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

[Rising Phoenix]

Black eagles

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Ok so this path has apparently two critical choices
1) Choose to view Edies coronation or stay at the church
2) Protect Edie or kill her.
I chose to view her coronation and to protect her.

I am guessing that staying at the church and choosing to kill her gives you the other path.

Does the story change if you pick a combination of the two

Also based on the above I have an inkling that the free updates coming up may be expanding the stories of the other two paths in a similar impactful manner...I can only hope.

[Zevox]

Black eagles

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Ok so this path has apparently two critical choices
1) Choose to view Edies coronation or stay at the church
2) Protect Edie or kill her.
I chose to view her coronation and to protect her.

I am guessing that staying at the church and choosing to kill her gives you the other path.

Does the story change if you pick a combination of the two

Spoiler: Black Eagle path choices

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No. Apparently the only thing that the first choice affects is whether you even have the option at the second choice. If you don't accompany Edelgard to the capital for her coronation, you automatically side with the church in the tomb. So the only real split in the story here is between following Edelgard's path or the Church's.

[Rising Phoenix]

Spoiler: Black Eagle path choices

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No. Apparently the only thing that the first choice affects is whether you even have the option at the second choice. If you don't accompany Edelgard to the capital for her coronation, you automatically side with the church in the tomb. So the only real split in the story here is between following Edelgard's path or the Church's.

Thank you.

Edit: Crap-Black Eagles.

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I left Ladislava die on the assault on the monastery... I am guessing she died for good as she's not showing up in the monastery...Damnit! I hate missing out on lore.
Not much I can do if she lol attacks Catherine though...
Speaking of Catherine after she killed Ladislave the dark knight casually walked up to her and critted her face

[LaZodiac]

Yeah, I'm doing it just for fun. Seeing the different ways you can build Byleth is more interesting than just destroying with their unique class, at least after the first time through the game anyway. If we eventually get Lunatic difficulty though, I think not screwing around with Byleth will be mandatory. I'm already having to make extensive use of Dragon Pulse to deal with getting critted out or otherwise falling into bad positions. On Lunatic I imagine you would have to optimize your team very carefully, because Had difficulty is already quite a bit higher than Hard in the previous two games (because Dragon Pulse exists, I suspect).

Bernadette just won a prize for taking down a barrier all by herself without using a gambit. Artillery fire for the win. I wanted her to kill it too, but I did the math and worked out that she would literally break all her bows first.

In other news, I'm getting gladder and gladder that this was NOT my first playthrough.

Spoiler: Black Eagles Chapter 16/Golden Deer spoilers

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When they told me I was going to Arianrhod, I knew what was coming. There's only one reason the game would send me there when it was so out of the way of the Empire's advance, and that's so they can blow it up with the sub-orbital railgun. I was expecting them to use a modified version of the animation, maybe show the Death Knight leading Byleth to safety instead of tricking them to safety. I don't remember the exact deals of the cutscene, but it cannot have been that difficult to change some voicelines and edit the sequence a bit so that it makes sense from an Empire point of view.

Instead, we get...nothing. They blow up the fortress off-screen. No animation, not even a still picture. One of the biggest moments of the Golden Deer playthrough, and it's completely glossed over.

I'm sorry, but this is just LAZY. Yes, I'm on what I'm now convinced is the non-canon path through the game. There's still only four paths!!! And for Black Eagles, it's the one that many people will have taken for their first playthrough! It's not like it's super hidden - you only require C+ rank with Edelgard and choosing to accompany her to the Empire to unlock it, and choosing Edelgard at the moment of truth isn't exactly a crazy decision nobody would pick either. So why is this path so phoned in?

I've pretty much lost motivation for this path now. I seriously doubt that I'm going to get any new animations. The game basically told me that the next mission is going to be a map I'm familiar with (I've only seen one new map on this path so far), and the plot along this route has been nowhere near the quality of the Golden Deer path. Under the circumstances, the final confrontation with Rhea can only be a disappointment.

Still, I suppose I must grind through it.

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the point of it not happening on screen is because it's a surprise. Because you feel real good because you and Edelgard just successfully finessed one of Uncle ********'s allies while progressing your own goals. There's nothing that can stop us now!

Except he has now presented us with his Spears of Heaven. Hm. That's no good.

I absolutely understand why it might come off as lazy, but I'm currently playing through the Church path root and there are other things I could say about this that make it sound just as lazy. Ultimately, the path you went down first is always going to be the one you consider best, because that's just how humans work, but I liked Edelgard's route quite a bit.

I do agree, without spoiling it, that the final map is ass, but it IS a unique map by my understanding, with a unique boss that no other route gets, that is actually really challenging and fun. And you get a cool new animation for it so it's fine.

Thank you.

Edit: Crap-Black Eagles.

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I left Ladislava die on the assault on the monastery... I am guessing she died for good as she's not showing up in the monastery...Damnit! I hate missing out on lore.
Not much I can do if she lol attacks Catherine though...
Speaking of Catherine after she killed Ladislave the dark knight casually walked up to her and critted her face

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She's alive it just takes a bit for them to regroup with you.

[Rising Phoenix]

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She's alive it just takes a bit for them to regroup with you.

Oh good.

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I am hoping that her, Randolf and Fleche become recruitable via dlc/free updates.

[Rodin]

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the point of it not happening on screen is because it's a surprise. Because you feel real good because you and Edelgard just successfully finessed one of Uncle ********'s allies while progressing your own goals. There's nothing that can stop us now!

Except he has now presented us with his Spears of Heaven. Hm. That's no good.

