Continued from Part 1.

The rest of the trailer details the gameplay, which I’m sure most of you have been looking forward to!

Despite all the controversy and changes, this is still a Fire Emblem game.

Before a map (and once the option is available), you can pick your units, alter their starting positions on the map, inventory, view support conversations, modify skills or save your progress.

Basically, the same options as in Awakening.

The units available here are all Hoshidan regulars, although there are some unknown characters in the form of Setsuna the female Bowman, Asama the male Priest(?) and Mozume the female lance-wielder.

In the bottom-right corner is the odd one out–Crimson the Wyvern Rider. Presumably she is a Nohrian unit who joins in both campaigns, like Cyrus, Felicia, Joker and Gunter.

After making preparations, the battle begins for real. Nothing here should be new for anybody who’s played Fire Emblem. In the example, the player selects the Avatar and moves him southward to fight an enemy Lancer.

That said, during this motion, if you quickly glance to the bottom-left, there is a red exclamation mark symbol above the Lancer boss.

Why is there a symbol above the boss, when there’s already a “shield” icon to indicate the unit is a boss and the mission objective is to rout the enemies?

You may notice the battle map is the same as the map where you choose between Hoshido or Nohr. However the enemies here are “Thieves”, suggesting this is an optional battle.

The next battle is between Zero and a Hoshidan Pegasus Warrior. This particular example is meant to showcase the weapon triangle and effective weapons. Plus Zero’s sadistic nature.

In the background, there are also enemy Oni on board the ship.

That’s it for basic 1 on 1 battles. The next one has the Avatar teaming up with Camilla to thwart a Hoshidan Samurai.

Note that the pre-battle scene here uses the “simple” display, where the battle information is greatly simplified. This was present in Awakening too.

Following on, we’re told how the team up attacks properly work in this game, beginning in a snow map where multiple Nosferatu are roaming the grounds.

If a unit attacks an enemy with a friendly unit adjacent to them, the two units will adopt an “Attack Stance”.

Besides the main unit receiving a boost to their combat stats, after they’ve attacked the enemy, the adjacent friendly unit will automatically chip in with a follow-up attack.

We see the same thing occur with Aqua and Takumi wasting an enemy Ninja. This would also be the first time we properly see Aqua fight in battle (and clearly she doesn’t know how to not swing a lance…).

Takumi meanwhile definitely has a special bow, with its glowing bowstring and his ability to conjure arrows from nowhere. Perhaps he has some kind of magic bow as some fans guessed?

In case you missed it, enemies can use Attack Stance too. Here, Oboro is receiving backup from Hinata as she faces off against a Cavalier backed up by a Knight.

As expected, even in these 2 versus 2 battles, only the main units receive damage, not the support units.

Besides Attack Stance, units can utilise a second stance: Guard Stance. This is done by making a unit combine into another unit, in an identical manner to Awakening’s Pair Up command.

The two units will then act as one, with the unit that initiated the command becoming the other unit’s support unit and boosting that unit’s base stats.

Of note, the stat boosts are similar in amplitude to Awakening’s, although the Great Knight now provides Strength +2 and Defence +4 instead of +3 to both.

In Guard Stance, follow-up attacks are not possible, but when the shield gauge is full, the support unit will completely negate one enemy attack.

As the above example shows, Guard Stance also passively negates enemy follow-up attacks (regardless of the shield gauge). Handy for dealing with large groups of enemies.

The other way to turn the tides of battle is the new Dragon Vein ability, possessed by the Avatar, Aqua and eight royal siblings.

At certain points on the map (indicated by a glowing wisp), the users of Dragon Vein can alter the terrain, such as by creating a rock bridge between two cliffs in the above example.

During the middle of Dragon Vein, a symbol of a mythological creature appears for a brief moment. When the Avatar uses it, we see a dragon-like creature, while Camilla in the next scene seems to summon a phoenix.

Speaking of the next scene, Camilla shows Leon how to wield Dragon Vein, using its power to dry the river around the bridges.

This scene seems to occur around the time of the fated choice, as Ryouma and Marx can be seen locked in battle, while Nohr and Hoshidan forces are fighting on both sides.

In fact, if you pause to check the units, you can clearly see Harold, Elfie, Nyx and Belka on Nohr’s side and Saizou on Hoshido’s side.

With the general gameplay explained, the trailer moves onto Fire Emblem’s more “delicate” gameplay, involving your irreplaceable allies and how to strengthen the bonds between them.

The first dialogue scene has a new character, Mozume deciding to join the Avatar’s forces. From her humble appearance and map sprite, she could be a female Villager, like Donnel from Awakening.

If so, this could be a very dangerous chapter for her, since there are Nosferatu in the background (in the bottom-right corner)…

The next dialogue shows Nishiki the Fox Spirit conversing with Aqua–the same scene as in his Famitsu introduction.

