Fire Emblem Three Houses: Reach for my hand, I'll soar away.

[Rodin]

So nearing the end of my black eagles playthrough...

Spoiler

Show

I am prepping Felix to murder his dad...I am a terrible, terrible person

Overall very please with the story I can understand why someone would despise the people of the church, but not everyone in the church is evil. Seteh and Flayn are definitely not evil. I'd argue that Rhea herself isn't black and white evil either. But then this whole fire emblem game is morally grey and it does it very, very well.

Spoiler: All the spoilers

Show

I just made Ashe murder his adoptive father to see if he gets a special voice line for it, so I know where you're coming from. And no, he doesn't.

---

I know, right?

As I come into possession of all the facts*, I can only consider the story of Three Houses to be a tragedy. Sothis appears to be exactly as virtuous as church doctrine indicates, if our interactions with her are anything to go by. The relic weapons and crests were all created by murdering a city full of peaceful dragon-aliens purely in the pursuit of power - but also possibly to overthrow an unjust system of nobility that had already sprung up. Not that Nemesis gives any indication of being a morally grey character - it's pretty clear world domination was on HIS mind. The original battle against him was probably just and righteous - hence why Seteth and Flayn were involved in it. The result was a pyrrhic victory - Nemesis was defeated, but Seiros's mind was shattered by the butchering of her people and the desecration of her mother's bones. She builds the Church both as a shield around her people's cemetery, and hides the truth of what happened to prevent both another Relic War and to prevent more people coming after the corpses of her friends and family. She proceeds to go nuts over the next thousand years, turning the Church into an oppressive force that does more harm than good and causes the Empire to become disaffected. This allows the Slitherers an opening to worm their way deep into the Empire, eventually torturing most of Edelgard's family to death. This shapes Edelgard into a hatred of the Church and the nobility, and she winds up plunging the continent into war in an attempt to finally end the power abuses once and for all.

We get a happy ending no matter which way the story forks, but DAMN that's a lot of suffering caused by one dude deciding to go route one for his badass set of dragon armor. I don't find myself getting angry at any of the other characters involved (except the Slitherers) - I just find myself being sad. So much pointless war, and for what?

This game is Fates's story done right, in all aspects. The tragedy of war where they managed to avoid both a clear hero and a clear villain.


*if we assume what we are told is true, anyway

[Rising Phoenix]

Spoiler: All the spoilers

Show

I just made Ashe murder his adoptive father to see if he gets a special voice line for it, so I know where you're coming from. And no, he doesn't.

---

I know, right?

As I come into possession of all the facts*, I can only consider the story of Three Houses to be a tragedy. Sothis appears to be exactly as virtuous as church doctrine indicates, if our interactions with her are anything to go by. The relic weapons and crests were all created by murdering a city full of peaceful dragon-aliens purely in the pursuit of power - but also possibly to overthrow an unjust system of nobility that had already sprung up. Not that Nemesis gives any indication of being a morally grey character - it's pretty clear world domination was on HIS mind. The original battle against him was probably just and righteous - hence why Seteth and Flayn were involved in it. The result was a pyrrhic victory - Nemesis was defeated, but Seiros's mind was shattered by the butchering of her people and the desecration of her mother's bones. She builds the Church both as a shield around her people's cemetery, and hides the truth of what happened to prevent both another Relic War and to prevent more people coming after the corpses of her friends and family. She proceeds to go nuts over the next thousand years, turning the Church into an oppressive force that does more harm than good and causes the Empire to become disaffected. This allows the Slitherers an opening to worm their way deep into the Empire, eventually torturing most of Edelgard's family to death. This shapes Edelgard into a hatred of the Church and the nobility, and she winds up plunging the continent into war in an attempt to finally end the power abuses once and for all.

We get a happy ending no matter which way the story forks, but DAMN that's a lot of suffering caused by one dude deciding to go route one for his badass set of dragon armor. I don't find myself getting angry at any of the other characters involved (except the Slitherers) - I just find myself being sad. So much pointless war, and for what?

This game is Fates's story done right, in all aspects. The tragedy of war where they managed to avoid both a clear hero and a clear villain.


*if we assume what we are told is true, anyway

Spoiler

Show

Well Felix gets special lines for killing his dad...umm cool and he doesn't even mourn it afterwards...uh you need help mate.

There were a fair few spoilers there for me, but at this stage I was guessing as much. Only golden deer left for to see what the slither's are up to.

Also I am very curious as to why none of the other of the sacred beast care about Sothis and Rhea...The turtle is one and he doesn't mention Sothis at all other than you being the vessel. It also implies there are/where other sacred beasts. And Rhea, Flayn and Seteth are sacred beasts right?

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler

Show

Well Felix gets special lines for killing his dad...umm cool and he doesn't even mourn it afterwards...uh you need help mate.

There were a fair few spoilers there for me, but at this stage I was guessing as much. Only golden deer left for to see what the slither's are up to.

Also I am very curious as to why none of the other of the sacred beast care about Sothis and Rhea...The turtle is one and he doesn't mention Sothis at all other than you being the vessel. It also implies there are/where other sacred beasts. And Rhea, Flayn and Seteth are sacred beasts right?

Spoiler: Setting Spoilers

Show

To put it in classic Fire Emblem terms, Rhea, Flayn, and Seteth are all manaketes. Manakete's, or Dragon People, in Fire Emblem are basically angels (because in Fire Emblem all religion is dragons) who descended to the world to help out humanity. Rhea and the rest of her family are likely those sorts of dragon people. In most games they're secret allies in the history of the world, sometimes giving you a unit or two. In Three Houses... not so much.

