▷Fire Emblem: Three Houses review, between teachings and battles 🥇

Fire Emblem: Three Houses it is addictive. The new title of Intelligent System e Koei Tecmo Games - arriving tomorrow exclusively on Nintendo Switch - delicately introduces you to a world of nobles, knights, spells and strategies and then catapulted you into an incredibly captivating narrative plot.cente that it will keep you glued to the console of the giant of Kyoto.

Religion at the center of the conflict

Fire Emblem: Three Houses will catapult you straight into the Middle Ages. There are kingdoms, empires, families, dynasties, knights and battles carried out with sidearms. To best define the period, however, is the intrusive presence of religion, of a cult that refers to a generic Goddess, to Saints with unusual names and to a series of figures that take the name of bishops and priests. In short, the points in common with Christianity are wasted, especially considering the strong interference of this religion in the political issues of the period.

It is in this climate - so bizarrely familiar - that we get to know Byleth, character whose genre we can choose and to whom we can possibly attach another name. Here, for convenience, I'll be using the feminine as this is how I completed my first run of the game.

But let's get back to us. Byleth is the daughter of Jeralt, a mercenary and former captain of the gods Knights of Seiros, armed wing of the homonymous church. A lucky meeting will bring the soldier back to his old role, while Byleth will become one of the teachers of theOfficers Academy of the monastery of Garreg Mach, nerve center of that cult led by Archbishop Rhea. Here you will meet the three future key members of the Fódlan: the heir to the throne of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, Dimitri, the future empress of the Adrestian Empire, Edelgard, and finally the one who will lead the Leicester Alliance, Claudius.

Once you know the three leaders of the different houses - and of the homonymous classes - you will have to decide what young ruler to take under your wing, a decision that will affect the course of the story and your particular view of the events narrated in Fire Emblem: Three Heroes.

Ideally, to savor every nuance of the story, you should play the title 3 times, a choice that will take several hours. To give you an idea of the time needed, calculate that for the first run, ignoring some side quests, it took me about 40 hours.

Books…

But what exactly do you do in this game? In reality we can summarize the activities in 2 major branches: teaching and fighting. On the one hand, in fact, you will have to fulfill your duty as teachers with weekly lessons, seminars and chats with students which will allow you to cultivate skills - yours and the students' - and to improve the support between the different members of the group during the battles.

But be careful: you won't have to teach them what you want, but you will have to pay attention to them personal goals, objectives that may change over time, leading them to prefer new subjects. The latter of course are not traditional disciplines, but all related to combat. Specifically you will have: sword, spear, ax, bow, fists, faith, reason (which corresponds to magic), command, armor, riding and flight.

Enhancing individual skills will allow students to take the necessary exams a change class. Many available, all divided into 4 macro categories: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Master.

All this will then serve you to face enemies in battle.

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… And weapons

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, exactly like its predecessors, is a strategic turn-based one. This means that, once on the field, each of your soldiers will be able to move once before passing the ball to the opponents.

Before starting the fight, however, you will have to carry out a series of preliminary operations, such as making sure that everyone is equipped with weapons, checking that they have equals, potions and elixirs to heal themselves and that the moves and skills that they intend to use during the battle are active. It will also be possible associate a battalion with each team member, that is, a swarm of men and women who will be able to attack enemies. What is the peculiarity compared to a normal attack? Simple: while single attacks are such, the Stratagems - this is the name of the command to use - they allow you to join forces. In fact, your battalion can collaborate with those of 3 other companions at most, thus unleashing more incisive attacks.

I also point out the possibility of accessing the Mercato directly from the pre-fight menu, which includes the Armory, the Emporium, the Battalion Guild and the Forge.

Once the preparations are complete, you will be ready for battle. Here you will have the attacks, the aforementioned tricks, the ability to heal yourself and your companions and access the tools. There is also the possibility of rewind time in the face of possible errors but of course you will not be able to do it continuously: the number of times provided is limited and will depend on the level reached.

However, all this will not guarantee you victory. You have to think carefully about the attack strategy, otherwise you only risk losing teammates. Then remember that the difficulty level initially chosen will define the future of your students: the basic level brings them back to life at the end of each conflict, while the advanced level provides for permanent death, which will decimate your small army.

Japanese style and medieval charm

Fire Emblem: Three Houses mixa in modo sapiente the Japanese style, with cut scenes that closely resemble Japanese anime and characters with exquisitely oriental traits, to purely medieval landscapes, sceneries and buildings. The result is a unique world, enriched with supernatural elements such as wizards, monsters and gods.

Of course you can't expect fireworks from a technical point of view, but I guarantee you that everything flows perfectly, with not excessively long loads and, above all, with a really well made and always discreet soundtrack. The dubbing is also good, but it is exclusively in English. Don't panic: there are Italian subtitles.

Finally present an online component which, however, is rather limited. In fact, all it offers is the possibility to see a series of statistics (favorite activities, most loved characters, etc.) and to visualize the spirits of the fallen on the battlefields on the field.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, buy it or not?

It is well known that strategists are not loved by everyone. Many gamers prefer adventure games, shooters and sports titles. All very different things from this Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Yet, in my opinion, you should give it a chance. That of showing you that "strategy" does not mean "boredom", that of approaching a title different from the others, that of discovering a setting so close to our history and, at the same time, so far from reality. And then, let's face it, how many other games with 60 euros give you over 100 hours of gameplay?