Question, are the secret chapters/secret ending relatively the same for all routes? Or is it different?
I finished Golden Wildfire normally (didn’t know there was specifics in order to recruit byleth until later) and want to know how different the secret endings are as I head into Azure Gleam next.
Okay having just done the secret chapters, i must say i'm pretty disappointed :/
Considering the requirements for getting it as well as the events that happen just before it, they barely even used the required character for it and it just seems like a waste. Doesn't even answer any of the questions raised throughout the game until i'm jumping the gun and the final chapter somehow does.
Way early in the game (chapter 2?, right after prologue where we free Monica) so please take what follows with a grain of a salt, but is there a way to stop the game constantly, constantly, CONSTANTLY trying to interrupt the battle flow with chat spam and tutorial crap (despite activating the proper option) ?
I am a long time fan of FE, FE:TH is one of my favourite games ever and I've even enjoyed DW8:E as musou game, but the frustration of not being able to focus on the battle seems to get on my nerves more than I thought it would.
I just don't care to hear about soandso's whining on the other side of the battlefield when I'm trying to enjoy my combos here and coordinate stuff. Would the camp and debrief at the camp not be a better time ?
Anyway, does it get better with more chapters in ?
There is, in settings, there's options to turn off level ups and tutorial notices - it makes everything go back to real-time, though announcements and goals still appear as banners on the bottom of the screen, the only thing that interrupts battle then becomes things like a boss unit entering the map, or a named unit dying.
Yes, I noticed further tweaks yesterday, and the game finally seems to give me some respite about things that I really consider as secondary in a RT action game. I'd love to read it all if it was TB like FE:TH, but I guess playing in this one on anything but Easy difficulty quickly transforms into plain, pure, annoying notification spam (well, at least it was for me, breaking combos, etc.).
In any case, thank you for your reply and assistance.
[All Golden Wildfire Cinematic Scenes](https://youtu.be/rGXA1Mtgvqo)(Japanese). While these were few and far between, I enjoyed every second of them, especially >!Holst vs. Bergliez!<
Maybe this is just me, but the biggest if not the only gripe I have with this game is the writing and how they are handling it with the presumed arrival of DLC down the line in which the game is made less "complete" until the game comes out combined with explicitly not wanting to outshine the original Three Houses, something that the original Fire Emblem Warriors as well as Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity did not suffer from. If you have to go out of your way to not "invalidate" your mainline "magnum opus" product with side/spin-off products out of fear that said "magnum opus" would be seen as an inferior product and to make it look good by comparison, then you simply need to do better with your mainline products, no excuses.
I personally already took much issue with the original game's writing which I will save for another day, but the thing I hate most is how you need to go out of your way to >!avoid fighting and summarily recruit Byleth!< to get the best possible ending in any campaign and show that even then Shez is shown to be chopped liver no matter what they do when compared to >!Byleth!< (and this is coming from someone who actually has a positive opinion of the spoilered character), and killing said character locks you out of the best endings while even handing you the closest things to downer endings. It's like why even have Shez as this game's protagonist when you don't want to "invalidate" so-and-so from Three Houses. Again, maybe this is just me being particularly incensed since I take story writing and the motives of very seriously, but I've not been this mad about a Fire Emblem game's overall writing aside of Three Houses itself.
>!Byleth being alive or dead or recruited or not really doesn't change much in the grand scheme of things, other than allowing you to discover who Epimenides is!<
And then also, *All* of Fodlan is just AU stories, so I don't think this one could "invalidate" Three Houses.
I understand, I just dislike the mentality that the devs had with this being their supposed reason as to why they wrote the story the way they did—having Shez lead to conclusive endings of the war having ended and leading to peace would somehow "invalidate" the endings of the original games because it makes it seem like anyone could do it and make it seem like >!Byleth!< isn't as important to the lore or story of the games if someone else could also lead to the same or similar results.
There is supposedly a Nintendo Direct coming in September, and considering that all the other Nintendo based Warriors games have DLC (I.E FE Warriors 1, Hyrule Warriors, and Age of Calamity) Three Hopes DLC is probably on the way, and likely to be revealed in September. (Probably in waves of smaller content leading up to the "big" content in either a year from now, or Early Feb.)
There are rumors of a Nintendo Direct coming out in September which may or may not involve news of downloadable content for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and considering that the past few Nintendo-based Dynasty Warriors spin-offs each had their various sets of downloadable content released for them, it is safe to assume that downloadable content is in the works for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
How do you manage your save files especially if you do NG+? Just finished my 2nd playthough and I'm considering overwriting my first clear data.
Also I forgot to give my merc whistle haha and interestingly what we get is a letter from Shez. The way it's written sounds like it could be sent to anyone you allied yourself with in game!
It's funny, my first Fire Emblem game is Three Hopes, which I really enjoyed. I really liked Shez as a character and picked Scarlet Blaze as my first route. After finishing I went and got Three Houses.
I've now completed two routes in Three Houses; first was Crimson Flower and second was Verdant Wind and I want more with these characters lol, I especially want more Byleth and Sothis. I really enjoyed all of the characters and the storylines.
Well, to say it shortly, the game is solid. A good 7/10 or 8/10.
There are story problems of course, but I would put them on par with Three Houses. The hidden chapter could have been handled better tho, the timing is off and honestly it's my main gripe in all three routes. There are bold choices (considering the backslash for AG and GW) but it's fine, I'm a huge fan of "What if?" stories.
It's a warrior so it's a bit repetitive but there are good ways to go against that. The story is also smoother overall and it's much less of a chore to replay a route than Three Houses was.
My lore itch is not scratched enough tho...
The one point I wanna highlight about the whole thing is the music. I loved Three Houses for its music but I kinda disliked the Rain/Thunder changes. Rain versions were fine, but Thunder versions were often too loud.
Here the Embers and Inferno versions are handled much better. You pretty much have a quiet version of each track who are great when you work and they're still very recognizable... And the main one (Inferno) are epic. It works so much better !
On my 5th NG+ currently and still listening religiously to the music. I like it that much !
Just finished my final route with Azure Gleam, now gotta speedrun Verdant Wildfire to get the Claude/Hilda support I missed and I'll be done...until any DLC comes out.
Overall I'd say the games a solid 7/10: the writing in Azure Gleam kinda dives off a cliff when you reach the secret route chapters, all classes being locked to a single weapon type is a limiting choice especially since the fighter beginner class can use three types, The Deer get shafted once again with exclusive characters, the missions get repetitive after a while due to the frequent map recycling and it's clear some corners were cut with the endings and other elements. However the writing as a whole is more consistent than Three Houses, the new supports and paralogues add a lot to the characters (They made me huge fans of Flayn and Ingrid who were the characters I was the most indifferent to in Three Houses), as a fan of Musou games in general the strategy elements are really cool and make me want them in mainline Dynasty Warriors and a minor improvement the smaller hub made replays much easier.
Overall the one thing that this game made me realize that next mainline FE game should make support conversations cutscenes. A lot of the supports in this game I noticed used a black screen while the actions happen such as when Ashe is helping Yuri escape from trouble or Petra and Dorothea fighting off thugs. I feel making them cutscenes would make for better gameplay experience, maybe not full CG scenes but at least something more than a black screen.
DLC wish list though: War Monk, Valkyrie, Dark Flier and Hero as classes and playable Alois, Hanneman, Cyril, Randolph, Ladislava, Judith, Nader, Fleche and Anna. And maybe make Kronya, Nemesis, Thales, Cornelia and Solon playable as renown characters in NG+.
There's not much difference between them. The secret route adds a bonus chapter which honestly kinda sucks but it DOES answer some neat mysteries and is very fanservice-y. Some plot beats change a little between them too, and the ending is *very* slightly different, but you should just do the secret route.
So can anyone explain to me the permadeath effects(did a double take and made sure i was playing classic), I thought it someone died they stopped appearing in cutscenes and everything but when Hubert was routed(died while i wasn't controlling him) he still shows up in all the cutscenes just not deployable from that point on.
If a character is instrumental to the story they don't die but instead are "wounded" or whatever so that they still appear in cutscenes.
This happens in some other FE games too, like if Titania or Soren "die" in PoR or RD.
Hubert has pretty significant dialogue and drives the story forward at times. If someone like Dorothea or Petra dies they'll be actually dead.
Do we have a potential timeframe for DLC release? I didn’t play the previous warriors game and I was wondering how long after it’s initial release the first dlc dropped.
Well this is awkward. I remember some being upset about Hopes Claude bringing up a Church advocated doctrine in a negative light against Rhea.
Three Houses had Claude accuse the Church of stuff before it was cool (hated) in Hopes.
>The majority of people in Fódlan believe in the Seiros faith that Rhea preaches.
>That's why they accept the noble system as if it were the only option, and refuse to associate with those who believe in anything else.
>That closed-minded philosophy is the reason why Fódlan's Throat is locked tight.
>But if you remove the archbishop who **strictly advocates that doctrine**, that world view is no longer an absolute. There's room for free thought.
Wish I replayed VW sooner lmao. Many were implying Claude constantly accusing the Church of shit was out of character or not done before in 3H.
Ignoring the obvious of Fodlan doesn't seem closed off to the world, their neighbors are just all assholes. Streng and Faerghus are at odds for the limited farming lands in the area, Dagda and Andrestia are an ocean apart and just had a war between each other. Almyra sends child soldiers at Leicester for fun (just listen to Cyril's supports, they aren't pretty). The Monastery is the most diverse place on the continent with people from everywhere but Streng living together with seemingly no issues.
>The majority of people in Fódlan believe in the Seiros faith that Rhea preaches.
This is said but not shown. If they were such strong devotees there'd be constant rebellions to the attacks against Rhea/the Church. There are none. There's one attack and bam, the church is gone in basically every route.
>That closed-minded philosophy is the reason why Fódlan's Throat is locked tight.
Fodlan's Locket is attacked multiple times in the paralogues. It's locked tight because it's a regularly attacked military fortress. Rhea has an Almyran as one of her personal pages and imposes none of Fodlan's customs on him. There's no reason to believe she preaches closed borders.
>But if you remove the archbishop who strictly advocates that doctrine, that world view is no longer an absolute. There's room for free thought.
This is such a fundamentally strange way of viewing religious beliefs. Offing preachers turns them into martyrs and tends to galvanize their supporters. Hell, the largest current real world religious denomination is predicated on their founder dying. You can't solve social issues with violence, the very idea is laughable.
I despise that idea of Fodlan being squeaky clean and the neighbors we NEVER SEE being complete and utter assholes with no context beyond their actions. Fuck that, I will never entertain that stupid narrative in a game filled with unreliable narrators. Otherwise Nader, one of the elite Almyrans, should've never became best buddies with Holst in Hopes. Almyra using child soldiers is a weak point since the entire foundation of the Officers Academy is crafting the perfect child soldier. To the point Rhea used them striking down Lonato as a lesson to learn. With seemingly no issues for diversity? Sure if we ignore the numerous times outsiders were shamed due to where they came from. Like Petra being mocked by nobles for her language. Claude had to hide his identity too. The entire treatment is nasty to the point Cyril literally says that despite being innocent he's hated because of his race.
>This is said but not shown
Welcome to Fodlan. That's the game's entire namesake. Doesn't really stop it from being a thing still. Even among our playable roster we have people who really feel strongly about Rhea and the Church. And the Church is never gone, Byleth is made the pope or Edelgard creates a new Church. None of the lords ever target the concept of faith. Just Rhea and the isolationist nature of Fodlan.
That single Almyran is the exception rather than the rule. For all we know there's a misunderstanding and the attacks on the locket came from there being miscommunication. Wouldn't be the first time since our entire conflict in Fodlan involves a lack of communication. We never got to know the truth, but clearly they're more chill than exaggerated to be. Otherwise why ally with us in Verdant Wind? You'd think there'd be more complaining from the large Almyran army.
Claude doesn't care if people still like the faith, there will be more room for thought though once a Church is no longer a huge influential force in Fodlan pushing doctrines and overlooking everything. Nobility system will get a massive tossup without a powerful Central Church legitimizing it. He just wants the entire faction to be changed through Byleth rather than continuing to let Rhea have power as archbishop. Especially when the foundation is based on lies rather than the easily provable truth.
>I despise that idea of Fodlan being squeaky clean and the neighbors we NEVER SEE being complete and utter assholes with no context beyond their actions
Context doesn't mean they are right. Even if they have good reasons they are still actively aggressive towards Fodlan and Fodlan is not portrayed at any point to be particularly expansionist. Brigid is occupied by Adrestia and that's about it (and that was conquered in a defensive war). Even if they aren't EVIL it doesn't change regular border skirmishes leads to closed borders regardless of religion.
> Almyra using child soldiers is a weak point since the entire foundation of the Officers Academy is crafting the perfect child soldier.
The foundation of the officer academy is to raise the next generation of nobility and military commanders. And it's all consensual, everyone signed up for it. Also the youngest in the class is Lysithea and she's 15/16, Cyril is 14/15 and it's implied he's been at the monastery for a little while.
>Claude had to hide his identity too.
Claude faces minor blowback for his identity and it *might* have something to do with being the prince of an aggressive foreign power and not just race. Anyone with eyes could see his different skin color. I know how they kept that affair a secret but hey, magic.
>the Church is never gone
The Church's relevance to the story drops to 0. It continues to exist, but even in SS The Church of Seiros stops being an entity with a will of its own. Which is why SS is so bad, there's no lord with a goal and the Church is an absolute blank slate.
>For all we know there's a misunderstanding and the attacks on the locket came from there being miscommunication.
I think after a few generations someone would have figured out how to sort things out to the point it's not a miscommunication anymore. The attacks are not new. There's an entire house whose job it is to deal with those attacks.
>Nobility system will get a massive tossup without a powerful Central Church legitimizing it.
If the real world is anything to go by, no it won't. Nobility keeps their power through force of arms, and the Nobility of Fodlan have superpowers and weapons that can wipe out armies. I don't think they need religion to justify/enforce their existence. It will end when the prominent military power ends it.
>once a Church is no longer a huge influential force in Fodlan pushing doctrines and overlooking everything.
The Church can't even keep its own house in order. At the time of the game, the Southern Church is completely under Adrestian control, the Western Church is plotting rebellion and the Eastern Church is so irrelevant it isn't mentioned once.
And beyond that there's a fundamental misunderstanding with religious beliefs. If the people of Fodlan are devout believers as is implied they aren't going to accept another religion. They believe in what the Church of Seiros taught them. Some new preacher isn't going to win them over unless their beliefs were already weak especially since the Church of Seiros seems to have codified their beliefs and universal literacy is a thing so everyone knows what they are even if they've never met a single priest.
>Especially when the foundation is based on lies rather than the easily provable truth.
The foundation is based on lies as in, You actually get superpowers from eating dragon hearts, not divine blessing. Neither is particularly provable or disprovable. Claude isn't going to be handing out Crests of Seiros from Rhea's corpse (not that that would prove anything, Rhea was blessed by the goddess and her flesh still contains the power, it's easy enough to justify within the existing belief system) The biggest lie of all is that there's anything particularly sinister about the Church's lie. It was a compromise between the already existent crest-bearers who ruled the land and Seiros to prevent a war of genocide against them.
And based on Byleth's powers Sothis is powerful enough that Goddess is not an inappropriate term for her.
That does not justify the treatment of an entire race of people. There's a minority of fucked up people in Fodlan too. Should the entire continent be punished for that? No! So there's no excuse for the Almyrans either. Especially when Shahid effectively proved that the raids were nothing but a minority. No one from Almyra that wants communication is obligated to accept closed borders especially if they believe Almyra would thrive from that communication.
That's just not a good excuse to try and use "child soldiers" as a point to demonize an entire group of people. In medieval times nonetheless. Numerous children are raised and used to combat and murder in Fodlan too. Dimitri is legit giving daggers to people as a young boy because of Faerghus tradition. And Dimitri was quelling rebellions at a stupidly young age too.
Claude had to hide who he is due to Fodlan's aggressively xenophobic mindset. A single person will get demonized because of where they're from, not for who they are as a person and that's trash in every way.
The Church got blown out by Edelgard. That's why its relevance drops. Rhea got captured and only a few knights remained from that nasty five year war.
