Havent done Maddening, currently playing on Normal mode to enjoy the story, so I'm gonna play again to see the rest of the content (plus I gotta save Wanda at some point). Btw which portraits got criticized? I havent seen any that seem bad, hell they all look pretty good to me but then again maybe I'm easy to please lol. The occasional originial music is at least a nice change from what you hear in the Cannon GBA games, and in my opinion what you selected was quite enjoyable. Plus the story is pretty interesting to me at least, starts out with a generic-ish war like in FE 6 which is fine since it felt well executed, then we start fighting a secret cabal/organization like in FE7 which really spiced things up, plus you had monsters from FE8 which is just pure fun lol.
The maps are generally fun to fight through except maybe Chapter 26, and that's only cuz Judge Amanda broke the cardinal rule about bosses, she got off her throne to come kill me. Still I understood and appreciated the design and intent of such lol.
Btw may wanna add to the Recruitment guide that you gotta pick Roxie up before the fog clears up.