#fe in general but 3h especially the game is just. not that hard.

[sieglinde-freud]

for as many complaints as i have about it, i actually do like three houses gameplay, and i think theres a lot of depth to be had what with all the gambits and skills and weapon system (the ability to equip almost all weapons regardless of class is… interesting. i dont think i’d ever want that to return but i wouldnt say i hate it?) makes it really fun to rework as you go through different playthroughs. however one thing that always makes me giggle is seeing gameplay optimization because like. like. dude this game is so fucking easy. “you shouldnt use ashe because hes the worst combat unit in the game” yeah thats true. but do you know what ashe and every other dude has access to? death blow and bows. nothing matters just get to sniping idiot

[randomnameless]

Do you think that it's out-of-character/a retcon for Edelgard to know from the start that Alear's a dragon but not take any issue with that because she sees them as a benelovent and kind person?

It seems like a pretty blatant attempt on IS' part to whitewash Edelgard's speciesism away by rewriting it so that she doesn't have any issues with dragons and only hated Rhea because she thought she was a bad leader imo; it's at least consistent with her Hopes characterization, where that aspect of her personality also got scrubbed away, but i still really dislike just how hard IS has been working to remove her biggest character flaws in every game she's been in post-3H.

You are a child of the goddess. You must not be allowed power over the people!

Benevolent or not (I mean, she says this to Flayn, a cleric!), children of the goddess should not rule over the people because they are children of the goddess ; aka, regardless of their actions, pointy ears cannot have power over round ears, period.

And bear in mind, this quote isn't from CF, but from either SS or VW, aka routes not centered on her (and supposed to be more neutral than AM where she is the final boss).

Supreme Leader doesn't like pointy ears, period. In CF, she develops a bit more (especially in the non Pat'd version), but she thinks they have no human understanding/feelings, and refuses to even consider the idea of "coexistence", the "masquerading as humans" part comes to mind, and ultimately her question being roughly should humans be led by inhumans or not? And if you exclude inhumans because they are, non humans, rather than excluding them based on their actions, well, the issue is not their actions (or lack of), but their nature.

So yes, our Supreme Leader would have had qualms about Alear and the existence of a Divine Dragon, while she knows how to not spout her racist/specist theory at the wrong time, it generally makes no sense for her to be chummy with Alear.

(bear in mind Supreme Leader is the only Lord who has no support with a Nabatean!)

FWIW, Heroes doubled down on her specism while mumbling something about "Gods" (but then, F!Edel talks to Mila the lizard lady, and not to Ashera or Yune!) but yes, if Supreme Leader has to be an emblem and exist alongside Corn, Miccy, Ike, Leif, Celica, - well, any of the FE Lords, she had to be heavily retconned because her views can't match at all with theirs.

The Fodlan Emblem though was pretty much decried everywhere for this, and also the fake "uwu we're all fwends" when Supreme Leader tried to ice the two others in FE16, and shits on their countries or their characters at any given occasion.

Nopes scrubbed off the specism, but only because Nopes doesn't fully explore her reasoning like Tru Piss does, there's no occasion to rant about evil pointy ears and explain why they suck to a party who... follows her because they want to be paid (Barney).

However, given how in Golden Shower, she outed Nabateans as "not being what they seem" to convince Clout - I'd say it still exists and is still one of her reasons to want to get rid of the CoS and Rhea : her ears are pointy.

[emblemxeno]

Did you enjoyed Engage story more than 3H or less ? if so why and if not why ?

I enjoyed it more.

Ultimately, for all of 3H's in-depth prose regarding characters and some really hard hitting story beats, it fails to cement itself as a story I can enjoy because it lacks focus, cohesion, and respect for itself. There's too many plot threads that can go unanswered and characters that are treated as important are otherwise shafted (Rhea especially). The biggest reason though, is that for all of it's lore and worldbuilding, IMO it 1) fails to incorporate any of it in a way that's exciting in a gameplay medium 2) due to the monastery being static and centralized, the world doesn't actually feel lived in and 3) serves little purpose other than to be lore for lore's sake. The backdrop feels artificial, and does little to buoy the story when it needs help, especially since character dialogue can feel overtly bittersweet and melodramatic (I can only hear about the "horrors of war" so many times before it becomes incredibly annoying and lowkey disregarding the player's own intelligence to infer anything for themselves).

Engage meanwhile, though not "deep" in the sense that you're gonna get extreme political intrigue and similar things akin to what most expect (to a sometimes unreasonable degree) for a war story, it hits the marks it wants to and respects itself as a story. It knows it's a story about overcoming fear and despair, found family, self actualization, and being true to who you want to be no matter where you come from, and doesn't stray from that goal. I never feel like a blatant audience member looking into a story as the characters exposit at me, instead I feel genuinely engrossed in what's happening to Alear and the world of Elyos as a whole. And like, people can complain about things like Zephia, Griss, and Sombron having "sad" backstories, but I'd rather have the cliche "they were evil cuz they were sad and just wanted companionship" than the constant Edelgard sympathy the game throws at me as if I'm either 1) unable to comprehend morally gray storytelling or 2) a person who wants to hear that a violent, imperialistic war is being led by someone who "isn't evil ackshully."

And in general, as an FE fan, while I don't like to limit each individual game by precedents set by past entries, 3H and Engage both take story inspiration from previous entries, and the latter, y'know. Is good at it and the former isn't. I can't take 3H's attempts at plot threads of racism/xenophobia, social hierarchy, and grand politicking seriously when it fumbles the landing despite previous FE games sticking said landing just fine. On the flip side, I can take Engage more seriously when it asks me too, because the character driven, save-the-world narrative is something that it does well consistently, like most FE games before it.

[a-pale-azure-moon]

I'm a day late on this, but happy 5th anniversary to FE3H, the game that unexpectedly rewired my brain chemistry!

I've been a Fire Emblem fan since I first played Blazing Blade back in 2003 (yes I'm old), so when 3H was announced, I immediately pre-ordered it. I purposely stayed away from rumors, leaks, and most official information about it because I wanted to enjoy it spoiler free. (Much of Fates got spoiled for me and I didn't want a repeat of that.) The most I indulged in was watching the trailers for the individual houses when they came out. And that trailer. You know the one.

So I got the game shortly after launch, once Amazon shipped it to me, and I had no idea which House I was going to pick. I was slightly leaning towards the Golden Deer, largely from Claude's design and how he seemed "different" from previous FE lords, but I was truly undecided when I started. It was really a coin flip between the Lions and Deer right up to the point where the game forces you to choose. What ultimately made me pick the Blue Lions was actually Mercedes; I wasn't aware that recruitment was a thing yet and her Live to Serve skill stood out as particularly useful to me. Healer who can keep herself healed? Yeah, I want that on my team!

If I'm being honest, I didn't find anything about Dimitri particularly special right away. I certainly liked him, mostly because of his amazing voice (thank you Chris), but I recognized him as a Marth clone right from the start, so a lot about his character felt "generic" to me at first. The tone around him was considerably more somber compared to previous lords, and I was curious about why that was so, particularly since the timeskip trailer had spoiled that he goes through a dramatic transformation later in the story. So I was paying close attention to him as the game unfolded, but it wasn't until his breakdown at Remire in chapter 8 that it hit me just how radically different he was compared to previous Marths. That's where I got super invested in his story and started sacrificing sleep to play the game so I could find out what happened next. By the time I finished, my whole brain had been transformed into this:

(I forget where I first saw this image, so my apologies to whomever made it.)