[Zevox]

I'm loving the game but there are so many things I don't yet fully understand.
1. Without having experienced the later classes - how do I know what I want to "build towards"
2. Is it better to keep people in their Beginner classes until they master the class skill or move them into Intermediate classes right away so that they can get access to class skills?

1) A lot of players are familiar with most of the classes from having played past Fire Emblem games. If you're not, well, there's some fairly obvious paths for characters to follow, depending on their weapon of choice:

- Sword wielders: Either Myrmidon -> Mercenary -> Swordmaster or Hero (male only), or Myrmidon -> Thief -> Assassin. The former is more physically powerful than the latter in most cases (though all sword classes are at least a little only the higher-speed, lower-defense side), while the latter gets skills that let you open doors and chests without keys, and at the Assassin level can pick up abilities that give them a chance to instant-KO enemies. There's no obvious Master class for them unless they also pick up reason magic to become a Mortal Savant, but the Advanced classes are good enough for the endgame.
- Spear wielders: Either Solder -> Cavalier -> Paladin -> (Great Knight/Dark Knight/Holy Knight optionally), or Soldier -> Pegasus Knight (female only) -> Falcon Knight (female only). The former classes are mostly more balanced stat-wise, while the latter is high speed and resistance but low defense, making it a strong anti-mage class that emphasizes dodging attacks from anyone else to survive. Pegasus/Falcon Knights are also fliers, which gives them the best mobility in the game but a vulnerability to archers, and they lack an advanced class (Falcon Knight is a master class), so they'll be stuck in Pegasus Knight from level 10-30. The top end classes for the Cavalier path are optional both because Paladin is good enough to use through the end and because they require learning extra skills different from their predecessors - Great Knight is the hardest to get into since it needs both axes and heavy armor, while Dark and Holy Knight just need picking up either reason or faith magic respectively. Great Knight also changes to a more high-defense/low speed style compared to the earlier tiers.
- Axe wielders: Either Fighter -> Armored Knight -> Fortress Knight -> optionally Great Knight, or Fighter -> Brigand -> Warrior -> War Master (male only), or Fighter -> Brigand -> Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord. The Armored Knight line is your high-defense/low speed tanks that will absorb lots of punishment from physical attacks but have trouble against magic, the Brigand/Warrior line is more the offensive style that kills things easily but relies on high health to make up for its low defenses, and the Wyvern Rider line is another flying class that gets high physical stats all around but is vulnerable to archers and not good against magic users.
- Bow wielders: Fighter -> Archer -> Sniper -> Bow Knight. That's really it if bows are your primary weapon. You can have them as a secondary weapon on other classes (Assassins require it, even), but these are the only classes that focus on it.
- Brawling/gauntlet wielders (male only): Fighter -> Brawler -> Grappler -> War Master. The latter three classes are all male-only, so women basically can only use Brawling as a secondary weapon, they'll need something else to qualify for classes.
- Magic users: Either Monk -> Mage/Dark Mage -> Warlock/Dark Bishop -> Gremory (female only) or Dark Knight/Mortal Savant (optionally), or Monk -> Priest -> Bishop -> Gremory (female only) or Holy Knight (optionally). The former are your offense-focused Reason mages while the latter are your healing/support-focused Faith mages. Gremory is the best straight-mage class at the end, but is locked to women only and requires learning both reason and faith magic. Other Master-level magic classes require some additional skills, either swords (Mortal Savant) or lances and riding (Dark/Holy Knight), and so are optional variants. A male going pure magic is fine to just end up in Warlock, Dark Bishop, or Bishop.

2) IMO, go ahead and master the basic class you start in (Commoner/Noble) because it's quick and easy to do so, but don't stick with the beginner classes (Myrmidon/Soldier/Fighter/Monk) longer than necessary, because their bonus to your stats' growth rate is just not very good compared to the next tier of classes, and what you get for mastering them isn't a big deal. Intermediate classes and beyond you'll usually want to master, I think, though it can be worth looking up what some of them get to see if you really want to. For instance, the Swordmaster and Sniper when mastered get you abilities that you can only use if you stay in those classes, so if you intend to move on to another, there's no point in mastering them.

[MCerberus]

Spoiler: Setting Spoilers

Show

To put it in classic Fire Emblem terms, Rhea, Flayn, and Seteth are all manaketes. Manakete's, or Dragon People, in Fire Emblem are basically angels (because in Fire Emblem all religion is dragons) who descended to the world to help out humanity. Rhea and the rest of her family are likely those sorts of dragon people. In most games they're secret allies in the history of the world, sometimes giving you a unit or two. In Three Houses... not so much.

Spoiler

Show

Just one thing to add, dragons and Manaketes also have what seems a genetic predilection for "murderous, omnicidal madness"
It's to the point where the majority of FE have as the primary threat "dragons be crazy". In fact, maybe all of them if you play loose with Bloodlines and consider the sacred relics dragons in Three Houses.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler

Show

Just one thing to add, dragons and Manaketes also have what seems a genetic predilection for "murderous, omnicidal madness"
It's to the point where the majority of FE have as the primary threat "dragons be crazy". In fact, maybe all of them if you play loose with Bloodlines and consider the sacred relics dragons in Three Houses.

Spoiler: Setting spoilers, indepth

Show

I mean all the blood is dragon blood and if you're on a path that doesn't have Rhea as a vague sort of alley shaped person, she's absolutely ****ing bonkers.

Importantly, most Fire Emblems have dragons be good guys too. Divine vs Earth Dragons in FE1 and it's sequels and such, the dragons of plenty and famine in Echoes, Geneology of the Holy War and how it's issues are basically Three Houses only with less stability.

