Synopsis:
The game takes place in Fódlan, where the Chruch os Seiros exercises great power over the land and its people. As the main character, the player must not only fight on the battlefield but interact with other characters to build relationships and gather information.
Characters:
From left to right: Edelgard von Hreslbegr, Claude von Regan, Dimitri Alexander Blaudad
Edelgard from Adrastea seems to be the main of the three with a known "aristocrat" class and able to use either axes or swords. Claude is an archer from Leicester, and Dimitri is from Fergus and uses lances. Not much other information is known about Claude or Dimitri.
Although clearly there is one character per the different houses, they are all dressed in a similar manner (black clothes, capes, pins, braided accessories near the neck) that leads to the possibility that they have an alliance formed or at the very least are not enemies, but that is unconfirmed and just speculation.
Player character:
Default name: Byleth
He appears to be a teacher to Edelgard but possibly teaches all three of the known characters but not much information has been released about his connection to the game yet. It is unknown whether or not the player character will be customizable or not. Hopefully, it's more similar to Fates and Awakening in that regard. His name, at least, seems to be changeable. To me, he looks a bit like an emo Marth that had a crossover with Kingdom Hearts, but attractive nonetheless.
Map:
Here is the most extensive map currently released by Nintendo. It features the main focus of the game, Fódlan, and some surrounding countries. Hopefully, there will be the chance to explore the other lands, but that is currently unknown. This game seems to be unconnected to the previous lands of Fire Emblem games.
Art style:
The art style is different this time around, this time resembling games closer to the Persona series than previous Fire Emblem games. In my personal opinion, although I think the style is lovely and has very pretty art, it doesn't give off the same Fire Emblem feeling to me. It feels more babydoll otome shoujo game than a war-stricken tactical game.
From left to right: Corrin (Fire Emblem: Fates) Ann Takamaki (Persona 5) Edelgard von Hreslbegr (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Supports:
Although only three characters (+ the player character) are currently known, the question of supports has still been raised. Will there be the classic C-A supports like Awakening and Fates, or something closer to combat only conversations like Echoes? Will there be S ranks as well?
There has been no news on this but I'm holding out hope for S ranks, as I found this to be an enjoyable part of the game. Echoes didn't put any importance on the bonds forged between units and was an extremely insignificant part of the game, unlike Awakening and Fates.
Gameplay:
This game features a revamped battle menu with new options. "Attack" and "Magic" are now separate command actions. Along with that, there's also "Combat Arts" and a new "Formation" command.
Which leads to the questions: why are magic and attack separate options? Are tomes still a weapon option in this game? Can any character cast magic, and will it take HP like in Echoes?
As shown from this screenshot from the trailer, sprites are no longer displayed on the battlefield instead, there are full models of the characters. In my personal opinion, I will miss the sprites. Although the full models are definitely very 2018 I enjoyed the cute sprites featured in previous Fire Emblem games. However, there will still be very small versions of the classic sprits featured on the small general character stats menu, so not all is lost.
This screenshot also shows another interesting new feature: it appears that after moving a character, there will be red arrows that show what enemies are likely to target your units based off where they have moved. In this case, Edelgard moved close to the enemy units and now all enemy attention is focused on her. An interesting feature that will be helpful in battles for better strategies.
New stats: along with the classic ATK, HIT, CRIT, AVO, RNG there are a few new ones displayed:
END: endurance
RSL: resilience
AS: attack speed
There is a slight new display screen while in battle before taking on an enemy, newly tilted and almost 3D. It shows the standard HP, ATK, HIT, and CRIT info. As seen near the corner above Edelgard's name in the screenshot, skills are also still present within this game.
This screen also shows that weapon durability is back meaning unlike Fates and Echoes, weapons are able to break again after a certain number of uses.
Other new features:
There is a new layout on the battlefield, including the mini-map. It now displays the type of weapons your units and enemy units are using, which is sure to come in handy when thinking of the weapon triangle.
Random NPC soldiers are now displayed on both sides and in cutscenes, your soldiers will be seen fighting the enemy soldiers although this seems to have no effect on the game, storyline, or outcome of the battle it is a nice touch to make the battles truly feel like a battle.
One of my constant complaints with Fire Emblem over the years has been that the battles only ever display your few units and it feels rather insignificant and unrealistic to think of a small band of misfit warriors (and sometimes their kids) raising hell and defeating dragons and enemy kingdoms alike.
It has been revealed that there will be an open exploration in parts of the games where you can freely move around your character (Byleth) in a similar yet more advanced way in comparison to Echoes.
Hopefully, this feature doesn't just turn the game into dungeon crawling hell but instead adds an interesting element of exploration and real investment in the towns, views, and people around the unique places your army ends up at. Echoes was on the right track with exploration in towns, but it turned into a first-person point-and-click to talk to townspeople and collect oranges and bags of flour.
Another new feature is called "formations" where (as pictured in this screenshot) you can presumably assemble your soldiers in a certain way to increase either attack or defense. Which is potentially very interesting.
Even with all these new features (both liked and disliked) I am still immensely looking forward to the game itself and any new information released about it. Feel free to comment your own feelings, theories, and thoughts about this new Fire Emblem game!
~Atri
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