Story Details, Characters, And More Revealed For Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Chris Wheatley

Famitsu has released tons of new details regarding Nintendo’s next upcoming title in the Fire Emblem franchise, Three Houses. The game’s narrative will take place in the lands of Fodlan which is divided into three different territories all surrounding the Garreg Mach Monastery.

The protagonist, Byleth, suffers from a repetitive dream depicting chaos, war and a mysterious girl, Sothis, appearing in the aftermath. After having these dreams many times, our hero falls upon a group of children being attacked by a bandit. While readying to intervene in the altercation, the mysterious girl from their dreams steps in and freezes time. Explaining that she will grant Byleth her power, she disappears – leaving the courageous acts to be claimed by the protagonist.

It’s also explained that these children who were being attacked by the bandit are members of the Garreg Mach Monastery, and are proclaimed as the future leaders of the three Fodlan territories: Adrestian Empire to the south, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus to the north, and the Lecester Alliance residing in the east.

Byleth will give players the option of choosing either a male or female roles, with neither having different abilities based on the gender. Byleth initially worked as a mercenary, but once the courageous talents were observed, they then became a professor for the Garreg Mach Monastery Officer’s Academy.

Sothis is the mysterious girl who helps guide Byleth in their adventure. With no memory of her past, Sothis only communicates in the head of Byleth, leaving only our protagonist fully aware of her presence.

Players will be directed to choose one of the three youths who’s future involves leading their corresponding territory. You’ll be required to battle and train the students as their professor, with more training elements than any other Fire Emblem title to date. However, though the battle system will largely be similar to other entries in the series, the new rewind skill given by Sothis will allow newcomers to the series to adapt easily.

Players will also have the ability to deepen their bonds with students of whichever house the protagonist chooses to take under. Training students will raise their proficiency levels. All of the above will have lasting effects during battle. Players will also be able to change classes an unlimited amount of times which also no longer takes the player back to level 1.

The new features within the battle system include taking on numerous enemies at once, various terrain effects to spruce up gameplay and strategies, and the Heaven-Time Pulse rewind feature – which allows players to go back one turn and change their command in hopes of changing the outcome.

There’s also plenty of strengths and weaknesses pertaining to each student depending on their class. Students may change their class, but only after passing specific exams which can only be obtained by increasing the levels of the students. Below are the abilities and skills for students to learn:

Main Abilities

Swordsmanship – Proficiency for wielding a sword.

Spearmanship – Proficiency for wielding a spear.

Axemanship – Proficiency for wielding an axe.

Archery – Proficiency for wielding a bow.

Science – Proficiency for using black and dark magic.

Faith – Proficiency for using white magic.

Flying – Proficiency required for Flier classes.

Heavy Armor – Proficiency required for Armored classes.

Horsemanship – Proficiency required for Cavalry classes.

Main Learnable Skills

Swordsmanship Lv. 1 – Hit Rate +5, Avoid +7, and Critical Avoid +5 when using a sword.

Swordbreaker – Hit Rate and Avoid +20 when using a spear and defeat an enemy wielding a sword.

Axemanship Lv. 1 – Hit Rate +7, Avoid +5, and Critical Avoid +5 when using an axe.

Close Counter – Counterattack when attacked from a square away.

Science Lv. 1 – Hit Rate +7, Avoid +5, and Critical Avoid + 5 when using black or dark magic.

Faith Lv. 1 – Hit +5, Evade +7, and Hissatsu Evade +5 when using white magic.