interface
    - Worst story
    - Battle is like retro game

    All the japan games in these days are bad.
    They only like your money.
  44. zxreo
    Dec 6, 2020
    0
    No gameplay. No ergonomy. No artistic direction. Grindy, waste of time. Play the GBA titles.
  45. amandra
    Jan 3, 2021
    3
    This game is very boring. I ended up dumping an above average amount of time into this because the reviews _must_ be justified eventually. They weren't and I'd love to have that time back. In the end this just seems like a game for prepubescents to gawk at anime girls...there's less time consuming ways to accomplish that.

    Pros: Polished Decent story Bones of a good strategy game, but just    This game is very boring. I ended up dumping an above average amount of time into this because the reviews _must_ be justified eventually. They weren't and I'd love to have that time back. In the end this just seems like a game for prepubescents to gawk at anime girls...there's less time consuming ways to accomplish that.

    Pros:
    Polished
    Decent story
    Bones of a good strategy game, but just bones.

    Cons:
    The maps have virtually no impact on strategy. Strategy has virtually no impact on winning (it's insanely easy).

    The school thing was pure grind. Unrewarding, soul-crushing grind, that you can't really skip if you want to try to craft a team. They even knew it was boring since for the second half they cut out quests and you simply run around to get instructed. Yay...

    Tea parties....wtf?

    Plot paths revolve around preposterous situations. Side with a traitorous serial killer or you current allies? Believe it or not the interwebs claims siding with the killer is a better story. I won't know cuz I couldn't be bothered to try a different story path. One was enough torture.    … Expand
  46. lilboa
    Jan 6, 2023
    4
    can you remove the boring academy system?
    It looks like this game doesn't have a good enough story and enough game contents to hold up player's playing time. So you have to use this boring academy system.
  47. Halyo
    Oct 8, 2020
    3
    The maps are boring and uninspired. No strategy at all.
    The classes suck and most of the old classes were removed.
    High school setting is just annoying and is only there as a distraction from the terrible gameplay and progression system.
    TRASH. Buy FE Conquest instead.
  48. eR1c245
    Feb 20, 2021
    3
    I've played pretty much all of the FireEmblem games going back to the GameBoy Advance. Fire Emblem: Three Houses seems to be focussed on pointless side stories and tasks. Fishing, collecting lost items, cooking and buying birthday gifts to gain points seems pointless to me. The turn-based strategy is what I always loved about the FE series and Three Houses seems to be focussed on the wrongI've played pretty much all of the FireEmblem games going back to the GameBoy Advance. Fire Emblem: Three Houses seems to be focussed on pointless side stories and tasks. Fishing, collecting lost items, cooking and buying birthday gifts to gain points seems pointless to me. The turn-based strategy is what I always loved about the FE series and Three Houses seems to be focussed on the wrong things in my opinion. Play all the FE titles for the Nintendo 3DS, they are still the best.… Expand
  49. jeffbizloc
    Apr 24, 2020
    3
    Fire Emblem Three Houses was a game that I would enjoy if it was focused on tactics. It wasn't designed for difficulty/strategy - way too easy on standard. That makes all the non-battle pieces not really matter in the end (unless you are really into the story).

    Game(s) like: Banner Saga, Persona 5 Pros: - Cool concept of mixing tactical battles with offline story to power up    Fire Emblem Three Houses was a game that I would enjoy if it was focused on tactics. It wasn't designed for difficulty/strategy - way too easy on standard. That makes all the non-battle pieces not really matter in the end (unless you are really into the story).