I absolutely understand why it might come off as lazy, but I'm currently playing through the Church path root and there are other things I could say about this that make it sound just as lazy. Ultimately, the path you went down first is always going to be the one you consider best, because that's just how humans work, but I liked Edelgard's route quite a bit.

I do agree, without spoiling it, that the final map is ass, but it IS a unique map by my understanding, with a unique boss that no other route gets, that is actually really challenging and fun. And you get a cool new animation for it so it's fine.

Spoiler: Black Eagles and Golden Deer

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What, having spears of light rain down in spectacular fashion in a special cutscene WASN'T a surprise?

My point is that they didn't bother to give us the cool cutscene. Like several other cool cutscenes that they don't give the Black Eagles on Edelgard's route. You're getting almost none of the plot exposition from the Golden Deer path, the big reveal about Rhea being Seiros is just kind of her going "Oh by the way I'm Seiros" instead of a big scene where we get her backstory. The second battle of the Eagle and Lion never happens. I'm on the final chapter now and it's looking like we're not going to find out anything about Those Who Slither In the Dark. And people keep telling Byleth "I wonder if this is really the path you were supposed to be on?"

It's clear that this path wasn't the primary focus, and I'm glad that it's a full four chapters shorter than the Golden Deer route. THAT was a surprise too - having to make my choice of who to marry in Chapter 17 when I thought I had until Chapter 21.

The final mission is pretty damn cool though. Hard to say how much is a difference between Normal and Hard, but it feels a heck of a lot more difficult than the Golden Deer final mission just in terms of terrain and number of enemies coming at you. It feels more epic too.

Just rage quit for the first time. An enemy with a range 4 attack and 20-30% crit has just managed to crit-kill one of my people 5 turns in a row, no matter how much I reorganize. Even Edelgard isn't safe. Burning through my Dragon Pulses far too fast and I still haven't come up with a way to get at him. I think I just need to sit and wait until he moves closer, but the position I'm in makes that difficult. I know that the RNG isn't locked in, but it sure feels like it right now.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Black Eagles and Golden Deer

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What, having spears of light rain down in spectacular fashion in a special cutscene WASN'T a surprise?

My point is that they didn't bother to give us the cool cutscene. Like several other cool cutscenes that they don't give the Black Eagles on Edelgard's route. You're getting almost none of the plot exposition from the Golden Deer path, the big reveal about Rhea being Seiros is just kind of her going "Oh by the way I'm Seiros" instead of a big scene where we get her backstory. The second battle of the Eagle and Lion never happens. I'm on the final chapter now and it's looking like we're not going to find out anything about Those Who Slither In the Dark. And people keep telling Byleth "I wonder if this is really the path you were supposed to be on?"

It's clear that this path wasn't the primary focus, and I'm glad that it's a full four chapters shorter than the Golden Deer route. THAT was a surprise too - having to make my choice of who to marry in Chapter 17 when I thought I had until Chapter 21.

The final mission is pretty damn cool though. Hard to say how much is a difference between Normal and Hard, but it feels a heck of a lot more difficult than the Golden Deer final mission just in terms of terrain and number of enemies coming at you. It feels more epic too.

Just rage quit for the first time. An enemy with a range 4 attack and 20-30% crit has just managed to crit-kill one of my people 5 turns in a row, no matter how much I reorganize. Even Edelgard isn't safe. Burning through my Dragon Pulses far too fast and I still haven't come up with a way to get at him. I think I just need to sit and wait until he moves closer, but the position I'm in makes that difficult. I know that the RNG isn't locked in, but it sure feels like it right now.

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I mean Rhea turning into a massive dragon monster, and the general "you defile my mother's tomb!" bit makes it clear Rhea is Seiros.

Edelgard's path is for those who see through the bull**** immediately and are like "okay so the church is clearly evil, the Crest system of nobility is bupkiss, let's fix this". The lack of a laser light show is so you can actually have time to celebrate your victory, before your uncle strides up all "hey cool job killing one of my minions. Hope it doesn't back fire on you" and then we get to hear it backfire on us and that's actually an interesting, surprising plot twist that I feel like a cutscene before we celebrate and then talk with Arundel would have ruined.

Golden Deer has the most exposition out of all of the sides. Blue Lion doesn't get to learn ANYTHING. They don't know about the Slitherers at all, don't get to see Rhea as a dragon, and generally don't know this is anything other than a standard war-fight. There IS a second Battle of the Lion and Eagle in Edelgard's route, it's literally the semifinal map against Dimitri and it's super sad in how it concludes.

Those Who Slither in the Dark not being elaborated on kinda sucks, but given that they're our allies who we intend to murder the instant we've dealt with Rhea, it makes a degree of sense we're not actively hunting them down or digging into them for backstory. They ****ed up Edelgard's life but are useful tools towards making a better world. We'll break them when we're good and powerful.

I actually kinda dislike the final map for Edelgard since most of my units where mounted and I had only one flyer, so that was a lot of trudging through being on fire.

[Rodin]

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I mean Rhea turning into a massive dragon monster, and the general "you defile my mother's tomb!" bit makes it clear Rhea is Seiros.

Edelgard's path is for those who see through the bull**** immediately and are like "okay so the church is clearly evil, the Crest system of nobility is bupkiss, let's fix this". The lack of a laser light show is so you can actually have time to celebrate your victory, before your uncle strides up all "hey cool job killing one of my minions. Hope it doesn't back fire on you" and then we get to hear it backfire on us and that's actually an interesting, surprising plot twist that I feel like a cutscene before we celebrate and then talk with Arundel would have ruined.

