Yesterday was quite a busy day for Three Houses news, thanks to a new Famitsu article. Today, two more gaming magazines–Nintendo Dream and Dengeki Nintendo–released their newest issues, with their own Three Houses articles.

Now, all of these magazines generally share the same content–and it’s usually Famitsu that gets the scoop first (for semi-obvious reasons). That said, they often use slightly different screenshots, since they don’t have space to publish all of them.

As it happens, Nintendo Dream features additional screenshots from the “War Phase”, 5 years later, showcasing a few more of the students. I’m aware that some people consider this a spoiler, so I’ve only shown the silhouettes. If you want to see the designs, click on the image or here (only if you are reading the full article)

From what I can tell, the students (from left to right) are Bernadetta (confirmed from her name in this screenshot), Ashe, Lorenz, Hilda, Caspar, Felix (who also appeared in this screenshot) and I *think* Lysithea.

If you compare with Lysithea in the “School Phase”, they have the same general build and similar hairstyle. The main thing that confused me was her hair colour, but I think she’s just standing in a really dark place. The back of her hair is white as you’d expect. Huh, 5 years later, it seems Lysithea hasn’t grown much, haha…

That’s it for the “big” news.

However, recently, a few more media outlets have posted their E3 previews of the game. Notably Polygon and Eurogamer Spain. It’s all stuff we’ve seen before in Gamespot’s preview and Treehouse Live, etc. but there are some interesting new discoveries to be found. If you’re interested, please continue on…

First up is Polygon, who attempted the familiar King of Beasts map.

Near the start, Sylvain triggers his Gambit, Disturbance. At the end, it inflicts the “Distress” status condition on the enemy, similar to the Group Lance Attack Gambit. As we learned in an earlier Famitsu article, Distress reduces stats by 10% and negates stat boosts from Gambits and Battalions.

A while later, Sylvain uses his Gambit again and, after combat, increases his Authority skill level to E+. He learns the Authority Lv 1 ability as a result. Likewise, we know from Famitsu that this ability increases Gambit Might by 2.

The rest of the map is pretty straightforward, until the player starts ganging up on the King of Beasts. At one point, female Byleth uses her Gambit, which attracts the King of Beasts’s attention. We saw this happen before, but now it’s clearer what this means.

When the player hovers over the King of Beasts, in addition to the standard red aggro lines, there’s a target icon above (and below) female Byleth. Now, if you look to the right of the King of Beasts’s status window, you can see the potential damage inflicted to female Byleth when it next attacks.

The target mechanic doesn’t just apply to the King of Beasts–even regular enemies can use it. When the player hovers over an enemy caster, we can see that he wants to target Dedue. Also, when the player hovers over Dedue, a target icon appears on his status window, so we know that somebody’s out to get him…

I’m guessing the target icon indicates that the enemy is guaranteed to attack that character during its next turn. If so, this could be very useful to determine which of your characters are in the most danger and/or which enemies are the largest threats–and should be disposed of.

Lastly, towards the end, the player selects Annette and makes her cast a spell. During this time, you can see her spell list, which has Cutting Edge as expected, but also Fire (which seems to from the Mage’s Class Ability), Wind and Sagittae (from Echoes). Interestingly, many of these spells have low uses.

The prevalent theory is that spell uses may reset for each battle. We know that spells are learned by improving your skill levels–and a few are obtained depending on the class you’re in. So it’s very unlikely that you permanently lose spells once they’re out of uses. Alternatively, maybe a certain number of uses (like 5) are restored?

Moving on, we have a mix of academy and King of Beasts gameplay from Eurogamer Spain. We’ve kind of seen the King of Beasts to death and I couldn’t find much new of note, but the academy section is miniature gold mine.

Near the start, the player wanders around the 2nd floor of the monastery. Specifically the Audience Chamber, where you’d probably expect to find Archbishop Rhea. The player takes a left turn into the Advisory Chamber, where Seteth–Rhea’s adjutant perhaps–and Rhea herself are found.

The gameplay in the video kind of jumps around a bit. Around the 1 minute mark, they open the monastery map to find a place to fast-travel. Previously, we found a bunch of new characters from the map alone. This time, there are no new characters, but we can put a name to the young boy who sort of resembles Claude: Cyril. Are they related somehow?

A bit later, the player decides to check the “battle” option during the weekend. Here’s where things get interesting… The field study mission for the 8th month, the Verdant Rain Season, is called “The Gautier Inheritance” and asks you to detain the disowned son of House Gautier who’s stolen a hero relic.

We know from Sylvain’s profile that he has a brother who was disowned because he lacked a crest. We also know that you need the corresponding crest to wield a hero relic. Furthermore, according to the leaks, bad things will happen if you try to wield a hero relic without the correct crest. Then, there’s this image from the February trailer…

Back to the monastery map again! When the player hovers over the stable, a new character–Tomas–can be seen. There was a Tomas in Shadow Dragon, but I’m pretty sure they just recycled the name. I’m guessing he might be the caretaker of your horses? It’s nice to see Marianne the animal lover there as well!

The player runs through the calendar and we learn that Leonie’s birthday is on the 21st of the 8th month! During birthdays, you can invite the character to a tea party and give them a flower as a present. If you’re curious about tea parties, the latest Famitsu briefly covered them.

I’m sure a few of you may be happy to know that Lysithea is a possible recruit from another house. If you want her to jump ship, you’ll need to build your Magic stat and your Faith skill level.

Back to the King of Beasts again. At one point, the player checks out Dedue’s stats. There’s nothing super special here, but it’s nice to see the stat screen. We previously saw an enemy stat screen. Of note, there’s space for 2 equipped items–I’m assuming a weapon and shield. Also, there are 2 more pages. What for though? Supports maybe?

Oh, we’re back at the academy. At the end of a week, Ferdinand’s Lance skill level increases to C+. He learns the Shatter Slash Combat Art and the Lance Prowess Lv 3 ability. From its name, I’m guessing Shatter Slash is effective against armoured foes?

Here’s a look at some more Combat Arts, when the player selects Ingrid during the King of Beasts battle. She has Tempest Lance and Knightkneeler, which we’ve seen before. But she also has Hit and Run. This was a Combat Art in Echoes that greatly boosted Avoid. Will it do the same here?

Finally, here’s Dedue using a Concoction. I think we might have seen them in earlier footage, but my memory isn’t quite what it used to be. That said, I don’t recall any Concoctions being used before. In any case, they restore 20 HP just like you’d expect.