[Rodin]

Spoiler: Setting Spoilers

Show

To put it in classic Fire Emblem terms, Rhea, Flayn, and Seteth are all manaketes. Manakete's, or Dragon People, in Fire Emblem are basically angels (because in Fire Emblem all religion is dragons) who descended to the world to help out humanity. Rhea and the rest of her family are likely those sorts of dragon people. In most games they're secret allies in the history of the world, sometimes giving you a unit or two. In Three Houses... not so much.

Spoiler: Spoilers up to timeskip, all houses, as well as setting spoilers

Show

One thing that has me confused - is Jeralt also one? Because there's some seriously odd stuff with Jeralt. He's vague about his age, much like Flayn. Alois and I think at least one other person comments that his appearance hasn't changed at all in 20 years. And Monica/Kronya uses a special dagger to kill him. Him being important enough to lure out and kill also stands out.

The impression I get is that he's also a Manakete, and possibly another of the Four Saints. However, unlike Seteth and Flayn we do not get confirmation of this fact. At least, nowhere that I can recall.

@Zevox - I find a lot of the beginner classes are worth mastering just for the Combat Art. Swap, Draw Back, and Reposition are all extremely useful for eking out extra points of movement and for exploiting the edges of the danger zone. For instance, you can have your Sniper go into the edge of a danger zone, snipe a mage, then pull them to safety with Draw Back. I also often use Draw Back to pull a lagging unit forward so that instead of having two units that cannot reach I have one that is behind and a second that can now get the clutch kill. As long as you spend a little bit of time explicitly farming Skill points (by using Training or Rusted/Broken weapons against low-level enemies) it's not too difficult to get your entire class to master the skills by level 10. I think the latest I promoted someone was Ashe at level 12, and that's because that boy is constitutionally incapable of not murdering his opponents.

I've also found the Master class skills to just not be worth it. There's not a huge stat difference between Advanced and Master, and in some cases I don't think I would ever even promote. Taking an Assassin's Stealth away is just suicide, and losing Fierce Iron Fist from Grappler is dubious to say the least. Sniper v. Bow Knight depends entirely on the unit - if they're fast and can double-attack naturally, Bow Knight is probably better. If they're slow, the Sniper mastery skill is better.

Master classes in general seem like a bit of a lie. Advanced classes are the Tier 2 units of the old games, and so are Master Classes. Which one you want depends on the unit.

----

Up to chapter 7 in Blue Lions, it's nice working with professionals for a change after my first two runs. A heavy armor dude that can actually tank. An archer with Strength greater than 12 who is fast enough to double-attack. Heck, my White Mage has 12 Strength and carries a bow so she can use Curved Shot. And Mage Byleth just wrecks face, though I did have to spend a Spirit Wing to fix his Magic stat.

Oh Annette. I did not realize how much I needed you.

Hubert: I will murder anyone who crosses Lady Edelgard. MUAHAHAHA.
Dedue: *in monotone* I will do the same for anyone who crosses His Highness.
Annette: Let's talk about MAKEUP!!!!!!!

I'm seriously coming to love Hufflepuff House. They're so relaxing! Except Felix, I guess.

Just brought Lysithea in, and between her, Annette, and Mercedes the entire class is probably going to die of diabetes before we hit chapter 10.

[tonberrian]

Spoiler: Spoilers up to timeskip, all houses, as well as setting spoilers

Show

One thing that has me confused - is Jeralt also one? Because there's some seriously odd stuff with Jeralt. He's vague about his age, much like Flayn. Alois and I think at least one other person comments that his appearance hasn't changed at all in 20 years. And Monica/Kronya uses a special dagger to kill him. Him being important enough to lure out and kill also stands out.

The impression I get is that he's also a Manakete, and possibly another of the Four Saints. However, unlike Seteth and Flayn we do not get confirmation of this fact. At least, nowhere that I can recall.

@Zevox - I find a lot of the beginner classes are worth mastering just for the Combat Art. Swap, Draw Back, and Reposition are all extremely useful for eking out extra points of movement and for exploiting the edges of the danger zone. For instance, you can have your Sniper go into the edge of a danger zone, snipe a mage, then pull them to safety with Draw Back. I also often use Draw Back to pull a lagging unit forward so that instead of having two units that cannot reach I have one that is behind and a second that can now get the clutch kill. As long as you spend a little bit of time explicitly farming Skill points (by using Training or Rusted/Broken weapons against low-level enemies) it's not too difficult to get your entire class to master the skills by level 10. I think the latest I promoted someone was Ashe at level 12, and that's because that boy is constitutionally incapable of not murdering his opponents.

I've also found the Master class skills to just not be worth it. There's not a huge stat difference between Advanced and Master, and in some cases I don't think I would ever even promote. Taking an Assassin's Stealth away is just suicide, and losing Fierce Iron Fist from Grappler is dubious to say the least. Sniper v. Bow Knight depends entirely on the unit - if they're fast and can double-attack naturally, Bow Knight is probably better. If they're slow, the Sniper mastery skill is better.

Master classes in general seem like a bit of a lie. Advanced classes are the Tier 2 units of the old games, and so are Master Classes. Which one you want depends on the unit.

----

Up to chapter 7 in Blue Lions, it's nice working with professionals for a change after my first two runs. A heavy armor dude that can actually tank. An archer with Strength greater than 12 who is fast enough to double-attack. Heck, my White Mage has 12 Strength and carries a bow so she can use Curved Shot. And Mage Byleth just wrecks face, though I did have to spend a Spirit Wing to fix his Magic stat.

Oh Annette. I did not realize how much I needed you.

