Fire Emblem Three Houses reviews: Meta: 89, OC: 89

[Super_Boom]

HylianSwordsman said:

Definitely agree that the shipping simulator aspect was a delightful addition that did a lot to grow the series and its fanbase, and will be sorely missed in this outing. Given how well Fates sold and how well the shipping aspect has been received among fans, particularly the newer ones, I don't see it going away completely anytime soon. That said, I think Awakening did it better than Fates in one aspect, that of tying it into the narrative. The kids were fundamental to the Awakening narrative, you couldn't properly have the story as we know it without them. I loved that. Fates didn't accomplish that, as much as I loved it and the shipping aspect to pieces. If they weren't able to come up with a way to make it make sense in Three Houses, I take it as a good sign that they removed it. I think they'll see that the fans miss it and do more to design a way to include kids in future titles. Maybe I'm just being overly optimistic though. Still, money talks, and the most money they ever got from Fire Emblem was from the shipping simulator Fire Emblems, so even the cynic in me is hopeful we'll see the feature again.

Romance has always been a part of Fire Emblem, and so I'm sure it's here to stay. It's just a question to what magnitude. I thought the 3DS titles went too extreme with the "anyone can screw anyone" mechanic, and I'd much prefer either a select few canon ships like the early games and RD, or having a select few well written romance options like the GBA titles had. Hector/Lyn is probably the best written romance the series has had so far in my opinion...the million different options in Awakening/Fates didn't really come close to that in terms of depth.

Agree with the bolded for the most part. The baby dimension in Fates was so freaking stupid and was clearly just a half-assed way to incorporate a gameplay feature into the story with no regard for how it was incorporated. Like you said, I'd rather not have it altogether then have a contrived reason for including it. 

Personally, I don't hate the idea of kids, but if they hurt the overall story, I'd rather the mechanic was gone for good. If they can think of a good reason though, like an in-game time skip or something, then I'm more than a little interested to see how it works.