Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

This game is a spin-off of Fire Emblem Three Houses which is a turn-based strategy game while this is a real-time action game. I normally only prefer turn-based gameplay but really found the action gameplay here fun and approachable anyway. Also there is still a strategy element where you can pause mid-action at any time to direct ally unit actions on the map. Three Hopes is best played after Three Houses because the narrative stories will have more meaning, but it can still be played stand-alone since it’s an alternate timeline and not a sequel. Pros: Great to see character favorites again in a new way. Tons of new fantastic support conversations between characters that really make you care (this was my favorite personally and ranged from heartwarming to hilarious). Lots of new characters (some even playable) that were only ever on the peripheral or mentioned in passing in Three Houses. Fun battle system and combat graphics/effects. Accessible with multiple difficulty levels for all player types. Solid multiplayer option. High replay value with multiple routes and great optional new game plus content carryover of character levels, classes, supports, items, gold, renown, upgrades, and more so you can continue to build and customize without starting over unless you want to. Cons (semi-spoilers): Three Hopes seemed darker than Three Houses. Story plot narratives felt incomplete (going to make an Alois kind of comment and say they could use more hope for a game with “hopes” in the title). Three Hopes does not have character ending cards like Three Houses which I really missed. Decisions just didn’t make sense sometimes (like let’s go out of our way to save people we acknowledge will try to destroy us eventually while destroying the people who wouldn’t while not telling them why… “it’s the only way” somehow). Shez as the new main character in Three Hopes is interesting but obtuse, and they may not be a good personality match for some who might end up preferring the quieter Byleth in Three Houses which left more to the player’s imagination to superimpose their preferences. Additionally, there was often too much uncertainty in whether a fight was to the death or just a retreat/surrender. For players like me who liked to recruit as much as possible in Three Houses to avoid fighting/killing, that’s not as often a choice in Three Hopes since way more characters are route locked and cannot be recruited outside of that route. You must play all routes to unlock all items and characters, and the characters can then only be used in a separate section to replay old maps (not in a route story unless they’re recruitable in that route). The route locks do make more narrative sense in Three Hopes than Three Houses when considering character backgrounds, but it makes Three Hopes harsher to play. While I liked 3 out of 4 of the routes in Three Houses, I ended up only liking 1 of the routes in Three Hopes and found parts of the others too uncomfortable. I’m a Blue Lions fan though and players have different preferences. However, the initial story chapters for all routes were all great since they felt really well developed exploring region-specific issues and interesting background details that left me wanting more of that. Three Houses was one of my favorite video games of all time (plus my favorite in the Fire Emblem series after knocking Path of Radiance from 1st), and if you liked it too then Three Hopes is a 100% necessity even with the cons. Definitely recommended.