Considering the similarity I will be posting here the info I gathered about Eiyuu Senki GOLD:
The
official website is up and, at least for now, it's accessible without Japanese IP. The release date is 31 of January, 2014. Pre orders start at October 13, 2013.
It will be a new story but most of the characters from the first game will be returning. From some screenshots on a previous teaser site looks like there may be items dropped in battle, and you may be able to merge items to get better ones. Different from first one this will have actual routes.
On the front page there is 3 new characters. The front-most girl with purple hair and a black samurai armor is Date Masamune, and she is the main girl this time around. The one in the back with blond hair and a dog on her lap is Marie Antoinette. The other new one is a twintail blonde girl on center. The Japanese yankee like girl between Arthur and Drake seems to be Ashoka wearing japanese clothes.
On the character page there is only a few you can select but on the background you can see lots of characters and a few silhouettes. The visible characters are Date Masamune plus all the playable characters from the first game with the exception of the ones designed by guests artists (Faust, Charlemagne, Diogenes, Archimedes, Galileo, Copernicus, Cambyses II, Magoroku Kanemoto, and Uesugi Kenshin).
I can see at least 16 silhouettes. Some of the guest designed characters seems to be between them (I can recognize at least Archimedes, Copernicus, Magoroku, and Diogenes silhouettes). Also between them there should be the two other new girls from the front page. One silhouette seems to be Sasaki Kojirou, a new character on the PS3 version of the first game.
I made this image to compare. That 14 girl is one they posted a sketch long ago but have yet to give us more info since.
I also was wondering whether that blond new character isn't
Pedro I considering the clothes and that her position on the character page is near the America characters.