Home

Game Information
Home

Creator	angel-of-britannia
Medium	RPG Maker VX Ace
Genre	Visual Novel
Language	English
Game Version	Ch.2
Game Status	Ongoing
Website	angel-of-britannia

Home is an English-language visual novel RPG created by angel-of-britannia. It is planned to have multiple endings.

Game Summary[]

Twelve-year-old Peter lives happily with Arthur, his guardian, and Francis, Arthur's partner. They're not perfect, but he, like any child, believes nothing can break their family apart. Until a fateful day comes by...

Cooped up inside the house bored and with nobody to play with, Peter tries get his family together to play some games. However, he accidentally discovers Arthur and Francis arguing, accusing each other and finally, threatening to ~~divorce~~ separate. Peter decides not to let that happen and sets off to find someone or something to help mend the rift between the two. While searching, Peter accidentally discovers a secret room in the house, with a door into another world. This world mirrors his own, but the people living there are alternate versions of his own Arthur and Francis. This couple is going through problems of their own, and spending time with them might help Peter figure out how to deal with the fighting back home.^{^[1]}

Setting, Characters, and Story[]

Setting[]

The beginning of the game takes place in Peter's home, and later on switches to another house that bears resemblances to Peter's own home life. The story chronicles Peter's stay with the "other" family while waiting for a way back home.

Characters[]

See also: List of Home characters

Peter Kirkland - The main protagonist. He wanted the rest of his family to play with him, but accidentally came across Arthur and Francis fighting with each other. In response, he attempts to find a way for them to reconcile, but gets transported into another world after breaking into Arthur's secret room. He is staying at the Baines household until he can get back home.
Arthur Kirkland - Peter's guardian. Together with Francis, he raised Peter, Alfred, and Matthew.
Francis Bonnefoy - Arthur's partner. Together with Arthur, he raised Peter, Alfred, and Matthew.
Alfred - One of Peter's older brothers.
Matthew - One of Peter's older brothers.
Oliver Baines - A young man with a kindly disposition. He takes Peter in after the latter accidentally incurs Kuma's wrath.
Louis - One of three others living with Oliver. Although he hates nicknames, Oliver affectionately refers to him as "Lulu".
Alex - One of three others living with Oliver, Alex is the younger of the two brothers.
Matt - One of three others living with Oliver, Matt is the older of the two brothers.

Story[]

Warning: the following contains spoilers. Click [Expand] on the right to read a section.

Due to the nature of the game, some scenes may have altered dialogue as a result of player choices and interactions.

Prologue[]

Arthur wakes up Peter and tells him to come down for breakfast. After given a choice of breakfast from Francis, Peter is tasked to gather his brothers Matthew and Alfred so everyone can eat. He finds Matthew easily, but has to wake up Alfred by means of splashing water on him.

After breakfast, Peter decides he wants to play outside with his brothers. However, Matthew and Alfred have already left to hang out with their friends. Undaunted, he goes to find Arthur and Francis. He accidentally eavesdrops on them fighting in the living room again, however the tension escalates between the two so much that Francis leaves the house in resignation.

Determined to set things right, Peter sneaks into their bedroom and takes an old photograph to cheer Arthur up. He leaves the photo where Arthur can see it and hides, so Arthur would think Francis did the gesture. His plan initially works, but then backfires horribly: Arthur tears up the photo in rage, then retires to his bedroom.

Peter attempts to confront Arthur about the photo, but Arthur shuts him out in a drunken rage. His outburst startles Iggy and Pierre, who run amok throughout the house. Peter follows them into Arthur's office, and Iggy manages to catch Pierre after wrecking Arthur's books. Peter cleans up the mess, and in the process discovers a key to the basement.

Peter explores the basement for a way to fix the torn photo and finds a mysterious book. Not realizing it held powerful magic, he reads a passage and accidentally activates a spell that transports him into a familiar-yet-unfamiliar place. Peter searches for the rest of his family in vain, and encounters a bear in the backyard. He mistakes it for Kumajiro, but the bear chases him and forces Peter to take refuge in one of the rooms. He nearly breaks down in tears until a mysterious person calls the bear off.

Chapter 1[]

The mysterious person turns out to be Oliver Baines, the owner of the house. He is initially shocked when Peter reveals his presence to the older man, but took it in stride. After hearing Peter out (and learning he lost the pieces of the photo in the incident), Oliver takes him in and lets him stay until he can be sent back home. While Oliver redecorates a room for Peter, Peter learns about Oliver's family pets: Cupcake the cat, Eegs the rooster and Kuma the polar bear.

