Attack On Titan 3 Director Reveals Surprising Fire Emblem Inspiration

Attack On Titan 3 Was Surprisingly Inspired By Fire Emblem: Three Houses Published Oct 29, 2026, 11:00 PM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Sign in to your TheGamer account Attack on Titan 3 will be Koei Tecmo's third take on Hajime Isayama's legendary manga series. It will be the first title to tackle the anime's incredible Final Season, and it brings a raft of evolutions from the two games that came before it. Combat will be evolved, so will the story, and surprisingly, in a new interview with TheGamer, Attack on Titan 3's director, Hideo Suzuki, revealed that one element in particular was inspired by Nintendo's Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Fire Emblem: Three Houses Inspired One Segment Of Attack On Titan 3 Attack on Titan 3 will lean heavily into social relationships. You'll be able to form bonds with your fellow cadets by talking to them and giving them gifts. Your trust level with your comrades will grant different benefits, perks, and battle abilities, and once it reaches a certain level, players can participate in an Advice Event. Success in this event will deepen the relationship further, make the character playable, and they will unlock a special skill related to that comrade. It all sounds a little bit like Fire Emblem: Three Houses' Tea-Time mechanic, so I asked Suzuki if that was an inspiration, especially given the fact that Koei Tecmo helped to co-develop the Nintendo title. "Yes, absolutely. I personally know the development team behind Fire Emblem: Three Houses, because it was developed by Koei Tecmo. We were aware that its tea-time activities and conversations with characters had been very well received," he said. We were aware that its tea-time activities and conversations with characters had been very well received. "Those interactions appealed not only to fans of the series but also to people who weren't as familiar with it. We recognized that this was an effective way to engage players with characters, so we wanted to incorporate a similar approach into our own game. It was a very powerful and attractive device." This is absolutely an inspiration going into the game I'd have never expected. Our full interview with Hideo Suzuki will be live at 7 AM ET on October 30. You can read it here at TheGamer. And in the meantime, you can check out our thoughts after three hours with the title. Released December 10, 2026 ESRB Mature 17+ / Violence, Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Language Developer(s) Koei Tecmo Publisher(s) Koei Tecmo Prequel(s) Attack on Titan 2, Attack on Titan