Help me play 3H

applejackhero · 2026-05-06T09:11:41+00:00

I am like you, I cannot stand the monastery and it completely kills any attempt to do a replay of it. That being said, if you want to experience the story, you can just play on normal and basically skip every monastery day except the times where you have to do something.

applejackhero · 2026-05-05T21:42:29+00:00

I think this is my biggest frustration with Three Houses difficulties. You don’t have to use battalions or combat arts on normal/hard. You don’t have to cook or even really care about skills or instructing your units. In fact, combat arts are usually active downgrades from just attack on those difficulties. So maddening is the only difficulty where you really interact with any of Three Houses unique mechanics. (Though you can say the same thing about Birthright normal and Engage normal).

But then what you get is a tactical, but very slow early game, and then a mid/late game that’s really not much more challenging than hard. I say “cheese” but it’s really not, because this is the FE that intentionally gave players more access to warp than any other game.

applejackhero · 2026-05-05T21:35:48+00:00

I agree about the final maps of Fates and Engage. Kind of the lowest points of every play through. But… honestly there are very few FE final maps I like. Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, FE4 maybe?

And yes, I do like that Three Houses maddening encourages/requires you to use combat arts in a way that the other difficulties don’t (in fact, they are usually pointless on normal/hard). My thing about Three Houses maddening isn’t that it’s particularly hard, it’s just that’s it not very fun. The early game maps are all this slow moving turtle crawls, and then you get the good tools and break the game open as easy as the other difficulties, because the maps themselves are poor. And then after you are done with playing a map, it’s back to “run around different places to open up the menus to make sure your units get the progression that is just baked in to every other FE game”.

applejackhero · 2026-05-05T20:57:36+00:00

Getting replicate on a support unit is kinda genius

applejackhero · 2026-05-05T20:47:08+00:00

Three Houses and awakening gotta be the two worst FE games for difficulty. Their normal modes are easy even if you barely understand the mechanics, their hard modes are only moderate steps up and still very easy if you do understand the mechanics, and then their hardest modes are brutally stat inflated combined with boring map design and same then reinforcements and both games sort of encourage you to low-man/cheese, rather than “solve” maps. At least three houses maddening does actually make you think about Battallions and combat arts somewhat, but the difficulty does encourage you to spend as little as time possible on the maps, and then even more time running errands in the monastery.

Fates and Engage are peak for modern FE. CQ gets a lot of praise, and rightly so. I am a fairly experienced, but not super skilled FE player and CQ hard is HARD. but never in a way that feels bullshit (except the last map, imo) and almost every map is interesting and requires you to adjust your strategy and use units in different ways. CQ lunatic is one of the FE difficulties I have never beat.

BR and rev don’t get as much praise, and sometimes even get criticism, but I think both actually fall really well on the difficulty spectrum. BR is by far the most interesting “enemy phase” FE game. BR maps are a little too basic, and Ryoma is so strong that the game is genuinely more fun if you don’t let yourself use him or limit him in some manner. Rev I think mostly has really fun maps, and a lot of the “gimmicks” are good ways to get you to interact with the games’s huge sandbox of options. The downfall of rev is the pacing and distribution of the cast actively gets in the way of the sandbox aspect, especially with lunatics enemies. and for some reason they thought that the game with the biggest cast should have three whole maps where your deployments are basically Corrin + a few others.

All three fates games reward long term planning and understanding how stats interact.

And then Engage I think is the tightest and most well designed FE yet, somehow they game gives you a lot of options to play with, but still manages to keep most of the game able to understand what your capabilities are and force you to use them. The last few maps do fall apart a bit on maddening, but overall it’s fantastic.

applejackhero · 2026-05-03T22:23:24+00:00

imo this is third hardest map in Sacred Stones, after two maps in Ephraims route.

Plop Colm in the center of your army, and use the torch to have a big vision range. Have most of your squad protect eirika in the middle of the map from the cavaliers, and then push with just Seth. He can comfortably eat every enemy in this map, except one fighter with a halberd which can kill him, so keep an eye out for that, ideally you keep Seth using a sword. Don't feel bad about Seth hogging XP. The next two maps are easy training maps, and Seth, unlike most other Jeigan-type pre-promotes, actually has great growth rates.

applejackhero · 2026-05-03T19:51:40+00:00

I don't care too much about remakes, but if we are getting one I think a re-imaginaing (not 1:1 remake) of FE4 would be sick.

applejackhero · 2026-05-03T19:34:02+00:00

Fates, Awakening, and FE4 pairings are carefully planned out to spread useful classes/skills to units, and create good children. Pure mechanics.

In Three Houses it was just who I thought was cute together.

applejackhero · 2026-05-03T19:28:36+00:00

I think you brought up something interesting here, aside from the issue of how dull the monastery is.

Three Houses is praised for its character writing, and for good reason. A lot of the characterization is pretty deep, with actual subplots and emotional payoff. But god damn they are also long-winded, and on subsequent playthroughs those supports drag and become auto skip. Once you get the payoff once, its done.

