The Fire Emblem: Three Houses Review-athon Part 2: Verdant Wind (+ Silver Snow)

Before we start, I want to take one more moment to mourn the passing of the late, great Billy Kametz. As Ferdinand von Aegir in Three Houses, Dr. Maruki in Persona 5 Royal, many other prominent roles in video games and animation, and an incredible person to those who knew him in real life, I am deeply saddened that he passed away at such a young age. At the same time, I’m incredibly grateful that the time he had was spent enriching the lives of countless people.

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Ladies and gents, welcome to the second in a trilogy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses blog posts! As the release of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is just around the corner, I wanted to take time reflect on the good, the bad, and a humble hope for the upcoming Warriors-themed spin-off. As such, expect MAJOR SPOILERS and subjective perspectives ahead!

After talking about Azure Moon last week, I’ll be taking this week to talk about Verdant Wind (and Silver Snow). Expect Crimson Flower to be the topic for next week’s blog post!

Without further ado, let’s begin!

Are you from House Riegan? Because I Derdriu to come up with a better pun than this. (Source)

The Plot (and Lord)

Verdant Wind is a curious case because although the narrative is adjusted to accommodate for Claude and the Golden Deer students, the vast majority of its structure is shared with Silver Snow. Aside from having two different final levels and Verdant wind having a Gronder Field level, an extra twist to its Fort Merceus level, and Claude’s paralogue, the two have the same levels in the same order. As a result, it doesn’t feel right to talk about one without bringing up the other, but make no mistake: the main focus will be on Claude and Verdant Wind.

The way Verdant Wind’s story plays out is fairly straightforward. After dealing with Solon, Kronya, and the Flame Emperor’s plot in White Clouds, you spend the war phase of the game waging a counter-offensive against the Adrestian Empire, culminating in the decisive defeat of Edelgard. In the aftermath, you deal with Those Who Slither in the Dark on their home turf before facing off against a surprise threat in the form of a resurrected Nemesis—a fitting foe for the final battle on a route centered around confronting Fódlan’s dark past and laying it to rest.

Adding healthy spice to the narrative is Verdant Wind’s lord figure, Claude. On top of being just generally charming, he also informs the narrative with all sorts of pointed questions regarding Fódlan history, and the player character’s mysterious powers and connection to the Goddess. As someone who played Azure Moon first, it was refreshing to see all the things that weren’t addressed on that route, but Claude’s habit of emphasizing and inquiring about those details helps make you feel like there’s much more to Fódlan than meets the eye as you navigate through the world and learn more about it, making the massive lore bomb that’s given to you shortly before the route’s conclusion feel all the more rewarding.

The reason for Claude’s inquisitive habits, however, seem to be rooted in his mission to change the hearts and minds of the people of Fódlan to be more understanding and accepting of outsiders. It’s heavily implied—though not revealed outright until the character ending cards—that Claude is an Almyran, his father being the king and his mother a Fódlan-born noble. Recognizing prejudice from both sides of Fódlan’s Locket, he wants to build a world where everyone is treated equally regardless of who they are or where they come from. While not a victim of such circumstances myself, I’m familiar with the strife that can come from being mixed-race or having mixed-race relationships through my own friends, and I commend Intelligent Systems for weaving this aspect into the narrative so tastefully.

Even though I like Claude as a character, one thing about Verdant Wind that ends up disappointing me is how he is effectively a secondary character on his own route. If I’m being honest, not being the biggest focus on his own route inadvertently fits Claude as a character, but I’d love to see more happen with him beyond his usual slew of observations and the occasional tease as to who he really is. Support Conversations ensure that he isn’t missing any character development, but I wish there was just a little more to him in the main story. Maybe someone who disagrees with this take can help me better see what I may be missing.

I also can’t help but pin this shortcoming on Verdant Wind being a Clauded-out version of Silver Snow, which is significantly more focused on the player character and his relationship with Archbishop Rhea (heck, there’s even the same cutscene about making the symbol of their army the Crest of Flames). I’ll elaborate more on that later, but for now, it’s something that I can’t help but consider as a reason.

The Cast

Compared to Azure Moon, whose students have strong, direct connections to the events that unfold during its story, the Golden Deer students don’t have much uniting them aside from being in the same class and part of the same faction. The sole exception would seem to be Lysithea, whose past as a guinea pig for blood experiments ties into the ultimate confrontation with the Agarthans, but the rest of the cast are not much else but a solid batch of representatives for the Leicester Alliance’s looser, more diverse structure. Lorenz, Hilda, and Marianne provide occasional insights on Leicester’s political happenings, with Hilda’s Goneril blood providing an avenue to explore the constant skirmishes and resulting prejudices against Almyra. Leonie casts a little more light on Jeralt as a character, but otherwise shares with Ignatz and Raphael the role of representing the lives of Leicester’s common populace.

