There's no way you could make a Fire Emblem game like this now. You can make a hard Fire Emblem game, sure, but not one that is this scrappy and seat of your pants. There's no other Fire Emblem game like it. It's so busted. It's a ROM hack with the polish of an official product and therein lies it's charm.

The game has some of the absolute strongest map design in the series. The gameplay, story and map fusion is exceptionally strong. However, it can come at the cost of the chapters feeling reliant on gimmicks or pretty much requiring a warp skip to beat. Still, the gameplay lends itself to truly incredible moments and overall provides many ways to play and beat maps (even if you really gotta be capturing those warp staves and killing edges).

If there's one gripe I have about the game it is about how underutilized the cast feels. Some characters feel like they are introduced but aren't really given enough back story or time to shine. Unfortunately, some characters can also be basically disposable despite the fatigue mechanic.

Overall, I loved playing Thracia even if it would drive me mad with its difficultly. I can only pray for a remake that is able to polish and improve upon such a truly unique game and make it more accessible to modern audiences. In the mean time, you'll just have to play this any way you can.

Same turn reinforcements? Hate em
Fatigue system? Hated it
Saias' 10 Leadership Stars? Hated it
Losing units if Leif escapes first? Hated it
Reinforcement ballista? Hated em
Permanent status stave effects? Hated em
Fog of War's abyss of black? Hated it
Capturing instead of buying things? Hated it
Chapter 24x? DESPISED IT.
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But yeah Thracia 776 is one of the best Fire Emblem games to me personally, with deep mechanics, gameplay, and the best map design in the entire series.
Where the appeal of Fire Emblem is seeing how seamlessly story or cutscenes are incorporated in its gameplay and map designs this is it at its peak. With a plot that really makes you feel like you're on the losing side of a war that was already decided and you're only getting through by sheer smarts and perseverance with only your closest friends by your side along with any able-bodied soldier you can pick up along the way.
Everything is stacked against you, the game feels like it wants to put reinforcements on your flank to tell you you're taking too long? It'll do that.
Maps where your defensive position gets slowly compromised by crumbling walls and the enemy swarms in? It'll do that.
Entire third parties that are not part of the main conflict but will go against you because you seem like the easier pick-off? It'll do that.
Chapters where the enemy is just stacked with ballista, killer/master weapons, status staves, and have reinforcement spawns that ambush you? It'll do that.
This game despises you, it'll do everything it can to make you suffer if it can. But that's why it feels so rewarding when you overcome the BS this game throws at you and move on, along with getting a feeling of getting through only by the skin of your teeth, and you'll have to feel that way for most of the game.

Seeing new staples in the series such as the new mission objectives of "Escape" or "Defend" was fun and they were implemented pretty well in most chapters they appear in. The mechanic of rescuing and dropping was a godsend in this game and all games that came after it.

The plot is so well done in making you feel that this is not another Fire Emblem game where the main character succeeding makes everything right, Leif is only fighting to survive and eventually reclaim his homeland and even then he has to face against the might of an entire continent-wide empire if he wants to hold his position. The main villains in his story while big in personal conflict to him, are just footnotes in the grand scheme of the Jugdral storyline. (But still, they do make for an amazing cast of villains.)
This along with its incredibly dark tone of showcasing what the common people of Jugdral go through with the empire make for a game that shows the despair and bleakness that Jugdral has gone into. With child sacrificial rituals rampant, corrupt nobility and military leaders having control of the world, and any attempts of rebellion or uprising being crushed swiftly. (Hell a major plot point in the game is assisting a rebellion in a big city while its on its very last legs.)
But the best thing about this game is the amount of tools and power it gives to the player to overcome its difficulty.
Never would I have thought I would have 6 warp staves in my convoy and 4 meteor tomes I could use at my disposal anytime before this game along with a berserk stave for those extra-tight moments.
Held items that impact your units growth rates so certain stats can increase more, sometimes at a cost is a great idea.
Weapons that are unique to some characters to give them that special edge they need? You got it.
Manuals that you can use to customize your units with skills that would normally only be locked to certain characters? Sure, why not?
A mechanic where depending on the unit you use your crit chance is multiplied from 1-5x on their second attack if they have one? Absolutely.
Literal chance that your movement can take a second turn for free? Yes, go move em around some more.

The variety of the units this game gives you is so fun. To put it into a perspective, there are two units in this game:
One comes in from the first chapter with 0 skill and who's main appeal is to be your entry to capturing, since then he is well known to be one of the worst units in the army and debatably the entire series since he falls off quickly.
The other joins in extremely under-levelled at only an abysmal 1 skill, is a staff user with only base 3 magic who also uses healing staves, yet she is debated to be one of the best units based on her sheer potential for utility.

This game gives you the tools, and while sometimes it may feel like this may be the most unfair game, (And, admittedly some aspects are pure BS but we'll get to that later.) there is always a way to pull through its obstacles with the items at your disposal.

Though, yes, this game has its flaws. I played with a translation patch (Lil' Manster) that went to the liberty of displaying certain hidden UI mechanics and fixing descriptions so they are more clear on what they do. And that's the biggest issue in this game, the amount of unexplained mechanics and events.
Those scrolls I mentioned? In the patch they'll clearly show you which growth rates they effect, along with its passive of blocking crits. In the actual game this is their description (While being translated from the original Japanese text):
"A scrap of the writings of [X]. It bestows a mysterious power upon its bearer." What a great explanation.
That mechanic where the crit chance on a second attack is multiplied depending on who you fight with? It's just straight up hidden which is weird considering that's sounds pretty important to display. And some characters have zero as their crit chance so the second hit will never have a crit happen for them.
Being forced to dismount horse units in castles is pretty horrible. Especially considering the separate weapon ranks for those horse-mounted units if they are or not mounted. Even worse considering lances just don't exist whatsoever in the final chapters of the game.

