The Fire Emblem series has been going for quite some time, but somewhere along the way, it moved to handheld devices and forgot about the home console, but with Switch, the developers have had the chance to create a world far larger than ever before, but is that enough, find out as school is in session.

You are Byleth, and while you can choose your gender, your look is fixed, you are out with a group of mercenaries, when some people come screaming from the forest, as they are being chased by bandits, after a quick skirmish, introductions are in order. It is here that you get to meet the three children, Edelgard of the Black Eagles, Dimitri of the Blue Lions and Claude of the Golden Deer, with each of them being an important person back in their home country. Before to much detail can be discovered about them, the Knights of Seiros arrive to escort the kids back to Garegg Mach Monastery and take you and the other mercs with them, as your leader was the former Captain of said Knights. Here you can make a decision on the story, that impacts a few choices later one and that is your relationship with Jeralt, the leader of your group, I went with father and that changed some story points to reflect that.

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Arriving at Gareeg Mach Monastery, you are quickly roped into becoming a teacher for the students as one of the classes is without one, with Lady Rhea not providing to much detail as to why. When you meet the kids earlier, you are required to choose one and that aligns to your class later on, but as you are settling into the world, outside forces begin to move ahead on their plans. As a lot of the story can change based on the choices you make, most players will have the same opening few hours, but from then onwards, things will change and even more, depending on the difficulty that you selected, as death will impact things. One thing that does not change is Sothis, who you are introduced to during the earlier skirmish with some bandits, she saves your life early on and then grants you use of her power in battles, but who she is and why she lives in your mind, are mysteries best left to discover on your own. Eventually the game does a big time skip, leaving the school yard behind and escalating the conflict that runs underneath from some of the earliest cutscenes, some of these scenes can be quite tense and your house selection is emphasised a lot here.

Before you dive back into battle though, there are plenty of things to do at the school, from teaching the class you have assigned, to helping those that work or study there, or even taking in a bit of fishing. The freedom to explore is limited to a day in the week, the rest of the time is spent in classes and it is actually a nice way of breaking things down, each month has a few events that take place, with a battle at the end and it is all laid out for you, before you step foot out of your room. The time here, can best be broken up into two parts, your teaching job and your free day, starting out with the teaching, it is far more in-depth than I would have imagined, as you have a large number of students in your class to manage and manage them you shall.

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Each of the students has an area that they wish to study, in my case I selected Edelgard and the Black Eagles and using her, in combat, she uses an axe. But while she begins to want to expand her skills with it, she also has a need to learn about being a ruler, so her areas of interest were focused on those topics. While a lot of the class lectures are just shots of your character standing at the head of the class, after that is over, you can select some students, depending on your activity points, to give more information too, this is where you can really help shape them. Each character will also have a morale meter that you need to judge, if morale is high, they will learn more, if low, then they won’t, this system means that if your goal of increasing up a student over the rest is dependent on them being happy. As they learn new skills, they can level up some parts of them, which can translate to new effects in battle, which can help keep you and them alive.

But Gareeg Mach Monastery is not just lessons and sleep, there are many side tasks you can undertake, each having a bonus for doing so, from fishing to choir practice, to cooking and more and the more you do, the more you can interact with the students and other residents of the school. Each activity that you can participate in, takes up a point of your time, so you need to choose which ones you take part in, but as doing can build up your relationship with characters and some of them, enjoy some activities more than others. Should you not want to do anything you can always just explore Hogwarts, I mean the Monastery, as there are locations to visit like the Great Hall, stables, Mess hall and more, where people like to hang out and there you can learn more about them, accept small tasks from them and more.

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There is even more on top of that, you can head out toward the front and look at what the Blacksmith is selling, repair your broken weapon, or sell some older ones to them. If you need some extra support, you can always recruit some extra soldiers to help you in battle, these soldiers can only be used in the next battle, but they can help, so seeing what they can do is worth the time of heading out there. Exploring the school though, does take a bit to get used it, as it is very large and just trying to learn your way, will take time, thankfully the game provides you with a handy map and will let you warp around the school, even to locations you have not visited yet yourself.

