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. Ansatsu83
    Aug 1, 2019
    7
    First of all, there are so many things that are good about this, and a few things that prevent me from really saying its one of the better titles.

    First of all, the different houses are a very unique idea, think kind of like harry potter classrooms, etc, but in fire emblem. You become the teacher for one of the houses, and can train students the way you want to use them in battle. There    First of all, there are so many things that are good about this, and a few things that prevent me from really saying its one of the better titles.

    First of all, the different houses are a very unique idea, think kind of like harry potter classrooms, etc, but in fire emblem. You become the teacher for one of the houses, and can train students the way you want to use them in battle. There is a nice little open roam element, and there is an online setting, if someone has fallen in combat on a specific tile, it can create an xp or gear tile for someone else playthrough. Likewise if one of your units is defeated, it will create one of the tiles for another player. This is a unique element and I actually think its a good one!

    There is also a new brigade system, which reinforces your units with extra abilities that can help others out, this is also a neat system that hasn't been done before. The cutscenes also have the same quality as the CGI from the 2016 berserk series, which means they are relatively well done!

    Now the bad... First, I really do not like the character design, I think its one of the weakest character designs in the franchise. Most characters have the same color hair as their iris, which gives them a creepy feel. Some just look weird/creepy to begin with. I would say half just look odd, and the others look natural, I could get into a list of things for each character, but too long for a review.

    Frankly, my biggest complaint is the sheer amount of solider's I can bring into battle. I am a bit of an impatient person, so when I have to control 20 students at the same time, it gets a bit annoying. I would prefer for them to go back to the system from awakening/fates.

    Also the bond system is not nearly as good as it was in previous entries. I think fire emblem fates actually had the best bonding system out of all of them, but that's just me. Overall, I do like the game, I have sunk 20+ hours into the game and continue to enjoy it... but its not anywhere close to my favorite fire emblem game.    … Expand
  2. Skyblue93
    Aug 28, 2019
    7
    I was apprehensive about this game at first but man they did a great job making stats fun. Basically incorporating fun charming gameplay elements to mundane rpg mechanics. The English voice acting is top notch. Just downright fantastic. The music is great too.

    One major con. The graphics are very ugly and the performance is not stable.
  3. EmperorZoltan
    Aug 18, 2019
    7
    I love fire emblem. After completing a single playthough, thoroughly exhausted and not willing to jump back in for more, I'm left with a single, resounding impressing. 3 houses is... a very gamey game.

    The mechanics of combat maintain their lineage, with the notable exceptions being removal of the weapon triangle and spell tomes (spells now have a limited number of casts per map), but    I love fire emblem. After completing a single playthough, thoroughly exhausted and not willing to jump back in for more, I'm left with a single, resounding impressing. 3 houses is... a very gamey game.

    The mechanics of combat maintain their lineage, with the notable exceptions being removal of the weapon triangle and spell tomes (spells now have a limited number of casts per map), but if you've ever seen combat in a fire emblem game before, you've seen it in this one too. It's good, but the same thing we've seen before; it's starting to suffer from the same lack of evolution that the pokemon games have.

    The story of the game, on the other hand, is an initially interesting departure from series form, and takes place almost entirely in the monastery castle and classroom halls. A vaguely hogwarts like affair with 3 competing houses takes place, with your character having to choose which of the houses to tutor as professor of the house. Depending on the house chosen and several key decisions made over the course of your tenure at the monestary, the story will diverge and branch out into one of several unique paths, each with their own unique story and ending.

    Whilst I praise the approach of attempting to tell multiple stories within the same game, mechanically the story tell and exploration sections of the game are incredibly mechanical. Whether it's the act of tutoring your students by choosing key areas of study for the week, or running around the monastery fishing in the same spot for the 4th time this month, the game lacks any serious depth in any one of its systems; before long, you'll start to notice the cogs literally turning as you have tea with your favorite student for the 3rd time in a day, or attempt to give another student every single lost item in your inventory until hitting the correct one for that reputation gain. It's all very menu driven and feels like picking from a set of favorite preferences toward the same end, rather than making important tactical decision. Its all very... gamey. Nothing feels organic or earned, it's just ticking off events, listening to (practically) one way conversations, delivering piles of presents to curry favor, or performing a stupid QTE fishing game. None of the mechanics jump out at me as interesting design choices.

