Fire Emblem: Three Houses

skerry · 06-08-2019 10:32pm

Man there is a lot to take in in this game. I feel like I'm winging my way through it. Only level 7 so early days I guess but I'm finding the layers of mechanics a bit overwhelming at the moment. Finding the level 5 training battles a tricky to finish without losing a team member so not holding out much hope for when things get serious.

Picked Blue Lions and I'm finding it hard to figure out what class certain characters should be. Ashe is next to useless so no clue what to do with him.

Hoping it all starts coming together soon cos I'm finding myself spending more time trying to figure out what to do than actually just enjoying the game.

Xenji · 06-08-2019 10:43pm

skerry wrote: »

Man there is a lot to take in in this game. I feel like I'm winging my way through it. Only level 7 so early days I guess but I'm finding the layers of mechanics a bit overwhelming at the moment. Finding the level 5 training battles a tricky to finish without losing a team member so not holding out much hope for when things get serious.

Picked Blue Lions and I'm finding it hard to figure out what class certain characters should be. Ashe is next to useless so no clue what to do with him.

Hoping it all starts coming together soon cos I'm finding myself spending more time trying to figure out what to do than actually just enjoying the game.

Do you have Nintendo online, it's handy for newcomers to the series if you do, it will show the percentage choice of what people picked on your free day, you should only really be spending one day in the monastery once you gain a couple of activity points and then using the rest of the month for battles.

Make sure to use the choir and meal option every chance to keep motivation up and use gifts as well, if you are not sure what class Characters could be look at their goals as it should give you some indication.

You mainly need one solid tank with an axe, a dedicated mage, a dedicated Archer as they are the best class in the game for raking up lots of kills, one of each the riders and a full time healer, your MC should focus on swords as should one other member, once you get access to the dancer class later in the game it is a must as well.

I think about half way through the game all my students were at level 23 at a minimum and some were in the high 20s.

skerry · 07-08-2019 8:34am

Xenji wrote: »

Do you have Nintendo online, it's handy for newcomers to the series if you do, it will show the percentage choice of what people picked on your free day, you should only really be spending one day in the monastery once you gain a couple of activity points and then using the rest of the month for battles.

Make sure to use the choir and meal option every chance to keep motivation up and use gifts as well, if you are not sure what class Characters could be look at their goals as it should give you some indication.

You mainly need one solid tank with an axe, a dedicated mage, a dedicated Archer as they are the best class in the game for raking up lots of kills, one of each the riders and a full time healer, your MC should focus on swords as should one other member, once you get access to the dancer class later in the game it is a must as well.

I think about half way through the game all my students were at level 23 at a minimum and some were in the high 20s.

I've been using the online suggestions alright which are handy. Should I be doing more than one training battle a month so? Did one last night and noticed I still had an activity point afterwards but it was too late do didn't jump in to another one.

Seen prompts every now and then that certain team members are able to take exams but not sure why those ones are ready to take them and not others, just seen the red circle beside their name. Only remembered your last post last night when you said to max out a class before changing up so will remember that next time. I thought if the student had an intermediate seal then they could do an intermediate exam but it seems I'm not at the required level yet so will stick with beginner classes and work up.

Any idea at what level I get rider classes, are they intermediate classes? Haven't seen much mention of riders in tutorials apart from group activities to clean stables etc. I must not be using archers effectively either cos I find them the least useful. I keep my one archer away from the front but he only does minor damage and is super squishy, maybe I need to level him up a bit more.

I think my team diversity isn't too bad based on what you said above. I have an axe wielding tank, couple of lancers, swordsman, dedicated healer (Mercedes who is quite good). I also have an offensive mage but I'm working on recruiting Lysethia for that role. Where I am letting myself down though is I seen to have a couple of team members at level 7 and then ones I don't tend to give as much attention to are at level 2 or 3. I'm guessing I should keep levels as even as I can across the team.

Quick question on recruiting, do you concentrate on getting Byleth to focus on the required skills to recruit or can I recruit them by spending time/ giving gifts alone? Seems a lot of chopping and changing to get required level in various weapons when I really want to keep him as a sword user.

I think I'll spend some time this evening having a refresh of the tutorials cos there are some I've forgotten altogether, like why the bandits always seem to counter me twice for every time I attack them.