Fans have noted how the backdrop seems relatively modern by Fire Emblem standards, with its advanced lighting (or a lot of candles).

After this are scenes showing Harold the unlucky, grinning hero of justice and Luna the Severa lookalike.

That’s the characters themselves; now for the characters’ classes. This time, the game boasts over 60 classes.

Now that’s an astounding number of classes in its own right, but it shouldn’t be that surprising, considering Hoshido and Nohr each have their own classes.

In fact, you can count at least 29 known or implied classes from before this trailer.

The classes we’re introduced to are Lancer (above), Pegasus Warrior, Bowman and… Garou (below).

From its name and what we can see, it can be inferred that Garou is a Nohrian shape-shifter class that transforms into wolves to attack. Kind of like a werewolf.

This would serves as a neat parallel to Hoshido’s shape-shifting Fox Spirit as well.

Actually, after that initial shock, there is one more class: the Dark Mage. Although the class itself is nothing new, the character shown (a pale-haired female) isn’t one we’ve seen yet.

Next is some basic details on Level Up and Class Change.

Again nothing new here. Characters gain experience and Level Up, increasing their stats. Then once they reach a high enough Level, they can promote to an advanced class.

However, the Class Change example shown is new. Here, Kagerou the female Ninja promotes to a new Puppeteer that rides a controllable puppet mount. Whoa.

Then a very brief segment on building support relationships. Like in Awakening, when two compatible units fight together, they will gain support points (indicated by heart icons on the map).

By improving support relationships, units can benefit from improved combat capabilities when their support partner is close by, such as increased critical hit ratios.

By the way, the critical hit cut-ins now show the character’s full portrait briefly, akin to how cut-ins worked in one of the earlier Awakening builds.

Almost at the end now! The final part covers My Castle. Seriously, there was a 7 minute trailer dedicated to this feature, so there’s not much new here.

The one new thing we learn is that you can bathe together with Ryouma in the Hot Spring. That’s… all you needed to know, right?

Actually that’s a lie: we learn it’s possible to receive My Castle visitors via the Internet and not just via StreetPass.

Whether the visitors you receive are based on friends you’ve registered with Friend Codes or just random players connected to the internet (or both) is currently unknown.

That’s all the formal explanations; the rest of the trailer is just a bunch of random scenes that lead rise to more questions than answers.

The first of these has the Avatar’s sword–the Yatogami–glowing bright white. Yup, clearly this is no normal sword, because normal swords don’t glow for no reason.

The third scene sees the party in a pickle as they are met by multiple Nosferatu. But it’s the scene afterwards that’s more interesting, as the Avatar blocks an incoming fireball with his sword.

Oddly, this sword isn’t his usual golden Yatogami, but a black, curved sword. Or is it actually the same sword, but transformed? The curved part at the bottom of the blade looks reminiscent of the Yatogami’s curved parts.

With barely a moment to breathe, we’re subject to a rather wondrous scene where the Avatar uses Dragon Vein to freeze the surrounding waters.

As you admire the pretty effects, note the enemy Maid to the left.

The poor Avatar won’t be able to breathe soon, as in the next scene, Garon orders Marx to carry out the Avatar’s execution. Thanks dad. Maybe this leads to the scene where Marx strikes down the Avatar?

More violence awaits in the following scene, where Leon casts a spell that causes wooden branches to blast the unsuspecting Suzukaze and Rinka out of the way.

In the same scene, the Avatar is carrying his curved black sword. However, the previous scene where he had the black sword was in the Hoshidan campaign, while this scene occurs in the Nohr path.

So while we don’t know the origins of this mysterious sword, we do know it’ll be present in both campaigns.

The tensions just don’t stop coming, as the Hoshidan forces flood into what may be the Nohrian capital.

What’s really cool is that this is the same place where Aqua was dancing for Garon in the initial trailer. You can even see the gondolas in the water around the stage.

Having admired the scenery, don’t forget to check out the enemy units. Besides the initial Oni at the front of the stage, another group consisting of two Bowmen, a Priestess and a promoted(?) Oni emerge from the gondolas.

To further emphasise Hoshido’s threat during the Nohrian campaign, the scene afterwards shows Ryouma leading the Hoshidan forces to attack.

Could it be that at one point in the game, the internal conflicts within Nohr weaken its defences and Hoshido gains the upper hand, invading it instead?

Still in Nohr, the Avatar and Lilith the Star Dragon appear to be faced with some kind of threat.

Finally, to end all the excitement, Marx lends the Avatar a hand with fighting an axe-wielder. Because why not?

The trailer then finishes by asking players again which side they will choose and, naturally, basic information for the (two versions of the) game.

Of course, for those of us in the West, we still don’t know how the separate campaigns will be implemented in our territories. Hopefully we’ll find out come E3…

As a final note, if you want to understand the trailer for yourself, shadowofchaos has kindly translated it in English here.

…And if you’ve noticed anything else, you can let me know on the forums!