Fire Emblem: Three Houses was a big leap forward for the franchise when it launched last year on Nintendo Switch, with grander stories, more characters, and a fully realized hub world. But not everyone has forgotten the series’ golden days on the Game Boy Advance.
Dethraxx and the Three Houses Demake dev team aren’t just re-imagining Three Houses in GBA style; they’re remaking it.
The project started a few months back, with a mock-up of the Prologue battle and dialogue in GBA style. In December, the team took it further and re-created the entirety of Chapter 1 in the Blue Lions’ route, including the scenes in Garrag Mach Monastery and the opening mock battle.
The game’s log shows the team is at Chapter 5 as of now. Just the few videos made so far show the progress made with the Monastery, which no longer uses the “all units have moved, end phase” structure to let you move around.
However, the team is still in need of more animators and hasn’t quite included all the character models yet, which I suspect is why Annette is a purple-bearded man in the Mock Battle video above.
Still, it’s a clever project. The team recycled character models from Sacred Stones (some of which are, themselves, recycles from Blazing Blade), so we’ve got Dimitri built on Ephraim, Byleth from Eirika/Eliwood, and Lorenz is Amelia the knight-in-training (d’awww).
In addition to showing off even more changes, battle sequences, and improved models, the most recent video shows just how well the game’s epic soundtrack translates into bit-tunes — which is to say, really, really well.
For now, the Demake dev team doesn’t plan on releasing a ROM until the final product is finished, but there’s talk of a Part 1 demo when they’re able to make it happen. Though it’s hard to complain when Nintendo protects its IPs and shuts fan projects down, here’s hoping this one stays alive as long as possible.
The team posts regular updates on Discord, so you can follow along there. Stay tuned to GameSkinny as well, as we track the Fire Emblem: Three Houses demake evolution.