    It's not a bad game; combat is fine, with as much tactical depth as any other fire emblem. The addition of divine pulses to turn back the turn clock to redo actions is a welcome escape from the hard reset to avoid a key character death. It's just that what is good is just the same thing we've seen in FE before, and whats new isn't very engaging, despite its initial promise.

    I will say that the cast of students contains some great personalities; I would much have gathered battles and events focusing more around student affairs than the grand political stage as time progresses.

    Overall I give it a decent 7/10, with a recommendation only for those whom are either new to FE or those who truly hold FE close to their hearts, and again only if you've 40 or so hours to spare. For others looking for solid turn based strategies, I'd recommend XCOM2.    … Expand
  4. RaidenLucifer
    Jul 31, 2020
    7
    I had a lot of fun with the game, definitely a series one should try. Unfortunately the story can leave a few things to be desired, especially with some of the plot holes and conveniences they chose to make, some not ending up being as believable, beautiful soundtracks for the battles, online is a bit of a gimmick that makes the game easier, save your money on the nintendo online. Maps canI had a lot of fun with the game, definitely a series one should try. Unfortunately the story can leave a few things to be desired, especially with some of the plot holes and conveniences they chose to make, some not ending up being as believable, beautiful soundtracks for the battles, online is a bit of a gimmick that makes the game easier, save your money on the nintendo online. Maps can get a bit repetitive, some supports end without much of a finish. Be prepared for fishing minigame and micro managing chores. Overall a fine and fun experience… Expand
  5. smahlt
    Jan 19, 2020
    7
    It's alright. It feels like a lot of stuff was changed for the sake of making changes, not improvements. The result isn't bad, just not as good as the greats, such as FE7 and PoR. I'm also not huge into the whole school half of the game.
  6. frederik1478
    Mar 14, 2020
    7
    Fire Emblem three Houses Trying to do so many things that it is losing Fire Emblem in the process losing. I enjoyed my time with the game and I would never say that I had a bad time. I think the game is just too open for its own good it is a nice experiment but it's just not for me
  7. Zenol31
    Sep 2, 2019
    7
    I don't know who is more ridiculous, the blind fanboys giving 10s or the haters giving 0s when none of them played the game (only a few hours at best). This is what always happens and it's why I think that user scores are really useless. Also, looking at the bad graphics and presentation, the teenager and childish writing and all the borderline pedo content in the game, it doesn't deserveI don't know who is more ridiculous, the blind fanboys giving 10s or the haters giving 0s when none of them played the game (only a few hours at best). This is what always happens and it's why I think that user scores are really useless. Also, looking at the bad graphics and presentation, the teenager and childish writing and all the borderline pedo content in the game, it doesn't deserve more anyway.… Expand
  8. atlas007
    Aug 26, 2019
    7
    Three Houses was hyped to the max by Nintendo, looking to even surpass Pokemon which it almost certainly will. However, the game doesn't live up to the hype and if you're not into the social simulator aspect or a huge fan of Tactical RPGs, you'll probably find this game to be pretty average.

    The best part of this game is not only the fact that it has a pretty good story completely    Three Houses was hyped to the max by Nintendo, looking to even surpass Pokemon which it almost certainly will. However, the game doesn't live up to the hype and if you're not into the social simulator aspect or a huge fan of Tactical RPGs, you'll probably find this game to be pretty average.

    The best part of this game is not only the fact that it has a pretty good story completely filled with hours and hours of voice acting (with pretty good English VAs, especially for the House leaders) but the fact that it has branching stories based upon which House you choose at the beginning.

    But, the game is bogged down by several things: awful textures that make the game look like it belongs on PS2, a class system that has neither quality nor quantity (Oh, you're a black mage? Here's an advanced class for you. Oh, you're a white mage? Here's..... the same class. You've gone from Archer to Sniper? You're.. slightly better with a bow now,) The only time class changes actually feel significant is when you switch to a mount.

    Since the gameplay alternates between roaming the monastery doing menial things and subpar combat, it was hard to be interested enough in getting through the story.

