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Stuck In The Past - Haroldverse Edition's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Harold | #4 | 4.421 | 4.421 |
| Overall | #8 | 4.070 | 4.070 |
| Creativity | #9 | 4.263 | 4.263 |
| Fun | #13 | 3.526 | 3.526 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Overall well done! The teaching mechanic was unique, but it became cumbersome after a few fights to keep retraining Harold, and to not be able to do anything but teach, defend, or soak up damage with Reid.
I loved the graphical style (especially the concept of transporting to an old game world, clever), and that 8-bit Theme 6 remix is hot (as was all of the BGM and SEs you used). The glasses item was a cool idea.
Thanks! I am a little regretful of the battle system, which was Violet's contribution. I really loved it going into release and I felt having Harold remember each skill for the rest of the game would make Reid kinda pointless after a while, but if I had known it would be an issue with most of the audience then I would've tweaked it.
I appreciate your feedback on the music and SFX! Outside of Theme6 and maybe a little something after the main story, all the music is completely original. Transcribing Theme6 was a massive pain, but it's been a real hit so it definitely paid off. I'm still in shock I was able to write all that in addition to making the game in two weeks. (I'll be dropping the OST on my itch.io after the jam ends by the way, so look out for that!) I also created all the SFX in the program I used to write the music. Didn't expect to immediately develop a knack for SFX design, but it was really fun!
Violet also killed it with the graphics. A lot of it was graphics he had already made for Axial Disc 1, but there are some tweaks and edits he made specifically for Stuck In The Past. I also got my hands wet with pixel art, which you can see in the pantry in most of the houses, the Harold statue (based on Violet's Harold side-view battle sprites), the windows on the outside of the houses, and a few others.
Funnily enough, the Funny Glasses almost didn't make it into release! Happy someone got use out of them; I know high spawn rates are an issue many have had with Stuck In The Past.
oh, wait, that's mostly original music and SEs? And you're going to release the OST?
NICE.
That certainly earns you an extra 'creativity' star :)
It's not that the battle system doesn't have merit, it's just not quite there yet. It has the potential to be an entertaining mechanic.
Yeah, the battle system is definitely something that needs to be gradually and carefully planned out. Hard to do in a 2 week game jam though.
Great job. Combat was...interesting. I love the graphics a lot. The screen was super small for some reason too.
Thanks! VX Ace's tiles are 32x32, so if you're used to MV then that's probably why
Hey this was a great job and I really enjoyed it. Pixel art was great of course, I enjoyed the music, and combat had some cool unique mechanics. I found the writing to be quite good as well, so I think you really checked all the boxes.
Game could have stood to have fewer battles, especially since grinding is so slow paced with only one attacker, and a frequent delay of a turn to use any skills. Simply replacing Reid's Attack with Defend would have made the UI navigation easier, as well as shaving off one or two skills that don't serve too much of a purpose that kind of makes choosing what to learn or do cumbersome. Also after getting a log, I was pretty much unstoppable with or without Reid, so balance felt a little worth checking.
Post game content was cool, but make sure you check your switches too. It's possible to retrigger stair dialog as if Reid were still there and even refight the last battle post game.
Keep making games! If you did this in a month including learning the engine, I anticipate some great stuff from you.
Thanks a lot dude. Happy you enjoyed the music and writing, and I gotta give another huge shoutout to Violet for the graphics. While I did do some graphical touches like recoloring the NPCs and making a few custom sprites, it was Violet's spritework that made this game possible in the first place.
Encounter rates and grinding are the issues that pop up most commonly. I wish I could have made Reid have Defend instead of Attack for convenience, but I wasn't sure how to do that and there were so many higher priorities during dev time. There would have also been disparity between Reid having Defend in place of his Attack command and Harold learning Defend which ends up in his Special category. A friend of mine outside the RPG Maker community who tested Stuck In The Past also swept the whole thing with the log, although he also overleveled so I wasn't sure if it was the log or his level which was doing the work. The log actually has a +10 attack boost which is just asinine, and it'll definitely get some nerfs. As for the postgame stairs and events, that wasn't at the forefront of my mind since the postgame was essentially done in the last full day or two and I didn't anticipate the player to leave Appold after finishing the bonus challenge.
As I've mentioned before, I do plan to release a final version after the results come in which fixes some of these issues. Encounter rates will definitely be lower, I'll be sure to nerf the log, and I do plan on including a more comprehensive postgame since time limits won't be an issue after the jam. Developing the postgame also means fixing those pesky stairs, so that'll make the definitive version as well. I would absolutely love to make more games, especially now that I'm understanding RPGs a little more and I have a fresh new copy of MV to play around with.
Great effort for your first game! I can tell a lot of love went into it, and it's certainly a clever concept. Unfortunately I don't think I'll end up finishing this entry, but here are my thoughts and I might update this later if I go back to complete the game.
Let me start with the pros first:
On the other hand, I quickly lost interest due to the game mechanics, which I didn't find to be satisfying. Some things I think could be improved:
I hope this feedback is useful, as there's a lot of potential here!
