Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes keeps my favorite parts of Three Houses

polygon.com:

In 2019, I obsessively sunk hundreds of hours into Fire Emblem: Three Houses, doing runs with the Black Eagles, Golden Deer, and Blue Lions squads. I loved strategizing over the game’s turn-based combat, but I absolutely lived for the Garreg Mach Monastery segments, where I took Dorothea (and her dumb little hat) to choir practice, talked about napping in the library with bisexual icon Linhardt, and attempted to entertain my greasy son Hubert over tea. I often spent combat time trying to boost support relationships in order to enjoy new dialogue scenes — even if it meant the battles themselves didn’t go as well as they could have.

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So far, I’ve playedFire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes the same way. In the lead-up, I slurped up all of the character design trailers, and once I got my grubby little hands on the game, I immediately dug into character rosters. I’ve since pored over Reddit, combing through others’ arguments over the ways characters have changed, and which cutscenes were the most rewarding to work toward. (Will Claude tell Hilda she can grasp his neck in this one? We can only hope.) I’ve since mapped out my approach for which relationships I’d like to foster, plus who I think should be friends, and who I’d try to set up — with a little actual combat strategy on the side. I have not one regret.

In Three Hopes, you play as a mercenary named Shez who becomes a student — a relief after playing as a teacher in Three Houses and trying not to be a massive creep. Three Hopes’ time jump happens much earlier than in its turn-based predecessor, though, setting the game at a base camp rather than Garreg Mach Monastery. Luckily, you can still do a lot of relationship building through camp activities. I’ve shared