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So way WAY back in August I beat Three Houses for the first time and did a big compilation of my thoughts and feelings on the game which you can read here (mind that you don't necropost!). Myriad typos aside I was very happy to have gotten to discuss the game from that particular viewpoint, but now I come today to discuss the game from a more common standpoint, as someone who has beaten every route. Reading the previous post is not required, but I don't want to repeat everything I said about Azure Moon for the sake of those who have read it already, so if your interested go read up. If I only touch on it lightly, that'll be why. Allow me to also preface that I played the game in this order: Azure Moon, Silver Snow, Crimson Flower, and Verdant Wind. I went into my follow up playthroughs with the knowledge that Silver Snow and Verdant Wind would be similar, so I ordered them in such a way that I could complete the other stories efficiently without playing those back to back. If you feel that some of my opinions are influenced by this play order, that's because they probably were. Let's begin by talking about Silver Snow. This story wound up being my second favorite for one simple reason: Its emotional moments work really well. While obviously Azure Moon does the Flame Emperor reveal the best, it feels particularly weighty in the long term for Silver Snow, and I enjoyed traveling with the former Black Eagles in their quest to stop their power-hungry empress, and seeing them deal with the anxiety of attacking their former home. Another really strong element of this path is despite Byleth being a mostly silent protagonist, this route gives you the most options in cutscenes to flesh him/her out as the protagonist, particularly at the beginning and end of the time-skip where you can make Byleth filled with resolve to right the world's wrongs, or hesitant to point his blade at his former pupil, which pays off wonderfully at the conclusion to chapter 19. This also the most effective setup for the rescuing of Rhea because it truly feels like THE main goal in this route. And while the final battle against the archbishop and the berserk knights is about as comically contrived as it gets, I can't deny that it was a satisfyingly somber way to end the journey. All in all this was a fun route that served a lot of great drama and interesting character dynamics. I'll talk about Verdant Wind next due to it's heavy similarities to Silver Snow. Simply put, I felt that Claude, while an interesting character in his own right, really felt like he overstuffed the plot with his ambitions. While being the outsider is kind of Claude's thing, it was really hard to play through that story without feeling like he was motivated almost entirely out of furthering his personal plans, and while I don't think him particularly immoral, he felt a little too manipulative for me to enjoy him to the fullest (though his schemes are also kinda the point so maybe I'm proof that their writing is better than we realize). The Golden Deer as a group are a pretty strong crew too, but I felt a couple of them in particular weren't all that great until after the time-skip so their version of White Clouds definitely felt the most iffy. In regards to the final bout against Nemesis, while it only happening in Verdant Wind feels a bit like cutting off content from Silver Snow for the sake of variety, I think it's one of the best final maps in series history since it tests you on game-play skills not particularly unique to that chapter while spicing it up just enough to keep it interesting. Ultimately, Verdant Wind is fun, but there are so many details from the banner the army flies to the group's actual end goal that feel so much more cohesive in Silver Snow, and it truly deserved to be its own thing and explore its own ambitions. Finally we come to the ever lovely topic of Crimson Flower which definitely will not start a firestorm in the thread and everyone will just be friends sharing Ferdinand von Aiger and Bernadetta memes among one another. Jokes about this routes divisiveness aside, it probably comes as no surprise that I find this route to be the weakest, for two major reasons. The first being that the story tries way to hard to let Edelgard have her cake and eat it too, by which I mean it frames her as a hero through the whole tale even during her most insidious actions (*cough* covering for TWSITD's attack on Arianroad) and gives her none of the grim bravado that made her great as a villain. I 100% feel this story would have been a whole lot better if it just embraced the fact the player sided with the aggressor instead of trying to rationalize their actions. My main issue with the route however, is how jarring the character portrayals feel when put up against their counterparts in other routes. Before my point seems too contradictory in a discussion about a "player choices matter" game, think about my precious Dimitri for a minute. In every single route, his mental state always deteriorates into a vengeful shadow of his former, kinder self. While this is to a lesser extent in Crimson Flower, his character growth remains the same, and his personality fate is only altered significantly as the story progresses. Now take Edelgard, whose heart grows cold and detached from the idea of recourse as the war goes on in the other three routes. In Crimson Flower, Byleth chooses to side with her, and after being usrpers-in-arms for only a month before Byleth goes dark for five years, five long years where her heart had plenty of time to grow icy, teacher shows back up and surprise, she's a totally different, gentler, and more likable person now! Imagine if THIS was how they handled Dimitri in Azure Moon, a character you have to watch at his absolute lowest before he gets better. I understand that Edelgard frequently shows a certain kind of affinity for Byleth in particular, but if that's the only justification we have for her change in personality then we have to just accept her entire character is written around Byleth's allegiances, and I don't like that much at all. This also applies to all of the Black Eagles, who really should have fixed sidings with either the Resistance Army or the Adrestian Empire based on what they truly believe, rather than just moseying wherever their teacher goes (though there are exceptions to this). The only character who makes any sense at all in this whiplash of personalities is Rhea, and viewing this story as a "what if" scenario for her character development makes her screen-time interesting, but its just too little too late. Again, I stress that I know this is a choices matter game, but when the other routes give you time to see the consequences unfold, this route just feels way too inconsistent in its use of that premise. So in conclusion, do I still think this is the best Fire Emblem game with the best story out of any of them? Well, yeah, I really do. I know I was really critical of the other routes in this write-up but honestly I do it out of a genuine place of love for the game's setting and characters, and the gameplay is still my favorite in a Fire Emblem to date. Each route is worth playing in its own small way, and I have not written this article to say your favor for any one route is wrong. We can only hope that the writers of this game take note of both the triumphs and stumbles of Three Houses' story and make something even more special for the next non-remake entry, but this is definitely a high bar to follow up on. Let me know about your thoughts on the Three Houses story below, ask for any further opinions, and PLEASE let me know how bad my taste is!