Fire Emblem: Three Heroes gets tons of new screens, plus details on story, characters, and gameplay mechanics shared

Famitsu's new feature on Fire Emblem: Three Houses has been fully translated. Check out the massive summary of info below!

Story

Armies covering the plains. An intense battle. And fighting is over. Then, a mysterious girl appears.

Every night, the protagonist (who is part of his father’s mercenary band) has a mysterious dream. One day, after having that same dream several times, they encounter young people being attacked by bandits. They throw themselves in front of the young people in order to protect them, and that’s when time suddenly stops.

Then, the girl they saw in their mysterious dream suddenly appears in front of them. She has the power to rewind time, and uses it to save the protagonist. She then lends her power to the protagonist, before disappearing.

It turns out the three young people were actually students at the academy, at the Garreg Mach Monastery, and not just any students… the successors of the three main powers of Fodlan, no less. The protagonist’s little bout of heroism doesn’t go unnoticed, and they’re invited to become a teacher at the academy.

And so that encouters drags the protagonist in a rather strange fate…

Fire Emblem: Three Houses takes place on the continent of Fodlan. It’s controlled by three powers:

Adrestian Empire: it has been controlling the southern half of the continent for more than 1000 years;
Holy Kingdom of Faerghus: Kings and Knights have been ruling the cold lands of the northern half of the continent;
Leicester Alliance: a league of powerful nobles, who have been controlling the eastern side of the continent.

Before, those three powers were at odd with each other, and war was tearing the continent apart. But nowadays, the Fodlan is at peace, with the three powers keeping each other in check.

At the very center of the three powers, the Garreg Mach Monastery can be found, which is home to the Church of Seiros. That’s also where the Officer’s Academy is located: it’s a place where the future leaders of the three powers go study and train in order to become leaders.

Characters

Protagonist

The protagonist was originally making a living as mercenary, but then they realized that they had knowledge to pass on, and so became a teacher at the academy. Their mother had already passed away, which is why they were living with their father, who used to be at the head of the Knights of Seiros.

Jeralt (voiced by Akio Ootsuka)

The protagonist’s father, with a legendary reputation, and known as the strongest Knight that has ever graced the Church of Seiros, no less! After the protagonist is invited to the academy to take the position of teacher, he comes with him and becomes a knight again.

Sothis (voiced by Tomoyo Kusawa)

A mysterious girl who ends up saving the protagonist during a fateful night. She has lost her memory, and for some reason, only the protagonist can see her.

Three Houses and their leaders:

Black Eagles

Among the three powers ruling the Fodlan continent, the Adrestian Empire is the one with the longest history. People from there are usually more skilled with magic than weapons.

The leader of the Black Eagles is Edelgard von Hresvelg, who also happens to be next in line to become Empress. She’s voiced by Ai Kakuma. She’s said to be quite the talented and signified individual.

Blue Lions

The House tied to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. Its leader is Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (voiced by Kaito Ishikawa), Prince of the Kingdom and future King. He’s said to be quite the polite young man, and the very embodiment of chivlary. However, it seems that he does have a dark side…

Perhaps due to the prevalence of knights in the country, most students from that House are particular good with spears.

Golden Deer

Members of the Leicester Alliance nobility make up the students of that House. They are said to be quite gifted with the bow. The leader of that House is Claude von Riegan (voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga), member of the Riegan family (leader of the alliance). He’s quite the friendly-looking fellow, who thinks deeply about things, and can be quite sharp-minded.

Compared to the other two, the Golden Deer House has a higher proportion of commoners among its students.

Gameplay systems

- divided in two parts: battles, and student teaching
- battles put a much stronger emphasis on character training
- the rewind system from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is back
- battles have a large number of people taking part in them at once.
- battles take place on a variety of terrains, which all have their own effects
- terrain determines how units move around, and can give an evasion and defense boost for example
- terrain includes the following:

forest: increases evasion, making it harder for enemy units to hit you. A great place to wait for the enemy to ambush them;
terrain that can heal your units;
terrain that can warp characters around.

- “Beat of Heaven” allows you to go back in time for a few turns, letting you fix any mistakes that you made
- this can only be used a certain amount of times, and likely has a cooldown period
- difficulty level influences how strong enemies are, and the modes allows / prevents allies from being revived after falling battle
- there are normal and hard difficulties
- there are casual and classic modes
- when a character undergoes class change, their level is not reset to 1 anymore, and they can keep using the same weapon
- a character can change classes as many times as you want, as long as they have passed the test for each class
- during student training, you can move around in the Garreg Mach Monastery and interact with the various characters
- the bond between teacher and student is said to be a key element of the game
- at the Officer’s Academy, the students get to improve their skills
- students can also be taught directly by the protagonist, and they can have conversations with them to deepen their bond
- there’s a support system that kicks in during battles, with further details coming at a later date
- in order to use specific weapons and techniques in battle, and in order to change their class, you need to raise your skill level
- the higher their skill level, the stronger the skills they can acquire, and the stronger the weapons they can handle
- each student have their own strengths and weakness
- main skills include the following:

Swordsmanship: sword-related skills
Art of the Spear: spear-related skills
Art of the Axe: axe-related skills
Archery: bow-related skills
Physics: dark and black magic-related skills
Faith: white magic-related skills
Flying: skills for flying units
Heavy Armour: skills for armoured units
Horsemanship: skills for cavalry units

- Man skills you can learn include the following:

Swordsmanship Lv. 1 = when equipped with a sword, Hit Rate +5, Avoid +7, Dodge+5
Sword Slaying = when unit is equipped with armour and fighting a sword user, Hit Rate and Dodge +20
Art of the Spear Lv. 1 = when unit is equipped with armour, Hit Rate +7, Avoid +5, Dodge +5
Short-range counterattack = allow unit to counterattack when enemy is 1 space away;
Physics Lv. 1: when unit is using dark and black magic equipment, Hit Rate +5, Avoid +5, Dodge +5
Faith Lv. 1: when unit is using light magic equipment, Hit Rate +5, Avoid +7, Dodge +5

- as the students progress, they eventually reach the point where they can take on exams
- passing those allows them to change classes
- in order take an exam, you also need an exam pass of the corresponding level
- the higher the skill level of a student for the skill corresponding to the exam, the more likely they are to pass it
- once a unit has passed an exam, they can change class at any time
- even the protagonist can pass those exams
- units have a base class, which changes depending on their origins
- at the beginning, units have basic classes such as Swordsman, Knight, Fighter, Monk
- these can move to a more advanced class by using a Level 5 or higher exam pass
- class examples are as follows:

Commoners / Nobles: no distinctive features, can use a little bit of magic
Swordsman: they favour the sword. Speedy units with high Avoid rate;
Knight: they favour the spear. Great dexterity, making it easy to hit enemies;
Fighter: they focus on raw power. They can handle axe and bows with ease;
Monk: they can use magic. There’s several types of Monks: White, Black, and Dark