Some Fire Emblem: Three Houses spoilers follow
Last year, I posted an entry about Reunion at Dawn, which I consider Fire Emblem: Three Houses' worst mission. Now, I will look at its counterpart on Crimson Flower, which makes for a better introduction to the post-timeskip War Phase of the story.
Story
On the Crimson Flower route, Edelgard succeeds in defeating Rhea, who transforms into her Immaculate One form when pressed far enough. Byleth falls unconscious and is thought dead, but Edelgard succeeds in taking the monastery and uses it as a base for the Imperial army.
Five years later, Byleth returns to the monastery, despite the villager's warnings that it's in the hands of the Imperial army (one would think Byleth would mention that s/he is part of the army), and has an emotional reunion with Edelgard there. They then proceed to invade the Alliance in order to end the war, and the first step is capturing the Great Bridge of Myrddin.
That's certainly an audacious step for Edelgard, not to mention good for the story. The other routes begin with you retaking Garreg Mach from the bandits, after which you have to fend off an enemy attack almost immediately(which is largely similar to Chapter 12), meet with reinforcements in Ailell, and then cross the Great Bridge of Myrddin from the opposite side. While some complain about Crimson Flower's brevity, it gets to the good parts more quickly than the other routes do.
Gameplay
One of the key differences between Beyond Escape and Reunion at Dawn is at the start. Unlike Reunion at Dawn, in which you're limited to Byleth and Dimitri, Claude or Seteth, and reinforcements from your house gradually pour in from each corner, you can choose where to field your units- at the west end of the bridge or the area to the north of the bridge- and can choose who you want to field. You aren't limited to Black Eagles units, but can also use units from other houses, as well as Jeritza if you downloaded the update- the only requirements are that you field Edelgard and Byleth.
Speaking of pre-mission preparations, you will have a single free day to prepare for the mission, albeit with no instruction time. This isn't much, but it's better than being thrown into Reunion at Dawn with no chance to prepare, which can, in a worst-case scenario, softlock your game if you're unable to win with your current forces.
You are almost immediately faced with a group of units, some of which are in range of a few of your units on the west end of the bridge, so you'll have to proceed carefully. Before long, reinforcements will arrive at the northern starting point, as well as the northeast end of the bridge, so you'll have to be ready for them. Unlike some reinforcements that come under vague circumstances, it's easier to understand what causes these reinforcements to spawn, so you're less likely to be unpleasantly surprised.
Perhaps the best part of Beyond Escape from a narrative standpoint is the fact that the first post-timeskip mission on Crimson Flower immediately has you face a life-or-death battle against two students you saw all the time in the monastery- Ignatz and Leonie. On Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, you will first face Ashe in Ailell in Chapter 15, and in Azure Moon, you won't face any students until you encounter Lorenz and Ferdinand on that route's version of the Great Bridge of Myrddin in Chapter 16.
Ignatz is guarding Judith, and Leonie arrives with the reinforcements north of your starting locations, and since the former is an archer and the latter is a mounted unit, you'll likely have to deal with them sooner or later. These two not only are challenging enemies, especially Leonie(who once got up to 100 Hit and Crit on Maddening when pitted against Ferdinand, meaning she'd have killed him instantly if he hadn't attacked first and killed her), but the fact that you will likely be forced to kill them helps set the dark tone of the War Phase earlier on. This can be avoided by recruiting both of them, but it is unlikely that first-time players will have managed to do so; the only students I recruited out of my house on my first playthrough were Sylvain and Felix, the former of whom will agree to join a female Byleth's house regardless of her statistics, skills, or level.
As such, when you deplete Ignatz and/or Leonie's HP, they will fall in battle, with their deaths treated with the same gravity as any unit you lose on Classic, but with a significant difference. If you lose a unit on Classic, you can use Divine Pulse to undo their deaths, or failing that, restart the mission. If you kill one of the enemy characters, you must accept their death as a cost of the war, and press on to claim victory for Edelgard and her empire.
Once Ignatz and Leonie(or their replacements) are defeated, Judith begins to flee, like Pallardo in Reunion at Dawn, and the mission fails if she escapes. Some suggest that the player should be penalized in the following mission for failing the objective, but I personally think it's reasonable enough to expect the player to intercept Judith. While Judith is hardly memorable as a boss, defeating a hero of the Alliance is a better way to start off the War Phase than defeating an insignificant bandit.
Conclusion
While Crimson Flower is by far the shortest of the Part 2 routes- six chapters, as opposed to Silver Snow's nine and the other two's ten- it's better paced than the rest. Rather than spending time retaking Garreg Mach, you immediately proceed to fighting the Alliance and facing off against former students, which makes for a more entertaining start to the War Phase. The mission is also better designed than Reunion at Dawn, giving you more tactical options and having fewer nasty surprises in store for you while still increasing the difficulty from the already challenging previous mission. Crimson Flower is in many ways the highest quality and most consistent route in Three Houses, and it demonstrates its strength well by getting off to a good start in its opening mission.
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