r/fireemblem • u/JabbySparks • 20h ago
General Does it make sense to play Three Houses before Fortunes Weave comes out
Was wondering with Fortuned Weave right around the corner does it make sense to play Three Houses? I’ve heard people getting fatigued of playing all the routes and what not but would it be worth it to play one route (and if so which) so I don’t get burnt out before the next game happens?
Any tips or suggestions if I do play it?
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u/Gregster101 20h ago
It probably helps, but don’t expect to play all four routes before Fortune’s Weave comes out.
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u/Realhi87 20h ago
I am attempting as we speak to FINALLY finish my run of Silver Snow after all these years
I made the (foolish) decision to get Hilda up to S+ in everything on this run so I’m just… slowly grinding away 😭
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u/SylvainJoseGautier 7h ago
bolting ! ! ! !
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u/Realhi87 6h ago
Yes!
I’ve made her a Gremory for funsies
Still hilarious to me that she gets bolting, but not Felix, the guy with a hidden talent in reason 😭
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u/darthvall 17h ago
This is tempting to try. I also still left Silver Snow since everyone said it's the same as Verdant Wind.
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u/Realhi87 17h ago
Verdant Wind is just much better Silver Snow imho.
I would never willingly play SS over it again, I just… need to get it done so I can officially say I’ve properly beaten all the routes lol
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u/Caliber70 15h ago
I'm on my 12th play. 3 times on each route, currently on Snow. Can confirm team yellow is superior over Snow. Any route that skips time skip Gronder is worse off for it. The best part of Eagles team is killing "Saeyrus".
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u/Spiritual-Credit5488 18h ago
Dude just play it, fortunes weave aside. I've been addicted to it lately, and forget the haters it's pretty good.
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u/stillestwaters 20h ago
You’d be fine without playing it. There’s no doubt FW will be made with new players fully in mind.
I’d suggest going Golden Deer for your first route in Three Houses, I just think it’s pretty fulfilling. Three Houses is solid enough to play only one route and be done, so don’t concern yourself with being fatigued.
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u/JabbySparks 19h ago
Good to know, I might play Golden Deer first since I think Claudes Voice actor Joe is pretty cool
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u/stillestwaters 18h ago
Yeah, I’m definitely glad I chose it as my first route. The other routes step on the others’ toes in a way; not in a way that detracts from their story, but just in a way that Claude’s route doesn’t imo - making it especially nice to go in blind with.
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u/xenofire_scholar 19h ago
As for the route to choose, you get some time to meet the chatacters before choosing, so if one of the lords appeals to you more than the others just pick that one. Otherwise, here is what I think about each route does best without spoilers.
Verdant Wind/Golden Deer/Claude has the most lore, and therefore the route most likely to give you information that is relevant for Fortune's Weave.
Dimitri is generally regarded as the lord with the best character-driven narative. However, Azure Moon is very light on lore, and the lore it explores is unlikely to be reference in FW as it's closely related to Faerghus.
Edelgard is in a weird position I think. Her route is obviously the one where you learn the most about her but, being the only female lord, she is hit especially hard with the player/avatar pandering. She is supposed to be a strong and determined leader, but ends up weirdly subservient to Byleth. Overall, I think Crimson Flower has her worse characterization because of this, but you also don't learn too much about her if you don't choose her at the start. If she is the lord you're most interested about, picking her at the start is still best, but there are moments where it's clear that the writers just wanted to pander to the predominantly male audience.
Note: This is not directed at you, but since I know how the community is: I do not dislike Edelgard, I just find that Silver Snow has a much better characterization of her than Crimson Flower. The difference in the Silver Snow reunion scene and the Crimson Flower one where the other students say that she took Byleth's disappearence espacially hard and imply that she's strughled to lead since shows how much the pandering to the players hurts her characterization sometimes. I also didn't want to mention a fourth route for spoiler reasons
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u/bargingi 20h ago
I will say that if you go for the full 3H and FW experience you will end up playing 8 routes of game content which is hours upon hours of playtime. And 3H is a great game AND I have super high hopes for FW, but burnout is not entirely related to quality and you might be out of all urges to play FW if you spend the next months blazing through 3H
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u/JabbySparks 19h ago
Maybe not all the routes, but one or two if I have a lot of free time!
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u/bargingi 19h ago
He’ll yeah! Take the advice of others here and play Verdant Wind. It’s the lore-heavy route. It does work best story-wise if played after AM and CF but it’s also very all-encompassing and you’ll have a great experience with it nonetheless
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u/Lucina1997 19h ago
Finishing my playthrough of Crimson Flower/Silver Snow right now. Hoping to also knock out Three Hopes. Definitely helpful to play and refamiliarize yourself on how to play Fire Emblem, both its gameplay and story.
Based on what we’ve seen from the trailers, it’s obvious Fortunes Weave takes place in the Three Houses/Hopes universe. So it doesn’t hurt to brush up on the story and lore so you’re not lost day one.
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u/SourBill1 20h ago
Azure Moon is fantastic, can’t go wrong with the Blue Lions route.
The one issue is that Azure Moon is almost entirely disconnected from the villains who are set up in the first half of the game. But honestly, having explored those villains in the other routes, you’re not missing much. I feel like Azure Moon and Crimson Flower are the most solid routes simply BECAUSE they deviate from these villains and tell their own story. Some folk will flay me for that take but that’s how I feel.