Definitely enjoying the game but it is a steep learning curve and I'm only picking it up for an hour here and there so hard to make decent progress and soak up all the mechanics they introduce. I think its a game I would enjoy far more on a second playthrough when I have a bit more confidence in what I'm doing and have my head fully around whats going on.

Mr E · 07-08-2019 8:41am

I think for a game like this, you need to commit to longer play sessions at the start.
If you play for 15 minutes and then go play something else, you'll run into trouble.

skerry · 07-08-2019 8:48am

Mr E wrote: »

I think for a game like this, you need to commit to longer play sessions at the start.
If you play for 15 minutes and then go play something else, you'll run into trouble.

Minimum I'd play it for is an hour. I just play something else if I've got less time than that. Will try get a couple of hours in this evening if I can and try get the basic stuff nailed down. There's definitely some basic tutorial stuff from the beginning I've completely forgotten. Only remembered after the training battle last night that I can change team member placement before a battle which would have helped massively last night as it was one of the ones that splits the team into two from the start. Need to refresh myself on gambits and battalions too.

Xenji · 07-08-2019 11:30am

skerry wrote: »

I've been using the online suggestions alright which are handy. Should I be doing more than one training battle a month so? Did one last night and noticed I still had an activity point afterwards but it was too late do didn't jump in to another one.

Seen prompts every now and then that certain team members are able to take exams but not sure why those ones are ready to take them and not others, just seen the red circle beside their name. Only remembered your last post last night when you said to max out a class before changing up so will remember that next time. I thought if the student had an intermediate seal then they could do an intermediate exam but it seems I'm not at the required level yet so will stick with beginner classes and work up.

Any idea at what level I get rider classes, are they intermediate classes? Haven't seen much mention of riders in tutorials apart from group activities to clean stables etc. I must not be using archers effectively either cos I find them the least useful. I keep my one archer away from the front but he only does minor damage and is super squishy, maybe I need to level him up a bit more.

I think my team diversity isn't too bad based on what you said above. I have an axe wielding tank, couple of lancers, swordsman, dedicated healer (Mercedes who is quite good). I also have an offensive mage but I'm working on recruiting Lysethia for that role. Where I am letting myself down though is I seen to have a couple of team members at level 7 and then ones I don't tend to give as much attention to are at level 2 or 3. I'm guessing I should keep levels as even as I can across the team.

Quick question on recruiting, do you concentrate on getting Byleth to focus on the required skills to recruit or can I recruit them by spending time/ giving gifts alone? Seems a lot of chopping and changing to get required level in various weapons when I really want to keep him as a sword user.

I think I'll spend some time this evening having a refresh of the tutorials cos there are some I've forgotten altogether, like why the bandits always seem to counter me twice for every time I attack them.

Definitely enjoying the game but it is a steep learning curve and I'm only picking it up for an hour here and there so hard to make decent progress and soak up all the mechanics they introduce. I think its a game I would enjoy far more on a second playthrough when I have a bit more confidence in what I'm doing and have my head fully around whats going on.

You can do as many as you feel necessary at the beginning, think of it as grinding, but when you get the extra battle point you should only be doing those missions that require points, plus all the rare monster ones, I usually do 4 battles per month and then the main mission.

Yeah you should try and keep your levels constant, my main, tank and archer are all closer to level 30 currently as they get used the most, but you have to keep leveling up the others as well so they can get better classes, have higher level ones do the starting damage and have the lower levels then pick them off and in no time they will increase in level, if you don't they can easily be one shotted as the game progresses.

Also remember if you are struggling you can temporarily recruit an extra member from one of the other houses for a month, I have not bothered recruiting anyone extra permanently to my house yet as I will most likely play through all 3 houses, it is not really necessary for your first playthrough and I would just focus on your own team and their skills, presents only work for motivation and connection, most characters if you did want to recruit them permanently require you to have a minimum skill grade before they will join.

You get the cavalier class at the intermediate stage, the same with the pegasus knight, but I would leave that till you can use Flayn later in the game. As for the class changes the requirements are not just the level, but also the grades they have with the likes of swords, faith ect...you will see when you want to upgrade a class the percentage chance you have, if you meet the requirements and it is 100% you should go ahead and upgrade, maxing the previous class first though.

skerry · 07-08-2019 4:37pm

Xenji wrote: »

You can do as many as you feel necessary at the beginning, think of it as grinding, but when you get the extra battle point you should only be doing those missions that require points, plus all the rare monster ones, I usually do 4 battles per month and then the main mission.