This isn’t to call them unessential or useless to the story; in fact, I’d say that, as a cast, they are some of the most fun characters in the story to watch interact and learn more about. I’m just saying that if the Blue Lions are more like a group of close childhood friends, then the Golden Deer are the colorful class full of attracting opposites and lovable personalities.

Where these characters really go above and beyond, in my opinion, is in their paralogues. These optional levels provide much-needed opportunities to explore Leicester and highlight these characters in ways the main story isn’t able to. Whether they’re shedding light on the troubles plaguing Alliance merchants, murky politics, or even lost and forbidden pockets of knowledge and history about the Saints and a certain cursed beast, the amount of world building achieved here are a true prize for folks like me who get as invested in a game’s setting as I do.

That, I suppose, best describes the strengths and weaknesses of Verdant Wind as a whole: while hardly unique in terms of the narrative, the unique things it does provide, be they optional missions or the way Claude and friends flavor certain details and aspects, do great work painting a picture of the intricacies of Fódlan.

A Snow-Silver Lining

Alright, now to briefly tackle Silver Snow.

Compared to Verdant Wind, Silver Snow feels much more like a personal narrative and, in my opinion, feels like the most proper continuation to the events of White Clouds of all the routes. In every non-Crimson Flower route, Byleth and other characters aligned with the Church of Seiros first and foremost point out that saving Rhea is just as important as ending the war. While Azure Moon forgoes prioritizing this aspect for the sake of Dimitri’s development and his relationship with Edelgard, and Verdant Wind uses Rhea as more of source of information into the full truth of Fódlan, Silver Snow makes sure to shed light on what Rhea really means to the nature and existence of the player character. This results in a story that feels tighter overall compared to Verdant Wind, which stows more intimate elements for side content in order to make the focus of the main plot about changing Fódlan.

In place of Claude, we get Seteth and Flayn, who provide even more emphasis on Rhea and her mysteries thanks to their personal connections as fellow Nabateans. While they aren’t nearly as openly charismatic as Claude, they are still great characters, trading raw whimsy for elegance and refinement.

To tell you the truth, I can’t say with confidence which route I think is better. On one hand, Silver Snow just feels more like a proper Fire Emblem narrative, but Verdant Wind is riveting for all the unique world-building it does. While I can’t choose a favorite, I suppose I can be happy to say that they’re both good in their own ways.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I would describe Verdant Wind as “auxiliary.” Not only do its strengths lie in parts of the game that the player character has to seek out for themselves (which isn’t a problem because of how fun it can be to go looking for them), but the main plot itself does wonders in informing the character on otherwise auxiliary aspects of the game’s world—the kind that make diving into and dissecting it all the more gratifying.

Even if you’re not super into that kind of world-building, Verdant Wind is also just plain good fun. Claude is a fun partner for the player character and the Golden Deer students offer a slew of fun and funny banter and commentary wherever they appear. Whether you’re a lore junkie or just looking for a good time, you’ll find both here.

A Three Hopes Hope

Well, this is awkward… this section was originally designed to be speculative, but thanks to the Three Hopes demo being made available on the 8th (which I recommend trying out if you’re hellbent on holding off until the official launch), I have more than just guesses and impressions to work off of now.

Originally, I was going to talk about how while Verdant Wind used paralogues to great effect, the lack of significant attention on it otherwise makes the player character feel isolated from the faction that they chose. Adding salt to this wound is how there are so many characters we are told about who are key figures in Fódlan’s political landscape who never end up being more than names mentioned in conversations (Holst, Count Gloucester, Adrestia’s six Noble Houses, and pretty much every other noble head on the continent). While what we do learn about them is fascinating in its own right, the fact that they don’t so much as show up for a single scene makes the otherwise well-constructed Fódlan feel half-baked in key areas.

In light of these opinions, I was going to say that my second Three Hopes hope would have been that we’d get to see more of Fódlan, putting faces to well-known names and making us feel like we’re a part of our chose faction. However, in light of the four chapters per route we got to play in the demo, I’m extremely optimistic that this hope is going to be fulfilled in earnest. Without getting too deep into Three Hopes early-game spoilers, the game sacrifices much of the “academy” phase of the game and takes advantage of pacing so breakneck that I ended up with IRL neck pains after playing to give Three Hopes’s player character a proper place in their chosen faction.

With only four chapters to go off of, though, there’s still a lot that is yet to be seen, and my positive first impressions could easily be undermined as I play on. Still, the demo has made me extremely optimistic, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the full game.

…And with that, we close the book on Verdant Wind. All that’s left to do now is cover Crimson Flower next week before we’re done with this little Review-athon series. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you’ll tune in next week!