Golden Deer has the most exposition out of all of the sides. Blue Lion doesn't get to learn ANYTHING. They don't know about the Slitherers at all, don't get to see Rhea as a dragon, and generally don't know this is anything other than a standard war-fight. There IS a second Battle of the Lion and Eagle in Edelgard's route, it's literally the semifinal map against Dimitri and it's super sad in how it concludes.

Those Who Slither in the Dark not being elaborated on kinda sucks, but given that they're our allies who we intend to murder the instant we've dealt with Rhea, it makes a degree of sense we're not actively hunting them down or digging into them for backstory. They ****ed up Edelgard's life but are useful tools towards making a better world. We'll break them when we're good and powerful.

I actually kinda dislike the final map for Edelgard since most of my units where mounted and I had only one flyer, so that was a lot of trudging through being on fire.

Well, thank you for spoiling a bunch of Blue Lions stuff. Thank you so very much.

Finished Black Eagles now, the last mission ended strongly at least. I managed to stop reading halfway through your spoilers, so fortunately I didn't see everything. Looking forward to getting to know the third class.

This is where I would put my MVP rankings, but the difficulty was high enough that I relied on Byleth a lot, so only one other person stood out. That would be Caspar, because Brawlers/Grapplers are freaking crazy. That's another case where I find the Master class lacking - War Masters don't get the benefit of the Grappler class skill that lets them hit 3 times in a turn, which really helps against fast enemies you need to punch many times in the face.

[LaZodiac]

Well, thank you for spoiling a bunch of Blue Lions stuff. Thank you so very much.

Finished Black Eagles now, the last mission ended strongly at least. I managed to stop reading halfway through your spoilers, so fortunately I didn't see everything. Looking forward to getting to know the third class.

This is where I would put my MVP rankings, but the difficulty was high enough that I relied on Byleth a lot, so only one other person stood out. That would be Caspar, because Brawlers/Grapplers are freaking crazy. That's another case where I find the Master class lacking - War Masters don't get the benefit of the Grappler class skill that lets them hit 3 times in a turn, which really helps against fast enemies you need to punch many times in the face.

Sorry about that, I hadn't realized you hadn't done the Blue Lions path yet.

Now all I need to do is spoil someone on Golden Deer and I'll have hit the trifecta of being an idiot v_V.

[Rodin]

Sorry about that, I hadn't realized you hadn't done the Blue Lions path yet.

Now all I need to do is spoil someone on Golden Deer and I'll have hit the trifecta of being an idiot v_V.

Ah, no worries. I'm sure I've accidentally spoiled some of the Golden Deer stuff somewhere in all the plot discussions.

I've started Blue Lions now and my first impression is...why are these people so NORMAL? After the first two classes had such wacky hijinx in the opening classroom scene, the Blue Lions are an oasis of calm in comparison. I'm sure I'll find out that one of them is secretly a ghost-emperor from outer space in due course, but this is a fairly promising start.

The first quandary I've run into is how to start learning magic. Byleth doesn't start with it, and there's no immediate way to get training in chapter 1. I guess I have to hope I can squeeze the training to get to D rank in before level 5. Might need to deliberately lag my Byleth behind so I can get him in the proper growth classes or he'll make a sorry Mage.

[LaZodiac]

Ah, no worries. I'm sure I've accidentally spoiled some of the Golden Deer stuff somewhere in all the plot discussions.

I've started Blue Lions now and my first impression is...why are these people so NORMAL? After the first two classes had such wacky hijinx in the opening classroom scene, the Blue Lions are an oasis of calm in comparison. I'm sure I'll find out that one of them is secretly a ghost-emperor from outer space in due course, but this is a fairly promising start.

The first quandary I've run into is how to start learning magic. Byleth doesn't start with it, and there's no immediate way to get training in chapter 1. I guess I have to hope I can squeeze the training to get to D rank in before level 5. Might need to deliberately lag my Byleth behind so I can get him in the proper growth classes or he'll make a sorry Mage.

I raised my Byleth exclusily on Myrmidon and Thief levels for almost all of Chapter 1, and she's got nearly 30 mag. You'll be fine.

Blue Lions is fun for reasons I won't get into, but suffice to say playing the game alongside a friend who was Lions to my Eagles led to some... very good times.

[Zevox]

Oh good.

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I am hoping that her, Randolf and Fleche become recruitable via dlc/free updates.

Well... openly, all I'll say is that I feel that's not likely. Why is spoilers.

Spoiler: Black Eagle late-game

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Randolf and Ladislava die (the latter off-screen) defending the monastery from a Church attack midway through Black Eagles' late-game, so it's really doubtful they'd be made recruitable.

I guess they could make Fleche recruitable after that point and basically make her the Nino of the game, but I don't know why they wouldn't have done that already if they wanted to.

Spoiler: Black Eagles Ending

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Maybe if they do DLC to expand on the Black Eagles Edelgard path so that you can actually deal with the Slitherers on that path rather than leaving that plot thread dangling I could see them throwing her in as a new recruitable though. I have... mixed feelings on them doing that, though.

Just rage quit for the first time. An enemy with a range 4 attack and 20-30% crit has just managed to crit-kill one of my people 5 turns in a row, no matter how much I reorganize. Even Edelgard isn't safe. Burning through my Dragon Pulses far too fast and I still haven't come up with a way to get at him. I think I just need to sit and wait until he moves closer, but the position I'm in makes that difficult. I know that the RNG isn't locked in, but it sure feels like it right now.

