History VideoGame / FireEmblemWarriorsThreeHopes

** Balthus' unique ability is that after 300 hits, he drops money. Not a flashy skill, but it makes him a good gold farmer, especially after it gets upgraded to activate with less hits. It can also be stacked with the Despoil ability, making him being able to farm even more gold.

** In Scarlet Blaze Chapter 11, Gustave is one of the primary targets for the mission. If you attack him normally, he'll die and you'll be forced to fight and kill Annette, but if you use the "Hidden Passages" strategy, you can go around Gustave and attempt to sneak your way to his brother, Baron Dominic. You'll still have to fight Annette, but when you deplete her HP, Gustave will rush to her defense and fight your army in her place, sparing her.

* BrilliantButLazy: Edelgard describes Linhardt with these exact words..
* BrutalBonusLevel: The paralogue "Eagles, Lions, and Deer", unlocked by [[spoiler:recruiting the Gatekeeper on your third playthrough,]] is the most difficult paralogue in the game, with an enemy level of ''80'' on Normal difficulty, and '''180''' on Maddening. Considering when you unlock this paralogue, Shez should not only be one of your best characters, your ideal build for them should be optimized, thus giving you the ultimate test of skill. Even still, it is a BossRush that pits Shez alone against all three of the Houses. The fifteen opponents:

** Also in the secret chapter, [[spoiler:the Lords must defeat phantoms of themselves and their retainers, Dedue, Hubert, and Hilda. Depending on Shez's support levels, though, one of those retainers may be the extra phantom summoned alongside phantom Shex; in that case, the retainers would be replaced by Felix, Ferdinand, or Lorenz, respectively. The wording of the lords' battle dialogue with the retainers is phrased in a way to suit either scenario]].

** Also in the secret chapter, [[spoiler:the Lords must defeat phantoms of themselves and their retainers, Dedue, Hubert, and Hilda. Depending on Shez's support levels,though, one of those retainers may be the extra phantom summoned alongside phantom Shex' in that case, the retainers would be replaced by Felix, Ferdinand, or Lorenz, respectively. The wording of the lords' battle dialogue with the retainers is phrased in a way to suit either scenario]].

** Also in the secret chapter, [[spoiler:the Lords must defeat phantoms of themselves and their retainers, Dedue, Hubert, and Hilda. Depending on Shez's support levels, those retainers may be allies, and the retainers you fight may instead be Felix, Ferdinand, or Lorenz, respectively. The wording of the lords' battle dialogue with the retainers is phrased in a way to suit either scenario]].

* CastFromLHitPoints: The Lifeforce skill, earned from the Mage class, increases the power behind offensive Combat Arts and Magic but takes HP in return with each use, regardless if you miss. Luckily, this doesn't count as a penalty towards the calculation for damage received post-battle, so as long as you're keeping an eye on your HP and topping off with healing, you won't have anything to worry about.

** One of the requirements to fulfill an S rank for a battle requires that you do not take too much damage beyond a certain threshold. Fortunately, this only applies to damage taken by the character you are currently controlling at the time; any damage taken by player units that are controlled by the AI at the time does not count, since you have no control over their ability to dodge or block an enemy's attack at will. The damage penalty also doesn't take damage incurred from the Lifeforce skill into account.

** Golden Wildfire: [[spoiler:With conflict in two thirds of Fódlan, the Almyran prince Shahid uses the opportunity to attack the Alliance, and Claude, his class, and Shamir request leave to repel that invasion. This gives Claude an earlier chance to show his worth to the other Alliance lords, causing him to develop a more negative view of the Alliance than in ''Three Houses''. Also, since he gets to spend very little time at Garreg Mach, he never gains an interest in unravelling the secrets of Fodlan and the Church of Seiros. He also has a more negative view of the Central Church since Byleth never replaces Rhea as Archbishop and believes he needs to get rid of it for Fódlan to change.]]

