Seiros’ apology

** Massive spoilers for Fire Emblem Three Houses, religious themes and internalised misogyny **

It’s strange when you keep getting an annoying pull to write about a specific subject and yet there’s always something hindering that wish. I don’t want to make this personal space overly heavy with walls of text because I tend to go back to older posts to recall some games and I like it to be accessible to me and to the 5 or 6 of you who read my texts for which I’m very grateful. One of the reasons I write about video games is to remember the games I’ve been playing without jumbling everything in my head like, for example, mixing character names, storylines, or having a faint memory of a game like I do with, say, Dungeon Siege II. I played it for many hours but I don’t remember anything about the story. Or Morrowind. I remember it was the darker Elder Scrolls game I’ve played. I remember emotions, not facts, feelings, not scenes.

My memory is a problem because it deceives me constantly. For example, I love Rhea from Fire Emblem Three Houses, and yet she murdered people, experimented on children (to put it mildly) is a self-proclaimed Saint and a cult leader. The negative things always come to memory. No real live Saint worthy of their station calls themselves a Saint. They couldn’t, in practice, because canonization is a posthumous act and it takes years, if not decades, to recognize. And yet, if you want to respect the canon you have to give credit to the Catholic Church, something I have a problem with, but I don’t judge those who do not. I asked myself why I would be so drawn towards a villain, but if you asked my mother she’d easily recall the times when everything I liked in movies, anime or other media, were villains.

Rhea singing the Song of the Nabateans after the ball

In the case of Rhea what attracted me the most was her power, beauty, sadness and drive. The fact that she’s a woman may have played a role. Then again, she’s fragile, old and afraid. She’s so afraid of Nemesis that her whole convo with Claude at the end of Verdant Green was extremely uncomfortable to get into. I wasn’t expecting so much hesitation and fear coming out of an antagonist, especially one that has been making the life of our main character so confusing. And yet, those who went the extra mile and married her, will be able to read one of the best apologies and love declarations Fire Emblem has ever seen. I think that my timing was perfect after four playthroughs of too much to bear. A character that develops differently across different storylines can easily fall into oblivion because it’s not expected that people invest so much time into a game replaying it constantly and I don’t remember any game with such a rich story hidden from plain sight, intentionally or not.

Sothis

Right at the start it’s clear that our villain is having many problems dealing with grief after the loss of her mother which has arisen to a goddess status. Sothis is the goddess of Fódlan and protector of the land and all its living things. She’s in fact an overpowered alien force. Many of her children were able to transform into powerful dragons, but the few that are left have lost that power, and the only one who can still summon that power is Rhea. If you consider a dragon to be akin to a god I won’t blame you. 

“Just being a woman is enough to make my wings droop, let alone the fact that I’m such a wicked one.” — Teresa of Ávila 

It’s clear that the representation of religion in video games, especially the Catholic denomination, is done in a very negative light. It’s better than the alternative, because we shouldn’t be creating works of art to convert people to what many perceive as lies and spiritual misery. A dragon Archbishop that dominates the land is a safe option for everyone. You see, faith is not the problem; you can believe in anything you want if it makes you happy – you get kudos if it’s dragons. It’s what you do with it and in its name that’s the problem. People are the problem. So, if you have any form of faith that helps you get through life and its many challenges, try to stay away from people of the same faith and don’t proselytise. Be aware of any form of organised religion and don’t listen to what other people say, especially if they came out of nowhere and aren’t a part of your safe space. Don’t let them in, ever. In case those zealots are already inside your safe space – run. There – now you’re safe to play Fire Emblem Three Houses. 

Yes, the Church of Seiros is very loosely based on the Catholic Church and Archbishop Rhea is very loosely based on the authority of the Pope. Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes mentioned her stance towards other forms of faith in a positive light in bits and pieces of dialogue, but that’s not important for now. Rhea’s rage at the start of the game is nothing but pure revenge against her mother’s murderer. It’s a crime of passion but not only that. She’s both a victim and a warrior. If you see the battle scene where she confronts Nemesis, the fear in her eyes is palpable. After she wins the fight, she’s an emotional wreck.

Payback

Mental illness, trauma, grief and suffering gave birth to the Church of Seiros. Since she’s a part of another species – the Nabateans – which are on the verge of extinction, there’s a sense of urgency in survival and what else works best than to dominate through faith and a system of nobility with its inception in the goddess herself? The mythology of Three Houses is complex but it’s very well explained in the Fire Emblem wiki. Those bits and pieces can elude us while we’re actually worried about the best class builds and the wiki did a good job in putting together the mythology in their Three Houses Online Bible, totally free and without pop-ups of priests asking for donations. 