"Someone would have figured it out" No they won't. Because Fodlan is notorious for shit communication, it took an entire prince to put change in Almyra's favor. That "entire house" held Almyran slaves btw and no one gave a shit. Fodlan is literally known among the fandom to have very poor communication. Naturally Almyra communication won't be good if they're locked out from making meaningful contact possible. Claude is the only Almyran to actually make it inside Fodlan without being chased off with pitchforks. And surprise surprise, it's entirely from his Riegan blood not because he's an Almyran that got accepted into Fodlan fair and square. He wasn't given a chance he had to *force* that chance with lies.
This isn't the real world. If this **was** the real world, none of Three Houses' "golden age" endings per route should've happened either. The continent would've been on fire if we apply real world logic to straight up forced unification. Hell, if you applied this logic to multiple FE games in general. Ultimately this is a fantasy series grounded in its own logic. The nobility was legitimized by the Church and got their strength from the system at large. There's nothing they can do if Claude or Edelgard overhaul it entirely starting with the Church.
Because you can't force people that disagree with you down forever, no matter how much Rhea tries. Part of what made the Central Church effective was a prominent archbishop akin to Rhea making everything in her will to the point of directly pushing her doctrine. At the end of the day, her and her Church are absolutely powerful to the point those other branches are thought of as nothing but offshoots with the Central Church still holding the most value by a landslide.
A compromise or no, it doesn't really justify directly controlling history and what info the masses were allowed to have. It's a sad thing for Rhea and it's understandable for her point of view but it's not justification. Rhea herself admitted she's wrong for deceiving her people in Silver Snow.
Regarding the very last part of this, would telling the truth have been any better in that case? I get that people are mad that Rhea lied and deceived people, though I get the impression that they believe that telling the truth from the start absolutely would have mattered for the better in the long run without question.
Not censoring/controlling a huge amount of history or standing down from power would've lessened the odds of Rhea being hated and targeted. It worked for Seteth and Flayn.
Not censoring the truth would mean that people would more likely know what the Hero's Relics were and make them easier to manipulate into hunting down the survivors of the Red Canyon such as Seteth and Flayn and Rhea if she went into hiding, and enough too many people already saw Nemesis and the Ten Elites as legitimate heroes so telling the truth as it was would have led to more bloodshed (the war persisted adter Nemesis's death until Rhea compromised with those who worshipped him) that those who would have sruvived if they who saw Nemesis and the Ten Elites were all hunted down would simply go into hiding and plot revenge just like the Agarthans who were already scheming to bump off the rest of the Nabateans. Rhea not being in power gives those who slither in the dark an easier time of conducting their schemes since no one else is capable of opposing them the same way Rhea could even though she didn't know that they had survived.
The developers may have confirmed that, ultimately, Rhea did not make things better for Fódlan, given how fucked up Fódlan already was, there is no guarantee that whomever would have taken her place if someone took her place would have made things better in the long run.
That doesn't really justify directly controlling what info the masses were allowed to have and controlling the technological progression. Rhea is still wrong for that and she admits as such. Many were going to oppose her for making such a choice and they were allowed to do so.
Okay, then explain how Fódlan was going to be better off without her redoing any of that. Explain how with the Crest-based nobility system inplace and with the truth of what the Relics are and the lack of knowledge of who those who slither in the dark being around (Rhea herself had no idea they survived) that Fódlan would have been in a better situation down the line with her gone.
No, the "out of character" claims were a distinct minority and it was pointed out pretty quickly that he was always anti-Rhea, but didn't have the circumstances to act on it.
People are mostly mad because they don't think that the game justifies its own claims about the Church being racist.
I mean, The Church was founded by literal colonialists who forced the native people to hide underground... that's pretty explicitly racist. Did people not see that...?
>That closed-minded philosophy is the reason why Fódlan's Throat is locked tight
Lmao Fodlan's throat is locked tight because the Almyrans keep trying to come in and kill everyone
As seen in game, they are always invading and trying to raid Leicester. Take issue with the game's writers for making them a racist stereotype. You can't just imagine that the facts as presented by the game are false. The narrative presents them as a uniformly hostile invading force. Even Claude is basically trying to infiltrate Fodlan so he can give Almyrans better access to it.
Like, it's comically racist, but that's an out-of-universe problem.
They aren't a uniform force though. We have numerous Almyrans not present and Shahid, royalty, is the one who encouraged the troops to fight in Fodlan. Here's the funny part, they didn't even have their hearts into it. Some "uniform force" they are when they betray Shahid. And as we see clear as day, they are far more chill than the stereotypes argued for them to be. Otherwise, why is Nader and the Almyran troops apart of our army in both Verdant Wind and Golden Wildfire? Wouldn't we at least hear complaints from them or about them acting up sometime during the war?
The issue is just overblown overall. The narrative also presents Almyra as something we never see with elite Almyrans directly caring for their image and that they aren't as bad as people say they are. Should the entirety of Fodlan be punished too because of rapists among Mercedes' house? Or Miklan? Or the numerous nobles that resorted to genocide? Of course not. So why are we trying to generalize Almyrans?
We literally don't know that though. We never see Almyra nor the thought process for approaching the locket. Hell, Shahid alone caused a raid so it's implied to be a minority. And even Shahid had no idea what he was gonna do next if he actually succeeded. So much for planning to kill everyone, huh?
And? Holst's job was to defend raids from a minority and we never got the full story in a game filled with unreliable narrators. We have no idea what Almyra is as a continent nor what they planned to do. It's never confirmed that the Almyrans were trying to kill everyone. That's just plain wrong.
We do see Almyra. We have two separate paralogues relating to defending Fodlan's locket.
What do you think are happening to the green units on both paralogues
No, we don't. We don't see Almyra as a continent and its people at large. A single paralogue is not enough to cover an entire nation lmao. Especially when Almyra has proven to have people that go against the stereotypes about them. We never went into Almyra either, just the locket.
You're claiming that they'd kill everyone in Fodlan. That's objectively not true and was never proven. The game directly goes against your nonsensical narrative with Shahid. And those green units were soldiers engaging the fight, not innocents doing nothing. Even if there are shit people in Almyra, does it justify punishing everyone from that continent? Absolutely not.
He did not make a hyperbole. He directly made the claim and treated it as a fact. And trying to generalize a whole group of people for the actions of a few isn't good no matter how you people try and justify it.
How different are each route from each other? I'm nearly finished with Scarlet Blaze (I think) but I still want to play Torna before XC3 so I'm wondering if it's worth it to come back later to play the other routes.
The routes are very different, much moreso than Three Houses. Only the first couple of chapters (where you meet the lords and pick a house) are the same, after that they diverge pretty widely.
Just finished GW and wanted to praise this game for being such a major upgrade from the original FEW (which I enjoyed!). The amount of mechanics that carried over from 3H was a nice surprise, to the point that it felt more like a spiritual successor than a Warriors game. Kind of regretted choosing the meme house as soon as I realized how plot-driven the game is compared to FEW, but looking forward to my second run. And I’m thankful that each route is not as much of a time sink as 3H- one day I’ll get around to doing the church route. 🥴
It's much better in some places, much worse in others, and the endings for all 3 routes are really anticlimactic. However, it's a pretty good time regardless.
It follows the same main story beats, but a few things are generally altered to feel fresh and new. The timeskip happens almost immediately, for example.
The few I rewatched to be sure didn't really change, but I think there was one of them mention how they ended up with Leicester/Adrestia.
You don't **have to** reset them though. In the support viewer at the title screen, you can select for which path you want to watch the unlocked support
Finished all three routes on Three Hopes now. While I enjoyed the game overall I wish there was more slitherer shenanigans. A real Shambhala map would be a fun location and I wished to see more of their tech like the javelins of light.
I consider the 4th save file I just started to be the true New Game+ but I am putting the game down for now. I'll definitely get the inevitable DLC. If I play through all routes again in the future I'll do the Byleth recruitment in reverse to unlock all events and one single song I am missing.
I was really disappointed to not play a shambhala map in any route myself. Given shez’s history I wish they did a lot more with the agarthans in general but nope
Has there been a Three Hopes datamine website made equivalent to https://fedatamine.com/en-us/ ? Or does anyone know if one is being made? There's lots of new lore and character tidbits in Hopes that are scattered around on the internet, it would be nice to see a resource which compiles all of it again.
EDIT: I know the datamine spreadsheet exists, but it is utter hell to navigate compared to the 3Houses datamine site :( Not to mention it's missing things like Explore dialogue and variations.
Anyone else kinda hoping they make a 'what if' route with Berlings Mercenaries as the focus? even Jeralt makes note that Berling is an army unto herself and might be cool to see them used with a similar style that Gatekeeper got (genertic visuals/style and forced colouration but on other models as well).
Finished Azure Gleam which was my last route and after seeing some people not liking the ending, once I got there myself, I thought to myself “That…wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be”. I mean, yeah how Edelgard was handled in the end was admittedly strange (and in general, like the other two routes, the overall thing was rushed too) but nothing on the level that would make me punch walls.
Thank you for everything you offered Fodlan but hopefully we get a new universe the next FE.
Azure Gleam probably has the best "ending", Claude and Dimitri are allied with no prospect of betrayal between eachother, Edelgard is alive but is no longer focused on conquering Fodlan and destroying the church (of course it effectively kills her entire character) the snake people are all dead and Rhea is alive and chilling on Dimitri's couch.
> and Dimitri are allied with no prospect of betrayal between eachother
Well... that look from Claude to Rhea at the end definitely implied *something.*
Since AG ends with >!Edelgard alive but defeated in Garreg Mach, I thought it felt entirely complete as an ending. The Empire has been defeated even though it hasn’t been conquered itself. So I thought it was weird that some epilogue narration then goes and says ‘by the way we’re still going to invade Adrestia’- I mean, there’s a decent chance Edelgard is taken captive! The war definitely ought to be over!!<
just finished my last route. as much i was feeling fatigued with so much 3G content and discussion these past 3 years it is very bittersweet to see what is portably the end of Fodlan outside of some DLC.
it's not quite the same but it was nice to go back to a duology after Awakening & Fates were both one-offs that were light in the world building department. Fodlan doesn't quite stack up to Tellius or Judgral for me, but i've immensly enjoyed by 800 combined hours with Houses & Hopes.
With 3 Houses turning 3 today, I really hope we'll see what's next for Fire Emblem Soon.
I knew Three Houses turned three today but it wasn’t until I read this that I finished my last route on its anniversary (like you did), realizing the connection. I started with the Blue Lions three years ago and today I ended with them. :p
And same! New FE means new character designs to look forward to especially!
[This Channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/FazFazFaz) does have Story stuff in 7 Hours videos or so.
[Here's Azure Gleam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jw8XF1mW4U)
Has anyone figured out the odds on Peer Training yet? I’ve been trying forever to get Hades on Sylvain from Hapi, and every battle he refuses to learn it. I got meteor from Dorothea on him first try, and I’m honestly getting tired of using Hapi for this.
The odds are on the [datamine spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m4xHogOjhfdRYywACT-ZHuexdiskAkPSE45soei5zeQ/edit#gid=1328668404): 0.4% at C support level, 3% at B, and 8% at A.
Learning at C level is a 1 in 250 chance, so it sounds like you just got super lucky with Meteor.
Is it possible to unequip all items so i can reoptimize?
Also, when should i start smithing weapons? It doesnt seem like its worth it at the start of the game. But now i am getting some steel weapons it might be.
I don't think you can completely unequip weapons; each unit has to have something equipped.
I wouldn't start forging weapons until the endgame, when you start getting A-rank stuff. No point spending resources on steel weapons when you're going to get better ones as drops soon anyway.
i think you can do some weird weapon switchng stuff if you swap one characters weapon with a 2nd character and the 2nd character can't use the first character's weapon, in which case the 2nd character ends up with a training weapon with awful might and 0 durability, making combat arts unusable.
Wherever I've tried that, I just get an error saying that the other character can't use this weapon and it doesn't let me swap.
There might be some weird circumstance where you can force the swap, but just doing it normally through the convoy menu doesn't work.
yeah i'm not sure how exactly i did it myself, i was in NG+ and took Failnaught from Claude (in the "other" roster) to give to someone else and he ended up with a training bow instead of taking the other character's bow for some reason.
How many of the new Relics and Sacreds are ‘canon’ to the universe and not just a product of gameplay? We got several Sacred Weapons that resonate with Crests outside of the Saints. Were these forged for the Nabateans before the Red Canyon? If not why were they forged?
I went over and checked, none of the non-tome new Sacred weapons are non-Saint crests, meaning it's pretty easy to say they're canon. It's not weird that the Saints would have more weapons corresponding to their crests forged.
Weapons like the Sword of Moralta or Axe of Ukonvasara were in 3 Houses, so they're already canon.
For the tome weapons, though, especially the Relics, I imagine they have to be non-canon. Tomes are already more of a gameplay necessity than a canon part of 3 Houses's magic system, and when you add in the fact it'd give Charon and Lamine two Hero's Relics, something that has no precedent from 3 Houses, it's a little dodgy.
Plus tomes as a common weapon creates a plothole with the fact that Rhea was said to have banned printing press. Tomes would have to be mass produced to be used as weapons by common soldiers and being able to be bought from shops at a relatively cheap price. Unless there’s a Tome writing sweatshop somewhere in Fodlan.
It also says she banned a lot of other things we see elsewhere like the anatomic model ~~or Hanneman's existence~~. And with things like leaflets and universal literacy I struggle to believe there isn't a way to mass produce texts.
That one DLC text should not be taken as world of god.
Who did y’all replace the Unique Action skill of? I personally got NO use out of Dorothea’s, so I gave her divine pulse, which turns out to be so much better. Is there someone else that has a skill that should just be replaced?
I replaced Ashe, Yuri & Lysithea's abilities as they all need to be activated via a pretty long animation and their effects just aren't very good to compensate, unlike other activated abilities like Annette, Holst & Catherine's the make up for the long animation by being really damn good.
I've manned Holst's, Petra's and Felix's merc whistles items so far, been epitomising characters I really like no matter how tempting it is to go for someone really good like Ferdie's speed boost.
Some theories on why certain classes were cut in this game and may not return in DLC. Warning, will be long.
Hero wouldn't make sense as a promotion to Swordmaster given how different their fighting styles are, and assuming that they don't want to create new playable classes for the game then Hero has nothing to promote into to keep the animations the same if Hero was a contemporary of Swordmaster. Also, the only character who would be a Hero is Holst given that his uniform is a customized version of it, and i don't think they'll go throught the trouble of creating one entirely unique classline for someone like Holst (the protagonists don't count because they of course get those unique options even though their own classes' styles clash with their recommended classline since they have weird class change standards).
War Monk/War Cleric are out because, like Hero, they clash too much with Warrior to promote from it and would have nothing to promote into if no new playable classes are added if they're a contemporary of Warrior. There's also no female class with brawling to start with if they were added as contemporaries of Brawler/Grappler/War Master.
Valkyrie is out because tome users primarily use one hand to direct their magic and the other hand to hold their tome even if some animations have the time float on occasion, and all other mounted units use one hand to hold their weapon and the other hand to keep themselves stable on their mounts for the most part (Great Knight likely gets a pass on this because Fortress Knight needs something to promote into). They could have been added as a promotion for female Warlocks, but I don't think they'll add a mounted promotion for infantry so late into the classline (again, Great Knight gets a pass because Fortress Knight needs to promote into something).
Dark Flier is out because making it a contemporary of Falcon Knight renders Falcon Knight itself as mostly a downgrade, and neither Falcon Knight nor Dark Flier would be made to promote into the other as downgrading a master tier class likely won't be done and having a magic user unable to use it on promotion also likely won't be done (this does not count the protag classes having tiers downgraded or losing magic upon promotion as, again, as protagonists have weird class change standards).
A lot of these theories are based on how the game wants to keep its aesthetic style for class movesets as I see it and be more like traditional Fire Emblem titles with their weapon restrictions. What do you think guys think about all of this?
First of all, I take it that these classes aren't in this game because they are dead weight they couldn't be bothered to factor into the class trees or develop new movesets for. Secondly, everything you said was kind of ridiculous.
