Vid below highlighting shit that may have been missed by casual onlookers. I think it's actually pretty good grounded speculation. I'd actually say that it might sort of be good enough to be approaching spoiler territory if you're good at extrapolating storyline narratives based off of scant info lol.
So it seems like it's very likely this is a sequel instead of a prequel, with at least three characters being confirmed to have crests of previous characters with one of them (guy pictured with the sword) having the most clear connection to three houses with his sword, appearance, and in-game abilities tying him directly to one of the story's previous characters.
What has me excited the most is the very distinct direction the story is going with how it seems to aiming for expanding the 3 houses world from Irishy heavy with kraut-roman seasoning worldbuilding to seemingly a more direct connection to Roman and Carthaginian / North African influinced worldbuilding. It's really making me hope the writers not only go out of their comfort zone of only making euro-japanese fantasy games into the wider grand world but also really stick the landing and breath new life into the genre alltogether.
Also I'm super fucking curious about why there's a gun in fire emblem now. Personally I'm betting on Agarthians but who the hell knows, its a whole new world now.
Hopefully this one dumps the social simulation stuff
I like the social sim stuff, it gives a chance for characters that aren't essential to the main storyline time to be developed and gain additional depth that they normally wouldn't have.
Fine if it’s light and there is no main character you play as.
Three Houses with its weird high school dating sim-esque stuff is just yuk.