If you’re anything like me, you are at any point in time looking for basically anything that will scratch the persistent Fire Emblem itch—especially when a new game is on the horizon. And as someone who was a massive fan of the original Fire Emblem Warriors, I’m pretty much chomping at the bit for any piece of release news or scrap of detail leading up to the release of Three Hopes.
So if you’re like me, you’ll be pleased to know that this week’s Famitsu magazine has revealed a number of new details for us to stew over.
Big thanks to @bk218 on Twitter for translating!
First thing: character gameplay. According to the magazine, each of the playable characters in the game will have their own “preferred classes” (details of what exactly this means are still unclear), with some characters’ preferred classes even being exclusive to that character. For example, Shez’s preferred class will be the exclusive Fleugel class, while characters like Hubert, Dedue, and Hilda will favor Dark Mage, Armored Knight, and Brigand respectively.
In addition, each character will have their own personal skills, which can include elemental attacks. Hilda, for example, has the ability to launch a thunder elemental attack. Some classes, it seems, have other effects—such as the Armored Knight being able to reduce damage taken for nearby allies.
Even with the same class, different characters will have different leveling paths, according to the magazine. So new Combat Arts and Magic abilities can be unlocked by leveling the class, you’ll find differences amongst those unlocked abilities per character.
The magazine notes that the cost of leveling will “take points from Weapon Durability” (simply referred to as “Durability” in English screenshots), but there are no details as to what exactly that means as of yet.
When it comes to the actual core gameplay, more details have also been revealed about that. For starters, players can earn buffs by using Battalions on the battlefield, but these can be removed if the leading character takes too much damage. There’s a Battalion endurance that will deplete every time the lead character takes damage until it hits zero, at which point the buffs are removed for the remainder of the battle. However, this isn’t permanent—Battalion endurance is replenished at the end of a battle.
Character supports have also been confirmed to be back for Three Hopes, which is a comforting fact if for no other reason that supports have become such a staple of the franchise. And fans will be extremely happy to know that there’s more than one benefit to leveling supports: not only does it unlock those sweet, sweet support conversations we all love so much, but attaching Adjutants on the battlefield will also add more stat buffs and preforming a Partner Special attack (as shown in the latest trailer with Shez and Claude).
Players can also earn additional interactions and training sessions between characters by completing subquests. Perhaps this is a way to recreate the Activity Points and Group Tasks features in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but in the context of a Warriors game. As shown in the trailer, there was one scene with Lorenz, Shez, and Claude. The Famitsu feature notes that this is one way how characters can be sent to do jobs for items and support improvements. And while there’s more than one kind of job to be done, each character will have a particular kind of job that they excel at doing.
The dining activity also returns, and the player can have Shez invite up to two other characters to share a meal with them. The kind of meal itself that the characters eat can have a range of different buffing effects for the participating character, and meals will also raise support levels as well as improve the morale of the characters involved—helping them to deal more damage in battle.
Finally, in regards to the storyline: Three Hopes’ story will progress in episodes, with main quests appearing on the game’s War Map. While there aren’t many details about what the main quests will entail, we do know that optional subquests will be available for players who are looking to get the most out of the game—as well as better prepare their characters for main quests and battles.
And that’s it! While some of these little details might feel small or inconsequential, they should be promising for Fire Emblem fans who enjoy the parts of the main games like supports or meticulous class planning. While the hack-and-slash genre of the Warriors franchise might be a far cry from the strategic, tactical battles that Fire Emblem purists are used to, hopefully, fans from all corners of the franchise will find something to enjoy in this non-traditional Three Houses mid-quel.
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Written by George Comatas
As a wannabe social media personality and professional in the world of sarcasm, George does his best to always adapt to the changing world around him. He considers himself a maverick: a true-to-heart gamer with the mind of a pop star. Whether this makes him revolutionary or a setback, he's yet to find out. But one thing’s for sure; he's one-of-a-kind.