The system of nobility is closely connected with the power of crests which are solely gotten by birth – and not always guaranteed – originated from the goddess and imbued with the power of dragons, corrupted by Nemesis – the glutton – at a later stage and retaining a special synergy with a matching relic weapon, giving absolute power over all non-crest-bearers and implementing a hierarchy of power and abuse. Because everyone abuses at a certain point, even Seiros. Of course none of this shitshow should be allowed to continue and someone would eventually start a revolution for the power of meritocracy, because that fallacy is still in good health in current days. The power of humans over the alien dragon, to extinguish anything that could pose a threat to what humans can do “for justice,” not before having had a taste of that very same source by stealing, pilling, destroying and abusing, like humans do so well, and fighting for that objective using the power of another set of beings – the Agarthans – by destroying, pilling and abusing until there’s a big nothing left and people can return to their lives and abusing each other in other ways. The endless cycle. 

“Do you think […] that it is an easy matter to have to do business with the world, to live in the world, and, as I have said, to live as worldly men do, and yet inwardly to be strangers to the world, and enemies of the world, like persons who are in exile – to be, in short, not men but angels?” — Teresa of Ávila 

“Or priests with a sword,” like my wife says, with a snarly tone. I prefer to use the metaphor of an army of angels and not all of them good angels, however, all of them exalting unspeakable force.

We talk a lot about religion, me and her. Not all the time, but every time we do it, we go on and on for hours. The best chats we can possibly have about religion are either with fervorous atheists like my wife or someone from another faith altogether. It helps with perspective and it exercises tolerance and curiosity. Our last one was about the origins of monotheistic religions, about Judaism – which I still know so little about – and how monotheistic religions are systems that firmly establish patriarchal values, etc. I think this is why the gender of the powerful representative of the Church of Seiros feels so out of place and absurd that’s actually exciting. However, in the eyes of the Catholic church, a woman is naturally wicked, like Teresa, in all her self-deprecating glory, earned the title of Saint, something she wouldn’t have agreed on in life. A woman that was at the mercy of “learned men” for her entire life but who was smart enough at choosing her allies.

[Such endearing words] are very effeminate; and I should not like you to be that, or even appear to be that, in any way, my daughters; I want you to be strong men. If you do all that is in you, the Lord will make you so manly that men themselves will be amazed at you. – Teresa of Ávila

I want you to transform into a dragon, like the Immaculate One.

The Knights of Seiros were the army of the Church of Seiros but none of them was especially notorious, except Jeralt which was cured with Rhea’s blood, and also Catherine whom had for Rhea a dedication and love that transcended every belief system, solely focused on the person instead of her station. I decided to pair Catherine with another lover, therefore preventing her from having the heartbreak of the century. I paired her with Shamir, a down-to-earth atheist mercenary from the Knights of Seiros whom, at the time, felt indebted to Rhea. The Archbishop herself didn’t mind the lack of devotion. It’s what happens when you need all the help you can get.

This is where my mind can go on a Saturday morning without enough cups of espresso. So, in the end, if we decide to tame the beast and defeat the antagonist, we’re able to save a woman from 1000 years of grief and solitude. In a Japanese game fashion, the power of love and dedication is enough to heal any deep wound and to redeem any misdeeds, even if they include illegal experiments to give new life to a dead goddess. The transformed body parts are akin to the relics of saints. The goddess herself – Sothis – is none the wiser, and the consequence of having to deal with a silent protagonist is a terrible lack of communication that would have breathed new life into the story had it existed in the first place.

Rhea never knew that Byleth actually saw Sothis or what conversations they were having – one-sided conversations at that – and she was clueless as to why Sothis gave her power away and annihilated herself in the process, fusing with Byleth, therefore putting her power in the hands of a human which was created to serve as a vessel – a human reliquary. What I mean is nothing was going to work as intended by Seiros in the first place. The experiment she made to bring her mother back was a sad attempt at shoving the problem under the rug, the problem being the grief and trauma of having her brothers, sisters and mother killed at the hands of humans, their bodies used to build weapons to spread more misery. A trauma that lasted for centuries and left a semblance of peace where in truth a lot of families of crest-bearers were suffering in silence, never fully aware of the origins of their predicament or the secrets of the long forgotten races of beings that once governed the land. 