** Edelgard and [[spoiler:Claude]]'s vendettas with Rhea are less cut and dry this time around. In Crimson Flower, even if Edelgard's understanding of Rhea and the church is flawed, she is given plenty of motivation to take Rhea down as the latter descends into madness after Byleth chooses to side with the Empire against the Church, culminating in Rhea burning down her ally the Kingdom's capital in a last ditch attempt to kill Byleth. In ''Three Hopes'', Rhea fully retains her faculties, so her opponents are against her on a purely ideological basis. As a result Edelgard just wants to strip Rhea of power rather than kill her unless there's no choice. [[spoiler:Claude is in even a greyer position, as he takes a harsher stance against Rhea than in Verdant Wind where he actually ''sympathizes'' with her after learning about her past, even if he still disagrees with her policies. Claude in ''Three Hopes'' is the most aggressive about how Rhea needs to die for the sake of Fodlan even though he's operating on the same incomplete knowledge that Edelgard is, lacking any interest in finding any deeper truths.]]

This results in Shez — not Byleth — being the mercenary who happens to rescue the three House Leaders from being assassinated by bandits, after which they are recruited into the Officer's Academy as a student. This sparks a new chain of events that vastly changes the inevitable war between the three nations, while Shez builds their power to one day defeat the Ashen Demon.

This results in Shez - not Byleth - being the mercenary who happens to rescue the three House Leaders from being assassinated by bandits, after which they are recruited into the Officer's Academy as a student. This sparks a new chain of events that vastly changes the inevitable war between the three nations, while Shez builds their power to one day defeat the Ashen Demon.

* HealthyGreenHarmfulRed: The life meter for characters in your party is green, and turns yellow at the mid point, then red when near death. Green pots spread around the map contain healing tonics, which are green in colour as well. When a character is healed, the value will show up in a green number, compared to the white for damage, or yellow for a CriticalHit. Some abilities characters can get affect healing in some manner, and the icons for said abilities often have a green background.

* DecapitatedArmy: Discussed during expeditions with Dimitri if you ask about his preferred fighting style. He states that there's no greater art than charging the enemy lines single-handedly, taking out their commander, and ending the fighting in one fell swoop.

** She also uses this rationale to forgive [[spoiler:Count Gloucester's betrayal of the Empire, because as a popular lord it would cause more trouble than it's worth to execute him for his crime rather than to keep him as a vassal for the sake of stability.]]

** In ''Three Houses, one had to hold down the B (or Y) button for Byleth to run. In ''Three Hopes'', merely pressing the B button shifts Shez from walking to running and vice-versa - holding it will also trigger the shift, but it's unnecessary.

** Scarlet Blaze: [[spoiler:Both the Church of Seiros and Those Who Slither In The Dark are weakened by the disappearance of Rhea and Thales. As Edelgard wanted, Rhea isn't actually killed, and the Empire has negotiated peace with the Western Lords of Faerghus and most or all of Leicester. However to get there, the player does have to kill several otherwise sympathetic characters who do not surrender peacefully. In both endings the war with the Kingdom continues, with the only silver lining being that on the special ending, Claude and therefore the Alliance remain an ally with the implication their aid will ensure a much swifter victory.]]

** Scarlet Blaze: [[spoiler:Both the Church of Seiros and Those Who Slither In The Dark are weakened by the disappearance of Rhea and Thales. As Edelgard wanted, Rhea isn't actually killed, and the Empire has negotiated peace with the Western Lords of Faerghus and most or all of Leicester. However to get there, the player does have to kill several otherwise sympathetic characters who do not surrender peacefully. In both endings the war with the Kingdom continues, with the only silver lining being that on the special ending, Claude remains an ally.]]

** Finally, Thales is once again driven by revenge against the surviving Children of the Goddess for their kin forcing the Agarthans to retreat underground after Sothis wiped out their civilization, and seeks to undermine their legacy at every turn while attempting to take over Fódlan. [[spoiler:It's for this reason Rhea considers him in Scarlet Blaze a far greater threat than Edelgard after he reveals himself, as he's been doing this for ''a millenium at minimum'', and she knows neither her own kin nor Fódlan will ever be safe as long Thales and his group draw breath]].

