Completed all the routes Thread (SPOILERS)

[ruruo]

I don't think there is one yet. For others who have also completed all four routes. What was your experience? How are you feeling after completing all the routes? Any likes/dislikes? Was your first route your favourite or did you end up liking a different one? 

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Just finished my fourth route with BE-Church. Totalled roughly 154 hours; hard classic. Roughly split as: 64 hours on GD, 56 on BL and 34 hours on BE combined (accounting for a split save for BE-C). And I also decided on borderline no monastery on my BE runs. I was quite shocked by how much of a time sink monastery was, while also pleasantly surprised by how well the exp scaled (esp. with all 4 statues on ng+). It was harder for weapon ranks though, even with seminars for Byleth, and for some reason I had a money issues on both BE routes late game (I consider myself pretty frugal, but 5 Master Seals ruined my funds), possibly from the lack of auxiliary battles. 

 

I played GD --> BL --> BE-E --> Church. Overall I'd say my preferences are: BL --> BE --> GC --> Church. I'm a sucker for melodrama haha... though I admit most of my favourite maps were on BE-E, especially the final two endgame maps. They were exciting! Also a shout out to the bridge map on that route where you start on the usual enemy position. I also loved the advanced camp El had and wish it was more of a thing. It was easier to find and talk to people. 

 

For other maps I liked: Saving Claude on BL, Endgame on GD, and the postskip reunion map never disappoints. There isn't really a map that I'd say I hated doing, or found unreasonable. 

 

Storywise, purely personal opinion, in the order I've played the routes:  

GD while I liked the lore, the story of a Lord and a ragtag group of misfits save the with a happy ending was a little generic for me. Having said that, I do like the cast the most, and it left me sympathetic towards some of Rhea's actions, and attitude on subsequent playthroughs.  

For BL, while they didn't have as colourful a cast as GD individually, or have as exciting maps as BE-E, everything just congealed very well, and I just ended up liking it the most. It felt the most complete and satisfying. I didn't expect them to make Dimitri as crazy as they did, which was entertaining. 
 

On BE-E, while I liked the maps the most, I was a disappointed by pacing, some writing choices and how the students didn't feel as close compared to GD or BL (The only two that grew on me were Dorothea and Ferdinand). The best way to put it would be that there's so much I wanted from this route storywise that I felt wasn't delivered. 

 

I'd say that Church is the weakest. No kidding about it being GDLite. They could have easily combined lore, kept it to three routes and maybe fleshed out BE-E more or added more TWSITD on all routes.

 

 

 

[Vince777]

I have the church route left to play and I'm leaving that on the side at least until the first wave of DLC brings about new content. 

Edited September 4, 2019 by Vince777

[LegendOfLoog]

Honestly, I had the misfortune of playing GD and Church back to back, and I was kind of playing on autopilot near the end. As much as I like Seteth, he and Flayn can't replace the gap Claude leaves in the story, and the BE students just seem kind of there without Edelgard and Hubert. They're all supposed to be there because of Byleth, but it's a bit difficult for me to actually buy that when Byleth spends most of the story hardly interacting with them on-screen. In the other routes, it makes sense as the students come to Garreg Mach in hopes of reuniting with the lord as well, but Byleth alone is a hard sell imo.

Also, the beginning part of Silver Snow is just kind of weird. Edelgard shows up for the reunion, tries to recruit you after leading an attack against you (twice), and then bails after the thirty second duel without even seeing the classmates she came to Garreg Mach for in the first place. I think it would have made slightly more sense if you did the Chasing Daybreak map with Edelgard instead of Seteth, see the reunion scene between the students, and then, she leaves before Seteth comes. Granted, this is a minor nitpick against the route, but part of the enjoyment from the first time-skip battle is battling alongside all the students again, so Seteth feels out of place compared to Dimitri or Claude. This is true of the entire route though because it uses the exact structure of GD but tries to make Byleth the main focus while using Seteth as their voice, essentially. It doesn't work because Byleth has absolutely zero agency as a character. 

It just becomes more egregious in this route because Byleth is supposed to be important here, but they have zero choices to make. So you go down the exact same route that Claude does minus the battle at Gronder until the final map. There are just so many questions that this difference opens up though. Why didn't Nemesis wake up in the Church route? Why didn't Rhea go berserk at the end of Golden Deer? The gameplay explanation is so each route could have a different final boss, but there is absolutely zero jusification in story that I can remember for each event being mutually exclusive. I think the story would have been better off if Rhea just gave all of the necessary explanations in Golden Deer and either didn't go crazy or the Nemesis fight was moved to another route, preferably BE-E to lengthen the route a bit more. I understand the reason for the route split on BE, but it feels like it weakened the game's narrative significantly. I think all of the other routes were mostly fine besides BE-E feeling incomplete, but I don't recommend playing the church route for basically any reason.

 

[Reality]

I went BL > GD > BE > Church.

I found BL most fun, and GD second most fun.

