Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes review: a predictably fine Musou game

In November 2001, it was a cold, foggy night when I jumped out of my desk chair, grabbed the key, and crossed Terre Haute, Indiana to reach the mall. Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Came out and made me completely blind. This was a bit more plausible in the world of eternal media Blitz game marketing in the early days.Me Had Get it, hurry home and slam the baby on my PS2.I was free that Excited.

Like I played Fire Emblem Warrior: Three Hopes, I will continue to look back on how the early Musou (“Warriors”) games fascinated me.I have enjoyed the time with 3 hopesDon’t get me wrong — but it’s hard not to notice the mysterious sensations I felt playing DW3 Twenty years ago I was missing when I worked on this latest title.In my last review of armed games polygonI said that I don’t know how to talk to people about armed games anymore, but I think that position is now in place.

3 hopes A fully serviceable game. Gameplay is ok. The story is fine. The graphics are great. The music is great. Control is okay. Everything … well, it’s okay. But after 20 years of influential Mook murder, the question of one army change is, “Is it enough?”

Since then Fire Emblem AwakeningThere was something I called stable Persona-Fication Fire emblem The emphasis is on games, support conversations and social connections between characters. Three house A romance simulation-like social downtime at Garreg Mach’s central hub between battle maps, it really was the culmination of that. 3 hopes Adopt the same slice of life structure and apply to the first core framework found Fire Emblem Warrior game. Players alternate between wandering the “camp” social space to interact with vendors, character building activities, and party members, and selecting combat missions from the more traditional world map of the Musou Murder Case.

In that sense, players who really enjoyed the social side of Three house You will probably find 3 hopes More attractive time than the original Fire Emblem Warrior.. In general, Nintendo’s IP-branded Musou games have successfully adapted the original IP core concept to the “1 to 1,000” genre. 3 hopes There is no difference. Skill ranks, weapon forgings, support conversations, class skills, class change trees, and much more are reproduced here except for real grid-based tactical combat (except fishing, unfortunately, “Women fish with me.” There is no such thing as “I want it.” The main character, Shez’s Meme T-shirt).

This hero is also one of the big differences 3 hopes When Three houseHowever, unlike the quiet Bailes, Shez has a refreshing, fun and practical personality, often speaks their minds and interacts perfectly with others in the cast.Frankly, I think Shez is a lot more attractive than Bailes. Three houseBecause Shez feels like a character Actually developed personalitySword-wielding, green-haired Deus ex machina, not qualified for education.

3 hopes Following the sheds, as the demo reveals, it diverges fairly sharply from the event. Three house In short order. In the 2019 game, players will be placed in the “Academy Phase” in the first half of the playthrough, 3 hopes Immediately offer a choice of homes (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, or Golden Deers). After a very simple tutorial and a two-chapter prologue, skip directly to the “Adults in Much More Complex Costumes” part of the show. I avoid spoiler details, but Three house There are similarities and similarities, but you shouldn’t just expect to play a matchless version of the story of the game. In the playthrough of this review, I participated in the Golden Deer, but the Leicester Alliance route is only the most similar to that route. Three house One.

Image: Omega Force / Nintendo

Each route in this game Is long.. The Golden Deer Route alone took over 50 hours to complete in my first playthrough. This is just one of three options. There are many murders here, but not all of them are particularly satisfying in the sense of the story.Most chapters include most plotless maps of 2-5, with small stakes and faceless goons with repeated overall goals (“Kills”). [x] Enemy before time runs out “,” Escort [x unit] To [y location] “Safely”, “Capture all locations”, etc.). You only need to clear the required number of goals to clear the path on the map to a single definitive battle in the chapter. Unfortunately, almost every battle was relentlessly dull. They felt like a busy job rather than a meaningful core gameplay.

I didn’t talk much about the actual battle. The main reason is that there is little to say about it.All from Fire Emblem Warrior Return Value: Weapon Triangle, “Critical Rush” after wearing the General’s Stan Gauge, etc. The only additions that I found particularly fresh were the ability to equip combat arts (weapon skills and spells) and the passive abilities learned from different classes. In general, they didn’t feel terribly rewarding until I reached the final “master” class. It does give the character some flashy abilities that have a more identifiable effect on combat.

“Flashiness” has always been one of the strengths of Warriors games, but often due to the huge sweep attack animation and locked level camera zoom. 3 hopes I feel “big for big purposes”. It may be fun to see the Wyvern Rider’s belly flop across a fort full of goons, but when all the battles with important enemies become “stun gauge wear, critical rush, repeat”, Its size is useless and you can even get inside a way to track what’s going on.

Image: Omega Force / Nintendo

This is a problem exacerbated by one of the serious flaws. 3 hopes Inherit from Fire Emblem Warrior: The number of moving sets is very limited. There are four layers in the class: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master, and as each class goes up in rank, most move sets remain the same, adding another attack to the combo string. The result is a narrow field of total movement sets, even in the master layer. This lack of versatility feels a bit bland compared to the fun of the old Musou game of finding out what the latest unlockable character’s ridiculous weapons (flute! Rake!) Can do. To do.

This monotony is somewhat improved by each character with some sort of unique personal or passive movement. For example, Shez gets a fast dash, but Hubert can hit a target with a magic spike and later explode it to do a lot of damage. It feels more like a novelty than a gameplay kit that defines a character.This is not always the case in armed games, as the total number of unique move sets has decreased over the years. 3 hopes 1 person. One of the great joys of the early Musou games was to experiment with the character’s nonsense and wild individual repertoire using weapons like the flutes and rakes mentioned above. It is certainly disappointing to see that potential of joy being eroded over time.

This isn’t helped by the unfortunate facts as much as I loved them Three house, The main character of this game has only serious personality traits.Who played Golden Deer in Three house You will know exactly what to expect from the returning crowd 3 hopes: Rafael always talks about food and muscle, Marianne becomes a disaster of self-esteem that induces flinch, and Lysithea childishly claims she is not a child.

Image: Omega Force / Nintendo

Almost all interactions with these characters in support conversations, and sometimes even large plot cutscenes, repeatedly bring the personality of one of these elements home. Sometimes it can be fascinating and fun (usually because of the presence of Shez and their nonsense and easygoing personality). But hearing Rafael interrupt another strategic meeting with unruly comments about meat can be just as often tiring.

Nonetheless, I had moments of laughing really incredibly loud with these characters. As an example, the writer was interestingly fully committed to Shamir as a clear queer character, and one of the ways they did was a supportive conversation that made me laugh so much because I saw the stars. These conversation and story moments are fun treats, but not enough to supplement the much more frequent scenes of one note.

Fire Emblem Warrior: Three Hopes It’s a completely rational game. Nothing shouts “new and exciting,” but there aren’t any obvious flaws like putting the controller down, raising your hand, and trying to leave.Certain players are investing more Three house Especially good moments 3 hopes Beyond the bad, the mystery of the game’s slow burn story undoubtedly keeps those who are interested enough to power up some of the more boring and busy work-like combat maps.

But when I get home with my copy, I can’t help but remember that nifty expectation. Shin Sangoku Musou 3 Returned to 2001. 3 hopes It inspires me the same feeling, I would have to say no. It’s really great and has all the right elements in place, but in many ways it’s highly anticipated and not particularly innovative. I wonder how long “OK” is enough, not the first time in the world of ugly titles.

Fire Emblem Warrior: Three Hopes It will be released on Nintendo Switch on June 24th. The game used the pre-release download code provided by Nintendo. VoxMedia has an affiliate partnership. These do not affect your edited content, but VoxMedia may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links.Can be found Click here for additional information on Polygon’s ethical policy..