Three Hopes General Discussion Thread

[Sire]

Because one was not made yet. There may be a desire for a separate spoiler thread to discuss more things in-depth, but for now I guess this topic may suffice.

* * * * *

So, how's everyone experience with Three Hopes so far? I've been playing the Scarlet Blaze (Black Eagles) route, continuing off of my demo file where I grinded up a fair bit.
-- Thing is, all that gold I farmed? It's gone (this includes the bonus gold for Three Houses and Warriors). Of course, this is likely due to my completionist tendencies of buying practically everything, but yeah...
-- Also, I'm finding that as much as I love recruiting everybody I can, it is difficult to keep everyone outfitted and properly leveled without grinding. Also, the "Motivation Bonus" that increases EXP gained gets more people to choose from, lessening the chance of landing on somebody one regularly uses. (Granted, the same could be said of Three Houses. It's just the motivation bonus in Three Hopes encourages players to field a variety of units instead of the same core.)
-- Hard Difficulty is fairly challenging. While I haven't had to reset yet, there were some very close calls where the enemy suddenly dealt a lot of damage. My current nemesis are Mages , Archers, and Cavalry. The ranged classes can easily hit you while the Cavalry has a charge attack that hurts a lot. // Note this is after I farmed a bit in the demo. I wonder how difficult Hard would be if I didn't farm...
-- I love the Strategy system for the main chapters and definitely foresee it being the core focus on replayability. Depending on how NG+ works, I may skip the Persuade option and get something that actually helps more on repeat playthroughs. // Also, the "Shez Teleport" is the best thing ever, even if it is limited. It definitely allows for rapid response to situations.

As for Battalions, I find their inclusion rather interesting. They give a tier advantage against a single type while also defending against their attacks.
-- So, you can double down with a Mercenary with a Sword Battalion, making them extra effective against Axe Users.
-- Alternatively, you can use the Mercenary with an Axe Battalion, canceling out the "disadvantage" they normally carry against Lance Users.
-- Or perhaps one wants more coverage or adaptability to whatever one is fighting. So, if you are a Mercenary and are on a map full of Mages, get a Brawler battalion to get an advantage.
--- As a tip, make sure you use a Lance Battalion when facing the Ashen Demon. They should not be engaged unless you are me who decided to fight them anyway and somehow "win." Not sure if that actually did anything though.

Story-wise, I'm enjoying Scarlet Blaze. I'm currently on Chapter 6 and look forward to comparing/contrasting the routes when I get around to playing them all.
-- Three Hopes is definitely more enjoyable if one liked the world and setting of Three Houses, as Three Hopes builds upon that. Seeing how this are the same yet different in this alternatively timeline is great.

Overall, I'm loving the game. It is superior to the original Fire Emblem Warriors in my mind and I can't wait to get back to playing it.

[Armchair General]

Without spoiling anything, is it just an rehash of the events of 3 houses or is it something completely different? I know that Lonato is an antagonist in Scarlet Blaze, I'm just worried if it'll fall back on most of the same missions from the main game.

[General Luigi]

I'm currently on the fence about buying the game. I don't doubt the gameplay will be good, though I've grown so attached to some of the Three Houses cast that I'm not sure I'll have the heart to kill them if Three Hopes requires it of me. In Three Houses, unless my memory's mistaken, there are only three supportable characters in each route who must die; everyone else can be recruited, spared, and/or bypassed. Judging by the wiki, though, there are a lot of characters in Three Hopes who are exclusive to particular routes and some of the gameplay footage I've seen suggests that there are more than a few characters in each route who must die, though the game's so new that it's possible the players simply didn't do what was necessary to avert those deaths.

I suppose it ultimately comes down to how much I think having to kill a character I like will detract from my ability to enjoy the game, and I can't even begin to guess at that until I know who must die in each route...

[CompteSecours]

5 hours ago, Armchair General said:

Without spoiling anything, is it just an rehash of the events of 3 houses or is it something completely different? I know that Lonato is an antagonist in Scarlet Blaze, I'm just worried if it'll fall back on most of the same missions from the main game.

Spoil chapter 5 Dimitri's route.

Spoiler

Lonato is also an antagonist in Dimitri's route. Was is a fog map ?

 

For recruitment, i believe you can recruit almost every character, like in Three Houses.