2019 was a difficult year for me; my mom was going through some health issues, and my dad wasn't being particularly helpful in the ways she needed, which left me to pick up the slack (my older sister lives out of state and was/is busy with her three kids). I was also still trying to break out of a festering creative slump that had gone on for way too long, but changing that mindset is hard, especially when you've convinced yourself that everything you write sucks (and that therefore you suck).

So 3H and Azure Moon in particular wound up being a great comfort to me through an emotionally draining year (and then the pandemic hit...). Dimitri's story and character arc resonated with me in all the right ways, and it lit a new creative spark inside of me, the likes of which I hadn't felt in a long, long time. I almost wish I hadn't picked the Lions first, because the other routes wound up being a big disappointment to me when they failed to reach the same emotional high. I think I would've become a Lions stan even if I'd saved their route for last. It left THAT strong of an impression on me. I mean, I became obsessed enough that I wrote a freaking book, lol.

I'll be the first to admit that this game isn't perfect; some of its mechanics are wonky, classes aren't well balanced, there's not enough map diversity, Maddening Mode was definitely not properly play tested, and there are genuine flaws in some of its writing. I won't even get into the trashfire that is 3H discourse (which is somehow still a thing after all this time). I don't even think it's my favorite overall game in the series, but it's in my top 3 with Awakening and Path of Radiance. But the impact the game left on me is difficult to understate. I'm so happy it's a thing that exists and that it helped guide me to my current path.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Really doesn't help with my motivation to play Engage either when so many people are saying it's just leagues and leagues better than... my second favorite entry in the series (right under Sacred Stones). And to be clear I've been playing FE since I was a kid, and 3H is still easily top three, even with all of its flaws. The people who try to hype up Engage as better than 3H kinda give it... a pretty high bar to try to leap over for a lot of people? And I get a lot of that is coming from exhaustion from 3H's fandom (mostly edelstans lol) but it still doesn't do the new entry any good imo.

Yeah, I get that. When people put down my favorite entries to boost another entry, it just feels like a jab more than an actual breakdown of the titles. I can see good and bad in both Engage and Houses, but I don't think it's necessary to tear one down for the other. Honestly, there was no way Engage would be similar to Houses' gameplay mechanics because the main mechanic of Engage relies on something closer to the Pair Up system but with Emblems, which is a very limited (turn wise, because you get so many turns with the Emblems at a time versus Awakening's introduced Pair Up) gameplay mechanic.

I've also been playing FE since I was a kid and I definitely agree Houses is one I prefer, and yes, also, story wise. I do understand the story has some issues and it's definitely annoying that you have to go through the hub world system for the first half of the game in every single playthrough if you want your units to perform at their best for the chapter maps, but that's only because the story is broken up between four routes (five if you count CS giving us even more information while still using the general hub world system, just much more limited). I get it, it can be irritating for lore lovers and some people don't want to play the same game four times (or at least not so quickly, and it's hard to avoid spoilers sometimes if you don't hurry through all four routes which can suck). The story itself though, as a connected whole, isn't bad.

Personally I find what Houses lacked in they did try to work on in Hopes with the characters, like how Felix and Sylvain were pretty shallow characters in Houses in some aspects (mainly in the main story. They had great supports sometimes, but their main story lines were often very shallow). Hopes gave them characterizations that felt genuine and real, and it's something I like to keep in mind for my next Houses playthroughs.

All the FE games have flaws in some areas so it's not Houses in particular. Like you said, it's probably fandom exhaustion, but that isn't the same as treating it like the worst entry in the franchise or like it's objectively inferior to Engage. To me, Engage is inferior both in story and gameplay, but I mainly focus on what I enjoyed. I do like the Emblem system, I just wished some of the older characters weren't ooc or that they got a bit more than generic lines for most of their bond conversations.

Engage doesn't really feel like a step up to me, but just another take on modern gaming. A step up would be like FE8 to FE9 (which is a little ironic, since FE9 was actually supposed to be FE8 because it was presumably in development before FE8 (it's called FE8 internally) but got released after SS and thus became the ninth entry). A different platform can do wonders for a franchise's new entries, but these two games don't have that.

And of course, I have no issue with people loving Engage. It's just getting pretty regular that I see (especially on YouTube in particular) people acting like Houses is suddenly a really bad entry, as if it wasn't what the whole fandom was obsessed with for three straight years.

In some way I think it's good that they're bringing FE7 back via the GBA emulator on Switch, because I'm hoping it reminds people that you don't need these complex new mechanics for a game to be that good. You don't need to dunk on the other entries for not having what you liked in it when you can play a game that has good story and characters but has an older way of playing/a not as new way of playing.

I enjoy Engage, but it just starts making me feel bitter when I see people comparing it to Houses and tearing Houses down to do so. It's fine to enjoy both and treat them as separate things even if they're within the same franchise. Every new game is going to "get better" in the sense of modern gaming, but it doesn't make the older ones worse.

[saviourkingslut]

i went to pick up engage the other day and was talking about it with the employee behind the counter and he said hed been enjoying it so far because it feels more like the older fire emblem games to him (world map over calendar system like 3h was a big point for him) and i off handedly mentioned that i heard the story was simpler than 3h and i was thankful for that because i cant go through more discourse and he went "yeah me either that edelgard discourse was fucking awful" and it was so funny to me that i had to share djslfkjdlajdfn

while i completely understand the sentiment (by god) i do think that there's this... misconception, concerning the relationship between 3h discourse and engage coming out. im fairly sure that engage isn't gonna generate much discourse bc it's campy and not very serious and the characters and the story don't really go anywhere deep and complex. that sure is a breath of air for many people, as you say! however, and i guess this is the negative flipside, that also means there might just not be much for people to talk about when the game's been out for a month or two. by which i mean to say, the existence of a new fe game, especially one written as this one, does not mean that 3h discourse is going to suddenly disappear. it's been going strong for a solid three years, and if there's no serious bones to pick about the new installment... (or perhaps i should say no edelgard equivalent to form a cult around)

it's hard to say rn bc engage is very new, but it might not hold people's attention for a very long time, is what im saying, and so the decline of 3h discourse might not be as sudden or as substantial as many people seem to hope/expect. on the other hand, there is new content to talk about for those who want to, so that can be an escape for people who are just 100% done with fódlan and everything linked to it, which can be a breath of fresh and free air in and of itself. and obviously maybe im wrong and 3h discourse does die a quiet death soon lmao but i am personally not expecting it to

[redgemwink]

my games of the year!!

hey yall!! with the year coming to a close i wanted to list my top 5 favorite games that i played this year!

5. honkai star rail - i was really conflicted abt putting a gacha game on here, especially since i don't even play it much anymore but tbh the belobog arc was just too good not to put it here. maybe the next planet will bring me back in but i didn't really like the luofu at all. but the time i spent on the herta space center and belobog were so enjoyable that i rlly feel like it deserves this spot.

4. octopath traveler 2 - this came out this year?? jfc this has been a long year. but yeah this game is really good!! i would absolutely die for agnea. i feel like in just about every area this game was a huge step up from octopath 1, i found every character really enjoyable and i genuinely cried multiple times during castti's story (malaya.... she loved her) and in general just loved nearly every story, and the endgame and how the characters from each route tied in was so cool. i think there's still some qol needed in certain areas and that's why this is only fourth but overall very good game i recommend. also ochette is super fun to play, love beastmaster classes sm

3. fire emblem engage - sort of the opposite of octopath honestly, the story was pretty awful in this game and the characters were all very one note but the game is just so gorgeous to look at and so so much fun. what can i say, i like fire emblem dfkdfskdkdsf and while the characters and story are completely camp i found it charming in it's simplicity at times, lapis and citrinne especially were really endearing characters to me. this certainly isn't my favorite fe game bc i admittedly prefer story/character heavy ones like 3h but i still found it to be a really enjoyable experience with lots of fun customization! i hope they take a lot of what was in engage and put that into future games bc i rlly need more fe games where everyone has cute casual outfits like that and you can dress everyone up all silly. this game is just pure silly fun.

