As reported earlier, the Japanese official site opened not long after the Nintendo Direct.

Right now, the site is just one page, but there are a lot of interesting things lurking within.

To begin with, here’s a blurb of the general story, loosely translated by me.

At the heart of this world is a conflict between the peace-loving kingdom of Hoshido and the glory-seeking kingdom of Nohr. As the strained relationship between the two nations reaches its critical point, a large-scaled conflict breaks out.

The protagonist was born in the Hoshidan royal family, but raised by the Nohrian royal family; he or she is faced with a great decision.

The keyword for this new Fire Emblem is “if”. With the conflict between Hoshido and Nohr as the backdrop, the player must make a choice of which nation to side with, resulting in two very contrasting stories with different events, battles and obtainable characters.

As some fans speculated, the last part explicitly states the characters you can recruit can vary depending on the choices that you make.

Then we have some key facts about the different versions of the game; in Japan at least, there are multiple versions. In particular, the main game itself is split into two versions: “Fire Emblem if Hoshido” and “Fire Emblem if Nohr”.

Which game you pick will mostly likely decide which nation your character decides to side with, as well as the underlying story.

Note: It is not yet known how the North American or European versions will be handled.

Fire Emblem if Hoshido

A story focusing on protecting your Hoshidan birthplace and royal siblings from the Nohrian invasion. Outside the main story, you can earn experience and funds and freely develop your characters.

Fire Emblem if Nohr

In this story, you work with your Nohrian royal siblings to revolutionise the unruly Nohr from the inside. Compared to Hoshido, the difficulty is higher, with limited opportunities to earn experience and funds.

Interestingly, Nintendo wasn’t lying when they said the Nohr path would be harder. It seems as if there will be a world map or some other facility in the Hoshido path that lets you level up characters outside of the story like in Awakening, The Sacred Stones and Gaiden. But not in the Nohr path.

Should you go down the digital route however, there is only one digital version of Fire Emblem if. During Chapter 6, you must choose which nation to side with–at that point, you will be permanently locked into the Hoshido or Nohr campaign

But what “if” you don’t want to choose? You can purchase the other campaign as DLC for a discounted price (2000 Yen with tax versus 4700 without tax).

Amusingly enough, the site stresses that each of the two versions (Hoshido and Nohr) contains a similar amount of content as the previous game, Awakening. So you won’t be paying for half a game at all, if you buy just one of the versions.

Finally and rather excitedly, there will be a special edition of the game, which includes both versions (Hoshido and Nohr) on an exclusive game card, the 3rd scenario DLC, a special artbook and limited edition Fire Emblem TCG card. All for 9250 Yen (without tax).

Hang on… more DLC? Yup, you can pay 2000 Yen with tax for a major DLC expansion, which follows a story where you don’t side with Hoshido or Nohr. This particular DLC will be made available at a later date.