And that is why, after my first run through Awakening, I now play on Casual. Stuck with Classic for that run, and eventually decided, screw it, restarting fights every time something goes wrong (especially dealing with reinforcements that acted on the same turn they spawned in that game...) or I get hit by a nasty low-chance crit isn't fun, so why not just use Casual mode instead now that it's an option. Usually don't need it (haven't ever in Three Houses so far), but I'm glad for it when it does come up.

[LaZodiac]

My personal theory on what the DLC will be: Prequel. See how Seiros and her Saints got together and everyone went down in ye olde past days.

Spoiler: Further Theorcrafting on DLC. Massive Spoilers included probably

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You'd play as Sothis, looking more like Byleth age wise. Your units would be Seiros, the four saints, Nemesis, and three people who you'll recognize name wise as founders of the three nations. This'll give us the 9 base units the game takes as bare minimum. Extra recruitables will be the Ten Elites and maybe Jeralt.

They'll have Manakete/Dragoning out as a skill, and I feel like it'll actually be a Secondary equipment that only the dragon folk can equip, in any class, that makes all their attacks get dragon-enhanced. So if you have Seiros as a Myrmidon, and have her equip a silver sword and a Dragonstone, when she does her attack she gets all half-dragony, Corrin style, and it gives her like a +5 boost on might or whatever. It'll also make them enter dragon form entirely instead of partial transformations when doing Gambits.

The plot'll be revealing the truth of what really happened back then, likely involving the beating up of further Slitherers, and ending with Nemesis' betrayal and having a FF7 style ending where it super heavily teases Three Houses, a game that already exists.

[Selpharia]

I’ve been really enjoying Edelgard’s Route so far. But then, it’s my first route so I don’t have anything to compare it to. I give them a lot of credit for making it feel very desperate, like it’s just you and your crew against the world. It’s a unique feeling for a Fire Emblem, where you can usually be confident in your army’s color coding.

Of course, I actually liked Fates:Conquest. It felt like a good, if a bit flanderized, portrayal of how impossible and naive “working from inside” a malevolent system to mitigate it is. My heart started racing every time the villain or his lieutenants would show up with another unreasonable or cruel demand.

[LaZodiac]

I’ve been really enjoying Edelgard’s Route so far. But then, it’s my first route so I don’t have anything to compare it to. I give them a lot of credit for making it feel very desperate, like it’s just you and your crew against the world. It’s a unique feeling for a Fire Emblem, where you can usually be confident in your army’s color coding.

Of course, I actually liked Fates:Conquest. It felt like a good, if a bit flanderized, portrayal of how impossible and naive “working from inside” a malevolent system to mitigate it is. My heart started racing every time the villain or his lieutenants would show up with another unreasonable or cruel demand.

*high fives*

Conquest wasn't great writing wise but I think it definitely approached that from a good angle. I feel like Edelgard's path is Conquest!Corrin done right, with the addition of "and also she has the balls to nutkick everyone in her way, regardless of who they are" which I appreciate.

[MCerberus]

My personal theory on what the DLC will be: Prequel. See how Seiros and her Saints got together and everyone went down in ye olde past days.

Spoiler: Further Theorcrafting on DLC. Massive Spoilers included probably

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You'd play as Sothis, looking more like Byleth age wise. Your units would be Seiros, the four saints, Nemesis, and three people who you'll recognize name wise as founders of the three nations. This'll give us the 9 base units the game takes as bare minimum. Extra recruitables will be the Ten Elites and maybe Jeralt.

They'll have Manakete/Dragoning out as a skill, and I feel like it'll actually be a Secondary equipment that only the dragon folk can equip, in any class, that makes all their attacks get dragon-enhanced. So if you have Seiros as a Myrmidon, and have her equip a silver sword and a Dragonstone, when she does her attack she gets all half-dragony, Corrin style, and it gives her like a +5 boost on might or whatever. It'll also make them enter dragon form entirely instead of partial transformations when doing Gambits.

The plot'll be revealing the truth of what really happened back then, likely involving the beating up of further Slitherers, and ending with Nemesis' betrayal and having a FF7 style ending where it super heavily teases Three Houses, a game that already exists.

Spoiler: Golden Deer Ending

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I may have read the lines wrong but I got the impression that the Slitherers and elites were both seperate events and just... just the worst. If you take it that the Children were mixed-blood descendants of holy dragons (which, we'll just ignore how often those turned out some shade of evil) then Rhea purged the slitherers from the light and it had nothing/little to do with the unification wars other than leaving the bones of her mother and siblings unguarded.

Nemesis "just a bandit" and the 10 were just sort of always corrupt bad guys under this reading
Then again I could have the timeline scrambled because they decided to completely upend the lore in the last two chapters of ONE path.

Also, just making sure I got this straight, Rhea turned the about-to-be orphaned child of a dying nun undead in order to provide a vessel to reincarnate her mom, which would completely overwrite the host. Yeeeeeeeeesh

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Golden Deer Ending

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I may have read the lines wrong but I got the impression that the Slitherers and elites were both seperate events and just... just the worst. If you take it that the Children were mixed-blood descendants of holy dragons (which, we'll just ignore how often those turned out some shade of evil) then Rhea purged the slitherers from the light and it had nothing/little to do with the unification wars other than leaving the bones of her mother and siblings unguarded.

Nemesis "just a bandit" and the 10 were just sort of always corrupt bad guys under this reading
Then again I could have the timeline scrambled because they decided to completely upend the lore in the last two chapters of ONE path.

Also, just making sure I got this straight, Rhea turned the about-to-be orphaned child of a dying nun undead in order to provide a vessel to reincarnate her mom, which would completely overwrite the host. Yeeeeeeeeesh

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I mean that's also true but I feel like there would be a way to go about it and make it work. Nemesis didn't just come out of nowhere after all.