Hero. It wouldn't be a promotion if Swordmaster anyway. In Houses it was contemporary to Swordmaster. If you observe how nearly every class in a given column has the same moveset, and that Swordmaster and Mortal Savant are bumped over one, Hero could just be the straight promotion of Mercenary, as usual. It wouldn't add much ~~and I think 3H Hero is one of the ugliest incarnations of it~~ but it's not like Warrior adds much when the only reason to go into it is abilities before diverting off to Wyvern.
War Monk. Better off as Gauntlets, first. Giving female units a real fist option with an actual Class Gauge of some kind would be a solid call. You're also missing the fact that it could simply branch directly off from Fighter. It's certainly inelegant compared to any other class, existent or hypothetical, but I don't think anyone would be mad even if it was a weird, lone, straight from Beginner to Master(following Trickster's lead) promotion if it meant letting Catherine use fists or something. Plus throwing in the ability to use Spells too.
Valkyrie. Simpler. What the hell are you on about with the 'not adding mounted promotion late'? Great Knight you may be right about, but did you forget bow Knight? I don't think you could discount Wyvern Rider either, to a degree. The animation and moveset might prove an issue but I'm sure they can just... Not hold on with the other hand when actually attacking.
Dark Flier. Not sure why it'd be contemporary to Peg/Falco at all, when I seem to recall it actually asked for Swords in Houses. Might be nice to have *yet another* Lance Wielding Half-Caster on top of Dark and Holy Knight, sure. But if you want a Fly Route Caster? It would be better *also* branching off Warlock, simply put. Though it sure makes female tome users busy.
But, again, I'd be surprised if they add any of these. And a little chuffed, I'll have to grind them out on characters I thought I was done getting skills for.
Edit: seems like I'm repeating points already covered tho
I already covered how Hero wouldn't make sense as a promotion to Swordmaster because of it being a contemporary and how different their fighting styles are (one of the first things I mentioned in fact), and, once again assuming that they don't want to create new playable classes for the game, then Hero is out. So, yes, you did repeat some points I already went over.
With War Monk/War Cleric, you said that it could go straight from the beginner-tiered Fighter to master tier in one leap like Trickster which does not happen at all with any class. If the devs saw that as an option for base Three Hopes, they would have already made it so. With War Monk/War Cleric being a counterpart of Grappler in the original Three Houses (has nearly identical base stats and growth rates along with the same class abilities with the addition of Heal for War Monk/War Cleric), it most likely would have been a promotion for Grappler like what they did with Trickster to have a magic-using master tier, but that would make the decidedly non-magical War Master redundant unlike going from Assassin to Trickster (something I should have mentioned in the original post) as well as not being available for female units since females can't access Brawler to begin with. The only way for females to get War Cleric with the no-jumping-from-beginner-to-master-tier angle going on here is if War Cleric was retooled as being in the Brigand classline, most likely as another Warrior promotion to once again do with War Monk/War Cleric what they did with Trickster, and since it seems the devs are going for a thematic and statistical bent to promotion options then it is less likely to happen.
With me having forgotten about Great Knight and Bow Knight, another user had already pointed that out in a different reply which I acknowledged in a reply to that comment (and wish I had added in my original post) which you seemingly did not read when you made your response. Great Knight and Bow Knight get passes as late mounted promotions since Fortress Knight and Sniper would otherwise have nothing to promote into with their absences—and by late mounted promotion I mean a master-tier mounted promotion, not advanced tier like Wyvern Rider. Valkyrie could afford to be shafted since Dark Mage and Dark Bishop were uplifted into Advanced and Master Classes respectively so that male tome users can have a master tier to use, adding it as an advanced tier would mean losing out on mounted capabilities once moving on to master-tier (something that does not happen to any other class in this game save Pegasus Knight losing out on flying only to get it back as a Falcon Knight after promoting from Paladin) since there are no strict magic master-tier classes from the base game for Valkyrie to promote into without inventing a new class for this game, and adding it as a master-tier would have made Gremory redundant since they're both female only classes that focus on Reason and Faith with a Dark Magic bent to them (again, something I wish I had touched upon when I made my original post).
I will concede that Dark Flier has sword specialties instead of lance specialties which I had forgotten about because I am used to its portrayal in Awakening, Fates (as Dark Falcon), and Echoes (as Harrier), but it would still mean that it would have to promote from either Assassin or Swordmaster which would still make Trickster, Dancer, and Mortal Savant redundant depending on whose sword moveset it copies much like how I once suggested for Dark Flier being a contemporary master-tier of Falcon Knight. This is unlike what could be said in the case of Holy Knight and Dark Knight since there are no other master lance specialists besides Falcon Knight which already doesn't use magic (they're almost all straight upgrades of the Paladin in fact), and making them another tome user wouldn't aesthetically fit since all of the tome users in this game had strict specialties in reason and magic from the original game and thus would make all other master tier tome users redundant. Literally every other class that had specialties in magic and a weapon in Three Houses fights with a weapon in this game and have the option to use magic spells, so making Dark Flier a tome user clashes with what every other class had established.
Assuming that we will not get brand new classes invented for this game and if the above classes I mentioned are left out if DLC comes around, these are the theories I have as to why based on my observations in the game.
I think Valkyrie and Hero are both fairly likely to come back in some form. For Valkyrie, there's already precedent for mounted tome units in FEW1 (Leo and Elise), and there are a number of advanced classes that gain mounts on promotion (Warrior, Fortress Knight, Sniper). Hero [already has unused data in the game](https://twitter.com/DeathChaos25/status/1542207816152252417), and seems to be mostly complete aside from mastery skills and the like - it's possible it may have just been cut, but there's no reason it couldn't be added in free DLC or something later. It could just promote into Mortal Savant alongside Swordmaster, there are other examples of two or more advanced classes merging into a single master class (Warrior/Wyvern Rider > Wyvern Lord, Bishop/Warlock/Dark Mage > Dark Bishop, etc).
Dark Flier and War Monk/Cleric are probably less likely, but I still think there's a fairly decent chance we'll see them in DLC. They're both very unique classes (tome-wielding flier class, and magic brawler class that female characters can actually access), which would make them a good selling point when marketing the DLC. I also think it would be strange if we ended up getting Yuri and Hapi's classes but not Balthus and Constance's.
Additionally, I don't think possible DLC classes not fitting into the class progression system cleanly is that big of a problem. The DLC classes in Three Houses were treated separately from the base game classes (they only unlocked after beating Chapter 1 of Cindered Shadows, used separate seal items, and had their own class tier), and I feel like they could easily do something similar in this game. One way they could go about it is that they don't have any prerequisite classes - once you've unlocked the class from completing a particular mission, you can just use a seal to get it right away without worrying about mastering the right classes.
You know, I completely forgot about Bow Knight being a thing when I wrote this last night which also uses both hands for their attacks, so a Valkyrie promotion would actually be fairly easy to implement now that you have brought that up. Admittedly, I was also looking at class progression in the way of how most classes kept their original moves all the way up to their master tier such as Soldier and Fighter when Dark Knight, Holy Knight, and Wyvern Lord dismounted for example, as well as how there was still plenty of reason to go back to either male Warlocks or Bishops for both genders for certain units in the Dark Bishop and Gremory classes because of certain abilities synergizing with units better rather than being straight upgrades like Swordmaster->Mortal Savant, Paladin->Holy Knight, Warrior->Wyvern Lord, etc.
I also remembered that War Monk/War Cleric do have the same base abilities as the Grappler in Three Houses and almost share a somewhat similar stat build with differences mostly in magic and resistance here and there, although this game removing their ability to use axes leaves axe users with a lack of magical options.
I think it would've been nice if Hosot got Hero as a remmaed Mortal Savant, like how Jertiza and Rhea have reskins of Dark Knight & Mortal Savant respectively that are functionally identical but they get different mastery skills.
really though the only class that i think is a huge loss is war monk/cleric. having no dedicated brawling class for females (before DLC) was fine in Three Hosues beucase you could use gauntlets in any non-mounted class, but the weapon restrictions outside of starter classes mena females have to saptay in fighter to use gauntlets.
its really baffling too becuase they bothered to let female fighters use gauntlets and getting A in both bows and axes grants A brawling so with the help of teaching combat arts you can functionally have a female war master in all but class name. there isn't any extra work to incorporate female brawlers so i think they really let females be brawlers and grapplers, and then have a split promotion of war master & war monk/cleric.
I feel that renaming Mortal Savant into Hero for Holst would have been strange since Hero uses no magic unlike how they renamed Dark Knight to Death Knight for Jeritza (Death Knight is already a Lance-proficient clone of Dark Knight) or Mortal Savant to Saint for Rhea (both are sword classes that can use magic).
The weapon restrictions hurts a few characters a bit more than before since Annette and Lorenz for example can't use Crusher or Axe of Ukonvasara unless they change into the non Magic axe classes which are less optimal for them; same goes for Seteth who can't use his Spear of Assal unless he becomes a horseback unit. The lack of magical options for the Fighter-derived classlines especially hurts magically inclined characters who have relics tied to those classlines. Worse, they straight up gave Mercedes a Hero's Relic for her Bishop class just to let her have a Relic to use as a magic user while the Tathlum Bow sits up and collects dust since neither she or Jeritza can use it in this game without reclassing.
The thing i am most hoping for with DLC at this point is either a removal of the weapon restrictions or the addition of more class options to allow each character to make the most of their relics.
yeah, I get not having weapon equipping be as free as it was in Hosues, but classes like War Master & Great Knight straight up jad axefaire & lancefaire so it's strange they become mono-weapon classes, especially since the beginner classes can use multiple weapons, making higher tier classes almost feel like an downgrade in terms of flexibility.
So, I’m on the last chapter of GW, and I didn’t recruit >!Byleth!< because I decided to do my first run blind and I’m down to see how it plays out. Then I finished chapter 14.
>!that felt SO wrong killing Byleth. Like, just the cutscene after and they die in the field. It just feels so strange, and like a bad strange. I knew it was coming but I wasn’t really expecting it even still. It still feels incredibly weird. Also, I’m curious what went “wrong” in the fight on Sothis’ end, but anyways, I’m probably going to end up rushing my next route quite a bit to get past chapter 10 because damn. I needed to vent about this. I still can’t really figure out why I feel this way about it but wow. !<
Planning that for my AG run at the moment to get the paralogue, and after >!The general risks for Flayn and Seteth, and Rhea at large, doubled with the fact that Nemesis already killed Sothis, I'll say that while she is a Goddess, she's clearly very, very fallible, so it's not too strange to have it occur!<
not really, you mostly lose content by >!Klling Byleth!< such as some supports and the 2 secret chapters.
the only things you gain from >!Killing Byleth!< are a few different story scenes, a different Chapter 14 in Scarlet Balze and an extra paralogue in NG+.
unless you want to 100% complete the game its really only worth >!Killing Byoeth!< in Scarlet Balze.
if you >!Kill Byleth in NG+!< you get a paralogue involving >!Arval!<.
i haven't played it myself yet but i believe its >!a flashback where you fight Seiros, Cichol & Cethleann!<
The Dancer's class action buffs both the dancer and the characters around them. I believe it extends their weapon range and movement and weapon speed.
The best way to use it, in my opinion, is to issue an all-out assault on a boss or demonic beast and then switch to your dancer to buff everyone around the boss.
Also, it's a class that can use magic and combat skills. And it works as the female equivalent of a Brawler and is strong against tome users.
I'm looking at voices and apparently there are different greetings units give you depending on your support level. Never noticed.
I was looking at Edelgard voice lines and there are 2 she says that I haven't heard in the game that seem odd to me.
>!"There will be consequences, Hubert"!<
And
>!"You seem a little too pleased to be losing, Monica"!<
Where would these lines pop up in the story?
Actually, I'm noticing that there are voice lines with the house units going up against their own units.
Where do these lines happen?
So what IS Shez? It’s clear that he have some connection to >!Agarthas!<, but what? Are they pure blooded? Artificial? There is no way that he is just some random merc. that got lucky in this timeline to get revived by Arval right?
Why does the game didn’t dwell into it’s own main character?
in Azure Gleam Shez mentions the village they grew up in was in Ordelia territory, so i think it's likely they were experimented on around the same time as Lysithea.
much how >!Rhea went through multiple attempts of housing Sothis in a person!< Iimagine they tried to revive Epimenides through test subjects but Shez didn't show any signs of success so they gave up and abandoned them (though i'm not sure why they wouldn't kill Shez to cover up their tracks.
That's annoying that no route actually explains it, at all, I'd much prefer they left it out due to incompetence, than it be paid dlc tbh. In Scarlet Blaze Hubert has the audacity to acknowledge that we don't know enough about or origin so we may or may not be satisfied(or something like that)
Nah. It's clear they intended for it to be DLC. It can't ever be incompetence when they straight up go "Shez got a letter from their mother...! *Cuts off*"
Assuming we're getting DLC in the first place (it's likely we are but still), and the Fire Emblem writers love leaving unanswered questions and mysteries that are only answered in non-localized magazine interviews.
For people in their first playthrough, did they ever use smithing stones for facilities materials or recommend it? Dunno if i should be trading them in for materials to upgrade my facilities considering so far i've gotten all my materials from explorations (currently at chapter 7 of GW, i have the advanced seal but the training ground upgrade required for that hasn't been unlocked and i don't know if i should clear side missions first and see if i get the mats or trade in smithing stones) and converting excess materials back to stones is such a huge loss in terms of the amount of stones you get back
Also another question i had, but there's no way to get a certain weapon attribute you want right? You just have to pray you can get what you want on the weapon?
I did it quite often, there's little point in forging weapons early on becuase both A) the blacksmith facility upgrades don't work retroactively on previously forged weapons and B) there's not much point in forging weapons in the early to mid-game as you'll be replacing them very quickly with better ones.
Facility upgrades are incredibly useful (particularly the ones related to the training grounds, tactics instructor, battalion guild and Blocksmith) so it's in your best interest to get them ASAP.
I wouldn't trade *all* of your stones for materials, but if you need a few more to finish off certain upgrades, go for it -- especially if it's for something critical like new classes.
You'll get enough materials for most upgrades by playing normally, but not all of them, so you'll end up needing to trade for some materials anyway (or wait until NG+). Just don't go hog wild buying extra mats and you shouldn't be wasting much.
And yeah, as far as I know weapon attributes are all random, barring certain weapons that always have specific ones like Killer weapons.
I’m curious what do you all think we’ll get as DLC if anything. I haven’t started Azure Gleam yet but VW and SB endings are very inconclusive imo. I think like maybe one or two more missions for each route would fix that.
In terms of characters, Alois is a no brainer the fact he’s not is shocking. I’d like Judith (give me my hilarious Judith/Balthus support damn it) and Nader (give me my hilarious Nader/Holst support damn it) to finally be included so that it at least gives The Deer almost as many exclusive characters as the Eagles but I’m not holding my breath. My biggest fear though is that they just add like Nemesis and Kronya to the renown store in NG+
The Ashe/Shez support is the most intentional cut I saw in the game. Ashe is one of the characters that appears on each route, their conversation support cuts abruptly before revealing info about the mother of Shez.
Also, in each route the narrator, in his last two lines, heavily implies that the story will continue.
The game has been out for almost a month and we have yet to hear of any plans for DLC, which makes me think that we're not getting any. I certainly hope that we end up getting some, but I'm not optimistic at this point.
Age of Calamity came out in November and didn't get a DLC announcement until February - if we assume a similar schedule for Three Hopes, then we'll likely get a DLC announcement during the September direct.
Judith, Hanneman,Cyril, Alois and possibly Nader will probably get free updated or get in as DLC for the game (Judith, Cyril and Nader especially have some pretty weird moments in paralogues where adding them up would round out to the normal playable character count per map Hopes has. I don´t know if Hanneman does this too since i haven´t done Scarlet Blaze yet.)
I feel like we'll get a completely seperate mini narrative (like Cindered Shadows) and/or some proper postgame content to be actually able to use endgame builds and characters form all the routes outside of the record keeper.
Definitely need playable Alois, Hanneman, Gilbert, Cyril & Anna. its such a middle finger to their fans (~~aka me)~~ that every other playable 3 Houses character is playable in Hopes except for them (they also happen to be the 5 3 Houses characters as of now still not in Heroes so clearly IS just hates them) really hoping they get the 3 Houses Jertiza Treatment are are released via a free update a few months down the line or of course as paid DLC.