Edited June 25, 2022 by CompteSecours

[Seazas]

Shez is one of my favorite protagonists in Fire Emblem from the supports alone. I love casual characters and this character is corny while being hilarious at the same time. More dumbass protagonists is also great.

6 hours ago, Armchair General said:

Without spoiling anything, is it just an rehash of the events of 3 houses or is it something completely different? I know that Lonato is an antagonist in Scarlet Blaze, I'm just worried if it'll fall back on most of the same missions from the main game.

It's a very unique story. It's perfect if you've played Three Houses became this game is fanservicey as hell and gives a lot of satisfaction on some things.

 

[Sire]

Regarding recruitment, it is limited per route. You cannot recruit nearly everyone like in Three Houses.

Recent information that I have learned about NG+ is troubling if true. It seems like Renown Character Unlocks are for bonus characters only and not route-specific characters, so if you wanted to play a House Lord on a different route, it looks like you can't. // This is in regards to the main story maps, paralogues, and the side maps.
-- However, I get the feeling that Records is the "Free Play" mode, although it only allows you to replay the main story chapters and paralogues. Perhaps it may be possible to play with whoever on whatever map (even if its a different route) in Records, but I do not know.
== Edit: Definitely feeling that Records is the free mode. When going into Records, you open up what chapter first, and then decide what map you want to play (Main Chapter, Side Maps). This is also where you can S-Rank maps you missed in previous chapters. // As an aside, grinding out the main chapter battles is likely better than grinding out the side ones, since the main battles allows up to 8 units instead of 4.
== So, with this in mind, you can probably play as anyone in Free Mode regardless of route (once you recruited them). They just won't be available for the main "Story Campaign" playthroughs.

In Three Houses, recruitment was done normally as a game mechanic and not through Renown (although one could buy the support levels to make sure they join your class). While there were special cases of recruitment during the 2nd phase of the game, most of it was done during the 1st phase.
-- I was hoping to play with my favorites regardless of route in Three Hopes and not have to worry about the Persuade option in future playthroughs, but it looks like this is not the case.
-- This also means that characters who are available on all routes are excellent candidates to level, as their stats carry over in NG+.

Edited June 25, 2022 by Sire
Update on Records

[CompteSecours]

Poor Seteth, since Wyvern can only wield Axe, he cannot wield his relic in his cannon class. I hope he gets an unique class.

 

Are you sure that recruitment with Persuasion is limited ?

Edited June 25, 2022 by CompteSecours

[Sire]

2 minutes ago, CompteSecours said:

Are you sure that recruitment with Persuasion is limited ?

Yes. There are more characters that are route-specific this time instead of just the House Lord and their Retainer.
-- This is from information through the datamine, although by now there people who have finished a route already.
-- Also, some characters are recruitable on one route, but not another.

For Example...

Spoiler

This is not a complete list. If you want to see info from the current retail datamine regarding playable characters...
-- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m4xHogOjhfdRYywACT-ZHuexdiskAkPSE45soei5zeQ/edit#gid=2059938059

Blue Lions: Dimitri, Dedue, Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain, and Annete cannot be recruited.
Black Eagles: Edelgard, Hubert, Ferdinand and Caspar cannot be recruited.
Golden Deer: Claude and Hilda can't be recruited, but everyone else actually can. However, Lysithea and Leonie will only join if on the Black Eagles route

 

[CompteSecours]

Oh ok, i thought you meant that you could only use persuasion 2 or 3 times per route and after that's done.

[henrymidfields]

1 hour ago, Sire said:

Lysithea and Leonie will only join if on the Black Eagles route

Oh wow, why Leonie of all people? Lysithea, I can understand when she's given an additional recruitment opportunity in Crimson Flower and a story-heavy support conversation with Edie on top of that.

[Azz]

Have just beaten Part 1 of Azure Gleam and I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying my playthrough so far. Azure Gleam has single handedly fixed all my issues with Azure Moon thus far, namely being the treatment of the Tragedy of Duscar and Dimitri's relationship with his allies, namely Dedue and Felix. The story isn't out of this world, but definitely on the same par as the OG TH so far imo. Though, that's mainly for AG obvi, I have heard things about the other routes but I want to experience them first before forming opinions.

