Fire Emblem: Three Houses details characters, classes, gameplay, and more
In the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Nintendo has released a plethora of information for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, including character bios and several gameplay elements like Ability Skills and Class Change.
You can find our translation of the information below. Nearly 100 pieces of screenshots or artwork can be found in the gallery. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is set to release on July 26 for Nintendo Switch.
Characters
Protagonist
Male - default name Byleth, voiced by Yusuke Kobayashi
Female - default name Bylese, voiced by Shizuka Ito
As the player character, you originally work as a mercenary but your exceptional talents soon get noticed, which result in your recruitment to teach at the military academy. Your mother has already passed away, and you live with your father. He used to be the leader of Knights of Seiros but now leads a mercenary band.
Jeralt - voiced by Akio Ohtsuka
The protagonist's father. A legendary being who is also said to be the strongest knight in history. He gets summoned to the Garreg Mach Monastery together with the protagonist, which makes him return to the Knights once again.
Sothis - voiced by Tomoyo Kurosawa
A mysterious girl who looks young but speaks in an old manner. Wielding the power to rewind time, she saves the protagonist on a fateful night. She normally doesn't show up by herself and she also speaks with telepathy directly into the protagonist's head, so no one except the protagonist notices her. She also has lost her memory of her true self.
Edelgard von Hresvelg - voiced by Ai Kakuma
The class leader of the Black Eagles - Adler Klasse, Edelgard is the princess of the Adrestian Empire who has been promised the position of the next empress. A talented woman who has a cold & noble atmosphere. The Adrestian Empire has the longest history among the three countries in Fodlan. Many people here are more skilled in magic than weapons.
Dimitri Alexandre Bladdud - voiced by Kaito Ishikawa
The leader of the Blue Lions - Löwen Klasse, Prince Dimitri is set to become the next king of Faerghus. An eloquent youth who has good manners, he has embodied chivalry but somehow also holds a shadow. Perhaps because the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus is known for their knights, many of the students in his class are good at using spears.
Claude von Riegan - voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga
The leader of the Golden Deer class - Hirsch Klasse is the child of the Regan family, which leads the newly formed community of nobles, the Leicester Alliance. He is a friendly youth whose smile fits him well. Although he doesn't look like thinking of things too deeply, he has a sharp insight. Compared to the other classes, Golden Deer has more students who come from commoner backgrounds. Many of them are also good at using bows.
Gameplay Notes
- When the game is launched, there will be choices for Normal/Hard difficulty and Casual/Classic mode like recent Fire Emblem games.
- Three Houses is confirmed to have a time rewind system, made possible by Sothis' ability to turn back time. The system is similar to FE Echoes where you can rewind certain movements, but the amount of usage is limited. The Japanese term translates roughly as 'Skyrending Pulse'. (Update: The English term is Divine Pulse)
- Terrain effects: Other than determining movement costs and evasion rates, some spots may have gimmicks such as healing HP or might even warp a character to another spot.
- In addition to the usual battle style where individual units take turns on a grid, Three Houses also features a 'many-vs-many' battle style where whole squads can be seen on the battlefield, although the details to this system are yet to be revealed.
- Weapon & Class proficiencies are now reclassified as Skill Levels. While all characters can exhibit all Abilities, each specific character has a set of Abilities intrinsic to the character that they good or poor with. These Abilities include the following:
- Sword Skill
- Spear Skill
- Axe Skill
- Bow Skill
- Reason (for Black & Dark magic)
- Faith (for White magic)
- Flying (for Flier classes)
- Heavy Armor (for Armored classes)
- Horseback (for Cavalry classes)
- These Abilities can be ranked up and when higher ranks are achieved, certain bonuses or skills are rewarded to the character. Such bonuses include:
- Sword Skill Lv.1 (Sword)- When equipping Sword, Accuracy +5, Evasion +7, Critical Evade +5
- Swordslayer (Lance) - When equipping Spear and fighting against Sword enemy, Accuracy & Evasion +20
- Axe Skill Lv.1 (Axe) - When equipping Axe, Accuracy +7, Evasion +5, Critical Evade +5
- Close Range Counter (Bow) - Allows counter-attacks with a bow when attacked from close range
- Reason Lv.1 (Black/Dark Magic) - When equipping Black or Dark Magic, Accuracy +7, Evasion +5, Critical Evade +5
- Faith Lv.1 (Faith) - When equipping White Magic, Accuracy +5, Evasion +7, Critical Evade +5
- Characters start in Commoner or Noble class depending on their origins, but these starting classes are the same stat-wise. These are non-distinctive classes that can wield some basic magic.
- Class Change now uses a Qualification Exam system: Characters need to spend Exam Passes and the chance of passing a class exam improves with higher skill ranks. Once a new class has been unlocked for the character, they can freely change back anytime. Unlike most past mainline FE games, there are no changes to a character's equippable weapon types, and the character level won't go back to Lv1 when changing class. Certain classes will also earn specific bonuses, such as that class’s fixed skills. (This system is called Ceritifcation Exam in English)
- The first class upgrades from Commoner/Noble are available after reaching Lv5, and they require the usage of Beginner Exam Passes. These classes include:
- Myrmidon - Excels in using swords, has high agility and evasion
- Soldier - Good with spear attacks, has great dexterity so their attacks are easy to land
- Fighter - Gets a power bonus, is good in using not only axes but also bows
- Monk - Can use magic. In this game, magic is split into several categories such as White Magic, Black Magic, and Dark Magic
