Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

I did not expect to be writing about Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (Three Hopes) for my second article in this series. As a time-poor parent, I promised myself I would write about the Telltale Batman games next time I had the chance, or at least my favourite Resident Evil game of all time. But after wrapping up my second playthrough of Three Hopes I just can’t stop thinking about how special this game is, and more importantly why you, dear reader, should give this lesser-known spin-off a chance.

Spin-off? Spin-off did you say? Wait, don’t click to exit this article just yet! There are totally some banger spin-off games out there, like Final Fantasy Tactics, Apex Legends, and the Portal games.

And then, yes *sigh* there are the godawful disaster ones. The ones that turned you off a series forever. Shadow the Hedgehog? Yikes.. No wonder they brought back Knuckles instead for Sonic Mania. Resident Evil Umbrella Corps? Um.. did you want to go broke, Capcom? Links Crossbow Training. Links. Crossbow. Training. You are telling me that Nintendo made a game about Link training with a crossbow. As we say here in Australia. Yeah, nah.

Look, I don’t blame you if you gave Three Hopes a sidewards glance and assumed the same thing. But if you are curious, or one of the three million gamers out there who purchased Fire Emblem: Three Houses but skipped Three Hopes altogether then I’m telling you now, dear reader, this one is for you.

For the uninitiated Three Hopes is a reimaging of the best-selling Fire Emblem game ever made, the aforementioned Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Three Houses). With a score of 80 on Metacritic, the broad consensus among reviewers is that Three Hopes is, overall, another successful effort by lead developer Omega Force to fuse the key ingredients from the game that inspired it with it’s own longstanding musou formula, much as it did with Persona 5 Strikers and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

I agree with that assessment. But I wanted to write about Three Hopes for a different reason, and from a different angle. That, dear reader, is the angle of an entirely obsessed fan.

So here’s the deal, I absolutely adored Three Houses ever since it graced our presence in 2019. I’m one of those people who scoured the internet for every titbit of lore, fanart, and ever so juicy S-Rank supporting conversation. Seriously, I am that into Three Houses that when Nintendo announced Byleth (the game’s protagonist) would be the sixth DLC character to join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate I downloaded her on day one, and totally left other long awaited surprise darlings like Banjo Kazooie and Septhiroth on the DLC table.

So when I booted up Three Hopes for the first time and heard the game’s opening theme, The Crest of Flames, had been remixed into an even more epic version, my fanboy delight in the series and expectations of what was to come dialled up to another level entirely. What struck me most throughout my time playing Three Hopes, however, was that Koei Tecmo sought to enrich the franchise by focusing on what mattered most to its gamer audience.

Let’s take the world building to start with. Like with Three Houses, Three Hopes takes place on the continent of Fodlan, which is still divided into three great realms, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and the Leicester Alliance. However, this time the player character from Three Houses, Byleth, has been replaced by a new protagonist, Shez (thank god we can rename them), and Byeth has now become the game’s central antagonist known as ‘The Ashen Demon’. Furthermore, rather than being positioned as the teacher and guiding hand of each of the three house's aspiring leaders, namely Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude, your player character is now their classmate equal, and their personal opinions on the war lean more into their profession as a mercenary.

This setup completely changed how I as a player and as a fan perceived the world of Fodlan and it’s warring factions, and kept me intrigued in a story that should have otherwise felt predictable. I got caught up all over again in the various political machinations and character relationships during my two playthroughs (the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and Leicester Alliance), but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel constantly impressed by how such a simple but crucial change so brilliantly challenged the Fodlan I thought I knew, and my role in it. Why am I fighting Byleth and Jeralt? Is my character on the ‘right’ side of the war? Playing Three Hopes felt like reading the Harry Potter series all over again, but this time from the perspective of a newly created sibling to Ron or Hermione, with Harry as the antagonist skulking in the background, and a very different turn of events to follow.

This setup allows also sets the stage for a whole host of changes that absolutely justifies a return to Fodlan for anyone who has experienced one of the paths offered in Three Houses. On my run during the Leicester Alliance path, for example, I was delighted to see Three Hopes tread further into Almyra – previously just a footnote region in Three Houses - in a way that expanded not just my understanding of the conflict there, but also Claude’s motivations as a leader. Speaking of Claude, I also found myself frequently disagreeing with his decisions in Three Hopes compared to Three Houses, and felt validated in this opinion when some his fellow classmates also voiced their doubts and spoke out against his decisions as well.

