while waiting for future hacks by them you could check out their other avaible hacks
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This FE hack is great, I really like the custom colors and designs🙂
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Hello there, just finished it and created an account to write a review.
So, where should I start? The E3 trailer. Its deliberately retro style (I guess the opening four fragments serve the same purpose) and visuals perfectly in sync with the music’s rhythm are brilliant, and the final recommendation and packaging had me chuckling.
Next, naturally, is the art. At first, I was slightly perplexed by these portraits, because their style is unique. However, as I progressed through the game, I realized they complemented the overall design perfectly — or rather, that the style ought to be this way. Moreover, they have new portraits after being promoted! Another amazing thing was the redesigned experience bar. Based on the story, I think it’s the shape of a flame? Yet I can’t help thinking of petals… The combat animations are exceptionally smooth, making it a pity to skip them. The circular composition of the ice dragon and fire dragon reminds me of the Taiji diagram.
Then there’s the music. I’m unfamiliar with most of the sources, but I’m particularly fond of the music for the belief-related scenes (No. 42 in the sound room), which sounds dreamy. Nos. 65 and 66 are also great.
And the plot. The narrative effectively drove me forward, keeping me hooked until the end. Almost always. That’s quite reasonable, after all, DoW is my favorite hack.
Chapter-By-Chapter brief review, fragmented, contains spoilers
I use s/l because I’m not a good player. And I tend to use the initial units, as I believe there are no truly poor units, which clearly caused some trouble later.
During the game, I shared the story with my classmate, Lai. Below are some snippets of our conversation.
Prologue. A suspenseful opening. It appears this story is set in the southern hemisphere.
Ch 1. I’d played DoW, so I was quite nervous at the beginning. But soon I found that it was much gentler.
Lai: Bronwyn seems like a character who’ll grow into her role. Oh yeah!
Ch 2. Its difficulty level is appropriate for the story. I’d played DoW, so I had some theories about Esper.
Ch 3. Still not too much pressure. I began to fancy myself as an improving FE player.
Ch 4. A little stressful. I nearly lost Ludolf, but RNG suddenly produced a good result.
Ch 5. S/L several times to get a team capable of dealing with the reinforcements above. Killed the boss at the eighth turn.
Ch 6. Progress was a little slow in the central part of the map. I finished it just at the last turn.
Ch 7. I recruited all Loyalists and let them all dead, my bad.
Ch 8. I used two extra turns to defeat the boss to give Per exp. But he didn’t grow much.
Ch 9. The AI of many enemies is ‘guard’, as the plot implied. Somehow, I forgot about the village in the top right. Killing militiamen brings no experience; as the narrative demonstrates, it is a senseless slaughter…
Ch 10. The illusion of becoming better at FE was shattered. I reset, giving up the secondary objective.
Ch 11. A wrong strategy resulted in the inability to obtain the chest and Merry survived. But between virtual items and virtual lives, I would always choose the latter.
Ch 12. I’d loaded several times in the earlier turns, searching for a route that would keep Anghara safe.
Ch 13. I didn’t quite get the target. But killing them all must be the right thing to do. Support implies a lot 
Ch 14. I played rather aggressively because I was concerned about the safety of the left wing. This ended up a dangerous state, but I still managed to overcome it. Though most of them won’t be joining the team, keeping them alive made me feel well. I imagine Bronwyn feels the same.
Too late to discover that some units could move across mountains.
Spending several turns attempting to gain some exp for the healer, if only I’d known…
Ch 15. Another gentle chapter. The sacrifice of green units shall not be forgotten.
Lai: So, the advisor departed? A bit sad.
I: If she surrendered, would you dare to use her?
Lai: …
Lai: Nope.
Alas, a crisis of confidence.
Ch 16. Defeated the boss at the ninth turn. I thought his reinforcements would be numerous.
Ch 17. The calm before the storm. The longer, rapidly vanishing scroll effectively set the mood, and the relatively cheerful plot (more blood and fewer holes 
) made me feel even more uneasy. Btw, I’d been wondering whose perspective the opening scroll represents, as it clearly carries an emotional bias and knows too much.