2. cassette beasts - so this one took me by surprise. this game is an absolute GEM and if you like pokemon at all you seriously owe yourself to play this!! it takes everything i love about pokemon and just brings it to a whole new level. the story, the characters, even the designs for the beasts are all so peak. the way types interact with each other is so fun and something i've never seen before in this genre. this is the type of game i absolutely see myself replaying every year just to try out new beasts and the randomizer mode and stuff!! ALSO THE WAY YOU CAN REMOVE THE MOVES AND PUT THEM ON OTHER BEASTS?? god. this game is everything i WISH pokemon was, and if it were any other year it probably would have been my goty. but..

baldur's gate 3 - yeah. i mean, do i even need to say anything on this one?? a strong demon lady held me in her strong arms and kissed me. we ate spaghetti together. we went to hell and fought demons together. this game is a lesbian love story and i- oh wait i probably shouldn't just talk about karlach for this whole section lol. really though, bg3 is just one of those games that hits different, there is SO much to do in this game and not a single moment of it isn't filled with fun. exploring the world was so fun, whenever i discovered secrets and stuff it felt amazing, there's just such a wonderful feeling of mystery in this world. there's so many ways every interaction can go, the story is amazing, the characters are amazing, the multiplayer is amazing. this whole game just fucks hard, and i think it's not only my game of the year but possibly my game of the decade. i think if this game's mod support gets better then we could be looking at a stardew valley situation where fans keep the game alive FOREVER by adding all sorts of cool stuff over the years. i can't wait to see what gets added as time goes on! anyways back to karlach so yeah i wanna cuddle with her and go on a pizza date and be pinned against the

[yanderefairyangel]

I see, but imo 3H isn’t a game i would compare Engage with cause 3H is kind of a unique game : it’s FE x Personna, but it fails the Personna phase cause the VN phases are just horrible, and as much as Hopsies get critized, it doesn’t change the fact that Shez was a better self insert because they already were shown to have a personaily, whereas with Byleth they wanted both that the player could create Byleth’s personailty depending on which answer they choosed + them to have an actual background which clearly did not worked at all. With Shez, you could choose 2 very different cue, yet the voice acting + pacing made it clear that they had a personailty whereas Byleth could choose two drastically different cue, making your Byleth a sort of chimera of a character, a monster of inconsitent choices...anyway, not to disgress but seeing how Homies have 4 story compared to Engage who only has 1, comparing them feels wrong, cause it’s like comparing the Sonic several POV story game to the few games that have a unique POV story, not to mentions that the tone isn’t the same. Engage is lighthearted and don’t dive too much into darkness and seriousness whereas Homies tries to go hard into dark, seriousness, politics and yadi, yada

Had I to compare Engage to others games, I would have choosen the first FE Warrior cause it was too 1) a new kind of concept game 2) crossover/multiverse and compared to it (because I was expecting Engage to be like it), i must say Engage was a pleasant surprise. I 100% understand why ppl can’t like it, it’s very generic and we all agree that the story was weak but it’s goofyness and chessiness came right away to heal my depression and overall, seeing how it’s targeting a younger audience and appealing to more player, yes, the fact that it’s that simple of a story is most welcoming compared to Homies cause it was such a complex story as it strived to be ...that it lowered its quality in the sense that you have trouble understanding what happened and that’s coming from someone who enjoyed Evilious Chrnonicles and even that is incredibly complex but because it’s linear, it’s easy to actually understand what happened if you don’t lose the track of what happened whereas for 3H.. well, since it’s different routes, there are things that canonically DID NOT HAPPEN so it’s multiverse all again making it even more confusing because this means everything happened and at the same time not, and Fates, despite it’s flaws, was waaaay easier to understand and Engage’s story is actually easier to grow on you than 3H cause when you replay it, a simple story is more agreeable then the routes, especially when the monastery phase and VN phase are sooo BORING!! And once you completed all routes, why would you replay again ? especially when the gameplay is nothing exciting and that the calender system doesn’t allow you any replayable DLC pack ? Engage has weak replay value too, but it still has some enough with it’s gameplay being perfect when you’re bored and want a fun little challenge now if they had put a DLC pack like Awakenin’s cause Awakenin’s DLC pack was peak DLC, everyone would to it but the Fell Xenologue is all there is to it and it’s essentially hell so why would you go through this suffering again, you would really want to replay THIS ?

This map still comes at night haunt my nightmares, God. But again, people might prefer 3H's story and other Engage due to nothing but preferences, though overall Engage simple writing doesn't create the same level of plot inconsitency as any of the previous games, like all the twist don't ruin at least from the main story, but somehow people prefer the Xenologue's story which is really bad ima be honest, like it starts good and they showed that with a smaller cast they can actually put all characters into the story to flesh them out but it completely crumbles down like a card castle. Engage may seems weaker then 3H, but it's at least more solid then the 3ds game; i did remember a poll showing Engage beat the 2 games, and that's what dev were striving for since they said they wanted Engage to be a Awakening 2, not a 3H2 unlike what 3H babies hoped, and while I can't blame them especially if 3H was their first game knowing that Fates was the actual Awakening 2, 3H is, I repeat, a unique game, first time ever FE went that way, so really there was no chance they would repeat that formula.

It's not really like the Fates wank though cause it was more "ma route is da besto!" even though both can came off as boring in terms of plot and both as their flaw in terms of playthough cause Conquest still has the main problem of not allowing any bonus fight asides from the one offered by the DLC, which makes it harder to unlock the children units and in Lunatics, harder to have stockage unit compared to Birthright when you can actually unlock all ressources. As for the plot well... Conquest was good on paper but it had the curse to cross path with Revelation's plot since it introduces Anankos and Valla making the whole thing seems shallow, not counting what the Trio did put what reaaaaally ruined the plot was ... localized Xander. WHY TREEHOUSE WHY ??? <Why did they made him such a rebel when the jpn version wanted him to be a kind of delusional guy ??? This makes everthing, like Corrin not telling him about Fake Garon becomes nonsense since by the way Treehouse changed Xander he should have believed Kamui !! Nay, a wank more similar would be how back then fans were fighting over 3H's golden route, or true route (because they never played VN i assume) and it had only the merit of each supporter of their own beloved route to actually points out all holes and plot inconsistency in each route and while some are bad faith, or makes one reconsider "3H is an amazing story" but all routes have somewhat disapointing ending, CF and SF in particular, poor Eddie, all her route's ending are so bad....

Plus I keep seeing ppl reblogging and sharing localization change for Homies so I don't want to fall into the Fates trap of thinking Treehouses may be "innocent" in some plot holes or inconsistencies cause;.. The Awakening localization team did fixed holes, like that Chrom!Morgan hates bugs, not making sense with regular Morgan liking bugs, and turned it into a coarch to link with his support with Noire, or trying to fix, (without success) the Robin!Owain hole, but Treehouse sometimes makes me think they don't pay attention to the whole context and seeing what they did to Alear' S support... yeah they really never paid attention to context did they ? not that it's the only problem, they did censore Goldmary saying she ate too much or Timerra talking about her skirt, so would only half surprise me if some holes in 3H weren't due to Treehouse messing up again but even there would'nt change how Engage's story is more agreeable to make post about.