I like the recruitment system. I feel like the units you can't recruit make sense and the ones you can also make sense (sans Leonie, I don't know why she can't be recruited in AG  but there are enough units that like being cavs on that route anyways so its fine). Part of does wish I didn't recruit everyone however as now I have a good amount of units who I'm struggling to keep up with one another (not that I have too, but having so many units is a bit overwhelming, though it will hopefully pay off come NG+). I also like, how despite the game basically being mainly clones, everyone still feels somewhat unique to play as in regard to their personal abilities (and also some units have special musous other units don't). Am playing on Normal/Casual and the game hasn't been too hard but also not too easy either.

Resource management has been the hardest part tbh. It's probably because of my need to 100% as soon as possible, but I find myself spending a lot of smithing stones to upgrade facilities. Also I find myself going though a lot of money. I have yet to go out of my way to grind so that is a positive, though, playing Normal mode has probably helped. The level recommendation doesn't seem to mean much really, as long as you have the weapon advantage and pull off one or two critical hits, the enemy tends to die. I also have no idea how weapons and forging works, but that hasn't been an issue so far so whatever.

Overall, very good game, has completely blown the OG FEW out of the water and even the Hyrule Warriors too. A great addition to the THverse and lore.

[MagicCanonBalls]

I am half way through Golden Deer, didn't realized there is actually paralogue chapters. I didn't recruit every character that I can (I really dont need another archer here, I barely use Shamir as it is). But now I feel like I might be missing out on paralogue since one of the paralogue was unlocked by having

Spoiler

Balthus, which was recruited by using strategem in main chapter fight very early on. 

Hard difficulty is a lot more fun in main chapter battle, because you have more units at your disposal and the fights were tough. Once I unlocked advanced classes it became easier even if I am underleveled, upgrading the facilities that can level up the personal skills also helped a lot. 

And the cg cutscenes were awesome as always, it's one of the few things Koei always delivered. 

 

[CompteSecours]

Assassin seems op, like in Three Houses. 

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 hour ago, CompteSecours said:

Assassin seems op, like in Three Houses. 

Definitely. I'd say the best movesets I've played are Assassin, Swordmaster, Paladin, Grappler. And of course Fluegel.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Hey I've been basically media blackout on this game and just now learning there are routes. I just assumed the plot was a Revelations Golden Route where everybody joins together to fight the real bad guys (also I assumed the purple haired dude on the boxart was the antagonist). So... what do the routes mean for completion? If you can't do everything or get everything in a single route, then does that mean 100% entails a playthrough on every single route? Is this another "you will never 100% this so don't bother trying" style of Musou game? And also if there's class changing, do they still have gender-specific classes? Or can women finally be brawlers?

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Hey I've been basically media blackout on this game and just now learning there are routes. I just assumed the plot was a Revelations Golden Route where everybody joins together to fight the real bad guys (also I assumed the purple haired dude on the boxart was the antagonist). So... what do the routes mean for completion? If you can't do everything or get everything in a single route, then does that mean 100% entails a playthrough on every single route? Is this another "you will never 100% this so don't bother trying" style of Musou game? And also if there's class changing, do they still have gender-specific classes? Or can women finally be brawlers?

This is not a thousand hour postgame musou. This one is designed around replaying the routes, doing NG+, experimenting with different characters, random growths, reclassing, optional permadeath, etc. The roster is really big, though some characters are route exclusives.

 

Spoiler

Shez

Byleth

Jeralt

All students, minus Cyril

Ashen Wolves

Catherine, Shamir, Seteth, Flayn, Manuela

Jeritza

Monica

Holst

Rodrigue

Rhea, Gatekeeper, Sothis, and Arval are NG+ characters

 

There is class changing. Genderlocks are in effect for Gremory, Pegasus/Falcon Knights, and the whole Brawler line.

Edited June 26, 2022 by Fabulously Olivier

[Zapp Branniglenn]

54 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

This is not a thousand hour postgame musou. This one is designed around replaying the routes

Is it a Three Houses situation where the first half of the game is 95% the same on all routes?

 

Quote

There is class changing. Genderlocks are in effect for Gremory, Pegasus/Falcon Knights, and the whole Brawler line.

I see. And the dark mage?

[Fabulously Olivier]

6 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Is it a Three Houses situation where the first half of the game is 95% the same on all routes?

 

I see. And the dark mage?