Also in Black Eagles

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Edelgard mentions that the Ten Elites were smashed up and used to make the holy relics by Rhea, so it's not JUST upended in Golden Deer. You are right though that it's the only path that actually really elaborates much on anything.

also also: yup! That's what she did! And it's heavily, heavily implied that she did this a lot and made a lot of dead babies as a result.

[huttj509]

And that is why, after my first run through Awakening, I now play on Casual. Stuck with Classic for that run, and eventually decided, screw it, restarting fights every time something goes wrong (especially dealing with reinforcements that acted on the same turn they spawned in that game...) or I get hit by a nasty low-chance crit isn't fun, so why not just use Casual mode instead now that it's an option. Usually don't need it (haven't ever in Three Houses so far), but I'm glad for it when it does come up.

I'm absolutely on the same page as you. I've loved FE games, but tend to find them stressful, and not in a fun way. It collides badly with my personal inclinations to not miss out on items, xp from enemies, units, etc.

So as soon as Casual was introduced, I was all for it. Like, I sometimes do Classic for a second run, but especially in the "learn the nuances of this game" section I start with something like Classic Hard.

Still nontrivial a lot of times. Running into things like a character who has a lot of trouble levelling up, etc. But it's the right kind of tactical fun for me on a first playthrough.

Edit: Also, the first mission post timeskip for Golden Deer on Hard is kinda bull**** at the start.

Spoiler: Kinda BS

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Many archers, and Claude became a Wyvern riding Lord...oof.

[Rising Phoenix]

I have 10...dragon pulses now...I can easily unmake any mistake even on hard classic. In fact I often rewind time in order to snag chests/steal items at this rate as I am too effective sometimes. I find it very easy not to play on hard classic at this rate. Very much looking forward to Lunatic when it comes out.

Doing the post time skip paralogues for black eagles...

Also Eddie

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I was not expecting her to be bi. But in any case she's very, very well written. More so than Dimitri

[Zevox]

I have 10...dragon pulses now...I can easily unmake any mistake even on hard classic. In fact I often rewind time in order to snag chests/steal items at this rate as I am too effective sometimes. I find it very easy not to play on hard classic at this rate. Very much looking forward to Lunatic when it comes out.

I did think about switching to Classic for my second Three Houses run because of Divine Pulse, but decided not to. Even though I probably could and Divine Pulse would make it okay, I wound up figuring that was just as true if I used Casual. The only difference it would make is if I actually did wind up in a situation where even Divine Pulse wouldn't let me save someone, and if something like that happened I would restart the mission rather than lose them, which I'd really rather not do if I don't have to.

Anyway, I'm on chapter 5 of Golden Deer now - not far enough to have learned anything particularly new compared to what I saw on the Black Eagles route story-wise, but enough to have a decent amount of time with the Golden Deer students. Definitely liking most of them, but yeesh, Lorenz. That boy is every ounce the snooty, oblivious noble that Ferdinand could have been but wasn't. I think I have his C supports with everyone in the house now, and none of them have made him look good. I mean, I guess at least he doesn't seem incapable of being a good person the way Hubert sometimes could, but that's a low bar.

Otherwise though, yeah, great bunch. Standouts to me are Claude, Hilda, Raphael, and Leonie (who I already had something of a handle on from recruiting her into Black Eagle, but it's been great to see her supports with the rest of the Golden Deer students, since she had very few support options in Black Eagle). Still not entirely sure what Marianne's deal is, her C supports don't really reveal a whole lot. Lysithea's fun to see interact with others, though I'm pretty sure I already know one of if not her biggest secret, since I saw up through her B support with Edelgard in Black Eagle, and it was brought up there

Spoiler: Lysithea spoiler

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how the second Crest that was forced upon Lysithea is somehow resulting in a significantly shortened life expectancy for her. Which definitely helps explain parts of her character - she wants to make as much use out of what time she has left as she can, hence her drive to seem/be more mature than her age, rather than just slow down and enjoy being young.

Ignatz is the one who I'm just kind of "eh, he's okay" on so far.

Combat-wise, I've used New Game+ bonuses to quickly B-support and recruit Dorothea and Petra, so I can get them started on training towards their classes, plus I grabbed Sylvain since I saw some of you guys mention how he'll always join a female Byleth's house if you ask. Not sure if I'll use him long-term or not, but for now he's on track to be a Cavalier, which I don't otherwise have. (And I'll say that his C supports with the women are fun just to see the various ways he gets shot down. I was pretty surprised that even Marianne kind of did - that look she gave him, wow.) So far, I'm a bit concerned about Lorenz's speed and Ignatz and Leonie's strength, which I have not been having great luck with on level-ups. Lorenz and Leonie's growth rates on them should be fine long term I'd hope, though Ignatz's is sketchier there at only 35% and not going to get any help from Thief or Assassin. Hopefully he can make up for that with consistent doubling once he gets the speed bonus from those classes though. The others are all working out pretty well, and I almost have Byleth ready for Pegasus Knight right on time thanks to using Renown to jump my lance skill straight to D+ (which I'd gotten it to in order to recruit Leonie last time).

[GloatingSwine]

Anyway, I'm on chapter 5 of Golden Deer now - not far enough to have learned anything particularly new compared to what I saw on the Black Eagles route story-wise, but enough to have a decent amount of time with the Golden Deer students. Definitely liking most of them, but yeesh, Lorenz. That boy is every ounce the snooty, oblivious noble that Ferdinand could have been but wasn't. I think I have his C supports with everyone in the house now, and none of them have made him look good. I mean, I guess at least he doesn't seem incapable of being a good person the way Hubert sometimes could, but that's a low bar.

