You progress through the school year via a cute little calendar menu. Later levels in the game have branching paths and brutal environmental obstacles that force you to make tough decisions and add tons of depth to the gameplay.Īside from combat, the rest of the game sees you creating lesson plans and mapping out goals for your students. Certain terrain can hinder movement or cause damage, so planning ahead and positioning your unit deliberately is key to their survival. It’s a limited-use ability, but as you level up you can increase the number of pulses at your disposal.Īs you master the primary mechanics of combat, the nuances of movement on the battlefield start to become a bigger concern. So, if one of your units died, you can go back to the point where you think you made a fatal tactical error and alter your approach. But a new feature called Divine Pulse mitigates the brutal nature of classic mode by allowing you to jump backward in time by as many turns as you like. It makes the stakes feel real, both in battle and in the larger narrative.

If an ally is close by, the Gambit may be bolstered and deal far more damage.Īs is always the case with Fire Emblem, classic mode, which introduces permadeath into combat, is the best way to play. When utilized, the battalion charges the target (again, adorable) for damage and a chance to stagger (which prohibits movement and has a chance of spreading to other nearby enemy units). They’re represented (adorably) as a gang of little soldiers (or pirates, or ninjas, etc.) that stand behind the unit during attack animations, providing various passive buffs as well as a new type of attack called Gambits. One of the major updates to gameplay is the addition of battalions, which you can assign to any character if their leadership stat is high enough.

Each unit can also equip a handful of “Abilities,” which grant them buffs like extra HP, weapon mastery, faster skill progression, and more. In addition to normal attacks, each of the five main weapon types offers different Combat Arts to employ: special attacks that reduce weapon durability rapidly but generally deal more damage and come with boosts like extra damage against flying units or a higher crit rate. It’s essentially the same turn-based, tactical formula, but with a few new wrinkles added in to keep things spicy.įurther Reading: 45 Best Video Games to Play in 2019 If you’re familiar with Fire Emblem’s combat, you’ll be able to dive into battle right away without issue. But as the larger story unfolds, it evolves into a fantasy epic with huge battles and some serious character development that sees most of your party go through drastic changes as they develop and age. The campaign is LONG-over 80 hours-and while I wasn’t able to complete the entire game for this review, what I can say confidently is that the story and gameplay are more than compelling enough to make those dozens of hours fun all the way through. The first act is tinged with mystery, involving a slew of kidnappings, conspiracies, and shady individuals. You play as a mercenary who’s invited to be a professor in the house of your choice, each offering a different cast of characters, quests, and storylines. The story revolves around Garreg Mach monastery, a school divided into three houses: the Black Eagles, Golden Deer, and Blue Lions. Fire Emblem: Three Houses ups the ante by putting you in the role of professor tasked with teaching and mentoring the young women and men in your class as well as taking them out on the battlefield, where, thanks to the classic mode’s permadeath mechanic, their lives truly hang in the balance. One of the Fire Emblemfranchise’s primary strengths is that it moves you via story and gameplay to become emotionally attached to every single character in your party. Release Date: JPlatform: Switch Developer: Intelligent Systems & Koei Tecmo Games Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Tactical RPG

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