This is the first time anyone's really ripped into my game, so I appreciate the feedback!
The teaching skills mechanic was a risk for sure, but I liked it a lot going into release. As far as enjoyability goes, I see the whole mentor system as having one character in your party plus an extra turn to learn skills, buff stats, or heal. Had I nerfed the encounter scaling and rates, I feel like this would have come across better. While I could have easily had skills be permanent, I thought this would make Reid useless after a while. However, Reid does learn some valuable skills which he could use turn 1 instead of teaching forgetful Harold a skill he already learned. (Speaking of which, guaranteed escape when under half health is one of these skills! Reid learns it at level 3.)
I also should've used a region spawn to have Unga Bunga only spawn near the cliffs in the main overworld. Since you'll probably be higher level by the time you head for the cliffs, it makes sense to have the stronger enemies spawn there. During one test run, I had a nasty encounter with an Unga Bunga at level 1 and got away with <15 hp on both characters. Unga Bungas are pretty much guaranteed to be slower than you so it's at least easy to get away from them.
Flame Slash does have its advantages, although I didn't make all of them super clear. It deals magic damage for less MP than Spark and does 150% damage against enemies like Maneaters. What I wish I did was had a log for damage rates so you could easily learn which attacks enemies are weak to or resistant against. I also originally had it burn the opponent, but the burn state was a poison clone which didn't work in battle and I ended up scrapping it. Perhaps I could bring that back to make it a bit more unique.
Again, I appreciate the feedback. It was definitely a squeeze just releasing Stuck In The Past as is, but having a little more RPG smarts could have definitely helped me go above and beyond with it.
Thanks for being receptive to my critiques - I know any criticism of a first project can sting, and I do again want to reiterate that I did find a lot of great stuff, and the potential for the battle system to be good. Just needed more time in the oven, IMO (which is tough with jam deadlines and all).
Funny, I didn't notice Reid's 100% run skill, though I may have already been slightly tilted at the time.
That said if you do any major updates I'd go from "maybe give it another try" to "definitely give it another try".
Again, great first entry despite not being to my taste.
I've been thinking about putting out a definitive version after the jam is over, so I may take the opportunity to implement some of those changes. I know the Unga Bunga region spawn and some spawn nerfs at least will make it in.
Nice, took me back to my younger years. Harold's forgetfulness in battle got a little tedious, but I thought the concept was great. Especially the lesson during the first fight with the dialog to go along with it.
Good job! I believe this is your first game? Love the banter between Reid and Harold. The music and pixel art were great. It has a simple yet enjoyable plot, and a little spin in the battle system where you need to teach Harold skills.
Yes, this is my first completed game. I made a test game for both 2003 and VX Ace when first trying them out and another test game for SITP assets before jam time, but otherwise this is my first RPG Maker game. I appreciate the feedback!
I really loved the old style graphics, and the New Vs Old theme.
Reid has a lot on his hands. Mostly Harold.
This Harold only has 8 bits of memory, and 6 of those are dedicated to how awesome he is. His last two bits are in a battle royal to the death and the winner is going to chose what apple he eats for supper.
At the time of writing this I didn't make it to the very end but I was close. I think what would have helped is to have a slightly higher item drop rate.
All I had at the time of death was a lowly Crab Apple and Vodka.
Not even that could have saved me.
I will definitely play through to the end when I get the chance because this was a lot of fun!
Therapist: VX/VX Ace style Reid isn't real, he can't hurt you.
VX/VX Ace style Reid:
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In all seriousness, VERY good! I love the shift between RTP to something unique! The music is a very good rendition of a few MV tracks that I recognize!
Harold is a good boy and I wish to protect him but he's so dumb, man didn't even know what running was, poor lad.
Anyways, gameplay! I like the First person battle system, really added to the feel the game was trying to go for. While the idea of teaching Harold moves in battle, it got stale after a few fights but that's just me. I never felt like I was being overpowered say for maybe the end portion but I could've been underleveled or missed key skills.
There isn't much a story and that is shared with some great A dialogue! Reid is in constant suffering and Harold is having the time of his life!
One nitpick, there was a track right as Reid was transported to the other world that was kinda grating to my ears but that could just be me.
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Very different from the rest of the entry, I'm very impressed! I hope to see some more in the future!
Thanks a ton! I've been super anxious all day hoping the first review I get isn't "I softlocked here" or "The game didn't compress right and I can't play it", so seeing someone play through the most recent build to the end without any significant issues is a massive relief.
What level were you near the end? I was usually level 4 or 5 by the final boss when beta testing and it was a tiny lil bit of a challenge for me.
If you're talking about the song near the end, it's the only song where I didn't use the triangle wave as a bass, so that could be what made it grating. I should have balanced the audio a little better to compensate since the triangle wave is quieter than the square waves. The very last chord is also one of the only times I used an arpeggio for a chord instead of just two notes at the same time so I could use the other square wave for the bass. (The other was simulating the muted guitar chords in Theme6.) If you're talking the song when Reid appears in the world, that song deliberately used discordant tritones to really capture the shock of waking up in a NES game.