I've had a rough two months. I don't know when I teach again. I'm concerned about my family's safety. But I did get some rest from playing Fire Cone: Three houses, sometimes late into the night. I have a backlog of games to play, but I can't put it off Fire Cone down, in large part because I know better. The guarantee of victory is soothing at a time when everything else is cold.
Fire Cone: Three houses it was meant to be a long play. As a new professor at the Garreg Mach Monastery (think Hogwarts, but it is a little shy and contains a sword), he prefers to lead one of three student housing: the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions, or the Golden Deer. Each house has a different student body (although you can find members in other houses later). Each house has a different story: The Black Eagles have “Crimson Flower,” the Blue Lions have “Azure Moon,” and Golden Deer has “Verdant Wind.” And there's a final, fourth way in which you declare your allegiance to the Church of Seiros (which is similar to the Ministry of Magic) called "Silver Snow."
In conversation with JeuxVideo Prior to the game's release, the game's director Toshiyuki Kasukihara said that each method would be in agreement take about 80 hours. Made with four, that's 320 hours of game. As a player and hit all four routes, Kasukihara was not exaggerating.
For the first round, I hit "Crimson Flower" at normal difficulty (50 hours). After that I hit the "Azure Moon" in great difficulty (80 hours). "Verdant Wind" in severe difficulty followed shortly after (80 hours). Each time I started a new way, I carried my accumulation progress into a new compilation game, which allowed me to roll my Renown (a currency to buy advanced skills) from pre-game savings.
By the end of "Verdant Wind," almost all the characters have been enabled, and I decided to start the fourth and final "Silver Snow" route in the greater difficulty, called Maddening. I had heard how impossible that would be, but I thought that the combined statistics from the previous three games would be enough to defeat you.
I could, but with great difficulty. I actually had to restart the "Silver Snow" route in between; so many of my actors die, which creates a win-win situation. It took me five nights in a row to win the final level of the path, and even in victory, five characters died in the attempt.
“Snow Snow” took me 100 hours to complete, including a reboot. When I finished the route the New York City Department of Education announced that my school was closing because of COVID-19 issues, and that I would be teaching my students for a whole year. My wife, who works for the NYC Department of Health, will also work remotely. My five-year-old son, enrolled in kindergarten, would study at home.
While there was some chaos, I went back to Fire Cone: Three houses. I started the new game five again, but instead of playing the Maddening difficulty, I turned things around to Normal. Combined with my accumulated Renown, it was a very different experience than my last made.
Fire Cone it was a game of dividing the gaps and inserting the characters, using units with heavy weapons while the torch was blowing away and the healers were always on the lookout for everything. It was about putting characters at the end of one turn so they would be in the buff buff zone with the next impact. It was about using a map swap to limit the movement of an opponent and forcing a conflict to occur on my terms.
The sin was more serious. If you have improved the position of protected foes, you better remove it alternately. There is a character named Lysithea, for example, which is a glass of cannabis – a high side effect but very low health. Using him is important in overcoming some of the most difficult enemies, but you must support him with multiple units to protect him from defending and blocking infantry. The game is designed so that no single unit can run.
But in my recent play, that is no more. I recruited every student and teacher I could attend to my team, and I used my accumulated Renown from four games to train all 36 characters to become cold, independent killers.
How do I do this? The first opportunity I got, I used Renown to increase my Profession; which has enabled me to teach longer, carry out daily tasks, and improve my students' skills faster. I've used my entire Renown area to unlock advanced spells and Combat Art, many of which were generally unavailable until the last game.
I also used my personal information. After hundreds of hours in the game, I know what plants I need to grow in the garden to enhance my defense, my charm, or any other "non-" balancing character. I know how to save my fishing money for the “Fistfuls of Fish” calendar days, when you catch a lot of fish with one carcass or insect worm. You can trade in those fish for thousands of Renown in the Abyss (DLC map area), or Gold, which can be used to boost your weapons for maximum effectiveness.
The combined diversity, of playing the game in a less complicated environment with excellent skills – makes the whole war unite in one voice. Forget space and strategy. Only one of my characters – not even Flayn, a toddler, or Anna, a local salesman – can take the whole enemy army with him without backup or support.
My game has become what it never was to become a reality-power dream. It sounds good to get to the level that gave me bad dreams in the previous play and I see it by driving one character in the middle of the map. I like to register 300 damage to 29 HP enemies. I like to see a monster 20 times bigger than my melting character with the power of one punch.
The enemy AI doesn't really know how to react to a character that is 20 times more powerful than it should be. On another occasion, I killed Die Knight (one of the most prominent family destinations) in a row. In the next turn, the remaining enemies continued to talk about the Kn Knight as if on the map. It seems that the developers were not counted on the possibility that such a powerful enemy could be destroyed very quickly.
As news battles are easier now, I do my own challenges. I only rate the healers. I finished the whole level with the weakest character on my list. I finished the map with no damage. I forget at the top of the ladder of skill that has run out of dunes.
At a time when life is challenging, I want no obstacle to overcome. I am looking for an obstacle that I can break in between – a constant, regular response to the small victories of the day. I don't think Fire Cone: Three houses the only game like this. But it turns out to be a game that has been providing little psychological comfort, in the right place and at the right time.