In any case, Saint Seiros, the self-proclaimed Saint, which is in fact Rhea, traveled across the land to find the other children of the goddess or their descendants. She found two more family members, Cethleann and Chicol from those who were alive and still in possession of their faculties. However, as I mentioned earlier, they were more akin to humans than Nabateans because they lost their powers and their dragon forms even though they were still in possession of their crests which were very powerful. 

So Rhea along the storyline had some funny mood swings. She could be motherly and affectionate and then snap into a murderous rage. It has been the source of memes across the internet. Founding a church because of the annihilation of a people and meddling into worldly affairs from a seat of power is something very historically significant and very interesting to experience in a video game. My love for this character is much more than just the religious aspect, which interests me from an intellectual, historical and maybe spiritual perspective, but also because no other character made me write so much and think so much about these matters and about a story that’s clearly half-written and yet so gripping and relatable.

Well, in the end, I chose to marry her, and I don’t regret having a dragon anime partner. If there was a choice at the end of the game to “leave Fódlan to humans and flee on the back of your dragon,” I’d take it without further thought. Fire Emblem Three Houses is my absolute favorite game, obviously. I love it so much that every missed opportunity to expand on the lore stings a bit more than it should. I’m becoming very critical of the game every time I think about it, but not in a negative sense. I’m certain that the story will still inspire others to write about it and even expand on the lore.

This text is somewhat unfinished, and I don’t even know if I articulated properly what I wanted to convey, but I’m tired of writing about this. The writers working with Fire Emblem Three Houses did a great job with the story, even though its details are a bit scattered across Fódlan and need to be found with patience and persistence.

Yesterday, I had to crucify a man in Cyberpunk 2077. There’s no rest for wicked women like me.

Fire Emblem Engage by CuteSpooky Plays

I’ve been refraining from writing about this game before I complete the main story. I’ve been playing the game for about the same number of hours Spooky did, and I think their review mirrors a bit of my experience playing the game. I was already very thoroughly forewarned that this was no Three Houses. I can’t say I wasn’t a bit relieved to hear that, for Three Houses emotionally unrestrained effects on me left me depleted, to say the least.

I enjoyed the combat and the map variety, although the art didn’t bring that Fire Emblem identity with it. The story lacks any significant conflict. As far as I’ve progressed, all my enemies joined my roster without my consent. I ended up buying the DLC, because my money is on Fire Emblem whether they mess up or not, and I recruited more Emblem units. Unaware of it, I got some advantage out of those recruitments because some main story Emblems got stolen from me. This is the point of the story where I’m at and I haven’t played it since, not out of interest but rather out of too many other games to play.

Thanks for the review, Spooky, and for writing about Fire Emblem.

Fire Emblem Engage – Review (Switch)

Verdant Wind

I finished the Golden Deer route, again. It was so good revisiting my favorite route, in terms of story, and have dear Claude accompanying me through a journey of discovery about the ancient inhabitants of Fódlan. I mean the Nabateans and Agarthans. Where did they come from? I have so many questions. However, this is what keeps me active in Fire Emblem Three Houses, because no questions will be answered that easily. Maybe an answer is hidden inside a support I haven’t unlocked yet? It was how, after all, I found out, as if I needed more proof of it, that Rhea is not your run-of-the-mill antagonist, Edelgard is not totally against faith and religion (check her support with Manuela), Rhea is not against other types of faith from the people of Fódlan (for that your need to unlock a Catherine support in Three Hopes), among other things. I rely also on the Fire Emblem wiki to learn some information I may have overlooked.

A screenshot I never tire to take. Rhea and Byleth having a moment.

I think, however, that a Fire Emblem set in ancient times where Nabateans and Agarthans were still sharing their knowledge, about everything that led to the shattering of that ancient civilization with humans in the mix, would be a dream come true. Well, a dream, because it won’t happen. Fódlan’s chapters are over, Seiros is gone, the Agarthans are wiped out. Or, instead, Seiros lives depending on your choices, and you marry her and rule Fódlan together, and the Agarthans are wiped out. Or, yet another variation, Rhea and Catherine stay together, and Catherine takes care of her forever. I still have that ending card and thought at the time it was a very wholesome ending. Catherine is a natural companion to Rhea. I can’t really see one without the other. Imagine how she would fare at the battle in Tailtean Plains, next to her beloved Seiros. For poetic reasons I chose Catherine to finish Nemesis off in the last battle. Not only did she finish him off with her Thunderbrand, she also did it in two swift critical strikes. She tanked his counterattack with pure nobility.

