Fireplace Emblem: Three Homes was a favourite of many Fireplace Emblem followers, together with myself, when it got here out in 2019. That’s how gamers have been launched to the intriguing world of Fodlan, rife with thriller, battle, and cutthroat politics. With its charming setting, lovable characters, and a number of other unanswered questions, I’ve been clamoring to revisit Fodlan in Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes takes place in an alternate universe the place Byleth by no means turns into a professor at Fodlan’s Officers Academy. As a substitute, we comply with Shez, a purple-haired mercenary who joins the academy as a scholar. Very similar to Three Homes, this recreation has two phases. The primary section covers Shez’s time on the Officers Academy and introduces the gamers to the opposite college students, in addition to the Three Homes that characterize the first powers of Fodlan. Early on, you’ll select which home to affix, which dictates how the story performs out partially two.
The academy section in Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is far shorter than in Three Homes and acts as a tutorial, easing gamers into the Musou mechanics which may be unfamiliar to followers of conventional Fireplace Emblem video games. Following that, the majority of the sport begins after a quick time skip. Fodlan is at battle, and it’s as much as Shez to tilt the steadiness of their chosen faction’s favor.
Fireplace Emblem followers will really feel proper at house with the storytelling in Three Hopes. The plot progresses primarily by way of mostly-voiced scenes between battles, however quips throughout battle add additional characterization to every unit. The sport spends minimal time retreading data lined in Three Homes, together with solely sufficient that the necessities of the story will make sense to a brand new participant.
With out context from Three Homes, new gamers could not absolutely recognize the story’s particulars and lack connections to sure characters. On the flip aspect, I cherished that Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes prevented meandering and bought proper to telling a fascinating story.
As soon as you start the story’s meatier second section, Shez takes a small step again whereas the chief of your chosen home turns into the story’s point of interest. Home leaders get many possibilities to shine on this recreation, and Shez enhances them as a substitute of stealing their highlight. Your own home selection additionally impacts which characters you could have entry to for the remainder of the sport. You begin with all the scholars from your own home. Because the story goes on, you could have the chance to recruit among the items that you simply struggle.
In contrast to Three Homes, you may’t recruit everybody in a single playthrough of Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. You must struggle and kill among the items from the opposite homes, and it’s as heartbreaking because it was in Three Homes while you kill one in every of your favorites. Past the three totally different tales, the distinctive characters in every route present a terrific cause to replay the sport.
The assist system in Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes can even really feel acquainted to Fireplace Emblem followers, although the system is a bit pared down on this title. Most items solely have one or two conversations with one another as a substitute of the standard three. Moreover, romance is a much less important characteristic on this recreation. Whereas some characters flirt of their assist conversations, most discover platonic relationships.
I missed the chance to play matchmaker on this recreation, however the lowered emphasis on romance positively impacts Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes’ assist system. A lowered deal with romance permits Three Hopes to discover a higher number of relationships. Many characters have rivalries, mentorships, or previous friendships which can be developed by way of assist conversations. These kind of relationships exist in different Fireplace Emblem video games, however current entries restrict themselves as a result of opposite-gender assist pairings should go away the door open for love. Three Hopes is free from that limitation.
The assist system isn’t with out flaws. Some conversations don’t make a lot sense if performed out of order. For instance, one in every of Shez’s assist conversations focuses on how recklessly he fights, whereas one other discusses how a lot much less reckless he has grow to be since he joined the navy. Little points like this in assist conversations create some dissonance when you occur to do the contradictory helps on the similar time or in the identical playthrough.
Fodlan’s solid is as charming as ever in Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and all the college students make an look with new redesigns. Byleth, specifically, advantages from not being the attitude character in Three Hopes. Whereas Byleth was a rarely-voiced character with a small quantity of characterization in Three Homes, they’re afforded rather more dialogue and alternatives to shine as a personality on this recreation.
Shez, our new perspective character, can be a robust addition to the Fireplace Emblem cannon. Regardless of being an avatar character that you simply make choices for, Shez has a well-defined character. They arrive off as a lovable goofball with a socially awkward streak in most of their helps. By the top, Shez rapidly turned one in every of my favourite current Fireplace Emblem protagonists.
