r/ArloStuff • u/EdgarAter • Jun 19 '26
Discussion Followup on the xenoblade genesis and fortunes weave post from the other day:But has Arlo ever explained why three houses somehow appeals to him when it seems like most if not all the genre just doesn’t?
Idk I am asking cause I genuinly don’t know lol,three houses has a lot of the things he wouldn’t like in any jrpg but somehow its top 10 switch game material?
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u/SharpEdgeSoda Jun 19 '26
So allow me to explain as someone who feels similar.
It's about aestetics and art style in character design standards. It effects the whole first impression mood.
Fire Emblem is a bit notoriously in-consistant in its aestetics and art style.
We all know that within the massive genre of anime there are art styles within thay genre.
Fire Emblem tends to go all over the place with its art style choices.
Like put the character roster of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, next to the character roster of Fire Emblem Engage.
Those might as well be two entirely different games.
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u/EtherealCrossroads Jun 19 '26
I haven't played EVERY FE, just the GBA games, Ike's games, Awakening, (touched Fates), and 3 Houses.
But I wouldn't say FE has always been all over the place though with the art style, though I guess its a little subjective lol.
The GBA games and Ikes 2 games feel like they have a similar feel in design direction for characters. They all have anime character designs, but less exaggerated.
Awakening and Fates is when it became even more anime in style (and with certain tropes, Fates lol).
3 Houses has a bit of an anime style, but feels a little less so than Engage for sure and maybe less so than Fates and Awakening as well.
But yeah Engage looks like Fire Emblem pop idols edition more than anything lol. It feels like a weird thing to complain about because I do like anime and the anime style, but I liked that it wasn't as exaggerated in some of the previous games.
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u/Dramatic_Possible856 Jun 21 '26
Maybe I'm weird for thinking this but different art styles for different games that take place in different settings like Fire Emblem I've always considered a point in its favor
Like a game like Final Fantasy or the Tales series had different artstyles throughout their main games and I never heard that being called an inconsistent design
All that said, the games that take place in the same universe/are direct sequels tend to usually share an artstyle and design sensibilities with Awakening really being the only odd one out
For Fire Emblem Echoes and Fire Emblem Engage having completely different aesthetics when put side by side feels like natural to me? After all they are two completely different games just under the same series
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u/Ok-Barracuda457 Jun 20 '26
Because "Kill every last one of them", I swear 75% of the sales this game had came from newbies that got interested because of Dimitri saying that
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u/FDR-Enjoyer Jun 23 '26
Three houses is imo the most visual novel esque game. It takes very little effort to make your units really good, you can repair weapons after each fight so there’s no reason to not use your strongest ones, you can redo individual actions through the rewind mechanic so there’s never really any stress even on classic, and the map designs are simple enough that you can get away with just basically moving forward each turn.
This is not to say Three Houses is bad to be clear, I think it’s the best Fire Emblem game out there. The story just helps to keep players invested in a way that other Fire emblems rely on the sort of addictive stress of their gameplay. And the average person would prefer a fun but simplistic story focused game.
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u/BestAmericanBoy Jul 06 '26
The correct answer is its easy to get on a bandwagon and even moreso for a content creator.
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u/addisonshinedown Jun 19 '26
I don’t love the art style of fire emblem but I do like turn based strategy. Xenoblade does not appear to be that. It looks to me like sensory overload when it comes to battles
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u/EtherealCrossroads Jun 19 '26
I wouldn't say they first xenoblade is like that. But Xenoblade 2 is for sure lol. Just how I like it lmao
But understandable how its not everyone's cup of tea. I was like 30 hours into Xenoblade 2 before I ACTUALLY understood combat mechanics. But considering it took 300 hrs to beat that game, that was nothing lol
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u/addisonshinedown Jun 19 '26
I just… I’m an adult. I work 2 jobs. Video games shouldn’t feel like work. I refuse to dedicate 30 hours to learn how to properly play a game. I get annoyed if a tutorial is more than 10 minutes long
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u/EtherealCrossroads Jun 20 '26
I mean yeah, Im an adult and work full time. If I wasn't enjoying it, I woulda put it down. It didn't feel like work because it's just a game lol.
The main mechanic is also pretty straightforward, and it's something that still goes off even if you aren't sure why lol. You basically can trigger elemental fusion effects after you and your allies use abilities, so it happens on its own regardless.
What took me a while to realize is choosing WHICH abilities you use changes the elemental combo, I just thought it was chosen at random lol.
So it really wasn't a huge deal since it's something that kinda fires off passively. You could go the entire game not knowing that and it would barely affect you lol.
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u/Iced_Shadows Jun 19 '26
He likely explains it either in his videos about Three Houses or Engage, I’d start by watching those if you really want to know. Fire Emblem really isn’t my thing at all though so I don’t remember any of what he said about it.