Three Hopes surpasses 1 million units shipped

[Fabulously Olivier]

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/08/fire-emblem-warriors-three-hopes-surpasses-1-million-units-shipped

 

Doing so in just under 2 months is substantially faster than the 7 months of FEW1. And it puts it in the spinoff best sellers range that Koei would consider successful.

 

I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned because musou game sales are frontloaded, but this performance is hopefully enough to justify dlc and another game. I figure it should ship another 300k-500k units in the next 6 months, if all goes well. Which would bring it up to my projection.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Fabulously Olivier

[Archeleon]

I hope more FE fans get into it. The gameplay may not be up everyone's alley but it is a great spin-off as far as spin-offs are concerned.

[ZanaLyrander]

I hope we don't have to wait too long for DLC. I love this game, but at this point I've kinda run out of stuff to do. Not that it didn't take quite a while, 300+ hours is money very well spent in my book. But it's been a ton of fun. I can't really compare it to other musou games other than the Hyrule Warriors games, but for what it's worth, this is my favorite musou game I've played so far, and it seems quite popular.

[Fabulously Olivier]

4 hours ago, ZanaLyrander said:

I hope we don't have to wait too long for DLC. I love this game, but at this point I've kinda run out of stuff to do. Not that it didn't take quite a while, 300+ hours is money very well spent in my book. But it's been a ton of fun. I can't really compare it to other musou games other than the Hyrule Warriors games, but for what it's worth, this is my favorite musou game I've played so far, and it seems quite popular.

Here's my thoughts on the franchise in general (the ones I've played), if you're interested in more.

Spoiler

 

S Tier (The Best of the Best):

Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes

Fire Emblem Warriors

One Piece Pirate Warriors 3

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate

Hyrule Warriors DE

 

A Tier (Amazing Games, Minor Flaws):

Dynasty Warriors 8 XL

One Piece Pirate Warriors 4

Persona 5 Strikers

Sengoku Basara 3 (not Koei)

 

B Tier (Above Average):

Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity

Samurai Warriors 5

Ninety Nine Nights 1 (not Koei)

 

C Tier (Average):

Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate

Arslan: Warriors of Legend

Samurai Warriors 4-II

Dragon Quest Heroes 2

Dragon Quest Heroes 1

 

D Tier (Positive Qualities Overshadowed by Negative):

Warriors All Stars

Fate Extella series (not Koei)

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk

 

F Tier (No Redeeming Qualities):

Touken Ranbu Warriors

Dynasty Warriors 9

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Fabulously Olivier

[ZanaLyrander]

1 hour ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Here's my thoughts on the franchise in general (the ones I've played), if you're interested in more.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

S Tier (The Best of the Best):

Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes

Fire Emblem Warriors

One Piece Pirate Warriors 3

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate

Hyrule Warriors DE

 

A Tier (Amazing Games, Minor Flaws):

Dynasty Warriors 8 XL

One Piece Pirate Warriors 4

Persona 5 Strikers

Sengoku Basara 3 (not Koei)

 

B Tier (Above Average):

Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity

Samurai Warriors 5

Ninety Nine Nights 1 (not Koei)

 

C Tier (Average):

Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate

Arslan: Warriors of Legend

Samurai Warriors 4-II

 

D Tier (Positive Qualities Overshadowed by Negative):

Warriors All Stars

Fate Extella series (not Koei)

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk

 

F Tier (No Redeeming Qualities):

Touken Ranbu Warriors

Dynasty Warriors 9

 

 

Huh. Surprised to hear you rate Hyrule Warriors DE so highly. That one was good for a while, but eventually got to a point where it became extremely frustrating. I don't remember specifics, I just remember trying to unlock characters after finishing the story and hitting a number of missions that felt like ramming my head against a brick wall. I enjoyed Age of Calamity much more.

[Fabulously Olivier]

6 minutes ago, ZanaLyrander said:

Huh. Surprised to hear you rate Hyrule Warriors DE so highly. That one was good for a while, but eventually got to a point where it became extremely frustrating. I don't remember specifics, I just remember trying to unlock characters after finishing the story and hitting a number of missions that felt like ramming my head against a brick wall. I enjoyed Age of Calamity much more.