Hubert: I will murder anyone who crosses Lady Edelgard. MUAHAHAHA.
Dedue: *in monotone* I will do the same for anyone who crosses His Highness.
Annette: Let's talk about MAKEUP!!!!!!!

I'm seriously coming to love Hufflepuff House. They're so relaxing! Except Felix, I guess.

Just brought Lysithea in, and between her, Annette, and Mercedes the entire class is probably going to die of diabetes before we hit chapter 10.

Spoiler: Jeralt and the Saints

Show

We meet both the other Saints during some paralogues, i believe (I spoiled myself on this). They're not Jeralt. He however does have a major Crest - that of Seiros - which might explain his lack of aging. I think that it was just convenient to use an Atarkan knife to kill him because they kill good.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Jeralt and the Saints

Show

We meet both the other Saints during some paralogues, i believe (I spoiled myself on this). They're not Jeralt. He however does have a major Crest - that of Seiros - which might explain his lack of aging. I think that it was just convenient to use an Atarkan knife to kill him because they kill good.

Spoiler: Silver Snow Route

Show

Rhea makes it clear that she gave Jeralt a Major Crest of Seiros using her own blood, thus his living so long, in the church route.

[Rising Phoenix]

I've also found the Master class skills to just not be worth it. There's not a huge stat difference between Advanced and Master, and in some cases I don't think I would ever even promote. Taking an Assassin's Stealth away is just suicide, and losing Fierce Iron Fist from Grappler is dubious to say the least. Sniper v. Bow Knight depends entirely on the unit - if they're fast and can double-attack naturally, Bow Knight is probably better. If they're slow, the Sniper mastery skill is better.

Master classes in general seem like a bit of a lie. Advanced classes are the Tier 2 units of the old games, and so are Master Classes. Which one you want depends on the unit.

I had Caspar as a war master and he killed the final boss effectively on his own in the blue lions path. 80% crit rate is nothing to snuff at with killer gauntlets. And he was sitting at base 40-50% without them. So yeah that extra crit rate is worth it imo. Extreemely satisfying to watch him blitz around the battle field murdering mages and dodging everything else.

Up to chapter 7 in Blue Lions, it's nice working with professionals for a change after my first two runs. A heavy armor dude that can actually tank. An archer with Strength greater than 12 who is fast enough to double-attack. Heck, my White Mage has 12 Strength and carries a bow so she can use Curved Shot. And Mage Byleth just wrecks face, though I did have to spend a Spirit Wing to fix his Magic stat.

Oh Annette. I did not realize how much I needed you.

Hubert: I will murder anyone who crosses Lady Edelgard. MUAHAHAHA.
Dedue: *in monotone* I will do the same for anyone who crosses His Highness.
Annette: Let's talk about MAKEUP!!!!!!!

I'm seriously coming to love Hufflepuff House. They're so relaxing! Except Felix, I guess.

Just brought Lysithea in, and between her, Annette, and Mercedes the entire class is probably going to die of diabetes before we hit chapter 10.

Oh you sweet sweet summer child.

----
So I finished El's route. I found it overtly a lot more satisfying than the Blue Lions Path.

Spoiler

Show

whether Blue Lion's loses steam and feels a bit clunky in the middle. This path just continuously builds momentum. It's great. The final two chapters were amazing and even with my team in the forties I still had to use divine pulse a fair bit.

Against the immaculate one. I ignored the left area completely and zerged rushed Rhea from the right. Took two rounds to bring her down via punches from caspar- everyone else just broke shields for him

Regarding units.
I didn't have a clear mvp this time around... Everyone pulled their wait in specific chapters.

I used El, Blyeth (mastered all the mage paths, honestly mage Blyeth is not worth it), Bernie (benched her eventually cause Ashe was outperforming her again), Fredie (dancer, he was level 52 by the end of the game), Lin, Caspar, Dorothea, Petra (draco master), Lysithea, Ashe, Sylvain (draco master) and Felix (Swordmaster). I didn't use Hubert coz I had too many mages.

Ashe wasn't that good this time around as there were too many bulky enemies- ditto for Bernie.
Lysithea should always be played as a gremory period. She's the in game equivalent of a tactical nuke.
Fredie gets drain speed from his budding talent. You can bait things with him and due to how ridiculously dodgy dancers are you can do it quite safely.
Sylvain is an everyman but he will prolly not be your mvp.
Caspar as a war master as said earlier boasted 80+ cri rate by the end it was ridiculous.
Felix should always go physica:l 40+ speed with his relic makes him both a dodge tank and a meat shield, it's kinda broken, In my first ran I went via the mage path to get him to savant and though good it wasn't as good as 40+ speed Felix.
Petra was great as a draco knight no surprises, may try the assassin route for her later.
Dorothea and Lin were utility, mercie still puts both of them to shame I think.

Regarding personalities. Lin, El and Petra are probably the best written of the lot from Black Eagles. Hubert is not bad either. I romanced Dorothea though

Spoiler

Show

Kinda I wish I didn't. She confesses to everyone in her A supports which is kinda overkill. Give her some A supports were she doesn't want to get in everyone's pants for the rest of their lives.

otherwise she quite well written as well.

Regarding Felix

Spoiler

Show

I had him kill his father AND Dimitri. Dimitri acknowledges the fact that Felix killed his dad. Whether the game flags to see if you did that I do not know. I got the paired ending for him and Sylvain this time around. Kinda sad, but appropriate for Felix who has become a monster from the war

Finally regarding Rhea

Spoiler

Show

She does go bonkers by the end of the Black Eagles path, yes. But prior to you going against the church? She's quite sane. Questionable in her methods, but sane.