Yeah you should try and keep your levels constant, my main, tank and archer are all closer to level 30 currently as they get used the most, but you have to keep leveling up the others as well so they can get better classes, have higher level ones do the starting damage and have the lower levels then pick them off and in no time they will increase in level, if you don't they can easily be one shotted as the game progresses.

Also remember if you are struggling you can temporarily recruit an extra member from one of the other houses for a month, I have not bothered recruiting anyone extra permanently to my house yet as I will most likely play through all 3 houses, it is not really necessary for your first playthrough and I would just focus on your own team and their skills, presents only work for motivation and connection, most characters if you did want to recruit them permanently require you to have a minimum skill grade before they will join.

You get the cavalier class at the intermediate stage, the same with the pegasus knight, but I would leave that till you can use Flayn later in the game. As for the class changes the requirements are not just the level, but also the grades they have with the likes of swords, faith ect...you will see when you want to upgrade a class the percentage chance you have, if you meet the requirements and it is 100% you should go ahead and upgrade, maxing the previous class first though.

Appreciate the advice Xenji, will get stuck in later and see how I progress. I'll see how far behind some of the lower level team members are and if I've messed things up too much I might restart. Only 6 or 7 hours in and have a save just at the point when you pick your house.

skerry · 08-08-2019 8:09am

Played for a couple of hours last night and had a much better time of it than I'd been having earlier this week. Focused on training battles for the most part and breezed through the two I was having difficulty with originally. My archer is now an integral part of the team and got him up 5 levels to be on par with the rest of the team by letting him mop up kills for the 2 battles. Maxed out his starter class and turned him into a fighter. No wonder I thought he was crap, he was level 2

.
Think I was getting caught up in all the different activities and losing focus on the important stuff like y'know, leveling my squad and things like that

Looking forward to getting stuck in tonight now to see how I get on with the end of month mission.

skerry · 11-08-2019 4:29pm

Is it just me or does it take a long time to max out the Beginner classes? I know the advice is to max out before changing, but I have Dimitri as a Soldier and its been prompting me to reclass him as intermediate class of Cavalier for a while now. I've been holding out but I don't see any class ability listed for maxing out Soldier and thinking at this stage I'm probably only hindering myself by not reclassing as I'm losing out on progress on the Intermediate class. Could do with a couple of mounted units. Says a good few team members are eligible to class up, but apart from maxing out the starting classes quickly, the beginnner classes are taking a good while.

Cina · 12-08-2019 7:57am

I'm addicted to this! Well into my first playthrough now and I can definitely see myself doing more of them.

Not sure I made the right choice picking Edelgard's house first as the story it's supposedly less fun and more serious than the other two.

I did think these games were supposed to be hard though, it's so easy on normal/classic. I'll definitely have to up the difficulty on my next playthrough.

chrislad · 12-08-2019 10:59am

Cina wrote: »

I'm addicted to this! Well into my first playthrough now and I can definitely see myself doing more of them.

Not sure I made the right choice picking Edelgard's house first as the story it's supposedly less fun and more serious than the other two.

I did think these games were supposed to be hard though, it's so easy on normal/classic. I'll definitely have to up the difficulty on my next playthrough.

I'm finding the same - I'm not too challenged on Normal/Classic, but it's a good starting point to move onto the next playthrough. I think I'm nearing the end of Act 2 with the Blue Lions at the moment.

gibgodsman · 13-08-2019 4:53pm

Honestly, I have been a gamer all my life, 25 now, stupidly good PC which I built myself, 3 screens, expensive chair, all the goodies, Ps4 Pro, Xbox One, Switch.

I have not enjoyed playing a single player game since Mount & Blade warband, and even that is open world and sandbox so it doesn't really count.

Fire Emblem Three Houses has brought my love for games back. So much time playing stupid Multiplayer games because the thought of starting a single player game while working 40+ hours a week doesn't work for me.

