Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the longest RPG that I ever played. I must have put in at least 400 hours over the past five years. It’s one of the greatest SRPG’s of all time, but I’m willing to bet there’s some people who were spooked out of playing it after hearing it could take months to beat. But how long will it really take you to beat the game?
Fortunately, the game isn’t a single 300 hour experience. That’s the beauty of having three houses and four distinct routes. Each one serves as its own game, you can play one route and then move on to the next game without playing the others. You’ll still get a full story experience, and subsequent playthroughs will be easier and quicker if you choose to do them.
Each route is broken into two parts. The first part is basically the same across all routes, with just the characters and dialogue being different. The second part is where the story becomes completely different and becomes a different game entirely. On average, it will take you around 40 hours to beat one route. If you play on a harder difficulty or do extra content, you can push 45 to 50 hours.
Every subsequent playthrough can be quicker if you skip the dialogue and story stuff for the first part. You can also spend renown to speed up supports, recruits, and training. This can speed up playthroughs to the point where subsequent playthroughs can be completed in as quickly as 20 to 25 hours. But if you want to focus on all the new characters and dialogue, you could spend the full 40 hours on each new playthrough.
Doing the bare minimum for one route will cost you around 40 hours. Doing the bare minimum for all the routes will take you between 95 and 120 hours. Doing the full experience for each route will take you between 160 and 200 hours. Completionists and those looking for harder challenges will push upwards of 200 hours.