Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

I’m surprised by the high review score on Amazon. The story is a “What If?” story headed by a painfully bland protagonist that is a poor copy of the Byleth character from Three Houses that never shuts up about being a mercenary. It pushes Byleth from the spotlight into an antagonist you trounce at every turn. After completion, I liked every character from the original game less, and the story never justified its decision for why it told this “what if?” scenario - there is no great alteration or tragedy that results from Byleth’s destiny change from 3H. The character, and daresay, entire story is rendered inconsequential. Gameplay wise, for people seeking a Warriors game, this is NOT a Warriors game. There is far too much busy-work between battles that breaks it up to level up classes, build up a supports, and the most aggravating, building up facilities. Facilities require resources you collect from battles to power up your characters, but you have to go back to camp between battles or else the container becomes “full” - unnecessary busy work. The resource management is not fun, it’s tedious. If you just wanted to kill crap, get better weapons, upgrade your skills real quick, and kill more crap, like a normal Warriors game, you will find your pace interrupted. I expected more from Tecmo…from the company that made Ninja Gaiden, did they really make this? A better approach for this game would’ve just been to let you use your favorite characters from Three Houses, rather than make the player stuck in the Shez merc role, let you mow down enemies, and give unique endings for each character. Because story-wise, the plot is lousy anyway, and gameplay wise, the Harry Potter house you choose at the beginning limits your character roster arbitrarily, which is absurd given you’re at the school for like a month. The merc being thrusted out of the Three Lords story for an outsider perspective, or better yet, working for the Agarthans directly would’ve been far more interesting. Getting to play as the darker villains like Kronya is a missed opportunity. By the way, a LOT of artwork assets from Three Houses is re-used in this game, so a lot of the game does not feel “new.” While not ugly, it’s a wasted opportunity. Two stars, because the art looks nice, and the controls work. Everything else is a disappointment.