Today releases Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, a Mousseau-style spin-off of Three Houses. But while most games will sound very familiar to Fire Emblem veterans, one thing is very different; Blythe, the former hero of the Three Houses, is now the villain. So why did developer Omega Force turn the beloved Z-haired hero into a villain? Well, it’s all down to further exploring the charm of the character.
Speaking to IGN, Three Hopes director Hayato Iwata said: “We also had the scenario writer for Three Houses handle the writing for this title. So, while talking to this writer, I discussed the following point: ‘ Although Blythe is representing the player, she is also one of the fascinating characters at the same time. So making Blythe an antagonist is an essential development to bring forward the character’s charm.”
Producer Yosuke Hayashi offered another point of view, explaining that making Beleth an NPC rather than a playable character ensured that they could have interesting conflicts of their own.
“We realized that the main theme of Three Houses was ‘conflicts arising from the conflicting beliefs of the characters,’ but the only conflict that wasn’t one of the characters was Belyth,” he said. “It’s quite natural because Bieleth is the main character and a character for whom the chosen path is always depicted correctly.
“In Three Hopes, we decided to portray Blythe as the antagonist because we wanted to explore the subject further. In doing so, we thought we would allow players to have the characters’ conflicting beliefs in both the Three Houses and Three Hopes. can experience the conflicts arising out of.
Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes trailer images revealed
It might be easy to think that developer Omega Force was attempting to pull the rug from under players with this switch-up. But Toshiyuki Kusakihara, character designer and supervisor for Three Houses developer Intelligent Systems, said it was important to the development team that Three Hopes was a new experience that didn’t drive the exact same story that players saw in Three Houses.
“Considering the fact that Fire Emblem: Three Houses is being revamped as an action game and as part of a different genre, if we used the same story, it would be quite Not exciting because it’s something that many Three Houses players have already experienced,” Kusakihara said. “It’s not like we’re trying to live up to the players’ expectations. We’re constantly trying to think and create what we believe can exceed players’ expectations and provide great satisfaction.”
For more, see our review Of the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, or go back in time to read our review Original Fire Emblem of: Three Houses review,
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