Most rate DE THE highest of any musou. It's seen as essential to the genre. Certainly the most "complete" game and it oozes love for the Zelda franchise in a way that FEW1 unfortunately doesn't for FE.

 

Personally, I think FEW took everything good about it (minus the successful fanservice), trimmed the fat, and refined what works.

[Sire]

Hyrule Warriors is great, although I only played the original Wii U version (where not getting hit was essential for S-Ranks, I hear they made it easier for subsequent versions).
-- Besides the huge number of characters and maps, HW had Adventure Mode which added so much content to the game. The main issue I would have with HW is the grind as leveling up the entire roster is rough, and some of the movesets being lackluster.

Fire Emblem Warriors was nice, although I think I preferred Hyrule Warriors due to movesets being more interesting and progression being more straightforward. I think the maps in HW were also better than FEW, although my memory is a bit fuzzy on that point.
-- I think another reason is that I disliked the "Arena Missions" one got in FEW's "Adventure Mode," as they took longer to complete and were tougher to S-Rank.

As for other Musou games I played, I started with Samurai Warriors Chronicles (3DS), and then got Samurai Warriors 3 (Wii) with Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper (Wii U) finishing it off. I never 100% these titles and mostly just played through the main story modes, but had a blast playing through them.
-- SW Chronicles was my first exposure to these games (and happened to be the title I wanted most during the early 3DS days, despite knowing nothing about them). The 3DS hardware is limiting and I currently can't go back to replay it since my own 3DS is partially busted (broken L-Button), but it was a fun experience nonetheless.
-- Samurai Warriors 3 is also fun, although I think there was a more definitive version released later. It helps I enjoyed the setting, the voiceovers, and the movesets of the characters.
-- Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper exposed me to the Dynasty Warriors cast, as well as a few others. I personally had a blast playing through the story mode as well as listening to the soundtrack, although I never really went back to replay the game on Chaos difficulty to get the special weapon attributes or unique weapons for the characters. // Just note that WO3 has different versions, and I think Ultimate may be the best and final one. I just played Hyper as that is what I had access to.

* * * * *

Back to Three Hopes, I have 224 hours invested with "4/6" routes completed, counting the "Spare/Kill Byleth" as alternative paths. I still need to go back and do the alternative ending for the Golden Deer, although I'm unsure if I'll get around to that.
-- At the moment, I'm using Vanguard Whistles to go through Golden Wildfire a third time to stack up on stat boosters, get extra training, and to see what a "Whistle Run" would be like. While it may be the most efficient use of time for acquiring resources and min-maxing, I feel like chilling at the final chapter and just playing through Records is a better way to go if casually playing.
-- I'm also playing Three Hopes less as I practically experienced the majority of the content already. For Golden Wildfire, both routes were practically the same save for some minor changes here and there, making me less enthusiastic to do a campaign run where I have to experience the same stuff before I get to content that is potentially different. Also, if/when DLC comes out that requires us to replay through the main campaigns again, I don't want to be too burnt out on playing through them too many times. (I have yet to complete the campaigns in the original Three Houses after the Ashen Wolves DLC came out, so I missed out on the Ashen Wolves convos and talking with the NPCs in Abyss.)

[Fabulously Olivier]

2 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Most rate DE THE highest of any musou. It's seen as essential to the genre. Certainly the most "complete" game and it oozes love for the Zelda franchise in a way that FEW1 unfortunately doesn't for FE.

 

Personally, I think FEW took everything good about it (minus the successful fanservice), trimmed the fat, and refined what works.

I should add that HWDE is the borderline game. Kind of like how Dimitri is the borderline A/S tier character. I agree with a lot of Zana's criticisms and have a few of my own. (I HATE hidden collectibles in a genre all about time efficiency!)

 

But ultimately, I think that particular game is a matter of objectivity. If it were purely subjective, it'd be A tier. I actually enjoy Pirate Warriors 4 and Persona 5 Strikers a LOT more, but it's a matter of credibility. It's S tier by consensus, and one can acknowledge that X game is amazing without personally being the consensus. 