Without a doubt the best game I have played since the good days of Final Fantasy 7,8,9, and 10.

skerry · 13-08-2019 10:17pm

Have to say I'm having a great time with this too. The gameplay loop is just so damn satisfying. There's been a lot of comparisons of the social aspect to Persona 5 but as much as I enjoy Persona 5 when I play it, I end up doing a palace and dropping it again for ages, it just doesn't hold my attention for long enough. This on the other hand is like crack, there's alway something interesting to do and your not tied to doing the social thing all the time with the options of training battles and other activities to take part in. It was a bit of a learning curve at the start for me, but there's plenty to do without it being overly complex.

Playing Blue Lions and have just recruited Dorothea and Lysethia so I'm not putting any more effort into recruiting other students now unless there's a need to recruit other faculty members but don't think I'm far enough to worry about that yet. Have Ingrid as a Pegasus Knight now and she's gone from weakest member to MVP in most battles.

Voice acting and characters are top notch too. Find myself getting drawn into the support conversations and I thought they would be a chore to listen to, but their written and voiced so well even the characters I wasn't too fond of have interesting arcs.

Also, they say Dastards a lot

Yakult · 14-08-2019 12:23am

Anyone else is playing with the Japanese voice over instead of the English?

Really enjoyable game I have to say!

Cina · 14-08-2019 8:01am

it's just so damn GOOD. like the poster said above, it's basically a drug in gaming form, so hard to pull away from, and it doesn't help that it's on a console you never need to be pulled away from!

I've found the English voices pretty good myself, certainly most better than some recent Japanese games, here's lookin' at you Xenoblade 2 and Persona 5!

chrislad · 14-08-2019 1:26pm

skerry wrote: »

Playing Blue Lions and have just recruited Dorothea and Lysethia so I'm not putting any more effort into recruiting other students now unless there's a need to recruit other faculty members but don't think I'm far enough to worry about that yet.

I didn't recruit too many, but I didn't get these two. They wish I had recruited them now

chrislad · 15-08-2019 9:18am

I apparently finished the Blue Lions campaign last night! 26:55 on the save game clock, so I wasn't expecting the ending, even though it seemed like it was going to happen! I did this on Normal/Classic (last mission actually the toughest, lost 3 people vs 1 for all the rest of the campaign) - I'm going to start with Edelgards House on Hard/Normal now, so I can concentrate on tactics without worrying about losing people. Last campaign will be the Hard/Classic mode.

skerry · 15-08-2019 9:37am

chrislad wrote: »

I apparently finished the Blue Lions campaign last night! 26:55 on the save game clock, so I wasn't expecting the ending, even though it seemed like it was going to happen! I did this on Normal/Classic (last mission actually the toughest, lost 3 people vs 1 for all the rest of the campaign) - I'm going to start with Edelgards House on Hard/Normal now, so I can concentrate on tactics without worrying about losing people. Last campaign will be the Hard/Classic mode.

Did you skip a lot of cutscenes or something? I'm 25 hrs in and only starting chapter 7. Damn tea parties distracting me

super_furry · 15-08-2019 10:26am

Finally got started last night and went with Black Eagles. I already think the Yellow Deer guy is a dick - far too chipper.

chrislad · 15-08-2019 12:13pm

skerry wrote: »

Did you skip a lot of cutscenes or something? I'm 25 hrs in and only starting chapter 7. Damn tea parties distracting me

No, not the story ones (maybe a couple of the support ones that seemed to be going nowhere) - Maybe because I didn't realise there were battles you could do without using points, but I ended on Professor level B+, and I think it was about 140 battles or so.

I'm not complaining in the slightest, just surprised after hearing all the 60 hour per house comments. I'll probably have to focus a bit more on bonds etc in the harder playthrough so it will take longer. With normal, it was generally easiest to front load Blythe, Dimitri, and Catherine, who would take down most with one turn, and use the other squad as back up/cover. I think I finished on level 53 for the professor, and close enough for Dimitri.

Xenji · 15-08-2019 1:39pm

I would of actually went the other way and put more hours into the first playthrough as when you get to NG+ everything carries over like support levels, weapon skills and your professor level, although you do need to spend renown on them.

The normal difficulty is probably the easiest of any game in the series, but it's been good for newcomers to the series, but front loading a few characters and ignoring others is suicide on harder levels, so much so in previous entries you would actually not be able to progress with the story without hours of grinding.

