As expected, this week’s Famitsu mainly covers the “My Castle” feature, which was introduced during the May 2015 Nintendo Direct last Sunday and, later, explained in depth in a dedicated trailer (an analysis can be found here, if you missed it).

It seems you go to Felicia to build or change things.

Besides details on My Castle, there are profiles for six new characters (one of whom technically isn’t new), but these were all leaked yesterday.

Now, you might be thinking there’s probably not much new then, but actually there are a lot of interesting new details–mostly for hardcore fans… which includes you, right?

The first new piece of information is that My Castle varies slightly depending on whether you’re playing the Hoshido or Nohr campaign. For starters, your castle in Hoshido is built on bountiful land, while in Nohr it’s on desolate land. Just like the countries themselves then.

As shown in the My Castle trailer, the buildings and structures you can build are slightly different too. In Hoshido, you can build yourself a fancy “Light Dragon Statue”, while in Nohr you can erect an ominous “Dark Dragon Statue” instead.

Luna is suspiciously standing near a Ruby-gathering area.

It’s not just the campaign that you’re playing that has an effect on things though. Each My Castle has one type of jewel/ore and one type of foodstuff as its “local specialty” and the type of local specialty depends on both the campaign and the player themselves.

In total, there are 12 types of jewel/ore and 10 types of foodstuff. From the looks of things, you’ll probably want a wide variety of specialties, not just your local two types.

While local specialties can be easily harvested, players will need some effort to acquire non-local ones, it seems. At the least, players can acquire other specialties by visiting other castles via StreetPass. Perhaps playable characters can occasionally find them too.

The bottom screen shows a map of My Castle.

Next, you may recall that “Dragon Vein Points” are required to build or upgrade buildings. These can be earned in StreetPass battles, but it’s suggested that they can be earned via normal, story battles too, which is good news for. players in remote areas.

Something I speculated about in the My Castle Analysis; the bottom screen while in My Castle shows there is a morning, day, sunset and night cycle. It may also be possible to change the name of your castle (the example shown is “Kamui’s Castle”).

Another theory confirmed: Depending on the playable character who’s managing a shop, the weapon type they’re proficient in will cheaper than usual. For example, if Harold the Fighter is manning the armoury, all axe weapons will be on sale.

You can build many things, from an armoury to a lottery shop.

Interestingly, players can build a Prison, although why you would do so is unclear. Perhaps this is related to the mysterious sequence when Hinoka is seen speaking with a generic Hoshidan spellcaster? Maybe you can capture enemies?

A minor observation: In one of the screenshots, there is a Freeze staff for sale in the Nohrian Vendor.

Unrelated to My Castle, apparently weapons now do 3 times damage if they’re effective against an unit (instead of multiplying the weapon’s Might like in previous games). For example, the Wyrmslayer against dragon-type units.

Note: The above may be a mistake by Famitsu, as in a previous issue, Tsubaki is shown receiving effective damage that isn’t a multiple of 3, suggesting the weapon’s Might (and not “damage”) is multiplied by 3.

More options will be unlocked as you progress the story…

Moving on, onto a facility that wasn’t properly introduced in the dedicated trailer: the Archives. Inside here, you can test the compatibility of your units, check your units’ profiles, re-watch animated movies, listen to music or view support conversations.

This time, there are two types of compatibility tests. The first one is the same as in Awakening, where it gauges the two character’s opinion of each other. Meanwhile, the second test gives a numerical score for the two characters.

Like in Awakening, the compatibility test has no bearing on the actual game and is solely meant for fun.

“Charred” food tastes better than it sounds.

Next, onto the Canteen, where players can use foodstuff to create dishes for their army. As some fans guessed, the playable character who runs the canteen will have an effect on the dishes.

In Famitsu’s example, players attempt to order a “Charred” Onigiri from Rinka. Normally, this dish provides a Defence +1 bonus for the duration of a chapter, but this is modified by the “Charred” property.

This could be mistaken for a completely different game.

Finally, we have confirmation that Nishiki the Fox Spirit transforms to attack, in a similar manner to Kamui. The screenshot provided shows both characters in animal form and ready to do battle. From the sound of things, Nishiki is weak to beast-slaying weapons.

That’s everything I’ve spotted so far, but if you want to check out Famitsu’s feature for yourself, Kirokan has kindly translated it here. Don’t forget to check out the discussions on our forums too!