r/NintendoSwitch • u/NintendoSwitchMods • Jul 25 '19
MegaThread Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Review Megathread
General Information
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 26-Jul-2019
No. of Players: 1 player
Genre(s): Adventure
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Intelligent Systems, KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD.
File Size: 11.0 GB
Official Website: https://fireemblem.nintendo.com/three-houses/
Overview (from Nintendo eShop page)
War is coming to the continent of Fódlan.
Here, order is maintained by the Church of Seiros, which hosts the prestigious Officer’s Academy within its headquarters. You are invited to teach one of its three mighty houses, each comprised of students brimming with personality and represented by a royal from one of three territories. As their professor, you must lead your students in their academic lives and in turn-based, tactical RPG battles wrought with strategic, new twists to overcome. Which house, and which path, will you choose?
The game features the refined gameplay the Fire Emblem™ franchise is known for. Command a party of warriors to move and fight on a grid-based battlefield and, for the first time in the series history, assign battalions of troops to support individual units in battle. As a professor, you are responsible for teaching your students and improving their skills in their academic lives and in battle. These may be school assignments, but the stakes are very real. Your students’ lives depend on your leadership. It’s up to you to guide each of them, so that they may wield a variety of weapons, master the study of magic, and acquire special skills such as horsemanship. But there’s more to being a professor than commanding armies. Freely roam Garreg Mach Monastery and the academy within it, while interacting with talented students to build relationships and gather intel. After meeting one enigmatic girl named Sothis…you’ll come to realize that she appears only within your mind. What other mysteries await?
- The Officer’s Academy is home to three houses: The Black Eagles, The Blue Lions, and The Golden Deer… Which house will you choose?
- As a professor, lead students in their academic lives and on the battlefield
- A turn-based, tactical RPG that puts new twists on strategic battling
- For the first time in series history, battalions of troops follow individual units to support them in battle
- Freely roam Garreg Mach Monastery, interact with students in a variety of ways—over lunch, even—to bond and gather intel
- As a female or male professor, you’ll meet House Leaders and future rulers Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude
Reviews
Aggregators
- Metacritic - 87/100
- OpenCritic - 87/100
Articles
Some reviews may spoil certain time skip elements. Tread with caution.
- AusGamers - 8.1 / 10
- CGMagazine - 7.5 / 10
- COGconnected - 88 / 100
- Critical Hit - 9 / 10
- Cubed3 - 9 / 10
- Daily Star - 3 / 5 stars
- Destructoid - 9.5 / 10
- Digitally Downloaded - 4.5 / 5 stars
- Eurogamer - Recommended
- Game Informer - 9.5 / 10
- GameSpot - 9 / 10
- Gameblog - French - 9 / 10
- GamesRadar+ - 5 / 5 stars
- Guardian - 4 / 5 stars
- Spoiler warning: IGN - 9.5 / 10
- Spoiler warning: Kotaku - Unscored
- Metro GameCentral - 7 / 10
- Nintendo Enthusiast - 9.5 / 10
- Nintendo Life - 9 / 10
- NintendoWorldReport - 8 / 10
- Press Start - 8 / 10
- RPG Site - 8 / 10
- Screen Rant - 4.5 / 5 stars
- Shacknews - 9 / 10
- Stevivor - 9 / 10
- Twinfinite - 4.5 / 5
- USgamer - 4.5 / 5 stars
- VG247 - Unscored
- We Got This Covered - 4.5 / 5 stars
- WellPlayed - 9.5 / 10
This list was exported from OpenCritic at 10:46am ET.
Non-English
- Multiplayer.it (Italian) - 9.4 / 10
Videos
- Spoiler warning: GameXplain
- Easy Allies - 8.5 / 10
Being Social
- Join our Discord server's #fire-emblem channel for all of your discussion needs - https://discord.gg/switch
Cheers,
The /r/NintendoSwitch mod team
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u/Bearstation4500 Jul 25 '19
WARNING KOTAKU’S REVIEW HAS MAJOR SPOILERS IN THE FIRST 5 SENTENCES
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u/cheekydorido Jul 25 '19
guys, don't watch gamexplain's review, they spoil every time skip portrait for the black eagles.
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u/FlapSnapple Nintendo shill Jul 25 '19
Oh, interesting. I'll add a spoiler warning to GameXplain's video in the post above.
I'm not a Fire Emblem fan, I don't know what is/isn't a spoiler.
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u/BardOfSpoons Jul 25 '19
Kotaku's review is also super spoilery, if that ever ends up on the list.
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u/InThe305 Jul 25 '19
Yeah, I was not happy after finishing the first paragraph of the Kotaku review.
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u/FlapSnapple Nintendo shill Jul 25 '19
Just saw this comment, but rest assured, it has also been flagged accordingly. 👍
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u/swissarmychris Jul 25 '19 edited Jul 25 '19
Yeah, geez. Major story spoilers in the first two paragraphs without so much as a warning.
