Three Houses Featured in Japanese Switch Advert (few seconds of footage)

A few weeks ago, the Nintendo Switch reached its 2nd anniversary. To remind Japanese consumers that it’s still going strong, Nintendo released a couple of Spring-time adverts featuring recent and upcoming games.

Interestingly, Three Houses was one of the games shown. That said, you probably know it releases on 26th July, which I’m fairly sure falls under Summer. Perhaps they’re slowly building up hype or was the advert produced while it was still a Spring release?

Sadly, despite being completely new footage, the footage itself is very short–no longer than 6 or 7 seconds in total. Also, everything is off-screen and blurry, so it’s extremely difficult to look at the details. That said, I tried my best…

First up, we’re shown a glimpse of Byleth performing a coordinated gambit on what I think is a Thief (as in the affiliation, not the class). He orders his battalion to charge the enemy, similar to what Edelgard did in the second trailer. You can also see the same glowing effect above his name box.

In the background, you can hear Fódlan Winds (aka Fódlan’s Dawning Wind), which is a battle map song that appears in the second trailer–and was also recently showcased alongside the Japanese special edition. Most likely this is an early-game song.

Perhaps the most important thing: this is the first time we clearly hear (male) Byleth’s voice. Previously, we hadn’t heard Byleth speak in any dialogue scenes or (obviously) in battle. This led some fans to wonder if he/she is a silent protagonist.

Personally, I think the fact that Byleth is never voiced in the current trailers is intentional–and done to make us think he/she’s silent. But it could be a simple coincidence as well. Now, we know he/she at least speaks during battles.

As for what he’s saying, I couldn’t fully make it out since the audio isn’t very clear. Multiple Japanese fans on Twitter seem to think it’s “[kono itteda] your move”. This fits the situation–and it’s hard to argue with the experts!

The next 3 seconds or so of footage are a bit more interesting. A new battle map is shown, which seems to occur in a town or village of sorts. In the top-left corner, there’s a house with a blue roof. More houses can be seen towards the far right too.

It’s a bit hard to see, but the characters under the player’s command all seem to be from the Black Eagles. The easiest way is by looking at and comparing the Black Eagles in the map footage from the second trailer.

The player selects Dorothea and moves her north, the cursor going past Ferdinand. We see both of their names and portraits briefly, so those two are 100% correct. The other characters you can identify from their poses and colours. Only Byleth doesn’t fit, but he could be reclassed or facing a different way.

At the very end, the player is about to attack an unidentified enemy with Dorothea. Dorothea seems to have a Thunder tome and she’s attacking from range. What’s curious is that an icon of Ferdinand–who will be next to her after she moves–is next to her portrait.

This might be related to some form of support system. It could be combat boosts akin to Echoes or maybe the Dual Strike/Guard system from Awakening and Fates. Unfortunately, we never see the outcome and the player’s hand obscures what could be the support effect (with a red box) at the very bottom of the combat forecast.

As much as I’d love to continue, that’s everything Nintendo deigned to show us for now. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we get some more meaty information.

About the Author: VincentASM
Fire Emblem fan since 2002 and webmaster of Serenes Forest. Occasionally an online content editor or brand ambassador. Is a sucker for mage girls and has an unhealthy stash of Sylveon plushies.
Author Website: https://serenesforest.net