First Hands-On Impressions Thread

[Ertrick36]

I made a thread similar to this back when Echoes: Shadows of Valentia was freshly released in the west, so I figure I'd do the same here.

So the game has now officially hit street date in the far east (I think as of 5 hours ago or so).  Obviously a lot of people still have yet to acquire the game, but I feel between the genuine Aussies who pre-purchased the game, those who live in Japan that purchased the game, those who may have "tricked" the eshop servers into believing they're Aussies/in Japan so that they'd get the game early, and those who got the game early through other means, there are enough people who have the game now to warrant this.  Plus, the game will be out in the west in, like, 10 hours, so it'll preempt the flood of people talking about the game.

So those who have the game and played it...  What are your thoughts on it?  What do you like/dislike about the game?  What do you think of the supports, the gameplay, or any of the new features?  Where are you at as of your posting?  If you have any spoilery thoughts, post them in spoiler tags, as this isn't meant to be a predominantly spoiler discussion.  If you can, avoid spoiling too much.

When answering how far you are in the game, just list a simple chapter or the date that you're currently on.  If it's post time-skip, just say that's where you're at; I would like to avoid people talking too much about that, as again this is meant to be a first impressions topic, and I feel if you list a chapter there you could inadvertently reveal the longevity of the game, which I'd count as a spoiler.  Oh, and while I'm at it, feel free to say which house you went with, what difficulty you're playing on, what you named your professor, etc.  Just as long as you keep the things outside of spoiler tags spoiler-free and it has to do with Three Houses, it should generally be okay here.

I don't have the game yet, but I'm curious what those who do have it think.  I'll probably post my thoughts tomorrow.

[Taho]

Just started playing. F/Byleth and black eagles (go get'em girls!). Hard classic.

Three quarters into the mock battle. Loving it so far !

[Timlugia]

I got Aus digital version, so I am already 15 hours in, just start Chapter 7

I am playing Black Eagle Hard Classical, difficulty wise, it's pretty step at the beginning since your characters have no skills, pretty much like enemy goons.

Then it became easier once you promote.

But then it picks up again when Dark Beast start showing up. That level was quite crazy with same turn reinforcement, archers on high ground keep raining down arrows, and a narrow passage of 10+ combined arms enemies at once, immediately follow by the Beast. Had to use Divine Pulse twice, barely survive.

Byleth itself on the other hand is ridiculous strong, I generally keep him in the rear as reserve so other units have decent exp.

 

I would leave story spoiler to the other, dedicated post. But I would say there are a lot of foreshadowing even very early on.

[Alexios Blake]

Just brought myself the special edition (Europe) after a bit of trouble, and the box is big nearly the size of a PS4 box. The Pins look really cool the Artbook is also great though I won’t look inside yet. The I haven’t tested the USB with the Soundtrack so can’t say anything there.

[Garlyle]

I just started the game this morning, played it a little at home and on the way to work.

The story quickly dropped us into the professor position, and I had to choose the house way sooner than I expected. Man, wish I had job offers going this smoothly.

Anyway, I'm only into my 2nd day in the monastery - I'm at the day of the mock battle now. I'm taking this slowly, because I want to meet the characters before the story gets more interesting. Comparing this to other Fire Emblem games it's more relaxing in the beginning, the quick decisions will be good in future playthroughs, so I can overlook that. Feels like it's a marriage with Persona games to me. Looking at rosters and the library, there's quite an information dump on us, I'm going to ignore the library for now.

I am playing Hard/Classic with the Golden Deer company.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Garlyle

[Modirufa6317]

So far, my only issue is how slow it feels (and playing mostly on handheld mode doesn't help the framerate) : makes me wonder if the 2 games on gamecube/wii was like that too, since I've only played on the GBA & 3DS.

Speaking of which, I also already miss the convenience of dual screen, and I'm a bit concerned that I cannot check enemy details anymore (their abilities, specifically, unless I missed something?).

EDIT: I eventually I figured it out

Edited July 26, 2019 by Modirufa6317

[timon]

So I played up until the Canyon map, I have to say it's living up to the expectations right now. My only complaint is that the model are actually very wacky up close, from the preview content it didn't seem that bad. The animations are good and their faces are expressive, but goddam the details are terrible, Dimitri's hairline looks like he's wearing a mask, and Edelgard's hair is ghostly.

Battles were definitely fun, even though I've seen only early simple maps, there is still tactics to be done (a bit of a shame a 1 range no mov boss, free exp I guess), I risked losing someone a couple times, though up until now I never had to use the Pulse nor any Gambits, definitely a lot of Combat Arts though. Units variety is good (Eagles), I had to use every unit even though I plan to bench some, btw thanks RNG, Edelgard got the incredible amount of ONE f-ing strength level up (and she's at lv. 7...). Byleth is also getting speed screwed a bit. Playing around with weapons/skill levels is definitely a fun part, but I have to grasp on how exactly motivation works, because right now it's confusing.

