A video version of this review can be found here.
Hack and slash. Some people attribute this term to every single action game out there. It feels a little disingenuous for games that require precise execution of techniques to succeed. But hack and slash surely describes the Warriors games, where you mow down enemies by the hundreds with a very limited amount of moves. Nintendo fans have been seeing a lot of this on the Switch with both Fire Emblem Warriors and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and now a third entry has been released, a game seemingly taking from both of these titles in concept and ideas: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
Three Hopes is an alternate universe companion story to Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Where the prior works as a standalone experience, I don’t believe the same to be true about Warriors, which plays with your expectations and subverts them early on. The story explores avenues not covered by Three Houses, which is good because I was worried that this game would end up retreading old ground. Three Hopes expands on the lore of Fódlan and adds new details that flesh out the world. For example, regions like Faerghus seem more like a legitimate political system with internal struggles and external threats that need dealing with. Throughout the game you get to meet local lords and dukes that in Three Houses, the player only heard about in dialogue or side-material, and you find out what struggles they face on a daily basis and where their political allegiances lie. It was all flavor text in the original game, but now it’s been given a stronger focus and that really helps to make Fódlan feel more like a living, breathing ecosystem.
The general script quality is also an improvement, even if there are less character supports than the original game. The player character Shez is an enjoyable departure from the emotionless Byleth of Three Houses, and I’m glad some characters that didn’t have much time to shine before have their chance here.
The presentation has improved drastically over the original Three Houses. The graphics received a big upgrade, with the character animation also being significantly better. The way the characters’ eyes move about while talking is surprisingly lifelike, if just a little bit uncanny. Instead of those conversations taking place over low resolution 2D images of areas, like in Three Houses, they now take place in fully 3D modeled areas. It’s a weird thing to praise, but I was surprised to actually see them change this and could not believe it when I first saw it.
Three Hopes also serves as a follow-up to the original Fire Emblem Warriors, and while it is an improvement overall, there are some areas where I have grievances with the new game, most notably in the structure and pacing. In the original Fire Emblem Warriors, the campaign was just level after level, with side missions relegated to “History Mode.” In Three Hopes, you have to do the side missions between every story level. The structure of almost all of these missions is exactly the same too: you have to beat a commander at the end of almost every one, leading it to become really repetitive. These side missions give you rewards and benefits for completing them, incentivizing you to do as many as you can, which can be a real pace killer if the main thing you care about is the story.
I did every single side mission you could between the main missions, leading to my experience becoming a drag and me coming out of it feeling a little sour towards the experience. That malalignment was self-inflicted. I was under the impression that you couldn’t redo any of those side missions after progressing to another chapter of the story, but it turns out that you can! The menu to replay side missions is a little hidden, and I couldn’t find it. Turns out this is not a valid criticism for the game, since I did this to myself, but I will never be able to divorce what I felt playing the game from my experience.
The game that is here is very fun though, and decimating legions of enemy soldiers feels good with just about every character I tried. Certain characters were more fun than others; for example, most of the sword classes are much faster than the mage and archer classes. I always viewed the Warriors games as more of a strategy experience than an action game, with how much ground you need to cover to accomplish your objectives, so pairing with Fire Emblem is a very natural fit. Due to the strategy game crossover, you can issue a good amount of commands on the pause screen, which is a far cry from only being able to tell a unit where to go and what to attack like in most Warriors games.
Mounts that move at double the pace of a regular unit cut down on the constant running around, making most levels feel a little miniscule. This is welcome though, because having to run from one side of the map to the other is a Warriors staple, and the quicker that’s done the better. I’d often assign a mounted unit as an adjutant to my strongest character just so they could zoom across the battlefield at a moment’s notice.
I do feel a little saddened that some movesets from the original FE Warriors are gone though, which comes with the territory of making a Warriors game based on only one property. I had the same problem with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and its starting back from 0 too. Some characters like Lyn were a ton of fun and while there’s elements of that moveset in the Thief classes, it’s not the same. Because the game doesn’t crash.
Overall, I’d say Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a must play for fans of Three Houses who enjoy the Warriors formula. If you’re not sure if the game is for you, check out the demo, it’s quite extensive. It’s one of the better Warriors games out there. I recommend it!
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