After the interview with Jeuxvideo, the developers of Three Houses were also interviewed by RPG Site and VG247. Given the timing, these probably happened around the time of Japan Expo in Paris.
The interviews are light on actual details about the game, but since we know a lot about the premise and core gameplay (plus they are unlikely to answer questions that are too specific), the developers were quizzed about more general things.
We’ll start with RPG Site’s interview. This one has some interesting questions about the inspirations for the game.
Left: A marketplace from the cancelled game. Right: The market in Three Houses.
The folks at RPG Site have really done their homework because they asked if Three Houses borrowed any inspiration from the cancelled Wii Fire Emblem game. In the cancelled game, players controlled multiple characters as one unit, a bit like the battalion system in Three Houses.
The developers said they didn’t directly borrow any ideas from that game, but they did say they often think about discarded ideas from throughout the series. Funnily enough, Kusakihara was the director of the ill-fated game and that’s where Yokota first met him.
Next, RPG Site asked if the game was influenced by Persona or Harry Potter (when considering the school setting). Actually, the game was based on the academy days of Sigurd, Quan and Eldigan from Genealogy of the Holy War. This was easy to guess, but it’s nice they acknowledged it.
The above image is Mayo’s artwork of the three friends at the academy in Belhalla. In the game, we never see this–they only speak of their time there. Still, the parallels are pretty obvious. They are all three friends who studied together and later went to war. The artwork even shows them wearing blue, red and yellow like the three houses!
Kusakihara when asked also elaborated on if the setting allowed for opportunities in storytelling and gameplay. He pretty much confirmed that most if not all of our characters will be seen from the get go, citing how previous Fire Emblem’s had very disjointed character introductions and didn’t allow for much growth or time to stand out. About how this was going to be approached differently in this game,
To finish off their interview, RPG Site wanted to know if Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE could ever come to the Nintendo Switch. Many other big Wii U games by Nintendo have already made the jump to Switch. Yokota didn’t promise anything, but he did say he will ask Atlus (who developed the game) for us.
Now to discuss VG247’s interview. This one reiterates some information we learned from Jeuxvideo’s interview, especially about Koei-Tecmo’s involvement. Which goes over how much they helped with the programming while IS did the main designing.
Three rival factions does bring some interesting parallels with the ancient Chinese period known as “The Three Kingdoms era” Which Koei Tecmo has set several games in, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dynasty Warriors. Which the devs have said may have been a subconscious inspiration.
Also they go into detail on some aspects of design for those who might not be into RPGs or Strategy games but are into the other, mentioning that you can skip/automate most of the monastery segments if you want, while on the other hand, those who aren’t as good or fond of the tactical aspects are given ways to grind their students up so maps aren’t much of a threat for them. This was also touched on in the RPG Site interview briefly.
Three Houses comes out in 16 days, what house are you joining? As always stay tuned for more information we can get on the game before and after launch.