Like if I had motivation, I would have picked on the loca changes for 3H but do i really want to go through all the 4th route to check on that ? Whereas Engage ? I can just replay it once in jpn dub and call it a day

"as for the incest stuff, been over that fair enough amount of times that i dont have much else to say without repeating myself." which doesn't surprise me, that thing blew up a mont ago like a volcano and in less then a week, all arguments in favor or against the ship have been said, only difference is that the people against it only have 2 arguments consisting on focusing on Xenobron and Not!The Fell twins (that's how i call their Elyos double) to absolutely tries to prouve that Alear and the Fell twins are half-siblings in a round a about way, which...

it kinda sucks cause it's always family bound or character that cares about family that ends up being dragged into this... like when they poke jokes at Prisicilla but I never saw anything "perverted" in her love for Raven at the risk of comming off as dense, just a sister happy that she is reunited with her brother, same for the Renais twins, what's so romantic about patting your sister's head ? And the wank for Rhea sucked too, cause Rhea was shown to deeply care about her family (even though they aren't related) and she isn't the kind of person who would break that taboo, she doesn't even view Byleth as family herself (but at the same time she never saw Byleth as Byleth, but more as the envelopp containing her dead mother's spirit) and now it's exploding in a game who'se main theme is family and about Alear, a character that values a lot family bound. And they have to deal with 2 shits : people trying to prove their relationship with the twins despite the game itself not caring and that no matter what and on the other hand, people trying to ruin the Veyle' S support by trying to prouve that it was romantic so either they hate on Treehouse or praise them... for literaly just removing a word?? IDK who on earth read the JPN version of Veyle's Support and though there was romance in it cause they really need glasses, and it suck even more cause this support was very good and was taking place between 2 character who tried to be siblings after having such a tragic story and that makes the Nel wank worse cause they also use her support with Veyle to aliment their argument that no human being should give the ring to her, even though this support was about 2 individuals's developpement and accepting to be friends/family and Veyle helping Nel's trust issue, so really this wank sucks even more then for others game. Now you can argue that Fates did messed up cause it looks occ of Corrin to date any of the Royals but seeing how the Fates manga tried to push F!Corrin with Leo... yes, and the difference i would say is that unlike for the Royals, neither did 3H and Engage tried to lead you into saying the characters into family cause the plot don't care unlike for Fates where, except for the Nohrian royals, you had to explain why Hoshidan aren't Corrin's half siblings, but step family only and it was not even out of nowhere because of Anankos shenanigans....but for Engage, it really sucks since it's really all about family and there it's about proving blood relationship, so actual losecest which... Engage is the worst game you could have choosen for that, realy any other but the one about family in particular, the "adopted sibling still is losecest" is more tolerable cause Fates kind of deserves it though Corrin isn't really an adopted sibling;.. i mean, if kidnapped is adoption that is...and even then, people would still be "at least they aren't related in canon" to make it more ok in fiction then if it was whatever thing they tried with Veyle...and in the difference is that people never tried to prouve that Corrin is still related to theirs sibs, whereas here the only ground they have to support thei claim is... by proving relationship btw Rhea/Byleth and Alear/Fell twins and the infamous "but Veyle was romantic in JP" that is so... grrr

And yes, I said Nel wank cause people are only diggin this into her, not Rafal, he has none of this or a few probably cause of husbando biais and cause in his support he sortas says that Alear and him aren't really related so it's fine....but yeah, really sucks that instead of just rolling with it they turn it into a "we don't like it so we are going to make it everyone's problem" like the anti studenleth and that's crazy seeing how it's about literal pixels and that mutliverse doesn't even exist but... well, one moth before the DLC I still had to explain why Veyle isn't romantic in JPN and somehow, the "morally upright" elite called me a liar for saying there is nothing romantic about your sister saying she might jump out of joy if you were to wake her up... and i still do not understand why saying that you can't romance Veyle is a problem, why does this exist ?

Gotta be frank, the more time pass the more i can't stand the "3H had an amazing story whereas Engage is a failure" refrain because 3H is not a game I would compare Engage to, just doesn't make sense as they were not made with the same mindset, but it's just another day of thinking that Fodlan's duology is really overrated for what it actually is *sight* : 3

yanderefairyangel asked: also don' wanna add fuel into the fire, but i think the other reason why I'd say it isn't losecest is because Engage's theme is family, so IS may have crappy taste sometimes, but I don't think they'be tasteless enough to have the character that value family bound in a story about family break a taboo based on the sacred side of family ( I mean in a story about Alear's family two of "their family member" have so little relevance you can complete the story without unlocking them and aa..seeing how much * interesting *things Nel and Rafal says when you use them on the battlefield during the exploration phase) so i think it's another reason why IS hides behind alt world shenanigans but imma be honest, they relationship is way to complicated to say they are your average half siblings ! After all, unlike Fates whose main theme was more about choosing and it's consequences, Engage is a story about family and whereas Fates never properly explored it, Engage is full of that (i have lost the count of character having siblings) and even then Fates still had an excuse to let you romance the Royal if requiredn but seeing how they handled Veyle'S support, even IS has some limits. Crazy I know.

bundlin em together

i think its to be expected that the refrain pops up, and to an extent i understand why its used because its one of those things that technically true but easily abusable. Which is to say well engage has some real good story aspects to it, its story is also its weaker half. Meanwhile its gameplay kicks so much ass especially compared to three houses that from what i've seen its difficult to criticize engage from that angle, so if your looking for a way to 'attack' it as some are oft to do you kinda get coralled into attacking the easier part to attack of it.

just look at fates for a case precedence, birthrights gameplay and conquests story are generally [considered] the weaker halfs of their designs [personally i feel conquest beats birthright on both counts] so those are the most oft criticized aspects of fates.

the main difference in engages case when compared to three houses aspect though... is that engage also beats out three houses on a story angle in all the categories that count. so its an inherently unfavourable comparison.

as for the incest stuff, been over that fair enough amount of times that i dont have much else to say without repeating myself.

[kanohivolitakk]

Since its 3Hs anniversary some really cool things I like about the game that aren’t talked about enough because the fandom is too busy arguing who is right and who is wrong

The worldbuilding just. 3H has honestly one of my favorite fictional settings. Its just both expansive but also genuinely interesting. I have spent HOURS thinking about the world and made so many ocs its not even funny. I love thinking about the setting of the game so much.

I LOVE the puzzle like way the game explains its world and story. Like I know some people don’t like it because it makes the game a bit too convoluted but personally? I LOVE 3Hs way of not telling everything but rather giving hints and clues the player has to piece themselves. It makes the games world feel more interactive and feels so satisfying. Then again I enjoy that kind of approach to worldbuilding

In general I love 3hs fragmented story and the way how the story is placed in many different fragments. It is geniunely rewarding to replay the game from another storypath and notice the foreshadowing Would’ve the story been probably better had it been just one storypath? Honestly yes. But 3h is ambitious and one of the ways it is is with its fragmented story structure.

The structure of White Clouds is criminally underrated honestly and gets way more hate than it deserves. I love how the first few chapters set up the world of Fodlan and show injustices/conflicts of the world with chapters like the chapter where you face off Lonato for instance. Then the next few chapters are spend in deepening the mysteries such as the conspiracy against the church and the mystery regarding TWSITD. Then Jeralt dies and the last few chapters are spent as “beginning of the End” so to speak, as things clears to the intense climax.