 

Most people agree that Red Dead 2 and GTA5 are among the greatest games of all time. Should I, knowing why they're so highly regarded, think they suck just because I don't agree?

 

Also, I always forget to include the Dragon Quest Heroes games for some reason even though they're among the most unique Warriors games.... they're both C tier.

 

14 minutes ago, Sire said:

Hyrule Warriors is great, although I only played the original Wii U version (where not getting hit was essential for S-Ranks, I hear they made it easier for subsequent versions).
-- Besides the huge number of characters and maps, HW had Adventure Mode which added so much content to the game. The main issue I would have with HW is the grind as leveling up the entire roster is rough, and some of the movesets being lackluster.

Fire Emblem Warriors was nice, although I think I preferred Hyrule Warriors due to movesets being more interesting and progression being more straightforward. I think the maps in HW were also better than FEW, although my memory is a bit fuzzy on that point.
-- I think another reason is that I disliked the "Arena Missions" one got in FEW's "Adventure Mode," as they took longer to complete and were tougher to S-Rank.

As for other Musou games I played, I started with Samurai Warriors Chronicles (3DS), and then got Samurai Warriors 3 (Wii) with Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper (Wii U) finishing it off. I never 100% these titles and mostly just played through the main story modes, but had a blast playing through them.
-- SW Chronicles was my first exposure to these games (and happened to be the title I wanted most during the early 3DS days, despite knowing nothing about them). The 3DS hardware is limiting and I currently can't go back to replay it since my own 3DS is partially busted (broken L-Button), but it was a fun experience nonetheless.
-- Samurai Warriors 3 is also fun, although I think there was a more definitive version released later. It helps I enjoyed the setting, the voiceovers, and the movesets of the characters.
-- Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper exposed me to the Dynasty Warriors cast, as well as a few others. I personally had a blast playing through the story mode as well as listening to the soundtrack, although I never really went back to replay the game on Chaos difficulty to get the special weapon attributes or unique weapons for the characters. // Just note that WO3 has different versions, and I think Ultimate may be the best and final one. I just played Hyper as that is what I had access to.

* * * * *

Back to Three Hopes, I have 224 hours invested with "4/6" routes completed, counting the "Spare/Kill Byleth" as alternative paths. I still need to go back and do the alternative ending for the Golden Deer, although I'm unsure if I'll get around to that.
-- At the moment, I'm using Vanguard Whistles to go through Golden Wildfire a third time to stack up on stat boosters, get extra training, and to see what a "Whistle Run" would be like. While it may be the most efficient use of time for acquiring resources and min-maxing, I feel like chilling at the final chapter and just playing through Records is a better way to go if casually playing.
-- I'm also playing Three Hopes less as I practically experienced the majority of the content already. For Golden Wildfire, both routes were practically the same save for some minor changes here and there, making me less enthusiastic to do a campaign run where I have to experience the same stuff before I get to content that is potentially different. Also, if/when DLC comes out that requires us to replay through the main campaigns again, I don't want to be too burnt out on playing through them too many times. (I have yet to complete the campaigns in the original Three Houses after the Ashen Wolves DLC came out, so I missed out on the Ashen Wolves convos and talking with the NPCs in Abyss.)

FEW1 has pristine maps in terms of mechanical design. The game is extremely good at maintaining pressure on multiple areas so you have to prioritize objectives.

But I do agree that HWDE has better maps. Because they're mechanically great AND they are authentically Zelda. Aytolis' incoherent, trash setting could be any generic fantasy game, and it never once feels like Fire Emblem.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Fabulously Olivier

[eclipse]

I'm hoping for DLC, if only to

Spoiler

properly finish the stories.  Unless they're going for a sequel.

It's good that Three Hopes is selling well.  I don't play many Warriors games, but the difficulty didn't feel too bad for someone as casual as me (finally got around to starting a Hard file).  Here's hoping that KT continues to crank out good Warriors games (yes even Touken Ranbu, I had fun with it despite the stupid stealth missions).

