Famitsu has dropped a large article with many new details about Fire Emblem: Three Houses, including how skills work, alongside the mysterious “Crests”, and more.
The Family “Crests”
Some of the characters in Three Houses will be able to unleash the power of their family’s Crest. Crests are symbols of power that are inherited through family blood relationships, and are important enough to sway the scales of power in Fodlan. For example, the Adrestian Empire is succeeded by those who can manifest its power. The Crests manifest as talents in certain students that make them better at some things, like magic, or physical attacks.
As for Byleth, it seems that he’s not just a simple mercenary – he comes bearing a mysterious Crest of his own.
Crests and Skills
Skills make a return in Three Houses as an important way to power up your characters. As mentioned above, Crests are essentially in practice unique skills, but each character also has a Personal Skill of their own. There are also two other Skill types: Class skills, and Ability Skills.
- Personal skills: Skills that units have from the start, and are the only ones with that skill.
- Class skills: Fixed skills that come with the class, only available when characters are in that class.
- Ability Skills: Skills learned when the characters’ stats reach a certain level. These are permanently unlocked and usable no matter the class.
Here are examples of certain skills for the protagonist and the three main lords:
Byleth
Personal skill: Teacher’s Guidance – Unit and adjacent ally gain 1.2x EXP
Crest: Crest of ??? – An unknown Crest
Edelgard
Personal skill: Emperor’s lineage – 1.2x EXP gain
Crest: Minor Crest of Seiros – Lesser Crest said to be inhibited with the power of Saint Seiros.
Dimitri
Personal skill: King’s lineage – 1.2x EXP gain
Crest: Minor Crest of Bladud – A Lesser Crest passed down by Bladud of the Ten Heroes of Fodlan.
Claude
Personal skill: Leader’s lineage
Crest: Minor Crest of Regan – A Lesser Crest passed down by Regan of the Ten Heroes of Fodlan.
Up to 5 Regular skills and Ability skills can be equipped to each unit.
Here’s some other characters and their Personal skills:
Hubert
Personal skill: Strategist – Increases Gambit might + 5
Dorothea
Personal skill: Songstress – Heals adjacent ally’s HP by 10% at beginning of turn.
Dedue
Personal skill: Liege’s Shield – If Dedue does not take an action on a turn, he gains +4 Def for one turn.
Felix
Personal skill: Lone wolf – Damage increased +5 when deployed without battalion or when battalion health at zero.
Crest: Crest of Fraldarius – A Crest passed down by Regan of the Ten Heroes of Fodlan.
Lorenz
Personal skill: Prestigious Noble – Damage increased +2 when battalion deplayed
Crest: Minor Crest of Gloucester – A Minor Crest passed down by Regan of the Ten Heroes of Fodlan.
Hilda (CV: Yuuki Kuwahara)
Personal skill: Plea – When fighting next to male ally unit, ally unit increases damage +3
Crest: Minor Crest of Goneril – A Minor Crest passed down by Goneril of the Ten Heroes of Fodlan.
The Protagonist’s Colleagues
Manuela
Hanneman (CV: Kenji Hamada)
A teacher who’s studying the power of the Crests. He’s the type to get passionate when ever his subject of study is brought up.
Battalions
Battalions are a new feature where your characters can hire and lead soldiers into battle, as seen in trailers and previews. The Authority skill is required to use them, and the protagonist is able to hire different teams depending on their Authority level. Battalions have their own health, and when their health is at zero, they lose their effect.
Equipping battalions to units can change up their stats, and also allows them to use tactical Gambits which have various effects. Gambits are only usable a certain nmber of times in each map.
Here are some of them:
Lance Rush
A Gambit that works on an enemy unit and two units beside them. It inflicts the Distress effect which debuffs stats, prevents movement, blocks morale from raising and more.
God-speed Preparation
All allies gain Movement + 5 in one turn.
Baiting Ploy
A Gambit that forces enemies off their current spot, including advantageous terrain.
New Weapon – Gauntlets
Gauntlets are a new Weapon type that attacks twice per time, like Brave Weapons in other games. This means you can also hit up to four times in one engagement if you outspeed enemies by 4 Attack Speed. The downside of this weapon type is how it’s locked to foot classes, and can’t be used by mounted characters.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses releases for Nintendo Switch on July 26, 2019. You can learn more about the protagonist here, the story and other characters here, battle and game systems here.