Cina · 15-08-2019 3:28pm

I've no idea how people are getting through their first playthrough so quickly. I'm 46 hours in with Black Eagles and I think I've still a decent bit to go. I haven't done any grinding or anything, just made sure to explore fully and do everything available.

chrislad · 15-08-2019 3:32pm

Xenji wrote: »

I would of actually went the other way and put more hours into the first playthrough as when you get to NG+ everything carries over like support levels, weapon skills and your professor level, although you do need to spend renown on them.

The normal difficulty is probably the easiest of any game in the series, but it's been good for newcomers to the series, but front loading a few characters and ignoring others is suicide on harder levels, so much so in previous entries you would actually not be able to progress with the story without hours of grinding.

Agreed, though most of my other characters were around level 40-45 ish, so I was aware of that. I didn't feel like I was rushing, but it's my fire Fire Emblem game in a long time, so I felt I needed to get the mechanics down first before the support stuff. Looking forward to the next playthrough anyway!

chrislad · 15-08-2019 3:34pm

Cina wrote: »

I've no idea how people are getting through their first playthrough so quickly. I'm 46 hours in with Black Eagles and I think I've still a decent bit to go. I haven't done any grinding or anything, just made sure to explore fully and do everything available.

Like I said, I've no idea either. I had decent support levels, normally B or higher. I had a load of them with A support with each other. I had 5 or so of the fancy powerful weapons (though the Axe was kind of ****) - The only part that I didn't do too much on was the battles because I didn't realise some of them didn't use your 'battle points' so I could have done more than I did.

Sephiroth_dude · 17-08-2019 11:42am

Yakult wrote: »

Anyone else is playing with the Japanese voice over instead of the English?

Really enjoyable game I have to say!

I will be playing with Japanese voice over, much prefer over english dub.

Gyan84 · 27-08-2019 1:37pm

Been playing this on and off since it came out but have gotten properly hooked in the past few days. It's suprisingly good and definitely my goty so far which is suprising since I hated fire emblem fates.

40 hours in to my first playthrough and I'm just after getting to part 2. I went with the black eagles as I found them the most interesting.

I thought the story was a bit meh until I went from the personification of the goddess to fighting a war against the other two houses and the church along with a 5 year coma in the space of an hour. That said I knew there was a timeskip coming and guessed that edelgaard was the fire emperor. It better be explained why she allied with the two that turned students into monsters and killed Jeralt because that seems pretty close to what she was mad at the church for.

I'm interested to see how the church allied route and other houses go as I doubt I'd care that Edelgaard rebelled if I hadn't picked her house to teach.

skerry · 01-09-2019 5:15pm

Still having a super time with this, 55 hours in and I'm only just getting into second Act. There's just so much to do and it's pretty much all enjoyable. Fishing is the only thing I find boring in it. Have been doing a lot of optional battles and paralogues too so I'm guessing that's added a lot to playtime

fixXxer · 03-09-2019 12:16pm

Having never played a Fire Emblem game before, would I be right in reading this one as Persona's social system crossed with Final Fantasy Tactics style combat?

RobbingBandit · 03-09-2019 12:24pm

Some of the character development as your connection grows is very in-depth and quite scarry I'd love a persona game on switch like this

Gyan84 · 03-09-2019 2:29pm

Finished this last night and have to admit that I didn't enjoy the second act nearly as much as the first. The

timeskip

was a bit meh but my main gripe was with the direction the story route I was on went.

Spoilers for the black eagle route

I went with Edelgaard against the church but the part I liked about that choice was that they were both morally grey choices: the church/cult that controls everything with shadowy powers but keeps peace vs the the young lord who wants self determination but is willing to do anything to get it.

This felt like an interesting dynamic but it fell apart as Edelgaard's personality did a complete 180. She goes from cold and deterministic in pursuit of her goals to fantasizing about retiring in peace time and finding a successor to the throne her whole life is based on.

It reminded me of the other fire emblem games where you could have a cold hearted killer but if you romance them they turn into a shy blushing buffoon :pac:

Also your character collapsing and their hair going back to blue was very tacky.

I thought once you defeated the church Edelgaard's uncle would use the giant bomb thing again to kill everyone left and claim the throne for himself but I suppose that would be a bit dour.

Still though it's definitely my goty so far and the only 50 hour rpg I can remember that I wanted to start a second playthrough straight away.

Also greatly prefer that you can't have children in this one. The system in fates where you have a child and they magically reach fighting age through anime cliches was awful.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

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