Fire Emblem

[Dirty Duck]

I'd actually sort of forgotten that a sequel to Three Houses was being made. Probably the Switch 2 title I'm most excited for right now as I absolutely loved that game. Don't really like the V Tuber-esque moving character portraits in this trailer though I won't lie. But four characters to choose from seems like a substantial upgrade from one character with three (and a bit) different paths.

[SK8R LUNG]

i love fire emblem but for me i think Fates was the sweetspot of the linear-chapter progression combined with customization/open-endedness for this franchise. i started Three Houses and never completed it, felt like i needed to be tracking stuff in a spreadsheet. i dunno if i have the brain space for that kind of game anymore

[Dirty Duck]

I think Awakening was better than Fates, personally. But honestly I've loved every post-Awakening FE, although I haven't played Engage yet but that looked a bit Greatest Hits like and so didn't feel like I was in too much of a rush to play it, Henry got it for me for my bday a couple years ago though so I'll likely play it to prepare for Fortune's Weave.

What about Three Houses felt more complicated to you, @SK8R LUNG? I didn't think anything felt especially more complex than before...I guess the time management aspect does obfuscate the existing stuff a bit but due to my time with the Persona series I didn't find that too daunting. Also, what house did you ally with?

[SK8R LUNG]

I think Awakening was better than Fates, personally. But honestly I've loved every post-Awakening FE, although I haven't played Engage yet but that looked a bit Greatest Hits like and so didn't feel like I was in too much of a rush to play it, Henry got it for me for my bday a couple years ago though so I'll likely play it to prepare for Fortune's Weave.

What about Three Houses felt more complicated to you, @SK8R LUNG? I didn't think anything felt especially more complex than before...I guess the time management aspect does obfuscate the existing stuff a bit but due to my time with the Persona series I didn't find that too daunting. Also, what house did you ally with?

i haven't played Awakening yet, but my guess is i will probably i agree when i eventually do. Fates was just my first experience with the game, so i have a soft spot for it. my gut feeling was that Engage would be more up my alley compared to Three Houses, but i haven't gotten to it yet. 

tbh i picked up Three Houses when i was living in Japan, and during that time i was really focused on using games as a way to study Japanese. but the language of Three Houses is much more advanced than, say, the GBA games, so that probably didn't help. if i played it in english i probably would have been better off haha

oh and i allied with Blue Lions

[Dirty Duck]

I think Awakening was better than Fates, personally. But honestly I've loved every post-Awakening FE, although I haven't played Engage yet but that looked a bit Greatest Hits like and so didn't feel like I was in too much of a rush to play it, Henry got it for me for my bday a couple years ago though so I'll likely play it to prepare for Fortune's Weave.

What about Three Houses felt more complicated to you, @SK8R LUNG? I didn't think anything felt especially more complex than before...I guess the time management aspect does obfuscate the existing stuff a bit but due to my time with the Persona series I didn't find that too daunting. Also, what house did you ally with?

i haven't played Awakening yet, but my guess is i will probably i agree when i eventually do. Fates was just my first experience with the game, so i have a soft spot for it. my gut feeling was that Engage would be more up my alley compared to Three Houses, but i haven't gotten to it yet. 

tbh i picked up Three Houses when i was living in Japan, and during that time i was really focused on using games as a way to study Japanese. but the language of Three Houses is much more advanced than, say, the GBA games, so that probably didn't help. if i played it in english i probably would have been better off haha

oh and i allied with Blue Lions

Yeah part of me wonders if I only rate Awakening best because it was my first. But I do think it has a really great simplistic feel to it that later entries maybe slightly over complicated (though I enjoyed all the innovations to the formula that came, still).

I can imagine 3H is harder to understand than older titles, definitely. Part of what I liked about it is that it fleshed out its world a lot more than other entries. The lore and mythology of the world felt more dense in how it was revealed to you, how each character contributed to it, and how the plot affected it. Garreg Mach Monastery, and by extension Fodlan, felt like a much more tangible place that you had a place in. I'd say give it a try in English if the desire ever possesses you, I do think it's a very strong entry but at the same time it maybe has a bit of the same thing Breath of the Wild does where it feels very fresh for the series but that's also why many dislike it-in many ways it can feel like doing away with what everyone loved.

Blue Lions is maybe the most "normal" route. I went with Golden Deer at first and was doing a second playthrough as Blue Lions planning to eventually end with Black Eagles as they're the most convoluted route by a wide margin. Talking about it has made me want to get back into it and finish that Blue Lions campaign lmao. I was a bit obsessed with this game when it came out.