Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the first mainline home console Fire Emblem game in a very long time. The franchise that was almost dead in the West when it came to sales until it saw a resurgence with the excellent Fire Emblem: Awakening on Nintendo 3DS. After this, the series continued to do well. While the Switch already had a Fire Emblem game in the form of Fire Emblem Warriors, Three Houses will be the first proper mainline entry in Nintendo and Intelligent Systems’ long-running strategy RPG franchise on the console.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses release date

Fire Emblem: Three Houses release date is July 26 worldwide. Due to Nintendo not having an India presence, the game won’t be available here officially, though much like every Nintendo published title, it may find its way to store shelves via parallel imports.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses download size and preload

The Fire Emblem: Three Houses download size is 11GB if you plan on buying it via the Nintendo eShop. You can preload it right now ahead of its release on July 26.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses gameplay

Fire Emblem: Three Houses has a lot of the core gameplay features present in recent entries but it brings a lot of new to the franchise too. Fire Emblem: Three Houses features a heavy dose of school life which seems to be a lot like the day to day meanderings you experience in a modern Persona game. Though unlike Atlus’ megahit RPG franchise, you’re in the role of a teacher as opposed to being a student. As the game’s title suggests, you also select a particular house as your main house before progressing the story and this seems to be a bit like the house split in Harry Potter. Three Houses also has Divine Pulse which lets you rewind time in a battle if you’ve made the wrong move. This ability is limited. Here’s some gameplay below from Nintendo to give you an idea of how it works:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses classes list

The confirmed classes so far are below:

Knight

Mercenary

Warrior

Thief

Cavalier

War Master

Dancer

Lord

Brigand

Archer

Priest

Hero

Swordmaster

Assassin

Fortress Knight

Pegasus Knight

Falcon Knight

Wyvern Lord

Wyvern Rider

Mage

Myrmidon

Paladin

Sniper

Warlock

Grappler

Fighter

Brawler

Soldier

Monk

Mortal Savant

Great Knight

Bow Knight

Dark Knight

Commoner

Dark Bishop

Bishop

Noble

Fire Emblem: Three Houses difficulty and modes

If you’re looking for some challenge, play in Classic Mode where a unit who is defeated is gone permanently. Casual Mode sees units that are defeated come back to life at the end of a battle. Barring the permadeath option, you can play in normal mode or hard mode. A Lunatic difficulty option will be added after launch in a patch.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses price

Fire Emblem: Three Houses for the Nintendo Switch is $60 (around Rs. 4,200). The bundle that includes the base game and the expansion pass is $85 (around Rs. 5900).

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Expansion Pass price and release date

The Fire Emblem: Three Houses Expansion Pass will be available for purchase on July 26 when the game releases digitally and it includes four waves of DLC. The Fire Emblem: Three Houses Expansion Pass will cost $25 (around Rs.1800) on release day. It also includes two costumes that will be available day one in addition to the waves of DLC.

Wave 1: Officers Academy outfits for female and male Byleth available at game launch.

Officers Academy outfits for female and male Byleth available at game launch. Wave 2: Additional Auxiliary battle maps, helpful in-game support items, and more will be released by Oct. 31.

Additional Auxiliary battle maps, helpful in-game support items, and more will be released by Oct. 31. Wave 3: Additional quests and costumes, plus a free update, will be released by Dec. 31.

Additional quests and costumes, plus a free update, will be released by Dec. 31. Wave 4: New story content, with additional playable characters, locations and more, plus a free update, will be released by April 30, 2020.

Do I need to play earlier Fire Emblem games before playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses?

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a standalone release and doesn’t require any prior knowledge of the series. It is likely a perfect game to play as someone new to strategy RPGs as well with Intelligent Systems always making sure all kinds of players are welcome ever since Fire Emblem: Awakening in terms of difficulty.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses day one patch download size

The day one patch just went live for those who pre-loaded the game digitally or for those who have early copies. The download size is 34.6 MB