On related note I LOVE how the game handles perspective and how the lords are the respective ways we view the story. I know so many people say “WHite Clouds is same on all paths” but I do feel that’s kinda the point. The story is the same but there are differences that come from the way each of the lords is strongly characterized and has different values, worldviews. The subtle changes on what are focused on in each route also foreshadow what will be focused on each route, which I think is super cool.

Even beyond the lords and routes the game does explore the idea of perspective well. I do think 3h has this very “everyone is the hero of their own story” type of approach to perspective and it shows it well. Each character believes they’re in the right and you can get this view that they view themselves as right. Even Agarthans who are the designated villains have this sense they think they’re in right and that the Nabateans were evil.

The way how games routes being divided into having a different focus is very cool. I love how AM is a smaller scale personal tragedy, how CF is a battle of ideals and how VW explores the world and reveals deeper mysteries. I also love how all of these are related to the lords ideals and worldviews: Dimitri is the most conflicted of the lords so he gets the most characterfocused story focused on . Edelgard is the most ideologically driven so her path focuses on her ideals and battle of wills against Rhea. Claude is the one who is the most freespirited and wants to know the truth so his route focuses on revealing the mysteries.

Also the way the houses characters reflect their respective routes storyline and central themes: Black Eagles are nobles that have conflicting relationships with nobility reflecting Edelgards goal, Blue Lions are all united with the trauma of Tragedy of Duscur, and Golden Deer are a house of misfits who give this “ragtag group who will save the universe with POWER OF FRIENDSHIP and this cool gun I found” vibes which fit the route PERFECTLY

I LOVE how the game plays with and subverts a lot of Fire Emblem tropes. While it does play some tropes straight (dad death and evil cult manipulating behind the scenes) it does do a lot to break from series conventions and playing with ideas to make a more ambitious story. The way it either subverts expectations (The evil emperor being female well intended extremist, Rhea being the Gharnef/Medeus instead of the Nyna archetype she’s presented as), twists familiar tropes to their natural extreme (Dimitris arc is basically the natural extreme end of stereotypical FE lord) and other similar things make the game feeling so planned out, like the writers understood FE stories and wanted to make something that challenges FE while still feeling like it.

The way how every major player acts as foil/pararell to another player is so GOOD. Every faction leader can be compared to the other somehow and that just makes the game SOOOO fun to analyze, trying to find all the similarities and differences and pararells is so rewarding.

A more specific example on this is how i love how the game plays with the idea of holy/sacred weapons. While normally these weapons are artifacts from goddess that defeat dragons, here the holy weapons are bones made from dragons and just???? HOW METAL IS THAT????????? It’s just such a neat way to subvert the idea of sacred weapons. Rather than being blessed creations of the goddess, they are weapons of destruction made by the villains.

I ADORE THE GAMES science fiction elements. I know people say they feel out of place but personally, they make the game memorable for me. I still remember the first time I saw that scene with nukes. I especially love the heavy implication that Sothis isn’t a goddess but rather a powerful alien. It makes her character much more interesting

I know a lot of people don’t like Agarthans but can I just say their backstory being “forced to hide after their land got conquered and desiring it back” making them a dark mirror not just 3h lords/Rhea but FE lords as whole is SO FUCKING METAL. This is what I mean with 3H writers knowing their tropes like back of their hand.

I love how in Part 1 sometimes you’d talk to two characters in Monastery at once instead of just one. It’s something I miss in part 2 honestly.

I love the small sidequests such as the fishing tourney and White Heron cup and wish Part 1 had more of them, it would’ve made the school part feel more alive.

I LOVE how some missions (esp paralogues) have subgoals that you can clear to get better rewards. I wish the game had been more clear with them or even made them main goals of maps sometimes.

I LOVE THE WAY Paralogues act as small gaiden stories that show more of the games world and characters. Its a neat way to let the sidecharacters shine and reveal some neat secrets of the games world and story.

The gameplay loop is honetly fun and satisfying. It is rewarding and while it gets tiring towards the end overall its a good gameplay loop.

I ADORE the aesthetic of Shambhala. Its just so sleek and sinister. The cyrillic letters spelling different words is so cool. Shambhala is my favorite map in the game and the aesthetic is a big reason why.

The games soundtrack is so good!!!!!!!!!!  But not only that I LOVE the way its electro elements subtly hint of Agarthans being in control behind the scenes. This is especially cool in Road to Dominion where the electro parts are barely noticeable yet present. but other tracks have subtle electro vibes as well.  The other way the games music tells the story (such as use of leitmotifs or how the monastery music changes once Jeralt dies) is great as well.

I love how 3h can be read as an allegory for reformation era and reneissance. Its such an interesting way to read the games events and compare it to a real historical periods there’s quite a bit of f

In general I ADORE the cultural references of the game. There’s surprisingly lot of way the games world is based on real life and the details are just *chefs kiss*

THE GAME IS DENSE WITH THEMATIC IDEAS. Besides the perspective the game tackles ideas of how trauma can affect a persons psyche and worldview  (as well how a persons trauma affects the way they interact with the world which in turn can affect the world as well), grief, societal values, historical revisiniosm and so much more. The game tackles SO MANY topics in an interesting manner, it is thematically just as dense as it is storywise as well.

I also love how the games thematic parts work in harmony with the story rather than one overshadowing with the other. Its super refreshing honestly where a games themes and story are both rich and I don’t have to pick one over the other.

Lastly I ADORE the games central message (or at least what I see as the central message anyway): The world’s fucked up and most people want to fix it, but what they deem fixing differs and because of that they go into conflict or outright war rather than trying to find a common ground. Everyone wants a better world but no one can agree what a better world truly means  so they fight over it. It was a theme that not only resonates with my personal values but also hit me REALLY hard when I first played it as it’s a theme that I found incredibly relevant and reflective of our own world during the time I played the game for the first time.

So yeah. I made this post since there’s SO MUCH neat things about the game, its gameplay and story that sadly get swept under the rug in favor of either arguing  which lord was right/wrong or complaining how the game is an unfinished, rushed and overambitious mess. Is 3h perfect? Hell no. But it’s a game that I hold near and dear to my heart and does genuinely SO MANY THINGS RIGHT, I’m sad no one talks about the genuine strengths the game has anymore, instead just complaining.

I’m not even joking when I say that 3h should be up there as heralded as one of the best, most ambitious and complex JRPGs alongside Xenogears, the first Xenoblade game, Suikoden and Trails series as whole along other such games. Its a shame the games reputation is less like those games and more like Persona 5s where everyone focuses more on its flaws and the fans being annoying than the fact the game does geniunely A LOT right. It’s just that good, ambitious game I love so much.

[pangtasias-atelier]

F/E/7 Thoughts

This one is way longer than the others since I distinctly remember fe7 muhc more since I played through it like 3 times before, once on ENM, half of EHM before my brother threw away my copy of fe7, and then ENM again when fe7 was released on the eshop. So I am much more opinionated since my feelings changed greatly after playing ector mode for the first time, especially hector hard mode. And to be honest, it was not a fun experience. The story is an enjoyable ride and feels more fleshed out compared to most other games. Plus, there is a lot of game to play and it makes it a fun endeavor to undertake to the point that 7 places very high compared to the rest of the series.