Always. For she’s “the one who watches over Fódlan and the creatures there.”

For this route I married Claude, because I ran out of women to marry, and I only play as female Byleth. I often forget that Byleth can be male, and only remember it while watching random YouTube videos. The game accommodates an acceptable diversity of experiences, considering the franchise’s history. By today’s standards it can be seen as very lacking, especially for people who wish to play as male Byleth and romance male characters. However, on the female front it surprised me more than disappointed. How Catherine is not available to romance as female Byleth still baffles me, considering she’s in love with Rhea and can also enter a full-on relationship with Shamir. I think the later is the most beautiful set of support dialogues in the game.

I didn’t want to spend renown to connect fates this time. It’s extremely expensive and it can mess with my future playthroughs. I played on hard/classic, and I won’t soon forget the last battle because of it. Now, with the renown I’ve amassed by trading seeds at the Pagan Altar, maybe I’ll use some at the Wayseer to pair more characters I’m interested in. A new playthrough won’t come so soon, but the clear save is ready for the next one! This time I’ve also completed all supports available for Alois, the fatherly figure I love with his dad jokes. Manuela and Hermann are still lacking some supports because I haven’t used them that much and haven’t recruited them this time either. I know I can watch everything online but where’s the fun in that?

All in all, I loved this playthrough. I was really missing Claude and his endless curiosity paired with mine. I felt like I spent a lot of time in battle to prepare my characters, but I opted for solid builds with a focus on cavalry. It was the first time I was able to gather 20 mythril, and I made a Parthia for Claude or Shamir and a Hauteclere for Hilda. I had the rusted weapons for the Gradivus and Mercurius but unfortunately not enough mythril. The stories of these weapons on the Fire Emblem wiki are a fascinating read. I also took my time reading the dialogues after saving Rhea and recalling the events she described to Claude. I think it’s as thorough as it gets, and it felt a bit lacking in detail. However, Claude’s reactions to everything she said, especially when he figured out all “saints” were alive and well, and very, very real, were priceless.

Then, after a short and sweet exchange of words and feelings, paired with a beautiful CG at the end, Claude went on to make the world he was dreaming of a reality, while Byleth took the place of the moribund Archbishop as the head of a reformed church. All is well.

Why do I adore Fire Emblem Three Houses

I asked myself this question countless times. I don’t tend to like a game this much. I love playing videogames. Sometimes, I care about the story, and sometimes it’s just the gameplay and the pure joy I get from exploration, collecting gear, experimentation, you name it. Sometimes, I rush through a game, and other times, I stop to enjoy the view and take everything in.

While I’m writing this, I recall when I played Starfield. I was at NASA, and when I left the decayed building, I saw two ominous figures in the distance, their shadows perfectly projected onto the sand. I swear I stayed there going back and forth a few times for the good portion of an hour. I was thinking about those figures, but I didn’t want to approach them just yet. I was in higher ground, so I took the opportunity to take a lot of screenshots and tried to create a cinematic sequence using Sarah as a model. I still remember that moment as one of the most contemplative this year.

The thing with Fire Emblem Three Houses is really strange. First, I had never heard about Fire Emblem before. The number of people that have Nintendo consoles and love Nintendo exclusives but doesn’t know about the existence of Fire Emblem can’t possibly be that low. It’s very easy to overlook some titles, especially when they fall into categories that can feel a bit more niche or are meant for a certain type of gamer. I’ve heard the comparison between strategy RPGs and chess. I don’t know how to play chess. Therefore, I’ll most likely fail at strategy RPGs and at the type of strategic thinking required to beat those games. Albeit simplistic, I don’t think it’s totally absurd to overlook turn-based, map-based games, in my case.

So, when I started playing Three Houses, I had previously beaten Triangle Strategy. Some parts weren’t easy at all, even though I played on the easier difficulties. Triangle Strategy was the first strategy game I’ve ever played. Were it not for the accessibility given by difficulty options, I’d probably get frustrated and would have moved on to something else more familiar. That’s why I regard accessibility so highly because it allows me to try games out of my comfort zone, but still trying them within some comfort. Let’s not talk about Elden Ring, though. I forgot to mention that, when I talk about accessibility I usually mean difficulty options unless I state otherwise.