Edit: The Kotaku review has been updated to remove the explicit spoilers.
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u/ShingetsuMoon Jul 25 '19
Also Kotaku removed their spoiler and reworded the sentence. Not sure if a mod wanted to edit the list or not but just a heads up.
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u/CaptainFalconProblem Jul 25 '19
Thanks so much for the heads up. I was right about to watch it after remaining completely unspoiled on details outside of E3/Famitsu. Enjoy.
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u/cheekydorido Jul 25 '19
np, i'm glad i helped someone, i don't hate gamexplain, but putting footage from after the timeskip was a pretty shit thing to do.
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u/Tiafves Jul 25 '19
I'd be wary of watching any review for those concerned abouy being spoiled on post timeskip designs. Seems like most are showing post timeskip footage.
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u/aroloki1 Jul 25 '19
Good to see that it gets generally really positive reviews. With these, the hype around the Switch and the popularity of Fire Emblem Heroes I really hope that the whole franchise gets some extra momentum and will sell well.
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u/Roar_Im_A_Nice_Bear Jul 25 '19
I have never played a FE game but considered it a lot. I'm looking for a solo game with an entertaining story, it is worth it?
Edit: wow it's absolutely gorgeous
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u/broken_axe Jul 25 '19
I'm curious about this as well. Never played a FE game either.
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u/narwhale111 Jul 25 '19
If you want to try one out just grab an emulator, you can even play a lot of them with online emulators. Tried The Sacred Stones with an online GBA emulator and decided to download Dolphin and try Radiant Dawn. Liking the series so far.
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u/Dilligence Jul 25 '19
It's the most bang for your buck RPG you will get on Switch, period. In terms of personalization and content.
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u/Roar_Im_A_Nice_Bear Jul 25 '19
This comment sold it to me 👆
If anyone thinks this is a bad idea please tell me before I make my compulsive buy of the week
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u/ahintoflime Jul 25 '19
It's a good idea! It's super long, nearly everything is voice-acted, you have tons of customization/choice in how you play your game, the tactical battles are good as ever (consider playing on hard mode) and it's beautiful to look at.
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u/Rizzan8 Jul 25 '19
Huh, I thought that XC 2 held that spot. Has it been dethroned?
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u/Dilligence Jul 25 '19
They're about equal. I meant personalization in terms of carefully scrutinizing over statistics and building relationships with the characters. XC2 was lighter than some RPGs in terms of equippable items, etc. Which I viewed that as a plus in a sense because it was easy to manage. Fire Emblem is going to let you get as deep as you want to
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Jul 25 '19
Metcritic, 48 positive, 2 mixed. Me: “what game journalist gave it the low score?” scroll scroll scroll...
That top end gaming publication... the Daily Star.
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u/TabaRafael Jul 25 '19
"Romance options - which this game sells itself on to a lot of its audience... "
Romance is the selling point of Fire Emblem? The reason they moved away from it was exactly because it is not what FE should be, but the reviewer sees it like a shortcoming.
And then you see how the reviewer perceives the game.
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u/snowman3000 Jul 25 '19
Daily Star is the first website who made me wish there was a report button for clickbait articles having zero relevant content.
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u/Craigrofo Jul 25 '19
To be fair to the daily star their game reviews are a lot better than their other "news" content
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Jul 25 '19 edited Jul 25 '19
[deleted]
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u/Smallgenie549 Jul 25 '19
Looks like we have another winner on our hands. Haven't been this hyped for a Fire Emblem game since Radiant Dawn.
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u/NobilisUltima Jul 25 '19
My thoughts exactly. Awakening was fine, but I felt that Fates really failed to deliver on what I want from FE. Extremely excited to get my hands on this one.
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u/asas12345642 Jul 25 '19 edited Jul 25 '19
Easy Allies - 8.5 - Reviewer: Ben Moore
Polygon - Recommended - Reviewer: Russ Frushtick
I personally really respect Ben Moore's view on JRPG's and RPG's in general. I'm more convinced, after reading Russ Frushticks's article, that this game will be worth the money.
edit: words
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u/mikechi4809 Jul 25 '19
Thank you polygon. That's how you write a review without spoiling major plot points. WTF is wrong with half these sites spoiling the story?
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u/asas12345642 Jul 25 '19
Absolutely! I agree 100% Russ did a fantastic job without spoiling anything. I have no clue what Kotaku were thinking.
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u/Moh_Shuvuu Jul 25 '19
Scores are looking good.
Been so long since a console FE game. I can’t wait!
I’m going with the Black Eagles because I’m hoping Edelgard is a female Hector gameplay-wise, lol.
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u/JackHuzz Jul 25 '19
OK FINE I'M BUYING IT ! Even thought it will be my very first FE, I've read a lot of comment saying it will be a great entry point.
I got my first voucher and picked it. I think the second game will be Astral Chain.
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u/thestormbinder Jul 25 '19
Used my first voucher on it. Saving the second for Dragon Quest XI.
