Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem: Three Houses offers an incredible amount of choice, and a story that deserves to be viewed from more than one angle.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a game that is mechanically complex, consistently rewarding, and very hard to put down.

Fire Emblem goes back to school for the most epic, generous and dynamic outing for the series yet.

The lack of map diversity doesn't take away from the visual splendor of the game, though. While much of Three Houses is seen from an overhead perspective, initiating combat zooms the camera in, showing off gorgeously animated soldiers in combat. During a particularly tense battle, Claude, the house leader of the Golden Deer, tosses an arrow into the sky before catching it and firing off a critical hit to take out a pesky enemy pegasus moving in on my healer. These flashy moments happen all the time and are unique to the two dozen classes in the game, so there's always some new animation to get pumped over.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses fully realizes a new, meaningful direction for the franchise that makes it the best it has ever been.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses combines fun social elements and tense strategy combat wonderfully, making it hard to put down

This boarding-school daydream is grandiose and silly, but a gorgeous look and revised combat help it sing

For all the little ways I can nitpick Fire Emblem: The Three Houses, there is no denying the elegance with which so many of the gameplay systems are intertwined. I enjoyed micromanaging the progression of my students on and off the battlefield. I just wish I was able to think of them as more than colorful pawns.

Whatever path you choose, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is an absolute blast. It’s the best Fire Emblem title since Awakening, and it goes straight onto my list of must-play Switch games.

I cannot stress enough how much Fire Emblem: Three Houses exemplifies the "RPG" part of the acronym "SRPG." While strategy is indubitably a large part of Fire Emblem's DNA, the vast majority of my enjoyment was found having lunch with classmates and getting to know them better, or doing errands while running around the lovely academy grounds. This is a world you can absolutely lose yourself to for months on end, but if you find menus tedious, you might be reticent to the modern relationship-heavy Fire Emblem formula that's cemented in Three Houses.