    If you watch videos online and you like the social simulator aspect, don't mind the graphics, and are either a die-hard fan of Tactical RPGs or just want to give one a try, you'll probably like this game.    … Expand
  9. Cesar3
    Jul 11, 2020
    7
    Buen juego de la saga, nintendo nos esta acostumbrando mal con tanto juego bueno
  10. Bbplayer
    Dec 23, 2019
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Positives: A very exciting time with awesome twists and turns in the adventure, Awesome combat and a fun game all around.

    Cons: (personal opinion): Two annoying things right at the end, the ending was very abrupt with no post war scenes and two, the S rank system is very annoying in which it tells you "wait until after the war" so I did, I didn't ever get prompted for the S rank system so I guess I missed the quest for the ring somewhere down the line.

    I still recommend the game overall though.    … Expand
  11. basbazooka
    Aug 7, 2019
    7
    Well where to start.. Just finished the game (Golden Deer route) and wanted to share my thoughts on it. I've been waiting for a console FE ever since the Tellius games so it is not an understatement to say the hypetrain was REAL when they announced Three Houses. After finishing this game in about 2 weeks my opinion of it is generally positive, altough I do have some pretty big issues withWell where to start.. Just finished the game (Golden Deer route) and wanted to share my thoughts on it. I've been waiting for a console FE ever since the Tellius games so it is not an understatement to say the hypetrain was REAL when they announced Three Houses. After finishing this game in about 2 weeks my opinion of it is generally positive, altough I do have some pretty big issues with a few elements. I guess Ill just list them all:

    Gameplay
    The gameplay is goddamn amazing and classic Fire Emblem with some extra mechanics to keep it fresh. I absolutely love the way they implemented the skill and ability system, they felt really thought out and added some extra tactical choices during combat. I also liked how magic is handled in this game, the unit hets a set amount of magic uses per fight and it automatically replenishes after the chapter has ended. This way the amount of weapon maintenance you have to do is greatly lessened, which is very much appreciated.

    Story
    The story for me felt a little bit underwhelming, maybe I need to play all 3 routes to get the full experience but for now I am not very impressed. It is your typical good guys vs evil empire story with a few twists I saw coming from a mile away. none of it felt very fresh and at times I noticed I did not really care all that much which is a shame because this series is capable of telling amazing stories like the Tellius games for example.

    Characters
    The character writing was okay, I liked a few characters but at the same time some felt really flat and generic to me. I watch a lot of anime so I immediately recognised the typical anime-quirks like the 'shy girl' and the 'always hungry guy'. I did really like the character of Claude and his arc though so it is a mixed bag for me. The avatar character was boring, not much more to say on that.

    Some problems I had:

    The castle/calendar system worked really well in the beginning but got really really stupid after the time skip.. Waiting a whole month between each event made no sense story wise and I wish they would have implemented another mechanic to replace the calendar witch just a normal base to prepare between battles (like in the Tellius games. made way more sense and gave a feeling of urgency and momentum.) Or maybe do multiple mission events during the month instead of just one at the end each time.

    Another problem I had was the difficulty, I found this game to be extremely easy. SO much that it made me bored sometimes during battles because my army was so damn OP I could just slaughter the enemy without much thought. I know it might be easier for me since I played a lot of FE games but when I breeze though a game even on hard classic mode they really need to balance the game better.

    And lastly the level design felt really uninspired to me, aside from a few memorable maps they all felt really 'meh' to me. They had so much opportunity to implement some creative maps with cool objectives like maybe a 'capture the flag' type of chapter or puzzles or anything other than 'defeat enemy captain'... Like really 9/10 chapters is just either rout the enemy or defeat the commander. This combined with uninspired level design made some chapters kinda boring and the only thing that kept me going was the amazing battle mechanics.