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Going from ''Three Houses'' to ''Three Hopes'' will lead to a few of these, due to a few minor differences in control schemes.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: In ''Three Houses'', one had to hold down the B (or Y) button for Byleth to run. In ''Three Hopes'', merely pressing the B button shifts Shez from walking to running and vice-versa; holding it doesn't do anything.

** The Kingdom's elimination of violently rebellious factions sometimes involves collateral damage, something Dimitri feels can never be justified but that he must tell his people were correct and good decisions if he is to maintain their confidence. Dimitri's initial opposition to Edelgard is also not out of a moral opposition to her aims, but finding them to be too progressive for Faergus at the time, and noting supporting the Central Church is necessary to maintain his divine mandate as king.

** Regarding the Central Church, in the prologue, the first thing the Central Church (via Alois presumably enforcing guidelines he's been given) does is semi-force Shez to come back to the monastery to sign paperwork and get a reward/hush money so they can avoid losing face about the attack on the house leaders, with Shez at least believing things would get violent if they refused. Upon arrival this changes to offering Shez the whole year at the academy for free, with the implication they would not take no for an answer, effectively forcing them to stay if they wanted to stay in the church's good graces (though the church has no issue with Shez leaving the school to stay in their chosen lord's country even before the monastery closes). It's later revealed (as Seteth later explains in his supports) that the reason for this odd demand was that Rhea and Seteth were wary of Shez's dark powers and wanted to determine if they were a threat. On Azure Gleam a monk who worked with them for some time rebuffs the Empire's claim that the Central Church of Seiros is incredibly corrupt, noting they saw Archbishop Rhea and Seteth harshly punish anyone who was found to take bribes or engage in criminal behavior, but admits that if someone regards their judgment in such matters as corrupt then there is nothing they can do to change their minds. He then adds that the same reasoning applies to the Empire's judgments being potentially corrupt themselves. On Scarlet Blaze another Church of Seiros adherent seems to believe the Empire's claims about the Central Church simply because Edelgard claimed it to be so. The Central Church also targets the Southern Church's bishop (who they confirmed) for assassination before any open warfare takes place. On Golden Wildfire Claude supports claims that the Central Church is holding back society, though he has not fully convinced all of his allies. Players of ''Three Houses'' know this is factually correct, but most of the evidence for it is held by the Church in ways that wouldn't be readily available to Edelgard or Claude.

** One of the requirements to fulfill an S rank for a battle requires that you do not take too much damage beyond a certain threshold. Fortunately, this only applies to the character you are currently controlling; any damage sustained by player units that are controlled by the AI at the time does not count. The damage penalty also doesn't take damage incurred from the Lifeforce skill into account.

* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: After the prologue, the player is usually limited to deploying 4 units in non-mandatory and skirmish maps, while for a chapter's main mission, deployment slots are raised to 8 but with the catch that half of the selected units (the ones inside a diamond shaped icon) can't be directly controlled by the player and are limited to being given orders. In addition, Shez must be deployed in every main mission.

* Several support conversatons were added for characters who were linked in the story or background of ''Three Houses'', but didn't have a support, such as Edelgard and Jeritza, Ashe and Yuri, and Petra and Constance. This also includes supports for characters who shared a paralogue - Caspar and Mercedes, Ferdinand and Lysithea, and Linhardt and Leonie.

* RouteBoss: [[spoiler:Edelgard, Hubert and Jeritza are only fought on one route in this game, that being Azure Gleam, which is a stark contrast to how it was in ''Three Houses'', where they were fought on every route that wasn't Crimson Flower.]]

** If the player accomplishes specific objectives, [[spoiler:Jeralt avoids dying from either an Agarthan mole or Shez themself, and instead joins Shez's side alongside his offspring Byleth]]. In the Scarlet Blaze and Azure Gleam routes, respectively, doing this will also prevent the deaths of [[spoiler:Randolph]] and [[spoiler:Rodrigue]], both of whom die in every route of ''Three Houses'' and would have otherwise been killed by [[spoiler:Byleth immediately after Jeralt’s death]].