[Florete]

While I can't say I'm surprised, it's the first time that I kinda wanted a Fire Emblem title to bomb. That's petty, I know, but Three Hopes is the first game with Fire Emblem in the title to ever give me buyer's remorse, and this probably means we're never seeing a true sequel to FEW1, which was just so much better imo.

[Archeleon]

I actually had the opposite experience.  I expected to get buyer's remorse but now I have over 300 hrs in the game and I've only finished 1 (technically 2) route. 

[Use the Falchion]

Congrats Three Hopes! Here's to hoping we get a FE Genealogy of the Holy War(riors) game next! (After a remake, of course!)

[Faellin]

Hopefuly this shows that we want more!

Bring on the DLC!

[vanguard333]

I'm really not surprised. Ever since they switched from making more general crossovers with an entire franchise (or just Shadow Dragon and Awakening in the case of FE Warriors) to making more focused crossovers with particular games that inherently come across as more closely related to those games as a result, Warriors crossovers have been selling very well lately.

I tried the demo for this game and didn't really get into it; at least not enough to get the full game, but it left a decent enough impression that I'm glad that it's doing well. This one, which was honest in its marketing and didn't present itself as anything more than what it actually was, definitely deserves the sales it has received, unlike a certain other Warriors crossover.

Edited August 18, 2022 by vanguard333

[Jotari]

My biggest hope from this is to eventually see a Genealogy of Holy War Warriors. That would be awesome.

[Yexin]

my opinion on the matter is pretty similar to @Florete's, except i haven't played 3Hopes and don't intend to

i honestly cannot bring myself to be happy about this, i fear it does nothing but making IntSys and Koei think they simply made the correct choice between "actual Fire Emblem Warriors game with more titles getting representation because that's what fans have been asking for years" and "more 3H because 3H sold well and everyone and their mothers love 3H"

will Genealogy get its own Warriors game when it finally gets remade? of course not, i'm not that gullible
what about the next original FE? will that get its own Warriors game? probably, as long as its sales are even remotely comparable to 3H's

so yeah, i think i should just erase from my mind even the smallest glimps of hope in the fact that i'll be alive when a proper FE Warriors (the way i'd like it to be) releases

Edited August 19, 2022 by Yexin

[Fabulously Olivier]

20 hours ago, Florete said:

While I can't say I'm surprised, it's the first time that I kinda wanted a Fire Emblem title to bomb. That's petty, I know, but Three Hopes is the first game with Fire Emblem in the title to ever give me buyer's remorse, and this probably means we're never seeing a true sequel to FEW1, which was just so much better imo.

That's ... not how that works. If it flopped, there would be no true Fire Emblem Warriors sequel, period, end of story. They wouldn't blame the Three Houses focus. They wouldn't blame the canon story. They wouldn't blame whatever petty bullshit Japan is review bombing it for. They'd blame the IP. They'd blame the fans for not buying said IP over any and every controversy. They'd consider it risky at best and unprofitable at worst.

 

What one should be hoping for, if they want a true FEW sequel, is that it succeeds, but not by such a large degree that it cements the single game canon as the definitive way of doing things.

Edited August 18, 2022 by Fabulously Olivier

[Dark Holy Elf]

Honestly I would think the best bet for a "true" FEW sequel would involve first this game succeeding, and then a port/remake/remaster of Genealogy or Tellius succeeding beyond anyone's expectations. Make Intsys and KT think that there's potential in the older games of the IP. If Three Hopes flops, then yeah that'd be the end of FE Warriors games, but from there "how well can the older FE games generate sales" is the most important thing.

 

Anyway I'm definitely happy with this news. I enjoyed this game, and want to see more (DLC, and in general more stuff that ties to Fodlan), so the game doing well makes me happy.

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 minute ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Honestly I would think the best bet for a "true" FEW sequel would involve first this game succeeding, and then a port/remake/remaster of Genealogy or Tellius succeeding beyond anyone's expectations. Make Intsys and KT think that there's potential in the older games of the IP. If Three Hopes flops, then yeah that'd be the end of FE Warriors games, but from there "how well can the older FE games generate sales" is the most important thing.