In the next day, Oliver has Peter help him with a dessert for some visitors coming over. After the baking Peter meets the guests, Luciano and Flavio Vargas. Oliver explains Peter's situation to the brothers. After discussing Peter, Flavio (to Luciano's horror) reminds them of the reason to their visit, in which Oliver whisks away a reluctant Luciano to dispense relationship advice.

Meanwhile, Flavio suggests having Peter give him a tour of the house as a way to get to know him better. After the two look around Peter's newly redecorated room, Flavio mentions other people live with Oliver and suggests that Peter ask him about them. Right after that, they hear Luciano shouting in angry Italian, and meet up with him and Oliver downstairs. where they see the former trying to calm down the latter. They find out Eegs had stolen Luciano's hat, and is nowing running amok. After a hectic run locating the runaway rooster, Peter returns the stolen hat to Luciano. The two bond over hats and annoying brothers until Luciano has to leave.

Later that day, Peter takes Flavio's advice and asks Oliver about his home and its other occupants. Oliver is only to happy to oblige, and tells him about the three others that live with him: Louis, Alex, and Matt. Peter then tries to ask Oliver of a way to get home, but is shooed to bed.

Peter is woken up in the middle of the night from someone ringing the doorbell. Cautious, he looks for Oliver but is unable to find him. With the mysterious party getting more and more impatient, Peter coaxes a sleepy Kuma to accompany him. At the last moment, one of the party picks the lock and three men break into the house.

Chapter 2[]

The three men are shocked to see Peter and question his presence. Peter realizes these three are Oliver's family when one of them affectionately talks with Kuma. In his annoyance, Louis leaves the boys to check up on something, while Matt and Alex figure out what to do with Peter.

In the kitchen, Alex bullies Peter until Matt has to hold him off. Louis appears with Oliver, who immediately puts a stop to the bickering. Oliver explains Peter's situation to the boys, adding that one of his books may have a way to bring him home. They split up to look for Oliver's book, with Oliver appointing Peter as "supervisor". After checking up on Louis, Alex, and Matt, Oliver finds the book and calls everyone to gather at the office. His books reveals a spell to send Peter home, but in order to invoke it properly they need an object from Peter's home life, i.e. Peter's incomplete photograph. Alex is enraged at the idea of letting Peter stay, but Oliver quickly shuts him down.

In the morning, Oliver attempts making small talk with the boys with little success. Peter mentions his birthday is coming up, giving Oliver an idea: to throw Peter a party of his own, just in case his stay at the Baines household passes his birthday. In response, Matt immediately retires back to his room, and Alex leaves to hang out with a friend. Oliver tasks Peter with getting Matt to help in planning out the event, and goes to the backyard to feed Kuma.

Upstairs, Matt reveals to Peter that he has mixed feelings about the impromptu party, noting Oliver's tendency to help others without really knowing them. Oliver interrupts to check on them and reminds Matt to give Kuma a bath. Peter gathers the supplies and helps with the washing.

After the boys bond, Oliver plans to get supplies ready for the eventual party, calling Flavio to watch over them while he's out. Flavio shows up bringing Siegmund Beilschmidt with him, to Oliver's dismay. After Peter meets Siegmund, he gets Matt to join them. They play charades together until Alex unexpectedly comes home, shocked to see Siegmund.

Bug Reports/Errors[]

The game might lag from time to time depending on your computer.
For some players, the game may not extract correctly resulting in a missing audio file. A link to the missing file is provided.
Though not necessarily a bug, if you use the Q key to save in a middle of a cutscene, you will not be able to skip over the cutscene with the W key when the file is reloaded.
One of the costumes may be incorrectly marked with a skull and blue text. However, it is only an aesthetic mistake and will show correctly marked (a star with gray text if chosen, white text if not) when the file is reloaded.
There's a small dialogue glitch when looking at the sickles in Alex's Room, where Flavio will comment even when he's no longer following Peter.
Going out into the main hallway after finding Eegs without immediately talking to Luciano triggers a glitch as if Oliver and Louis were already there.
There's a odd glitch that might occur to some players after talking to Oliver in the Living Room where the screen stays completely black, but the cause is unknown. *As a precaution, remember to save your game before going to the Living Room, and save in multiple slots!*
*DO NOT* go to the Guest Room once you have Oliver following you around (after the Vargas brothers have left), as doing so will trigger cutscenes out of order.