    Game(s) like: Banner Saga, Persona 5

    Pros:
    - Cool concept of mixing tactical battles with offline story to power up

    Cons:
    - Difficulty made the game boring; harder difficulties were apparently not tuned well either
    - Offline game became stale after a while and well didn't matter since the battles were so easy    … Expand
  50. EevieRoseAmalee
    Jan 28, 2023
    0
    What to say really. As a classic Fire Emblem fan and one who appreciates some of the newer games like awakening this game just isn't fire emblem. I get it's mainstream and in turn was many peoples first "fire emblem" game and that's okay if you like it, but this game isn't Fire Emblem it should have been a persona spinoff. If they really wanted to make a persona game they should have askedWhat to say really. As a classic Fire Emblem fan and one who appreciates some of the newer games like awakening this game just isn't fire emblem. I get it's mainstream and in turn was many peoples first "fire emblem" game and that's okay if you like it, but this game isn't Fire Emblem it should have been a persona spinoff. If they really wanted to make a persona game they should have asked atlus because atlus does it better. Instead we got a game where boring and mundane social mechanics are integral to the story progression and they removed the weapon triangle something that gives fire emblem it's identity. That would be like removing pokemon types. It removes the identity from the game. As a fire emblem fan I can never recommend this game to another fire emblem fan simply because it spits in the face of what fire emblem is known for and does it's own thing all the while waltzing around with the name "fire emblem", but it isn't even fully made by intelligent systems. If you enjoy half baked social mechanics and baby mechanics that make a game way to easy with no challenge then this game might be for you, but if you're a fire emblem fan who appreciates all the good things that the series has done then just stay away from this one because it takes away so much and instead turns this game into a social sim with no real accomplishments in return for them.… Expand
  51. lenosi3232
    Feb 6, 2020
    2
    I'm really not quite sure why people.are rating this game so highly. The characters are fine, but the battles (the whole basis of the fire emblem franchise) are heavily scripted. If you do something during a battle that the game doesn't want you/ didn't expect you to do, the game autocorrects with some rather annoying deus ex machina tactics like if you kill a boss that you weren'tI'm really not quite sure why people.are rating this game so highly. The characters are fine, but the battles (the whole basis of the fire emblem franchise) are heavily scripted. If you do something during a battle that the game doesn't want you/ didn't expect you to do, the game autocorrects with some rather annoying deus ex machina tactics like if you kill a boss that you weren't supposed to be able to kill, the game may spawn powerful enemies around your one vital party member and the next thing you know, the 1 hour+ battle you just went through needs to be completely started over. This isn't always avoidable either. Sometimes reinforcements spawn around vital party member just because you weren't psychic enough to know exactly where their reinforcements would appear. After the third time this happened to me, I decided I was done with the game. It just quickly becomes such a slog that it's impossible to have fun.… Expand
  52. Swansonato
    Aug 25, 2020
    1
    I really like the Fire Emblem series, but I can't understand how someone can release a game that has unreadable fonts both in docked and in portable version. For me it makes the game unplayable and a total waste of money.
  53. m0th
    Aug 19, 2022
    3
    Fire Emblem Three Houses is an extremely lacking game that utilizes political ideologies as an aesthetic to cover up it's directionless story. The story is superficial, character interactions feel incredibly forced and unnatural, and it's artificially bloated with fetch quests. Snappy pacing which was once a highlight of the series is now gone. And there are no rewards for sitting throughFire Emblem Three Houses is an extremely lacking game that utilizes political ideologies as an aesthetic to cover up it's directionless story. The story is superficial, character interactions feel incredibly forced and unnatural, and it's artificially bloated with fetch quests. Snappy pacing which was once a highlight of the series is now gone. And there are no rewards for sitting through an entire in game month to reach the gameplay because the majority of maps are dull.

    After the initial wow factor of the game being customizable, I found myself wishing I was playing Tellius again. The game advertises itself to have multiple routes, but in reality it's approximately two routes. And the best map design is seen in the route they spent the least amount of time on.

    The social simulation aspect was not fun for me. Being a teacher who dates their former students is so weird. Not to mention all the people who justify it by saying Byleth (who's over 20 at the start) is close in age to these characters (the youngest being 14/15) so it's okay somehow. As if that's not the textbook definition of grooming?

    Byleth as a character is the worst main character in Fire Emblem history. Worse than Corrin because at least Corrin was born with half a personality. They're a blank slate made for the character to project into. The game tries to get you to believe that this bland empty husk has somehow changed lives and is fit to assist politics. Blue Lions route being one of the worst offenders for me because every dialogue "choice" is there to comfort characters I would rather not. If we could play as the lords instead of them with more concrete writing, the character interactions would have been salvageable.