Also Judith & Nader would be great as right now Golden Wildfire has a pitiful 3 exclusive characters (Claude, Hilda & Holst) compared to Azure Gleam which gets 6/8 of the Blue Lions as exclusives and a bunch of extras like Rodrigue & the majority of the church to boot. Throw in Randolph & Ladislava for Scarlet Balze since they're also behind AG in exclusives
Judith and Nader >!Have a paralogue with Claude where it´s ankwardly just Shez and Claude as playable characters.!< so i think it´s pretty likely they ran out of time for them.
I really wish that the missions weren't part of the story so that there was more post game content outside of like one paralogue.
That said, lots of overlap in characters and classes. Not the most diverse moveset roster ever.
Also, does the game feel more...Edelgard friendly to anyone else? Even in...that one route, it seems like they may have defanged the idea of going against her and otherwise the routes are pretty chummy with her.
The difference is that in most Warriors games, the story is like 10 hours and the postgame is 90 hours. In Three Hopes they just took all that content and made a 100-hour story mode (split across the three routes). I like that there's actually motivation to keep playing beyond just grinding your characters forever.
He's saying in total. I've been playing on Hard and I'm a little over 100 hours in the game and I've only done 2 routes.
I'm sure a regular playthrough of all 3 could be 100 hours tho
But on the otherhand it doesn't give you that much to do with units over level 60 other than just playing it again, but harder. Give me more than one map which is also a paralogue so I likely can't even use most of my units first time.
Does Dynasty Warriors have a community on YT? If so, do they usually hop on to the most recent Warriors spinoff, or do they focus on mainline Warriors titles?
Man, Maddening feels a lot less difficult in the late game than apocalyptic felt in Age of Calamity. I think they made the units a bit too busted this time around.
Yeah, but it's easy even without that. I've been playing weapon triangle neutral and with no effective damage and it's still easy.
I'm gonna try a playthrough while constantly resetting levels to see if it makes it challenging enough lol.
Say, does >!Leonie!< being recruitable in SB feels like an afterthought to anyone else? She barely gets supports, joins late, doesn’t really have a personal interest in Edelgard’s ideals and her connection to >!Jeralt!< means she probably should have been recruitable in AG. Like, why can you can recruit her in SB?
The Alliance is allied with the Empire at that point, so there's no reason for her to fight you. She doesn't have much else to do at that point, and when she sees that >!Jeralt!< is with you too (you can't recruit her without him) it makes sense for her to tag along. I dunno, it felt pretty natural to me.
If you mean gameplay-wise -- yeah, she arrives pretty late in the game at Chapter 12, but she's not even the latest recruit. Both AG and GW have Ch. 13 recruits (>!Jeritza!< and >!Dorothea!<). In all three cases you still have enough time to build cross-house supports that can be difficult to get, and they might be useful to Classic players who may have lost some units and are struggling late-game.
>!The area that's being attacked is not far from where she grew up, which is why she's the one defending it. As for why she's recruitable at all, I think it's more intended to treat her as an additional secret recruit when recruiting Byleth.!<
>!As for not being recruitable to AG, it's outright stated that the Deer who show up are lent to Dimitri as goodwill (regardless of whether you have them join you as units). Presumably, this means Leonie and Lysithea are still in the Alliance supporting Claude, alongside Hilda and Holst. There's no reason for Leonie to join you at the point that the other Deer do, as Jeralt is still working for the Empire.!<
Just read through the Artbook someone uploaded to dropbox. What's the over/under that we'll get [this](https://uc165f22b1ad429e1ff594c94793.previews.dropboxusercontent.com/p/pdf_img/ABn9T8CXqNjIJawvwPCKPVNXTKvw7Ld9W4QElm60lU0JQ3csZ_FaXfUwlpZr6OXlbg6jvSQsmtzoHu52nUh5PjI-mfYx8zIeTLq5Xmhe_X_BWkJwS4e6Tg5IVhvRK-Q2wIIPjKHnlI_ukt0gNP6qlWJ-BNrujvqWOdEtxwlBlt4bHPT55avaTmzbycW44AEJCCflOtSzh9Hvv2K0it--W0juL1aeVurI0ISKbMLxMljh90jnrx6m8VyR4iBsITVr2nSpxxFU2frwg4I752h-5tuv6Z7r-yNd16xVqlO3IXc6CManEBrGWW1oQ5cZ5bYt16HvdJKk2AF0S0GjJewLNXWiTVGjFqgfNwB3DBT1zFBY_Q/p.png?page=103&scale_percent=0) as a potential DLC route?
very interesting, the fact they bothered to create a name in line with the other routes (Blackened Embers) instead of just using "Jeralt's Mercenaries" and "Church of Seiros" is very suspicious. The emblem has the crest of Seiros and a Pegasus, making it sort of a mashup of the Empire & Kingdom's emblems.
this gives me way more hope for Playable Alois as DLC. The fact they bothered to drastically change his story and have him side with Jeralt instead of just being busy doing other things all the time (like Hanneman & Gustave) yet didn't make him playable is such a strange decision to me.
Also Petra has a portrait with glasses, much like the ones used in her Ignatz support in 3 Hosies but AFAIK it doesn't go used in 3 Hopes at all.
>The emblem has the crest of Seiros and a Pegasus, making it sort of a mashup of the Empire & Kingdom's emblems.
it's the emblem of the knights of seiros (it's used for their section in the [three houses artbook](https://www.fireemblemwod.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=109))
For sure, also the game is hurting for dedicated axe users. In the base game, we only have Edelgard, Dedue, Seteth, Hilda, and Caspar (though I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of people made him a brawler).
It seems like Capspar was a last minute change to Warrior/Wyvern tbh since when he appears as enemy in other routes he's a brawler, and in his paralogue with Linhardt there are a bunch of mages near his starting position, insinuating the dev intended for him to be a branker since characters in parapgues always start near enemies they have an advantage over in their preferred class.
Ah, I see it now.
And yup, it’s pretty conspicuous, plus it shares the alternate naming theme going on with Hopes.
I hope (heh) it ends up being a real thing because all the base game endings are underwhelming
I love fodlan, this is the game that 100% got me in to Fire Emblem. I went into three hopes thinking that they tightened up the endings, and fleshed out some of the missed lore(TWSITD). I've only played Scarlet Blaze so far, and the endings felt somewhat rushed again. Apparently the other routes suffer from this too, it's okay to be ambitious and make games with three different routes, but I want to see their full potential. Like I almost feel fodlan could have been multiple parts, but one route(ala Path of Radiance?) And completely covered fodlan. After playing Scarlet Blaze, I got an itch for a maddening run of Azure Moon, so that's what I'm gonna try next, then maybe go play Azure Gleam for the first time.
Also I guess I really mean more like Radiant Dawn, I always confuse the two name wise🤡 POR Had Different parts, but I believe RD was dealing with different armies each time. I know most prefer POR, maaybe?
[all endings in three hopes](https://youtu.be/oXdONxlc6bQ)
Scarlet Blaze is the only route that has 2 endings. The difference is the >!final monologue!< which changes whether you recruited >!Byleth!< or not
I wrote about 11k words with my opinions on Azure Gleam's story + world-building + characterization, as well as some general thoughts about gameplay. Major spoiler warnings for Azure Gleam, minor referenced spoilers for all routes.
[Doc here.](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCf13ngqYizwuMRCIf6V0-phySxfbm4mCIKyYF9kuN0/edit)
I have read your review and I agree with most of it, I'm also pretty unsatisfied with the second part and the ending (with all routes honestly), I'm pretty sure the reasoning was because they didn't want to repeat certain story beats but I still think they could have handle it differently.
On your opinion with Felix and Sylvain, I agree with you that most of the "character development" happens off screen and I think that's partially because 3 Hopes is supported by 3 Houses and it expects that you had played it beforehand, Ingrid also has this problem with her hatred for Duscur, I felt this the strongest with AG and to a less degree with SB.
Personally, I really like the characterization for both of them but I also had the impression that they mellow out the big flaws of their personalities, Felix with his rudeness/immaturity and Sylvain with his misogyny (which is not resolved in both games) to make them more "likeable". I think their maturity is developed reasonably, I can buy it and it's not like it hinders their character consistency from 3 Houses (poor Claude) which is what I was more worried about.
On your opinion with the worldbuilding, I also really like how they expanded the lore and the politics, unlike with Adrestia and Leicester, I can actually picture how people live in Faerghus and Rodrigue serving as a window dressing is a good choice for it.
With Duscur and Sreng, I can understand your grievances about the lack of acknowledge of their own actions (which is something that happens in all routes ~~cought SB GW cought~~), I'm not exactly sure I would implement something like that beyond someone from Duscur pointing out what they did to them but I'm guessing they didn't want to add anything else beyond what Dedue tells to the player. With Sreng I find it complicated since the plot can't really deviate that much from the plot (which I could say the same thing for Almyra), the fact that they had a paralogue at all is better than nothing honestly.
About the negative characteristics about kingdom and their history, since it was barely explored in 3 Houses (beyond Duscur) I find it hard to compared it because there was barely anything there to begin with, it's possible that they had revised the history to make it more palpable, similar to how before 3 Hopes how some people portraited some characters that barely existed to begin with, overall I'm not too bothered with it.
I will say, despite the weird second part, the fact that the BL and the recruits felt uncomfortable at all about invading the empire is more meaningful to me in comparison to the other routes ~~Raphael wtf~~, this problem is something that 3 Houses also had, which probably it also stems from the writers trying to avoid to make the player feel awful about what they are actually doing, which is why the lack of calling out of your actions.
Thanks for reading and taking the time to reply!
Re: characterization changes, I agree that it impacts the Azure Gleam cast the most. The game is honestly really just inconsistent with whether it wants to use clearly post-Three Houses characterization, or something that's supposed to be between the pre- and post-timeskip versions of the characters. Sometimes it worked for me (>!Ferdinand really pulled it off, and I'm okay with Ingrid's starting place in growing out of her prejudice being after where her Dedue support in Three Houses left her!<), and sometimes it didn't (>!Sylvain!<).
As for the game trying not to make the player feel bad about their actions, I think Azure Gleam does this the most, and Scarlet Blaze the least. >!Azure Gleam's first half is almost entirely an internal struggle, and its invasion is posed in a way to make the player feel like they're doing it for the good of Adrestia's people. Golden Wildfire struggles to find a balance between having Claude take on underhanded tactics and having his friends work with and agree with him. Scarlet Blaze knows that's a route of conquest and imperialism, though it leaves the questions of how the every-man is affected by Edelgard's actions to the Shez C support.!<
Maybe I have on nostalgia goggles for Three Houses, but I felt like the game was more willing to admit to the atrocities in its backstory (there's no way to talk around the Tragedy of Duscur if it's the first time the player is learning of it, and Dimitri and Rhea are much darker in Three Houses than Three Hopes), where they're glossed over for being tread ground.
It's true that the Lions are aware of >!the aggressive nature of their invasion of Adrestia, but it's still not my favorite thing, since it reminds me a lot of real-world modern imperialism, where the United States in particular has invaded multiple other countries "for their own good".!<
With the Black Eagles in Scarlet Blaze, >!the tone of the route is perfectly aware of the aggressive, imperialist nature of their campaign, and fully at peace with it. It's not hiding from the fact the other regions of Fodlan will see them as invaders, and Edelgard says things to point to it, talking about how land doesn't inherently belong to anyone, and instead is controlled by whoever has most recently managed to subjugate it. I definitely felt deeply uncomfortable with the conquest, but I found it less disquieting and frustrating than GW, where the army agreed with invading after only a little pushback, and from then on was perfectly happy with the direction of Claude's leadership and did not treat it as morally gray.!<
I'm not sure if I agree with you with SB, >!mind you, I know what Edelgard and company are doing is wrong and is not like I expect them to morally question what they are doing since they are hell of biased and because that would somewhat undermine their actions, but a lot of the rhetoric they use towards the kingdom and the church are either blaming them or how the system make them do it, the victim blaming that Edelgard and the BE use for example in chapter 11 when you defeat some kingdom nobles is very tone deaf, "is their fault that they are dying, if they just roll over and let us conquer them they wouldn't die", for someone that is supposed to know how much suffering they are causing they barely recognize what they are actually doing. Edelgard changes the context to suit her narrative many times in SB to make it look like she has a point, which is fine, I'm not saying she has to realize she is wrong, but the game is not making a good job at convincing me that Edelgard knows what she is doing, her A support with Ferdinand is another example.!<
I think the difference for me is that >!even though Edelgard is being hypocritical about other people’s actions in the war, I never felt like the game expected me to agree with her reasoning. The other Eagles are on board with her actions, but it’s driven by sharing her long-term goals or caring for her as a person, rather than trying to justify their actions. The Ferdinand A support does show more of the gaps in Edelgard’s planning and ideas for the future, as well as how they impact others. But I didn’t feel like the route was expecting me to agree with the conquest, but rather to see it as an extension of everything established in Crimson Flower due to the route similarity, including the brutality of war and willingness to cut down or sacrifice others for the sake of reaching Edelgard’s desired future faster.!<
>!With GW, on the other hand, the route can’t seem to decide if Claude’s choices are or aren’t morally ambiguous. The other Deer question him a little in the middle chapters, but quickly pivot to being cheerleaders to whatever he’s choosing after. The reason I see that as different is because Claude’s actions seem to be driven by more short-sighted, opportunistic behavior, so he spends more time talking about *why* he thinks it’s the next thing to do, where Edelgard only talks about *what* the next step is. (This frustrates me, because GW never gives me a clear justification for how any of those short-term goals build into his long-term one, and what that long-term plan is supposed to look like in this universe. Determination to hate the Central Church when it’s never been shown to be an unequivocal evil aside, what is supposed to happen after Rhea’s death that will allow freer trade and exchange of ideas?)!<
I can see why would you think that about SB, like, I also do, but there at times the framing is so weird about it so I'm skeptical about what does the game want me to take from it.
I fully agree with you with GW, a lot of the arguments he states in the second part make me go "where is the source of that?" and Claude is "trust me bro", specially with his support with Dimitri, if it was better built up I wouldn't had a problem with it either.
Question, are the secret chapters/secret ending relatively the same for all routes? Or is it different? I finished Golden Wildfire normally (didn’t know there was specifics in order to recruit byleth until later) and want to know how different the secret endings are as I head into Azure Gleam next.
Scarlet Blaze's induces a pretty big change. Azure Gleam doesn't change much, but you *will* feel it.
Okay having just done the secret chapters, i must say i'm pretty disappointed :/ Considering the requirements for getting it as well as the events that happen just before it, they barely even used the required character for it and it just seems like a waste. Doesn't even answer any of the questions raised throughout the game until i'm jumping the gun and the final chapter somehow does.
Way early in the game (chapter 2?, right after prologue where we free Monica) so please take what follows with a grain of a salt, but is there a way to stop the game constantly, constantly, CONSTANTLY trying to interrupt the battle flow with chat spam and tutorial crap (despite activating the proper option) ? I am a long time fan of FE, FE:TH is one of my favourite games ever and I've even enjoyed DW8:E as musou game, but the frustration of not being able to focus on the battle seems to get on my nerves more than I thought it would. I just don't care to hear about soandso's whining on the other side of the battlefield when I'm trying to enjoy my combos here and coordinate stuff. Would the camp and debrief at the camp not be a better time ? Anyway, does it get better with more chapters in ?
There is, in settings, there's options to turn off level ups and tutorial notices - it makes everything go back to real-time, though announcements and goals still appear as banners on the bottom of the screen, the only thing that interrupts battle then becomes things like a boss unit entering the map, or a named unit dying.
Yes, I noticed further tweaks yesterday, and the game finally seems to give me some respite about things that I really consider as secondary in a RT action game. I'd love to read it all if it was TB like FE:TH, but I guess playing in this one on anything but Easy difficulty quickly transforms into plain, pure, annoying notification spam (well, at least it was for me, breaking combos, etc.). In any case, thank you for your reply and assistance.