    So, even though I have some issues I really enjoyed the game overall. I hope this entry will re-awaken the love for console FE games and I really really hope the developers will do some creative stuff next game. And please GIVE US A FULL MAIN CHARACTER GAIN .. Im tired of these soulless avatars :(    … Expand
  12. lkkvtm
    Sep 4, 2019
    7
    Too huge, I liked FE more when it was compact handheld 20-hour experience, not 100h grindfest with dating and school like persona 5. Still good game though, if you're looking for something to dive into for a long time, definitely worth your money.
  13. truck
    Sep 2, 2019
    7
    It’s a good game. However, I do think people give it a bit too much credit. The story is good, easily better than Awakening & Fates, but it suffers from some serious pacing issues in the second half of the game. It feels odd to have to wait so long for your next mission, and unlike Awakening & Fates, where this down time is when you buy & forge weapons, you can just do that on the battleIt’s a good game. However, I do think people give it a bit too much credit. The story is good, easily better than Awakening & Fates, but it suffers from some serious pacing issues in the second half of the game. It feels odd to have to wait so long for your next mission, and unlike Awakening & Fates, where this down time is when you buy & forge weapons, you can just do that on the battle prep screen. And speaking of battles, I have some problems with them. First, they’re way too easy. The warp spell in this game, while it pales in comparison to Gaiden & Thracia, is overpowered, allowing you to clear most maps in a single turn. And the maps, while not bad, are very repetitive. On my second play through, I didn’t encounter a single unique map until chapter 20, almost the end of the game. They even reused the final map from one of the other routes, and I thought that they would at least give the final chapter a unique map. My last big problem with the gameplay is the balance of classes. To put it bluntly, it sucks. There is little reason to not train your whole army to be a wyvern lord, as they can fly, have the highest movement stat in the game, and are incredible combat units. And to end this review on a positive note, Three Houses is one of, if not the most replayable games in the series, with 4 different stories & the ability to make any unit any class you want. Overall, it’s a solid game with some big flaws that keep me from rating it higher.… Expand
  14. Juan92acg
    Sep 4, 2019
    7
    Demasiado texto , llega aburrir y no se pueden evitar....la jugabilidad y el juego en si esta bien pero tanto texto.... te hace perder demasiado tiempo
  15. KevWen
    Sep 23, 2019
    7
    I was into this game in the first 30 hours however very boring in the rest part. Not the best of the series definitely
  16. Kousuke73
    Oct 2, 2019
    7
    This was my first Fire Emblem game and I must say, it was a good game... but. But.

    I've only beaten the Golden Deer route so far and I liked the story overall. A little too many plot twists for my liking and I also felt like too much was left unexplained. I don't know if I just missed less obvious details but at the end of the game, I was still left asking the same questions I expected    This was my first Fire Emblem game and I must say, it was a good game... but. But.

    I've only beaten the Golden Deer route so far and I liked the story overall. A little too many plot twists for my liking and I also felt like too much was left unexplained. I don't know if I just missed less obvious details but at the end of the game, I was still left asking the same questions I expected to have been explained by this point. Still, the plot was alright and I certainly got attached to most of the characters, I learned to care about them as though they really were my students. I loved the music, I loved the general idea of the game, and I loved Claude and Sylvain. But.

    I have three major problems with this game. Firstly, I need to talk about performance. I cannot say the game had the most impressive visuals I've ever seen and honestly, I don't think anyone could say that. Despite that, the performance was by no means ideals. The game kept stuttering when exploring the monastery, moving from one area to another one wasn't as smooth as I wish it had been – I got interrupted by loading screens when I least expected it, and I must say the loading screens were annoyingly long overall for a game like this.

    Secondly, I found the game too repetitive. The first 20-30 hours were fun, given I'd never played a FE game before, but later on, and especially after the time skip, the battles got so repetitive I literally avoided battling as much as I could. Towards the end of the game, I only took up the obligatory battles and nothing else. I wish there were more quests and that they were more interesting and varied. I liked the extra story quests since they had tiny story bits sprinkled around them, both during the actual battles and the cutscenes preceding and following them, but there just wasn't enough of those. I also got really annoyed at the time rewind ability, or rather not being able to use it during the enemy turn. I literally groaned out loud every time something bad happened to my units but I knew I would have to wait until all the enemy units end their moves just to rewind... and see them do the very same stuff all over again.

