Welcome to The Outerhaven’s: Everything we know about Fire Emblem: Three Houses. This is a living article that will keep you informed with what’s going on with Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Updates and news as it’s released. As well as trailers and more.
What is Fire Emblem: Three Houses?
Fire Emblem: Three Houses was announced during a Fire Emblem-centric Nintendo Direct in January of 2017. Since that initial announcement, we have heard startlingly little about the sixteenth core entry in the franchise. E3 shined a brief spotlight on the title, revealing a Spring 2019 release date as well as several new gameplay mechanics.
What is Fire Emblem: Three Houses?
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the 16th mainline entry in the Fire Emblem franchise, and the first to come to a home console since 2007’s Radiant Dawn (Wii).
Players will take control of a custom avatar and explore the world of Fodlan. The Church of Seiros wields great influence over the realm, as do “crests”. These crests are tokens of the Goddess’s power, and according to the narrator of the E3 trailer bear responsibility for the chaos in the world.
Who is the Main Character of Fire Emblem: Three Houses?
We can’t say for sure yet, but it will likely be your player character. His default name is Byleth, and although we only see him as male in the trailer, it’s highly likely the avatar will be able to take whichever gender you choose.
Byleth will meet three main characters – Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude. According to Nintendo’s website, these three will play major roles in the game. The voice in the E3 trailer likely belongs to Edelgard, as she is the only female of the bunch and the primary heroine of the trailer.
Nintendo has not revealed additional allies who undoubtedly will join your army in the adventure. Still, it seems safe to assume that the Goddess will play a role as an enemy based on Edelgard’s negative view of the church. Additionally, she mentions a “mock battle” in a dialogue box during the trailer. It’s likely that the named characters she faces in the trailer are actually allies working through a training exercise. That means Mercedes and Hilda are likely playable as well.
Finally, a young girl who looks like a manakete (dragons who can take human form) is shown resting on a throne at the trailer’s end. She looks a lot like a young Tiki, one of the most powerful manaketes in Fire Emblem history. If this girl is indeed Tiki, it’s safe to assume that Three Houses takes place in the same universe as Shadow Dragon, Shadows of Valentia and Awakening.
Three Houses Introduces Several New Mechanics
It’s tricky to glean any new gameplay elements from the trailer, but for the first time in the series’s history soldiers will support your units in battle. Gone are the one-on-one duals that Fire Emblem has always leaned upon. These troops can attack in a variety of formations, though we only see Claude use them in battle. He unites his allies in a pyramid formation and charges through enemy troops.
Dungeon crawling was recently re-introduced to the series in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia and will be returning in some form in Three Houses. Byleth will be able to freely explore locations to forge bonds with allies. The only interaction we’ve seen is one where he tells Edelgard to train with her axe, but there are sure to be more. Given that, it appears as though weapon levels will be returning after an absence in Shadows of Valentia.
We’re less certain about the weapons triangle though. Edelgard attacks a sword using enemy with a steel axe and has a hit rate of 67%. The steel axe traditionally has a fairly low hit rate, and 67% seems awfully high given the 20% penalty a weapon triangle disadvantage would bring. However, weapon durability will return. In that same clip we see that Edelgard has 40 axe uses left, while her opponent has 48 on her iron sword. Three Houses will be the first game to use durability since 2013’s Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Additional Features
That’s all we know about the gameplay from Three Houses at this point! With a Spring release date, it’s very likely we will hear more about the game in the next Nintendo Direct – whenever that may be. It’s worth noting that Fire Emblem: Three Houses will support Cloud Saves, so your data will be backed up!
Stay tuned for more Fire Emblem: Three Houses news in the weeks to come. We will update this post as the information trickles in.