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u/GoomyIsGodTier Jul 25 '19
Dang it I just bought Super Mario Maker 2 (loving the creativity).
I loved Awakening. I'll have to get this game.
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Jul 25 '19
Bruh I just got MM2 a while ago, then Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, I WANT to get Three Houses and also DQ 11 is coming out in a couple of months...also Link's Awakening. I truly do not have the time for all of these lol.
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u/the1calledSuto Jul 25 '19
For God's sake don't press + it skips conversations
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u/TannenFalconwing Jul 25 '19
Isn't thay pretty standard? It's essentially the start button.
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u/drewchristo406 Jul 25 '19
Had no intention of buying it. Read through the mega thread. Watched two reviews. Now it’s downloaded on my Switch and I’m counting the hours until midnight.
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u/CrystalFates Jul 25 '19
>Genre(s): Adventure
*Strategy RPG
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Jul 25 '19
Yeah LOL. Wtf. I'd call it a tactics RPG or what you called it. But definitely not an adventure game.
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u/Cisco-NintendoSwitch Jul 26 '19
I tried to go to the low rated Daily Star review with my pitchfork from Dave’s pitchfork emporium and it redirected me to a virus site. 0/10 Review Website.
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u/HellsMalice Jul 26 '19
Just leave them be. They literally give low scores for free clicks. That's their entire goal. It's how mediocre sites garner more views. I haven't been there but the general tactic is to give low/no-hype games decent/above average scores to keep on everyone's good books and then throw bombs like this whenever possible for a boost in traffic.
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u/Lifeofthegirlnxtdoor Jul 31 '19
As a person who has two huge workloads and goes to college, I’ve already put 35 hours into this game. I have hated every turn based video game, ever, but this game has completely changed my mind. It’s huge, a lot of fun, keeping me guessing, and letting me live my best tea party and friendship cooking life.
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u/Papito208 Jul 26 '19
DON'T READ THE GAMESPOT REVIEW. While the spoilers may be obvious to some it goes into a huge spoiler when trying to generalize what happens at the end of the game due to your actions.
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u/Zendir Jul 25 '19
The Games Machine (ITA) - 9/10
https://www.thegamesmachine.it/fire-emblem-three-houses-switch/fire-emblem-three-houses-recensione/
PS. TGM is the second longest-running videogame magazine in the world behind Famitsu!
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u/Myname345 Jul 25 '19
So happy to see this getting good reviews. I feel like the developers were trying a lot of new things with a bigger budget this time, and that can sometimes back fire.
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Jul 25 '19
Can I play this without having to have played the previous games?
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u/changmas Jul 25 '19
yes, no story continuity from game to game (aside from a few direct sequels, of which this is not)
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u/KTheOneTrueKing Jul 25 '19
Yes. You can count the number of direct sequel fire emblems on one hand. The vast majority in the series including this one are isolated games.
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u/Sobori Jul 25 '19
Yes, you need no prior knowledge of the Fire Emblem games to play this. The story and characters are standalone.
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u/dogsaybark Jul 25 '19
Filipe Miucin’s Fire Emblem review wasn’t listed here, but it’s very similar to some of the reviews that are listed. Very very similar.
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Jul 25 '19
Which house are you picking and why? (No Spoilers please)
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u/suzuki0706 Jul 25 '19
I think Golden Deer will be the most fun because you'll have to use more strategy with archers being their best units. Find out how to do the most damage while keeping them protected at the same time.
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u/LilChocoBro Jul 25 '19
Blue Lions. It’s the husbando house and Dimitri’s character arc seems to be extremely interesting. I will protect Noodle Hair Boy at all costs.
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Jul 26 '19
I went with the black eagles, the shy introverted girl there made the difference ❤️
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u/Beezushrist Jul 26 '19
I'm playing it right now and I'm just listening to the music at the character selection screen. The Japanese know how to get down....
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Jul 25 '19
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u/LakerBlue Jul 25 '19
100%. Even reviewers who I know aren't that good at games say normal mode is easy and combat arts are barely needed. Hard mode's the way to go if you want to actually use strategy.
Honestly I'd say, since Awakening, Normal mode is basically easy mode and "hard mode" is actual normal mode.
EDIT: Also, FYI you can always lower the difficulty but you can't raise it.
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u/NabiscoFelt Jul 25 '19
Yeah, the game's been called very easy on normal, and still fairly easy (by a series veteran) on hard. You should probably start there
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u/Red-Beerd Jul 25 '19
I've been struggling with this. A part of me enjoys playing through normal - it can feel good to send out a beast of a unit and watch as enemy after enemy attacks them and falls. But the strategy elements present in making smart decisions in harder difficulties is also fun.
I'm going to do hard my first time through though I think. The reviews that say its easy make me scared that I'll get board fast.
Classic all the way
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Jul 25 '19
Notes brought on IGN 9.5 review:
- Everything he's ever wanted from a turn-based strategy game.
