• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Review Thread

Mista

Banned
fire-emblem-three-houses-576x356.jpg


IGN: 9.5/10
Fire Emblem: Three Houses offers an incredible amount of choice, and a story that deserves to be viewed from more than one angle.

GameSpot: 9/10
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is mechanically complex, consistently rewarding, and very hard to put down.

GamesRadar+: 5/5
Fire Emblem: Three Houses fully realizes a new, meaningful direction for the franchise that makes it the best it has ever been.

Twinfinite: 4.5/5
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is, quite possibly, the most ambitious JRPG you’ll play this year. And perhaps the most impressive part about the whole game is that it actually manages to deliver on that ambition.

Game Informer: 9.5/10
Fire Emblem: Three Houses combines fun social elements and tense strategy combat wonderfully, making it hard to put down

USgamer: 4.5/5
Fire Emblem: Three Houses soars on to Switch with a fully-realized school setting, deep character customization, and multiple full-length campaigns. While it loses momentum in the second half, it still manages to come off as a striking reinvention of the well-worn Fire Emblem formula. That makes its first real console appearance in more than a decade a triumph.

Destructoid: 9.5/10
I cannot stress enough how much Fire Emblem: Three Houses exemplifies the "RPG" part of the acronym "SRPG." While strategy is indubitably a large part of Fire Emblem's DNA, the vast majority of my enjoyment was found having lunch with classmates and getting to know them better, or doing errands while running around the lovely academy grounds. This is a world you can absolutely lose yourself to for months on end, but if you find menus tedious, you might be reticent to the modern relationship-heavy Fire Emblem formula that's cemented in Three Houses.
 

Sakura

Member
Good reviews! Sounds like it is better than Fates and Awakening. I was honestly kind of disappointed by those titles so hoping this one is good.
 

blackjon24

Member
I don't believe these scores for a second but I will play it for myself. I'm excited to play this but the series has only made a changes for the worst and the scores have only gotten higher. I'm hoping to eat my words with this one lol

One positive thing is that at least we are getting every installments in the west now
 
Last edited:

RPGCrazied

Member
Awesome scores. I'm going Golden Deer. And is the other houses alter the story that much? New cutscenes? I'm guess its all the same except for some dialogue here and there.
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Good reviews! Sounds like it is better than Fates and Awakening. I was honestly kind of disappointed by those titles so hoping this one is good.
It is literally
SMT plot wise
. So take that as you will.
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Awesome scores. I'm going Golden Deer. And is the other houses alter the story that much? New cutscenes? I'm guess its all the same except for some dialogue here and there.
Each house has a different outcome
 

kunonabi

Member
Good to see it reviewing well. I haven't been able to muster any personal interest or enthusiasm for it since NOA butchering Fates really soured me on FE and the character designs and pandering to Twitter haven't really done much for me either. Still, it is nice to see Nintendo actually put effort into a Switch release instead of just phoning it in.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Wow, way higher than I expected. Will still hold off as I have too much to play now and soon to pick up such a long game and I’m pretty lucky warm in this series and SRPGs in general.
 
Happy to see the scores but was hyped with each article leading up to launch detailing mechanics and characters.

Japanese FE collector’s edition shipped from PlayAsia last night for Friday delivery, Gamestop US collector’s edition shipped today for delivery tomorrow. Waiting on PlayAsia to ship my EU collector’s edition and FE themed switch case and game card case but likely won’t see that until Monday. Amazon is preparing to ship my US collector’s edition and regular standard edition and those will be here tomorrow as well.

This is gonna be a great weekend especially since I’m working an anime convention so three nonstop days of Fire Emblem
 

Fbh

Member
Wow great scores.

But I think I'll skip this for now. Sounds like everything it does it does well but I'm not a fan of this new direction which seems like a rather big departure of what I liked about FE originally. Last time I saw similar comments it was for Persona 5 and while I had my fun with it, eventually it grew tiresome and I had to force myself to finish it.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Wow great scores.

But I think I'll skip this for now. Sounds like everything it does it does well but I'm not a fan of this new direction which seems like a rather big departure of what I liked about FE originally. Last time I saw similar comments it was for Persona 5 and while I had my fun with it, eventually it grew tiresome and I had to force myself to finish it.
I personally super hype for this but I'm glad to see someone read the actual review rather than just looking at the score, the game getting high score doesn't grantee everyone is going to enjoy it. This was my feeling when RDR2 came out it was getting 10/10 all around.
 

isual

Member
oh man. i finally had to drop my conquest, revelations and eventually rebirth campaigns from classic to casual. i just want to beat the game now.

i was at conquest chapter 27, revlations chapter 8 when i made the change. i can't really do a perfect mission these days. time on the former was at 20 hours game time, but if i add up all the restarts, that's probably another plus 10.
 

Xaero Gravity

NEXT LEVEL lame™
Wow, I expected it to review well but I'm surprised at just how well. Hopefully Amazon.ca doesn't screw me out of receiving it on time like they did with Ultimate Alliance 3.
 