Ch 18. The storm. 13 turns. During the enemy’s turn, the last few foes overwhelmed Anghara. The sudden change in the music and emotionless brief description before (or after?) each turn were absolutely brilliant. I could feel Parrhesia truly showing his skills.
“So f-- far… from home”, this reminds me of DoW.
The atmosphere of this chapter fits a performance that switch between day and night, in my opinion.
There is much to be said about this chapter, but if I were to sum up my feelings in a single sentence, it would be this: “那雪正下得紧”. (Yeah, I used Chinese because it’s a quotation.)
Ch 19. Dryche’s Mov. If I give her Fleet Spirit, does that count as a cure
Ch 20. Colorful skeletons, fitting for their former identities, great.
Ch 21. I played cautiously, then in the final turn, discovered just one tile away from the village at the top. Reset angrily. Played aggressively, visited every village, but still missing the boss on the far left.
Ch 22. I like the color scheme of those wyvern riders. Using swap to reposition the dancer, I let Bronwyn kill the warchief on the turn she appears.
I’d played DoW (long time no say), so… don’t drink unless get some salt first…
Ch 23. Exciting romantic scenes!
Really?
I: Classic character setup and storyline. Too classic…
Lai: So do I.
I: Let’s forget about it. At the very least… her right of succession cannot be denied.
Lai: Yeah…
A crisis of confidence, not targeted at that guy.
Go back to the map. The pressure from the Pegasus knight and enemies near the sniper was intense, then was just mopping up.
I find this tower rather ominous; I suggest demolishing it after the war
Ch 24. Given the plot, I thought there would be a turn limit. I attempted to break the walls, but the swarm of enemies made me feel threatened, so I ultimately chose to play it safe. This chapter somewhat recalls Ch 14 of DoW, though this time the enemy numbers are more restrained. (Though I really love DoW, Ch 14 made me sick from killing too many.)
I gradually found that Heroic Struggle is perfectly suited to the Christmas cavs, particularly given LaL’s plot.
Ch 25. The description of ‘immortality’ unsettled me, but thankfully I soon realized this chapter was time-limited.
Bits and pieces, a few spoilers
This is the first time I’ve seen the NQR logo. Bunny and… Mustela? Indeed, not rodents.
In the turn count, Ch 19 and 20 are listed as ‘final’ 
Ludolf was the only one who still alive when Anghara was defeated. Thus, he disappeared in the ending part. I guess he was vaporised.
Bronwyn, I know you don’t want to be seen as your grandmother, but, could you please increase your Res a little 
In short， with its well-balanced difficulty curve, harmonious and neat art style, and compelling plot, Homecoming is undoubtedly one of the finest hacks I’ve completed (though I haven’t played many). Thank you very much for your work.
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Thank you for playing, glad you enjoyed!
Yeah, the exp bar is designed after a flame. There’s some limitations of what I can do due to needing it to work with repeating tiles, but glad you noticed!
你也是中国人？
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I realised that I had intended to add a sentence after the quotation: ‘If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.’ Too sleepy last night…
所以答案是……是的，我是中国人，土生土长 (◦˙▽˙◦)
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What else can I say, I loved this hack. The chapters were great, the story was fantastic, Luminescent Blade’s visuals were drop dead gorgeous (as always). It’s just peak old-school GBAFE, like DoW and Dream of Five. All I can say is I’m thankful y’all brought these works into existence because they were a joy to play through.
I want to specifically shout out new recruits being playable out of the box, even if you have a pretty stacked party. Made it a lot more palatable for me to bronze-man through the game.
I also want to say that the villains in this game are probably the best of NQR’s hackrom trilogy. I was both eager to knock them down while also pitying them as I did so. The Brand death scenemade me tear up, and that’s despite him being objectively despicable! The main antagonist was also phenomenal. I loved how his past mimics that of your typical FE lord, and his less-than-noble actions being direct consequences of what he experienced there. Kind of like what Marth could end up like if he wasn’t basically perfect.
In terms of unit showcases, my team was pretty standard. Lots of pegasus knights because I love fliers (and the ones in this game are kind of cracked). I will give a special shoutout to this game’s “Est”, for being a very satisfying zero-to-hero while also having the payoff of a hilarious ending reveal.
TL;DR, this hack is amazing, and everyone who worked on this is talented beyond measure.
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