[LaZodiac]

In defense of Dorothea:

Spoiler

Show

She doesn't propose to Caspar! Because the poor boy is so closeted he doesn't actually realize what romantic feelings are, and because she considers him a literal last resort partner since he feels more like a brother than a boyfriend.

I do also definitely wish her A supports were less... "marry me" esque.

[Zevox]

So I'm on the Battle of the Eagle and Lion month in Golden Deer now. Still no major story departures from Black Eagle to comment on, although

Spoiler: @Rodin

Show

I did notice that when rescuing Flayne, Claude does the same thing as Edelgard, taking Manuela for help and being unavailable for that battle. So that incident was not indicating Edelgard being the Flame Emperor at all.

Combat-wise, I'm actually getting a bit concerned about the difficulty. It's starting to feel almost as easy as it was on normal again, especially now that I'm hitting Paralogues and combat side-quests that are leveling me up higher. Feels like, just like on normal, I might be getting to the point where doing those will over-level me for the story missions, and they themselves haven't been too challenging either.

And well, the Battle of the Eagle and Lion will likely be unintentionally easier just because I'm actually recruiting a lot of characters. I grabbed Dorothea and Petra early using New Game+ "spend renown for support levels you had before" because I intend on using them, and Sylvain because he joins for free if you're female Byleth. Since then I've also poached Mercedes deliberately (to qualify for a certain paralogue later), and Ashe accidentally because going Pegasus Knight Byleth apparently hits his desired skills. I'll likely be getting Ingrid any time now, since, well, Pegasus Knight Byleth, and Caspar since I cheated him up to B support for the same reason I went after Mercedes. So the Blue Lions are going to be down half of their house, and the Black Eagles almost as much. Honestly, I almost might as well go for recruiting everyone at this point. I had intended to grab everyone I can from the Black Eagles using renown shortly before the time-skip just because

Spoiler: basic time skip spoiler

Show

I don't want to have to kill them,

so that'll actually just leave Felix and Annette over in the Blue Lions.

Anyway, those characters I was concerned about, Lorenz, Ignatz, and Leonie? Well, Lorenz is more or less recovering and proving himself - he's still a tad mediocre, but his growths lately have been good enough to give me confidence he'll be fine long-term. And I got him a Levin Sword now, so he can start having some of that Mortal Savant feel early. Ignatz is still struggling with strength, but the speed growth from Thief is kicking in and helping him double more, so I'm a bit more confident with him. Leonie, good lord, is in a weird spot - she's great in almost every way, but is having even more strength trouble than Ignatz, despite having a better growth rate in it than him. We're talking "aims a bow at a Pegasus Knight and only kills because she's double-attacking" levels of strength. And unfortunately I've gotten no strength-boosting items to hand her. She really needs to stop getting RNG screwed there, or I might need to find someone else to take my second flier role from her, which would suck because she's one of my favorite Golden Deer characters...

Re: Dorothea A supports:

Spoiler

Show

Yeah, her A supports would make a lot more sense if this game restricted everyone to just one A support like the old games did. Becomes a bit awkward when you can get as many as you like. Worked out for me on my first run though, since I actually only gave anyone one A support, to make sure I got the paired endings I wanted to see. (Well, except Byleth and Edelgard, since Byleth's S-rank means I could guarantee that pairing.) Watched other A supports I unlocked, then reloaded so they weren't there permanently.

@Zevox - I find a lot of the beginner classes are worth mastering just for the Combat Art. Swap, Draw Back, and Reposition are all extremely useful for eking out extra points of movement and for exploiting the edges of the danger zone. For instance, you can have your Sniper go into the edge of a danger zone, snipe a mage, then pull them to safety with Draw Back. I also often use Draw Back to pull a lagging unit forward so that instead of having two units that cannot reach I have one that is behind and a second that can now get the clutch kill. As long as you spend a little bit of time explicitly farming Skill points (by using Training or Rusted/Broken weapons against low-level enemies) it's not too difficult to get your entire class to master the skills by level 10. I think the latest I promoted someone was Ashe at level 12, and that's because that boy is constitutionally incapable of not murdering his opponents.

I've also found the Master class skills to just not be worth it. There's not a huge stat difference between Advanced and Master, and in some cases I don't think I would ever even promote. Taking an Assassin's Stealth away is just suicide, and losing Fierce Iron Fist from Grappler is dubious to say the least. Sniper v. Bow Knight depends entirely on the unit - if they're fast and can double-attack naturally, Bow Knight is probably better. If they're slow, the Sniper mastery skill is better.

Master classes in general seem like a bit of a lie. Advanced classes are the Tier 2 units of the old games, and so are Master Classes. Which one you want depends on the unit.

I haven't really found those abilities particularly useful on the few characters I've gotten them for myself, and I find the Combat Artes slots they take up very hard to give away when I could have moves that turn any weapon into a [type]-slayer, or give an archer extra range, for instance. The Mages are about the only ones I can see using them on, just because they don't get other Combat Artes.

As for Advanced vs Master classes, I do agree that many Master classes are optional and Advanced classes are endgame-viable - hence why I said as much often in my breakdown earlier. Though I definitely found it worth upgrading from Grappler to War Master with Caspar myself. Innate Crit +20 is a crazy good benefit on that class.

[Rodin]

Just had the funniest battle ever. I screwed up my timing on the calendar by not asking for mission assistance from Lysithea, had a Monster of the Week mission, and then had a Paralogue. Thanks to all that, I wound up not completing one of the Quest battles for around 3 months straight.

Their level: 8
My level: 15

Out came the Rusted weapons, and then my entire squad ran into the woods. Can you say "10% hit rate"? I turned combat animations off after the first turn. After couple of Dragon Pulses were required, I had Sylvain run around with a real weapon picking off archers. Annette was stalking through the woods with a Training Axe bopping people for 5 damage. Lysithea had a Training Bow and still couldn't penetrate the armor of a Thief.