Monastery part feels like it will be fun in a bit, right now it's still a bit overwhelming and I have the constant feeling of having missed something. I also really want to buy lures and seed, I like the Greenhouse and especially the Fishing game, but I have no idea if that's possible (I guess not since that would be infinite Professor Level grind).

As a side note, voice acting is amazing, but especially big props to Rhea's VA, I usually don't care too much about that kind of stuff, but that character skyrocketed in my favourites as soon as I heard her voice, so peaceful.

1 hour ago, Modirufa6317 said:

Speaking of which, I also already miss the convenience of dual screen, and I'm a bit concerned that I cannot check enemy details anymore (their skills, specifically, unless I missed something?).

Press X on enemy and then X again I think?

[Alexios Blake]

Now that I have played a bit besides the usual things that everyone says I want to add that you should definitely do the fishing mini game. I got lucky with my first bait and caught a Silver Fish which got me 200 in money while not a lot it is by no means little so this is one way to get money besides your salary and yes you get a salary as a teacher which rises depending on your teacher level. By the way the fishing game also raises the teacher level experience though only by 10 so far maybe depending on the bait you get more.

[Karimlan]

5 hours ago, Garlyle said:

The story quickly dropped us into the professor position, and I had to choose the house way sooner than I expected. Man, wish I had job offers going this smoothly.

Yep, it was that fast.

[Sire]

Played for about 6 hours last night. Doing Hard/Classic and Black Eagles.

The Monastery took up more time than I realized. I managed to get in four battles (three story, one auxiliary) during that 6 hour timeframe as the rest of the time was me exploring the Monastery or watching cutscenes. Of course, this is because I'm a bit of a completionist at heart and had to talk to everyone and explore everything. The world building and character interactions in the Monastery are great, but I can imagine this segment quickly burning out players, especially when it comes time to play the other houses.
I have a feeling those who want to skip out on the Monastery will probably use the Rest function over Explore to restore student Motivation so they can learn throughout the week. The alternatives are Seminars and of course fighting Battles in typical FE fashion. This may bring Three Houses a little closer to the classic FE experience of constantly doing one map after another.

Also, the first real "story mission" was more difficult than I expected. I had to use Divine Pulse twice because Linhardt got doubled (granted, he was just level one) and then I was overwhelmed by the last wave of enemies because I pushed too far with my secondary team. Archers with extra range is no joke.

My core team at the moment is M!Byelth, Edelgard, Hubert, and Petra. M!Byleth and Edelgard probably have the best stats, as expected, but Petra has been my MVP so far. My secondary team consists of Ferdinand, Bernie, and Dorothea. Linhardt and Caspar are falling behind on levels, so I have a feeling I may end up benching them.
I have also been doing my utmost to try and recruit Lysithea, and maybe even Hilda as well. Efforts seem slow on this front, but Felix is interested in transferring. While I didn't plan on Felix, I may take him in anyway. All I know is that I'm going to need a proper healer since Linhardt is probably going to be benched at this rate.

* * * * *

Overall, pretty happy with Three Houses thus far. I still retained some of my hype while playing and I look forward to what happens next. I still haven't exited the "tutorial" portion of the game as some things are still locked, but everything seems to be progressing smoothly.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Sire

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Just made it to "June". Hard Classic feels like the right call so far with the enemies pretty routinely being tougher than us. Getting doubled by early game enemies is exhilarating, and none of my controllers have the button that lets me Divine Pulse, creating some unexpected spice.

No opinions yet on story and characters, but I immediately identified Sothis' VA as I heard it which was funny. Having some UI issues though. Can't find where in a character's status screen where it tells me what their skills or personal skill do. Or any info on how classes compare to each other. 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Glennstavos

[Moonlit Knight]

I chose Golden Deer, and I’m so glad I did. So much personality everywhere, it’s awesome. I find that I’m bursting out laughing at just about every other thing out of Claude’s mouth.

Oh, and Lysithea is broken as heck, even on hard mode.

[Maimishou]

Black Eagles on Normal Casual.  I played for nearly three hours and am still only on Chapter 2. I'm enjoying it so far. My only problem is how big the school itself is though once I'm able to fast travel everywhere I think it'll be less of a problem. I haven't done any of the actual teaching bits yet, mostly because I don't know where to go for that. I have been eating food with Petra and Annette every chance I get though because I want to see their Supports/recruit Annette. Still need to get used to everyone because I lost Dorothea in the Mock Battle but the fights are still fun. I'm waiting for my Switch to charge and then I'll be playing some more.

[Ertrick36]

11 hours ago, timon said:

Press X on enemy and then X again I think?

