Fire Emblem: Three Houses (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.2.0 Update + All DLCs

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Embark on Your Journey across Three Territories and Three Houses The continent of Fódlan is on the brink of war, with the Church of Seiros serving as its peacekeeper and the Officer’s Academy, located within its headquarters, training the next generation of leaders. This game is a tactical role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo’s Kou Shibusawa and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released worldwide on July 26, 2019. It is the sixteenth entry in the Fire Emblem series and the first one for home consoles since Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, originally released in 2007.

GAMEPLAY

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical role-playing game in which players control a player character whose gender and name are chosen at the beginning of the game. During the opening hours, the player character is asked to teach at the Garreg Mach Monastery, which acts as a hub for game activities. Choosing a particular house to teach impacts the narrative from that point on. The player’s time is divided between story-based battles that advance the main narrative, and periods in Garreg Mach where they interact with students and staff members. While the opening half of the game focuses on this school system, the story skips ahead five years and focuses more on the battle, with the player being locked to the house they chose during the opening half.

During the periods between storyline battles, the player has a set number of days marked on a calendar, which can be used for a variety of activities from teaching classes and field exercises to planting seeds in the greenhouse and fishing in the pond. The player also has free time events, where they can socially interact with students and build up relationships with them. Building a relationship is done through Support actions, with actions and dialogue choices impacting a character’s Support level. If the relationship is strong enough, this can lead to the two marrying after a story-based time-skip event. By raising particular attributes through actions in battle and within the Monastery, the player can recruit students from other houses, alongside other characters.

Each action during the academy section costs a set number of time points, with a limited number of time points available each day and more activities that can be covered by the points available. The player must choose which events to trigger, losing access to others as a consequence. Network play and Amiibo functionality are also supported, with network play allowing players to passively visit other players’ monasteries online, and compatible Amiibo figures to be scanned for additional materials and bonus music tracks for scanning Fire Emblem-specific Amiibo. As with other Fire Emblem games, Three Houses uses a turn-based battle system; players take control of a set number of unique units.

They move across a grid, transitioning from a top-down perspective to a third-person view when a battle is triggered. A new feature to the series allows players to hire Battalions, additional troops that can support a chosen unit. Battalions have passive abilities that grant character buffs to the lead unit and can perform special moves called Gambits, which can range from healing multiple units to stunning powerful enemies. Players can also zoom in on the battlefield to assess individual battalions. As with other entries, there is a “Classic” mode where characters who fall in battle are subjected to permanent death and a “Casual” mode where fallen characters are revived after each battle. After a certain point in the story, players can rewind and undo a set amount of turn actions per battle using the “Divine Pulse” ability.

SETTING AND CHARACTERS

Three Houses is set on the continent of Fódlan. The continent is divided between her three hostile nations, which are currently at peace. There is the Adrestian Empire to the south and west, the Holy Kingdom of Fergus to the north, and the Leicester Alliance to the east. The Church of Seiros, based in the Monastery of Garg-Mak in the center of the continent, is the region’s primary religion and is itself an influential force in Fódlan. In ancient history, a war raged between Seiros, the nominal founder of the Church, and Nemesis, the “King of Liberation,” who also founded an empire. A thousand years later, the kingdom split from the Empire, and the Alliance subsequently declared independence from both powers.

A long conflict ensued, and the church was given the responsibility of keeping the peace. Nobles of Fódlan often have a coat of arms, a family crest that grants them magical powers. The wearing of coats of arms has a great influence on dynastic politics, as nobles inherit coats of arms that are far more valuable than those without coats of arms. Those who bear the crest can also carry powerful artifacts called Heroic Relics. The series’ masterpiece, “Fire Emblem,” appears as an emblem named after the parent god, the “Emblem of Flame.”

The player assumes the role of the protagonist. By default, he is named Byleth and can be either male or female. He is a mercenary by profession and is enrolled as a teacher at the military academy of Garreg Mach Monastery. During their journey, Byleth is rescued by Sothis, a strange girl who appears in their dreams and can only be heard by them, initially with amnesia. At Garg-Mak Monastery, Byleth is assigned to different countries in Fódlan out of three schoolhouses from which he chooses.

They are the Black Eagles, led by Edelgard of Hresvelg, the imperial princess and heir to the throne of Adrestia. The Blue Lions are led by Dimitri Alexandre Bridid, the prince of the kingdom, and the Golden Stag, led by Claude von Regan, heir to the Alliance’s powerful house. The monastery’s staff also includes people who work directly in the church, some of whom can be recruited by the player. Other characters include Geralt, Byleth’s father, and Rhea, the archbishop of the church.

STORY

One night, Byleth and Jeralt rescue three young nobles, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude from bandits, greatly impressing them. During the attack, Byleth is saved by the mysterious Sothis, who remains within them. Jeralt and Byleth are summoned to Garreg Mach Monastery, the home of the Church of Seiros, Fódlan’s dominant religion. Jeralt reluctantly rejoins the Church’s military arm, the Knights of Seiros, while Byleth is made a professor of the monastery’s Officers Academy. Jeralt privately warns Byleth not to trust the Church’s archbishop, Rhea. Byleth is then given the choice of leading one of the academy’s three houses: the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions, or the Golden Deer, each populated by students from the Empire, Kingdom, and Alliance respectively.

Byleth assumes their duties as teachers for their chosen house, training their students and leading them in battles on behalf of the Knights of Seiros. Byleth and their students discover frightening hints on the nature of Relics and Crest, such as a Relic thief transforming into a monster. Various conspiracies meddle with the monastery and plot against the Church: masked warriors called the Flame Emperor and the Death Knight, the Western branch of the Church, and a hostile cult known as “Those Who Slither in the Dark”. Byleth thwarts an attempt to steal a powerful Hero’s Relic, the Sword of the Creator. Unexpectedly, the Sword activates when Byleth holds it, and Rhea allows them to keep it.

Jeralt is murdered by an agent of “Those Who Slither in The Dark”. Reading Jeralt’s diary, Byleth discovers that Jeralt fled from the Church due to his suspicions of Rhea’s involvement in Byleth’s birth. So this is the progenitor god, who was implanted into Byleth by Rhea when they were born in an attempt to resurrect her. Byleth pursues the cultists responsible for Jeralt’s death. A magical attack by one of their leaders forces Sothis to merge with Byleth, allowing them to survive and defeat the cult members with a newly empowered Sword of the Creator.  Rhea makes a futile attempt to awaken Sothis within Byleth, but the Flame Emperor attacks the ceremony with allies from the Adrestian Empire.

The Flame Emperor is revealed to be Edelgard, who like Byleth bears the Crest of Flames; she accuses the Church of being corrupt. If Byleth sides with Edelgard, they help her lead an assault on Garreg Mach. If they side with Rhea, Dimitri, or Claude, then they help in the defense of the monastery; Rhea is also revealed to be a dragon. Regardless of the side chosen, Byleth is knocked unconscious at the end of the battle and wakes up five years later, discovering that Fódlan has plunged into war as the Empire, Kingdom, Alliance, and Church battle each other. The routes then diverge.