I feel like their is a strong implication especially at the beginning of Part 2 that the teacher's taught students from all three houses (regardless of which you lead) and it's brought up in dialog a lot, but you don't really get a feel-for this in-game during the actual Part 1 - it's mostly due to only having cutscenes with your own house, and the lack of sidequests / etc requiring you to talk to other students unless you want too. Much more often this part of the game rang hollow because I played the game pretty partisian.

Some Paralogues felt more fleshed out than main maps, with things like Annete/Gilbert standing out (the only other time you ever go west of the monastery in BL is for Red Canyon despite that assumedely being the front line of the Alliance/Kingdom conflict)'

I liked BL and GD supports a lot, even though a lot of GD supports seems to start "badly" or their C (Lorenz/Ignatz/Raphael feeling more Awakening esque-than any BL chaarathers.

TWISIT being a villian feels really out of place when the game is otherwise a Edelgard / Rhea conflict - even in routes where they completely disappear they still compete for "emotional resources" since you still have Jeralt's death and end of part 1 maps regardless of route. 

Recruiting for BL/GD feels okay, but for BE I seems to cause a story disconnect imo. The cast is also polarized into REAL hippie peace lovers who feel like they want out of the war even for their own  country's route and real die hards who I guess are supposed to look like fighting for anyone for one support before inverting at higher supports. The game's "it's for proffersor > override chareriztiion" kind of flip flops  strongly or terribly depending on no-support / C level / B level. '

I kind of think Rhea's Grey vs Grey charecitzation is a little heavy handed, especially on routes where you don't fight her like BL. I like that it exists but you should find out about it from people a couple more steps removed from her

I feel like the non-protaganist issue with Byleth comes up the most in BL because the first half of the part 2 maps will have Dimitri asking you if you want ot reinforce their Kingdom or charge blindly forward, and no matter if you support or oppose you end up doing the Dimitri. Other route's don't really present options so repeatedly so it's less noticiable, and I guess you don't mentally think it's an option since the entire cast doesn't oppose the lord's decision lol.  On my first blind play I used multiple save spots because I was SURE their was branching.. 

I feel like too much is done offsccreen (just how good is rodrique and edelgard's generals when they're on your side) and wish the game was called out for being shorter than Sacred Stones for individual routes.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I've experienced all four routes, which is to say I've played two and watched my wife play the other two, in full.

I'd rank them BL > BE >> GD >>>>>> Church

Blue Lions has engrossing character work, fantastic scenes all over the place the development of Dimitri and the clash with Edelgard are both fantastic.

Black Eagles explores the game's central thesis the best and has the best final battle. Also my favourite of the PC casts overall, lots of depth here. (BL is close behind though.)

Golden Deer have Claude who is fantastic. Unfortunately it also has Those Who Slither in the Dark, who are terrible and make the endgame fall flat in a few ways.

Church basically has no reason to exist; I'm not sure what it's trying to accomplish. Kinda mediocre at everything. Really needed more Rhea IMO.

[Timlugia]

The way they "forgot" about Church path content (since I already wrote why I think they made this path first before Verdant Wind)

Almost makes me wonder if they are selling the missing part as DLC contents, which was not unheard for Koei.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Timlugia

[ZeManaphy]

Just finished all 4 paths:

Bl>GD>BE>CR

Blue Lions was the first and my favorite path of the entire scenarios, because I really enjoyed all the screen time of the characters and I feel like they all had appearences in the story; unlike in Fates where you'd recruit one character and they'd never appear again; in 3 Houses all your primary students make constant appearences in the game's story. I also really like how the 3 lords play a big role in this route, while in the others,  Dimitri dies off screen pathetically, while Claude mysteriously vanishes and is never seen again during Church. The final boss was also very well built up from the get-go. The only drawback was that the church lore and Rhea have 0 appearences in part 2, but considering that they barely have a serious impact on the story in other routes, this isn't that big of a deal. 

GD was the pretty much the BLs except with the Church Lore instead of Faerghus politics. While it was nice learning the truths of the 10 Elites and Hero Relics, they alone don't influence the story heavily because the story is " kill Edelgard " until the last two chapters, where that knowledge doesn't become relevant at any point; the boss fight with Nemesis, while cool, made little sense, with the only justification of that being that of TWSID final Trump card, who are already terrible villiains. Not to mention that the BLs have 0 relevance other than Gronderfield, where Dimitri pathetically dies off screen alongside the rest of the House.

BE was fun gameplay wise since the goals are different since you are making map objectives different , but is suffers from poor writing and the fact its only 18 chapters- which makes it feel rushed. At the very least, the battle of Gronder Field should be present. It didn't improve my perspective on Edelgard, who seems using the excuse that the " church is evil " to conquer all Fodlan. The only interesting thing story-wise is that we learn that Lord Arundel was the mastermind behind the Tragedy of Duscur, which was heavily implied in the BL route.

CR was GD Lite no kidding. Literally everything was the same as GD with only the Battle of Gronderfield not taking place, which, speaking of, was the worst use of all the students, since any that were not recruited are presumed dead after that battle; as well as Byleth's backstory, alongside another forced fight, although this one has little to no justification whatsoever and appears suddenly. 

