Fire Emblem: Three Houses devs on the weapon triangle, what Switch allows that wasn’t possible on 3DS, playtime length, amiibo support

With Toshiyuki Kusakihara and Genki Yokota appearing at Japan Expo, a few outlets have shared interviews with the Fire Emblem: Three Houses developers. Jeuxvideo was one site that was able to speak with them and commented on the future of the weapon triangle, taking full advantage of Switch, the amount of time to complete the game, and amiibo support.

Below are those excerpts, courtesy of Serenes Forest:

On the weapon triangle…

Yokota: The weapon triangle system hasn’t disappeared, it’s just less visible. Will we see it again in future games is difficult to say since we’re working on themes and game mechanics first before thinking about importing features in it. What we wanted to do in Three Houses is to give player freedom in tutoring their students, so that the player can give their favorites students whatever they want in weapons and skills. It helps the player identify with the team they’re raising.

On how the Switch’s hardware allowed for concepts that would have been impossible for the 3DS…

Kasukihara: Thanks to the improved technical capabilities and screen resolution over the Nintendo 3DS, we could add more visual elements. For example, the use of battalions that support each unit – this was not possible beforehand. That said, there is another perhaps surprising side effect from switching to Nintendo Switch. As there’s a full HD screen, it was nice that we could show more text, like putting the names of each combatant on the screen. In addition, as we have more space for text, we could add pages that delve into the backstories of the characters, to enrich the game’s lore.

On the amount of time to complete the game…

Kasukihara: To complete the game with just one of the three houses, it took me 80 hours. I did not skip the dialogue or cutscenes, of course. So if you want to do the three paths, it can take you more than 200 hours.

As one final note, Fire Emblem amiibo can be used to unlock music from their respective games to use in the auxiliary (optional) battles. Marth, Ike, Corrin, Lucina, Chrom, Alm, Celica, Tiki, Roy, and Robin figures will be supported.