Three Hopes also made some more subtle lore changes to most of the other students that fans have come to know and love. Lorenz for example, who was often portrayed as patronizing, creepy womaniser in Three Houses quickly became one of my favourites in Three Hopes, as he plays somewhat of a moral compass role alongside Claude and the other Golden Deer characters (and not to mention that the game’s writers clearly decided it was best to scrap his creepiness and womanising completely). Characters in Three Houses like Rhea and Sothis that often took central stage in Three Houses also still play an important role, but have far less presence compared to minor characters from that game who now come to the fore depending on which house you choose, such as Judith and Rodrigue. I confess that I haven’t yet played through the Adrestian Empire campaign yet, but I did complete the two other campaigns and can promise that fans who are excited to delve deeper into their favourite house will not be disappointed.

Equally special is just how well Three Hopes delivers on another key ingredient in the Three Houses experience, player choice. All of the choices players enjoyed in Three Houses that were essential to that game’s rewarding gameplay loop are present in Three Hopes, such as which students you want to develop your relationships with and what class each student should be. These choices are, of course, essential to letting players play the game the way they want to and at their preferred pace. I liked it that I could ignore the boring characters like Raphael, and spend time with characters cared about the most (Dimitri forever!). I also liked it that I didn’t have to do the paralogue quests if I didn’t want to, and could pick the characters I enjoyed playing the most when it came to the battles. Hot tip, Barbarossa Claude is death incarnate and an absolute blast to play. Fire-breathing wyvern anyone? Hot tip two, unlockable house exclusive characters are also the bomb. Without spoiling anything, make sure you save all the renown you can get because you are going to need it to unlock some very special fan favourites.

I also loved how the developers added an entirely new gameplay feature, the War Map, to Three Hopes. After going about your cycle of cooking, training, trading and talking, players are taken to the War Map where you can choose which regions to conquer before taking on each chapter’s final mission.

Conquering an optional region might, for example, reward you with additional strategy points to use in the final mission, such as summoning archers to repeatedly shoot down enemy units, or the ability to poison your opponent’s water supply which weakens their strongholds at the start of a battle. Players who want to just push through to follow the main story can ignore the optional missions entirely. I found myself leaning towards taking on most of the optional missions, but as I got closer to the 40-hour mark powered passed them to wrap up the story. Again, as a player, it’s all up to you.

And then there’s the bigger choices. The story-based choices that made you pause and think through the consequences before committing to a decision. The ones that make the war for Fodlan that little bit more personal. It’s incredible to me that I have the choice to see how Fodlan’s fate will unfold, and having poured more than 70 hours into the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and Leicester Alliance campaigns I can assure you that the way the overarching narrative plays out remains wholly unique, fresh and exciting. As any seasoned Three Houses fan will tell you, choosing either of these campaigns will pit you at one point against Edelgard’s Adrestian Empire, and again we see this in Three Hopes albeit with new twists and turns that I did not see coming. As for twists, like Three Houses Three Hopes forces players to make another significant decision midway through their campaign which I won’t spoil here, but will say that my decision had significant consequences and made me rethink how I perceived who was ‘right’ in the war the weight my character’s actions would have on the series lore, and in turn fanbase, for years to come.

A few minor points I just have to highlight before we wrap up.

·         The godawful PlayStation one era clouds above Garreg Mach Monastery are out, and the beautiful, painterly clouds of your war camp are in. Hey, it’s the small things that count!

·         Like in Three Houses, many of the characters are reluctant to go to war with their ex-classmates. Prepare to feel guilty all over again (or not) when you force them to commit murder, and a slow motion cutscene plays out to remind you just how much you crushed your dying ex-classmates dream's as much as their body. Dorothea, I really am sorry you will never return to the opera.

·         Boots on the Ground is now officially the greatest Fire Emblem track of all time. Yes, it is.

·         Why did this game only get 80 on Metacritic when Three Houses is sitting on 89? Because you can no longer date your classmates. Or Lady Rhea. But I promise it’s still worth playing!

·         My fingers are still permanently crossed for an incredible-but-it-will-never-happen Netflix series. Please please please just make it.

If it isn’t clear already, Three Hopes is more than just a successful application of the Three Houses mould to the musou genre. It is gamer fan service in its most pure form. For those of you who are yet to return to the world of Fodlan, or simply crave a compelling tale of war and a game with fantastic player choices, I am telling you now, Three Hopes is for you.

--- Jon @ PGC