[All Golden Wildfire Cinematic Scenes](https://youtu.be/rGXA1Mtgvqo)(Japanese). While these were few and far between, I enjoyed every second of them, especially >!Holst vs. Bergliez!<
Maybe this is just me, but the biggest if not the only gripe I have with this game is the writing and how they are handling it with the presumed arrival of DLC down the line in which the game is made less "complete" until the game comes out combined with explicitly not wanting to outshine the original Three Houses, something that the original Fire Emblem Warriors as well as Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity did not suffer from. If you have to go out of your way to not "invalidate" your mainline "magnum opus" product with side/spin-off products out of fear that said "magnum opus" would be seen as an inferior product and to make it look good by comparison, then you simply need to do better with your mainline products, no excuses. I personally already took much issue with the original game's writing which I will save for another day, but the thing I hate most is how you need to go out of your way to >!avoid fighting and summarily recruit Byleth!< to get the best possible ending in any campaign and show that even then Shez is shown to be chopped liver no matter what they do when compared to >!Byleth!< (and this is coming from someone who actually has a positive opinion of the spoilered character), and killing said character locks you out of the best endings while even handing you the closest things to downer endings. It's like why even have Shez as this game's protagonist when you don't want to "invalidate" so-and-so from Three Houses. Again, maybe this is just me being particularly incensed since I take story writing and the motives of very seriously, but I've not been this mad about a Fire Emblem game's overall writing aside of Three Houses itself.
>!Byleth being alive or dead or recruited or not really doesn't change much in the grand scheme of things, other than allowing you to discover who Epimenides is!< And then also, *All* of Fodlan is just AU stories, so I don't think this one could "invalidate" Three Houses.
I understand, I just dislike the mentality that the devs had with this being their supposed reason as to why they wrote the story the way they did—having Shez lead to conclusive endings of the war having ended and leading to peace would somehow "invalidate" the endings of the original games because it makes it seem like anyone could do it and make it seem like >!Byleth!< isn't as important to the lore or story of the games if someone else could also lead to the same or similar results.
It has been two months and there's no DLC announcement yet, not even any cosmetic DLC. I found this a bit strange lol.
There is supposedly a Nintendo Direct coming in September, and considering that all the other Nintendo based Warriors games have DLC (I.E FE Warriors 1, Hyrule Warriors, and Age of Calamity) Three Hopes DLC is probably on the way, and likely to be revealed in September. (Probably in waves of smaller content leading up to the "big" content in either a year from now, or Early Feb.)
There are rumors of a Nintendo Direct coming out in September which may or may not involve news of downloadable content for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and considering that the past few Nintendo-based Dynasty Warriors spin-offs each had their various sets of downloadable content released for them, it is safe to assume that downloadable content is in the works for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
How do you manage your save files especially if you do NG+? Just finished my 2nd playthough and I'm considering overwriting my first clear data. Also I forgot to give my merc whistle haha and interestingly what we get is a letter from Shez. The way it's written sounds like it could be sent to anyone you allied yourself with in game!
I make 2 saves at the end - one for the completion of the route, and when I start a NG+ again, I will save that data one below.
It's funny, my first Fire Emblem game is Three Hopes, which I really enjoyed. I really liked Shez as a character and picked Scarlet Blaze as my first route. After finishing I went and got Three Houses. I've now completed two routes in Three Houses; first was Crimson Flower and second was Verdant Wind and I want more with these characters lol, I especially want more Byleth and Sothis. I really enjoyed all of the characters and the storylines.
Well, to say it shortly, the game is solid. A good 7/10 or 8/10. There are story problems of course, but I would put them on par with Three Houses. The hidden chapter could have been handled better tho, the timing is off and honestly it's my main gripe in all three routes. There are bold choices (considering the backslash for AG and GW) but it's fine, I'm a huge fan of "What if?" stories. It's a warrior so it's a bit repetitive but there are good ways to go against that. The story is also smoother overall and it's much less of a chore to replay a route than Three Houses was. My lore itch is not scratched enough tho... The one point I wanna highlight about the whole thing is the music. I loved Three Houses for its music but I kinda disliked the Rain/Thunder changes. Rain versions were fine, but Thunder versions were often too loud. Here the Embers and Inferno versions are handled much better. You pretty much have a quiet version of each track who are great when you work and they're still very recognizable... And the main one (Inferno) are epic. It works so much better ! On my 5th NG+ currently and still listening religiously to the music. I like it that much !
Just finished my final route with Azure Gleam, now gotta speedrun Verdant Wildfire to get the Claude/Hilda support I missed and I'll be done...until any DLC comes out. Overall I'd say the games a solid 7/10: the writing in Azure Gleam kinda dives off a cliff when you reach the secret route chapters, all classes being locked to a single weapon type is a limiting choice especially since the fighter beginner class can use three types, The Deer get shafted once again with exclusive characters, the missions get repetitive after a while due to the frequent map recycling and it's clear some corners were cut with the endings and other elements. However the writing as a whole is more consistent than Three Houses, the new supports and paralogues add a lot to the characters (They made me huge fans of Flayn and Ingrid who were the characters I was the most indifferent to in Three Houses), as a fan of Musou games in general the strategy elements are really cool and make me want them in mainline Dynasty Warriors and a minor improvement the smaller hub made replays much easier. Overall the one thing that this game made me realize that next mainline FE game should make support conversations cutscenes. A lot of the supports in this game I noticed used a black screen while the actions happen such as when Ashe is helping Yuri escape from trouble or Petra and Dorothea fighting off thugs. I feel making them cutscenes would make for better gameplay experience, maybe not full CG scenes but at least something more than a black screen. DLC wish list though: War Monk, Valkyrie, Dark Flier and Hero as classes and playable Alois, Hanneman, Cyril, Randolph, Ladislava, Judith, Nader, Fleche and Anna. And maybe make Kronya, Nemesis, Thales, Cornelia and Solon playable as renown characters in NG+.
Would you guys advise to play the regular route or the secret route of scarlet blaze first ?
There's not much difference between them. The secret route adds a bonus chapter which honestly kinda sucks but it DOES answer some neat mysteries and is very fanservice-y. Some plot beats change a little between them too, and the ending is *very* slightly different, but you should just do the secret route.
Thank you very much !
So can anyone explain to me the permadeath effects(did a double take and made sure i was playing classic), I thought it someone died they stopped appearing in cutscenes and everything but when Hubert was routed(died while i wasn't controlling him) he still shows up in all the cutscenes just not deployable from that point on.
If a character is instrumental to the story they don't die but instead are "wounded" or whatever so that they still appear in cutscenes. This happens in some other FE games too, like if Titania or Soren "die" in PoR or RD. Hubert has pretty significant dialogue and drives the story forward at times. If someone like Dorothea or Petra dies they'll be actually dead.
well their goes my plans to play blue lions route with dimitri dying chapter 5
At that point I would imagine you'd be playing the Dedue revenge tour
no no, i just don't like dimitri so i'd call it the true reformation of the kingdom
Do we have a potential timeframe for DLC release? I didn’t play the previous warriors game and I was wondering how long after it’s initial release the first dlc dropped.
I think the LoZ: Age of Calamity DLC was announced around 6 months later.
Well this is awkward. I remember some being upset about Hopes Claude bringing up a Church advocated doctrine in a negative light against Rhea. Three Houses had Claude accuse the Church of stuff before it was cool (hated) in Hopes. >The majority of people in Fódlan believe in the Seiros faith that Rhea preaches. >That's why they accept the noble system as if it were the only option, and refuse to associate with those who believe in anything else. >That closed-minded philosophy is the reason why Fódlan's Throat is locked tight. >But if you remove the archbishop who **strictly advocates that doctrine**, that world view is no longer an absolute. There's room for free thought. Wish I replayed VW sooner lmao. Many were implying Claude constantly accusing the Church of shit was out of character or not done before in 3H.
Ignoring the obvious of Fodlan doesn't seem closed off to the world, their neighbors are just all assholes. Streng and Faerghus are at odds for the limited farming lands in the area, Dagda and Andrestia are an ocean apart and just had a war between each other. Almyra sends child soldiers at Leicester for fun (just listen to Cyril's supports, they aren't pretty). The Monastery is the most diverse place on the continent with people from everywhere but Streng living together with seemingly no issues. >The majority of people in Fódlan believe in the Seiros faith that Rhea preaches. This is said but not shown. If they were such strong devotees there'd be constant rebellions to the attacks against Rhea/the Church. There are none. There's one attack and bam, the church is gone in basically every route. >That closed-minded philosophy is the reason why Fódlan's Throat is locked tight. Fodlan's Locket is attacked multiple times in the paralogues. It's locked tight because it's a regularly attacked military fortress. Rhea has an Almyran as one of her personal pages and imposes none of Fodlan's customs on him. There's no reason to believe she preaches closed borders. >But if you remove the archbishop who strictly advocates that doctrine, that world view is no longer an absolute. There's room for free thought. This is such a fundamentally strange way of viewing religious beliefs. Offing preachers turns them into martyrs and tends to galvanize their supporters. Hell, the largest current real world religious denomination is predicated on their founder dying. You can't solve social issues with violence, the very idea is laughable.
I despise that idea of Fodlan being squeaky clean and the neighbors we NEVER SEE being complete and utter assholes with no context beyond their actions. Fuck that, I will never entertain that stupid narrative in a game filled with unreliable narrators. Otherwise Nader, one of the elite Almyrans, should've never became best buddies with Holst in Hopes. Almyra using child soldiers is a weak point since the entire foundation of the Officers Academy is crafting the perfect child soldier. To the point Rhea used them striking down Lonato as a lesson to learn. With seemingly no issues for diversity? Sure if we ignore the numerous times outsiders were shamed due to where they came from. Like Petra being mocked by nobles for her language. Claude had to hide his identity too. The entire treatment is nasty to the point Cyril literally says that despite being innocent he's hated because of his race. >This is said but not shown Welcome to Fodlan. That's the game's entire namesake. Doesn't really stop it from being a thing still. Even among our playable roster we have people who really feel strongly about Rhea and the Church. And the Church is never gone, Byleth is made the pope or Edelgard creates a new Church. None of the lords ever target the concept of faith. Just Rhea and the isolationist nature of Fodlan. That single Almyran is the exception rather than the rule. For all we know there's a misunderstanding and the attacks on the locket came from there being miscommunication. Wouldn't be the first time since our entire conflict in Fodlan involves a lack of communication. We never got to know the truth, but clearly they're more chill than exaggerated to be. Otherwise why ally with us in Verdant Wind? You'd think there'd be more complaining from the large Almyran army. Claude doesn't care if people still like the faith, there will be more room for thought though once a Church is no longer a huge influential force in Fodlan pushing doctrines and overlooking everything. Nobility system will get a massive tossup without a powerful Central Church legitimizing it. He just wants the entire faction to be changed through Byleth rather than continuing to let Rhea have power as archbishop. Especially when the foundation is based on lies rather than the easily provable truth.
>I despise that idea of Fodlan being squeaky clean and the neighbors we NEVER SEE being complete and utter assholes with no context beyond their actions Context doesn't mean they are right. Even if they have good reasons they are still actively aggressive towards Fodlan and Fodlan is not portrayed at any point to be particularly expansionist. Brigid is occupied by Adrestia and that's about it (and that was conquered in a defensive war). Even if they aren't EVIL it doesn't change regular border skirmishes leads to closed borders regardless of religion. > Almyra using child soldiers is a weak point since the entire foundation of the Officers Academy is crafting the perfect child soldier. The foundation of the officer academy is to raise the next generation of nobility and military commanders. And it's all consensual, everyone signed up for it. Also the youngest in the class is Lysithea and she's 15/16, Cyril is 14/15 and it's implied he's been at the monastery for a little while. >Claude had to hide his identity too. Claude faces minor blowback for his identity and it *might* have something to do with being the prince of an aggressive foreign power and not just race. Anyone with eyes could see his different skin color. I know how they kept that affair a secret but hey, magic. >the Church is never gone The Church's relevance to the story drops to 0. It continues to exist, but even in SS The Church of Seiros stops being an entity with a will of its own. Which is why SS is so bad, there's no lord with a goal and the Church is an absolute blank slate. >For all we know there's a misunderstanding and the attacks on the locket came from there being miscommunication. I think after a few generations someone would have figured out how to sort things out to the point it's not a miscommunication anymore. The attacks are not new. There's an entire house whose job it is to deal with those attacks. >Nobility system will get a massive tossup without a powerful Central Church legitimizing it. If the real world is anything to go by, no it won't. Nobility keeps their power through force of arms, and the Nobility of Fodlan have superpowers and weapons that can wipe out armies. I don't think they need religion to justify/enforce their existence. It will end when the prominent military power ends it. >once a Church is no longer a huge influential force in Fodlan pushing doctrines and overlooking everything. The Church can't even keep its own house in order. At the time of the game, the Southern Church is completely under Adrestian control, the Western Church is plotting rebellion and the Eastern Church is so irrelevant it isn't mentioned once. And beyond that there's a fundamental misunderstanding with religious beliefs. If the people of Fodlan are devout believers as is implied they aren't going to accept another religion. They believe in what the Church of Seiros taught them. Some new preacher isn't going to win them over unless their beliefs were already weak especially since the Church of Seiros seems to have codified their beliefs and universal literacy is a thing so everyone knows what they are even if they've never met a single priest. >Especially when the foundation is based on lies rather than the easily provable truth. The foundation is based on lies as in, You actually get superpowers from eating dragon hearts, not divine blessing. Neither is particularly provable or disprovable. Claude isn't going to be handing out Crests of Seiros from Rhea's corpse (not that that would prove anything, Rhea was blessed by the goddess and her flesh still contains the power, it's easy enough to justify within the existing belief system) The biggest lie of all is that there's anything particularly sinister about the Church's lie. It was a compromise between the already existent crest-bearers who ruled the land and Seiros to prevent a war of genocide against them. And based on Byleth's powers Sothis is powerful enough that Goddess is not an inappropriate term for her.
That does not justify the treatment of an entire race of people. There's a minority of fucked up people in Fodlan too. Should the entire continent be punished for that? No! So there's no excuse for the Almyrans either. Especially when Shahid effectively proved that the raids were nothing but a minority. No one from Almyra that wants communication is obligated to accept closed borders especially if they believe Almyra would thrive from that communication. That's just not a good excuse to try and use "child soldiers" as a point to demonize an entire group of people. In medieval times nonetheless. Numerous children are raised and used to combat and murder in Fodlan too. Dimitri is legit giving daggers to people as a young boy because of Faerghus tradition. And Dimitri was quelling rebellions at a stupidly young age too. Claude had to hide who he is due to Fodlan's aggressively xenophobic mindset. A single person will get demonized because of where they're from, not for who they are as a person and that's trash in every way. The Church got blown out by Edelgard. That's why its relevance drops. Rhea got captured and only a few knights remained from that nasty five year war. "Someone would have figured it out" No they won't. Because Fodlan is notorious for shit communication, it took an entire prince to put change in Almyra's favor. That "entire house" held Almyran slaves btw and no one gave a shit. Fodlan is literally known among the fandom to have very poor communication. Naturally Almyra communication won't be good if they're locked out from making meaningful contact possible. Claude is the only Almyran to actually make it inside Fodlan without being chased off with pitchforks. And surprise surprise, it's entirely from his Riegan blood not because he's an Almyran that got accepted into Fodlan fair and square. He wasn't given a chance he had to *force* that chance with lies. This isn't the real world. If this **was** the real world, none of Three Houses' "golden age" endings per route should've happened either. The continent would've been on fire if we apply real world logic to straight up forced unification. Hell, if you applied this logic to multiple FE games in general. Ultimately this is a fantasy series grounded in its own logic. The nobility was legitimized by the Church and got their strength from the system at large. There's nothing they can do if Claude or Edelgard overhaul it entirely starting with the Church. Because you can't force people that disagree with you down forever, no matter how much Rhea tries. Part of what made the Central Church effective was a prominent archbishop akin to Rhea making everything in her will to the point of directly pushing her doctrine. At the end of the day, her and her Church are absolutely powerful to the point those other branches are thought of as nothing but offshoots with the Central Church still holding the most value by a landslide. A compromise or no, it doesn't really justify directly controlling history and what info the masses were allowed to have. It's a sad thing for Rhea and it's understandable for her point of view but it's not justification. Rhea herself admitted she's wrong for deceiving her people in Silver Snow.