Trivia[]

Warning: the following contains spoilers. Click [Expand] on the right to read a section. Highlight the white boxes to reveal spoilers.

General[]

Each chapter starts with a written opening:
- Ch.0's opening starts with a letter written to Raivis, from Peter.
- Ch.1 starts with an excerpt from Charlotte's Web.
- Ch.2 follows with Howl's Moving Castle.
Peter's outfits are all different shoutouts:
- Black changes him into his Joker design from the Cardverse AU.
- Blue dresses him in an outfit reminiscient of Luke Triton's design from Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.
- Pink puts him into Wy's outfit and changes his hat to match in color.
- Green is Young Link's outfit from the Zelda series, complete with signature hat and secret sound.
- Stripes changes his outfit into a blue-and-purple striped shirt and a brown hat, making him resemble Undertale's protagonist Frisk.
Examining the teddy bear in the guest room makes it squeak like Freddy's nose in the Five Nights at Freddy's games.
Oliver's cookbook minigame contains real-life recipes.
Kuma's bath minigame is in the style of PacMan, and the sound Matt makes when touched with the water bucket active is one of Ike's KO screams from Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
Flavio wears a different-colored scarf in each of his appearances.

Ch.0[]

While Iggy is a popular nickname for England in the Japanese fandom of Hetalia, Ignotus Peverell is a name from the Harry Potter series.
Choosing "cereal" for breakfast nets a few shoutouts:
- Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets is from Powerpuff Girls, which in turn is a parody of Trix and Captain Crunch.
- Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs is a cereal product from Calvin & Hobbes.
- Later on, Alfred creates a catchphrase based on Sailor Moon.
Matthew is first found in the living room playing his own character song on the piano. In addition, attempting to talk to him before being required to references HetaOni's infamous piano scene.
The flowers in Alfred's room are a reference to Davie, a human America once befriended when he was a still a colony under England's rule.
Alfred's "Holy burger with a side of fries!" quote is in the style of classic Batman.
Blaming Arthur after waking up Alfred will later have Alfred making fun of Arthur's cooking skills, bringing up Gordon Ramsay.
The argument between Francis and Arthur is based on a podcast starring their English dub actors, where they play France and England in marriage therapy.
The date on the back of the Faded Photograph (April 8th) refers to the Entente Cordiale, a series of agreements that improved relations between Britain and France.
Arthur's office books are titles of real-life novels.
The bookshelf in the basement has book titles from the Harry Potter series.
Arthur's spellbook in the basement is written in Al Bhed.

Ch.1[]

Oliver makes a Sweeney Todd reference when you meet him for the first time. Additionally, it doubles as a Take That towards a popular fan interpretation of Oliver as a murderer who bakes his victims into cupcakes.
Luciano complains about making flower crowns as a date activity, referencing KyoKyo866's First Date.
The title of the book Oliver tells Luciano about (and later gives to Flavio) is How to Treat Your First Partner, a nod to the San Buon Valentino strip.
Examining the jars in the Guest Room again with Flavio in the party has him quoting Marvin Grossberg from the Ace Attorney series, albeit reversed.
Examining the door after failing to find Oliver but without Kuma in the party randomly generates a humorous conversation between Matt, Alex, and Louis locked outside the house. In one of them, Louis drops a "La vie est drôle" line mocking their situation, a reference to Kill la Kill.

Ch.2[]

Talking to Matt once tasked to find Oliver's spellbook makes Peter yell out "Hey, listen!!"
After finding Oliver's book:
- Alex's "bird, rock, lamb chop, bird and a bigger bird" line is a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh!'s English dub.
- Oliver's "How very curious" line is from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Oliver calls Kuma a "silly old bear".
During Matt's friendship event:
- Peter lies down on the ground with him, a reference to Napstablook's family tradition from Undertale.
- Germany's dogs (Blackie, Berlitz, and Aster) are mentioned.
- In addition, if Matt is the person who puts Peter to bed, Matt comments he thought Peter would ask if Kuma had ever eaten a person, as a nod to certain events in Rinascita.
Talking to Oliver after failing Kuma's bath minigame and before changing clothes nets a reference to Wreck-It Ralph.
Flavio's story is from Drake and Josh.
Peter compares Siegmund to the Winter Soldier in that they are both mute characters with a metal prosthetic arm who have gone through traumatizing events.