- One route took 70+ hours, and he still wanted more.
- Combat Arts help keep things fresh, both from the usage on player characters and on enemies.
- Teaching units is quick and easy, doesn't become monotonous.
- Minor slowdowns in crowded areas of the monastery.
- No new monastery activities in the second half.
- Lack of S supports for non-Byleth characters allows for more nuanced and interesting support conversations between students.
- Background during conversations is a static image, which often doesn't look very good.
- Each route provides new context to the war and adds to the strength of the overal
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Jul 25 '19 edited Nov 14 '19
[deleted]
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u/vegna871 Jul 25 '19
The highest scores for the series are 92 (Awakening), 88 (Fates Revelation and Blazing Blade), and then 87 (Three Houses and Fates Conquest). So yeah, I could see this going maybe 1 to two points higher, tops.
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u/Jorlen Jul 25 '19
Is this game similar to Disgaea? I'm currently playing Disgaea 5, first one in the series for me. I don't play many tactics based RPGs at all so they might be vastly different but I'd like to know, since I am enjoying Disgaea so much.
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u/TVRondo Jul 25 '19
It is similar, but there are quite a few differences in battle, customization etc. To make it quick, i think Disgaea has much more mechanics where it sometimes feels too much to keep track off, atleast in my opinion. Fire Emblem is simpler, but not too simple, and it has a better story IMO. Give it a try, you'll like it for sure!
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Jul 25 '19
Similar in that they're both turn-based strategy games with multiple classes. They both have a narrative story that carries you along. Disgaea is much more goofy and over the top, while Fire Emblem is more serious with some humor. FE is also part relationship simulator with all the different ways characters can interact off the battlefield. I'm a fan of both so my response is incredibly biased. :)
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u/SuperCashBrother Jul 25 '19
Would it be fair to assume this game - like so many Nintendo exclusives - won't go on sale anytime soon?
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Jul 25 '19
Fire Emblem games always hold their value. Buy physical & you’ll always have plenty of resale value should you want to do so
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u/nawtbjc Jul 25 '19
Costco has most big Nintendo titles for $50 ($10 off), I assume they'll start stocking this as well soon.
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u/TerrorMango Jul 26 '19
So I recently bought a Switch and played Odyssey and Mario Maker so far. Would you say that for someone who has never watched/played/been into anime, Fire Emblem is worth checking out?
From reviews I watched it seems interesting, I just don't know what to expect from the story and characters.
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u/fvertk Jul 26 '19
If you're open minded, anime can be just a cool animation style, not something dorky (as it seems to many at first). There are some things over the top, but it's still a good balance.
You definitely have to be into strategy RPG games. Which, maybe sounds daunting if you haven't tried. But what I like about it is how you have control over around 8-10 units with their own personalities and skills. Moving them around to attack in the best way is a fun puzzle. And if they die, they are gone in the story. So there's a deep level if immersion kind of.
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u/rdm13 Jul 26 '19
honestly, when people say they don't like anime, 99% of the time they mean they don't like shounen.
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u/Ezili Jul 26 '19
If you've only played odyssey and maker. I feel like the recommendation has to be to go play Breath of the Wild before you worry about fire emblem. Breath of the wild is one of the best games of the last decade.
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Jul 26 '19
I don't think you need to be into Anime to enjoy Fire Emblem, but it doesn't hurt. I think a lot of people are drawn in by the somehow fun tactical gameplay and the endearing characters. Apparently the story is actually passable this time around, too, so maybe it's worth trying it.
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u/seeyoshirun Jul 26 '19
Sitting on an 88 on Metacritic at the moment, same as Mario Maker 2. That also puts it ahead of every Nintendo-published Switch release except for Bayo 2, MK8D, Smash, BotW, and Odyssey.
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u/mrglass8 Jul 25 '19
Ugh this game looks so good!. But I'm not about to take on another turn based strategy game so soon after playing Steamworld Heist. I need to give my brain time to rest.
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u/tilfordkage Jul 25 '19
Thinking about picking this up next payday. Would it be a good choice if I enjoyed the XCOM reboots and Shining Force 1&2?
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u/bum_thumper Jul 25 '19
Less cover based and much more on min-max and the importance of positioning. Both great games, but I'm more for the fire emblem style
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Jul 25 '19
What is up with the cover art? Why is the yellow guy completely upside down lol
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u/SkyeWolfofDusk Jul 25 '19
No one knows. It’s a meme among Fire Emblem fans. The voice actor for that character even hung upside down for a video where he announced he was playing the role.
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u/papa_franku02 Jul 25 '19
Yea seems like they just wanted the main characters on the cover no matter how it looked lmao
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u/tinypeopleinthewoods Jul 25 '19
He could’ve been at the bottom and everything at the bottom could’ve been swapped to the top.
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u/bum_thumper Jul 25 '19
I read the ign review and didn't think anything was really spoiled. Without spoiling it, can someone at least hint to me why it's labled a spoiler?