    Thirdly, as I refused to play as a straight character, I hated everything about the romance system and how it tried to **** me up in all the ways possible. I played as the male protagonist and guys kept on reminding me whenever they could that "they don't swing that way", and girls kept on trying to hit me up, which was even more annoying since I felt that in many cases, it was out of their character and forced just to satisfy the potential straight male gamer. The sequel-like stories didn't help either, especially given that I chose to stay single, faced by the lack of any better option. The only gay romance options in the game I found at best limited and lazy and at worst disrespectful and condescending.

    All in all, I have mixed feelings about this game. It was a fun experience overall but some things just kept bugging me, spoiling all the fun. Also, I would like to apologize if any of my word choices in this review came off as weird or confusing. I played the game in Japanese and just finished it a few minutes ago so I might have still been under the influence of the Japanese language version of the game when writing.    … Expand
  17. Lorack
    Apr 27, 2020
    7
    Pro
    +Great combat system
    +Likeable characters with development
    +Different storylines for each house
    +Monestary is fun to explore

    Con
    -Predictable and generic story that demotivates you
    -Main character is very bland
    -some characters start getting on your nerve over the long play time
  18. LEMS_90
    May 3, 2020
    7
    No es el mejor fire emblem pero tampoco el peor............................
  19. irai16
    Aug 15, 2020
    7
    Pretty great gameplay, great characters, pretty good story (though with many unresolved plot points at the end, frustrating that the game expects you to play through all storylines in order to get the full plot), but by the end of the game I grew to hate the calendar system. It padded out the game by so much and felt so tedious after the timeskip. Could have been a 9 if they had gotten ridPretty great gameplay, great characters, pretty good story (though with many unresolved plot points at the end, frustrating that the game expects you to play through all storylines in order to get the full plot), but by the end of the game I grew to hate the calendar system. It padded out the game by so much and felt so tedious after the timeskip. Could have been a 9 if they had gotten rid of the calendar in the second half of the game. Oh yeah, and it's also painfully easy on normal difficulty, don't play it on normal if you've played other FE games before.… Expand
  20. ReviewThangs
    Jan 18, 2021
    7
    I was hopefully that a Nintendo switch JRPG may have an interesting and fresh story, and at one point midway I thought wow, this is an interesting and fresh story. Then it just devolved into an extremely simplistic mindless plot for the most part. It has a couple of interesting ideas but squander them completely. The combat is solid, albeit repetitive. I found the main loop for me beingI was hopefully that a Nintendo switch JRPG may have an interesting and fresh story, and at one point midway I thought wow, this is an interesting and fresh story. Then it just devolved into an extremely simplistic mindless plot for the most part. It has a couple of interesting ideas but squander them completely. The combat is solid, albeit repetitive. I found the main loop for me being levelling up characters to fit certain classes. It is enjoyable but not as fleshed out as something like divinity 2. Then there's side stuff. Being a professor is kind of fun but the monastery freeroam is appalling. The amount of stuff to do is vast but they're is the equivelant of going through spam emails to get rid of the unread icon. The quests are the bare minimum to define something as a quest. They're so bad they let you fast travel through fetch quests. The characters save the show but they're far from great. The professor the self has the personality of a potato. The graphics are something between the ps2 and Ps3. All in all I enjoyed it but I'd never touch this game if it wasn't portable.… Expand
  21. kinsang
    Feb 25, 2023
    7
    เป็นเกมแรกของซีรี่ย์ Fire Emblem ที่ได้เล่น ถึงแม้ว่าจะไม่ใช่แนวเกมที่ชอบเป็นการส่วนตัว แต่ถือว่ามีเนื้อเรื่องที่น่าสนใจมาก การเซตติ้งของโลก Lore ต่างๆ และบทตัวละครแต่ละตัวและการปฏิสัมพันธ์กันถือว่าทำออกมาได้ดีมาก จะเสียก็ตรงที่ plot point สำคัญต่างๆใช้วิธีการดำเนินที่ค่อนข้างจะไม่เมคเซ้นส์และง่ายไปหน่อย อีกทั้งบทของตัวละครหลักก็เหมือนจะสำคัญ แต่ก็ไม่มีอะไรเลย ทางด้านเกมเพลย์เป็นเกมแรกของซีรี่ย์ Fire Emblem ที่ได้เล่น ถึงแม้ว่าจะไม่ใช่แนวเกมที่ชอบเป็นการส่วนตัว แต่ถือว่ามีเนื้อเรื่องที่น่าสนใจมาก การเซตติ้งของโลก Lore ต่างๆ และบทตัวละครแต่ละตัวและการปฏิสัมพันธ์กันถือว่าทำออกมาได้ดีมาก จะเสียก็ตรงที่ plot point สำคัญต่างๆใช้วิธีการดำเนินที่ค่อนข้างจะไม่เมคเซ้นส์และง่ายไปหน่อย อีกทั้งบทของตัวละครหลักก็เหมือนจะสำคัญ แต่ก็ไม่มีอะไรเลย ทางด้านเกมเพลย์ น่าสนใจและสนุกในรอบแรก แต่หลังจากเล่นจบแล้วกลับมาเล่นซ้ำก็จะเริ่มน่าเบื่อ ถือว่าได้ตัวละครต่างๆที่มีคาแรกเตอร์ชัดเจนช่วยเอาไว้ได้มาก สุดท้ายขอบ่นว่ามันจะกั้กคอนเทนท์อะไรขนาดนั้น นี่เล่นจบไป 3 รอบก็ยังได้คอนเทนท์ไม่ครบ สุดท้ายต้องไปหาดูวิดีโอเอาเอง… Expand
  22. Crimson9
    Dec 21, 2022
    7
    I was actually surprised by this game. Nintendo's declining game design capabilities made me wary of playing a game like this. But theres a lot of positives here. The characters are all basically over the top archetypes of certain personalities, but somehow still believable and loveable. I was very attached to my group of characters. The story was also surprisingly decent, and the choiceI was actually surprised by this game. Nintendo's declining game design capabilities made me wary of playing a game like this. But theres a lot of positives here. The characters are all basically over the top archetypes of certain personalities, but somehow still believable and loveable. I was very attached to my group of characters. The story was also surprisingly decent, and the choice of which group you align with gives you 3 very different endings.

