The game features the refined gameplay the Fire Emblem franchise is known for. Command a party of warriors to move and fight on a grid-based battlefield and, for the first time in the series history, assign battalions of troops to support individual units in battle. As a professor, you are responsible for teaching your students and improving their skills in their academic lives and in battle. These may be school assignments, but the stakes are very real. Your students' lives depend on your leadership. It's up to you to guide each of them, so that they may wield a variety of weapons, master the study of magic, and acquire special skills such as horsemanship. But there's more to being a professor than commanding armies. Freely roam Garreg Mach Monastery and the academy within it, while interacting with talented students to build relationships and gather intel. After meeting one enigmatic girl named Sothis...you'll come to realize that she appears only within your mind. What other mysteries await?