No. It rapidly gets to the good stuff. There's a short prologue that's common, then you make your choice and it rushes to the plot. 

 

Dark Mage/Dark Bishop is genderlocked and moved to Advanced/Master. It's kinda-sorta Hubert and Linhardt's answer to Gremory while being a different moveset.

[Azz]

2 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Hey I've been basically media blackout on this game and just now learning there are routes. I just assumed the plot was a Revelations Golden Route where everybody joins together to fight the real bad guys (also I assumed the purple haired dude on the boxart was the antagonist). So... what do the routes mean for completion? If you can't do everything or get everything in a single route, then does that mean 100% entails a playthrough on every single route? Is this another "you will never 100% this so don't bother trying" style of Musou game? And also if there's class changing, do they still have gender-specific classes? Or can women finally be brawlers?

Like Olivier said, this isn't a 1000 hour warriors game ala HW:DE or even the OG FEW. Character progression isn't as grindy as the other nintendo warriors games where grinding for materials is a necessity. I'm just about done my first route and have not had to grind battles for materials, money or levels. I only grinded when the demo was out cause I wanted to play the game lol.

There is pretty much no shared battles among the routes sans the short prologue in the beginning. Everything else is unique to each route (of which there are three for each lord). The only shared battles are paralogues I believe, though I doubt there will be many of them since cross house recruitment is much more limited compared to the OG TH. Also maps are shared among routes, but there are good variety of maps and pretty much every key location has a unique map.

In regard to classes, yes there are gender locks. The same as TH. Every class sans Lord, Hero and 3/4 of the DLC classes (War Monk/Cleric, Dark Flier and Valkyrie) return. This is probably where you'll have to do the most grinding if you want to get 100% outside of grinding for supports, though it really isn't that bad.

But again, like Olivier said, you'll mainly just be replaying different routes on NG+ to eventually max out classes and get all supports in the game for 100%, but getting 100% in this warriors game feels a lot less daunting than the other nintendo warriors game (well at least Hyrule Warriors and FEW, Age of Calamity wasn't that bad imo).

[Anomalocaris]

Question for anybody who's unlocked the secret (non-character-specific) class:

Spoiler

Can you have more than one Dancer, or can only one person certify for it like in Three Houses? Are there restrictions on who can use it, or can anybody (even Rodrigue) be a Dancer?

 

[Use the Falchion]

Random Support Notes: 

I'm loving the bromances in this game, particularly Felix and Dimitri's. 

Dimitri and Bernadetta is hilarious. 

Hapi's nicknames give me life. 

ART BROS!!

Shez (officially voiced by Smosh cast member Damien Haas!) has some nice meme references. "You know, I'm something of a berry expert myself," "[choice] I fight for my friends," and the allusion to Death of the Author are my favorites. And no, I'm not saying who they are for. 

 

[Moonlit Knight]

Loving Golden Wildfire. Without spoiling too much, it really gives Claude an actual unique route that isn't just Silver Snow spraypainted gold. And it finally gives him more obvious (but entirely consistent with his characterization) character flaws to match with Dimitri's and Edelgard's problems.

 

[Sasori]

So far i'm liking the Blions route. Dimitri still having issue's, but being actually sane helps avoid the whole nonestop 'everyone is a monster' phase of the game. Shez is a nice Avatar and you get to see/hear about some other Faerghus area's.

Still am I the only one who finds the Ai in this game to be especially stupid? In other warriors game I tend to be able to just let them do their thing, but here allies just seem to refuse to move on their own. And even when ordered they don't always move to the npc's I ask them to move to.

[CompteSecours]

Wow there are "scripted" death... That's not cool.

Spoiler

On Blions route, Shamir is a green unit. You can recruit her with persuasion. But if you don't, she automatically dies 😔. 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by CompteSecours

[Anomalocaris]

1 hour ago, Sasori said:

Still am I the only one who finds the Ai in this game to be especially stupid? In other warriors game I tend to be able to just let them do their thing, but here allies just seem to refuse to move on their own. And even when ordered they don't always move to the npc's I ask them to move to.

You might wanna check your general strategy settings. You can set what each character's AI does when it has no immediate assigned task; attack the nearest enemy, defend the nearest base, or do nothing.

As far as assigned tasks, though, in my experience the AI has been pretty good about moving on them. They pathfind and move pretty quickly, and stick with their assigned task.