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Friday, July 26, 2019

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Released; Dorothea Is Pretty Cute

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Convince me to buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

There are people out there who, having never really played a Fire Emblem game before, are looking at the just-released-today Fire Emblem: Three Houses for Nintendo Switch and are asking if they should buy the game.

I'm in another house. I've played several Fire Emblem games, but I'm still asking the same question: should I buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses?

I'm a total elitist for the two Tellius games, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. I adore their collective story (plot-line and themes, which I still reference at least as of two weeks ago), lore, characters, deep gameplay, great music, and even replay value. Within the past month, I just played through Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for at least the 8th time, and I'm suddenly eager to replay Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn as well. (For the fourth and a half time.)

Alternatively, I could just go and buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses. But I'm concerned. I loathe Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates. When people tell me that they saved the franchise and I should be grateful for that, I think that's a stupid thing to say because the franchise would be better off dead than with those games in it, and there hasn't been anything in the series worth the life support. Could Fire Emblem: Three Houses reverse that?

I'm on record saying things like, “Speaking of no buy, here's Fire Emblem: Three Houses.” As well as “Every new news about the Fire Emblem series makes me believe that the Fire Emblem game on the Switch, which will be the first new Fire Emblem game to be on a home console in a decade, will be more like Fire Emblem Awakening (but in high-definition!) than the grandiose and actually amazing Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.” You can't forget “I've left the Fire Emblem series for dead, so screw Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It's UGLY.”

But you know what or who isn't ugly? Dorothea. She's one of the students in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, specifically in the Black Eagle house. In fact, she's pretty. And cute. And I requested fan-art of her. ...And my request was granted. Take a look:

Team Rocket Grunt Dorothea Fire Emblem Three Houses hat cap Pokémon
Dorothea as a Team Rocket Grunt!
(She obviously joined for the fashion sense.)
(Drawn by Summoner Sky, follow her on Twitter.)

It's true that I have been critical (with one exception) of the first two 3DS Fire Emblem games for being oriented around romantic relationships and time-space babies. And it's true that me having a crush on Dorothea and making purchasing decisions based off of that would make me a hypocrite. ...So let's discuss other things.

I don't trust Fire Emblem game reviews in general. Reviewers disliked Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and for awful reasons, but the 3DS games I dislike were critically acclaimed. Clearly I don't share reviewers’ tastes, so the Metacritic high review scores that Fire Emblem: Three Houses possesses don't matter to me.

Adam Vitale's review on RPG Site caught my interest. He starts his review discussing how the game has lore and good characters, and calls out Awakening and Fates for not having that. Good sign. There's a de-emphasis on the romantic aspects.

I'm still looking for a more direct comparison from fellow Tellius fans that tells me if the game is within the realm of being worthy of their legacy. This GameFAQs thread is starting to do that and the preliminary results are positive, but that could just be a honeymoon period. I'm not looking to buy the game right this second, so I'm willing to wait for what others say.

And I'm willing to wait for what you have to say. So go ahead and write in the comments section. (No spoilers, please.)

One more thing: RawkHawk2010 is leading a change.org petition (he's a funny man) directed towards Nintendo of America to have the text size for Fire Emblem: Three Houses increased, because right now he thinks it's way too small and that's a huge barrier to him purchasing it, similar to his problems with Xenoblade Chronicles X's text size and other font-related issues. He also wants it to be a barrier for anyone else interested in the game. Why don't you go and sign his petition? I'm sure this will work out as well as when I asked all of you to Yeah! his Hungrybox Crab video.

Of course, I'm very sympathetic to that cause, and so are all of you—my year-plus-old article directed towards Nintendo of America asking them to increase the font size of their Nintendo eShop card codes is one of the most popular on KoopaTV. Though that may be less of people caring about the font size and more that they're trying to get a free eShop card off of me. ...And you can get a free eShop card off of me by winning the skill-based KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program, but you can't do that just by reading the articles and doing nothing else.

As for me, I guess I'll replay Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn soon, while thinking about Team Rocket Grunt Dorothea. What a cutie.


Ludwig still has an existing backlog, but he already thinks Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is actually kind of terrible and he doesn't even know how to start playing the second level, so that's frustrating all-around. He'll be noting your recommendations and feedback around Fire Emblem: Three Houses closely.