He gets better with higher supports, it's almost as if there's an actual human under the layers of pillock. (Plus his decent balance of strength and magic growths and his strengths make him good to train up as Dark Knight).

[Rodin]

Spoiler

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I mean that's also true but I feel like there would be a way to go about it and make it work. Nemesis didn't just come out of nowhere after all.

Also in Black Eagles

Spoiler

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Edelgard mentions that the Ten Elites were smashed up and used to make the holy relics by Rhea, so it's not JUST upended in Golden Deer. You are right though that it's the only path that actually really elaborates much on anything.

also also: yup! That's what she did! And it's heavily, heavily implied that she did this a lot and made a lot of dead babies as a result.

Spoiler: Major spoilers from all over the place

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If Rhea is to be believed he kinda did. He was just a human bandit who learned of the location of Sothis's bones and stole them, gaining incredible power and a thirst for conquering the world.

I'm also trying to remember what Rhea said about the Ten Elites, because I could swear that she said the relic weapons were created by humans as a way to gain the power of the alien space dragons.

I would love to see a prequel DLC. What we have is different stories that are inherently self-serving. From Rhea's perspective, it's all the humans fault, and we only have her word for much of what transpired - there's confirmation of bits of it from Sothis and Byleth's dreams/memories, but nowhere near enough to get an objective account. From Edelgard's perspective, she's relying on myths and legends and texts passed down through several hundred years of Emperors who have every reason to hate the church. Even if Edelgard herself weren't biased, the raw information she has is suspect purely by virtue of it being hundreds of years old.

My ideal DLC would simply be titled "The Truth" and show us firsthand those events. Expounding upon what, exactly, the goddess and her people ARE would be a nice bonus. There's lots of hints of a Sci-Fi element to the game, and I would love to get details on it.

And that is why, after my first run through Awakening, I now play on Casual. Stuck with Classic for that run, and eventually decided, screw it, restarting fights every time something goes wrong (especially dealing with reinforcements that acted on the same turn they spawned in that game...) or I get hit by a nasty low-chance crit isn't fun, so why not just use Casual mode instead now that it's an option. Usually don't need it (haven't ever in Three Houses so far), but I'm glad for it when it does come up.

I've tried doing Casual in Awakening, but I found it made the game too easy. If you can sacrifice troops without consequence, the difficulty of the game drops dramatically. I think when i did Lunatic I played on Casual in order to make beating it without grinding a million levels possible.

Dragon Pulse fixes the main crit problem - it's really only when you get absurd RNG like five 20% rolls going against you in a row that things become irritating. With Awakening, I would have had to do the entire stage six times over. With Dragon Pulse, it took me a couple hours to cool off and then I went back and the sixth time was the charm. No restarting needed.

On Hard difficulty, I found Dragon Pulse to kind of create its own mini-game. Okay, enemy reinforcements showed up on your turn and you have three units that are in deep. How do you get them out without completely rewinding your turn so that you can cheat and set a trap for the reinforcements? In previous games, that's what you would do. You replay the map playing around the trigger point. Being able to rewind just a little bit makes it bearable. I think it's the best new feature they put in and I hope they keep it.

Anyway, I'm on chapter 5 of Golden Deer now - not far enough to have learned anything particularly new compared to what I saw on the Black Eagles route story-wise, but enough to have a decent amount of time with the Golden Deer students. Definitely liking most of them, but yeesh, Lorenz. That boy is every ounce the snooty, oblivious noble that Ferdinand could have been but wasn't. I think I have his C supports with everyone in the house now, and none of them have made him look good. I mean, I guess at least he doesn't seem incapable of being a good person the way Hubert sometimes could, but that's a low bar.

Otherwise though, yeah, great bunch. Standouts to me are Claude, Hilda, Raphael, and Leonie (who I already had something of a handle on from recruiting her into Black Eagle, but it's been great to see her supports with the rest of the Golden Deer students, since she had very few support options in Black Eagle). Still not entirely sure what Marianne's deal is, her C supports don't really reveal a whole lot. Lysithea's fun to see interact with others, though I'm pretty sure I already know one of it not her biggest secret, since I saw up through her B support with Edelgard in Black Eagle, and it was brought up there

Spoiler: Lysithea spoiler

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how the second Crest that was forced upon Lysithea is somehow resulting in a significantly shortened life expectancy for her. Which definitely helps explain parts of her character - she wants to make as much use out of what time she has left as she can, hence her drive to seem/be more mature than her age, rather than just slow down and enjoy being young.

Ignatz is the one who I'm just kind of "eh, he's okay" on so far.

Combat-wise, I've used New Game+ bonuses to quickly B-support and recruit Dorothea and Petra, so I can get them started on training towards their classes, plus I grabbed Sylvain since I saw some of you guys mention how he'll always join a female Byleth's house if you ask. Not sure if I'll use him long-term or not, but for now he's on track to be a Cavalier, which I don't otherwise have. (And I'll say that his C supports with the women are fun just to see the various ways he gets shot down. I was pretty surprised that even Marianne kind of did - that look she gave him, wow.) So far, I'm a bit concerned about Lorenz's speed and Ignatz and Leonie's strength, which I have not been having great luck with on level-ups. Lorenz and Leonie's growth rates on them should be fine long term I'd hope, though Ignatz's is sketchier there at only 35% and not going to get any help from Thief or Assassin. Hopefully he can make up for that with consistent doubling once he gets the speed bonus from those classes though. The others are all working out pretty well, and I almost have Byleth ready for Pegasus Knight right on time thanks to using Renown to jump my lance skill straight to D+ (which I'd gotten it to in order to recruit Leonie last time).