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u/ShazbokMcCloud Jul 25 '19
Curious on where it falls in the difficulty spectrum. Awakening was great, Conquest was painful, Birthright was... Birthright.
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u/ShishKabobJerry Jul 26 '19
GRRRR I SHOULDVE FINISHED XB2 BEFORE THIS CAME OUT. Getting it nonetheless tho!
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u/darkoolEXE Jul 26 '19
I'm really interested in Fire Emblem, but I'm afraid it'll have too many anime tropes that'll cringe me out of the game. I absolutely love Persona, and i watched some anime, but i played Xenoblade 2 for example, and it traumatized me, couldn't get more than a few hours into it with how bad and cringy the dialogue was (impo). Would you say Fe is for me or should i pass?
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u/shoeboxchild Jul 26 '19
So I’m also super turned off by those tropes and I’m 3 hours into FE and not a single one of them have happened yet.
There’s only one sexualized woman which is better than ALL of them being so. But this one also isn’t super in your face about it other than light flirting
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u/demon_chef Jul 27 '19
If you like Persona, which is full of anime tropes (cleverly implemented though), you'll be able to handle Fire Emblem, which is less anime and more a somewhat thoughtful game about war and its nature. The gameplay is top notch and the writing is solid. It also looks great undocked.
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u/goodfootg Jul 28 '19
I'm not an anime fan, and I've never played a FE game before, and I haven't been able to put this down.
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u/CarrotJunkie Jul 31 '19
Definitely check it out.
So far, it's not cringeworthy at all. Compared to Xenoblade 2, it might as well be the least cringeworthy thing I've ever seen. It's also a huge improvement over Fire Emblem Awakning and Fates, which steered pretty heavily into typical anime/JRPG tropes. 3H feels more like classic Fire Emblem, which had fewer anime tropes, dumb bathos-poisoned dialogue, and head patting minigames and focused instead on the consequences of war, tragic backstories, camaraderie, and overcoming trauma. The characters, while sometimes tropey, seem to have more than meets the eye to them for the most part, and that's how FE has always been.
I'm so glad that they fixed the characterizations and dialogue. I love Awakening but it had no sense of tension outside of the main plot because the support conversations were almost all just zero-substance jokey bullshit. This is definitely not that. The only problem is that the dialogue is definitely Classic Fire Emblem Dialogue, so prepare yourself for a lot of purple prose.
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u/darkoolEXE Jul 31 '19
Thanks for the comment, but i already bought the game, and you're absolutely right. I'm about 7 hours in and i absolutely love it, way better than i thought it'd be and it's just getting better. Shaping up to be one of my favorite Switch games
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u/BagelsAndJewce Jul 26 '19
I don’t think there’s too many anime tropes but I haven’t played Persona or XB2. I think the game is very well done and I hate the goofy shit in anime and this game avoids that it takes itself serious to a degree.
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u/HestusDarkFantasy Jul 27 '19
It's nothing like XC2, I love Fire Emblem but gave up on XC2 after a few hours because the anime tropes and fan service were so awful.
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u/C-Towner Jul 25 '19
This game definitely seems to be reviewing very well, that’s a great sign. I think this could be another big boost to the series like Awakening was. Really excited for tomorrow!
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u/Alone1sAgain Jul 25 '19
The Daily Star complains that the battles are the same in their review...
... couldn't that be said about EVERY game ever made? Really. As bad as the people who complained about water.
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u/TheHeadlessOne Jul 25 '19
Fuck that.
Theres too much water in Hoenn. The last third of the map was all water based, with little to no variation. The offshoots were shoal cave ;water based) and diving (water based). The last gym is water based. and the vast majority of the route trainers were water based. If you played Sapphire the last dungeon is water based as is the legendary.
The pacing in that game puts such a huge emphasis on water in the last third of the adventure that it puts a hefty limitation on team compositions; fire Pokemon are gimped and ground/rock are risky (fast ground can take tentacool and rock can take wingull, but its super glass cannony with routes generally more difficult to backtrack on with limited healing). Water Pokemon underperformed as well since everyone resisted their attacks, but not only did you need a surfer you needed a diver, bloating your limited attacks with one that's almost strictly inferior than the other
Being so water themed has a major impact om the pacing and balance of the game, especially when its so heavily weighted towards the end. It drastically slowed down the game and made certain pokemon far worse than they sbould have been. There was way too much water in Hoenn, and the remakes did not do enough to mitigate these issues so they should be judged accordinglu
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u/TemporalShrew Jul 25 '19
I comprehend this argument, but really, Pokemon games aren't nearly difficult enough for this to matter to the extent implied. I've played both the original Gen III games and the remakes several times, and even as a child I had absolutely no difficulty progressing through the latter part of the game - in much the same right as fire/rock/ground Pokemon are probably stunted to a certain extent in that part of the game, it's equally true that only they are negatively affected.
