Any, and almost every, fan of Nintendo’s Fire Emblem knows how the introduction of the 3D games in the series completely changed the game for the franchise. With seventeen installments, Fire Emblem has been a beloved RPG series in Nintendo’s collection since the 90s, but never before has the franchise been as successful since the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening in 2012. It is with this game that the series gained a massive fanbase with the revamp of something called “support systems” that was initially introduced in the earlier games such as Mystery of the Emblem and Path of Radiance. Support systems allowed the player to have their units create bonds and connections, sometimes ending in romance, in order to have them perform better in battle. For instance, pairing two units who have a B rank support in battle will have them do more damage to enemy units compared to two units who don’t have any supports or a single unit. With Awakening, what really changed the way supports functioned in the franchise was that now you—the player— were able marry other units via the “My Unit” character known as Robin and even have something called “child units” that were born from the pairing.

Of course, this specific support system didn’t continue to exist as other games were created, but it certainly made an impact in how Nintendo developed another game called Fire Emblem: Fates. This game is, perhaps, the most infamous in 3D Fire Emblem history.

There are many complaints about the game’s mechanics and story from the protagonist’s naïve attitude towards war to the bland enemy units to the creepy sibling relationships that were borderline incestuous at times. The biggest complaint of all, however, is the illusion of choice given to the player at the start of the game.

When Fates was released in 2015, Nintendo had advertised the game as a story centered around consequences, which is fitting considering a major theme in Fire Emblem is consequence. Outside of the games’ easier modes, once your unit dies they were gone forever from the story after that point. To make this more apparent, and possibly to make more money, they released the three story routes as separate games: Conquest, Birthright, and Revelations. However, the execution fell rather short as players quickly discovered that there were virtually no significant differences between the three plots. Especially when comparing Conquest to Birthright, which both end pretty much the same way. Two of your siblings still die, the other two get to live, you bring peace between the warring nations of Hoshido and Nohr, and you kill your evil adopted father who transformed into a beast. The only differences are who dies, who lives, and whether your evil adopted father turns into a glob monster or a dragon with god-like powers before you kill him.

Much of this failure is believed to be contributed to the idea of a Golden Route in which no one significant dies. That route lies in Revelations where just a tad more plot is added to the existing stories of Conquest and Birthright. However, Nintendo made a big mistake by requiring players to first purchase one of the two copies in order to digitally obtain Revelations as no physical cartridge exists for it. Yeah, not the best idea to put a paywall over what’s left of your story. Imagine having to pay an extra $60 just to read the last five chapters of a novel you really hate but want to finish reading to give a full critique of the story.

So Fates was a bit of a disappointment for Fire Emblem fans across the board. Though there are definitely things players found enjoyable about the game, overall it wasn’t that great. Especially in terms of execution of its themes of choice and consequences of those choices. Then came along Nintendo’s most recent installment to the franchise, Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Released in 2019, Three Houses adopted the themes of Fates and, to everyone’s surprise, executed them almost flawlessly. In Three Houses you play as Byleth Eisner, child to the ex-captain of the Knights of Seiros and host to the Progenitor God Sothis. Byleth becomes a professor at the Officer’s Academy at Garreg Mach Monastery where you meet the three house leaders and future rulers of Fodlan: Princess Edelgard von Hresvelg of the Adrestian Empire, Prince Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and Claude von Riegan of the Leicester Alliance.

Just like with Fates, you as the player have to decide which house, and therefore which house leader, you will have Byleth teach early on in the game. If you pick Edelgard, you will teach the Black Eagles and side with the Empire upon the time skip later on in the game. If you pick Dimitri, you will teach the Blue Lions and side with the Kingdom. And, of course, picking Claude results in teaching the Golden Deer and siding with the Alliance.

However, unlike with Fates, making this decision will have a major impact on how the story is being told. Each route has a different ending, and along the way a different plot that ties to the overall narrative of the game. It is only through playing all four routes—the three presented by the choice of house leader as well as the Church Route in which you choose the Black Eagles but later turn your back on Edelgard—that you are able to fully grasp the story. For example, picking Dimitri will result in a focus on Dimitri’s character growth and saving the Kingdom from the Edelgard’s army, whereas picking Edelgard will result in exposing the Church for its crimes against Fodlan and killing the archbishop, Rhea, who turns out to be a dragon. Each route has its own unique perspective of what goes on within the game’s universe, and it’s through this game that Nintendo has managed to redeem itself from the fiasco that was Fates.

Most notable about Three Houses is the lack of a Golden Route where everyone gets to live and have a happy ending. This adds to the weight of the player’s decision-making at the start of the game: no matter which side you pick, someone is going to die, and there is no story in which everyone gets to live and see Fodlan finally achieve peace. It’s a true reflection of reality, especially considering the way this theme is also tied to the theme of war. Every choice matters, and people may or may not die based on your choices. This makes the narrative much more tragic and interesting, creating that flavor that Fates lacked. Actual stakes are introduced with this concept whereas before it didn’t truly matter what happened in Conquest or Birthright because of the existence of Revelations. You wouldn’t even have to play the full story of either game to get access to the Golden Route: just play either copy up until Chapter 6, purchase Revelations, and pick that route. Bam! Happy ending achieved. This doesn’t exist within Three Houses, so your decision genuinely counts along with a few other, smaller choices within the game. For instance, if you pick the Blue Lions but don’t complete the side mission for Dedue—Dimitri’s vassal— before you reach Chapter 11 of the game, he dies during the time skip and you never see him again.

So it’s easy to see how Three Houses is a massive improvement from Fates in terms of execution of themes. Not only does the lack of a Golden Route make the story more interesting as well as create a sense of realism, but the differences between the routes genuinely reflect the idea of consequence of choice. While Three Houses may have its own set of problems, the way Nintendo took their ideas from their previous games and tweaked them to build a better story certainly isn’t one of them.