However, that’s when I think of eliwood mode. Playing hector mode definitely changes my feelings on the game and playing hard mode sours it further. Getting back to hector hard mode later, my issue with hector mode in general is that the story feels just lacking a lot more compared to eliwood mode. Like sure, Hector is a cool and nice guy and all, but he really feels like he should have been a side character and not a main lord. He has very little personal motivation in the story besides “I want to help my friend,”. The same can and should be said for Lyn but she at least has the more self driven reason of where her grandfather was attacked and nearly killed.

Rereading eliwood mode’s script and comparing it to hector mode’s script, the main story is practically the exact same but, and this comes to pure opinion, Hector is a much less interesting character to me. I get why people enjoy him, but it definitely feels most of it comes down to him ebing a ridiculously broken unit when it comes to early game since you get so many terrible units. Especially in comparison to Eliwood and Lyn who suffer from swords not having 1-2 range and being really frail to train up.

Speaking of the other two lords, replaying Lyn mode really reminded me of how rampant the misogyny was - and still is - because all of the critiques of Lyn being stubborn and hardheaded and annoying and whatnot just feel so unfounded for the most part. She’s not like a twist on the usual fe lord formula, she’s perfectly serviceable and that’s what she is. Lyn definitely isn’t as soft spoken as several other lords but people act as if she refuses to listen to anyone else. She’s a perfectly decent character and by extension, so is Lyn mode. Even taking out the fact that it’s a glorified tutorial, it’s only 10 chapters that are pretty laid back even on hard mode. (And it’s shorter than 3H’s 12 chapter tutorial that’s half the game and you have to play 4 times to change the most minor decision that changes nothing for 12 chapters lmao) Normal mode sucks just cause it’s forced tutorials.

And Eliwood is basically the usual fe lord and it just speaks to me more than hector. Which would mean Eliwo od mode is just fine but the game locks 4 different maps behind Hector mode because of absolutely no reason but to incentivize people to play Hector mode, which is only unlocked after beating Eliwood mode.Two fo the maps add zero to the story while the other 2 unlock what’s technically the best ending but it’s such a minor difference that it doesn’t really matter but if you’re playing Eliwood mode the you basically get fucked out of learning about Kishuna just cause the game realy wants you to play Hector mode. And that’s not even talking about how Hector mode also locks 2 characters behind it which sucks and rounds out the awful idea of locking content behind what feels like a lesser story.

Moving on from hector mode’s story and differences, my issue with hector hard mode is more of an issue with how fe7 treats hard mode even in eliwood hard mode. And that is the game lowers your deployment slots for most of the chapters. Which doesn’t really make the game harder. If anything, it makes it much easier since the game incentivizes you to focus your exp on less units. So, all it does is make you bench crappier units that you handicap using in favor of using Marcus or Oswin to round out having less slots. And it sucks because the fun from fe is getting to use a bunch of units, but you can’t really do that on hard mode. And it’s further hampered by the fact that you have 3 lords so you’re slightly incentivized to train them up for when they’re all force deployed. Like, I went through the difficulty of training up Rebecca and Canas to try and hopefully train them only to get irritated and look up to see why deployment slots were so strict and then bench them which only helped me in the long run cause I didn't have to rotate my main team just to train units.

As for specifically Hector hard mode itself, it’s actually pretty fun in spite of the lowered deployment costs. All the gameplay changes where different starting positions from Eliwood mode and different enemy compositions from even HEctor normal mode is a blast. It was fucking ridiculous to see the desert map in fe7 to suddenly have fog of war to mimic FE6 hellish desert map also having FoW. Which is hilarious that it only happens on hector hard mode. Not that the map is difficult. The only map that really changed up was Kishuna’s second map where they just flat out leave and so you have to deal with a bunch of siege tomes and status staves. Except you don’t have the most options to deal with it so it kind of just fucking sucks compared to say Thracia. Otherwise, most maps were a breeze to deal with. Even cog of destiny since knowing the spawn points makes it a breeze. And even Battle Before Dawn which everyone talks about was a nonchore. And that’s with me not having a torch item since I accidentally sold mine

Hector hard mode is a fun thing to try and my complaints are mostly minor nitpicks but it’s a fun and enjoyable ride even if the difficulty is over exaggerated. At the very least, there was a lot of thought put behind the game mode unlike most other fe game with tangible and notable differences that aren’t just more stats. Like, just let me play Eliwood mode with hector hard mode maps and normal mode deployment slots and I’d enjoy it like 20 times more.

Also, here’s the mvp who I let myself suffer through the game saving up my statboosters to create this monster. Besides NIno, the flyers were once again busted as all hell to use lol

[faroreswinds]

I was looking at that support science video about Edelgard by Faerghast and I found some interesting comments I wanted to share. 

In relation to a comment about Korea not liking Edelgard:

One Korean user explained it was because Edelgard's  reasoning for starting the war reminded people of past events, because Korea has a history of Imperialism. But I'm not active in the Korean 3H fandom so I can't say how true or false that is.

In the JP fandom the general consensus is that she's popular as a waifu but that's about it. They don't care much for her motives, beliefs, or actions, they seem to agree that she's wrong. And it's not even "she's right in her own mind" they just say that she's wrong. They see her as a villain. The only CYL that matters is the first one, and even that had botting, and the last two CYL were the worst. I thought that maybe Marianne truly won in her own merit, but then a user admitted that he botted her,  and at the beginning I didn't think it was true until her character actually got into the game and her banner did poorly. I know that that gatekeeper was better. JP players were pissed off with the results.

FEdelgard is not helping her popularity at all. Claude has reasonable units, Dimitri has reasonable units, Edelgard's they go out their way to make her meta and throw game balance right out the window. So I know people (read FEH whales) who've never played 3H but hate her because they feel the feh devs are trying too hard with her.

I know the Korean thing is true, but I wonder if the Japanese thing is true? I don’t run in any JP circles in the fandom so I don’t know. 

The Imperialism angle has definitely affected her like / dislike in countries - I hear the same thing from a lot of European friends too.  Which, there may be a whole thesis that can be written about connections between previous history of Imperialism / "Are we the good guys spreading good values?" versus "My country got invaded and we didn't forget" but - I'm not really the one to do it as that's a little too deep into Real Life there.

WRT Japanese fandom - most of them have been playing FE for a long time and are used to the tropes methinks, and FE4 is still held up as a gem over there so the Edelgard == Arvis is probably more apparent.  There's a lot of cultural connotations that maybe didn't get translated over either but it is what it is.

And then:

Also a lot of countries who used to practice Imperialism don't really like her because a lot of them learned quite a while ago that the people they conquered neither wanted nor needed them there. As the personal and societal stories of the people who were conquered came out and became easily available to the public sentiment towards Imperialism has become negative, especially after WWII. So the fact that Edelgard's rhetoric is so similar to the imperialist rhetoric makes people wary of her.

The jp version also didn't shy away from treating Edelgard like a villain and IS hasn't been shy to about it either. It's when Treehouse gets added to the mix that things become muddled. For instance in the va stream for the English va the Treehouse interviewer called Dimitri a villain, and Edelgard the hero.  Yeah the popularity of games like Genealogy, made people aware that even if Edelgard herself has good intentions it doesn't justify her actions. In fact, a common complaint from jp fans was that her ending was happy. They felt like Byleth in CF didn't earn it and that the devs chickened out of giving Edelgard a bad end.

That would be interesting if true, if the JP fandom echoes the same complaints as many English speaking fans. 