And I do not care same-turn reinforcements are and always will be a bad gameplay mechanic no matter the Fire Emblem game, knock it off trying to defend it in any way ANY gameplay mechanics put in to force a "Gotcha!" to the player (ESPECIALLY with ambush spawns) with almost no warning or indication of where those reinforcements will come by is always a bad idea and just screams putting it in just for difficulty's sake.
I am sure I speak for some people when I say entire chapters had to be restarted because some reinforcement I had no idea would spawn decided to come in and destroy one of my best units because the game said so. Or same-turn reinforcement spawned and you had to reset to now plan for those untold reinforcements and god forbid any more come after those. It's a bad mechanic, always will be, always has been.

And the amount of hatred new or modern releases get because they don't reach the peak of this game's map design and, "Oh the Kaga games were just better, new FE fans have no idea what a true Fire Emblem game looks like." Stop it, I would much rather take explained mechanics over a game that keeps half of its gameplay unexplained and necessitate you having a guide sometimes to understand how some things work.

But overall, it's a great game and one of my (begrudgingly) favorite games in the series. The map design still leaves an impression on me to the point that just playing it once I can already point it a specific map and how it was designed to fit the story and situation you find yourself in. The soundtrack is also a pretty big plus every song drives home the "Objective: Survive" tone of the game (My personal favorite being "Come To a Trap Door - Charge")

Thracia is a beautiful video game and a bit of a standout in the Fire Emblem series. In FE you often play as a prince or princess with the support of the crown, yours or another, at your back. Knights, resources, loyal retainers, and the like. You go forth and fight for your kingdom, your friends, and what have you.

Thracia is a bit different. Leif is a minor prince in exile, and your brigade is the local militia. So much of the game is spent struggling against overwhelming odds; running away from a superior force. You have very little gold, so you need to capture enemies and steal their equipment. Every victory feels desperate and well-earned.

The game is full of bullshit. It is a bullshit game. Don't have enough keys at this very late chapter in the game? Sorry, buddy, you're softlocked. Oh, you're in the bandit gaiden? Get ready for the girl with the Thief staff to steal your equipment from across the map. Deal with it. Got a powerful unit in the middle of your army? Sorry, she got hit by the berserk staff and just killed your best healer. Walk out into the dark forest? That's a shame, this random bandit just hit you with a sleep staff, captured you, and stole all your equipment. Oh, and the boss hit you with a long range sleep staff, too. Don't even get me started on the long range siege tomes through fog of war.

The game hates you. The game spits on your face. You think you're having a continent-spanning adventure as the Hero-Prince Marth? Who the fuck do you think you are? You think you're having a geopolitical Shakespearean drama, an ancient epic with larger-than-life heroes blessed by the blood of ancient warriors, of the very gods themselves like in FE4? Get real, twerp. You're a two-bit prince with a bunch of militia troops, freedom fighters, and mountain noble knights (later), and you've got to run the fuck away before you can reclaim your kingdom. Every battle is desperate. Every victory is hard-won.

The beauty of the bullshit is that you also have bullshit. Staffs are busted. Warp across the map, who cares. Make the enemy berserk, whatever. Thief staff the boss's weapon away, what's he gonna do about it? When you're this desperate, who the fuck cares about 'fighting fair'? This game was meant to be cheesed, because it's cheesing you. It feels like the director Kaga is challenging you, personally, to a battle of wits - a contest you're going to rise to the challenge of.

One part that stands out to me is a mission later in the game, a tense defense mission where you have to hold out for reinforcements. When it is finally done, the protagonist of FE4 appears with a host of troops to bail you out and give you the thumbs up before going back to doing incredibly significant, world-saving epic shit. You, as Leif, and all of your struggles, have just been a footnote in the greater narrative of FE4. Your 16+ chapters of blood, sweat, tears and loss are just a single map to the other guy.

It's beautiful.

Most significant to me is the penultimate map, right before the finale. I won't give details of the reward, but it is the height of the game's bullshit, of its player-hostile design. Seemingly-random tiles teleport your units to a room in the bottom where they are beaten to death by enemy reinforcements coming out of stairways from which there is no escape. Fog of war concealing Berserkers with extremely high crit and damage, all but guaranteeing a one hit kill on any of your unfortunate allies. Constantly dark mages warping towards you from across the map. It is perverse. It is disgusting. It feels like something out of like a cruel romhack, like a particularly rough Kaizou Mario.

Yet it has great purpose. If you go through it, even though your best units will likely be fatigued and thus unusable in the final map, where you will need them most to actually beat the game - even though you will gain no new items, no new weapons, not even a powerful party member - you are instead rewarded with the best cutscene in the game and incredible emotional catharsis.

It is completely optional. It is in your best tactical interest to not do it. The requirements to unlock it are slightly difficult in the previous map. Yet, the game looks you in the eye, narrows its own, and asks you how much you want your happy ending. Because if you do, you'd better come and get it, motherfucker.

I love Thracia 776. I don't think we'll ever get a game in the Fire Emblem series like it again, but I deeply cherish my time with it and hope anyone else interested in Fire Emblem gives it a try, ideally after getting a few femblems under their belt.