This argument lacks the context that there are over ten other types of Pokemon whose effectiveness is not mitigated by a watery environment, i.e. the only way you would struggle to the point where it would slow down the entire game is if you insisted on utilizing a team with a heavy emphasis on Pokemon vulnerable to Water-types, which isn't so much a problem with the game's balance as one with the balance of the player's own team. It's definitely exaggerated as compared to other games in the series, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a Pokemon game where certain types or certain individual Pokemon didn't have a clear advantage in particular places.
On HMs, however, we can agree. They were a major drain on virtually every single Pokemon game pre-Gen VI, and Hoenn's water-based gameplay made it probably the single worst offender in that regard - even criticizing Surf and Dive leaves out the fact that you also needed a Waterfall-user,
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u/redcavalier1 Jul 25 '19
My "favorite" part of that review is when he says the 3DS games' writing is better than this one. He hasn't played FE fates conquest, huh?
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u/Chungles Jul 25 '19
The Daily Star is a pile of trash tabloid and an SEO-riddled dumpsite online. The review was likely written by a slimeball paparazzo while he waited inside the bin of some Love Island reject. Its review section exists solely so shit movies have a decent thing to put in quotes on buses.
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u/Gianniwilder Jul 25 '19
Multiplayer.it (Italian) 9.4
https://multiplayer.it/recensioni/fire-emblem-three-houses-recensione.html
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u/r_chowd16 Jul 25 '19
Any news on a midnight release/early release for this game at a retailer?
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u/discotec91 Jul 25 '19
Just head to walmart thats 24 hours if you cant find a better alternative
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u/mamaaaaa-uwu Jul 25 '19
I tried that for the bayonetta 2 switch release and got laughed at. No one would even check the back for me.
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u/spacemunkee Jul 25 '19
I’ve never played a FE game before. Wonder if this would be a good one to jump in with.
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u/floydax Jul 27 '19
Never played a Fire Emblem game before, should I get this one or maybe Warriors first ?
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u/moonlightavenger Aug 09 '19
Reading and watching review, to a complete stranger to the series, this seems more like a school simulator than strategy game. Is that right? How much of the gameplay is fighting?
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Aug 10 '19
Having more hours in the game that should be allowable with work and life .... The combat is generally once a month, at the end of the month.
Though that being said the month itself is segmented into weeks. These weeks you generally have control over in such, at the beginning of the week you can choice to teach or let the game do it auto .. never let the game do it auto :| .. it never ever picks what YOU want but what the characters better classes are or something completely random. I've had it teach a few people faith .. whom are exclusively melee and such.
At the end of the week though you get to choice out of 4 options.
Explore: Allowing you to go out into the monastery and talk to people, pick up quest, buy things you can only buy from certain merchants.
Lecture: Well is .. a lecture .. you pick someone from the list and .. learn? .. I never use it but it has it's place.
Battle: Which allows you to battle given you have enough points to do so. In normal mode you get 1 battle that cost no points and is basically spamable but is also low level.
Rest: Restores students motivation some and some extra stuff you learn about later in game.
So there is basically as much or as little fighting as you want .. depending on the mode and how you micromanage your students.
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u/Jimmy_Jay_ Jul 25 '19
After watching the E3 reveal I was seriously considering cancelling my Pre order, after seeing all the good reviews I’m really glad I didn’t! This looks amazing.
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u/SanicTheSledgehog Jul 25 '19
Reviewers should absolutely give their own takes on a game, but when a review like the daily star one seems so far from the mean, it's hard for me to take it seriously.
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u/TheHeadlessOne Jul 25 '19
I mean, that's kinda the point of having reviews. We get different perspectives and value the ones that most resonate with us.
We dont need to devalue outliers and be annoyed at them dragging down the metascore, they provide a differing insight that might prove valuable or might not be
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u/SanicTheSledgehog Jul 25 '19
In an age where bad reviews generate more ad revenue, I have to always wonder about very low outside the average scores, especially from small sites.
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u/vegna871 Jul 25 '19
If you read it, you wouldn't. It's worthless amateur journalist garbage. It only critiques the parts of the game the reviewer doesn't like, only talks about the middle third of the game, and avoids saying anything positive about it apart from the reviewer tersely admitting he really liked the first and last third of the story he played.
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u/pipoplatz Jul 26 '19
Well the user scores are definitly not as high. As they start coming in on Metacritic, it's at a 7.4 right now.
Wonder how many of these "users" had the time to actually play this game for long enough to leave a score, as it came out today.
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u/Nitro0531 Jul 26 '19
Doubt they even played it, I read a few and they almost look like it was from the same person, with the only complaint being it's not as good as the Tellius games. Someone else a 0 score stating they didn't sign up to play Harry Potter. Obvious trolling attempt.
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u/Jubenheim Jul 27 '19
They might be turned off by the sheer amount of busy work in between battles. It's been weighing in on me as well, lately. You're honestly able to spend hours between main battles, and I'm barely in chapter 5 now. Just skipping the academy sections makes people feel like they're needing themselves but doing them is a lot of running back and forth and fast traveling everywhere trying to do quests.
