Today is a momentous day; having struck midnight in Japan, Fire Emblem Fates is now officially released! Woohoo! Throws confetti everywhere.

With that little bit of excitement comes some more excitement courtesy of Polygon who recently got in touch with Nintendo about two key issues.

Firstly, we’ve suspected this for ages, but Nintendo has now come out and confirmed that Fire Emblem Fates will be releasing as two separate versions in North America (and presumably Europe).

“Fire Emblem Fates comes in two different versions, called the Conquest and Birthright editions. In the U.S., Conquest and Birthright will both be sold separately, as is already the case in Japan.”

Before anyone gets too upset, recall that in Japan, players who purchase one game can purchase the second game for a discounted price (which will hopefully follow here). Additionally, each game by itself contains as much content as Awakening.

Secondly and rather unexpectedly, Nintendo also revealed that the game includes same-sex marriage.

There are a few caveats though: this is only possible for the Avatar and if he/she forges a S Rank relationship with a male character in the Nohr campaign (Zero, pictured above) or a female character in the Hoshido campaign (Syalla).

These two characters can both be acquired in the 3rd campaign too (which releases in the middle of July in Japan), but at most you can only have one same-sex S Rank per campaign.

Other same-sex characters can instead achieve an A+ Rank at most (with the exception of the Avatar), which is still a slight improvement over previous titles in the series (and many of Nintendo’s own developed titles).

In other news, I’m currently furiously working to compile as much Fire Emblem Fates information as possible following its release. However, I am one man with limited time, so I ask for your patience.

If you’re not already there, don’t forget that you can find out a lot more information as it’s discovered on our forums!