Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Reviews
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is Omega Force's finest musou yet, with a fun tactical layer added to the sword-swinging gameplay that keeps fans coming back. Three Houses fans will love the chance to spend more time with that game's characters, too.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes blends the classic Musou formula with the strategic aspect of its namesake impressively well. Throw in a story that's more immersive than you'd expect and you're left with one great Warriors spin-off.
Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes feels like a great return to spending time with a gang of characters who drew me in over dozens of hours, but with an all-new tale keeping me on my toes at the same time.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes shines bright in the long lineage of games in the Musou formula. Miles better than its predecessor, this is one of the smoothest Warriors-style games yet. Barring a rare example, its mission and gameplay loop holds up. The narrative does the best it can in a genre not particularly known for stellar stories, but will still remain a little oddly paced from time to time. Provided is a joyous occasion to revisit some treasured familiar faces and engage in riotous combat and a smooth experience not too barred down by menus. If the series continues on this trajectory, it’s all smooth sailing ahead. For Fódlan!
As someone that thoroughly enjoyed my 200 hours with Fire Emblem: Three Houses, I never expected Three Hopes to meet, let alone surpass that experience — but it does. Three Hopes’ systems all coalesce into something truly special, and the war-driven story allows the world and characters to shine their brightest. Though it could do with less padding, Three Hopes represents Koei Tecmo firing on all cylinders, and it’s easily another title to add to the growing list of essential Switch games.
If you talked about Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes as the new star in the hack and slay genre, you wouldn't be that far off. The game depth that people have been waiting for a long time is possible this time through new strategic options. On top of that you get a great alternative story with known faces of the series. Gameplay-wise you lose a lot of that mentioned game depth because of the immense amount of missions and also through the lack of real graphical improvements over older games.
Review in German | Read full review
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is the most satisfying hack and slash version of Fire Emblem: Three Houses we could have today.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Ultimately, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes basically turned me into the Death Knight, who yearned for nothing but cold, heartless bloodshed as I hacked my way through a bunch of levels, ignoring every side objective that came up. Three Hopes serves up a fun story that will definitely please a lot of Three Houses fans, and despite a few character missteps here and there, it’s well worth experiencing. Just be careful not to fall to the dark side.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is an excellent 'what-if' scenario of Fire Emblem: Three Houses thanks to the Musou-style gameplay, newcomer Shez, and tighter mechanics all around.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes succeeds admirably as both a spin-off stacked with fanservice that truly understands the source material and as a compelling take on the Warriors format. It's not going to win over any detractors of musou-style gameplay and it starts to buckle under the weight of repetition by the end, but if you're a fan of Three Houses and can handle that, you're in for a treat.
I really feel like anyone who has been through Three Houses would be doing themselves a disservice to skip Three Hopes. The story diverges enough to make each house a new adventure all its own and each of the paths has a vastly different array of battles to fight. Additionally, aspects of strategy, classes, skills, and camaraderie between characters have also made their way over and are implemented well here. I wish characters fought a bit more uniquely and that the game performed a bit better in docked mode, but outside of these complaints, Three Hopes feels like another solid example of what Omega Force can do when Nintendo entrusts its IP to the Musou dev.
Three Hopes runs a few chapters too long, and some late-game twists don’t carry the impact they should as a result, but my 36 hours were a great time. Three Hopes successfully and expertly integrates everything great about Three Houses into its musou format, both in narrative and in gameplay; it’s been one of my favorite Switch experiences in recent memory as a result. If you like Three Houses, you should play Three Hopes, and I’d recommend it to you even if you aren’t familiar with the musou genre. And if you haven’t played Three Houses, there’s a good chance that’ll be your next game after rolling credits on this one.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes has a lot going on both in combat and camp, and the result is a game that sometimes feels overstuffed but never fails to satisfy.
However, I cannot help but think back to that giddy anticipation as I drove home with my copy of Dynasty Warriors 3 back in 2001. Asking myself if Three Hopes inspires the same feelings in me, I’d have to say no. It truly is fine, and all the proper elements are in place, but in many ways it’s also very expected and not particularly innovative. It makes me wonder, not for the first time, how much longer “it’s fine” will be enough in the world of Musou titles.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is another enjoyable slice of Musou action, even if it does little to advance either franchise. Fans of Fire Emblem will adore chatting to the huge cast of returning characters as much as going into battle with them.
I'll likely be playing Three Hopes for a long time to come - I've already begun my Black Eagles New Game+ run - and when I previously said this isn't just Dynasty Warriors with a Fire Emblem skin, I meant it. Three Hopes is genuinely impressive. It walks a fine line between freshness for existing fans and approachability for new players, and personally it's had me invested from the start. I'd love to see where Nintendo's musou spinoff concept goes next.
As long as you're OK with the usual Musou repetition, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a worthy follow-up to Three Houses.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a thoroughly entertaining mash-up of Musou mayhem, strategy and relationship-building aspects that should more than satisfy fans of both the franchises involved here. It improves upon its 2017 predecessor in several ways, most notably in providing a far more engaging story featuring a narrative that's ripe for several replays. With impressively solid performance on Switch and an action-packed campaign that'll see you blasting your way through tens of thousands of foes for a good 30 hours in a single playthrough, this is right up there with the very best Omega Force has served up thus far.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes feels tailor made for the relatively small cross-section of people who are both hardcore fans of Musou and Fire Emblem. That isn't to say you won't enjoy this if you liked Three Houses, there's a lot that Three Hopes has to offer on a first playthrough, just be ready for the repetition to set in if you want to see it all through to the end.