Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes brings a fresh and unexpected twist, both for fans of the franchise and fans they must classics. After the success of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, this new part of the saga gives us an opportunity rediscover its history and its characters through an alternate story arc that seamlessly intertwines action and strategy in a game that revolutionizes the genre.

In my particular case, I played the game in classic mode and lost allies who fell in battle, but at the beginning you can choose two more difficulty levels: Easy (for players who just want to enjoy the story) or difficult (a level designed for experts), once you complete the game, you will unlock an extreme difficulty level to test your skills to the max.

back to adventure

The game begins in the middle of the action with an epic battle scene that is very similar to the beginning of other titles in the franchise, with the surprise of coming face to face with a hero that you would personally control. Fire Emblem: Three Houses. You will soon meet the characters of this title again, which is a point to be able to return to both its protagonists and the side ones who continue the right line of character development, with great charisma and personality, which these games have offered us since their inception. As the story unfolds, you will get to know them better, not only them, but also the members of their respective families. I think it helps to understand the previous volume more in depth and to follow this new story from a more complete perspective. It is also a success in this line new main character, with more personality than its previous counterparts. It is excellent both for its design and for its own dialogues with distinctive identity features.

The negative point is the amount of information you are bombarded with once you start. The tutorials, the options… It takes a while to get the hang of some of the controls in combat, and you even lose subplots of the story that go unnoticed in the face of more weighty events for the main plot.

A feature to highlight that I felt was right already in the previous installment of the franchise is choosing an ally at the beginning of the adventure, which allows you to enjoy playing multiple games by discovering a different point of view in each one, accompanied by different secondary companions with their respective stories and interactions. This dynamic has already won me over Fire sign of destinywhere you could choose a side from the moment you bought one or the other edition of the game (Birthright or Conquest), through the following deliveries perfected this choice model in a single game without having to buy multiple editions (with the cost that this entailed for the player) and we appreciate it.

As a personal observation, I have to admit that with such a careful and high-quality illustration style, it would be great to have more facial expressions in the character dialogues, or to use this resource with small traditional animations instead of seeing the entire game in 3D animation. Still, I enjoy it good character designmain and secondary (although we already knew most of them) and I would like to highlight the originality of the design Arvala new ally that accompanies us from the beginning of the adventure as an equivalent So thisfrom the previous part.

We are going to battle

You could say I’m new to this gender must, that made me second-guess this title, I admit. At first I thought the gameplay would disappoint me, used to the signature strategy of classic Fire Emblem, but after a few hours of playing you can easily adapt to the controls and you can actually ignore some of the options it gives you and play faster or more furiously, but I prefer to use 100% of the potential it offers. It keeps the mechanics of how effective some weapons or others are depending on the enemy, and introduces a motivational system where you gain experience with allies who want to fight. Something I appreciate is the weight given to history and not just battles, shatters the idea that musou can only consist of button mashing.

The first few screens are a little chaotic until you get used to the fast pace of combat, but once you get the hang of it It is a very easy game. Capable of engaging a diverse audience, it delivers close and immediate combat that entertains and engrosses with stunning ease. And on the other hand, and this is the part that also surprised me the most amuses strategy lovers. You may think that we are losing the essence of the main saga titles, but the ability to give orders to your allies, set objectives, plan the deployment of units… gives us the key elements to enjoy a great hybrid. Another notable feature is found at be able to fight any member of his armyI find it useful and original, it’s always exciting to be able to put yourself in the shoes of one of your favorite supporting (or main) characters.

To get some defect, the dialogues in the middle of the battle are not working for me. At certain moments it is impossible for me to follow the conversations of the characters when I am attentive to the enemies in front of me, I would appreciate a small pause in the action to appreciate these lines, I feel that inevitably I lose part of the plot. I’m not convinced either extreme simplicity of combat mechanics, compared to how visually impressive the special attacks and some of the fights are. Victory depends more on the kind of allies we choose than our command skills, even so I appreciate the slight increase in difficulty when fighting large beasts or archenemies where you have to think about your moves: when to attack, dodge or defend, choose the right weapon and character… Even the design of maps that offer repetitive locations is not in favor of her, although this is compensated by the variety of objectives and their change in the middle of the action, which makes the fight more interesting .

We return to the camp

We come to one of the great points in favor, in my opinion: k various actions that can be performed when not in combat. If this feature didn’t exist, the game would be a bit repetitive and I don’t think I would have picked up as easily. There are a wide variety of options: chat with characters, unlock fun and even cute interactions; improving equipment and facilities, leveling up and training, changing classes… And the best thing is that these options can be optional elements, since most of them can be ignored and continue the normal development of the game.

I was surprised in that regard depth of character developmentan element I didn’t expect to find in a game of this genre they mustand this can translate into a significant increase in the number of hours you can extend the game. We will get to know our allies better and put the story on a balanced level with the fight throughout the adventure. However, this can backfire as it translates into a huge amount of information that could overwhelm us and end up skipping conversations and ignoring these aspects of the game.

behind the action

On the more technical aspects, the graphics are quite similar to the previous title in the saga, perhaps with a little less quality in the main story cinematography. The resolution and performance may drop a bit, both in handheld and desktop mode, but that doesn’t stop you from enjoying the game.

On the other hand, we find a high quality soundtrackwhich will not disappoint fans of the franchise, and some illustrations of characters in their line, with their careful and characteristic style. I also note the perfect translation of all the texts into Spanish, flawless. Graphically, my only complaint would be the combat scenarios, which soon become repetitive.

In a nutshell

Overall, I recommend this title. It will provide hours and hours of fun for different player profiles, providing specific elements of the must-have genre without neglecting the great personality of the Fire Emblem saga. It is a perfect combination between strategy and action, with good quality in both aspects.

Some details can always be improved on a technical, visual level… but that can be said for practically any game, so I don’t think that’s the deciding factor for rejecting this title. The musue genre has infiltrated Nintendoand it continues to improve with each new title it brings us, I think Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes brought a breath of fresh air to the category and this opens up new possibilities for future games from other franchises, it’s worth being stay tuned for the next release in this line.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes datasheet

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is available on the Nintendo website for the official price of 59.99 euros, on the dedicated video game channel and on global platforms such as Amazon, which currently offers a 20% discount, while the price of the game remains at 47 euros.