Athena~

Banned
Good reviews, but why are so few scores posted (the highest ones) and no Metacritic score?

Because the lower scoring ones were total BS and thus the Metacritic score was tainted.

Pay them no mind. Best game for the Switch hands down!
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Good reviews, but why are so few scores posted (the highest ones) and no Metacritic score?
Why does that matter? Watch or read actual review and see if the game is for you instead of just looking at score. Score alone wont tell you much about the game.
 

Gexxy1

Member
Why does that matter? Watch or read actual review and see if the game is for you instead of just looking at score. Score alone wont tell you much about the game.
Because they offer a contrasting view on the game, and since the OP chose to specifically use the most glowing reviews it makes it seem as if he has an agenda. Reading a dozen 9/10 reviews would tell me less about the game than reading half of that with more varied scores.

Here are the 3 "worst" reviews the game has right now:

CGMagazine- In reinventing Fire Emblem for a new console generation, Three Houses doubles down on its philosophy of player choice, but neglects to make all choices equally valid. 75/100

Metro Game Central- A disappointingly clumsy attempt to evolve the Fire Emblem formula that takes little advantage of being on the Switch, but the anime melodrama and fun combat still entertains. 70/100

Daily Star- Fire Emblem: Three Houses is not a bad game - it starts off strong and for some reason systematically unpicks everything by the time you’re 30 hours in. The battle system is fairly impressive but still carries some of the flaws the series has had for the past decade, and the writing of the central cast feels like a step back compared to the 3DS series’ entries. 60/100
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Because they offer a contrasting view on the game, and since the OP chose to specifically use the most glowing reviews it makes it seem as if he has an agenda. Reading a dozen 9/10 reviews would tell me less about the game than reading half of that with more varied scores.
Game having hight MC doesn't guarantee you will like the game. Even game you read/watch review that gives high score, their positive points might not be positive for you or their negative points might in fact positive points for you.
 

Sakura

Member
I have a hard time taking the daily star review seriously. The writing in the 3DS games was pretty bad.
 

blackjon24

Member
Because they offer a contrasting view on the game, and since the OP chose to specifically use the most glowing reviews it makes it seem as if he has an agenda. Reading a dozen 9/10 reviews would tell me less about the game than reading half of that with more varied scores.

Here are the 3 "worst" reviews the game has right now:

CGMagazine- In reinventing Fire Emblem for a new console generation, Three Houses doubles down on its philosophy of player choice, but neglects to make all choices equally valid. 75/100

Metro Game Central- A disappointingly clumsy attempt to evolve the Fire Emblem formula that takes little advantage of being on the Switch, but the anime melodrama and fun combat still entertains. 70/100

Daily Star- Fire Emblem: Three Houses is not a bad game - it starts off strong and for some reason systematically unpicks everything by the time you’re 30 hours in. The battle system is fairly impressive but still carries some of the flaws the series has had for the past decade, and the writing of the central cast feels like a step back compared to the 3DS series’ entries. 60/100

I don't like the idea of cherry picking either. Reviews are more helpful to me when we can get a wide spectrum of perspectives
 
Last edited:

Vawn

Banned
Why does that matter? Watch or read actual review and see if the game is for you instead of just looking at score. Score alone wont tell you much about the game.

Disregarding the score, the reviews still are cherry picked from the reviewers who liked the game the most, so I would expect glowing text to go along with the highest scores.

The point of threads like this is to consolidate the spectrum of opinions on the game. Only relaying the highest reviews feels disingenuous.
 
Last edited:

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
RPGsite - 8
Despite some of my misgivings with the challenge available or the storyline itself, I still come away quite fond of Fire Emblem: Three Houses largely due to is characters and world. As I write this review, I am eager to return to the game to finish up the remaining routes as soon as I can get around to them.

NintendoLife - 9.5
There was a lot riding on it, but we can confidently say that Fire Emblem: Three Houses has managed to live up to the hype and will stand as a highlight in the series for years to come. The expanded gameplay styles, retooled combat, lovable characters, and in-depth character customization hook you fast and are almost guaranteed to keep you engaged for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours as you come to understand this enormous game in its entirety. Fans both new and old won’t want to miss out on what Fire Emblem: Three Houses has to offer; this sets a new standard for what a strategy RPG can be and most certainly proves itself to be the next must-have release for the Nintendo Switch.

Eurogamer- Recommended
This isn't the game to bring together fans of the old-spec Fire Emblem and those drawn in by the appeal of the new. There's a clear divide right through the centre of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and its masterstroke is in bridging the two, the bonds you build away from the battlefield giving each blow taken on it that much more impact. It's a deeply emotional tactical game, one in which you end up invested in each unit. In that way, it's true to what's always made Fire Emblem so special - it's just that Three Houses expresses itself on a different scale, and a different style. Fire Emblem: Three Houses really is a game of two halves, but they come together to make one incredible whole.



 
Top Bottom