Back to Three Houses, I was ready to play an anime-style videogame that seemly had very good reviews. Engage was already out, but people had some strong opinions about the story. From what I could understand, there was a common agreement that Three Houses was the best game to start on the Switch or Awakening on the 3DS. Since I don’t own a 3DS and I was eagerly exploring the Switch’s roster, I bought a second-hand copy of Three Houses to try.

Let me tell you something. That opening cutscene thoroughly captivated me. I just don’t have words to describe what I felt when I watched it for the first time and countless times after that. It wasn’t just the action on the screen. It was the way the music was edited on top of the action and how it perfectly complemented the battle scene. And the whole thing implied a sense of urgency, desperation almost. And yet, that character, someone called her Lady Seiros, seemed particularly aloof and emotionally detached from the whole ordeal. Patient wait. Patience. The world was ending around her, her soldiers were being slaughtered, they were absolutely terrified. Not her. She was afraid, that much was certain, but only one enemy was the focus of her eagle-eyed stare.

After a fierce fight, with a fantastic shield parry that reminded me of my successful parries in many soulslikes, she managed to defeat her foe. It wasn’t a regular defeat in the heat of a fierce battle, where one is striken and falls, while the other’s panting and falls to their feet in exhaustion. No, this was a rage kill, plain and simple. She wasn’t just killing a strong enemy, maybe a run-of-the-mill enemy commander. No, she was murdering a person with intent and motive. Finally, to the amazement of the audience (I would imagine), she embraced his sword and called it “mother.” Not only that, she still showed a striking disconnection from the army who cheered her on her victory. That sword was her purpose.

I don’t think this was intentional, but the way I feel is that the developers didn’t show too much of Lady Seiros (the character in this specific form) for a reason. It’s one of those characters that, if given too much spotlight they could overshadow the rest, only because you could write an entire narrative around her (now it’s my fan side talking). Let’s not forget that, even though this game was made for me (!), I’m not its only audience. What I mean by this is that I would be happier if I could see more of Rhea in, at least, two of her forms. But, on the other hand, it kept the mistery alive, and maybe it kept me playing for many more hours than what I normally would. Probably the explanation is that such a multidimensional character would take more time to be fully developed, and that’s where it’s lacking, especially considering that other, more relevant characters, had to be developed to a finer level, because they are the leaders of the three houses, and the true protagonists of our story (apart from us, the player).

After the opening cutscene, we had a little dialogue with Sothis inside a dream. I loved her design. When I chose my Byleth, female, mortal, and clueless, I met the three future rulers of Fódlan’s most powerful houses. After the first battle and the hilarious dialogue with Alois (he’s even funnier in Three Hopes), we are taken to the monastery, side by side with the young lords and escorted by the Knights of Seiros. And what a place to be playing at. A monastery? Really?

Garreg Mach monastery

When I was a child, I’d usually visit monasteries, cathedrals, abbeys, and churches with family. Those places of faith had a really strong presence in me growing up. I was by no means a practicing Catholic, and neither was my family, but I always have been spiritual. An organized religion with power that spans across borders, ingrained into political systems, is not something unknown to us. Neither is the kind of elitist structure lauded by the Church of Seiros. That one was awfully familiar, even when the Archbishop seemed so disconnected from the continent that she spiritually ruled as much as she was at the Tailtean Plains years before. There’s so much to unwrap here, however, that I won’t even start.

So, a monastery! To me, it’s a perfect setting for an RPG. The perfect setting. The architecture reminded me of the monasteries I used to visit, so the inspiration was clearly European. What else? They wanted me to be a teacher no less. This brought me back to my childhood again, and how much I wanted to be a teacher, much derived from my mother’s influence, who was a happy art teacher before the profession was dragged through the mud years after. Many connections to beautiful memories and to my developing personality made me see this game, not only as something to play but also as a place to live. There’s many reasons why I love Three Houses, but the most fundamental ones have nothing to do with the game.

What I thought was a bit funny was that the Archbishop herself was living there. Not in a residence, a palace, something a bit detached from the administration of the school and the liturgical affairs. No, she was there. And she was a she, which is the most alluring form an Archbishop can have. Living in a monastic school, supervising the education of young nobles and their followers, maintaining an elite of crest bearers worthy of a resident researcher, missing the hint that the Seiros Scriptures were not enough to craft a unified religious background, and keeping secrets.