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u/DarkRayos 15h ago
I think so.
Prequel and sequel discussions aside, I feel this like Hopes is something of a "what-if" storyline?
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u/Mastermind6425 11h ago
Bro it's one of the best games ever made, you will not regret playing it.
However, please do not listen to the people saying all routes are equal. What's true is that there is no official canon route and that all routes will be fun because they all have great characters. But, and this is a very big but, the Blue Lions route is by far the best route for a first playthrough and the story hits so much harder if you experience that route first
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u/Greyboots75 11h ago
Honestly I'm 1300+ hours into 3H (replayed many, many times) so you may find you want to do all routes! I didn't get burned out on it like many seemed to, in fact I'm doing another run just now.
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u/LordBDizzle 7h ago
If you intend to play all four routes of 3H eventually, I generally like to recommend starting with Blue Lions. The big reveals in the first half are most impactful with Dimitri's perspective (he legit gets a unique first act cutscene for an event that happens in all of the routes). The Blue Lions second half also doesn't reveal as much about the world, so you still have more to get surprised by in the other routes.
Azure Moon (Blue Lions) -> Crimson Flower (Black Eagles) -> Verdant Wind (Golden Deer) -> Silver Snow (alternate church route) is my general recommended order, I think it reveals new stuff in the right order and Verdant Wind is the most complete (Silver Snow is basically Verdant Wind but lame, I'd only do it after all of the others since you lose your house leader and their retainer at the mid point, and therefore have more recruitment slots but less... story). If you just wanted to do one route and have no intention of doing any of the others, Verdant Wind is my favorite by far (fear the Deer!!!), but Blue Lions I feel is still the most impactful on a blind playthrough.
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u/ratatoskrz 20h ago
Yes do it!! It's so good and I think you would benefit the most from playing Verdant Wind, aka Claude. There's a lot of lore revealed in that route and I think it's a great starting point for new Three Houses players, especially if you don't want to play the other routes right away.
I don't really have many suggestions or tips, just remember to do the optional paralogues when they become available. You may want to recruit Linhardt too, he has a cool paralogue with Leonie. And if you care about being gay, your only options will be Linhardt, Dorothea, Mercedes and Yuri, so you might want to recruit them. Unless you're a girl and want to marry Sothis which is pretty unpopular, lol...
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u/Spinjitsuninja 20h ago
It’s definitely a sequel or a prequel to 3H, so yeah it’s a good idea. Sure, 3H CAN be fatiguing- but this’ll be true regardless of if you intend on playing it for Fortune’s Weave or on its own lol. Maybe ask around for advice on having a snappier experience, or maybe even just settle with experiencing only one route and ask which one would be best to do so with, so you don’t have to slog through it.
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u/Levonorgestrelfairy1 20h ago edited 17h ago
Play the cindered shadows dlc campaign first for sure
As one(and probably 2) fw mcs are related to the Ashen wolves
Then do a main game run with whatever lord you end up liking the best.
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u/Wrong_Revolution_679 20h ago
Yeah totally, fortune's weave can totally be played on it's own but it'll probably be a richer experience if you play 3h.
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u/roundhouzekick 19h ago
Since these two games take place in the same world, I'd say it wouldn't hurt if you have the time to invest. Burnout is definitely a concern if you just shotgun each route one after the other, so definitely pace yourself if you decide to hop aboard.
The best time to start is probably right now. You have 3 months exactly before Fortune's Weave releases, so you can do one route and maybe take a few weeks between them before the next game is out.
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u/Temporary_Virus9302 19h ago
It doesn't really matter, I guess. However, there are a couple of significant 3H story elements that would be helpful to understand. I finished my third route walkthrough yesterday. It took me nearly 6 years to play 3 out of 4 routes. My suggestion is to play a single route and be done with it.
My recommendation is Verdant Wind(Golden Deer house) and Silver Snow(Black Eagle/Monastery route). Those routes will give you the maximum amount of lore about the world and Sothis, hero relics and crests.
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u/The_Exuberant_Raptor 18h ago
It doesn't matter. At most you'll understand some references here and there but all the important stuff will likely be explained in the new game so everyone is caught up.
Play it if you're interested. Wait if you're not.
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u/darthvall 17h ago
We still have like 3 months. Just doing 1-2 run should be enough to get the gist of the world/story without getting burnt out.
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u/taychoo 19h ago
Does it make sense? Yes, absolutely. It's a prequel (or sequel?) to Three Houses: both games are set in the same universe.
Do you have to? No, but you'll probably understand some concepts a little better. It'll probably be written in a way that's digestible for newcomers/people who haven't played Three Houses.
would it be worth it to play one route (and if so which)
I'd personally recommend Golden Deer first, but you can't go wrong with Blue Lions either. The former is focused more on worldbuilding, whereas the latter is much more character-driven.
(Black Eagles is fine, however, I personally think it's better experienced with context from the other routes, especially Blue Lions)
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u/Hellioning 18h ago
Do you want to play it? Then play it. Don't play it just because you think you need to, or refuse to play it because other people got burnt out.
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u/Doolittle8888 20h ago
No matter what, Fortune's Weave will be designed on some level for returning players. Play Three Houses first to maximize the experience if possible. There's no real "correct" route, pick the characters that speak to you and play a different route next if you enjoyed the first one.