When it comes to Engage Emblem Fire, you have the option to choose between Classic or Casual mode and three different difficulties. You might be wondering which difficulty level you should choose, especially if you want to compare it to the difficulty levels of the previous Fire Emblem games.
Once more, in the Classic mode of the story, if a character is unable to battle and gets permanently wounded or dies, they will not be able to return to combat in any subsequent battles. However, in the Casual mode, characters will survive and be able to return to combat in the next battle. The outcome of what happens to a character is determined by the options available in both Classic and Casual modes.
Given the numerous optional battles in the game, this has the potential to be quite bothersome. If you exhaust all your Draconic Time Crystal turn resets, you may find yourself having to replay a lengthy chapter. On the downside, it discourages the reckless deployment of units as a valid strategy and forces you to think more carefully about your actions. The primary advantage of Classic mode is that both options, depending on your level of difficulty, can be feasible.
If you don’t want to try or retry with a higher level of difficulty where your favorite characters are at risk of losing, there is a great option in Fire Emblem called Casual. Engage in Fire Emblem Casual, which removes a lot of the inherent frustration from previous Fire Emblem games. It allows you to continue onwards without the longer version of the story where a character dies. Additionally, it also removes the variation in the character’s story caused by death, but it prevents you from retrying if a favored or useful character dies.
If you’re new to Fire Emblem, there’s no reason to not choose Casual and save Classic for a second playthrough.
Playing Fire Emblem since Normal difficulty is the most fun when you don’t have to constantly retry. If you’re unsure about how the game works or if you want to undo your mistakes, there’s also a mode with unlimited turn rewinds. This is a great option if you’re not confident in your strategic abilities or if you have no idea what you’re doing. However, Normal difficulty will still test the skills of new players. But if you feel like the game is too challenging, there is now a lower difficulty option added in recent games. By the end of the game, you’ll realize that many of the maps can be a joke if your characters grow powerful enough. Just like in Three Houses, you can easily brute force your way through the first dozen maps on Normal difficulty.
This pairing may be worth it, but it’s also a challenge for those with a wide tolerance for minor mistakes. As long as you have an idea about positioning and the triangle weapon, and don’t bring characters that are underleveled, you’ll be fine. It’s not so difficult that you have to retry over and over, but it’s still a possibility to have a character die on any map. The difficulty of the series is most analogous to the standard difficulty, and Hard is a better option if you’re experienced with previous Fire Emblem turn-based strategy games.
If you’re not experienced with Emblem Fire, even attempting Maddening can be a brutal challenge. It’s not worth it if you’re not prepared to give close attention to every detail about the skills and equipment of each enemy and the potentially deadly prospect of attacking them. Maddening difficulty in Three Houses, as well as previous Fire Emblem games, makes it feel like all the usual rules of Fire Emblem have been turned up to an annoyingly intense level.
This is a nice quality of change-of-life, so if you need to reset your console and start the whole game again, Three Houses is a great option. It is fairly generous on Hard difficulty, using a maximum of 10 upgrades like in Three Houses. However, it doesn’t seem like there is any way to upgrade the number of uses. It has 10 battles per battle and unlimited uses on Normal difficulty. During a battle, you can rewind a limited number of times using the Pulse Divine, also known as the Draconic Time Crystal.
Those who have a lot of patience often find it frustrating, while experienced players who enjoy a challenge can appreciate the good variety of options available to learn the game on Normal mode. Since Fire Emblem Awakening, the series has been similar in how it allows new players to engage in a range of difficulty options, and Three Houses is almost identical in that regard. Overall, it’s a maddeningly enjoyable game.