[iturbide]

Are there characters you like in Three Houses (or any FE game you've had the chance to play) that you only dislike in specific circumstances? For me personally one of those characters are Leonie- in a vacuum I like her and most of her supports, but if she never interacted with Byleth again I wouldn't complain. She says some straight up mean spirited things to them and always, always brings up Jeralt even when the circumstance doesn't call for it at all.

Look, I love Leonie.  Leonie, however, is probably one of the most divisive characters in 3H because of how her supports with Byleth play out.  Personally?  I like her A support with Byleth.  Her C and B supports are rough, yes, mostly because she has a very rigid way of thinking sometimes and she hates when people aren’t appreciative of things they have (something that’s hard to tell with Byleth sometimes, given their subdued expressions), and also because she’s in mourning herself by the time the B support comes around -- but her A support is honestly so sweet, and in the monastery (especially post-timeskip) she mentions Jeralt only infrequently.  So while I get that Leonie’s very widely disliked, I personally like her a lot, I love so many of her supports, and I just love her character on the whole.

Personally, I don’t make judgment calls based on one support.  If I dislike a character, it’s always going to be part of a larger pattern, like Sylvain’s predatory behavior that even though he appears to make progress in some of his supports is always on full and obnoxious display at the monastery.  Cyril is much the same: I love some of his supports, like his chain with Lysithea, but his overall pattern of behavior in regards to that blind devotion to Rhea is really upsetting to me.

As for characters that I like with the exception of maybe one of two instances, Lysithea’s probably my best example.  I love Lysithea, I think she’s interesting and just a great character overall -- but I hate her supports with Ignatz.  If we want to talk about rude and mean-spirited things said, Lysithea in her supports with Ignatz is constantly putting him down, criticizing him out of turn, and generally treating him badly, and it really upsets me.  It’s bad enough that unless I absolutely have to, I never put them near each other in battle or set them as each other’s adjutants because how Lysithea treats Ignatz is completely uncalled for.

[randomnameless]

Well, looks like even a broken clock's right at least twice a day; an edelstan on twitter was pissed a few days ago when they saw that Cyril's Meet the Heroes description described his time “working” for House Goneril as “some odd twists and turns”, pointing out that such vague wording was most likely used due to a combination of 3H not caring about Cyril's backstory and IS needing to sanitize Hilda's image so she can sell better in Heroes.

Hahaha,

It's funny because on SPE some people made memes, and you have angry people in the comments, being angry and basically lying or making up facts to either diminish Cyril's uh, "working conditions" in House Goneril, or try to sweep it under the rug to give some "Rhea BaD" takes again

Like :

(meme where Claude doesn't criticise his allies for keeping slaves, but blame racism on the lady who saved the child slave)

"Faerghus is the most violent country because they killed the emperor and enacted a coup while being backed up by mole people" to talk about that time when Loog got his independance

"Rhea BaD bcs Cyril can't learn how to read if you don't support him with Lysithea" even if he writes in the Post TS regardless of recruiting Lysithea or not

"Claude tries to talk to Cyril out of fighting but Cyril drives to a suicide charge with Rhea's blessing so Rhea BaD" in GW, with the source being, idk, since the person who came with that take never sourced it

"Rhea BaD she used the regicide in Faerghus to get rid of her political enemies" you mean the dude who tried to kill her?

"Supreme Leader wouldn't be able to continue warring if Rhea DeD bcs else she would be invading people and would lose public support" like the Supreme Leader? From the land of MAGA? Lose public support?? If she invades nations to restore Adrestia to its glorious past???

"Cyril never said he wasn't eating well in house Goneril" but the JP line says he was always hungry in PAlmyra and Fodlan before coming to the Monastery...

Anyways, as expected, even if FEH tries to sanitise some of Fe Fodlan's most, uh, contentious points, we will always have discourse because some people just prefer their fanon to canon, and while I can understand them to a degree (look Willy is basically fanon at this point) it's always hilarious to see people refuse to engage or even consider that the game they "love" says X when they prefer Y.

When it comes to, in general, Church related characters or Kingdom related characters, we see a lot of discourse like this popping up because while FE Fodlan shat on them (to an extent, for the Church related characters) FEH has to give them the minimum spotlight they give to other characters of the franchise, so yes, Hilda's popularity most likely is the reason why Cyril in MYH just had some "odd twists and turns" (tfw Begnion Senators aren't as popular :( so Muarim was mentionned to have been a slave) but his voiced lines has him mention he was captured as a "war prisoner"...

Putting everything it adds up and we have : Cyril was captured as a war prisoner when he was 11-12 by the Gonerils, was hungry there, complained about "work being hard" there (when Cyril doesn't complain at all in GM despite the huge workload he has!), and implies to Mercedes to have been mistreated in House Goneril because he was Almyran (which matches Hilda's prejudices in her C support about Almyrans).

Why is Cyril's backstory so "discourse rising" then?

Is it because Rhea BaD cannot rescue a child from slavery from a popular character's family/household? Or because Hilda's laziness and preference to let other people do her chores looks especially wrong if we take into consideration that those "other people doing her chores" at home might be children "kept as prisoner of wars and fed twice per week"? Or because it reflects badly on Claude (in both games) who wants to end discriminations and prejudices by getting rid of the institution that rescued an abused child, while working hand in hand with the family that abused said child based on his origins?

(lol@the "but Faerghus BaD" bonus point in the earlier SPE thread I mention, I don't even understand why it was brought up lol)

Back to your post, it's hilarious how this edelstand was pissed becayse FEH whitewashed Cyril's backstory to maybe sell more Hilda alts, when Pat'n'pals try their hardest (in FE16, Nopes and even FEH!) to "alter the script" to shit on Rhea, Dimitri to make Supreme Leader alt'able.

Maybe there's hope for this twitter/X stan?

[emblemxeno]

You know this has been on my mind a while but I seriously feel 3h writing was damaged by no post-timeskip recruiting. In all other FEs you pick up characters every now and then throughout the game and some of them have greatly suffered due to the villains conquest and war, yet in 3h you do all your recruiting pre-timeskip BEFORE the war and the only time you ever hear about the terrible things happening to people... its happening to random NPCs and the nameless and faceless people of Fodlan. 1/2

You never recruit a playable character that has suffered from the war. You dont get characters like Duessel defecting from Grado or Virion fleeing from Walharts conquest or Scarlet rebelling against Nohrs cruelty. Playable characters that you have an attatchment to recalling and telling you about their experiences and what theyve been through is far more effective than Ashe telling you the faceless people of Fodlan are starving after you had your fifth meal of the day in the dining hall. 2/2

That's a major weakness yeah. The closest we get is recruiting Lysithea, Ashe and Lorenz on certain paths, but... ugh it's not the same. With the examples you gave especially, it just makes it hard to care about what's happening in the world when it's all secondhand. Like, isn't this the first FE game where there's no villages to visit? At all? There are generics in some maps, but no opportunity to go to a house and snag an item and hear some nice details. And I know the monastery is supposed to make up for that, but again... hearing about things that happened somewhere else while at an unrelated location isn't the same.

[senpai-no-lie]

Black Eagles Route

Finally, with a certain level of dread in my heart, I completed Crimson Flower

Why I chose Black Eagles (specifically Crimson Flower): I had already completed Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, so it was just a matter of picking between Crimson Flower or Silver Snow. I figured it’d be best to just knock out Crimson Flower, since I still needed Hubert, Jertiza, and Edelgard’s supports.  