We take that hint about the Goddess’s influence from the dialogue with some characters. Diversity and freedom were there, even though everybody was ever so slightly aware of the consequences of blasphemy. Yes, there were some characters like Mercedes who were deeply pious and dedicated to the good selfless work. Our nobles, however, had other plans and ambitions and were as secular as it gets. They were agents of change. Almost all of them.

I’ve been writing this post in small burst, and here I am rambling. I could go on for hours, but in case someone is reading this (if I eventually decide to make this blog public), please stop, don’t do that to yourself 🙂 I just know that, in the end, I turned into a Three Houses zealot. I’m pretty sure someone out there has a game they feel was made to measure. Something very special that recalls memories and experiences, with fantastic gameplay to match, and an immersive story with a perfect balance between what it reveals and what it conceals. A place where they’d like to live even just for a brief moment. This, and so much more, is why I adore this game. It gave me a bit more than I needed at a time when I definitely needed some enthralling fantasy in my life.

A very dedicated casual

Fire Emblem Three Houses was a game developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo (names that I now regard highly) and released in 2019 for the Nintendo Switch. I didn’t have the Switch at the time and I’m glad I didn’t because I was in for my darkest hours and I wouldn’t be able to appreciate any game at all. Many times I’m only able to open my mind to something new if everything in my real life is under control, or at least if it has some resemblance of it. I played mobile games. They were easy, repetitive, braindead and it was all I needed at the time.

Fast forward to 2023 I bought Three Houses pretty much randomly at my second-hand online market. It was on the list I gathered from the many recommendations on YouTube for exclusive must-have games on the Switch. I knew it was a strategy RPG and I was yet to start playing Triangle Strategy, so I had no idea if I’d like it or if I was able to play it at all. Turn-based combat on a map was the most nerdy experience I could think of, only surpassed by tabletop games, and I didn’t know if I was prepared for it.

After playing Triangle Strategy I felt a bit more confident. I could adjust the difficulty and I chose as easier as it could get. What usually makes me avoid online communities and fandoms is the attitude people have towards easy mode. You can’t really avoid the snarky comments, so I created a blog instead. I also avoid Fire Emblem groups because of the classic vs. casual mode discussion. After all, the franchise reached a broader audience with casual mode as a contributing factor. It made the game more accessible to new people, like me, and I’m so happy it did.

For those unfamiliar with it, classic mode in Fire Emblem is the original Fire Emblem experience. It’s permadeath, meaning that if one of your units dies in combat they stay dead for the rest of the playthrough. This adds to the challenge if you pair it with hard or maddening mode. This extra layer of stress puts you on your toes and every decision you make on the battlefield has dire consequences. In extreme circumstances it can render your game unplayable, were you careless enough to the point of losing every unit one by one. Reloading a previous save was a “strategy” many have used during combat, sometimes spending more time reloading battles than playing the game. Yes, I’ve read that people actually did this.

Casual mode is what the name says. It allows you to focus on the story without the underlying fear of losing the units you’ve been hardly working on in terms of build and support levels. You can also see their stories to any extend without getting interrupted by real-life consequences (i.e. death). Fire Emblem allows you to marry someone. In casual mode you don’t lose your love interest were a strategic misshap cut their life short. I chose this mode out of personal preference and also because I don’t want the gameplay to be an hindrance to my enjoyment of the story. Furthermore, Three Houses is loaded with amazing characters with a story of their own. We can build our own roster, recruit more units, tinker with gear and classes, engage with the menus and the delicious micromanaging between battles, we can do everything.

In addition to classic and casual mode, players can choose between normal, hard or maddening difficulty. I tried normal and hard. There was a big difference in AI behaviour, enemy health and amount of enemy units between normal and hard difficulty. Since I’m only using a ng+ save, which by now it must be a ng+5, I get much more enjoyment from playing in hard mode. I couldn’t see myself beating the game with all my units alive in hard mode on a new file, but maybe hard/classic using a ng+ save is an option to explore further. Now that I explored the backstories of my characters I could add that extra layer of stress during battles. However, since that challenge is secondary to me, I don’t know if I’d have the energy to do it.

In conclusion, I’d only like to stress that there’s nothing wrong with making games more accessible to players. At this stage, if a new Fire Emblem game was released without the casual mode, I wouldn’t think twice about buying it. My interest in the franchise however would be diminished if there wasn’t a casual mode there to begin with.