Fire Emblem: Three Houses was going to be the showpiece game of today’s Nintendo Direct, and Nintendo did give us a bit of a deep dive into the game with a video that set up the game’s setting, plot setup, gameplay mechanics, and more.
There’s quite a lot to unwrap here—the game has a military academy setting, with the customizable player character being a former mercenary turned military instructor, training students who are future inheritors of power in their own respective nations. The school setting, which I have to imagine was inspired somewhat by the popularity of JRPGs like Persona, looks incredibly intriguing, as do new mechanics such as training for specific skills, and a doubling down on the RPG mechanics that the series has long imbibed.
The character design seems to be a step back from the excessive pandering that Fire Emblem Fates employed, the writing seems more restrained as well, and the art style and music both look/sound great. On the whole, Fire Emblem: Three Houses looks like it might end up being worth the wait. You can check out the new video for it for yourself below.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses launches on July 26, exclusively for Nintendo Switch. This is a delay from the previous Spring 2019 release date announced at last year’s E3, which itself was delay from the originally announced 2018 release date. This latest delay was explained by Nintendo as being necessary for further development time to polish up the game.