Who Was My Dancer: Sylvain! I kept my recruits for this route only to characters I needed to complete supports, and then also Sylvain, because his aesthetic sense just seemed to jive with the Black Eagles. As a dancer, he did okay, but I think I much prefer him on a horse. However, his dancing was crucial to killing Dimitri before Dedue turned into a beast, and a few other pivotal moments. I just don’t think Sylvain has the magical firepower I like with my dancers (It should be known I don’t typically use the dancer character at all in other FE games, but I really enjoy the magic-utilty they have in 3H) 

What Paired Endings Did I Get:  

Edelgard & Hubert (I actually feel really bad for Hubert; it wasn’t my intention to do this)

Linhardt & Hapi

Dorothea & Petra

Jeritza & Bernadetta 

Ferdinand & Mercedes

Not as many paired endings as usual because I really only cared about filling out my missing supports

Who Did Byleth Marry: Sylvain. Totally, totally not who I meant to marry; my intention was Yuri, but then I never used Yuri. And I just have a soft spot for Sylvain. I stand behind my decision. 

Which Edelgard Do I prefer?: Purely on aesthetics, post-timeskip Edelgard is p hot, ngl, but I find her to be more intolerable because of how hard they push that weird sort of gap moe waifu bait with her. So I guess pre-timeskip, even if that’s not much better.

General Thoughts: I tried, oh so hard, to go in with an open mind about Edelgard and the other route exclusive characters. Edelgard leaves about 0 impressions in the other routes, as far as being an antagonist goes, but from the opening chapters on my first playthrough, I found her to be manipulative, condescending, and perhaps a bit immature. And yeah, she’s all of those things and more.... But Hubert, Hubert I love and I’m so mad that I can see the appeal of Hubert x Ferdinand now. My only point of contention remains the fact that in canon they remain subservient to her in their paired ending. 

I also went out of my way to kill every single named character throughout the route, and it was both satisfying and heartbreaking. That Dimitri and Dedude death scene, Seteth’s shouts as I struck down Flayn, the dialogue between Sylvain as he fought against his childhood friends.... so good. 

The Black Eagles Characters:

I did almost all the supports possible, sans route exclusives and DLC on my first playthrough, but I’ve yet to hash out my general feelings about the Black Eagles. 

Edelgard: Plain and simple, I do not stan Edelgard. I found a lot of her behavior more reasonable if she was 13 pre-timeskip and 18 post-timeskip, but a 23 year old being so cringey and unaware of the greater political climate (Hubert regularly does things behind her back that she doesn’t even notice or care to notice, while complaining that Hubert makes her work for ambitions rather than letting her eat sweets or stare at the sky all day, ugh) is just unappealing as hell. The whole sequence where I had two opportunities to call her fear of rats “cute” was super off-putting, and the don’t get me started on her drawing Byleth fanart. She’s constantly looking for affirmation from Byleth (despite insisting she doesn’t need praise in lecture), while being manipulative and condescending to everyone else. Her calling Lysithea “good girl” when Lysithea is 20/21, only three years younger, and an entire inch taller than Edelgard post-timeskip is pure cringe. Also the name Black Eagles Strike Force is an awful name and I’m not sorry I told her as much. 

Hubert: I’m torn on whether or not Hubert is my favorite Black Eagle. I really enjoy devoted servant characters, and I find him more endearing because Edelgard doesn’t deserve him. He’s so visually unappealing (though, not as bad as I find Lorenz to be) and weird, but I respect that about him. 

Ferdinand: Sweet, dumb Ferdinand. I love him; his supports are a delight and I am consistently charmed by how sweet he is in his supports. I prefer him in other routes than how he has to behave in Crimson Flower, but what can ya do. Truly, the noblest of nobles

Linhardt: I’ve heard mixed opinions about Linhardt, but I for one like him. He’s a fair-weather sort of guy who only cares about a few things, and I support that. He’s just strange and intelligent and a dry sense of humor I can appreciate.

Caspar: This moron, I love him. Caspar is the one person I’d expect to follow Edelgard unquestioningly because he just doesn’t have enough brain cells to do otherwise. I think he’s funny, even if his tone-deaf screaming in eagerness to kill and conquer Fodlan grew taxing. 

Dorothea: I like Dorothea alright; I think she has a lot of personality in her supports, but she’s not really the sort of character I find especially endearing or relatable. Nothing wrong with that.

Petra: A great girl! I find her manner of speech endearing, and I’m personally grateful that didn’t try to do some sort of accent for her that’s 1:1 for the real world. I was a bit put-off by how gungho she is with siding with Edelgard and dismantling Fodlan, but ya know, what choice does she have a political prisoner shoved into the black hole that surrounds Edelgard?

Bernadetta: People complain that Sylvain doesn’t mature post-timeskip, but Bernedetta still does that awful screeching and being a recluse routine up until the very end. I don’t like her or find her funny, but I do enjoy the sort of moral relativism she employs. Her supports with Yuri made me feel exceptionally sorry for Yuri. 

Jeritza: His voice and cadence irritates me to no end, but he was enjoyable as a unit, at least. I think his “personality” or “two personalities” is troupey to the max, and his supports with Byleth were especially off-putting. I feel like if you’re going to make a murder-happy character like Jeritza, especially one with like a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde thing going on, it needs to be way more campy or bombastic. 

I could honestly write a bunch more, but it’d mostly be me bitching about specific cringe-inducing moments with Edelgard that I’m sure other people who aren’t aggressively stanning her have brought up. If you like Edelgard, good for you, but I’m of the opinion that she’s a snake, and not even a clever or tactful one. Crimson Flower is so painful with how obvious it is with it’s Edelgard-pandering that it took me out of the game multiple times. All their routes have their flaws, but I guess the last (and only) animated sequence for CF was pretty dope, at least.  

[anonarat]

Some more thoughts on FE:3H

Firstly, story. It currently feels as though the game is spinning it’s wheels a bit, building up to the time skip. Depending on how awesome or lacklustre the events post academy days seems as though it’s going to be the determining factor in how greatly the story will be remembered.

I will say I hope that Jeritza isn’t actually a villain, just because the whole thing would feel... trite otherwise. I also get the feeling that Monica may be a Schrodinger's student, belonging to whichever House you chose. If this is the case, I am for it, it’s the kind of railroading that I like.

I’m currently on the month just before the Battle of the Eagle and Lion. The path to victory is clear to me: recruit students out from under the noses of the other houses.

Most of my students are learning well, although I doubt I’ll be using Flayn, she’s just too far behind in levels. The Paralogues are excellent in terms of levelling and items (still need to kill exactly 1 unit in Dorothea and Ingrid’s due to needing to leave for work).

I must commend the in-battle gameplay and mechanics though. I think they may be my favourite across all of Fire Emblem. Combat arts letting you trade durability for effectiveness gives you a good choice on how to spend your resources. The joint attacks and adjutants work way better than pair up. The adding of an accessory slot helps with customisation. Divine Pulse balances frustration and power well. The lines indicating enemy attacks make planning so much better

Battalions though deserve a special mention. On an enemy, they are a dangerous threat, drastically weakening your units with not chance of counterattack. On allies, they give you potent, limited resource abilities.

What really sticks out to me was there was a point on the Dorothea + Ingrid paralogue where an ambush was sprung. Without gambits, I would have had to withdraw and turtle. Instead, I could go on the offensive, and that option felt good.

There are a couple of negatives. I feel as though the game is far too generous with magic uses. Outside of the starter magic, I’d like to see all uses halved. The other is skills, especially personal skills, don’t feel as impactful as they perhaps should.

Finally though, I am really glad I put the game onto Hard. At this difficulty, it feels like a Fire Emblem game of my youth.