Ludwig purchases Fire Emblem: Three Houses in physical format.
Team Rocket Grunt Dorothea and Summoner Sky received the award for best Guest Art of 2019!

24 comments :

  1. Maybe we should venture into it together, since we're both conflicted.

    Side note: I should also try No More Heroes sometime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since you just wrote on your site that you're in the mood for something shorter, I figure it'll be a while until you'd venture into Three Houses.
      Would this be like you and your friend playing Breath of the Wild together? :p


      No More Heroes as a series are short games!

      Delete
    2. True, yes... but those short games will just be a break before the next long one, which will either be Tales of Vesperia or Three Houses if I get it. (Never mind that I have Judgment and BotW in progress.)

      Yes, it would.

      Didn't Suda51 say he wanted to bring a No More Heroes collection to the Switch?

      Delete
    3. Yeah, Suda51 said he wants to bring NMH1 and NMH2 ported to Switch. Doesn't mean it'll happen. Though I'm surprised NMH3 is even existing at all, so it's not that unlikely.

      Delete
    4. ...Pah, guess that'll be how it is for No More Heroes.

      I still think you should play Color Splash before Three Houses, and I'm fine with waiting for you.

      Delete
    5. Look at the NMH prices!

      Well, I might get my Wii U fired up to play Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, so maybe then I'll consider playing Color Splash too... Maybe...

      Delete
    6. Whoa, $100 for No More Heroes 2.

      Unlike Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, No More Heroes 2 is not worth $100.

      (I've been playing Radiant Dawn on the Wii all day!)

      Delete
    7. Even used copies are around $40-$50, so yeah... waiting for that collection, please.

      ....and Path of Radiance is about $100 for a disc-only copy, what the heck?

      Delete
    8. I argue that the prices for the Tellius games are worth it and comparable to the 3DS games + DLC:

      https://www.koopatv.org/2018/07/price-of-tellius-fire-emblem-vs-modern.html

      Delete
    9. But you'd just get a disc. :( And possibly a scratched disc, at that! (My willingness to buy used games depends on the condition of the game.)

      Delete
    10. I actually can't fathom getting a disc without a case.

      Cartridge/card, yeah, that's easy. But a disc? Yikes.

      Delete
    11. Most I've seen come in a case, just a generic CD case. Although I see at least one on Ebay that has no case at all shown, so I don't know if they ship a carefully-wrapped disc or what. XD

      Delete
    12. Assuming you get a generic CD case, is that a deal-breaker?

      Delete
    13. For that price, kinda. Maybe not so much if the disc itself is in good condition.

      Delete
    14. I assume the disc is in good condition (it works and it'll stay working) because otherwise it's kinda fraud.

      But you really have no way of knowing if the disc is in good condition. Well, you could strike up a conversation with the seller.

      Delete
    15. They often include pictures. If not, you can ask. I was recently shopping for Silent Hill 3 on Ebay, and after talking to one seller (who changed the condition from "like new" to "good" after I inquired about scratches), I found another listed in "perfect" condition, with pictures of the disc that showed it wasn't scratched or anything.

      Delete
    16. But how do you know the pictures aren't FAKE NEWS?

      Delete
    17. I'm not entirely sure what Ebay's protections are, but I'm certain you could get your money back if the seller misrepresented the product to the point of having fake pictures.

      Also, we were just talking about this! https://gematsu.com/2019/07/grasshopper-manufacturer-in-talks-with-marvelous-to-bring-earlier-no-more-heroes-titles-to-new-platforms

      Delete
    18. "YES. I rarely rebuy games, but I'd be more than willing to make an exception here." - commenter there, wanting to buy Travis Strikes Again TWICE. (I wouldn't recommend it once, so far.)

      To be fair, the actual article interview portion is just about Travis Strikes Again and not about other NMH games.

      Delete
    19. The interview part quoted there is asking about the previous games.

      Delete
    20. ...Oh, I misread that.

      Well, Suda keeps saying these things. -_-

      Delete
    21. Hey, it's up to "positive consideration" now, so that's a good sign!

      Delete
    22. Hm.

      As for eBay, yeah, guess you're covered for a refund as long as the game doesn't work:
      https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?id=4210

      Delete

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