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A jam submission

Half-Hour HeroView game page

A half-hour RPG experience!
Submitted by Sword Fan — 7 minutes, 37 seconds before the deadline
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Half-Hour Hero's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Audio/Sound Design#123.4503.450
Art Style/Visuals#123.8003.800
Overall#243.2883.288
Gameplay/Fun#342.9002.900
Theme#473.0003.000

Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Game Engine / Tools
RPG Maker MV

How does your game fit the theme?
An RPG where you see the viewpoint of both the main heroes and the town civilians after the main story is over.

Self-made & used stuff

Audio (e.g. music or sound effects)
Assets (e.g. free or owned)

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

I'm very Impressed with everything that I saw. The only issue I would have is maybe more colors during fights , outside of spells, to make it easier to understand and when coming inside a building, the doors will disappear after opening. But other then that great job. As a writer myself I must say the writing is incredible. 

Developer

Thank you for your feedback!

Submitted(+1)

As a big fan of storytelling, I have to say—what a MAGNIFICENT presentation! The way we’re introduced to your world is incredibly immersive. I can only imagine how much effort it must have taken to prepare all of this, and I truly admire the work you’ve done.

I noticed you used RPG Maker—what a great tool for creating story-driven games, isn’t it? I’ve tried using it a few times myself haha, but I’ve never managed to create something as good as yours.

The atmosphere is really well-crafted. I loved how you used the colors and how perfectly the sound effects fit with what’s happening in the game. This combination creates an amazing sense of engagement.

If I could suggest one thing for future projects, it would be to consider the frequency of random battles while exploring the map. I felt they were a bit too frequent at times, which slightly disrupted the flow, although the battles themselves were fun and enjoyable.

Overall, fantastic work! Congratulations on the project, and I wish you the best of luck in the jam!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I made this project to come to grips with RPG Maker myself, so it was nice.

Thanks for the feedback, I kept it in mind. I just released an updated version with bug fixes, typos changed, roughly 40% as many random encounters, and a small amount of extra NPC dialogue. Likely not worth a replay, but I'll make a full-fledged release for Steam this year no doubt.

HostSubmitted(+1)

A fun story-driven game! You can tell a lot of effort went into crafting the story, and that’s definitely a plus. It was enjoyable to read/see everything and see how the story unfolded, especially with the twisted ending. 

The pixel art looked great, and the music was a nice touch in the background. The battles, however, were quite easy—especially early on against, for example, the bushes, where it was mostly about spamming "attack" to move forward quickly. There were also maybe a few too many random battles. Just when you were exploring to figure out where to go, another battle would pop up. Great ending!

The theme was incorporated, and the color palette was used well.

The biggest downside for me was the time—it drew me in because I wanted to know everything about the story, but I ended up spending at least 40 minutes on it. With over 80+ games to play as host, that’s quite a chunk of time. But honestly, it was worth it.😊

A well-made entry—nice job! 😊

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for the feedback, I kept it in mind. I just released an updated version with bug fixes, typos changed, roughly 40% as many random encounters, and a small amount of extra NPC dialogue. Likely not worth a replay, but I'll make a full-fledged release for Steam this year no doubt.

I wanted the game to be easy on purpose, for what it's worth.

Submitted(+1)

Great writing and atmosphere. The choice of music and sound effects were also really effective. In the first area where enemies are encountered, I thought the lack of music was jarring initially, but it actually adds tension before moving to the next area and fighting more difficult enemies. The enemy encounter rate could be reduced slightly. Other than that, well done!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for the feedback, I kept it in mind. I just released an updated version with bug fixes, typos changed, roughly 40% as many random encounters, and a small amount of extra NPC dialogue. Likely not worth a replay, but I'll make a full-fledged release for Steam this year no doubt.

Submitted(+1)

Sadly the game gets stuck to me on arch linux, BUT I'll try to play it again tomorrow on windows, I really like the premise tho ^^

Developer(+1)

I’ll port it to Linux after the jam is over.

