Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Demo Impressions

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is the latest in the Fire Emblem franchise, releasing for the Nintendo Switch on June 24th. After the latest trailer this week, a demo was made available to everyone to download on the Nintendo Store, allowing players to experience the first 4 chapters of the 3 routes available. But is it worth trying out? Does the demo ruin the expectations or hype for the full release? Or is it a tantalizing taste of what to come?

My dating sim came with a hack and slash?

At a first glance, many may wonder why Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes looks so strange. Where are the grids? The tactical strategy behind determining which pretty anime boy/girl would kill your foes? Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is not a traditional strategy RPG like many of its predecessors, but is instead a Warriors game developed by Koei Tecmo. Warriors games are those games where you play an overpowered character that hacks and slashes their way through thousands of faceless nobody bad guys all while taking bases and completing objectives.

Nintendo has been no stranger to Warriors games, having partnered with Koei Tecmo on the first Fire Emblem: Warriors, Hyrule Warriors, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a spin off of the previously released Fire Emblem: Three Houses game, telling a different story, Intelligent Systems’ own What If? game. The gameplay is fun and Koei Tecmo has definitely crafted and adjusted their formula to better fit a franchise where magic users are just as common as swords and spears. It’s fun and the liberal sprinkling of traditional Fire Emblem mechanics like reclassing, supports, and different movement types all combine to make Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes my favorite Warriors-styled game.

Three More Routes

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes serves as a spin-off, both in terms of gameplay and story, to Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Your favorite characters all make an appearance, including the three main lords, their three houses, and the three routes you can choose, following each lord. Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude are all up to their old shenanigans and their classmates all return, more or less just like how you remember and love from their original game. However, where Three Hopes deviates is in the protagonist.

You play as Shez, a mercenary still hurting from a defeat by Three Houses’ protagonist Byleth. Determined to get stronger, you join the Officer’s Academy as a student, rather than as a professor. This change has breathed new life into the familiar faces at the academy, allowing you to see what it’s like being in the Black Eagles, Blue Lions, and Golden Deer as equals to your favorite students. The story is also fundamentally different, precisely because of the different circumstances leading into it. In the 4 chapters that were available, I felt like I had experienced events and plotlines that took nearly 10 chapters of Three Houses to get to. Although this does mean that the pacing may feel a bit too fast for some, I’m hopeful that by speeding through what we already know, Three Hopes is opening the door for us to see something completely brand new.

Triple the Hype

I won’t lie. I’m a huge Fire Emblem fan and these impressions will be totally biased. However, my job writing these is to give as unbiased and objective analysis as I can. And, I can say that Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes’ demo has only made me madder that it’s not already June 24th. A new story, new plotlines, new characters even. Three Hopes does a Fire Emblem spin-off right. The last time Fire Emblem was a Warriors game, it was just “how many sword lords can we stuff into one game before fans get mad.” Now, and I am so happy about this, it’s more a question of: “Hey, we still have storylines and plot threads we didn’t get to tell in Three Houses. Let’s tell them here.” I’m eager to see what new and exciting things Koei Tecmo has in store for Three Hopes.

For more information and to pre-order, visit: HERE

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Matt Tran

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My name is Matt Tran and I have been playing video games since I could remember holding a controller. I've always been a hardcore gamer growing up, from the hectic MW2 and Halo 3 lobbies, my many journeys through several Halo clans and my current exploits with my Destiny 2 clan. I love shooters and RPGs and overanalyzing every component of every game I've played, from weapon stats to ideal perks. When I have time to play other games, I currently play Genshin Impact and Star Wars Squadrons.