A lot has been spoken about Three Houses. Story, characters, themes, you name it.
But what about Three Houses as a game? And all the choices made in each route which impact their difficulty?
Well, I started this project a week ago in my spare time to see what makes each route its own beast from a design perspective, and I think I've reached an answer of sorts. The results were a bit predictable with some paths, while with others it was arguably more.... surprising (click to check the whole thing).
The factors I took into account were:
Starting Roster (AKA who you get in Ch. 1 when you pick a House)
Available Church faculty.
Available Hero Relics, Sacred/Rare Weapons and equipment.
Available Battalions & Gambit.
When the Item Shop, Weaponry & Battalion Guild is updated stock-wise.
When each route stops throwing Intermediate Class enemies at you.
Difficulty curve, based on the Average Level of the enemies fought in each chapter's story mission + the Suggested Level the game wants you to do them.
And other route-specific quirks.
I wanted to consider a ton more stuff like map & enemy layout per route, but by that point the whole thing got super ambitious, so I decided to trim down the fat and keep what's essential for the overall experience in my opinion. Three Houses is kind of its own beast compared to most Fire Emblems, so I feel different factors had to be considered compared to the other games to deem what makes one route harder than the other and such.
Anyways, many thanks for checking this post! Let me know if anyone has any issue with some data, or has some ideas how to improve on it.
Oh, and it goes without mention that recruiting students from other houses makes the whole experience easy regardless of the route. So... there's that I suppose.
