The first time I met Fire Emblem I fell in love with him. And it was not taken for granted. After all, strategies and turn-based combat have never been my forte. Yet the Intelligent System saga, with that strong narrative component, with those characters who seem to come out of an anime and with its incredible replayability, has bewitched me.
Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes however it is another thing.
Omega Force has taken the place of Intelligent System with the aim of creating a musou, therefore a game where the protagonist has to face hundreds of enemies relying on an amazing strength. You understand well that, on paper, we are facing very different philosophies, yet it works.
Yes, you got it right. Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes is not an unsuccessful attempt to create a spin-off. On the contrary, we are faced with a satisfying and fun title, capable of regulating dozens of hours of entertainment to all those who want to give it a chance.
But let’s go in order and try to understand what are the ingredients of this effective albeit unusual formula.
Da Three Houses a Three Hopes
Nel 2019 uscì Fire Emblem Three Houses.
On that occasion Intelligent System and Koei Tecmo gave us the opportunity to join one of the three families of Stone Macha monastery located in Fòdlan central that serves as an academy for officers. Taking on the role of Byleth, we thus found ourselves alongside Dimitri’s Blue Lions, Edelgard’s Black Eagles or Claude’s Golden Deers.
Why are we telling you all this? Because history repeats itself. Almost.
The protagonist of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes it is Shez, a mercenary who rescues the three house leaders from brigands and who becomes a student of Garreg Mach.
The more attentive among you will immediately notice a discrepancy with Three Houses: in the game of 2019 there is no Shev.
So is Omega Force wrong? Of course not. The software house has opted for a kind of alternate reality, a reality in which Byleth is the antagonist and in which the boys leave school prematurely to clash on the pitch, trying to win all the Fòdlan.
Dimitri, Claude e Edelgard
Know that there is no right faction. In fact, the chosen house will allow you to access a different narrative, an element that raises the replayability of the title a lot. To fully understand what happens you will have to work alongside all three rulers, which translates into several hours of play.
All this anticipates what, in our opinion, is the greatest merit of the title: the articulated narrative sector. The story is well told, full of twists and turns and capable of giving due weight to the many characters on the pitch, each of which has its own personality and goal. It is true, this complexity often explodes in particularly long dialogues that perhaps break the pace of the game a little, but on the other hand you will really be able to understand the ambitions and hopes of those around you, building bonds that will also be useful in battle. .
A mix that works
Fire Emblem Three Houses used the typical mechanics of the series. The clashes were in fact on a playing field similar to a chessboard and the player was asked to move his officers with the sole objective of winning the victory, defeating the opponents in 1 vs 1 battles.
Here obviously things change because, as we said before, Three Hopes is a musou. This means that you will move your character to maps on average and with a third-person view. No squabbling and no 1-on-1 fights but hordes of enemies to take down.
The risk was to turn it into a boring hack and slash, not very faithful to the elements that made the Fire Emblem series famous. Luckily Omega Force managed to find the right mix.
The activities of the camp
So how does Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes work?
After going through the prologue and familiarizing yourself with some mechanics, you will find yourself in the middle of a war. At this point you will have your camp, to be upgraded and used to train, acquire new weapons and improve relationships with teammates, e a map of the Fòdlan showing your territories and those to be conquered. By selecting an enemy territory you can prepare for battle studying the map, selecting the right officers and preparing the right equipment, including the skills you can use in battle. Once the preparation is complete, you will be able to take the field, with the possibility of taking on the shoes of other teammates and directing them towards specific objectives. This is where the strategic component of Fire Emblem comes into play also because the purpose of the battle will never be one. Indeed, to make the game more dynamic there are both primary and secondary objectives, objectives that change as the battle unfolds. You will therefore not be able to get distracted. You should always have the full picture and be ready to deploy troops when needed.
Then there is another aspect that makes the clashes particularly satisfying. On the one hand, in fact, we have hundreds of simple soldiers that you can exterminate with a banal chain of moves, on the other you will have generals, myrmidons, captains and much more armored opponents who will require the use of special skills. But be careful because the techniques can be used a limited number of times plus they require a cooldown period, so you need to let them recharge before any reuse. You will also need to consider that special moves affect the durability of weapons so be careful otherwise you may find yourself without a sword at any moment.
Impossible not to mention Shev’s Awakeningwhich makes you invulnerable and allows you to more easily eliminate enemies, and the chance to have an Assistant. That no, he is not one who carries the bags on the field. Basically you can approach a partner and entrust him with this role, a choice that allows you to increase the parameters of the hero and take advantage of additional techniques.
In short, as you may have noticed, Three Hopes is a somewhat anomalous musou, which remains anchored to the genre without betraying the legacy of Fire Emblem.
And the defects?
There are two flaws that I would like to point out to you.
The first is the complexity of the gameplay. It is true that the Omega Force proposal is rich and varied but it is also true that in the first hours of the game you are bombarded with tutorials that try to explain all the mechanics included in the title. This overflowing river of information will likely lead you to miss some important pieces, with the new game mechanics that are introduced in the course of the clashes and interrupt the action, slowing the pace. In short, at some point you will just want to play and you will then be led to skip the long explanations in an attempt to finish the fight.
The second flaw concerns the technical sector, with the soldiers who are really all the same e the camera that tends to put a spoke in the wheel during clashes. It is true that Three Hopes allows you to lock onto the main enemies to stay focused on them but it is also true that this move will not always guarantee you the right view. Everything then becomes more complex when you find yourself facing dozens of enemies in very large spaces, where you will spend most of your time adjusting the camera to be sure to hit all the opponents with your combos.
Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes: conclusioni
Let’s be clear: none of the flaws mentioned make the gaming experience frustrating or unpleasant. Overall indeed Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is undoubtedly a successful experiment, one of those that can potentially bring players closer to the die musou genre and, at the same time, satisfy Fire Emblem lovers. After all we are faced with a title that manages to capture the attention of the players thanks to an intricate and surprising story, which manages to test your skills by constantly changing objectives during the battle and which even helps you. to let off steam after a long day, feeding you an embarrassing amount of enemies to exterminate without any mercy.
In short, for me Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is promoted.
PRO
- Compelling story
- Well-defined characters
- Satisfying fights
- Good dose of strategy
VERSUS
- Lots of tutorials during the initial stages
- Soldiers are all the same
- Uncooperative camera