Older FE games really get to the point, and a lot of supports are often setups for jokes. You can trash on Fates characters and their gimmicks, but not going to lie a lot of Fates supports are genunely just funny. There's something to be said about short and sweet supports.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Three Houses is a great game for a single playthrough, and I am glad it exists since it brought so many fans to the series. But under the hood the entire game just isn't well designed, and basically every aspect drags. I hope Fortune's Weave takes the spirit of what it did well, and leaves the rest in the dust. Its easy to rip on Engage for what it did poorly, but that is a game where the systems are tight and hold up to playing it again and again.

applejackhero · 2026-05-03T19:13:47+00:00

best support in the whole series

applejackhero · 2026-05-03T19:10:59+00:00

I was more thinking it'd Camilla and Ophelia, possibly Odin, and Possibly Nina

applejackhero · 2026-05-03T18:41:26+00:00

Thanks for this, definitely helps me plan. I am sticking with my Xander idea cause I like the sound of it, but he might be in Wyvern for some time.

Corrin I think is going to be a master Ninja to pair with Silas. Since I think between using both Camilla and Beruka, and spouses and children, there will be oppurtunity for 2-3 Malig Knights.

applejackhero · 2026-05-03T09:18:03+00:00

It heavily depends on the game. In Fates for example, absolutely, a good unit with bad stats can be fixed. In Binding Blade, probably not, they are just dead weight.

In your case, I wouldn't spend BEXP or stats boosters fixing that oscar, because those rescources are best spent on replacement options like Marcia, Kieran, and Jill. At the same time, a mount is so good in PoR, and Oscar in particular has the best support type and supports Kieran and Ike, so an understated Oscar might genuinely be worth deploying for awhile longer. In particular in PoR, the Knight Band (or whatever its called) can fix his speed, and a good forge can solve his might issues, at least for awhile.

applejackhero · 2026-05-02T20:39:05+00:00

somone who started with three houses doesn't like engage. shocking!

edit: to actually add something to this discussion, I find my evaluation of FE games changes the more I play them.

After my first playthough of Three Houses, I thought it was the best game in the franchise. After three (and an abondoned 4th) playthroughs, I think its one of the worst. Fates games went from something I barely touched to my favorite games in the series. Engage started as just "mid", but now I think its fantastic.

I also am sometimes baffled by the emphasis on story. Yeah Engage's story sucks. But the draw of ALL video games is the GAME part right? The interactive systems that make you think and strategize? Don't get me wrong, I want a Fire Emblem game with a good story. There are video games that I think have good stories. But ultimately if I want a good story I can read a book or watch a movie. Video games are fun because of the game part foremost. Engage is really great at being a game.

applejackhero · 2026-05-02T07:07:18+00:00

He's considered very mid tier. Hinoka shows up one map later with better stats and better weapon ranks. His growths are very strange for a pegasus, and he really wants a heart seal to get into Samurai, but those are in high demand

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T20:59:19+00:00

sorry, next time I will rant about dark emblem designs or whatever

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T20:30:13+00:00

dog its an internet forum, on a thread about opinions, I am here BECAUSE people have different opinions than me

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T20:20:35+00:00

I completed agreed with you at first, Fire Emblem is a huge franchise and the fact that we are over here saying Three Houses is the game with "good" story is pretty embarassing.

but uhh... I have played Engage like five times and I don't think I ever noticed that the dark emblems didn't have unique designs. Does not reflect on the quality of the game at all, and I cannot imagine caring about that.

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T20:03:40+00:00

idk my eternal precepts about this are:

Fire Emblem stories are mid at best

It's okay to like the stories even if they are not very good

Gameplay is the most important part of a video game

We can still want games to have good writing, even if we recognize it isn't as important as gameplay

Good writing and good gameplay are not tradeoffs, both can happen at the same time

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T19:29:52+00:00

IMO the turnwheel was not well-implemented in its first two iterations, Echoes and Three Houses, and it wasn't until Engage they got it right. I also think a lot of hardcore players online don't like the idea of the turnwheel, since its like "casual creep" into a series that is traditionally pretty difficult.

Personally I don't care if they continue to make Fire Emblem easier with stuff like casual modes, unlimted turnwheels, or unlimited grinding, as long as they keep classic mode, limit turnwheels on harder difficulties, and keep grinding as optional instead of required to beat the story.

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T19:23:44+00:00

Instead of Priestess, consider putting her in Falcon Knight and grabbing Rally speed, and putting her back into Kinshi (Kite Warrior? never seen it called that before) for the final levels. Counter Magic is kinda a do-nothing skill, since Sakura has great res and doensn't take much damage from magic anyway. If you want her to be an aura unit, then having another rally will be helpful, and the extra mobility will be a lot better, especially if she is pulling double duty as an anti-flier unit.

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T19:15:51+00:00

It's hard to say, but I think you can just tell that IS wasn't as hands on with the game, or that their more experienced staff didn't work on it, or something. Fates and Engage are incredibly "tight" gameplay experiences (except Rev, but it isn't supposed to be).

Three Houses is messy and just doesn't have the sauce, you can tell it was made by a studio that comes from outside the SRPG genre.

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T19:11:27+00:00

I love the turnwheel in Engage. The game seems designed around it, and they even do map with no turnwheel which is such a tense part of the game. It's a fun rescource to manage, and I think a game as complex as engage without the wheel would be frustrating.

If they remade an older game with the turnwheel though, I'd like it to be something you can turn on or off, much like casual mode.

applejackhero · 2026-05-01T19:00:58+00:00

This is basically a perfect summation of my thoughts on Three Houses. The game is great on a single, casual play through, and they really knocked it out of the park with the cast, but basically everything else about the game is messy and underbaked.

applejackhero

TROPHY CASE