    Two big problems though. One, theres no difficulty where this game feels challenging but fair. On normal or even hard, its simply too easy. Par for the course with Nintendo in 2019. Also female byleth looking like a stripper really annoys me. But overall this is a good game.    … Expand
  23. APickle
    Dec 12, 2022
    7
    This game is a step up from Fire Emblem Fates, but overall really disappointing compared to older games in the series. They really over did the whole Harry Potter Hogwarts theme. Plus if you want to 100% the game you need to beat it 3 times, once per faction. Not a problem, but when the first half of the gane is identical in all 3 playthroughs, it's very frustrating.

    I beat every Fire    This game is a step up from Fire Emblem Fates, but overall really disappointing compared to older games in the series. They really over did the whole Harry Potter Hogwarts theme. Plus if you want to 100% the game you need to beat it 3 times, once per faction. Not a problem, but when the first half of the gane is identical in all 3 playthroughs, it's very frustrating.

    I beat every Fire Emblem game released, including Geneology of the Holy War and Thracia 776. Overall Three houses is among the worst Fire Emblem games, but it's still Fire Emblem.

    So if you like tactics games, you'll enjoy this. Just don't expect anything as grand as Awakening or Mystery of the Emblem.    … Expand
  24. mkhue108
    Feb 27, 2023
    7
    Must-play Switch games. Cool game with a lot of good battle mechanics, nice music. For me, the story is 7/10.
  25. elandroid
    Jan 3, 2020
    6
    Nada mal con este Fire Emblem. Las mecánicas y las batallas siguen siendo las mejores del género. Pero la historia, los personajes, la tediosidad del juego entre fases es tan agotadora que acaba consumiendo más tiempo en tareas monótonas que lo soportable.
  26. neph36
    Aug 9, 2019
    6
    Game is really overrated. The writing and characters are terrible, the graphics contain many obvious 3DS assets, the difficulty is non-existent, and the repeated "exploration" of the same area doing menial tasks is a terrible mechanic.
  27. Tortor
    Mar 15, 2022
    6
    I really do not understand the praise this game gets. This game is really tedious and such a time sink of meaningless stuff to do.

