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Fire Emblem: Three Houses (ファイアーエムブレム 風花雪月, Fire Emblem: Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon in Japan) is a turn-based strategy game developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo, and published by Nintendo. It is the sixteenth installment for the Fire Emblem franchise, and it was released for the Nintendo Switch on July 2019.
This new game takes place in the continent of Fódlan, mostly divided into three realms: the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance. At the center there's a neutral territory: the Garreg Mach Monastery, housing the main religious movement in the continent known as the Church of Seiros and a magic/fighting Boarding School known as Officer's Academy.
The protagonist and Avatar/Lord is named Byleth Eisner. They can be male or female, their father Jeralt Eisner is the most famous Knight and mercenary leader in the continent, and they have just been hired at the Academy by the Archbishop of the Church of Seiros, Lady Rhea, as an instructor for one of the three noble houses in there: the Golden Deers (from Leicester, led by Prince Claude von Riegan), the Black Eagles (from Adrestia, led by Princess Edelgard von Hresvelg) and the Blue Lions (from Faerghus, led by Prince Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd). Things are more or less stable in Fódlan at the moment, with Byleth starting their job as teacher in a peaceful environment and befriending the three nobles that lead the houses plus the students in there. However, ever since before taking up the professor post they've had strange visions of a little girl named Sothis, who talks like an old woman and also has the power to rewind time...
The story itself develops in two phases. The first one (the White Clouds route) has been described above, and it lasts until Chapter 12. The second one takes place after a five year Time Skip and features a Fódlan that has been through quite the war, forcing the three leaders to take control of their countries' armies. From then on, there are four prospect routes: Crimson Flower (Edelgard / Black Eagles' path), Azure Moon (Dimitri / Blue Lions' path), Verdant Wind (Claude / Golden Deers' path), and Silver Snow (Lady Rhea / Church of Seiros' path): whichever is played depends on the player's decisions in White Clouds. The DLC adds, among many other things, a mini-path known as Cindered Shadows that deals with whole "unofficial House" known as the Ashen Wolves: they're led by a young man named Yuri Leclerc and, once the maps in it are completed, its members can eventually join any House that Byleth has already joined.
A sequel of sorts, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, was released in late June 2022. It's in the line of Musou games by Tecmo, not unlike the original Fire Emblem: Warriors, but showing an Alternate Universe with a new Player Character named Shez, who once was defeated and almost killed by Byleth prior to the 3H games and now wants to face him or her again...
This page is under heavy construction, please contribute to it.
- Adrenaline Makeover: Happens after the Time Skip to, well, pretty much every ex-student of the Academy. Especially to the House Leaders.
- Angst? What Angst?: Averted, and hard. Events such as Lonato's rebellion and death, Sylvain's dealings with his brother, Flayn's kidnapping, and Jeralt's death aren't quickly forgotten even after everyone's started to move on and keep going.
- The Chosen One: Byleth got their Academy job due to having a mysterious crest that marks him/her into this, among other stuff. The plot eventually unlocks what kind of Crest this is and why do they have it.
- Damage Sponge Boss: The Demonic Beasts are giant, powerful monsters that have several health bars.
- For Want of a Nail - Guide Dang It: One path may not be unlocked at all even if its related House was chosen, unless the player fills every single requisite. It's Crimson Flower / the Black Eagles' route. If the player misses an event in Chapter 11 that needs Edelgard's C-Support to be unlocked, the path itself won't open and the player will go into the Silver Snow / Church of Seiros / Rhea's route instead.
- To recruit students from other Houses into the one Byleth is teaching, s/he must have at least two attributes at an adequate level. Some are easy to guess, others are not. And hilariously, there's only one to recruit Sylvain: playing with a Female Byleth. (A Male one can also recruit him, of course, but a Female one will do so automatically via speaking to him at some point)
- There are three students who at first sight cannot be taken away from their houses, due to them being the companions to their leaders. Except one of them (Hilda) can join other houses and routes. But only if the player chooses the Blue Lions or unlocks the Church of Seiros route, and with quite the high requirements. Good luck with that...
- One Paralogue offers pretty interesting info on a certain enemy known as the Death Knight and their Morality Pet (his half-sister Mercedes) and gives the player a Relic accesory associated with the Crests. Problem is, two characters must be present in Byleth's class - and they're from different Houses! (said characters being Mercedes herself and the other being... Caspar [who generally must be pilfered from the Black Eagles first] ). And even more: if Caspar defeats the boss before all the enemies are routed, the'll get a special weapon as a prize. Oh dear, best to to remember the tips given here - they'll be needed.
- The Paralogues where the cast meets Indech and Macuil have their own requirements too: the first will be unlocked only if the player has both Linhardt and Leonie in their House, and the other is exclusive to the Golden Deer/Verdant Wind path.
- If Dedue's Paralogue is NOT flawlessly finished, he'll be Killed Off for Real and therefore fully unavaliable in their leader's route.
- Some paired endings, like those involving Catherine, will change in some routes depending on external conditions (in this case, this ending takes place in the Silver Snow route, and it depends on whether Byleth marries Lady Rhea or not)
- The paralogue "Eternal Guardian" is available on all routes but Crimson Flower, and will net the player a quite good Shield. However, unlocking it requires them to get at least a C support with Lady Rhea, which can be very hard to do since Rhea cannot join Byleth for meals or choir practice, can't be invited to the sauna, and can solely join to tea if the player has the Cindered Shadows DLC. The only non-DLC related ways to raise support with her are to give her gifts, get faculty training from her, and make the right dialogue choices during story cutscenes. Thankfully, once you have gotten those supports, you can buy them back with Renown via New Game+ on a future run.