I think I completed the Intermediate class skills of 5 people, and gained around 30-50 points from everyone else. Instead of lagging behind and promoting at level 22-23 once I get my Skill masteries, I'm going to be tapping my feet waiting for everyone to hit level 20. Ingrid mastered Pegasus Knight at level 14, having only promoted into the class at level 11.

Lesson of the day: Don't complete the generic Monastery quests unless there's a super good reward like unlocking a shopkeeper. Hang onto them for a few months, because they don't level scale. They're the ideal training ground for skill mastery.

------

@Zevox - I wouldn't worry too much about the difficulty. There is a definite dip in difficulty in the middle of the game as your units start getting promoted and your enemies don't. Once the enemies start promoting again things start to get rougher. I don't think it ever gets as hard as Awakening or Fates on Hard, but it's definitely more challenging than Normal was.

The one concern I have is that I found the Black Eagles campaign maps to be more difficult based on what happened in them - I'm not sure that the difficulty of Golden Deer or Blue Lions will be quite at the same level. However, it's hard to say because on Normal you just blow reinforcements away the turn they show up.

[Rising Phoenix]

@Zevox - I wouldn't worry too much about the difficulty. There is a definite dip in difficulty in the middle of the game as your units start getting promoted and your enemies don't. Once the enemies start promoting again things start to get rougher. I don't think it ever gets as hard as Awakening or Fates on Hard, but it's definitely more challenging than Normal was.

The one concern I have is that I found the Black Eagles campaign maps to be more difficult based on what happened in them - I'm not sure that the difficulty of Golden Deer or Blue Lions will be quite at the same level. However, it's hard to say because on Normal you just blow reinforcements away the turn they show up.

I can echo this. Even with my units being five or so levels over the level requirement for the final mission I still had to think carefully about my placements. I very rarely find that I have a unit that can soak up all the damage by the end of the game...Kinda makes me hopeful for lunatic.

Edit: I hope they add an option so you can skip the first half of a game once you've completed a house...It can be a little tedious going through the same student battles over and over again. I have 150 hours on the game and I am feeling a little burned out...Doing Golden Deer now...and then I have to do the church route on El's game and then redo the Blue lion's path as I didn't get all the supports...sigh.

[Rodin]

And we're Three for Three!

Spoiler: Chapter 8

Show

The first time I met the Death Knight in the tomb, it took my entire squad Gambitting him with Ashe taking an incredibly risky shot to allow Lysithea to nuke him.

The second time it was easier - I just Gambitted him with everything and Lysithea got the finisher again, this time as an actual part of my class.

The third time wasn't even close. I've never managed to beat him in Remire Village because your team is spread out across the entire map and you are under time pressure to prevent you from consolidating to strike him. In this case there was just no need. Ingrid as a Paladin was capable of fighting him 1v1 and surviving, and had a reasonable chance of outright winning if they went head to head in a slugging match. Instead, she just Knightkneeler critted him with a Killer Lance. Who needs Dark Spikes?

Oh, and I got confirmation of what I said earlier. On Hard difficulty, the Death Knight immediately charges with his entire squad no matter where you are on the map. There's a line about killing everything when he leaves - something about his blade still craving flesh and the weak shall perish. So, forgive me for not thinking he's a stand-up guy.

My Mercedes is now officially nicknamed "Kagome". She continues to get Strength at the same rate as her Magic, and her Curved Shot just keeps coming in handy. Pity there isn't a dog-boy I can recruit to be her boyfriend like in Fates.

Edit: I hope they add an option so you can skip the first half of a game once you've completed a house...It can be a little tedious going through the same student battles over and over again. I have 150 hours on the game and I am feeling a little burned out...Doing Golden Deer now...and then I have to do the church route on El's game and then redo the Blue lion's path as I didn't get all the supports...sigh.

The problem is that you spend the first half of the game putting your students on the path they're going to follow for the rest of the game. Skipping that seems difficult if you're like me and like to put people into weird classes on subsequent playthroughs (Nowi as a Mage comes to mind as one of the stranger paths you could take in Awakening). There's also the recruitment process, training for Byleth, pre-timeskip exclusive Paralogues, racking up fish and seeds for the Greenhouse...

In many ways, the first half of the story IS the main part of the game. It's where you pull back the bowstring, and then the second half is seeing where the arrow flies.

There's also New Game+ allowing you to spend renown to speed through some of the stuff, although I'm not sure yet exactly how helpful it is.

[LaZodiac]

And we're Three for Three!

Spoiler: Chapter 8

Show

The first time I met the Death Knight in the tomb, it took my entire squad Gambitting him with Ashe taking an incredibly risky shot to allow Lysithea to nuke him.

The second time it was easier - I just Gambitted him with everything and Lysithea got the finisher again, this time as an actual part of my class.

The third time wasn't even close. I've never managed to beat him in Remire Village because your team is spread out across the entire map and you are under time pressure to prevent you from consolidating to strike him. In this case there was just no need. Ingrid as a Paladin was capable of fighting him 1v1 and surviving, and had a reasonable chance of outright winning if they went head to head in a slugging match. Instead, she just Knightkneeler critted him with a Killer Lance. Who needs Dark Spikes?

Oh, and I got confirmation of what I said earlier. On Hard difficulty, the Death Knight immediately charges with his entire squad no matter where you are on the map. There's a line about killing everything when he leaves - something about his blade still craving flesh and the weak shall perish. So, forgive me for not thinking he's a stand-up guy.

