This mock battle during the first half of the game lets all houses of Garreg Mach monastery test their mettle against each other in a massive three-way fight. Your task is to defeat as many enemies as possible and take out the other two house leaders before they accomplish the same thing. If you haven’t played the other routes before, this might be your first chance to see the other houses’ students in action and see if you want to recruit them! Afterward, everyone celebrates with a feast in the dining hall. So sweet!

Directly after the timeskip on the Blue Lions route, main character Byleth wakes up from their five-year coma and hurries to the abandoned Garreg Mach to find none other than Dimitri waiting for them. He’s haggard and hell-bent on revenge, so he pulls Byleth into a battle where the two of them fight off some thieves skulking around the grounds. Initially, you feel that there’s no way you can kill so many enemies with just two units, but one by one, the other Blue Lions return to the battlefield to keep their promise of returning for the Millennium Festival. The story doesn’t just tell you that you’re ecstatic to have them back – you feel it in the gameplay as well!

Dedue’s paralogue has you allying with Kingdom forces to subdue rebels from Duscur, but your real objective is to defeat the rebels and send them away before the murderous Kingdom soldiers can kill them. The hilly terrain makes it incredibly difficult to save all of the Duscur citizens, but if you can at least get to their leader, Dedue convinces him to leave and the conflict dissipates. Later on, the Duscur people show their support by saving Dedue from execution during the timeskip, so it’s imperative that you complete this paralogue if you want him to live!

The final chapter of Verdant Wind (the Golden Deer route) brings Three Houses’ lore to the forefront when King Nemesis and his ten elites march towards the monastery on a quest for vengeance. You’ve only ever heard about these historical figures in stories before now, but here they are in front of you with death in their eyes! You must defeat Lamine to dispel the magical swamp and Odessa to stop the Divine Beast reinforcements, as well as take down the other elites to break Nemesis’ defenses and kill him once and for all. It’s a thrilling end to this lore-filled route and one of the best final bosses in the game!

However, one battle manages to top even “Fodlan’s New Dawn”; “To the End of a Dream”, the final fight of Crimson Flower (Edelgard’s route). With Rhea’s true identity exposed and her forces dwindling, she orders Catherine to set fire to the city of Fhirdiad so your army can’t seize it. You must charge your way through the burning capitol, taking out the last of the church and Kingdom’s soldiers until you reach Rhea and establish your dominance once and for all. It’s heart-rending to kill the people you once called friends and co-workers just because they’re on the opposite side of a national conflict, and it hits even harder because they’re following orders from a madwoman who’s blinded by rage. But, if you emerge victorious, you’ll finally unite Fodlan and dispense of the discriminatory Crest system for good.