It’s been a while, huh? My last review lies back quite a few months. So what have I been up to, you might ask? Well, one thing that I did was spend 100+ hours playing this game right here.

To be honest, I had never played a game like Fire Emblem. With this I’m referring to both this genre of games as well as any prior Fire Emblem title. What actually got me into playing this game then? One word: Edelgard. Wait, actually two words: gay Edelgard.

But let’s start things the regular way. What is this game even about? Well, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a tactical role-playing game in which you play as a teacher in a monastery, teaching and guiding your desired group of characters, or to be more specific, one of the three main houses. The students of these houses come from one of the three major rival nations of the continent of Fódlan. While these nations are at peace in the beginning of the game, I’m pretty sure you can already guess that this peace does not last for too long.

Your role in this game is to teach your students in various ways, being in combat, in the practice of magic, and also in deciding which role your students will play in the battles to ensure the safety of the people of Fódlan.

Knowing me, I’m pretty sure you can already guess which house I chose. Yup, that’s right, I chose the gay house, I mean the Black Eagles, led by none other than Edelgard von Hresvelg.

Depending on which house you choose as well as one major decision you make as the teacher of the Black Eagles house, you can play through a total of four different routes, all linked to one another and pretty much all interesting and unique. Since we’re on YuriReviews here, however, I’ll stick with the Black Eagles’ route in this review, even though there are quite a few other gay characters in the other houses.

What makes this specific house, and probably the game in general, so interesting to us yuri fans is the fact that for the first time in Fire Emblem history, you can actually romance and even marry characters of the same gender as yourself. I forgot to mention that in the beginning of the game, you can choose your gender, so you end up either being the male or female version of Byleth.

As Fire Emblem has been known for it also being a dating sim, this installment takes things a little further and finally lets us yuri fans have a little more fun too. I’m actually speaking of yuri fans exclusively, as the malexmale options are sparse to say the least.

So while you’re out and about fighting monsters, enemies of rival nations, or simply some good ol’ bandits, you can also explore the monastery, engage in some minigames, cook with your students, and as of late, also play with cats. How nice~

As you can freely decide what you do with your weekly day off, you can do a number of things that don’t include the usual teaching of your students or battles. Instead, you can focus on honing your own skills or deepening the bond between you and your students. Other than the cooking activities, you can share meals or tea with characters of your choice, and even go to the sauna with them. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

In short, there are A TON of things you can do. It’s actually so much that at times you’re just overwhelmed by the possibilities, which is a damn good thing. However, if these more of less mundane things don’t interest you, you can always just do the one thing that this game is actually about: battling, and oh what fun this is.

I’m usually not the type of person that is good with tactics in general, even worse, battle tactics. But I was actually surprised just how fun it was to guide the characters of my house through battles, choose their weapons and fighting styles, as well as guide their way through the battlefield. I enjoyed it so much, I even thought about buying more Fire Emblem games, even those that don’t feature any yuri romance. Can you imagine that?!

In short, I really enjoyed what this game has to offer, even if there are some things that could have definitely been improved on. The graphics, for example, are just not always what I think you can call up-to-date. The monastery in general suffers from boring and sometimes even odd-looking surroundings and textures, and the fact that this whole area is just not as big as I was hoping it would be also adds up to a bit of disappointment.

However, those are minor complaints, so instead, let’s focus on what actually did deliver the most joy for me in this game: the yuri romance options, and oh boy there are quite a few. I guess you could say that it’s a shame we can’t in fact romance all the girls in this game and instead only get a select few, but in my eyes, this is actually pretty nice, as it adds depth to the characters. Not all of them swing that way, it’s that easy and makes the stories of the ones that actually do so much more enjoyable and special.

What’s funny is that you can basically date four of the five lesbian choices just by choosing the Black Eagles house, which is in fact why I called it the gay house in the beginning of the review.

The whole dating aspect plays out pretty straightforward. You can interact with the characters and strengthen your bond with them by either talking to them, giving them presents, doing activities together as well as inviting them to tea time, where you can test your knowledge about them by answering some questions and choosing the right conversation topics. I for one found out that I’m a total idiot when it comes to finding the right topics. Apparently, cute monks are not what Edelgard wants to talk about, but oh well. A missed opportunity for her. 😛

In the end, depending on whether you formed a bond that is strong enough with whatever character you want to be with, you actually get to marry them by giving them a ring.

Some characters are more straightforward with you, and throughout the whole game, either outright declare their love for you or beat around the bush. In some cases more obvious, in some other cases less so. In short, they didn’t go easy on the gay, and it doesn’t end up with some cryptic confession that could mean anything, which is great. In fact, depending on how much the individual characters of your house bonded with each other, you can even get some pretty adorable support conversations from them, as well as special character endings that basically radiate gayness. Petra and Dorothea are probably one of the more popular pairs here.

Summing up, even though there are some areas where this game still lacks, it’s pretty obvious how much work and dedication went into creating this new Fire Emblem installment. Be it the gameplay, the excellent background music as well as voice acting or the fantastic story, this game shines in almost all the important departments.

If this review is not enough to get you interested in the game, I suggest you go watch a trailer, or how about you simply listen to the amazing OST or Edelgard’s voice on repeat.

Actually, let me help you by providing something that features both~

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