Tag Archive for Analysis

Three Houses: Japanese Introduction Video & Commercials

July 3, 2019 FE Three Houses, News 23 comments

In addition to the announcement of the pre-load and Expansion Pass for Three Houses, Nintendo Japan shared a new introduction video, outlining (and recapping) all the key features, as well as 4 short TV commercials.

The introduction video is the main highlight here. It’s around 9 mins long, although it mainly covers stuff that’s already been revealed via Famitsu and whatnot. However, if you look carefully, there are lots of juicy details to be found.

For the record, it’s past 2 am as I start writing this, so I’m going to avoid speculating and try to keep things matter of fact (if I can help it). Since my brain isn’t functioning at full capacity, haha.

Anyway, the start of the video is pretty much a combination of the very first and second trailers. It opens with the history of Fódlan. We see an ancient war happen, which–as far as we know–is the battle between the Divine Seiros and Nemesis the Liberation King. Afterwards, the three nations were established.

Next, it moves onto Garreg Mach Monastery, the base of the Church of Seiros, and the protagonist’s role as a newly inducted professor at the Officer’s Academy. As the protagonist steps foot in the monastery, he looks up and his eyes meet with Rhea, the Archbishop of the church. These are two scenes we’ve seen separately.

Naturally, the video then goes on to talk about the three houses. This time, when introducing the houses and their leaders, the footage in the background isn’t darkened out and more of it can be seen. Now we get to clearly see all 8 members of each house, including a pretty hilarious moment with Ingrid and Sylvain!

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Three Houses: Famitsu 4th Article Follow Up (More Screenshots and Details)

June 21, 2019 FE Three Houses, News 41 comments

Today, Famitsu posted the online version of their recent Three Houses articles. The content is pretty much the same, but there are more than twice the number of screenshots. I’m guessing Nintendo gave them a lot to choose from…

Anyway, because the info is basically the same, I recommend reading our previous article first, although I’ll do my best to provide recaps here and there.

Like before, the article starts by briefly discussing the “War Phase” part of the game, 5 years later. As far as I can tell, this is the largest resolution we’ve seen of older Edelgard’s artwork (the other house leaders’ artwork can be found here). Hmm, the crest on Edelgard’s axe is indeed the same as Marianne’s…

Update: Actually, Nintendo re-uploaded super high res versions of the grown up house leaders’ artwork to their E3 press site. You can find them in our gallery. A big thanks to Michael for the heads up!

Moving on, they mention that the game flow is largely unchanged in this part of the game. There’s still a calendar and you still train your allies during weekdays and do whatever you want during weekends. There are some slight differences, like “instructing” is now called “training” (probably because they’re no longer students).

After this, we get a glimpse of some students during the War Phase. Now I don’t personally consider these spoilers since they come from official media, but I know some of you want to be surprised. So I’ve hidden the images inside links.

Bernadetta

We saw this screenshot of Bernadetta before, but it was kinda small before. Anyway, she has strengths in Lance and Bow (and Heavy Armor, although you can’t see it here), but weaknesses in Sword, Axe and Fighting. Those strange face-like icons are statue bonuses.

Ashe

This screenshot of Ashe is new. He has strengths in Axe and Bow, but a weakness in Reason. He also has a hidden talent in Lance. Oddly, there are no statue bonuses here. Did the player in this save file simply not activate them?

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Three Houses: “King of Beasts” Gameplay Footage + Analysis

June 13, 2019 FE Three Houses, News 15 comments

Yesterday, Nintendo Treehouse Live showcased a fair amount of Three Houses. Around that time, some media outlets had the chance to play the game, including Gamespot, who uploaded a preview for the game.

In particular, they were invited to try out a map where you can fight a new type of enemy, a Demonic Beast called the “King of Beasts”. This enemy is much larger and stronger than usual, occupying multiple squares. Later, we find out it has multiple HP bars too!

This article covers their gameplay footage of this map. At this point, there isn’t a lot of important new information–that can be found in our earlier articles (especially our Treehouse Live analysis found here and here). But if you love to study all the intricate details like me, you’re more than welcome to join me!

I’ll start with Gamespot’s footage first, since I believe that was posted first. Some of this footage was included in their preview article, but this time it’s (mostly) seamless.

At the start, they play around with the map camera for a bit. It appears you can rotate the angle slightly, making the game almost isometric. There’s also the low angle camera, which makes all Battalions (the troops that follow units) visible–this was originally seen in the debut trailer. Read more

Three Houses: E3 Treehouse Live Day 2 Analysis – Part 2 (Battles)

June 12, 2019 FE Three Houses, News 10 comments

Without further ado, here’s the second half of my analysis of Treehouse Live’s 30 minute gameplay session of Three Houses, which focuses on the battles. If you’re interested and you missed it, feel free to check out the first half that discusses the academy part.

Prior to E3, we hadn’t really seen or heard much of the battles. Of course, we did learn how mechanics like Battalions and Gambits work, thanks to Famitsu. Still, it’s hard to get a feel for the gameplay without seeing it in motion. Gamespot also showed some footage earlier, but Treehouse Live was the first to fully showcase the battles.

This analysis is looking to be another really long one, so here’s the TL;DR for you. As some predicted, Combat Arts (battle-triggered skills that debuted in Echoes) consume additional weapon uses. You’ll have to choose whether to unleash a powerful move or conserve your durability for a rainy day.

The time-rewinding mechanic, which is based off Mila’s Turnwheel (also from Echoes), is officially known as Divine Pulse. Like the turnwheel, you can rewind individual actions or whole turns. The protagonist and some students have powerful weapons called “hero relics”, which can only be equipped with the associated crest.

That’s about it. Besides the flashy new features, the battles are Fire Emblem battles as you’ve always known them. Unlike previous console titles, namely the Tellius duology, movement is a lot faster. Also, you can skip animations like in the DS and 3DS titles. So basically there’s nothing to worry about.

With that said, please continue if you want to see everything dissected. Read more

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