Three Houses Route Order discussion

[Dalquist]

The story is probably best viewed as

Blue Lions -> Black Eagles (Edelgard) -> Golden Deer.

Honestly you can probably skip church since it's basically Golden Deer minus a few characters and story reveals.  That being said your first play through should be whichever house seems most interesting to you.  You will enjoy it much more that way.

FYI the order I did was Black Eagles (church) -> Black Eagles (Edelgard) -> Blue Lions -> Golden Deer

[axlorg89]

My order of play was: Golden Deer > Blue Lions > Black Eagles > Church

That said the only order I would strongly advise is Blue Lions > Black Eagles
 

Golden Deer and Church can be where ever. Personally I found Blue Lions route made Edelgard sympathetic so it made me curious about her. I enjoyed playing Golden Deer first because it answered things that BL and BE left open. When I went into their respective routes, I wasn't really unsatisfied by the unresolved issues because I already knew the answers from GD, but I can understand wanting to keep the reveals for last. 

[SMatarratas]

I already finished Black Eagles and Blue Lions and I'm midway through Golden Deer. With the amount of info I have now of the game, If I could go back in time I would choose the following order: 

Golden Deer > Black Eagles > Blue Lions > Church 

The only problem with this order is that the Flame Emperor reveal comes out of nowhere in Golden Deer, there's at least certain amount of foreshadowing in the other routes but aside from that, this would have been my ideal order

[CarmineCoffee]

I went Blue Lions > Golden Deer > Edelgard > Church. I definitely agree with everyone else saying that going BL first made me hate Edelgard and found her route extremely unenjoyable (although the BE cast is also to blame...they didn't feel as fun or close-knit as the other two houses). However, I did like going BL first because I felt that it hinted and opened up my mind to a lot of the plot and backstory without revealing any answers. As I played the other routes, I'd think "right, I remember this point being briefly brought up in BL. How are they going to dive deeper?" If you played BL 3rd or even 4th, you're going to feel like you learned nothing. I loved the cast for BL so much that I couldn't bear myself to play Edelgard's route right after so I went GD. Definitely separate GD and Church. Personally I'm glad I went the order that I did and would highly recommend it but just know that it may ruin Edelgard for you.

 

[kremelover]

For one who wants to 100% all support conversations ASAP, they should play Blue Lions twice (the second time with Female Byleth on NG+), since Dimitri, Dedue, and Gilbert are all route-locked.

[pekingduck]

Man, in terms of $ per minute, I'm going to get such good value out of this game. My existing route I did is:

Crimson Flower > Verdant Rain > Azure Moon

After I finish Azure Moon, I'm going to set aside the game for a while, because I'm a bit burnt out on it. Next year, will play through Silver Snow followed by another playthrough of Crimson Flower.

For my own personal thoughts, I don't think Crimson Flower works as a good opening route because it is a lot shorter and benefits from some prior knowledge regarding TWSITD and the Seiros-related lore. As my first route, the second half pacing was really jarring for me. Also, for those playing on Maddening, the prior experience from going through other routes would really help with the shorter length of Crimson Flower. It takes some additional planning. I messed around with my learning points on Hard for Crimson Flower for my first playthrough by waffling through some classes, and did not get a single person to a Master class. Also, I only had one flier. The messing around did make for some fun times though, as without mobility and tankier units, I actually had to do some more thinking for some of the chapters. With more chapters under my belt, I actually now enjoy the faster, more efficient story development for Crimson Flower, upon retrospect, because I feel that Verdant Rain and Azure Moon drag a little bit more in some of the post time-skip chapters. The downside for ending on Crimson Flower is that the lack of cutscenes shows the likely budget and temporal limitations the developers were facing. I would not be surprised at all if the team ran out of animation budget for Crimson Flower.

For a beginning route, I think Verdant Rain or Azure Moon both work. Verdant Rain could also work decently as a concluding route because of Claude's outsider perspective to tie everything together. I found him to be the most stable and reasonable lord, as well, which makes sense given that his childhood, while still challenging, appears comparatively less traumatic and intense than those of Edelgard and Dimitri.

I agree with @CarmineCoffee that Azure Moon is not a good route to close on because of the lack of new information. While I didn't really like Dimitri's character, I think it does have the most tight narrative out of all the routes, but by later playthroughs, pursuing lore may be more motivating because the basic story beats are already known from the previous playthroughs. It is additionally a good route to open on because the narrative does so well with no additional recruits, which are less feasible anyways on NG. Also, I agree that Crimson Flower and Azure Moon would be awful to play back to back, given what happens to Dimitri and Edelgard on each.

Edited September 20, 2019 by pekingduck

[De Geso]

I chose Black Eagles first but I wish I would have gone Blue Lions first, as I'm finding that it answers a lot of the questions I had. On the other hand, I think going CF first made me think about those things more, so maybe it is for the best.

Anyway, I recommend:

1. Azure Moon

2. Crimson Flower

3. Verdant Wind

4. Silver Snow

I know that VW and SS are basically the same but I think that's fine. You should just play through the routes differently (use different units, build Byleth differently, maybe play it on Maddening since the story isn't as hugely important given it's the same as that of a prior route) so it isn't a complete repeat of the same playthrough.

Edited September 20, 2019 by De Geso

[Babyleth]

I think the best overall story experience is

Black Eagles -> "decision to kill" 4th route -> Blue Lions -> Golden Deer


Why BlackE before BlueL?
BlueL becomes a much better story if you know what you learn from BlackE. Without that BlueL is a clear black and white fight the evil story. With it, it becomes more sad and you'll be much more conflicted throughout it. You'll also realize that the ending is secretly a bad ending. BlueL also references things that you learn in BlackE (like the meaning of "El").
I've also noticed that quite a few people become pretty blinded by hatred in certain regards if they play BlueL first.


Why BlackE first?
This route is the most interesting of the three in the first half if you don't know what's going on yet. You also have to make a decision in the middle which is also more interesting if you don't know what's going on.


Why GoldenD last?
GoldenD is also nicknamed "the lore house" because in this house you learn the most background, overview of the world stuff. It fills in the remaining blanks and completes the story. It also has the most true ending like ending of the three. Without its information that also leaves more room for different interpretations in the other routes, which makes them also more interesting.



Full disclosure: This is unfortunately not the order I played it in. Alot of people just recommend the order they did without much thought. The order I played was GoldenD->BlueL->BlackE and I very much regretted not having played BlackE before BlueL in hindsight, because of how much better the BlueL story would have been that way.
I also recomended GoldenD->BlackE->BlueL initially, because I kind of liked the world building first myself, but after some consideration and watching how others react to the story, I decided the story telling would be better with BlackE first and GoldenD last for the reasons mentioned above.

[drattakbowser]

I have a different mode for order :

- Developers : Silver Snow > Azure Moon > Verdant Wind > Crimson Flower

- Classic : Azure Moon > Crimson Flower > Silver Snow > Verdant Wind

- Cycle : Crimson Flower > Azure Moon > Verdant Wind > Silver Snow

- Season : Crimson Flower > Verdant Wind > Azure Moon > Silver Snow

- Asian word : Verdant Wind > Crimson Flower > Silver Snow > Azure Moon