Whereas the characters and story of Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes draw closely from Three Homes, the gameplay is a whole departure. In contrast to the turn-based technique gameplay the collection is thought for, Three Hopes is an action-packed Musou recreation the place you management a single character and hack and slash via hordes of enemies. The Musou method has been iterated dozens of instances, and it’s as enjoyable because it’s ever been to chop via 1000’s of wimpy enemy troopers. The true juice in Three Hopes’ gameplay is the modifications they’ve made to the Musou method to make it really feel like a Fireplace Emblem recreation relatively than Dynasty Warriors with Fireplace Emblem characters. My favourite characteristic in Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is the category system.
Many lessons from Three Homes seem in Three Hopes, and sophistication development occurs in a lot the identical manner. Each unit begins in a newbie class, and by gaining expertise and sophistication expertise, they earn the flexibility to advertise into new lessons. There are numerous class bushes to pursue, and most lessons can be found to each unit. I had a good time attempting out items in uncommon lessons. My favourite was seeing the often dexterous Shamir working round in large armor.
The category system is straightforward sufficient, nevertheless it additionally fuels the extra advanced potential system. Every class has skills related to them earned by way of class expertise. Models can equip most skills they’ve unlocked no matter their present class. Because of this, there are good causes to coach in a wide range of lessons, even when you don’t intend on utilizing all of them. You probably have a squishy unit that you simply’d wish to beef up, give them some coaching classes within the knight class so that they unlock defense-boosting skills. Your most used items can have dozens of skills and fight arts to select from by the top of the sport. There’s loads of depth right here for gamers that love optimizing builds for his or her items, however gamers that need to preserve it easy received’t have any bother getting via the sport on regular problem.
Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes additionally has a camp characteristic that’s very harking back to the academy in Three Homes. Between each main battle, you could have exercise factors you may spend on cooking, doing chores, or taking discipline journeys along with your allies. All of those actions elevate the bonds between your items and supply small boosts within the upcoming battles. There are additionally a wide range of outlets within the camp which you could improve to inventory higher gear.
The camp characteristic I used most was the coaching grounds, which has two important capabilities. First, you should use it to offer your items some class expertise with out taking them into battle. Second, you may spend gold to degree items as much as the highest-level unit you could have. Leveling up by way of the coaching grounds is important if you wish to use various items. For many battles within the recreation, you may solely deliver 4 items with you, so anybody that isn’t in your major workforce will fall behind in expertise. Luckily, the sport was beneficiant sufficient with gold for me to maintain between six and ten items battle prepared by way of the coaching grounds.
Having a wide range of items prepared is important as a result of every marketing campaign is lengthy, and the battles can begin to grow to be repetitive in the direction of the top. Switching in some new items or attempting new lessons is an effective way to spice issues up. Every Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes marketing campaign consists of a number of chapters, together with one giant battle and a number of other small battles. The small battles are fast affairs that may be dealt with in 5-10 minutes, whereas the massive battle takes extra like 15-20.
Not one of the battles in Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes are notably difficult on regular problem, however every has a battle rank, with a reward when you obtain an S-rank. For many battles, rank is achieved by ending battles rapidly, killing a sure variety of items, and avoiding taking injury. The S-rank rewards are often good, so it’s price it to attempt to get them when you may. Going for S-ranks additionally provides a bit problem and urgency to the simpler maps.
The big battles are the most effective missions Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes has to supply. They typically embody a number of aims that may change on the fly. To succeed, it’s important to take into consideration how one can handle and transfer your items to perform a number of objectives rapidly and even concurrently. The larger battles are all the time probably the most plot-relevant missions, whereas the smaller missions can typically really feel like filler.
Even within the important battles, there’s restricted selection within the moment-to-moment gameplay of Fireplace Emblem: Three Hopes, and whereas I used to be having a blast for many of my first playthrough, I used to be beginning to burn out a bit by the top. Eradicating among the minor battles would have gone a great distance in enhancing the pacing in a recreation with three routes, every of which may take 15-20 hours to finish. Regardless of getting a bit uninterested in Three Hopes’ gameplay loop in the long run, it labored very properly the primary time round, and I think I’ll be raring to tackle my third run-through of the sport after a bit break.
Finally, Three Hopes takes the fantastic world in-built Three Homes and delivers a extra constant, satisfying story whereas effortlessly merging Fireplace Emblem gameplay components with Musou gameplay. For followers of the Three Homes, Fireplace Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a must-play. I’d advocate it to everybody else too, however you’ll get extra out of it when you begin with Fireplace Emblem: Three Homes.