Yeah, that's how you read details on everything in the enemy stat screen.  It's like the older games before the 3DS started taking advantage of the touch controls and dual screens, particularly the GBA games.

Anyway, onto my little... first-impressions profile?

 

So I opted to play Femmleth (and I named her Eris, mostly because I was typing a boring normal name when that name showed up in the predictive text), and on Normal Classic because I wanted to work my way up from the easiest difficulty to the hardest one, and also because I wanted to ease myself into the new game despite having experience with just about every game in the series.  Sort of glad I did because a lot of the game is a bit overwhelming right now.

Anyway, so far I'm onto the first week of the fourth month in the game (Blue Sea Moon - 7/6).  Here's what I think:

• Gameplay takes a lot of good elements from previous games to make a fresh new concoction.  I like the combat arts letting me power up my attacks, I like the crests occasionally granting me favor, and I like the battalions giving me a tremendous boon in a pinch via the gambits.  Only thing I will say relating to battles is I thought that if I did only the free battles, I'd be able to do other things... which meant I wasted an entire week of activities doing, like, two fights just to enable all my units to change class.  Also, I'll say that so far the difficulty concerns people had are unfounded.  Normal isn't challenging enough to where my units are regularly almost dying, but it's enough that I feel like Hard would actually provide that kind of challenge.
• I have taken right to the monastery hub world.  It's overwhelming, sure, but I like it because it sort of reminds me of the first time exploring the hub world of Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2, except without the frustrating notion of not being able to fly because the only characters flying about are the occasional two or three pegasus knights patrolling the perimeter.  It feels expansive, there's always at least people to talk to, and there are plenty of activities to engage in (even if all the non-fishing ones are more or less just browsing through menus).  Studying and reclassing feels fresh - I've taken to making most students study stuff outside of their normal studies in hopes of giving them less "standard" roles, and it's been going well.  And yes, I've gone to the Amiibo Gazeebo, scanned the Luciibo, and now I get some things every once in a while.  When I initially scanned it, I got a ton of stuff.
• Of course I only really know the Black Eagles members (+ sort of Sylvain because he just straight up joined me without a fuss on account of Eris' gender, lmao).  I like the members who are more confident, such as Edelgard, Hubert, and Ferdinand, though I also like the more high-strung or off-brand characters like Bernadetta, Petra, or Linhardt.  Really, I like all of them at least a bit.  Although Caspar's angry face still scares me more than Oboro's "demon face" ever did.
• Story is only just beginning, but already I've bore witness to what I imagine are the beginnings to some very fierce factional schisms.  I won't go into much, but I must say that I feel the religion of the game is much better thought out than I would've imagined, as is its role in the world.  There's a lot of worldbuilding, although a lot of it has to be read up on, which I definitely don't think everyone will do.  That said, I get the impression they won't just let all the worldbuilding and lore waste away in some volumes - that it'll actually be used in the game.
• Another thing I'll say is I really like the music I've heard so far.

[Anacybele]

Female Byleth leading Claude and his Golden Deer squad here! I kept her name as Byleth, didn't feel like changing it to anything else.

The gameplay is great so far, I'm liking the new features! Though it's taking some getting used to and some time to remember everything I can do as well as what works best in each situation.

Claude is the best.

The world of Fodlan and the Church of Seiros/Officer's Academy actually feel really alive! Just exploring the academy and stuff shows you people everywhere going about their business and there's so much you can do and see! I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all. lol

So glad Canto is back, I really missed it from Tellius. I got used to using it because Tellius was my entry into the series. Though I've yet to use any mounted units since the Golden Deer don't come with any right away. Kind of a bummer really, since cavaliers and Peg knights are my favorite. But that's what I get for liking the golden boy so much. 😛

Claude is the best.

The story seems surprisingly great so far! Really glad to see this after the clusterfucks that were Awakening and Fates. It's like IS actually noticed all the criticism those two got and all and really took it to heart.

Besides Claude, none of the Golden Deer members have really stood out to me so far, but hopefully that'll change soon enough. I'm thinking Lysithea and Marianne may do so.

But Claude is the best.

Flayne is adorable. Sothis is kinda cute too.

And did I mention Claude's the best? XD

Okay, I'll stop lol. But Claude really is awesome!

On 7/26/2019 at 5:54 PM, Moonlit Knight said:

I find that I’m bursting out laughing at just about every other thing out of Claude’s mouth.

Oh man, me too! lol

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by Anacybele

[Ririn]

I'm not very far in. Only on Chapter 1 but the handheld mode for this game seems off graphic wise. The fonts are too small and zoom out characters models seems weird. I decided to tried it on dock mode and it was much better on a larger screen. 

I wonder if they would plan to optimize the handheld mode. My eyes were getting strained but I usually prefer playing on handheld mode.

Other than the above, the characters and story interest me so far and looking forward to getting to know more of them. 