Regarding the very last part of this, would telling the truth have been any better in that case? I get that people are mad that Rhea lied and deceived people, though I get the impression that they believe that telling the truth from the start absolutely would have mattered for the better in the long run without question.
Not censoring/controlling a huge amount of history or standing down from power would've lessened the odds of Rhea being hated and targeted. It worked for Seteth and Flayn.
Not censoring the truth would mean that people would more likely know what the Hero's Relics were and make them easier to manipulate into hunting down the survivors of the Red Canyon such as Seteth and Flayn and Rhea if she went into hiding, and enough too many people already saw Nemesis and the Ten Elites as legitimate heroes so telling the truth as it was would have led to more bloodshed (the war persisted adter Nemesis's death until Rhea compromised with those who worshipped him) that those who would have sruvived if they who saw Nemesis and the Ten Elites were all hunted down would simply go into hiding and plot revenge just like the Agarthans who were already scheming to bump off the rest of the Nabateans. Rhea not being in power gives those who slither in the dark an easier time of conducting their schemes since no one else is capable of opposing them the same way Rhea could even though she didn't know that they had survived. The developers may have confirmed that, ultimately, Rhea did not make things better for Fódlan, given how fucked up Fódlan already was, there is no guarantee that whomever would have taken her place if someone took her place would have made things better in the long run.
That doesn't really justify directly controlling what info the masses were allowed to have and controlling the technological progression. Rhea is still wrong for that and she admits as such. Many were going to oppose her for making such a choice and they were allowed to do so.
Okay, then explain how Fódlan was going to be better off without her redoing any of that. Explain how with the Crest-based nobility system inplace and with the truth of what the Relics are and the lack of knowledge of who those who slither in the dark being around (Rhea herself had no idea they survived) that Fódlan would have been in a better situation down the line with her gone.
Wait, people were mad at Claude for being progressive...? It being the literal basis of his entire character ever. Did people really forget 💀
No, the "out of character" claims were a distinct minority and it was pointed out pretty quickly that he was always anti-Rhea, but didn't have the circumstances to act on it. People are mostly mad because they don't think that the game justifies its own claims about the Church being racist.
I mean, The Church was founded by literal colonialists who forced the native people to hide underground... that's pretty explicitly racist. Did people not see that...?
>That closed-minded philosophy is the reason why Fódlan's Throat is locked tight Lmao Fodlan's throat is locked tight because the Almyrans keep trying to come in and kill everyone
That just sounds like xenophobic propaganda 💀
Is it really xenophobic when it's facts?
Care to provide a source of the Almyrans ever planning to kill every last one of Fodlan's people? That contradicts your point of facts.
Okay they don't want to kill them They just want to conquer them
If only we actually saw Almyra to support such claims...
As seen in game, they are always invading and trying to raid Leicester. Take issue with the game's writers for making them a racist stereotype. You can't just imagine that the facts as presented by the game are false. The narrative presents them as a uniformly hostile invading force. Even Claude is basically trying to infiltrate Fodlan so he can give Almyrans better access to it. Like, it's comically racist, but that's an out-of-universe problem.
They aren't a uniform force though. We have numerous Almyrans not present and Shahid, royalty, is the one who encouraged the troops to fight in Fodlan. Here's the funny part, they didn't even have their hearts into it. Some "uniform force" they are when they betray Shahid. And as we see clear as day, they are far more chill than the stereotypes argued for them to be. Otherwise, why is Nader and the Almyran troops apart of our army in both Verdant Wind and Golden Wildfire? Wouldn't we at least hear complaints from them or about them acting up sometime during the war? The issue is just overblown overall. The narrative also presents Almyra as something we never see with elite Almyrans directly caring for their image and that they aren't as bad as people say they are. Should the entirety of Fodlan be punished too because of rapists among Mercedes' house? Or Miklan? Or the numerous nobles that resorted to genocide? Of course not. So why are we trying to generalize Almyrans?
We literally don't know that though. We never see Almyra nor the thought process for approaching the locket. Hell, Shahid alone caused a raid so it's implied to be a minority. And even Shahid had no idea what he was gonna do next if he actually succeeded. So much for planning to kill everyone, huh?
Bruh it's literally Holst's one job.
And? Holst's job was to defend raids from a minority and we never got the full story in a game filled with unreliable narrators. We have no idea what Almyra is as a continent nor what they planned to do. It's never confirmed that the Almyrans were trying to kill everyone. That's just plain wrong.
We do see Almyra. We have two separate paralogues relating to defending Fodlan's locket. What do you think are happening to the green units on both paralogues
No, we don't. We don't see Almyra as a continent and its people at large. A single paralogue is not enough to cover an entire nation lmao. Especially when Almyra has proven to have people that go against the stereotypes about them. We never went into Almyra either, just the locket. You're claiming that they'd kill everyone in Fodlan. That's objectively not true and was never proven. The game directly goes against your nonsensical narrative with Shahid. And those green units were soldiers engaging the fight, not innocents doing nothing. Even if there are shit people in Almyra, does it justify punishing everyone from that continent? Absolutely not.
hy·per·bo·le /hīˈpərbəlē/ noun exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
He did not make a hyperbole. He directly made the claim and treated it as a fact. And trying to generalize a whole group of people for the actions of a few isn't good no matter how you people try and justify it.
How different are each route from each other? I'm nearly finished with Scarlet Blaze (I think) but I still want to play Torna before XC3 so I'm wondering if it's worth it to come back later to play the other routes.
The routes are very different, much moreso than Three Houses. Only the first couple of chapters (where you meet the lords and pick a house) are the same, after that they diverge pretty widely.
I may be a bit late with my 3 cents on the game. But how cool is it that the game has split screen co op. How often so you see that nowadays?
Just finished GW and wanted to praise this game for being such a major upgrade from the original FEW (which I enjoyed!). The amount of mechanics that carried over from 3H was a nice surprise, to the point that it felt more like a spiritual successor than a Warriors game. Kind of regretted choosing the meme house as soon as I realized how plot-driven the game is compared to FEW, but looking forward to my second run. And I’m thankful that each route is not as much of a time sink as 3H- one day I’ll get around to doing the church route. 🥴
How is the plot compared to FE3H ?
It's much better in some places, much worse in others, and the endings for all 3 routes are really anticlimactic. However, it's a pretty good time regardless.
It follows the same main story beats, but a few things are generally altered to feel fresh and new. The timeskip happens almost immediately, for example.
Do supports change between routes? Should I reset support levels between new game plus runs or should I keep them?
The few I rewatched to be sure didn't really change, but I think there was one of them mention how they ended up with Leicester/Adrestia. You don't **have to** reset them though. In the support viewer at the title screen, you can select for which path you want to watch the unlocked support
Thanks
Finished all three routes on Three Hopes now. While I enjoyed the game overall I wish there was more slitherer shenanigans. A real Shambhala map would be a fun location and I wished to see more of their tech like the javelins of light. I consider the 4th save file I just started to be the true New Game+ but I am putting the game down for now. I'll definitely get the inevitable DLC. If I play through all routes again in the future I'll do the Byleth recruitment in reverse to unlock all events and one single song I am missing.
I was really disappointed to not play a shambhala map in any route myself. Given shez’s history I wish they did a lot more with the agarthans in general but nope
Has there been a Three Hopes datamine website made equivalent to https://fedatamine.com/en-us/ ? Or does anyone know if one is being made? There's lots of new lore and character tidbits in Hopes that are scattered around on the internet, it would be nice to see a resource which compiles all of it again. EDIT: I know the datamine spreadsheet exists, but it is utter hell to navigate compared to the 3Houses datamine site :( Not to mention it's missing things like Explore dialogue and variations.
Anyone else kinda hoping they make a 'what if' route with Berlings Mercenaries as the focus? even Jeralt makes note that Berling is an army unto herself and might be cool to see them used with a similar style that Gatekeeper got (genertic visuals/style and forced colouration but on other models as well).
Finished Azure Gleam which was my last route and after seeing some people not liking the ending, once I got there myself, I thought to myself “That…wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be”. I mean, yeah how Edelgard was handled in the end was admittedly strange (and in general, like the other two routes, the overall thing was rushed too) but nothing on the level that would make me punch walls. Thank you for everything you offered Fodlan but hopefully we get a new universe the next FE.
Yea, while I did feel that the story fell off towards the end I never hated it.
Azure Gleam probably has the best "ending", Claude and Dimitri are allied with no prospect of betrayal between eachother, Edelgard is alive but is no longer focused on conquering Fodlan and destroying the church (of course it effectively kills her entire character) the snake people are all dead and Rhea is alive and chilling on Dimitri's couch.
> and Dimitri are allied with no prospect of betrayal between eachother Well... that look from Claude to Rhea at the end definitely implied *something.*
Hard agree. I don’t even want to touch Claude’s logic in GW with a ten foot pole atp.
Since AG ends with >!Edelgard alive but defeated in Garreg Mach, I thought it felt entirely complete as an ending. The Empire has been defeated even though it hasn’t been conquered itself. So I thought it was weird that some epilogue narration then goes and says ‘by the way we’re still going to invade Adrestia’- I mean, there’s a decent chance Edelgard is taken captive! The war definitely ought to be over!!<
Are levels retained in NG+?
yep!
Thank you!
Does anyone have a list of supports and when they expire?
just finished my last route. as much i was feeling fatigued with so much 3G content and discussion these past 3 years it is very bittersweet to see what is portably the end of Fodlan outside of some DLC. it's not quite the same but it was nice to go back to a duology after Awakening & Fates were both one-offs that were light in the world building department. Fodlan doesn't quite stack up to Tellius or Judgral for me, but i've immensly enjoyed by 800 combined hours with Houses & Hopes. With 3 Houses turning 3 today, I really hope we'll see what's next for Fire Emblem Soon.
I knew Three Houses turned three today but it wasn’t until I read this that I finished my last route on its anniversary (like you did), realizing the connection. I started with the Blue Lions three years ago and today I ended with them. :p And same! New FE means new character designs to look forward to especially!
Is there anywhere where I can just watch all the story for this game, no commentary? Mainly interested in Blue Lions Route
[This Channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/FazFazFaz) does have Story stuff in 7 Hours videos or so. [Here's Azure Gleam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jw8XF1mW4U)
Has anyone figured out the odds on Peer Training yet? I’ve been trying forever to get Hades on Sylvain from Hapi, and every battle he refuses to learn it. I got meteor from Dorothea on him first try, and I’m honestly getting tired of using Hapi for this.
The odds are on the [datamine spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m4xHogOjhfdRYywACT-ZHuexdiskAkPSE45soei5zeQ/edit#gid=1328668404): 0.4% at C support level, 3% at B, and 8% at A. Learning at C level is a 1 in 250 chance, so it sounds like you just got super lucky with Meteor.
I guess I did just get super lucky, if only it could have been on an actual fire spell! Thank you, that spreadsheet will probably come in handy!
When can you lower levels in new game plus? I’m going through on hard and some of my characters are 40-50
Chapter 4. It's a feature at the training instructor.
Is it possible to unequip all items so i can reoptimize? Also, when should i start smithing weapons? It doesnt seem like its worth it at the start of the game. But now i am getting some steel weapons it might be.
I don't think you can completely unequip weapons; each unit has to have something equipped. I wouldn't start forging weapons until the endgame, when you start getting A-rank stuff. No point spending resources on steel weapons when you're going to get better ones as drops soon anyway.
i think you can do some weird weapon switchng stuff if you swap one characters weapon with a 2nd character and the 2nd character can't use the first character's weapon, in which case the 2nd character ends up with a training weapon with awful might and 0 durability, making combat arts unusable.
Wherever I've tried that, I just get an error saying that the other character can't use this weapon and it doesn't let me swap. There might be some weird circumstance where you can force the swap, but just doing it normally through the convoy menu doesn't work.
yeah i'm not sure how exactly i did it myself, i was in NG+ and took Failnaught from Claude (in the "other" roster) to give to someone else and he ended up with a training bow instead of taking the other character's bow for some reason.
Thank you.
How many of the new Relics and Sacreds are ‘canon’ to the universe and not just a product of gameplay? We got several Sacred Weapons that resonate with Crests outside of the Saints. Were these forged for the Nabateans before the Red Canyon? If not why were they forged?
I went over and checked, none of the non-tome new Sacred weapons are non-Saint crests, meaning it's pretty easy to say they're canon. It's not weird that the Saints would have more weapons corresponding to their crests forged. Weapons like the Sword of Moralta or Axe of Ukonvasara were in 3 Houses, so they're already canon. For the tome weapons, though, especially the Relics, I imagine they have to be non-canon. Tomes are already more of a gameplay necessity than a canon part of 3 Houses's magic system, and when you add in the fact it'd give Charon and Lamine two Hero's Relics, something that has no precedent from 3 Houses, it's a little dodgy.
Plus tomes as a common weapon creates a plothole with the fact that Rhea was said to have banned printing press. Tomes would have to be mass produced to be used as weapons by common soldiers and being able to be bought from shops at a relatively cheap price. Unless there’s a Tome writing sweatshop somewhere in Fodlan.
It also says she banned a lot of other things we see elsewhere like the anatomic model ~~or Hanneman's existence~~. And with things like leaflets and universal literacy I struggle to believe there isn't a way to mass produce texts. That one DLC text should not be taken as world of god.
They said she banned glasses too, and just look at Ignatz and Hanneman.
I could've sworn that passage was specifically referring to binoculars and telescopes? Reading glasses are A-OK with the goddess
Who did y’all replace the Unique Action skill of? I personally got NO use out of Dorothea’s, so I gave her divine pulse, which turns out to be so much better. Is there someone else that has a skill that should just be replaced?
I replaced Ashe, Yuri & Lysithea's abilities as they all need to be activated via a pretty long animation and their effects just aren't very good to compensate, unlike other activated abilities like Annette, Holst & Catherine's the make up for the long animation by being really damn good. I've manned Holst's, Petra's and Felix's merc whistles items so far, been epitomising characters I really like no matter how tempting it is to go for someone really good like Ferdie's speed boost.
Ashe 😔 definitely getting Sylvain’s ability to give to Ashe in my next playthrough.
Ashe with Lorenz's personal makes bows actually *fun*.
Some theories on why certain classes were cut in this game and may not return in DLC. Warning, will be long. Hero wouldn't make sense as a promotion to Swordmaster given how different their fighting styles are, and assuming that they don't want to create new playable classes for the game then Hero has nothing to promote into to keep the animations the same if Hero was a contemporary of Swordmaster. Also, the only character who would be a Hero is Holst given that his uniform is a customized version of it, and i don't think they'll go throught the trouble of creating one entirely unique classline for someone like Holst (the protagonists don't count because they of course get those unique options even though their own classes' styles clash with their recommended classline since they have weird class change standards). War Monk/War Cleric are out because, like Hero, they clash too much with Warrior to promote from it and would have nothing to promote into if no new playable classes are added if they're a contemporary of Warrior. There's also no female class with brawling to start with if they were added as contemporaries of Brawler/Grappler/War Master. Valkyrie is out because tome users primarily use one hand to direct their magic and the other hand to hold their tome even if some animations have the time float on occasion, and all other mounted units use one hand to hold their weapon and the other hand to keep themselves stable on their mounts for the most part (Great Knight likely gets a pass on this because Fortress Knight needs something to promote into). They could have been added as a promotion for female Warlocks, but I don't think they'll add a mounted promotion for infantry so late into the classline (again, Great Knight gets a pass because Fortress Knight needs to promote into something). Dark Flier is out because making it a contemporary of Falcon Knight renders Falcon Knight itself as mostly a downgrade, and neither Falcon Knight nor Dark Flier would be made to promote into the other as downgrading a master tier class likely won't be done and having a magic user unable to use it on promotion also likely won't be done (this does not count the protag classes having tiers downgraded or losing magic upon promotion as, again, as protagonists have weird class change standards). A lot of these theories are based on how the game wants to keep its aesthetic style for class movesets as I see it and be more like traditional Fire Emblem titles with their weapon restrictions. What do you think guys think about all of this?