 

Anyway I'm definitely happy with this news. I enjoyed this game, and want to see more (DLC, and in general more stuff that ties to Fodlan), so the game doing well makes me happy.

See, when I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that Koei determined the same console couldn't support two franchise fanservice crossovers of the same licensed IP. The second game would just replace the first one, unless they arbitrarily locked some very popular characters to the first, or if they pulled a real dick move like "you have to have save data for 1 to play these characters in 2." And that does matter to them, because Age of Calamity caused a huge short-term uptick in sales for Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition (we're talking thousands of percent) as soon as it was announced. 3 Hopes likely lowkey did the same for FEW and Three Houses on a smaller scale.

 

But a console can absolutely hold two spinoffs for the same IP if they're different. We want a Fire Emblem Warriors Ultimate? We likely need to wait till the next console. And if that does well, we'll probably get another dedicated story spinoff as well. Or maybe that'll happen in reverse order.

[Dark Holy Elf]

@Fabulously Olivier Yeah, I agree with all of that.

For all that I had to remind myself that FEW1 was a Switch game. That console's had a pretty good run.

[Florete]

4 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

That's ... not how that works. If it flopped, there would be no true Fire Emblem Warriors sequel, period, end of story. They wouldn't blame the Three Houses focus. They wouldn't blame the canon story. They wouldn't blame whatever petty bullshit Japan is review bombing it for. They'd blame the IP. They'd blame the fans for not buying said IP over any and every controversy. They'd consider it risky at best and unprofitable at worst.

 

What one should be hoping for, if they want a true FEW sequel, is that it succeeds, but not by such a large degree that it cements the single game canon as the definitive way of doing things.

Is Japan really review bombing it? What for?

That aside, I don't necessarily agree. The first one, while not a money-printer, was a success, so if this one bombed, what they would do is examine why that happened when looking at the possibility of making another one. If one bomb meant the end of a series Fire Emblem itself would be done.

[Fabulously Olivier]

16 minutes ago, Florete said:

Is Japan really review bombing it? What for?

That aside, I don't necessarily agree. The first one, while not a money-printer, was a success, so if this one bombed, what they would do is examine why that happened when looking at the possibility of making another one. If one bomb meant the end of a series Fire Emblem itself would be done.

The Dragon Quest Heroes games are likely a dead Warriors franchise, because 2 bombed (despite being a better game), after 1 was successful enough to get a sequel in one year. And Dragon Quest is about as big as JRPG franchises get.

 

https://noisypixel.net/fire-emblem-three-hopes-low-sales-reviews-japan/

 

(Cough. Not like Japan rejecting the best games in the franchise and pushing the series in worse directions is anything new or surprising. Cough. Tellius sold poorly in Japan because they have no taste. Cough cough cough).

[Dark Holy Elf]

2 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

(Cough. Not like Japan rejecting the best games in the franchise and pushing the series in worse directions is anything new or surprising. Cough. Tellius sold poorly in Japan because they have no taste. Cough cough cough).

I don't think that's particularly fair - Tellius bombing in Japan (and not doing wonderfully in the rest of the world for that matter) has much more to do with the GameCube bing a bit of a dud there in general there (and RD being a sequel to a GameCube-only game). It wasn't a great era for home consoles in Japan and it was a bit of a weird decision to take FE back to them at that point (especially since uh, to put it politely, the Tellius games' 3D graphics are not attractive enough to benefit from the biggest advantage of home consoles)

[Jotari]

I'm not even sure why people want a Warriors 1 sequel. Focusing on a single continuity and a single story seems, to me, way better an idea than basically trying to do Heroes but with less capacity to fulfill the idea. I think even if it were a setting I don't like I'd still prefer they focus on one continuity at a time (though there is no real setting I don't like in Fire Emblem, except maybe TMS, but feck it, while I wasn't behind the idol stuff the character designs still looked good, so bring on TMS: Warriors).

[Archeleon]

I think that's one of the reasons I like Hope's better than the original. This one feels more like a combination of both games as opposed to Warriors with an FE skin.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Archeleon