It took long enough, but on 31st May, following the oddly-timed Nintendo Direct, Nintendo revamped the official site, adding in a lot of details revealed in prior issues of Famitsu, plus a couple of things we didn’t know.

To start with, the front page has been compacted, with all the key details from the teaser site moved to the “About” page. Also, a piece of soothing background music plays while you’re navigating the site.

For your convenience, if you like the music, you can download it here! (You need to right click and press “Save as…”)

As you may have guessed, the “About” section explains the basics of Fire Emblem if, from the choice you make that divides the storyline in two and how it physically works, as two separate versions in Japan.

The details here are exactly the same as before, just with some slightly different pictures (that we’ve seen before), so I won’t repeat them.

The one new piece of text explains that the player takes on the role of the main character via the Avatar character and how his/her choice of which country to fight for will cause the story to diverge.

So nothing new, still, but it helps to fill in a gap in the teaser site.

If you stare hard though, you may notice the background of the Hoshido and Nohr versions being the game’s world map (duplicated).

It’s difficult to tell much because of the lack of visibility, but if I had to guess, perhaps Hoshido is situated to the east and Nohr to the west, with the giant mountain range in the middle separating the two nations.

In fact, there’s a weird “bridge” of sorts, around halfway up the mountain that could be the dark, suspension bridge map. But is that really the countries’ borders? Whereabouts is the river bridge map where the fateful choice is made?

Another curious observation: only a portion of the world map is shown. Now, it’s entirely possible there’s more to the map and they simply cut it this way for the purpose of the graphic.

But what if there’s a similar situation to Tellius, where only a few of the countries are visited, with the rest of the land just there to create the illusion of a larger continent?

The second page details the game’s “Systems“, starting from the very basics, such as the flow of the game, from movement of characters, to battles and then cycling around until you beat the mission.

Between missions, players can utilise “My Castle” to prepare for future battles. Additionally, the site suggests using the different terrain, weaponry, classes and even bonds to enhance your strategy.

Next, the site briefly explains the new Dragon Vein feature, which you probably know by now. This ability is possessed by the Avatar and royal family members and allows them to alter the battle terrain at certain points.

After this, some more basics every fan should know (but newcomers may not). Characters can gain experience from battles, to increase their Level and eventually Class Change to drastically boost their stats.

Then, another new feature, although again something already discussed in Famitsu: Attack Stance and Guard Stance.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Attack Stance triggers when fighting adjacent to allies, with the adjacent ally chipping in during the battle with a follow-up attack.

Meanwhile, Guard Stance triggers when pairing up two units on the map, with the rear unit boosting the front unit’s stats. In this stance, when the shield gauge is full, the rear unit will completely shield an enemy attack.

Here’s something new though that was hinted earlier: In Guard Stance, enemy Attack Stances are automatically negated.

Moving on, we’re treated to explanations of the difficulties and game modes. Which I’m sure most people know by now, so I’ll stop here.

However, here’s something new: Phoenix Mode can only be selected if you’re playing on Normal Mode. So people complaining about Phoenix Mode potentially wrecking game balance will have less to be angered about.

Getting towards the end now, we have details about My Castle, the player’s base of operations.

Because My Castle is such a large and significant part of the game, there’s a link to the My Castle trailer, which spends 9:45 minutes explaining its key features. All of this covered in the My Castle Analysis.

At the bottom is some basic details about the Amiibo support. By scanning in an Amiibo of Marth, Ike, Robin or Lucina (using a new 3DS or 3DS Amiibo adapter), that character will appear in My Castle.

Upon arrival, players can interact with the heroic character, via conversations or battle. If victorious, players can recruit the hero to their team as well.

Rather nicely, Marth and Ike have new portraits designed by Yusuke Kozaki, to fit in better with the style of Fire Emblem if.

(Meanwhile, Robin and Lucina’s portraits are unchanged, which isn’t that odd since Awakening and if share the same character style.)

Finally, the “Characters” page naturally details the characters–mostly characters we’ve been introduced to in Famitsu, but there are quite a few new faces as well. Like Awakening’s official site, you can enjoy two voice samples for each character too.

Note: Detailed profiles will be added to the Characters page soon.

To begin with, the most notable “new” character is Mikoto, the queen of Hoshido and the Avatar’s birth mother. She is the elegant woman who appears in the Hoshido portion of the second trailer.

After her husband (and presumably the Avatar’s father), King Sumeragi meets an untimely death, she ascends the throne.

The other “new” Hoshido character is Orochi the Spellcaster, seen in the first trailer casting ice magic. She sells expensive spells at the royal castle and exudes an old-fashioned aura, like Say’ri in Awakening.

On the Nohr side, we have a profile for King Garon, who’s unsurprisingly suspicious of others and lustful for power. His ambitions prompt him to invade Hoshido.

Along with Mikoto, Garon does not have a listed class, while the other playable characters do. Whether this is simply “spoiler protection” or the two characters are story NPCs is anyone’s guess.

For “new” Nohrain characters, there’s Nyx the Dark Mage, a youthful-looking, but apparently incredibly mature sorceress who spends her days as a fortune-teller.

Next, an actual new character: Charlotte the busty Fighter who appears in the May 2015 Nintendo Direct, managing a Nohrian armoury.

Despite her demure appearance, Charlotte is actually a ferocious gold-digger who uses her good looks and “kind nature” to bend foolish men to her will. Yikes!

After crazy Charlotte is her colleague, the rather menacing-looking Benoit. Again, looks can be deceptive and Benoit is, at heart, a nice guy who’s thoughtful of his companions.

Below the Hoshidan and Nohrian characters are all the known characters that are common to both campaigns: Gunter, Felicia, Joker, Suzukaze and Cyrus.

This form of categorisation further suggests the Hoshidan four royal siblings are Hoshido-exclusive recruits and a similar situation for the Nohrian royal siblings.