Developer(+1)

Linux port is up!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I really enjoyed this game on my first playthrough I think I went through the intended thought process and gradually realized there was something suspicious going on however at the end of the game I thought, wow I just did a genocide run, lets do a pacifist run. this is because the entire game you have the option to flee from minor enemies and the first boss says it "can smell the blood of its brothers on you" implying that it would know whether or not you killed anyone.  I did really like this game and its characters however I think the ending would hit a lot harder if the player actually had a say in how it went down, that way its not bushi who caused a genocide its ME the player who did. Also the music is really good particularly the fight music from the first floor.

Developer(+1)

The kind words are much appreciated and I’m glad you approached the game the way I was hoping!

I wanted Bushi to be a very specific type of character rather than a self-insert, if I’m being honest. I may an ending split involving a different character, however. After all you’re the second person to comment on this, so now I gotta get my thinking cap on.

Developer

Thanks again for the feedback! I kept it in mind. I just released an updated version with bug fixes, typos changed, roughly 40% as many random encounters, and a small amount of extra NPC dialogue. Likely not worth a replay, but I'll make a full-fledged release for Steam this year no doubt.

Submitted

ill check it out when i remember to

Submitted(+1)

This is going to be a bit disorganized, but we go.

The game looks and sounds really good, but the gameplay could be improved. Much as they were easy, there were a heavy amount of battles, which was a little disruptive in areas that require some exploration to get through and there was not much incentive to find resources (though I get it's kind of a plot relevant the heroes have hoarded all the potions).

I also found some of the maps to feel like confusing wide open spaces. The forest was the worst because it just felt like trees and stones were scattered around at random (you might look at some of the sample maps of forests for ideas). The mazes actually felt a bit less confusing, since having walls did guide me a bit and you're supposed to be a little uncertain in a maze. It was not too bad in town, but adding some paths around town would be more realistic.

A common tip for RPG Maker maps, especially interiors, is to avoid big square, mostly empty maps. The first house I went into with the guys and the chest could have been way smaller, especially since the building itself was pretty small from the outside.

I liked the twist ending. It would be cool if their were two endings (1 where he believes the demon boss and 1 where he does not) depending on how the hero behaved in some situations. Like whether or not he chose to fight or negotiate with the monsters guarding the stairs, and if there were response choices for talking to NPCs where the player could chose between a more forgiving or more hostile response.

Curious how did you do the page turning effect at the beginning. Was it a plugin? 

Neat you recolored the MV Logo, though it is actually possible to turn if off -- it's triggered by a plugin that's on by default. Finally, one of my favorite plugins is the keyboard options plugin, because it allows players to add WASD and any other keys to the controls if they wish: http://www.yanfly.moe/wiki/Keyboard_Config_(YEP)

Developer(+1)

Great to have feedback from another RPG maker.

I made the page turn with a video editor. Two cutscenes are FMVs.

I will definitely touch up the house sizes soon. I unfortunately only made the towns in about two hours.

The forest is messy on purpose for plot reasons. Should I keep only bones?

Alt endings go against the story I want to tell, honestly.

Good idea. I will add WASD support to the game.

Submitted(+1)

Forgot to hit post on this. Being messy is fine -- no to get rid of the trees. Then you couldn't call it a forest and it would be a lot plainer if there was nothing but grass and bones. Hard to really explain, but the map would feel better if it were other ground textures and at least least remnants of paths on the map.

Developer

Thanks again for the feedback! I kept it in mind. I just released an updated version with bug fixes, typos changed, roughly 40% as many random encounters, and a small amount of extra NPC dialogue. Likely not worth a replay, but I'll make a full-fledged release for Steam this year no doubt.

The houses were also touched up. Probably the biggest change.

Submitted(+1)

I really enjoyed this game! The story and characters were great, and I liked the graphics too. It was very easy, but that's not a problem for a jam game and it fits with the story, so it's fine. Very good job!

Developer

I appreciate the kind words so much. Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

That's a really great story!

I was unsure of how this would turn out since this was made with RPG Maker, but I really liked it!

The only complaint I have is all of those random encounters, just too much. Maybe not my style of game, that's why.

Also, the bosses were too easy, but I think the focus was the story, so thats alright :)

Nice job! You have a good chance of being in the winners

Developer

Thank you! I'll reduce the random encounters for the Steam release.