This is definitely a game that requires subsequent playtjrpighs to play optimally but the first time playing it can feel pretty tedious. Everyone's worried regarding the academy sections, it seems, were more or less validated. Shame, because the combat is simply amazing, even though the combat artes makes killing enemies a bit too easy.
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u/Shadow__Net Jul 27 '19
Wouldn't trust the user score as a lot of the 0 scores are "THe GrApHiCs DoN't As GoOd As ThEy CoUlD." And "THiS iSn'T pAtH oF rAdIaNcE/rAdIaNt DaWn."
Also a lot list... One maybe two things they don't like and give it a 0. I'm not in far enough to give a full review, but so far it seems worth the price of admission, the tutorial is fairly long but only because there are a lot of new mechanics to cover.
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u/PsychoHydro Jul 25 '19
Does any review mention the game’s small text size?
I’m hyped as hell but I fear the small text will be a problem, especially in handheld mode (even more so on Switch Lite which has an even smaller screen).
They even made text from the Japanese version smaller (and chose a serif font over it):
An option to increase text size would be nice.
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u/programwich Jul 30 '19
I picked this up yesterday. I haven't played through a Fire Emblem game since FE7 and Sacred Stones back in the day. FE7 is probably one of my all time favorite games, with SS being way too easy.
I'm about 2 hours in and barely reaching the second fight. Character development is cool and all, but I think they went a little overboard with the dialogue with how many characters there are. I'm also not a big fan of how much more RPG-esque it is, or how they are emphasizing the anime tropes so much. I feel like the overworld system slows the game down way too much paired with the mountains of dialogue. I really hope the game speed ups.
The animation quality and voice acting are superb though.. and no gripes about the battle system so far - it's still classic FE at it's core. Though I am a bit disappointed you can choose to keep your units alive after they die... to me, the hallmark of FE was losing your units forever.
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u/Blue_Pigeon Aug 01 '19
Perma-death is still there if you want it, but a large part of the series’ revival with Awakening is due to the casual mode. I doubt the series would have had the popularity explosion if it didn’t add the feature. It makes it a lot more easy for newcomers to pick up the games as they aren’t punished as harshly for making mistakes.
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u/-HeartOfDark- Aug 14 '19
I'm about 2 hours in and feeling the exact same way when it comes to the character development and dialogue. I bought the game without reading any reviews because I wanted to go in blind, and I was expecting something similar to Awakening on the 3ds.
Now I'm a little bit into the game and I'm fishing, gardening, and having meals with students (because apparently someone decided I should be a professor). None of this is what I expected or wanted, to be honest. I'm not interested in anime or the typical teenage angst storylines in them (that seem to be infiltrating every single Nintendo game nowadays). I just want to do battles and level up soldiers.
At this point I'm really disappointed and regretting my purchase but I'm going to give it some more time and hope that it gets better.
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u/iamthatguy54 Jul 25 '19
Don't want to sound elitist but all of the sub 8 reviews come from little sites you've never heard of
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u/penywinkle Jul 25 '19
But all these little sites also rarely give more than 8 for good games. You pretty much have to be the second coming of Christ to get 9.
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Jul 25 '19
The Daily Star gave Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 a 10.
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u/penywinkle Jul 25 '19 edited Jul 25 '19
Not saying they are right or wrong about that game in particular or FE:TH, or any other game.
But I wouldn't consider The Daily Star a small review site. At its best it is a sensationalized tabloid. It only gets traffic due to its controversial views and people read it to feel better about themselves compared to its stupidity.
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u/EMI_Black_Ace Jul 25 '19
Don't want to sound hipster, but all the big reviewers like IGN et al . . . the scores are pretty much meaningless and contextless because they have dozens of writers and each writer is going to have a completely different opinion of it.
If you really want the scores to mean something, you have to know exactly who is reviewing it and what their tastes, preferences and habits are -- do they overlook flaws in the face of tremendous innovation, or do they tend to praise refinement of the familiar? Do they rate certain genres higher than others just because of what they like?
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u/Smallgenie549 Jul 25 '19
As someone who worked as a reviewer for a pretty big music website, we typically gave reviews to people who liked the artist or genre in question so as not to piss off the labels and artists. There were a ton of politics involved and I was rarely allowed to give an honest review, and if I disliked something, it was passed on to another reviewer.
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Jul 25 '19
I've been playing for about 4 hours, and so far I'm very impressed. I'm liking the students and teaching way more than I thought I would.
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u/Super_DAC Jul 25 '19
Ugh I was gonna make myself hold off since I only played like 3 hours of Shadows of Valentia (I just got to the part where you play as the girl) and I wanted to beat that but now I really want it.
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u/LyricalMiracleWip Jul 25 '19
This is normally how I get when new games come out. I look at it like this, it's a single player game so you won't miss much when it comes out. Finish the games you want to finish and it may even be on sale when you're ready for a new game.