Lorenz irritated me early, but once I started to know him better he grew on me.

For Marianne, the best way to learn about her is to do her paralogue. It explains a lot.

My Ignatz wound up going pure caster. He just never got the strength. Agree on him being the most "meh" in the entire class.

------

My adventures in Hufflepuff House are starting to take shape. After the weirdos in the other two Houses, I'm finding this bunch very relaxing so far. Sylvain continues to be the best. I did notice something rather sad about him though - if you check his full Support list from the main menu, he has almost NO A-supports with women outside his house. I don't think that's an accident.

Speaking of Sylvain and his C-supports with the ladies, I also appreciated that he doesn't even try to flirt with Bernadette. Raises my opinion of him further.

From a gameplay standpoint, I'm deeply amused that Derdue is capable of soloing the first Auxiliary mission. He'd stand a reasonable chance at the first real mission too, I think, but there are a couple of casters on that map that would probably whittle him down.

Oh, and Annette is a Mage with Rally Strength that loves Axes. That's weird, right? It's not just me?

Maybe I can make her into a Dark Knight. Lance to C wouldn't be too difficult, especially with New Game+ bonus to skill learning. The hard one would be getting her pony skills up. Maybe she can take a stint as a cavalier?

[Zevox]

I've tried doing Casual in Awakening, but I found it made the game too easy. If you can sacrifice troops without consequence, the difficulty of the game drops dramatically. I think when i did Lunatic I played on Casual in order to make beating it without grinding a million levels possible.

I'm sure that if you were willing to just sacrifice troops willy-nilly, it would, yes. But I still play with every intention of making sure that everyone survives. Using casual mode just means that if something goes horribly wrong, and in Three Houses' case if Divine Pulse somehow isn't able to help fix it, I'm not stuck deciding between restarting a level I spent a bunch of time on already and just leaving someone dead.

Oh, and Annette is a Mage with Rally Strength that loves Axes. That's weird, right? It's not just me?

Yes. Yes it is. She's also like, the smallest character in the entire school besides maybe Cyril, right? She looks like she should be competing with Lysithea for frailest character physically.

[GloatingSwine]

I'm using Ignatz as an Assassin, he's got strength and dex and speed, so he's good for swording and bowing things.

It's Marianne that's let me down for stats, she just didn't get anything useful so she's too reliant on specials, so Petra stole her job and she's on adjutant duty unless I really need another flier.

[Rodin]

I'm using Ignatz as an Assassin, he's got strength and dex and speed, so he's good for swording and bowing things.

It's Marianne that's let me down for stats, she just didn't get anything useful so she's too reliant on specials, so Petra stole her job and she's on adjutant duty unless I really need another flier.

My Marianne on my first playthrough was a godly White Mage. She could heal anyone anywhere on the battlefield to full HP, and could nuke enemies in a pinch.

Second playthrough I made her a Dancer, because as I've mentioned before I'm a troll. I was very surprised to find Blue Lions out-trolling me by putting Dedue of all people forward as their dancer candidate.

I dunno who I want to be my Dancer this run. The girls all have their roles locked in, which leaves me either going Flayn again (which is boring) or going full troll again and nominating Caspar. I need him for a paralogue, but I don't intend to be using him heavily outside that. I've never been a big fan of Dancers, even though in this game they're more useful. Can't bring myself to just pass up the class either.

Actually, the idea of a Brawler Dancer is kind of amusing. Unlock the class, then reclass back into Brawler for the stat growths. Once you hit levels 30-40 or so, reclass back into Dancer and have them run in punching things to death.

[GloatingSwine]

Actually, the idea of a Brawler Dancer is kind of amusing. Unlock the class, then reclass back into Brawler for the stat growths. Once you hit levels 30-40 or so, reclass back into Dancer and have them run in punching things to death.

If you want a beef dancer the obvious choice is Raphael, the purest human.

[Rising Phoenix]

I am doing the Marianne paralogue...oh...OH....that explains so many things...

Marianne paralogue advice needed:

Spoiler

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Ok she's underlevelled like level 25 something as a paladin. I don't have any rescue users in my group though I can warp three people in with her...kinda...Problem is she's surrounded by speed wolves and if I attack those the big bad become aggro...so I am a bit uhhh confused as to what to do...I can grind more levels on her and come back I guess?

My Marianne on my first playthrough was a godly White Mage. She could heal anyone anywhere on the battlefield to full HP, and could nuke enemies in a pinch.

Second playthrough I made her a Dancer, because as I've mentioned before I'm a troll. I was very surprised to find Blue Lions out-trolling me by putting Dedue of all people forward as their dancer candidate.

I dunno who I want to be my Dancer this run. The girls all have their roles locked in, which leaves me either going Flayn again (which is boring) or going full troll again and nominating Caspar. I need him for a paralogue, but I don't intend to be using him heavily outside that. I've never been a big fan of Dancers, even though in this game they're more useful. Can't bring myself to just pass up the class either.

Actually, the idea of a Brawler Dancer is kind of amusing. Unlock the class, then reclass back into Brawler for the stat growths. Once you hit levels 30-40 or so, reclass back into Dancer and have them run in punching things to death.

I man Dimitri my dancer...Didn't regret it...he became a dodge murder tank...The final boss only had a 5% hit chance against him it was hilarious. Also he ended with uhh 57 charm? So he's dancer special did a lot of damage.

Edit:

Lunatic mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmgwTOxkp-I&t=0s

This looks like suffering...