Of course, the best part of any Fire Emblem title is the combat and again the classic turn-based structure returns, but like the rest of the game, it has been plussed up so much, that at first glance, you might think it is something else. When you first enter a battle, you will get time to move around the map, see where enemies are, plan your route and such, but you can also use that time to make sure that your squad has the best weapons, items and so on, to save you having to worry about it later. The base portion of the fights takes place in the more traditional top-down view that fans of the series will know and love, but when you engage in a fight, the camera pans down into a more action oriented view point and I really liked it, as it felt that you were now fighting the target, rather than just hitting a tiny character.

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Should one of your students, or yourself fall in battle, you can use the ability of Sothis, to rewind time, but it has a limitation for three uses per battle, so while you won’t need it in some of the earlier ones, later on you will for sure. I liked this mechanic as it a nice safety net for me, should I make a bad decision and I lost a soldier, but at the same time, the more I played, the less I wanted to use it, to prove that I could make the right calls going forward. As each of the students can take part in mock battles and real ones, they do begin to level up through them, which causes their skills to increase, I could not see a pattern to the increase of them, but they seemed to be consistent across the board. The other thing to consider are the attacks you have, most characters will start out with a basic one, but as they level up, they will unlock a more powerful attack, there are some restrictions on it though. As you use those attacks, they will take points of your weapons durability, which means that if you weapon is close to breaking and you go for a large attack and it breaks, you will be defenceless, until you can link up with the convoy character to pick up a new one.

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The problem that I had with the battles, is that while you can hold down a button to make them go a little faster, it is still the same basic gameplay that we have had since the original games. You move your characters around, sometimes there will be dialogue as you do, you attack and if you level up, more dialogue and then you wait for the enemy to do so. Given the attention to detail that they have employed on the battles themselves, as you can zoom in and such, I would have loved to have seen a more action option for players, to help evolve the series a little more; There is nothing wrong with the gameplay, it is just due for an update.

One area that has seen a significant boost is that of the presentation, while the recent 3DS titles have had a very anime inspired look, it never really played out in the game, outside of static character shots. Here though, that look is on display at all times and there were times, that it did feel like a bit of an interactive anime, this is evident in the battles more than ever before. In the speech segments, the game still has static cut outs that appear on screen, but there is a lot more when you trigger activity moments. Exploring Gareeg Mach Monastery is fun, there is a lot to see and do, but the game does not handle it well at all, the larger and more open spaces lag a lot, and frequently. The game also loads up sections of the school as you get near it, this is really shown when you go towards the Church, as there is a Portcullis out the front of it and it will only raise up, when the area has loaded.

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The other issue with the loading is that characters will pop in and out of screen, I have had characters appear in front of me, blocking my path and then disappear the moment I passed them. On top of that, some characters appear, walked a few feet and then vanished again, it was quite odd to see, especially when there are other characters around them, this same issue effects the owls that are seen flying around the place as well. In battles, when you are overhead, there is no real issue with the visuals or performance, as the game handles both quite well, when you zoom down to the action, things change up somewhat, as the rest of the soldiers, on your side and the enemies will fade in and out as the camera moves around, which is odd.

On the music and voice side, things are amazing, a lot of the score is heard on repeat, during the battles, but I never tired of it, because I was focused on the choices that needed to be made, each time I paid attention to it, each piece felt new again. The music that plays throughout the school, is thankfully nice and peaceful, helping sell that divide of what is a battle and what is not. The sheer amount of voice work that is in the game, is also quite staggering and apart from a few soldiers here and there, the quality is also quite impressive. When you have conversations with characters, the level of detail paid to the spoken word, makes it easy to understand each of the characters and given how they change based on your interaction, hearing how they change is also a treat.

Fire Emblem Three Houses is a game that is easy to recommend to fans of the series, the massive step forward in the presentation and while it has a few stumbles, it proves that the team can create an impressive world. The concept of a school being the main focus, could have easily been super tedious and there are times when it feels like it, but if you invest in the students, it quickly becomes a fun part of the game. Battles are more alive than ever, thanks to the new zoomed in camera options, but sadly still feel rigid as they have been in the past and while not bad, I would have liked to have seen something a little more action mixed in. Those new to the series will find that the game throws a lot at them, but take the time to explore the mechanics and the world and a rich and rewarding adventure awaits.