A brilliant treatment with a leap in Fire Emblem: Three Houses

As a professor at the academy, you have pupils from many noble houses and families under your wing. Your class is full of individuals with unique characters and personalities. You start to like them. You are living with them. It is a group connected by the ties of struggle. You promise yourself that, regardless of the future, you will be together, supporting each other and helping each other. Then the war breaks out and the character of the player disappears for five long years ...

ATTENTION. The material contains spoilers for the Fire Emblem: Three Houses scenarios. You read at your own risk.

During the lavish ball, you and your children make a common promise. In five years, when Garreg Mach academy will celebrate the grand 1000th anniversary of existence, you will meet again in the walls of the great castle. It will be a warm meeting of graduates who, by that time, will turn into lawful lords, landlords, ministers and generals. Garreg Mach does not go anywhere to anyone. This is a school for heirs of fortunes, crowns and thrones.

A promise is more than just a polite introduction to saying goodbye to the walls of the academy. The class led by the player participated in many battles and battles. She would drive away the beasts, banish the bandits, and even thwart the coups. On the battlefield, relationships sanctified by blood, fear and sweat formed. Such relationships are much more powerful than ordinary friendships and sympathies. Therefore, the common promise seemed sanctified. A promise so important that it can not be broken. We see each other in 5 years.

Suddenly a war breaks out on the continent of Fódlan, which covers all kingdoms.

The situation is very tense. Students belong to one class while their parents declare war against each other. There is disinformation. Chaos is spreading. To make matters worse, the giant army marches towards the Garreg Mach academy. As a professor, we have to control the situation. We must defend the walls of the academy, as well as those protecting students inside. We are therefore fighting to become the first line of defense of Garreg Mach. Sounds epic? Unfortunately, it turns out quickly that despite the many aces in the sleeve, the overwhelming number of enemy is unstoppable ...

Garreg Mach falls down. The player's character loses the battle. His body is thrown into a deep abyss, and the enemy army enters the academy. What happens next? What about the students? What about the scientific staff? It is not known. Darkness is coming.

Five years later, or Fire Emblem in great shape.

When we open our eyes, a confused peasant stands over us. As a result of plot meanders that I do not want to reveal, we are coming back to life. It is from the farmer that we learn that the battle for Garreg Mach ended a long time ago. Five long years have passed since her. At that time, one side of the conflict managed to subjugate almost the whole continent. The academy turned into a ruin because it is not in a strategic place. The debris of the castle has become a tasty morsel for thieves, but they too are afraid of crossing the walls of Garreg Mach. Apparently something is scared inside. And he kills.

When we appear in the ruins of the academy, we see one of the more shocking images of the Fire Emblem. Our former student, our protégé, is still in place. But he is not the energetic, passionate young man, five years ago. It's the specter of a healthy teenager. The shadowy shadow of the old lord, who has problems with distinguishing dreams from reality. Full of scars, no eye, hateful, ex-student is like a slap for the player. Like an inner voice saying: see how you failed.

The effect is so severe that during the first 30 - 50 hours of gameplay you fought side by side with this student. You protected him. You taught him new attacks and specializations. You have repeatedly turned your neck to get him out of trouble, but he also often covered his professor's back, wielding the spear perfectly. Now everything seems to be in vain. The player is standing in front of a man who has lost much more than just an eye.

As if pulled by magical force, other students return to the ruins of Garreg Mach.

Although it seems pointless, students want to fulfill the sacred promise from five years ago. The former players of the player return to the place of the pogrom, but it is difficult to look for students from half a decade ago. Each of them has changed. He grew up. It looks different than in the first half of the game. Simply reinventing the images of ex-students is a lot of fun. A little as if cultivated for several days, Tamagotchi has finally evolved. Unfortunately, it is not always a cheerful and joyful evolution. Some students have been fighting for survival for five years, fleeing the tyranny of the enemy. Others gave up their teenage goals, yielding to the prose of life. Only a few are full of the same energy as before.

Fire Emblem manufacturers: Three Houses really stood up to the task when it comes to work on characters. There are almost 30 heroes in the game who are evolving. Within 5 years, not only their character models and portraits change, but also goals, attitudes and sometimes even classes and specializations. Each character is a unique story that is worth knowing. In addition, the game offers up to four different endings, depending on the decisions made.

Of course, the creators of Fire Emblem: Three Houses are not the first studio that plays with leaps in time.

The first Final Fantasy of 1987 was already experimenting with time travel. The Capital Chrono Trigger focused mainly on temporary journeys. I remember that the Legacy of Kain series also liked these themes. Nowadays, time is one of the main motives of the Mortal Kombat fight, which puts younger and older warriors against each other. Quantum Break was one big temporary headache. You can not forget about the great Prince of Persia: Shadow Within. From this perspective, the motive I am writing about is not something revealing or revolutionary.

However, while for most games time travel is an element that influences gameplay, in Fire Emblem temporary leaps have gigantic fictional significance. These five years is much more than just a jump through the portal on the scifi series. This is a fundamental change of the whole world, politics, heroes, agenda and location. In many productions during the jump in time the player remains the most important. Fire Emblem: Three Houses shows that the most important thing is everything around. That there are changes that can not be unscrewed. There are destructions that can not be repaired. Well, that's great.

Thanks to this situation, the player really feels he was missing. That he failed. That he will not fix everything. It's a strong emotional baggage. Especially in Three Houses, where we are put in the role of a guardian, teacher and mentor. Thanks to such a huge plot change the game gets wings, and the player wants to play the next several dozen hours in the fictitious world. Of course, during this time I will not be able to repair everything. But maybe even a part ...

A brilliant treatment with a time leap in Fire Emblem: Three Houses