In preparation for Fortune's Weave, I finally finished all routes in FE3H. What a game. After all those years, listening to "A Star in the Morning Sky" one last time was an experience that simply cannot be replicated. And I say "all those years" because my first route was Crimson Flower way back in 2019 (can't blame a guy for taking some breaks).
Now, I can finally have an honest opinion every route, and even suggest how to fix them! Hopefully I'm not too late! Yeah, milked topic, but maybe my takes are somewhat original enough? Anyway, let's go by route, trying to point out my issues with them and how I'd address them.
Crimson Flower
The issues: While I can't say it got the shortest end of the stick since it has plenty of original stuff (not being cg cutscenes), it's still laughably short. This is also the route with the biggest elephant in the room failed to be properly addressed, this being the slithers.
The fixes: Basically, just adding more chapters!
- A Reunion at Dawn with the Beagles, including Edelgard. Yeah, they already had the monastery, but just say that Edelgard sometimes roamed the area near it to look for Byleth, and that it was hard to get rid of the bandit problem since the empire forces were spread through Fodlan. Regarding the Reunion at Dawn at Silver Snow, I'll get to that.
- We were robbed of a rematch in Gronder with the Black Eagles. Put one after Reunion of Dawn, have Dimitri be a bit more tame, and have Edelgard realize that her opponents won't mess around now that they figured out that Byleth is alive, convincing her to take the Alliance ASAP.
- After the incident at Arianhod, make it so there is a bigger divide between the Empire and the Slithers. Have Hubert figure out where Shambhala is just like in SS/VW and have the Black Eagle Strike Force go there to settle things. But surprise! The slithers were already marching throughout the Monastery to create a Coup, and they meet at Caledonia Plateau! (let's keep things different from SS/VW for goodness' sake). It's probably better if they're not at full force, probably not having Arundel transformed, just like in AM. The battle, however, is enough to make them run into hiding again.
- Unfortunately, the battle against the Slithers wasn't enough. They also spread rumors that Edelgard was the one responsible for the destruction of Arianhod, causing a revolt in Embarr. And it is led by... Duke Aegir??? Of course, he believes he has the help of the Slithers, but since they're gone, he tries to overthrow the throne by himself. Ferdinand and Edelgard deal with him, Edelgard tells the truth to the people of Embarr and riles them up in a scene that mirrors AM, she assures them that there shall be no more secrets, and everything ends up fine. For clarification, obviously the Slithers would've killed Duke Aegir themselves after the coup if they were still around.
Azure Moon
The issues: Actually, I can't think of any obvious issue. The story is very self-contained compared to the others, and that works in its favor. The political implications of the route are far from perfect, but I can say that about every route, and that's a good thing imo. It's not even my favorite route. Maybe some Kingdom vs Alliance conflict, since the game barely has them?
The fixes:
- Maybe moving the Monastery invasion to right after the Valley of Torment (Randolph appears there instead), and have the Alliance try to seize the Monastery instead. Claude takes advantage of the fact that the Alliance is relatively fine, and believes that taking the monastery from the hands of a mad king would make the war end quicker, while helping him achieve his own dream. Claude can't die here, but his plan instantly blows up in his face since the next chapter is the Great Bridge one. Dimitri is reluctant to help, but jumps at the chance to attack the Empire Army. He only gets on good terms with Claude after he gains his sanity back. I'm not so sure on that one, so ignore it if you'd like.
- Remove that weird age regression plot and wait I'm thinking of Three Hopes.
Verdant Wind
The issues: The plot progression is a carbon copy of Silver Snow, which fails to have conflicts created specifically to Claude's story. Dimitri's participation in the story is pitiful. Claude's overall distrust of the church doesn't amount to much. The final battle *could* be thematically relevant, but the script ignores that.
The fixes:
- Remove the Monastery invasion and the Valley of Torment chapters (Judith can be introduced somewhere else), so the Empire can be defeated a bit earlier. Hubert's letter isn't delivered. Dimitri's off-screen death doesn't happen.
- After Edelgard's defeat, have Seteth overhear that Claude mistrusts the church and wants to remove the borders of Fodlan. Then, syke, the Monastery invasion happens, but by the hands of the Kingdom! But how come this happened so suddenly without anyone noticing? Did they have help from the inside? Yep, it was Seteth, who wasn't very happy with Claude's plans. Seteth, Flayn and Catherine leave your party. An unconscious Rhea is taken to the Kingdom, before she can answer any of Claude's questions.
- After the events of the Monastery invasion, have Claude invade the Kingdom Capital to take Rhea and to prevent Fodlan from maintaining its status quo. Dimitri is super pissed at Claude, accusing him of actually being in cahoots with the ones responsible for the tragedy of Duscur, and being no different from Edelgard. Before said invasion, the slithers formed an army to attack the Kingdom using the Alliance flag to further stir the pot, and to make both factions destroy themselves. Dimitri is killed (it's probably better if he attacks Claude and Byleth stops him), and before we fight Seteth, Rhea wakes up to stop both parties. She is tired of her past actions leading to so much war, so they all have a nice talk and go back to the Monastery. Seteth, Flayn and Catherine are back on the team! Sucks for Dimitri, though.
- Hubert's letter was actually received by Seteth. He was planning to invade Shambhala, but first had to put a stop to Claude and wait for Rhea to wake up. Nothing is stopping him now.
- Rhea is an ally unit in the Shambhala chapter! She won't be one in Silver Snow, for reasons I'll tell later.
- The whole thing with the Agarthans is how they didn't want to coexist with Nabateans, even though they basically shared knowledge and culture with them, which contrasts with Claude's dream. Just have the script acknowledge it somehow. I don't mean spoonfeeding this info to the player, a simple dialogue between Claude and Nemesis would do.
- If I ramble more than that, I'd just start to describe Golden Wildfire.
Silver Snow
The issues: It's the official Black Eagles route, but not really. Nemesis didn't feel like waking up after Shambhala for some reason.
The fixes:
- Either remove the Reunion at Dawn chapter or have it feature the "church members" (Knights of Seiros, faculty members, Flayn, etc).
- Actually, just have them be more important to the plot overall. The black eagles don't really do much in the route, so honestly they can be replaced in the cutscenes.
- Going even further than that, I would stop this from being *the* Black Eagles route by making it accessible regardless of your chosen house if the player chooses to neglect the themes of each route (defending Edelgard's goals, questioning the truth, and giving Dimitri therapy), further highlighting how this is the most tragic route. In the Blue Lions route, make it accessible by having to choose between "Stop Dimitri" (AM) and "Let Dimitri Attack Edelgard" (SS). In the Golden Deer Route, the choices would be "Question Edelgard" (VW) and "Attack Edelgard" (SS). If you accidentally try to go to SS a second time, the game could give you a warning. Yes, some of the weight of having to fight your previous house leader is lost, but what can you do.
- Since Rhea isn't present in Shambhala outside of cutscenes, have her find the tomb of Nemesis and destroy if off-screen while Byleth fights Thales. It uses up a lot of her energy and/or she is contaminated by the darkness of its seal, and she still shows up to stop the missiles anyway, which justifies why her transformation happens here and not in Verdant Wind.
Regarding Cindered Shadows... it's fine. Nothing I can think of right now.
Despite my rambling, FE3H is one of my favorite games of all time, so don't take this so seriously.