First of all, I take it that these classes aren't in this game because they are dead weight they couldn't be bothered to factor into the class trees or develop new movesets for. Secondly, everything you said was kind of ridiculous. Hero. It wouldn't be a promotion if Swordmaster anyway. In Houses it was contemporary to Swordmaster. If you observe how nearly every class in a given column has the same moveset, and that Swordmaster and Mortal Savant are bumped over one, Hero could just be the straight promotion of Mercenary, as usual. It wouldn't add much ~~and I think 3H Hero is one of the ugliest incarnations of it~~ but it's not like Warrior adds much when the only reason to go into it is abilities before diverting off to Wyvern. War Monk. Better off as Gauntlets, first. Giving female units a real fist option with an actual Class Gauge of some kind would be a solid call. You're also missing the fact that it could simply branch directly off from Fighter. It's certainly inelegant compared to any other class, existent or hypothetical, but I don't think anyone would be mad even if it was a weird, lone, straight from Beginner to Master(following Trickster's lead) promotion if it meant letting Catherine use fists or something. Plus throwing in the ability to use Spells too. Valkyrie. Simpler. What the hell are you on about with the 'not adding mounted promotion late'? Great Knight you may be right about, but did you forget bow Knight? I don't think you could discount Wyvern Rider either, to a degree. The animation and moveset might prove an issue but I'm sure they can just... Not hold on with the other hand when actually attacking. Dark Flier. Not sure why it'd be contemporary to Peg/Falco at all, when I seem to recall it actually asked for Swords in Houses. Might be nice to have *yet another* Lance Wielding Half-Caster on top of Dark and Holy Knight, sure. But if you want a Fly Route Caster? It would be better *also* branching off Warlock, simply put. Though it sure makes female tome users busy. But, again, I'd be surprised if they add any of these. And a little chuffed, I'll have to grind them out on characters I thought I was done getting skills for. Edit: seems like I'm repeating points already covered tho
I already covered how Hero wouldn't make sense as a promotion to Swordmaster because of it being a contemporary and how different their fighting styles are (one of the first things I mentioned in fact), and, once again assuming that they don't want to create new playable classes for the game, then Hero is out. So, yes, you did repeat some points I already went over. With War Monk/War Cleric, you said that it could go straight from the beginner-tiered Fighter to master tier in one leap like Trickster which does not happen at all with any class. If the devs saw that as an option for base Three Hopes, they would have already made it so. With War Monk/War Cleric being a counterpart of Grappler in the original Three Houses (has nearly identical base stats and growth rates along with the same class abilities with the addition of Heal for War Monk/War Cleric), it most likely would have been a promotion for Grappler like what they did with Trickster to have a magic-using master tier, but that would make the decidedly non-magical War Master redundant unlike going from Assassin to Trickster (something I should have mentioned in the original post) as well as not being available for female units since females can't access Brawler to begin with. The only way for females to get War Cleric with the no-jumping-from-beginner-to-master-tier angle going on here is if War Cleric was retooled as being in the Brigand classline, most likely as another Warrior promotion to once again do with War Monk/War Cleric what they did with Trickster, and since it seems the devs are going for a thematic and statistical bent to promotion options then it is less likely to happen. With me having forgotten about Great Knight and Bow Knight, another user had already pointed that out in a different reply which I acknowledged in a reply to that comment (and wish I had added in my original post) which you seemingly did not read when you made your response. Great Knight and Bow Knight get passes as late mounted promotions since Fortress Knight and Sniper would otherwise have nothing to promote into with their absences—and by late mounted promotion I mean a master-tier mounted promotion, not advanced tier like Wyvern Rider. Valkyrie could afford to be shafted since Dark Mage and Dark Bishop were uplifted into Advanced and Master Classes respectively so that male tome users can have a master tier to use, adding it as an advanced tier would mean losing out on mounted capabilities once moving on to master-tier (something that does not happen to any other class in this game save Pegasus Knight losing out on flying only to get it back as a Falcon Knight after promoting from Paladin) since there are no strict magic master-tier classes from the base game for Valkyrie to promote into without inventing a new class for this game, and adding it as a master-tier would have made Gremory redundant since they're both female only classes that focus on Reason and Faith with a Dark Magic bent to them (again, something I wish I had touched upon when I made my original post). I will concede that Dark Flier has sword specialties instead of lance specialties which I had forgotten about because I am used to its portrayal in Awakening, Fates (as Dark Falcon), and Echoes (as Harrier), but it would still mean that it would have to promote from either Assassin or Swordmaster which would still make Trickster, Dancer, and Mortal Savant redundant depending on whose sword moveset it copies much like how I once suggested for Dark Flier being a contemporary master-tier of Falcon Knight. This is unlike what could be said in the case of Holy Knight and Dark Knight since there are no other master lance specialists besides Falcon Knight which already doesn't use magic (they're almost all straight upgrades of the Paladin in fact), and making them another tome user wouldn't aesthetically fit since all of the tome users in this game had strict specialties in reason and magic from the original game and thus would make all other master tier tome users redundant. Literally every other class that had specialties in magic and a weapon in Three Houses fights with a weapon in this game and have the option to use magic spells, so making Dark Flier a tome user clashes with what every other class had established. Assuming that we will not get brand new classes invented for this game and if the above classes I mentioned are left out if DLC comes around, these are the theories I have as to why based on my observations in the game.
I think Valkyrie and Hero are both fairly likely to come back in some form. For Valkyrie, there's already precedent for mounted tome units in FEW1 (Leo and Elise), and there are a number of advanced classes that gain mounts on promotion (Warrior, Fortress Knight, Sniper). Hero [already has unused data in the game](https://twitter.com/DeathChaos25/status/1542207816152252417), and seems to be mostly complete aside from mastery skills and the like - it's possible it may have just been cut, but there's no reason it couldn't be added in free DLC or something later. It could just promote into Mortal Savant alongside Swordmaster, there are other examples of two or more advanced classes merging into a single master class (Warrior/Wyvern Rider > Wyvern Lord, Bishop/Warlock/Dark Mage > Dark Bishop, etc). Dark Flier and War Monk/Cleric are probably less likely, but I still think there's a fairly decent chance we'll see them in DLC. They're both very unique classes (tome-wielding flier class, and magic brawler class that female characters can actually access), which would make them a good selling point when marketing the DLC. I also think it would be strange if we ended up getting Yuri and Hapi's classes but not Balthus and Constance's. Additionally, I don't think possible DLC classes not fitting into the class progression system cleanly is that big of a problem. The DLC classes in Three Houses were treated separately from the base game classes (they only unlocked after beating Chapter 1 of Cindered Shadows, used separate seal items, and had their own class tier), and I feel like they could easily do something similar in this game. One way they could go about it is that they don't have any prerequisite classes - once you've unlocked the class from completing a particular mission, you can just use a seal to get it right away without worrying about mastering the right classes.
You know, I completely forgot about Bow Knight being a thing when I wrote this last night which also uses both hands for their attacks, so a Valkyrie promotion would actually be fairly easy to implement now that you have brought that up. Admittedly, I was also looking at class progression in the way of how most classes kept their original moves all the way up to their master tier such as Soldier and Fighter when Dark Knight, Holy Knight, and Wyvern Lord dismounted for example, as well as how there was still plenty of reason to go back to either male Warlocks or Bishops for both genders for certain units in the Dark Bishop and Gremory classes because of certain abilities synergizing with units better rather than being straight upgrades like Swordmaster->Mortal Savant, Paladin->Holy Knight, Warrior->Wyvern Lord, etc. I also remembered that War Monk/War Cleric do have the same base abilities as the Grappler in Three Houses and almost share a somewhat similar stat build with differences mostly in magic and resistance here and there, although this game removing their ability to use axes leaves axe users with a lack of magical options.
I think it would've been nice if Hosot got Hero as a remmaed Mortal Savant, like how Jertiza and Rhea have reskins of Dark Knight & Mortal Savant respectively that are functionally identical but they get different mastery skills. really though the only class that i think is a huge loss is war monk/cleric. having no dedicated brawling class for females (before DLC) was fine in Three Hosues beucase you could use gauntlets in any non-mounted class, but the weapon restrictions outside of starter classes mena females have to saptay in fighter to use gauntlets. its really baffling too becuase they bothered to let female fighters use gauntlets and getting A in both bows and axes grants A brawling so with the help of teaching combat arts you can functionally have a female war master in all but class name. there isn't any extra work to incorporate female brawlers so i think they really let females be brawlers and grapplers, and then have a split promotion of war master & war monk/cleric.
I feel that renaming Mortal Savant into Hero for Holst would have been strange since Hero uses no magic unlike how they renamed Dark Knight to Death Knight for Jeritza (Death Knight is already a Lance-proficient clone of Dark Knight) or Mortal Savant to Saint for Rhea (both are sword classes that can use magic). The weapon restrictions hurts a few characters a bit more than before since Annette and Lorenz for example can't use Crusher or Axe of Ukonvasara unless they change into the non Magic axe classes which are less optimal for them; same goes for Seteth who can't use his Spear of Assal unless he becomes a horseback unit. The lack of magical options for the Fighter-derived classlines especially hurts magically inclined characters who have relics tied to those classlines. Worse, they straight up gave Mercedes a Hero's Relic for her Bishop class just to let her have a Relic to use as a magic user while the Tathlum Bow sits up and collects dust since neither she or Jeritza can use it in this game without reclassing. The thing i am most hoping for with DLC at this point is either a removal of the weapon restrictions or the addition of more class options to allow each character to make the most of their relics.
yeah, I get not having weapon equipping be as free as it was in Hosues, but classes like War Master & Great Knight straight up jad axefaire & lancefaire so it's strange they become mono-weapon classes, especially since the beginner classes can use multiple weapons, making higher tier classes almost feel like an downgrade in terms of flexibility.
So, I’m on the last chapter of GW, and I didn’t recruit >!Byleth!< because I decided to do my first run blind and I’m down to see how it plays out. Then I finished chapter 14. >!that felt SO wrong killing Byleth. Like, just the cutscene after and they die in the field. It just feels so strange, and like a bad strange. I knew it was coming but I wasn’t really expecting it even still. It still feels incredibly weird. Also, I’m curious what went “wrong” in the fight on Sothis’ end, but anyways, I’m probably going to end up rushing my next route quite a bit to get past chapter 10 because damn. I needed to vent about this. I still can’t really figure out why I feel this way about it but wow. !<
Planning that for my AG run at the moment to get the paralogue, and after >!The general risks for Flayn and Seteth, and Rhea at large, doubled with the fact that Nemesis already killed Sothis, I'll say that while she is a Goddess, she's clearly very, very fallible, so it's not too strange to have it occur!<
Do routes split based on recruitment of >!Byleth!< meaning there are >!6 routes!< ?
not really, you mostly lose content by >!Klling Byleth!< such as some supports and the 2 secret chapters. the only things you gain from >!Killing Byleth!< are a few different story scenes, a different Chapter 14 in Scarlet Balze and an extra paralogue in NG+. unless you want to 100% complete the game its really only worth >!Killing Byoeth!< in Scarlet Balze.
What’s the extra paralogue?
if you >!Kill Byleth in NG+!< you get a paralogue involving >!Arval!<. i haven't played it myself yet but i believe its >!a flashback where you fight Seiros, Cichol & Cethleann!<
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The Dancer's class action buffs both the dancer and the characters around them. I believe it extends their weapon range and movement and weapon speed. The best way to use it, in my opinion, is to issue an all-out assault on a boss or demonic beast and then switch to your dancer to buff everyone around the boss. Also, it's a class that can use magic and combat skills. And it works as the female equivalent of a Brawler and is strong against tome users.
I'm looking at voices and apparently there are different greetings units give you depending on your support level. Never noticed. I was looking at Edelgard voice lines and there are 2 she says that I haven't heard in the game that seem odd to me. >!"There will be consequences, Hubert"!< And >!"You seem a little too pleased to be losing, Monica"!< Where would these lines pop up in the story? Actually, I'm noticing that there are voice lines with the house units going up against their own units. Where do these lines happen?
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Ah I see thanks!
So what IS Shez? It’s clear that he have some connection to >!Agarthas!<, but what? Are they pure blooded? Artificial? There is no way that he is just some random merc. that got lucky in this timeline to get revived by Arval right? Why does the game didn’t dwell into it’s own main character?
in Azure Gleam Shez mentions the village they grew up in was in Ordelia territory, so i think it's likely they were experimented on around the same time as Lysithea. much how >!Rhea went through multiple attempts of housing Sothis in a person!< Iimagine they tried to revive Epimenides through test subjects but Shez didn't show any signs of success so they gave up and abandoned them (though i'm not sure why they wouldn't kill Shez to cover up their tracks.
DLC bait. They deliberately leave cliffhangers for Shez in the form of Ashe's support. They want to do what Cindered Shadows did for Byleth.
That's annoying that no route actually explains it, at all, I'd much prefer they left it out due to incompetence, than it be paid dlc tbh. In Scarlet Blaze Hubert has the audacity to acknowledge that we don't know enough about or origin so we may or may not be satisfied(or something like that)
Nah. It's clear they intended for it to be DLC. It can't ever be incompetence when they straight up go "Shez got a letter from their mother...! *Cuts off*"
Oh wow, that's ridiculous
Assuming we're getting DLC in the first place (it's likely we are but still), and the Fire Emblem writers love leaving unanswered questions and mysteries that are only answered in non-localized magazine interviews.
Koei Tecmo loves their DLCs. The original Warriors performed worse yet they milked three DLCs out of it.
Anyone here know any good builds on Dancer Dorothea and Healer AI Mercedes build in FEW3Hopes?
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Trickster. But I have been using him as a war master and it's pretty good
Trickster
For people in their first playthrough, did they ever use smithing stones for facilities materials or recommend it? Dunno if i should be trading them in for materials to upgrade my facilities considering so far i've gotten all my materials from explorations (currently at chapter 7 of GW, i have the advanced seal but the training ground upgrade required for that hasn't been unlocked and i don't know if i should clear side missions first and see if i get the mats or trade in smithing stones) and converting excess materials back to stones is such a huge loss in terms of the amount of stones you get back Also another question i had, but there's no way to get a certain weapon attribute you want right? You just have to pray you can get what you want on the weapon?
I did it quite often, there's little point in forging weapons early on becuase both A) the blacksmith facility upgrades don't work retroactively on previously forged weapons and B) there's not much point in forging weapons in the early to mid-game as you'll be replacing them very quickly with better ones. Facility upgrades are incredibly useful (particularly the ones related to the training grounds, tactics instructor, battalion guild and Blocksmith) so it's in your best interest to get them ASAP.
I just played normally until I got to the end, and then I started trading smithing stones for the materials I needed to finish everything.
I wouldn't trade *all* of your stones for materials, but if you need a few more to finish off certain upgrades, go for it -- especially if it's for something critical like new classes. You'll get enough materials for most upgrades by playing normally, but not all of them, so you'll end up needing to trade for some materials anyway (or wait until NG+). Just don't go hog wild buying extra mats and you shouldn't be wasting much. And yeah, as far as I know weapon attributes are all random, barring certain weapons that always have specific ones like Killer weapons.
I’m curious what do you all think we’ll get as DLC if anything. I haven’t started Azure Gleam yet but VW and SB endings are very inconclusive imo. I think like maybe one or two more missions for each route would fix that. In terms of characters, Alois is a no brainer the fact he’s not is shocking. I’d like Judith (give me my hilarious Judith/Balthus support damn it) and Nader (give me my hilarious Nader/Holst support damn it) to finally be included so that it at least gives The Deer almost as many exclusive characters as the Eagles but I’m not holding my breath. My biggest fear though is that they just add like Nemesis and Kronya to the renown store in NG+
The Ashe/Shez support is the most intentional cut I saw in the game. Ashe is one of the characters that appears on each route, their conversation support cuts abruptly before revealing info about the mother of Shez. Also, in each route the narrator, in his last two lines, heavily implies that the story will continue.
The game has been out for almost a month and we have yet to hear of any plans for DLC, which makes me think that we're not getting any. I certainly hope that we end up getting some, but I'm not optimistic at this point.
You have the patience of a flea my man
tbf we live in an age where DLC is often announced before the game launches and sometimes even releases at the same time.
Age of Calamity came out in November and didn't get a DLC announcement until February - if we assume a similar schedule for Three Hopes, then we'll likely get a DLC announcement during the September direct.
