When it comes to strategy role-playing games, Fire Emblem is a force to be reckoned with. Since 1990, we’ve seen almost 20 games from the series, delivering turn-based thrills and riveting fantasy storytelling in droves. That brings us neatly to Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the sixteenth installment and my personal favorite of the bunch. Six years later, we’re looking back at the Nintendo Switch game to see if it still holds up as one of the console’s finest strategy offerings. Spoiler: it does.
Let’s kick off with the Fire Emblem series’ bread and butter, the battle mechanics. For those who don’t know, this SRPG was one of the first to implement permadeath, in that if you lose a unit on the battlefield, that’s them gone for good. However, in recent years, Intelligent Systems’ approach to punishing players for making mistakes in the fog of war has softened, introducing a new ‘Casual Mode’ that makes it so fallen units aren’t down for good.
Right at the beginning of Three Houses, you can either opt for the old-school ‘Classic Mode’ or instead make things a bit easier for yourself with ‘Casual Mode.’ For me, this is a pretty big deal, as the idea of losing characters forever used to put me off Fire Emblem games, so I appreciate the fact that you get to choose for yourself.
Read the full story on Pocket Tactics: Fire Emblem: Three Houses review – best in class