[Rodin]

Glorious victory!!!

I have finally, on my third playthrough, defeated

Spoiler: Minor spoiler from pre-timeskip, all houses

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The Death Knight

on the first time you encounter them. It only took 8 gambits to the face, followed by Ashe making a daring bow attack and dodging a double 40% insta-kill counter-attack, then followed up by a crowning Luna from Lysithea who had a far more interesting internship with the Blue Lions than she was expecting.

Caspar is up next for the internship, where he will be

Spoiler

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repeatedly punching a giant lizard monster in the face.

Say what you like about Byleth's teaching style, they know how to make field trips interesting.

I am doing the Marianne paralogue...oh...OH....that explains so many things...

Marianne paralogue advice needed:

Spoiler

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Ok she's underlevelled like level 25 something as a paladin. I don't have any rescue users in my group though I can warp three people in with her...kinda...Problem is she's surrounded by speed wolves and if I attack those the big bad become aggro...so I am a bit uhhh confused as to what to do...I can grind more levels on her and come back I guess?

Spoiler

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The wolves will not harass Marianne as long as she doesn't aggro them. However, there is a caveat - once you engage the boss in combat, EVERYTHING activates. So the key to the mission is to step Marianne just out of the boss's attack range, as he cannot move until you initiate combat with him. If you do it right (I moved north slightly, which was safe) you shouldn't run into any enemies and Marianne will be safe to just chill out while you murder the enemies in between you and her. You will eventually hit a point where the boss will "see" you attack one of his minions, and this will piss him off too. I still managed to murder half a dozen beasts before that happened, and at that point I just hit the boss with a few gambits so Marianne could run past him to the safety of my army.

Once you do aggro the boss though, take him down fast unless you're really confident. I had at least 5 or 6 beasts charge me out of the dark while I was dealing with him.

Lunatic mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmgwTOxkp-I&t=0s

This looks like suffering...

It's hard to judge Lunatic based on that video. Enemies having abilities from early in the game isn't new to Lunatic (been there since Awakening at minimum), and bosses being able to move doesn't really concern me either. In some ways it makes them easier, as they abandon the fortified position they were in.

That other game mode sounds like a placeholder.

[SuperPanda]

I have bought the game and am slowly worming my way through my first play through. Have been skimming the thread but avoiding spoilers so far. I'm on Normal - Classic difficulty as this is my first Fire Emblem. After a few stumbles early on I'm finding myself feeling far over leveled.

I just found the third story mission for Golden Dead (protect the holy ceremony) featuring a scary foe that did not attack my team so long as I gave him a wide berth. I've got one save at the end of the fight and another right before it and plan to go back in and purposefully pose him just to see what happens (I think Hilda might stand a chance).

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?

Currently I've got Byleth as a Thief, Claud as an Archer, Hilda as an Armored Knight, and Raph as a Brawler (everyone else is a beginner of some form or another - in my post battle save Leonie can test for Calvary.

Right now though, Hilda is just death incarnate for most of the enemies I've been facing. She regularly gets 2 swings, sometimes 3, and each one did 15 or more using a training ax. Her and Raph form my front line in most fights while Lorenz and leoni form a flank and Byleth and Claude split up to support one or the other. I'm currently working on recruiting Bernedette so that I can see her supports with Raph but I hadn't been leveling Byleth's bow, so her and Claud swapped rolls with him now going more Melee (working on his Axe) while she goes ranged.

Story faction thoughts:

Spoiler: The Church people

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Seteth feels like professor Snape - I feel like he'd turn out to be a steadfast ally eventually but right now I just find myself wanting to smack the smug look off his face.
I fully expect to find out Rhea is a death eater of some sort.
No real thoughts on the others - don't know the rest of the monastery staff enough to care yet.

Spoiler: The Eagles

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The vibe I got from the princess in the beginning was "The force is strong in you. Join me, and together we will rule the Empire as father and son."
Haven't been working with the rest of the class much, though I am working on stealing some of them.

Spoiler: The Lions

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The vibe I got form the prince was "The world is dark and full of terrors, join me so that we can restore the goddess apointed ruler to this land. No one expects the Foedish inquisition!"

Spoiler: The Deer

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The vibe I got at the beginning was "We're the misfits that they have to allow in here to maintain balance and keep the other two from killing each other. We aren't important but we're way more fun.

After getting to know them better, my current thoughts on them:

Claude: I act like I'm not taking this seriously, but that's largely because I'm still waiting for a knife in my back - might as well have some fun before it arrives.

Lorenz: I believe every word that my snobbish parents have ever told me and don't understand why those things seem to be wrong in the real world.

Hilda: I tell myself that people do stuff for me because they are in love with me, but I know it is because I can bench press them.

Marianne: I set myself up as the scared of everything shy girl - either because I'm terribly abused or because I am certifiably insane and aware of the fact. Still unsure which it will be.

Lysitheia: Super high strung. I'm half expecting her B-rank support with Claude to be him showing her some "mellow" herbs in the green house so that she can make friends.

Ignatz: Kid should be a painter, putting him on a battle field is a waste of his talents. Still Harry potter is a decent show with a bow and has some talent for magic.

Raphael: I can't tell if he really is stupid but kind, or if he has the wisdom to recognize his weaknesses and plays them up to be endearing.
Either way, I thought I'd be annoyed by him and found myself liking him a lot.

Leonie: I liked her from the first time I met her, the gruff, frugal, blunt commoner who is the only one not fawning over "teach." I imediately knew we'd be friends (she still doesn't see if that way).

[Rising Phoenix]

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

Spoiler

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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.