 

Despite my complaints, I loved 3 Houses, but found it too easy. Really looking forward to Lunatic Mode.

Edited September 7, 2019 by ZeManaphy

[Julian Solo]

Bl>Be Silver snow>CF>GD. 

CF has the most unique  maps and some really cool premises but it's so rushed and short it doesn't fully realize any of them. Besides making Edelgard a devoloped character along with Hubert.

GD it's probably not a popular opinion but since Cluade doesn't have a connection to Dimitri or Edelgard it's part one felt incomplete. We learn nothing new. His part 2 felt like they nerfed his brain and resources in order for him to start off with nothing like church and Dimitri who actively wants nothing. His hey guys I can't control my army in this route for no reason let me not destroy my neutrality by joining the knights and fightning the empire what? That's so dumb omg with him not knowing Dimitri was alive in this route till fields wtf. If the Alliance is so conservative how can they like a foreigner invader in CF? Nothing new got added that couldn't have been revealed in the Church route. Everything feels more natural in the Church route minus the ending both final bosses felt random for both Silver Snow and Golden Deer though.

Blue Lions feels like it was the orginal story minus a few dlc baits. Also Dimitri has one of the best arcs and development of all Fe lords imo. Only problem was Rhea got handled off screen. But all the other routes deal with her so I didn't find it a huge problem.

[timon]

CF > GD > BL > > > Church

CF just has the most unique gameplay and imo the better story and the one I can feel good about. Also both Edelgard and Hubert (especially) are probably my favourite characters. Though the route does suffer from shortness and some lack of content (TWSITD confrontation, the deepest character in the game getting a copy paralogue, stuff like that).

GD is just the best one to understand the story, I'm not the biggest fan of Claude and I think the GD cast isn't involved as much as the others in what happens in the path, but it's still the path that gives the most answers. Story wise as I said I'm not a fan of the path they took, and I think the end boss may very well be the most random in a FE game ever.

BL feels bad to play, because I feel like I'm doing the bad thing. I know many people feel the opposite way, but really playing through BL I find myself asking over and over again "why the hell are we still fighting them". Not a fan of Dimitri's personality either. The cast is quite involved in the story (I'd say not as much as in CF postskip, but the most in preskip chapters), but I just don't like most of them (neither by looks or personality). Also comes second in the most random end boss in a FE game contest, what the hell was that. Either have them talk it out (which would make a lot more sense but obviously isn't possible) or just have them fight, I don't see why they needed to do THAT, it doesn't fit at all.

Church is just copied GD (or maybe GD is copied Church, I don't know nor care). The matter of fact is, it's bad. Everything revealed in this route should be revealed in every other one (since it's about YOU), also the cast doesn't care AT ALL, you don't fight basically any known characters so the maps don't have any important milestones (especially if you've already played them all in GD!). Also, and I'm saying this as a Seteth fan, Seteth isn't the best character to have in the spotlight. He's so good because he's the most (or maybe the only, lol) reasonable person in this world and mostly works as a "support" guy to the people he talks to. Not tailored for a lord position, as he's far too pragmatic and doesn't really pursue anything aside from saving his sister or whatever.

[Tombstone88]

I did BL -> BE:E -> GD -> Church and, with hindsight, I wish I'd done it in the order TC did.  If I were ranking them, I'd say:

Story: GD -> BL -> Church -> BE:E

In regards to Part 1, GD doesn't hammer major plot points in your face as hard as BE/BL.  Part 2 for GD also explains a bit more lore, which is sorely lacking in BL/BE.  BL gives a nice character story, which is entertaining for a second playthrough but can leave you scratching your head at points.  BE:E doesn't really elaborate on anything storywise, so it should honestly be done last.  The Church route is... fine, I guess; my biggest issue was playing it back-to-back with GD.

Gameplay: BE:E -> GD -> BL -> Church

BE:E was definitely my favorite gameplay-wise; the one issue was that it felt too rushed.  BL was hit-or-miss; some battles I enjoyed, others felt lacking.  GD was much the same, but I liked its final battle more.  Playing Church right after GD was a huge mistake, as it made the route feel like a waste of time.

[Landmaster]

I played BL --> GD --> CF --> Church

My preference is BL > GD > Church > CF

BL had the best story to me, very character driven, loved Dimitri's arc and the characters involved. Not much to complain about. Also has Dimileth, which automatically makes it superior~

GD had the lore and Claude Luther King Jr., which was all really cool. The Golden Deer are a fun class and the Nemesis battle is probably one of the most epic in the game. Biggest complaint is that cocktease of an S-Support with Claude.

Church was fine but just too similar to GD. If it stood out more than just 2 maps, I'd have liked it more, but it was still enjoyable to play~ I did enjoy the Black Eagle Class more here.

Just didn't enjoy playing CF. Felt too much like playing as the villain and the last two months were honestly a chore to get through. Had some cool maps, but the story just didn't make up for it. Also not a fan of the ending.