In Fire Emblem: Awakening, players will have several different kinds of soldiers at their disposal. More than fifty of them, to be more exact. These range from petty archers and mages to powerful Falcon Knights and shape-shifting Manaketes. Players will have to strengthen the lesser soldiers through battling and honing their skills. Once they become strong enough, they can change into a much stronger unit, but players will have a degree of choice here.

Each soldier can evolve into one of two powerful new units. 

An archer can evolve into a bow knight or a sniper. A fighter can change into a warrior or a hero. There are several dozen different options. Siliconera has the full class tree, along with screens of each individual class, so you should swing by there for the full scoop. It isn't clear exactly how changing forms will work, though I think it's safe to assume that some amount of leveling up will be required.

I don't ever remember there being this much variety in any of the past Fire Emblem games. So far this title is shaping up to be the best in the series by a long shot. Awakening will be available in Japan on April 19th and in Europe sometime this year.