My Mercedes is now officially nicknamed "Kagome". She continues to get Strength at the same rate as her Magic, and her Curved Shot just keeps coming in handy. Pity there isn't a dog-boy I can recruit to be her boyfriend like in Fates.



The problem is that you spend the first half of the game putting your students on the path they're going to follow for the rest of the game. Skipping that seems difficult if you're like me and like to put people into weird classes on subsequent playthroughs (Nowi as a Mage comes to mind as one of the stranger paths you could take in Awakening). There's also the recruitment process, training for Byleth, pre-timeskip exclusive Paralogues, racking up fish and seeds for the Greenhouse...

In many ways, the first half of the story IS the main part of the game. It's where you pull back the bowstring, and then the second half is seeing where the arrow flies.

There's also New Game+ allowing you to spend renown to speed through some of the stuff, although I'm not sure yet exactly how helpful it is.

Spoiler: Death Knight, Crimson Flower spoilers

Show

In defense of the Flame Emperor, Death Knight IS her token evil team-mate who I have to imagine probably gets fired given in the Crimson Flower path he literally never shows up not even once.

[Zevox]

@Zevox - I wouldn't worry too much about the difficulty. There is a definite dip in difficulty in the middle of the game as your units start getting promoted and your enemies don't. Once the enemies start promoting again things start to get rougher. I don't think it ever gets as hard as Awakening or Fates on Hard, but it's definitely more challenging than Normal was.

I can echo this. Even with my units being five or so levels over the level requirement for the final mission I still had to think carefully about my placements. I very rarely find that I have a unit that can soak up all the damage by the end of the game...Kinda makes me hopeful for lunatic.

Well, that last is good to hear, because that's been my concern. When I see that the level recommendation for the Battle of the Eagle and Lion is 13, and I'm already hitting 15-16 with everybody just doing my first Paralogue, it looked rather worrying.

Edit: I hope they add an option so you can skip the first half of a game once you've completed a house...It can be a little tedious going through the same student battles over and over again. I have 150 hours on the game and I am feeling a little burned out...Doing Golden Deer now...and then I have to do the church route on El's game and then redo the Blue lion's path as I didn't get all the supports...sigh.

The problem is that you spend the first half of the game putting your students on the path they're going to follow for the rest of the game. Skipping that seems difficult if you're like me and like to put people into weird classes on subsequent playthroughs (Nowi as a Mage comes to mind as one of the stranger paths you could take in Awakening). There's also the recruitment process, training for Byleth, pre-timeskip exclusive Paralogues, racking up fish and seeds for the Greenhouse...

In many ways, the first half of the story IS the main part of the game. It's where you pull back the bowstring, and then the second half is seeing where the arrow flies.

Agreed. In fact, that first part of the game is more like the first 2/3 than the first half. Part 2 definitely takes less time because of the lower amount of stuff to do in between story missions if nothing else, and I'm pretty sure there's fewer actual months/story missions to it too (though I don't recall the exact numbers to be completely sure). Part 2 is what the plot is building up to and where each path definitively diverges, so the urge to skip to it when doing subsequent paths is understandable to a degree, but I wouldn't want to skip Part 1 personally, both for gameplay reasons and just because Part 1 is plenty fun and the build-up to what comes is nice. Plus I want to see all the little moments of each house interacting with each other.

[Rodin]

Agreed. In fact, that first part of the game is more like the first 2/3 than the first half. Part 2 definitely takes less time because of the lower amount of stuff to do in between story missions if nothing else, and I'm pretty sure there's fewer actual months/story missions to it too (though I don't recall the exact numbers to be completely sure). Part 2 is what the plot is building up to and where each path definitively diverges, so the urge to skip to it when doing subsequent paths is understandable to a degree, but I wouldn't want to skip Part 1 personally, both for gameplay reasons and just because Part 1 is plenty fun and the build-up to what comes is nice. Plus I want to see all the little moments of each house interacting with each other.

Spoiler: Number of chapters

Show

It depends on your path, but I believe part 1 is 12 chapters and then anywhere from 6-10 chapters in part 2.

@LaZodiac

Spoiler: Death Knight, Crimson Flower

Show

He shows up for the monastery fight, pre-timeskip. I even had him fight Rhea. Edelgard just goes "I'll explain later", although I don't recall her ever mentioning the Death Knight specifically.

He does get name-dropped by Manuela if you recruited her. She says he's a general leading one of the other armies, and even had drinks with him. She says he's not a bad guy in person. Color me skeptical.

I assume that there's more information about him in the paralogue that deals with him. This is why I need Caspar, he's required for some reason (and you can't do it in Crimson Flower). I'm getting worried though - I'm in the month of the ball and Caspar's B-support is still locked. Time is running low for me to recruit him and I don't have any of the stats, so it's down to Support RNG.

Meanwhile, in high school shenanigans...

*sees Sylvain lining up for a pass at Lysithea*

*grabs popcorn*

*Sylvain references her age*

*popcorn intensifies*

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Number of chapters

Show

It depends on your path, but I believe part 1 is 12 chapters and then anywhere from 6-10 chapters in part 2.

@LaZodiac

Spoiler: Death Knight, Crimson Flower

Show

He shows up for the monastery fight, pre-timeskip. I even had him fight Rhea. Edelgard just goes "I'll explain later", although I don't recall her ever mentioning the Death Knight specifically.

He does get name-dropped by Manuela if you recruited her. She says he's a general leading one of the other armies, and even had drinks with him. She says he's not a bad guy in person. Color me skeptical.

