The teaser footage begins with an epic battle, not dissimilar to the opening of Fire Emblem: Awakening.

In it, there appear to be at least two opposing factions–the first one seems to have Eastern theme, wielding curved blades, while the other has a Western theme, with Roman-style helmets and skull-themed armour.

But the most striking feature of the battle is the gigantic monster, which appears towards the end.

This creature has a face that resembles the Mouth of Truth, a famous Italian relic.

Moreover, later in the teaser, a knight can be seen battling an ogre-like monster, so it’s possible monsters will make a return from Gaiden and The Sacred Stones.

Just as we leave the battle, we get a fairly clear view at the flags of the opposing forces. The white flag, with a circle and cross motif, seems to belong to the Eastern faction, while the black flag likely belongs to the Western faction.

In a later battle, you can see the same flags on opposing sides of a bridge, so apparently the two factions are going to war yet again.

Why do we say “again”? Well, as the view of the epic battle fades out, it becomes obvious that it was a battle in the past–there’s a painting depicting the very battle.

Less obviously, a monarch-like figure is seen sitting in front of the painting, although you’d need the eyes of a hawk to see him.

Next, we come to the second striking feature of the teaser: the mysterious blue-haired dancer. This is probably a coincidence, but her design is totally a fusion of Awakening’s Olivia and Blazing Sword’s Ninian–and they’re all dancers too!

More interestingly, this new dancer features heavily in the teaser and curiously sports an alternative costume later on. Chance of plot relevance: High.

Additionally, there’s a blue-haired character on the field who could be her too. Note the white dress with the slits.

After all the cutscenes, we get some actual game footage, beginning in some kind of interior.

The character attacking is named Kazahana and she’s wielding an Iron Katana–a weapon not seen in the series before. In fact, there are many other weapons like this later on.

But of particular interest is the weapon triangle–apparently Swords are now good against Bows. Perhaps all melee weapons have an advantage against Bows? Or maybe the advantage depends on the attack range (so Bows would be good against Swords when used from afar.).

Also, the enemy she’s facing is dubbed a “Dark Night” soldier.

Next up is an outdoor battle, where two opposing armies seem to be fighting between a bridge. As soon as this part begins, there’s another split-second moment when the cursor hovers over another named character: Rinka (possibly Linca). This character is wielding a Bronze Mace and could be a new female Axe user.

Oh and Pair Up is back–the icon appears when the cursor is exactly on top of Rinka (I sadly missed the frame, but you can see it further down the page).

As for the part you can clearly see, there’s a Pegasus Knight named Hinoka who’s wielding an Iron Naginata (a Lance for weapon triangle purposes). Again, she’s fighting a “Dark Night” soldier, so clearly you’ll be fighting these guys a fair amount.

The battles take a short break and we get to see some dialogue.

The first scene is important for a variety of reasons. First, you’ve got a new character: Felicia the maid. Also, if you stare closely, there is actually another maid to the left.

This next bit is speculative, but the first-person viewpoint could suggest the return of a player-insert character, i.e. an Avatar. For reference, this viewpoint was also used in Blazing Sword and Awakening for scenes involving the Tactician.

Whatever the context, Felicia is trying to wake up “Lord Kamui” (could be “Lady Kamui” too, but the name screams male to me). Hmm… didn’t Lyn and Chrom try to wake up the Tactician too?

Then we have a rough-looking bandit guy, Ganz, apparently bad-talking the prince on the left. The fact the prince doesn’t get a chance to speak in the trailer seems a tad suspicious.

Nevermind that; observe the prince’s map sprite. Notice the silver hair. Now go back to the previous battle map. You can see the same map sprite with dark hair. Hmmm… That’s not even the strangest part.

After the teaser, Iwata shows an extra scene, which shows off Kamui in battle.

Once the battle ends, you can see the map sprite, which is clearly a female version of the prince’s map sprite. Now Kamui and the prince could be twins, but then you have two versions of the prince.

Put one and two together and it seems very likely that Kamui in the final battle and the prince are the same character–an Avatar.

If Kamui is the Avatar, perhaps he/she is a Lord and not a Tactician like in earlier titles. This is supported by the fact he/she has an unique-looking sword, the Yatogami or “Night Blade God”. The weapon’s name also suggests a possible link to the “Dark Night” faction.

For the last dialogue scene, we have Marx the magnificent horseback knight. He may not be a throwaway character either as he appears in the final cutscenes brandishing a giant sword. He’s also the same character stabbing an ogre with a glowing-red sword.

Apparently he’s a bit distressed at something his father is doing. This is mere speculation, but perhaps his father is the monarch sitting in front of the painting and Marx is the prince of the one of the warring factions? Presumably the Western one, since he’s seen clashing swords with an Eastern-style swordsman later on.

Then it’s some more battles in quick succession, beginning with the prince. Besides his acrobatic skills, check out the unique shape of his sword–the way it has prongs near the handle and at the bottom. In the post-teaser footage, Kamui can be seen with the same sword.

After that, we have scenes showing off the return of the Dual System. In the Dual Guard scene, is that a Soldier/Halberdier or just a redesigned Knight taking the brunt of an enemy attack?

The scene showing the Dual Strike has two similar characters with two very different weapons. The first character attacks with magic cast by a ring of talismans or cards, while the support character seems to use a mace. Perhaps both characters belong to a new Axe and Magic-wielding class?

Then we’ve got Marx showing off against an ogre, but we already discussed that.

After this, we have a screen covered by darkness, which then clears to show a bountiful fantasy land, complete with magical floating islands. However this beautiful landscape soon becomes enveloped in darkness once more.

In another split-second moment, which I missed but GameXplain picked up on, you can just about make out somebody’s skirt or robe as the scene transitions from Marx fighting the ogre to the floating islands. The knot seems vaguely eastern in design, but right now it’s difficult to pin down who it belongs to.

Amidst the darkness, the blue-haired dancer is shown falling underwater with a dragon above her. This dragon slowly materialises into a human figure, all the while holding onto her neck (er, strangling her?).

Now this is wild speculation, but maybe the dragon is you–the Avatar. After all, you don’t get a clear view of the human figure and you never got a good look at the Avatar in Awakening. But then again, there could be many other reasons for that.

Also notice how the dancer’s pendant is glowing bright blue. In fact, what’s the deal with the pendant? It seems a bit more substantial than your usual trinket. Could it be this game’s Fire Emblem or something even more bizarre?

To end the teaser, we have an epic sword fight between Marx and an Eastern swordsman. At the same time, the blue-haired dancer is struggling in the background. Maybe Marx and the swordsman are the representatives of the two factions and the dancer is the key that links them.

That’s all the visual analysis, but there’s slightly more. Iwata remarks how players have always made small choices in the games; this time around, players will make “even bigger choices and the effects of these choices on the world will be greater than ever”.

Plus the game itself is called Fire Emblem “if” in Japan. At this stage, it’s almost impossible to guess what these “choices” are and what influence they’ll have, but it’s likely they’ll be more substantial than not.

This is just my wishful thinking, but it’d nice if there were branched paths in the game. Possibly like the route branching in Thracia 776 and Binding Blade, but more intricate.

Iwata finishes by stating the game will “include brand new challenges, the like of which have never been in the series up until now”. Again, this information is interesting, but totally vague. Are these “challenges” part of the main game or some kind of side activity? Only time will tell…