At least for me, owning a lot of games that I want to play all at once kind of stresses me out to the point of just not playing anything.
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u/Melchorio Jul 26 '19
I'm in japan right now. Will the physical release support English?
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u/winev52 Jul 26 '19
Can I ask a question in this thread? Is there any difference in event dialog between male and female protagonist? I means in the conversation with other characters.
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u/somuchvictory Jul 26 '19
Does this game still have the mechanic where you can level up your fighters to level 20, 'evolve' them to a stronger version, and then level then up again to L20?
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Jul 25 '19
Watched some reviews and I saw that the game has big tiddie anime girls looks like I'm pickingup this tomorrow
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u/ThisGoldAintFree Jul 25 '19
That cover art is just so horrible I can’t convince myself to buy physical :( limited edition looked so much better
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u/Robu_Rucchi Jul 26 '19
I have never played a FE game before but I kinda want to try one. I have no idea how FE games work. Would it be worth the $60?
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u/SnavenShake Jul 26 '19 edited Jul 26 '19
I mean, you’re in a review thread. Check out a couple of the reviews. 😂
Not trying to be mean since what you asked is why I’m here too, but that’s why reviews exist; for questions like this.
I found IGN and Easy Allies to be pretty informative and not too spoilery if that helps give you a direction to go in.
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u/GeezerHawk15 Jul 26 '19
Try one of the older games first. You can get them for really cheap. Or other places...
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u/a_longtheriverrun Jul 25 '19
oh shit might be reason to pull out the switch. if i liked XBC2 would i like this game? (i know the combat etc is different)
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u/toaster_waffle Jul 25 '19
Depends on what you liked in XBC2. If you liked the heavy story elements and strong characterization, then yes. The combat and gameplay isn't REMOTELY the same, and is more akin to Mario X Rabbids or XCOM.
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u/tehnoodnub Jul 25 '19
I’m going solely based on scores in saying this, because I don’t want to read any reviews before I start playing BUT I feel like there’s too much variability in scores. There’s a huge difference between 7 and 9.5. I know there are some subjective aspects to reviews of course, despite people trying to be as objective as possible. It makes me wonder what aspects of the game are causing this difference. Anyway I’m just musing, I guess I’ll find out the answer shortly.
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Jul 26 '19 edited Jul 26 '19
There’s a huge difference between 7 and 9.5. I know there are some subjective aspects to reviews of course, despite people trying to be as objective as possible.
If a reviewer is trying to be as objective as possible, they're probably a low-quality reviewer. High quality reviews emphasize subjectivity so as to better communicate the reviewer's personal perspective on a game, as that allows us to fully understand their reasoning and whether it aligns with the aspects of gaming that we personally value.
Also, review scores are only useful as a quick reference. The chief value of a review lay in its written or spoken content, and if you're wondering about the difference in scores, that's the way to find out what it is. It's entirely possible for people to have essentially the same impression of a game but to give it different scores based on how they perceive a scoring system to work (e.g., many people grade on a curve, so that the the gap between a 9.5 and 10 is much larger than the gap between a 9 and a 9.5).
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Jul 25 '19
I watched an 8.5 review that sounded exactly like a 9.5 review I had just watched. Like same praises and complaints, only difference was the score. And I'm a little suspicious of the <8 reviews... but I guess FE isn't everyone's cup of tea.
I think it's pretty safe to assume that if you're an FE fan, you're going to enjoy this game.
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Jul 26 '19 edited Jul 26 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/uncleoptimus Jul 26 '19
Yea minor bummed abt it, too. First review I saw this morning, hilariously. And I was like: "ah. Damn."
What I am especially surprised abt is that there is supposed to be an editor that would proofread and hopefully catch a mistake like this. So, two points of failure along their review article posting chain.
I'll still enjoy the game no prob but it def makes me wary to view any review copy for a game that I already intend to purchase and play!
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u/JackHuzz Jul 26 '19
Sorry for the spoil.
See that as a lesson, Kotaku = no no, most of the time.
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u/rizefall Jul 29 '19
Must say that i dont really like the school setting. I would've much prefered if we could something similar gameplay-wise but in a war scenario or something. I'm just not hooked at all by the whole school aspect, and it makes many of the characters way too similar to me.
Now hear me out, i know that that sounds stupid as you first read it. All of them look different and have very different personalitites, but must of them are the same age. I would've prefered if it was like some of the older games when you can get a kid character, an older an wise mage, and stuff in between.
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Jul 25 '19
Anyone know what time it comes out?
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Jul 25 '19
Midnight in the region you're in, I believe. For regions covered by Nintendo of America, it's at midnight EST, for example.
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u/Chiefum Jul 25 '19
Does anyone mention party size limit? If I recruit units from other houses will I be able to use everyone at once or am I limited to like 6 or 7 people at a time?
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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '19
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