I assume that there's more information about him in the paralogue that deals with him. This is why I need Caspar, he's required for some reason (and you can't do it in Crimson Flower). I'm getting worried though - I'm in the month of the ball and Caspar's B-support is still locked. Time is running low for me to recruit him and I don't have any of the stats, so it's down to Support RNG.

Meanwhile, in high school shenanigans...

*sees Sylvain lining up for a pass at Lysithea*

*grabs popcorn*

*Sylvain references her age*

*popcorn intensifies*

Spoiler: EDelgard route

Show

I never recruited the teachers, so I didn't get to hear that line unfortunately.

Death Knight, other than that, literally never shows up during Edelgard's path post time skip AT ALL.

Also yeah Caspar's B support is post time skip so uh... good luck with that. If you miss it, you can still get it on the Silver Snow path. You cannot get it if you're on Crimson Flower.

[Rising Phoenix]

I didn't know that I needed the sylvain x lorenz support until I saw it. Seriously Sylvain, Lorenz and Dorothea must belong to a club or some such.

[Zevox]

Meanwhile, in high school shenanigans...

*sees Sylvain lining up for a pass at Lysithea*

*grabs popcorn*

*Sylvain references her age*

*popcorn intensifies*

That is one of the ones I meant by it being amusing seeing the ways he gets shot down by everyone in their C supports.

Also, saw his C support with Flayn just now. Wow, is all I'll say. He isn't even trying to hit on her, and still, wow.

[Yana]

*Over protective Seteth intensifies.*

[Zevox]

*Over protective Seteth intensifies.*

To be fair, at least he's not completely unfounded in being concerned about someone like Sylvain being around Flayn. And she wasn't just referencing things he told her, but apparently general rumors about Sylvain around the monastery. But still: wow.

Also, I recruited some of the knights now, including Catherine this time, since I'm not on Black Eagle and heavily restricted on which will join. Yeah, she is another Shamir-level good unit. Starts in Swordmaster despite being too low level for it, great stats, and of course comes with her Relic. And unlike old pre-promotes, she's got great growth rates too, I see. Don't think I'll use her much (I figure I'll save using most of the Knights and other faculty members for my fourth run on the church path, unless they fill a role I really need like Shamir did in Black Eagle), but I put her to use in a couple of paralogues to help avoid over-leveling all of my main force, and goddamn. Will probably give her Relic over to Lorenz or Ignatz, since they're my real swordsmen.

[Rodin]

That is one of the ones I meant by it being amusing seeing the ways he gets shot down by everyone in their C supports.

Also, saw his C support with Flayn just now. Wow, is all I'll say. He isn't even trying to hit on her, and still, wow.

I saw that one just before seeing the one with Lysithea, and it's one of the few times I've gotten annoyed at the differences in translation (I use Japanese voices and English text).

Sylvain's line in English after hearing the rumors is something like "I'm pretty sure he was kidding."

Now, my Japanese is pretty awful and I can only pick out a few words and phrases, but what he said in Japanese was more of an indignant "What does he think I am, a demon or a Shinigami!?"

Which is WAY funnier.

[Selpharia]

Ugh it’s so hard to pick a route after Crimson Flower. I want to see the lore and other options I missed but I don’t want

Spoiler

Show

Edelgard to die, and the idea of helping the Church makes me retch

[LaZodiac]

Ugh it’s so hard to pick a route after Crimson Flower. I want to see the lore and other options I missed but I don’t want

Spoiler

Show

Edelgard to die, and the idea of helping the Church makes me retch

Completely reasonable response!

I suggest Golden Deer.

[Rising Phoenix]

Ugh it’s so hard to pick a route after Crimson Flower. I want to see the lore and other options I missed but I don’t want

Spoiler

Show

Edelgard to die, and the idea of helping the Church makes me retch

The church itself is not evil. Some individuals are. But not everyone. E.g. Seteth, Flayn.

[Zevox]

Ugh it’s so hard to pick a route after Crimson Flower. I want to see the lore and other options I missed but I don’t want

Spoiler

Show

Edelgard to die, and the idea of helping the Church makes me retch

Spoiler: Time skip stuff

Show

Eh, I figure you just kind of have to accept that the former will probably happen in all of the other routes, since to everyone else she's an antagonist after the war starts. At least you can save the rest of the Black Eagles - well, aside from Hubert, but I doubt killing him bothers anyone much. Though, hey, you can spare Claude in the Black Eagle route, so maybe you get the chance to spare Edelgard in one of the other routes. Don't know myself yet, still working through my second file.

And the latter, yeah, that's why I'm saving that route for last. And an extra reason to do Golden Deer before Blue Lion, since Faerghus allies itself more closely with the Church in the war while the Alliance tries to stay neutral, though I was already planning on doing Golden Deer first anyway personally.

[Derjuin]

Spoiler: I guess this stuff is spoilery

Show

Did the church route twice
The first time I didn't get the S support I wanted [Rhea] and I died inside
The second time I did and I was so overjoyed at the ending
A game has not done this to me in a very long time...

I don't know how I am going to do Edelgard's route though. The first time I played I was pretty sympathetic towards her, but in the end I sided with the Church. Twice. Against Edelgard. I'm considering Blue Lions or Golden Deer next, but am not really looking forward to doing an actual bleagles run.

[Rodin]

The church itself is not evil. Some individuals are. But not everyone. E.g. Seteth, Flayn.

Spoiler

Show

In terms of evil individuals in the church, I'm struggling to come up with any other than Rhea herself. Who is sympathetic evil. The only person my verdict is out on is Catherine, and that's just because I don't have her B or A supports yet.

The only people I would class as pure evil in the story are The Slitherers, Hubert, The Death Knight, and a few of the one-chapter-only Generals. Oh, and Nemesis, if you want to go back that far.