- To recruit students from other Houses into the one Byleth is teaching, s/he must have at least two attributes at an adequate level. Some are easy to guess, others are not. And hilariously, there's only one to recruit Sylvain: playing with a Female Byleth. (A Male one can also recruit him, of course, but a Female one will do so automatically via speaking to him at some point)
- Fog of War: During the battle against Sir Lonato, the battlefield is covered with an thick mist that conceals the knight's army. Compounding the situation is that the cast can't fight the enemies until they spot them after moving one of the units. However, the mist clears up once the mage that's causing it is killed.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Faerghus childhood friend quartet:
- Dimitri: Supine (Kind, chivalrous, sensitive)
- Ingrid: Choleric (The "mom friend" who takes charge and was often getting the others out of scrapes)
- Sylvain: Sanguine (Cheerful, flirtatious, brushes his problems off with a smile)
- Felix: Melancholic (Sour, perfectionist about his training, secretly sensitive)
Also the Ashen Wolves:
- Yuri: Choleric (the leader, a Guile Hero)
- Constance: Melancholic (Mood Swinger, perfectionist, driven)
- Balthus: Sanguine (cheerful, loves a good fight)
- Hapi: Phlegmatic (apathetic, shrugs things off, laid back)
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Hilda is a Shameless Fanservice Girl with a very revealing post-Time Skip outfit, and in her A support with Caspar she pretty much tells him "I want to sleep with you!" Caspar is hilariously oblivious and it's up in the air whether they had sex or not, but still.
- One of Sylvain's written advice requests for Byleth is... about how to sneak a girl into his bedroom behind his fellow Blue Lions' backs. Even funnier, he's asking this to the person whose room is directly below his own, meaning s/he would be able to hear everything...
- In the Crimson Flower Route, Jeritza considers Byleth his Worthy Opponent. Their A support implies that this goes into Interplay of Sex and Violence. . .
- The game makes next to no efforts to hide that Manuela is a Hard-Drinking Party Girl.
- It's heavily, HEAVILY implied that Yuri Leclerc engaged in teenage prostitution before going to the Academy. It's also hinted that both Dorothea Arnault and Manuela Casagranda, while not necessarily prostitutes, might have done some Sex for Services to secure a place in the Academy or get patronage for the Mittelfrank Opera, respectively. To no one's surprise, the talk that reveals Yuri as a former Hooker with a Heart of Gold takes place in his supports with Dorothea.
- Giant Mook: While they're far from being considered as "trival" the Demonic Beasts are so big, that they actually occupy at least 4 tiles as opposed to just sitting on a single tile.
- Golden Ending - Golden Path : Averted with a vengeance: none of the four prospect routes is completely happy and fruitful, and they all have Bittersweet Endings. i.e, only one of the House Leaders, Claude, can potentially survive all route aside of his own.
- Hate Sink: Count Varley is possibly hated more than even the villains of the game. If there's one thing the incredibly divisive fandom can agree on it's that he's a bastard and no one would miss him if he died.
- For those who unlocked Mercedes and Jeritza's supports, Count Bartels.
- High School Sweethearts: The plot revolves around the Officers Academy, an elite Boarding School attended by people who'd be considered of high-school/college age in the real world. If two Academy students meet there and then fall in love after the Time Skip, they can be easily seen as playing this trope straight.
- Implied Love Interest: Three Houses is unique in that the prospect ILI changes according to which route one gets. Black Lions / Crimson Flower has Edelgard (while she can marry others, she's still VERY close to Byleth no matter their gender - plus she's implied to love him/her even in the Church of Seiros route), Azure Moon / Blue Lions has Dimitri (he can only marry Female Byleth, but still has Ho Yay with the male one, plus only him/her can fully bring him back to sanity), both the Silver Snow / Church AND Verdant Wind / Golden Deer routes have Lady Rhea (to the point that to save her life one must have at least an A support with her, and her only happy ending (and solely in Silver Snow) will take place with her married to either Byleth.) and the extra story Cindered Shadows / Ashen Wolves has Yuri (he openly flirts with the Byleths whether he's chosen or not, and has the advantage of being romanceable in any route as long as he's recruited)
- Kill and Replace: All but screamed to be a preferred tactic of Those who Slither in the Dark. How so? Their leader, Thales, is all but shouted to have done this to Edelgard's uncle, the Adrestian nobleman Lord Volkhard von Arundel; the same goes to Solon (to the Church of Seiros' librarian Tomas), Kronya (to the Black Eagles schoolgirl Monica von Ochs) and an unnamed membress (to Cornelia, the Court Mage of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus).
- MacGuffin: The Crests. Their power pretty much drives the story as a whole.
- Mentor Ship - Teacher-Student Romance: Averted, actually: any romance between Byleth and students of their of the Houses take place after the Time Skip. Plus they can also romance people who are NOT their student.
- Redshirt Army: While the previous Fire Emblem games implied that these existed, due to technical limitations; Three Houses expands on this by including them as a gameplay mechanic in the form of hired mercenaries called "battalions," which can be eradicated if the unit completely loses their health.
- La Résistance: Two paths deal with this: Silver Snow and Azure Moon. In the first Byleth, the titular Church and many ex-students from the Black Eagles join forces to stop the Adrestian Empire led by Emperor Edelgard; in the second the Holy Kingdom fo Faerghus has been taken over by Adrestia, and the former Blue Lions plus Byleth must both re-take it and make sure their leader and rightful heir, the mentally and emotionally shattered Dimitri, won't become a bloody tyrant worse than anyone else..
- Time Master: Sothis' powers allows her to briefly rewind time, not unlike Echoes' Mila's Turnwheel. She then gives said powers to Byleth, manifesting in the Divine Pulse ability.