[carpirate]

Playing Golden Deer here as M!Byleth. 7 hours in and still have a weekend to go before the story battle of Chapter 3, so suffice to say, this game is loooooong. That being said, I don’t feel like I’m wasting time in filler activities (at least not yet) and I hope that keeps up for the rest of the game.

So far, my axe-wielding Hilda has been decimating units. Been getting a little screwed with RNG (especially with Spd) on level ups, but I’m just too lazy to reset for a better stat gain. 

Overall though, I love the game so far. Seems like all my waiting has payed off!

[Mercakete]

Spoiler

So, my main question is if the messenger owl in the academy is Feh (the messenger owl of Fire Emblem Heroes, who has the same coloration but a different, stylistic shape) or a relative of hers.

 

[Ertrick36]

6 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

  Hide contents

So, my main question is if the messenger owl in the academy is Feh (the messenger owl of Fire Emblem Heroes, who has the same coloration but a different, stylistic shape) or a relative of hers.

 

Spoiler

Not really sure, but I do find it suspect that the owl feathers (which I imagine belong to the owl) you can pick up around the monastery are loved by everyone.  I just feel like there's an implication there, I dunno.

 

[carpirate]

1 hour ago, carpirate said:

So far, my axe-wielding Hilda has been decimating units.

Spoke too soon. Lysithea started doubling and now she’s insanely good.

[PrincessAlyson]

Playing Normal/Cas with F!Avatar and Blue Lions. Loving the game so far but taking my time. Got a little over two hours in (my wisdom teeth were all removed on Release Day, so it was a nice distraction after the surgery, but I had to take a break). Some characters are getting RNG screwed. Where is my Speed, guys!? But other than that the game is enjoyable. Trying to recruit Lysithea. Why is Byleth so bad with magic? Been taking Seminars to get my Reason level up, but that doesn't help with the stat itself. Will see if I can somehow get a support with her.

[silverserpent]

So far, I'm enjoying it immensely. I started out on easy to get a feel for how to work the new mechanics, but I'm going to start a new game on hard now that I know what I'm doing in regards to the monastery.

[Jingle Jangle]

I'm playing on the Blue Lions on hard so far my experience been good.

Pros:

• The English dub continues to have the same quality from Echoes.
• Majority of the dialogue is fully voiced.
• Combat arts are a good way to balance between being conservative and special moves.
• The Worldbuilding is very in-depth.
• So far maps are decent for the most part.

Cons:

• Playing the game in undocked mode is difficult with text or UI not scaling with the smaller screen.
• The power gap between the members of the Blue Lions is apparent early on. Byleth, Dimitri, and Felix are always in the top three while Ingrid, Sylvain, and Cyril struggle to keep up.
• The dating mini-games are making feel like a dense person. How am I supposed to know what topics students react positively to?
•  The class distribution. Why there can't be flying tome users or standard some class can be.

Neutral:

• How the story is progressing. Good in the sense that events are slowly escalating. But at the time everyone is waiting for stuff to happen, taking a whole month of training to take care of some bandits.
• Character traits continue to be hit or miss. As much I enjoy Ashe and Dedue I find the likes of Linhardt and Sylvain to be insufferable.
• How most of the time is spent in the monastery compared to doing maps.
•  While yes the worldbuilding is very in-depth, most of the time is stuck in the church, I want to travel to all of the places mentioned.

Edited July 27, 2019 by Jingle Jangle

[Ertrick36]

20 minutes ago, Jingle Jangle said:

• The dating mini-games are making feel like a dense person. How am I supposed to know what topics students react positively to?

It's just a matter of getting to know them.

Helps to read everyone's bios (in the "notes" section of each character's unit/roster page) and to get them a few support levels between themselves and other characters, as well as your character.  It also helps to talk to everyone you can whenever you explore the monastery.

You should only invite them to tea parties when you know them enough to know what kinds of things they're interested in.  It may seem frivolous, but knowing every little thing about the students and your colleagues is invaluable for helping you to bond with them.  I'd say the characters likes and interests are just as much a gameplay element in this game as growth rates and skill strengths/weaknesses.

[Vitezen]

There are a few things that have struck me so far.

1. How quickly you're asked to join a house. I think the game does a good job of setting the tone with each leader, but it would've been a little better if you could see more. I think this could make people annoyed if they don't know what house they want, which makes it even worse if you feel like you picked the wrong one when you didn't have enough info.
2. Dimitri made a much better impression on me in the game compared to the trailer. He seems more like a nice, polite guy than a crusader. I actually liked Edelgard even less once I met her in the game because of the way she talks about her housemates. I still chose Claude, but gave it a little thought based on what I saw of the other lords.
3. The game does a good job of explaining combat in the first mission and teaching you to explore the monastery, but throws you right into managing unit growth without much chance to plan. Maybe that's what it feels like to be a new teacher?