E3 has officially ended for Nintendo, but my job covering Three Houses isn’t over just yet! While E3 was happening, Nintendo’s Japanese website added a short article discussing the game. Also, the game’s official website updated with some new pages.

I’ll go over the topic article first. This article provides some additional context behind the new E3 trailer.

A Tale of Two Parts and Three Sides

The story of Three Houses is told in two parts.

The first part is the “School Phase”, where you guide students as a teacher at the Officer’s Academy.

Meanwhile, the second part takes place 5 years after the academy days, in a Fódlan trapped in a three-way war between the three great nations. This part, where you must survive life and death situations involving the students who have grown up, is called the “War Phase”.

Additionally, the story in the “War Phase” branches out depending on the house you chose to lead at the start of the “School Phase”. In other words, you can enjoy three different stories in this game.

In the trailer, we see the three house leaders who have matured after a 5 year gap. Looking at their drastic new appearances, one can tell that they’ve been through many ups and downs through the 5 year period.

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Today, the Japanese official website for Three Houses updated with some gameplay details–specifically related to the education part. A lot of this info was covered by Famitsu and whatnot, but we’ll go through everything anyway. Plus there are some cool tidbits.

As a Teacher and a Commander

For those not aware, one of the key features of the game is the officer’s academy, where students study the art of battle. You–the protagonist–are a teacher and it’s your job to nurture and guide your students, as well as directing them on the battlefield.

Preparing for Field Studies

School life is divided into months (also known as seasons). At the end of each month, there is a field study that involves a fully-fledged battle. Until then, it’s crucial that you use your limited time to prepare for the tasks ahead.

One way to get stronger is to take examinations for particular classes, which–if successful–allow the character to Class-Change (generally to a stronger class). In order for your students to meet the requirements, you will devote your weekdays to teaching students.

Weekends are a time to relax. You can go wandering the monastery, interacting with various people. Or if you’re diligent, you can engage in skirmishes alongside your students or do some studying yourself.

It’s completely up to you how you spend your time preparing until the next field study.

The featured screenshot shows the calendar for the 6th month, the Flower Crown season. For more details, please check the 15th May Famitsu article (search for “calendar”).

Education

The main purpose of education in Three Houses is for students to pass examinations for a wide variety of classes, thus allowing them to Class-Change to stronger classes.

Depending on the class, certain aptitudes are required, like sword skills or horse riding skills. These are known as professor levels. As a teacher, the protagonist can identify the individual talents of each student and support their growth via a multitude of educational methods. Read more

Today, Nintendo opened the Japanese official website for Three Houses. If you’ve been following the game, there isn’t a lot of new information, but we’ll take a closer look anyway!

On the top (front) page, the artwork of the Three House leaders from the boxart is displayed. You may have noticed Claude isn’t upside down. Near the top, there’s the option to turn on the BGM, which plays the music from the first trailer.

Below this is a basic description about the game–what kind of game it is, etc. If you’re reading this, you probably know how Fire Emblem plays like. Behind the description is the artwork from the Japanese Fódlan collection.

For your convenience, you can find all the featured artwork at the end of this article.

Further down is the product specifications. In case you were wondering, the game is single-player only and supports a variety of controller schemes, but does not support a single Joy-con (held horizontally like a NES controller).

Moving on, the Introduction page contains stuff you’d probably expect. There’s a summary of the story and the three nations of Fódlan, which we learned way back during the first trailer and also in the second trailer.

There’s also a summary of the Church of Seiros and Garreg-Mach Monastery, which are sort of new, but nothing entirely unexpected. Still, I’ve translated the text below.

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