    I really liked some of the story telling aspects but it takes absolutely forever for the story to get anywhere. I think like 35 hours in and was thinking to myself 'wow, absolutely nothing is going on'. I understand build up but the pacing was just awful.    I really do not understand the praise this game gets. This game is really tedious and such a time sink of meaningless stuff to do.

    I really liked some of the story telling aspects but it takes absolutely forever for the story to get anywhere. I think like 35 hours in and was thinking to myself 'wow, absolutely nothing is going on'.

    I understand build up but the pacing was just awful. This really needed to start earlier in the time line then it did. Overall you're dealing with a lot of 'day in the life' type story telling. You're essentially learning characters and their past to get more attached to them. I liked it at first. Then it just sorta only delivers that such a significant chunk of this game. It stops being interesting and feels more like a necessary time sink to level of friendships or characters.

    Some of the characters back stories I felt were completly necessary like for the main leaders. But all these side characters could have been summarized a lot better or just had a lot of useless fat cut. You often get the same character with the same story beats over and over again. Bernadetta for example, how many ways can they show her being an anxious mess? After like the 30th time without really much expansion into her, it gets tired. Only a handful of these plot lines with side characters feel like it matters or you actually learn something.

    The fetch quest situation in the monastery also was incredibly taxing. You have gift giving, lost items and just generic quests where you go talk 'fetch' to a NPC or go to a designated area to find something. All this feels forced and necessary to get the most out of the game too. You can spend hours each in game month just doing fetch quests to increase relationship stats, get much needed items or increase motivation. None of it is interesting and feels disrespectful of my time. None of this added to the story as you always get this generic 'oh i cant believe you found that' response too, so it doesn't feel rewarding story wise either.

    The only saving grace is the combat, it's amazing. I feel smart and love puzzling through them. The rpg mechanics for it are great too. I love seeing a character upgrade and get stronger.

    Unfortunately there is so much monastery junk and not so interesting story beats in between each combat session. You could spend hours with all this monastery stuff, just to get to and finish a 30 minute event to do combat in and then onto more tedious monastery stuff.

    This game exhausted me more then charmed me. In fact, I think I hate it for disrespecting my time. I can't imagine playing through these scenerios the required 4 times to see everything. Once was enough to understand that it's wasting your time.    … Expand
  28. Isteffy
    Jun 25, 2023
    6
    By far the most overrated Fire Emblem ever to be released, and one that tries so hard to give that ‘high school’ experience of Persona, but ultimately falls flat due to it’s uninspiring characters, lame dialogue, and the games insistence that a Fire Emblem game should have users spend 70% of their game playing a Persona knockoff.

    Worst is that if you are an old fire emblem fan, you will    By far the most overrated Fire Emblem ever to be released, and one that tries so hard to give that ‘high school’ experience of Persona, but ultimately falls flat due to it’s uninspiring characters, lame dialogue, and the games insistence that a Fire Emblem game should have users spend 70% of their game playing a Persona knockoff.

    Worst is that if you are an old fire emblem fan, you will find the combat maps extremely uninspiring and uncreative. A lot of maps were flat with no restrictions and enemies were randomly scattered through the map.

    I got bored and stopped this game 3 times. I wanted to like this, but ultimately this game is just mediocre and i don’t like the direction that this series is going so this will most likely be my last fire emblem game for a while    … Expand
  29. Lesh0
    Sep 12, 2019
    6
    Tbh i expected more from the hype this game had. Sadly it didnt deliver to me, the beginning of the game was boring, every moth activities were interesting in the start but also got fed up with them too quickly. On the other hand chapter 2 had its good moments and was way better delivered than chapter one. The game overall is beautiful and has its charm, you also will get attached yourTbh i expected more from the hype this game had. Sadly it didnt deliver to me, the beginning of the game was boring, every moth activities were interesting in the start but also got fed up with them too quickly. On the other hand chapter 2 had its good moments and was way better delivered than chapter one. The game overall is beautiful and has its charm, you also will get attached your students which is a + for me too. Overall an ok game but could do better in many aspects 6/10… Expand
  30. Luahanseng
    Aug 12, 2020
    6
    Freakin boring story and narrative. Things are a bit repetitive. you just want the game to end
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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.
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  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]
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