    There was nothing I enjoyed in this game except for a handful of characters with wasted potential. If you think the writing in this game is good in any capacity please play Tactics Ogre.    … Expand
  54. Voyagerx
    Mar 10, 2022
    0
    GAME IS CENSORED! Nintendo acts themselves as the Chinese government and they are no different than communists in this aspect. They must learn, if the game is suitable in Japan, it is fine for us. There should be no changes other than the correct translation. If something (ie a reference) is unclear, we can all look it up ourselves. Overall, unnecessary censorship
  55. MeiKaG
    Dec 27, 2022
    1
    No deberia tener que hacer cosas tan especificas para poder tomar la cuarta ruta. Perdi 15 horas de juego con la intención de tomar esa ruta.
  56. tonberry_ftw
    Jun 24, 2023
    1
    Game mechanics were great, but really hated the hypocrisy for some of the characters that I wouldn't name for spoiler. I would give it 9.5 for golden deer, 8.5 for blue lion, but the other route was just terrible.
  57. Totoques22
    Aug 9, 2023
    2
    Worst Fire emblem experience ever and I’ve played revelations and **** romhacks

    70% of the game is social sim filler, avoid at all cost unless you’re into that The gameplay is awful by FE standards, and for a strategy game the mechanics don’t add up to each other and most combat arts/gambits are irrelevant outside of them few busted ones. Forget about any difficulty higher than normal    Worst Fire emblem experience ever and I’ve played revelations and **** romhacks

    70% of the game is social sim filler, avoid at all cost unless you’re into that The gameplay is awful by FE standards, and for a strategy game the mechanics don’t add up to each other and most combat arts/gambits are irrelevant outside of them few busted ones. Forget about any difficulty higher than normal since hard is only hard in the 1/5 of the game and maddening is some random unfair **** because the dev are simply incapable. And all that isn’t mentionning bad map design and absolutely terrible balance People keep mentioning a good story but that’s just not true only 2/4 routes have good story and one of the good ones is a secret route which is unfinished and unpolished,The only good story you will probably get is White Clouds in the first half of the game before the route split afterwards the story is mediocre on paper but bad when you consider that gameplay/story dissonance is very high, it’s like the gameplay is trying to contradict the story at every possible occasion(ex: crest as a whole)

    I’ve seen many claim that characters are at their best in the series but that’s just wrong many are insufferable and the practically all boil down to « I HAVE TRAUMA » also unlike any other FE you CANNOT just pick your favorites and have fun, you are stuck with who you got whether you like them or not. And sure you can recruit students but it’s too long, at the cost of training your main character and they join without any class mastery if not with terrible base stats for some adults

    Im giving it a two and not a 0 because white clouds is still a great story even if I am absolutely disappointed every time I want to absolutely continue the story only to end up in the awfully long, boring and repetitive social sim part

    Unit building is fun even it’s ultimately worthless to try to optimise your team since the difficulty will never hold up and the game is keen on never putting the player at any disadvantage (exactly how to NOT design a strategy game)

    Three houses is an SRPG in a series of TRPG

    I’ll reiterate my warning: avoid at all cost unless you’re into social sim and if you usually play FE for the gameplay    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best Switch Game of 2019
4
#4 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019
4
#4 Most Shared Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 102 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 98 out of 102
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 102
  3. Negative: 0 out of 102
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Apr 28, 2020
    95
    There may be too much content here for busy adults to tackle! I don't know when I'm going to find the time to do full playthroughs of the other two Houses that I didn't choose to begin with! [Issue #41 – September 2019, p. 74]
  2. Universo Nintendo
    Oct 29, 2019
    90
    Fire Emblem Three Houses is one of Switch's best games of 2019 and a breeze of fresh air to this franchise. Unfortunately, its poor animations preclude any possibility of being the game of the year.
    Read full review
  3. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Oct 11, 2019
    86
    Large selection of classes, good AI and wide variety of missions make Fire Emblem: Three Houses one of the best turn-based tactics. [Issue#240, p.50]
See all critic reviews »