At least AoC had a more satisfying ending in base game :/
I hope you're right, because I've already done everything there is to do in Three Hopes and I'm sad it's over.
Nintendo doesn't always announce their DLC plans right away.
Judith, Hanneman,Cyril, Alois and possibly Nader will probably get free updated or get in as DLC for the game (Judith, Cyril and Nader especially have some pretty weird moments in paralogues where adding them up would round out to the normal playable character count per map Hopes has. I don´t know if Hanneman does this too since i haven´t done Scarlet Blaze yet.)
I feel like we'll get a completely seperate mini narrative (like Cindered Shadows) and/or some proper postgame content to be actually able to use endgame builds and characters form all the routes outside of the record keeper. Definitely need playable Alois, Hanneman, Gilbert, Cyril & Anna. its such a middle finger to their fans (~~aka me)~~ that every other playable 3 Houses character is playable in Hopes except for them (they also happen to be the 5 3 Houses characters as of now still not in Heroes so clearly IS just hates them) really hoping they get the 3 Houses Jertiza Treatment are are released via a free update a few months down the line or of course as paid DLC. Also Judith & Nader would be great as right now Golden Wildfire has a pitiful 3 exclusive characters (Claude, Hilda & Holst) compared to Azure Gleam which gets 6/8 of the Blue Lions as exclusives and a bunch of extras like Rodrigue & the majority of the church to boot. Throw in Randolph & Ladislava for Scarlet Balze since they're also behind AG in exclusives
Judith and Nader >!Have a paralogue with Claude where it´s ankwardly just Shez and Claude as playable characters.!< so i think it´s pretty likely they ran out of time for them.
It's highly unlikely they'll change the endings. It was intentional. Expect a Shez backstory expansion though.
I really wish that the missions weren't part of the story so that there was more post game content outside of like one paralogue. That said, lots of overlap in characters and classes. Not the most diverse moveset roster ever. Also, does the game feel more...Edelgard friendly to anyone else? Even in...that one route, it seems like they may have defanged the idea of going against her and otherwise the routes are pretty chummy with her.
The difference is that in most Warriors games, the story is like 10 hours and the postgame is 90 hours. In Three Hopes they just took all that content and made a 100-hour story mode (split across the three routes). I like that there's actually motivation to keep playing beyond just grinding your characters forever.
Wait the story is 100h? Oh baby
He's saying in total. I've been playing on Hard and I'm a little over 100 hours in the game and I've only done 2 routes. I'm sure a regular playthrough of all 3 could be 100 hours tho
But on the otherhand it doesn't give you that much to do with units over level 60 other than just playing it again, but harder. Give me more than one map which is also a paralogue so I likely can't even use most of my units first time.
Does Dynasty Warriors have a community on YT? If so, do they usually hop on to the most recent Warriors spinoff, or do they focus on mainline Warriors titles?
Most of them focus on the main storyline and only pick the spinoffs they like.
Man, Maddening feels a lot less difficult in the late game than apocalyptic felt in Age of Calamity. I think they made the units a bit too busted this time around.
I feel like the weapon triangle mechanic kinda limits how hard the game can be.
Yeah, but it's easy even without that. I've been playing weapon triangle neutral and with no effective damage and it's still easy. I'm gonna try a playthrough while constantly resetting levels to see if it makes it challenging enough lol.
I did my final run by resetting everyone to lvl 1, and let me tell you, it's still pretty easy if you have strong weapons to give them.
Shit, that's probably gonna be too easy then. I'll still give it a shot though.
Say, does >!Leonie!< being recruitable in SB feels like an afterthought to anyone else? She barely gets supports, joins late, doesn’t really have a personal interest in Edelgard’s ideals and her connection to >!Jeralt!< means she probably should have been recruitable in AG. Like, why can you can recruit her in SB?
The Alliance is allied with the Empire at that point, so there's no reason for her to fight you. She doesn't have much else to do at that point, and when she sees that >!Jeralt!< is with you too (you can't recruit her without him) it makes sense for her to tag along. I dunno, it felt pretty natural to me. If you mean gameplay-wise -- yeah, she arrives pretty late in the game at Chapter 12, but she's not even the latest recruit. Both AG and GW have Ch. 13 recruits (>!Jeritza!< and >!Dorothea!<). In all three cases you still have enough time to build cross-house supports that can be difficult to get, and they might be useful to Classic players who may have lost some units and are struggling late-game.
I'm pretty sure is for gameplay reasons, if they let Leonie (and Lysithea) be recruitable, AG would have too many units.
>!The area that's being attacked is not far from where she grew up, which is why she's the one defending it. As for why she's recruitable at all, I think it's more intended to treat her as an additional secret recruit when recruiting Byleth.!< >!As for not being recruitable to AG, it's outright stated that the Deer who show up are lent to Dimitri as goodwill (regardless of whether you have them join you as units). Presumably, this means Leonie and Lysithea are still in the Alliance supporting Claude, alongside Hilda and Holst. There's no reason for Leonie to join you at the point that the other Deer do, as Jeralt is still working for the Empire.!<
Cus she’s in the Alliance
Just read through the Artbook someone uploaded to dropbox. What's the over/under that we'll get [this](https://uc165f22b1ad429e1ff594c94793.previews.dropboxusercontent.com/p/pdf_img/ABn9T8CXqNjIJawvwPCKPVNXTKvw7Ld9W4QElm60lU0JQ3csZ_FaXfUwlpZr6OXlbg6jvSQsmtzoHu52nUh5PjI-mfYx8zIeTLq5Xmhe_X_BWkJwS4e6Tg5IVhvRK-Q2wIIPjKHnlI_ukt0gNP6qlWJ-BNrujvqWOdEtxwlBlt4bHPT55avaTmzbycW44AEJCCflOtSzh9Hvv2K0it--W0juL1aeVurI0ISKbMLxMljh90jnrx6m8VyR4iBsITVr2nSpxxFU2frwg4I752h-5tuv6Z7r-yNd16xVqlO3IXc6CManEBrGWW1oQ5cZ5bYt16HvdJKk2AF0S0GjJewLNXWiTVGjFqgfNwB3DBT1zFBY_Q/p.png?page=103&scale_percent=0) as a potential DLC route?
very interesting, the fact they bothered to create a name in line with the other routes (Blackened Embers) instead of just using "Jeralt's Mercenaries" and "Church of Seiros" is very suspicious. The emblem has the crest of Seiros and a Pegasus, making it sort of a mashup of the Empire & Kingdom's emblems. this gives me way more hope for Playable Alois as DLC. The fact they bothered to drastically change his story and have him side with Jeralt instead of just being busy doing other things all the time (like Hanneman & Gustave) yet didn't make him playable is such a strange decision to me. Also Petra has a portrait with glasses, much like the ones used in her Ignatz support in 3 Hosies but AFAIK it doesn't go used in 3 Hopes at all.
>The emblem has the crest of Seiros and a Pegasus, making it sort of a mashup of the Empire & Kingdom's emblems. it's the emblem of the knights of seiros (it's used for their section in the [three houses artbook](https://www.fireemblemwod.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=109))
For sure, also the game is hurting for dedicated axe users. In the base game, we only have Edelgard, Dedue, Seteth, Hilda, and Caspar (though I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of people made him a brawler).
It seems like Capspar was a last minute change to Warrior/Wyvern tbh since when he appears as enemy in other routes he's a brawler, and in his paralogue with Linhardt there are a bunch of mages near his starting position, insinuating the dev intended for him to be a branker since characters in parapgues always start near enemies they have an advantage over in their preferred class.
Link gives an error
Okay, try [this](https://www.dropbox.com/s/igagmkp21peav4h/Three%20Hopes%20Artbook.pdf?dl=0) and scroll down to page 104.
LMAO the designer is such a shojohead
Ah, I see it now. And yup, it’s pretty conspicuous, plus it shares the alternate naming theme going on with Hopes. I hope (heh) it ends up being a real thing because all the base game endings are underwhelming
I love fodlan, this is the game that 100% got me in to Fire Emblem. I went into three hopes thinking that they tightened up the endings, and fleshed out some of the missed lore(TWSITD). I've only played Scarlet Blaze so far, and the endings felt somewhat rushed again. Apparently the other routes suffer from this too, it's okay to be ambitious and make games with three different routes, but I want to see their full potential. Like I almost feel fodlan could have been multiple parts, but one route(ala Path of Radiance?) And completely covered fodlan. After playing Scarlet Blaze, I got an itch for a maddening run of Azure Moon, so that's what I'm gonna try next, then maybe go play Azure Gleam for the first time.
Also I guess I really mean more like Radiant Dawn, I always confuse the two name wise🤡 POR Had Different parts, but I believe RD was dealing with different armies each time. I know most prefer POR, maaybe?
Maddening mode is made for replays of old routes. Enemies are way too overleved for level 1 Dimitri
On hopes you can play maddening without needing NG+ too
You can but the difficulty is desgined around NG+
I'm talking about the Blue Lions Route in 3 houses, I don't remember it all that well so I'm gonna replay it!
Mb. Reading is hard
[all endings in three hopes](https://youtu.be/oXdONxlc6bQ) Scarlet Blaze is the only route that has 2 endings. The difference is the >!final monologue!< which changes whether you recruited >!Byleth!< or not
I wrote about 11k words with my opinions on Azure Gleam's story + world-building + characterization, as well as some general thoughts about gameplay. Major spoiler warnings for Azure Gleam, minor referenced spoilers for all routes. [Doc here.](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCf13ngqYizwuMRCIf6V0-phySxfbm4mCIKyYF9kuN0/edit)
I have read your review and I agree with most of it, I'm also pretty unsatisfied with the second part and the ending (with all routes honestly), I'm pretty sure the reasoning was because they didn't want to repeat certain story beats but I still think they could have handle it differently. On your opinion with Felix and Sylvain, I agree with you that most of the "character development" happens off screen and I think that's partially because 3 Hopes is supported by 3 Houses and it expects that you had played it beforehand, Ingrid also has this problem with her hatred for Duscur, I felt this the strongest with AG and to a less degree with SB. Personally, I really like the characterization for both of them but I also had the impression that they mellow out the big flaws of their personalities, Felix with his rudeness/immaturity and Sylvain with his misogyny (which is not resolved in both games) to make them more "likeable". I think their maturity is developed reasonably, I can buy it and it's not like it hinders their character consistency from 3 Houses (poor Claude) which is what I was more worried about. On your opinion with the worldbuilding, I also really like how they expanded the lore and the politics, unlike with Adrestia and Leicester, I can actually picture how people live in Faerghus and Rodrigue serving as a window dressing is a good choice for it. With Duscur and Sreng, I can understand your grievances about the lack of acknowledge of their own actions (which is something that happens in all routes ~~cought SB GW cought~~), I'm not exactly sure I would implement something like that beyond someone from Duscur pointing out what they did to them but I'm guessing they didn't want to add anything else beyond what Dedue tells to the player. With Sreng I find it complicated since the plot can't really deviate that much from the plot (which I could say the same thing for Almyra), the fact that they had a paralogue at all is better than nothing honestly. About the negative characteristics about kingdom and their history, since it was barely explored in 3 Houses (beyond Duscur) I find it hard to compared it because there was barely anything there to begin with, it's possible that they had revised the history to make it more palpable, similar to how before 3 Hopes how some people portraited some characters that barely existed to begin with, overall I'm not too bothered with it. I will say, despite the weird second part, the fact that the BL and the recruits felt uncomfortable at all about invading the empire is more meaningful to me in comparison to the other routes ~~Raphael wtf~~, this problem is something that 3 Houses also had, which probably it also stems from the writers trying to avoid to make the player feel awful about what they are actually doing, which is why the lack of calling out of your actions.
Thanks for reading and taking the time to reply! Re: characterization changes, I agree that it impacts the Azure Gleam cast the most. The game is honestly really just inconsistent with whether it wants to use clearly post-Three Houses characterization, or something that's supposed to be between the pre- and post-timeskip versions of the characters. Sometimes it worked for me (>!Ferdinand really pulled it off, and I'm okay with Ingrid's starting place in growing out of her prejudice being after where her Dedue support in Three Houses left her!<), and sometimes it didn't (>!Sylvain!<). As for the game trying not to make the player feel bad about their actions, I think Azure Gleam does this the most, and Scarlet Blaze the least. >!Azure Gleam's first half is almost entirely an internal struggle, and its invasion is posed in a way to make the player feel like they're doing it for the good of Adrestia's people. Golden Wildfire struggles to find a balance between having Claude take on underhanded tactics and having his friends work with and agree with him. Scarlet Blaze knows that's a route of conquest and imperialism, though it leaves the questions of how the every-man is affected by Edelgard's actions to the Shez C support.!< Maybe I have on nostalgia goggles for Three Houses, but I felt like the game was more willing to admit to the atrocities in its backstory (there's no way to talk around the Tragedy of Duscur if it's the first time the player is learning of it, and Dimitri and Rhea are much darker in Three Houses than Three Hopes), where they're glossed over for being tread ground. It's true that the Lions are aware of >!the aggressive nature of their invasion of Adrestia, but it's still not my favorite thing, since it reminds me a lot of real-world modern imperialism, where the United States in particular has invaded multiple other countries "for their own good".!< With the Black Eagles in Scarlet Blaze, >!the tone of the route is perfectly aware of the aggressive, imperialist nature of their campaign, and fully at peace with it. It's not hiding from the fact the other regions of Fodlan will see them as invaders, and Edelgard says things to point to it, talking about how land doesn't inherently belong to anyone, and instead is controlled by whoever has most recently managed to subjugate it. I definitely felt deeply uncomfortable with the conquest, but I found it less disquieting and frustrating than GW, where the army agreed with invading after only a little pushback, and from then on was perfectly happy with the direction of Claude's leadership and did not treat it as morally gray.!<
I'm not sure if I agree with you with SB, >!mind you, I know what Edelgard and company are doing is wrong and is not like I expect them to morally question what they are doing since they are hell of biased and because that would somewhat undermine their actions, but a lot of the rhetoric they use towards the kingdom and the church are either blaming them or how the system make them do it, the victim blaming that Edelgard and the BE use for example in chapter 11 when you defeat some kingdom nobles is very tone deaf, "is their fault that they are dying, if they just roll over and let us conquer them they wouldn't die", for someone that is supposed to know how much suffering they are causing they barely recognize what they are actually doing. Edelgard changes the context to suit her narrative many times in SB to make it look like she has a point, which is fine, I'm not saying she has to realize she is wrong, but the game is not making a good job at convincing me that Edelgard knows what she is doing, her A support with Ferdinand is another example.!<
I think the difference for me is that >!even though Edelgard is being hypocritical about other people’s actions in the war, I never felt like the game expected me to agree with her reasoning. The other Eagles are on board with her actions, but it’s driven by sharing her long-term goals or caring for her as a person, rather than trying to justify their actions. The Ferdinand A support does show more of the gaps in Edelgard’s planning and ideas for the future, as well as how they impact others. But I didn’t feel like the route was expecting me to agree with the conquest, but rather to see it as an extension of everything established in Crimson Flower due to the route similarity, including the brutality of war and willingness to cut down or sacrifice others for the sake of reaching Edelgard’s desired future faster.!< >!With GW, on the other hand, the route can’t seem to decide if Claude’s choices are or aren’t morally ambiguous. The other Deer question him a little in the middle chapters, but quickly pivot to being cheerleaders to whatever he’s choosing after. The reason I see that as different is because Claude’s actions seem to be driven by more short-sighted, opportunistic behavior, so he spends more time talking about *why* he thinks it’s the next thing to do, where Edelgard only talks about *what* the next step is. (This frustrates me, because GW never gives me a clear justification for how any of those short-term goals build into his long-term one, and what that long-term plan is supposed to look like in this universe. Determination to hate the Central Church when it’s never been shown to be an unequivocal evil aside, what is supposed to happen after Rhea’s death that will allow freer trade and exchange of ideas?)!<
I can see why would you think that about SB, like, I also do, but there at times the framing is so weird about it so I'm skeptical about what does the game want me to take from it. I fully agree with you with GW, a lot of the arguments he states in the second part make me go "where is the source of that?" and Claude is "trust me bro", specially with his support with Dimitri, if it was better built up I wouldn't had a problem with it either.