The bosses were deliberately easy since I didn't want a game jam game to be too drawn out. Perhaps I could extend their HP pools a bit, at least.

I'm very honored to hear that.

Developer

Thanks again for the feedback! I kept it in mind. I just released an updated version with bug fixes, typos changed, roughly 40% as many random encounters, and a small amount of extra NPC dialogue. Likely not worth a replay, but I'll make a full-fledged release for Steam this year no doubt.

Submitted(+1)

The writing is great with both the storyline and making the world comes alive. Using recoloured assets is definitely a good idea for a RPG maker game. I'm not sure about other limitations of RPG maker but the one thing I can think of to make it plays a lot better is to involve the combat with the writing? Using the enemy behaviour to foreshadow the ending would be a great way to add more to the world and make the combat less repetitive.

Developer

Thank you for your review! I tried to integrate dialogue into fights when possible, but I was only able to fine-tune the AI of a few enemies like the warden or integrate mid-battle dialogue into a few bosses. I'd definitely like to touch this element up more for a V2.0.

Submitted(+1)

Looks amazing, also very nice soundtrack.

You really put a lot of time and effort into this game the amount of sprites you have made is incredible.

Only 2 things that i can say for improvement,

1) less encounters or a way to avoid them, it got a bit tedious after every 5 steps(or so it felt like) to have an encounter.

2) This is purely for jams i always advice to have a web build as it makes playing so much easier, this time i playing in linux so i had to switch to windows to play, wait for download, wait for windows and virus scan and then play it. Its a small thing that does not make your game any less fun but just an advice.

I did also like that i could use both the mouse as the keyboard to play your game nice touch

Developer

Very grateful for the feedback! I'll definitely lower the encounter rate for my Steam release. I'll add a web build after the jam is over, I had trouble getting it running since I submitted at the tail end of the jam.

Developer

Thanks again for the feedback! I kept it in mind. I just released an updated version with bug fixes, typos changed, roughly 40% as many random encounters, and a small amount of extra NPC dialogue. Likely not worth a replay, but I'll make a full-fledged release for Steam this year no doubt.

Submitted

Much better on the encounters in the new version. Now when in the dungeons it doesn't feel like such a punishment to take a wrong turn and invites more to explore i think.

Only thing i noticed now i played it for the 3th time. it would be nice to have a skip on the starting story (if there is i could not find which button to press). If you extend this game might be an idea that if you already saved your game  you wont have to see it again for example.

Submitted(+1)

The game as a whole looks so pretty! Such a great job in the aesthetics, you have done magic with the colours available.

I really enjoyed it, the NPCs are very charming! And good job on making me feel like a bad guy, totally deserved for the Monde Sentai >:3

Developer(+1)

Hey I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the kind words :)

Submitted(+1)

Very well made.  I really enjoyed playing it.

Some personal feedback:
Pro:
- art was amazing! So clear what you want to show on so few pixels with so few colors is impressive, to say the least
- the complexity and story of the game is also really good. I can see myself getting invested in a longer version
- the characters had a lot of personality which I liked
- I saw myself sitting with a Gameboy in the corner playing this game

 Con:
- I did not like the number of fights I was getting into. I wanted to go explore and I got attacked by bushes like every 5 meter
- You could lead the player better through the starting zone. When I wanted to leave I was looking for some guidance on where I needed to go. Just going straight up was not on my radar

Overall, it was a great game with a lot of potential when you want to continue it. 

Developer

Thank you for the review! I didn't have much time to squeeze the story into so I'm glad it had the desired impact! I'll definitely lower the encounter rate for a Steam release then.

Submitted(+1)

wow, how impressed I was when I played it isn't written, the graphics are great for the game, it reminds me of deltarune, and also, the soundtrack is impeccable

Developer

Thank you so much for your feedback! I never played Deltarune so I'll have to look it up now. And yes, chrome did an amazing job with the OST for sure.

Submitted(+1)

wow, how impressed I was when I played it isn't written, the graphics are great for the game, it reminds me of deltarune, and also, the soundtrack is impeccable

(+1)

Awesome game!

(+1)

peak