All This Time

Three Hopes: A Review

SPOILERS FOR THREE HOPES/ THREE HOUSES: GOLDEN DEER ROUTE.

ooooook guys i know it's been awhile and this book is complete but i need to rant cause i'm so mad LOL

Fire Emblem: Three Hopes came out a couple weeks ago, and I just finished my playthrough yesterday(no longer yesterday lol). My conclusion? The game is utterly haphazard, nonsensical, and just plain bad in a plot sense. It's a game that brims with so much potential; an alternate universe where so many other supports and aspects can be explored, such as the decision to have Monica be an actual person, Claude be the king and a factor of the game, or not have Byleth even join the monastery. But the good decisions are just not worth it. The plot is inherently bad. We jump from fighting the Empire to the Kingdom then Arval then the last chapter, suddenly switching to Rhea before the game abruptly concludes, only semi-sweetened by a letter from Claude, where there is still no conclusion on the future. There are no usages of supports (in the ending) like in previous games, no concrete end. Fódlan is still at war, and Edelgard and Dimitri don't know that they'll accept the offer to end the war.

I remember thinking multiple thoughts while I was playing the game. One was that it felt thoroughly unfinished. With how much the game jumps around and the supports that hardly showed any new character development, I couldn't help but feel something was off. That was only further confirmed when we were suddenly teleported out of our main plot to deal with Arval, the most major of grievances I have. I like-liked Arval. But this is the second to last chapter, and we literally teleported away from the action. It just disrupts the flow of the game, and not to mention still fails to make Shez feel important. In the previous games, Byleth is important. They are the deciding factor in who wins or not. That's because of all the power they have. Yet Shez gets the same deciding factor, but absolutely no pay off to their power. We only hurriedly kill Arval in roughly 7-8 minutes if you want S-Rank, and move on with no other mention. Arval being tied to TWSITD hardly even matters. We fight them for like 3 chapters. I remembered thinking "Claude would have been able to do this without Shez just fine." I never got the sort of sense of dread that Shez was anywhere near as much of an asset as Byleth is.

Speaking of Byleth, we once again failed to explore any in depth for them and Sothis. Now, this could just be a Golden Deer route, but that in itself is an inherent issue. Golden Deer is supposed to be about revealing secrets. Yet the route just feels like a weird branch of Black Eagles. We team up with the Empire, knowing wholeheartedly we will get the short end of the stick (Claude says it himself at some point about territories.) A truce is fine, that's not my issue; it just makes me confused as to what sort of angle they were trying to pull. Clearly this was meant to be a "good ending" compared to three houses morally gray ones, but you sacrificed a well-written game with mistakes (three house's issue of Claude not doing anything/no moral nuance or issue, etc) for one that just creates more issues. Byleth also lacks any supports with the main lords, which is a missed opportunity for some different interactions now that Byleth is not a teacher, nor a good friend from the beginning. They are just Byleth. Presumably Claude might see them as a tool, Edelgard as a valuable asset, Dimitri as someone with just as much blood on his hands. I don't know. about it was a missed opportunity regardless.

A segment on Claude.

We finally get some character development on everyone's favorite little Deer, but it just feels so...bad. The development is that since he is the strategist, he sometimes deploys disgusting tactics. This is seen as when he sacrifices Randolph to kill Catherine, and then he learns and grows to rely on his friends, or whatever. The thing is, from the beginning he has always said "i'm relying on you guys" etc etc. They blame him for not trusting them to help Randolph, but this is war. No, it's not a good decision, but it's not as if he makes these decisions all the time. Regardless, even if you do believe it, I still think the point stands that this development is just boring. I'm not sure what happens to the others in Three Hopes, but we all know that Edelgard has her stalwart commitment to her cause, while also appreciating and missing the days of easier times. Dimitri goes from a polite prince to someone filled with madness, rage, and insanity. Claude...remains the same as he's always been, and this is true still to Three Hopes. The new game was the time to instill something interesting. In comparison, no, Claude's "development" is not interesting or good. It is simply there to placate fans. I would have preferred something Almyran; perhaps he realizes during his fight with Shahid that this was because of parenting, or because of Almyran war, or he actually deals with racism instead of just talking about it,  or something. I don't know. I'm just throwing things out there. I understand that Claude is supposed to be the most morally white; looks shady but is the good guy. But in a game of moral gray, there is no room or interest for white. Or at least this kind of white. Give us a struggle where he feels something over the fact that everyone sees him as bad but he's the only white (sorry that made me laugh) character.

I did really enjoy playing the game. It feels like an actual war in my opinion since you're in the heat of the battle. The miniature base set up made it feel more real/warlike and the map itself is brilliantly designed to show all the different ways you go, and all the places you conquer along the way. I enjoyed the hack and slash, even if it was a bit repetitive and I mastered the classes really quickly. I was initially skeptical of the game as a whole because of it essentially being an AU, but I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game. It's a shame that the plot was just so awful.

Honestly, I hate to say it, but a Revelations Golden End that undermined all the character arcs from Three Houses would have been better. Clearly that was the end goal, anyway, since the three lords are still alive at the end. But it's just.. weird. You kill Rhea because all of a sudden she doesn't deserve any sympathy at all, in contrast to the equal foil/foil her and Edelgard received before. I just found it...weird, and honestly a disappointment. We couldn't play Rhea once again (until new game plus but I don't count that since it's only in record battles) I just don't understand why they are so unwilling to accept Rhea as a character. After all the focus she received in the first game, she suddenly becomes mega 100000% evil? Yes, she has done things wrong; I'm not denying that at all, but why is this suddenly only about how evil she is, and not about any gray? She's just...evil? BUT WHY, WHERES THE INTERESTING-

Ok anyway I need to be stopped. So I'll just give a quick synopsis.

All in all, despite my initial skepticism of an official AU, I was excited to play Fire Emblem Three Hopes, Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the lackluster and nonsensical plot as well as the undercut characters and their development. Everyone feels like a weird shell of their former self, with only a few positive examples of chnage (Leonie, ...uh. Leonie? lmao.) Despite being a more interesting character than Byleth, Shez lacks any sort of real substance. They just...try to kill Byleth and that's it. I'm sure that the other routes are better and more interesting because the Golden Deer are often shafted for more popular characters, but this frustrates me.

The route has such a potential, and after the failure that was Verdant Wind, I was really looking forward to something better. It's a shame that the halfhearted plot didn't do Claude, Shez, Edelgard, or Dimitri any kind of justice.

Gameplay: 9.5
Aesthetic: 10
Character Designs: 7.5 (what the hell is Caspar-)
Supports: 5
Opportunities Missed: Everything-
Plot: 0

Overall rating: 3