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Harold's SWORD quest's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Lucius Award for Laughs: Comedy | #5 | 3.634 | 3.941 |
| Oldhar Award for Literature: Story | #8 | 3.471 | 3.765 |
| Therese Award for Strength: Combat | #11 | 3.037 | 3.294 |
| Marsha Award for Music: Sound | #18 | 2.929 | 3.176 |
| Harold Award for Excellence | #19 | 3.037 | 3.294 |
| Hrld Award for Graphics: Visuals | #26 | 2.603 | 2.824 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Excellence: Game played like a pretty typical RPG and the option to turn off battles was neat, but my god this was long! Much longer than it had any right to be. It could have been half the length and served the same purpose. Maybe I'm just angry but I swear there were points where this game was mocking itself for being overly long. Just make a shorter game! I had plans for tonight and now I have less time to do them!
Combat: The battles near the end got genuinely challenging and I was making use of everything in my arsenal. Skills were fun to use and cleverly themed, but other than that pretty run of the mill.
Comedy: Earlier on in the game the atmosphere is consistently hilarious. I feel like it falters near the end and starts to get a little too meta for its own good. I know, I say that as someone who made a game founded on meta 8-bit RPG comedy last Harold jam, but still.
Sound: Pretty typical RM fare but there are some bangers present.
Visuals: The emotions for the playable cast were a great touch to the usual RTP.
Story: The moral Harold learns is nice, but unfortunately everything else feels awkward at times. I have no idea what's going on in Oldhar's world, and sometimes the story tries harder to feel quirky and meta than to really convey anything important.
Look, maybe I'm just bitter and I think you did a pretty good job, but this is a strong case for re-enforcing that 45 minute limit.
I'm debating if the game's pacing was too slow or it was trying to tell too big of a story, what do you think?
I think the length of the story is more at fault than the pacing. There was just so much going on in the story, and just as soon as I thought I reached an important part it would shift over to Oldhar or an entirely new part of the world would appear. The pacing, on the other hand, didn't really stick out to me in a bad way.
Can't believe what you managed to accomplish during the jam period. I got more than an hour into the game and still and working through it. I didn't want to leave out the battles just to be able to finish. The premise and execution really hit the spot for me as a Harold jam entry. You avoided common interpretations of Therese and Lucius, and were able to execute some unique combat mechanics at the same time (though a bit imbalanced in my experience since you can perma-stun most enemies). The effort and polish that went into this were extremely impressive, from map and town creation to skills, NPC text, and more, and I know I haven't even gotten past the halfway point.
I think most people would have boosted your points a bit if you had managed a complete story arc within about an hour, and I would have loved to have finished it myself during the jam period. Really great job though!
In hindsight it's because I opted to design a game with familiar mechanics rather than experimental ones that made it possible to make a game of this scale in only a month. KV did end up explaining why my approach was sideways compared to everyone else's though. Next jam, I am avoiding my subtle but massive mistake to introduce major party members one-at-a-time, next jam they will be introduced all at once for a much shorter arc. On top of that, I will sic the very experimental battle system I was designing before I decided to join the Harold Jam
This entry has had love put into the small things, from changing default sfx, jingles, to the font and its own little logo to boot.
I played with battles turned off which i really appreciated.
There was a few typos and errors in the dialogue throughout but nothing too inconsistent.
Light comical journey with some funny moments and good use of comical timing, music and sfx.
The play on words for 'stealsmith' and 'steelsmith' was quite funny. Or ‘roam’ and the emperors name.
It felt like i was playing on godmode when Harold would smite all who stood in his path, truly the power of no battles.
The game really runs its course and is too long, even without battles i racked up to an hours worth of play time and stuck with it until they end as i wanted to do that for all entries. The overall story was amusing and I liked the interpretation of being a hero at the end and what it all meant but some sections could have been condensed.
Overall solid entry.
This is THE long entry for this game jam. You almost have yourself a full-featured game here, yo. I enjoyed Harold’s reactions every time he got a not-quite sword. Only real thought I have about it is this:
This was a super fun game. I can't believe you made all that during a month. I played without battles and this game still took an hour to complete! The writing and cutscenes were top notch. Solid pick of music as well. Maps were fine, though I do detest the one tile high houses.
All in all great game!
Solid fun little classic rm styled game, some nice laughs. Good job
An amusing adventure with some funny moments. Good job! Felt a little long in the context of a jam game, but I overall liked it.
Now when I think of a good HAROLD game this is very close to perfect. Very close.
The game play was well balanced and felt like a well thought out, pre-planned adventure. The pacing was good most of the time.
Combat was actually engaging for me. I liked the fact that it made me think about how to use who I had and why. Nothing we too hard to soon yet I still felt challenged.
A few things were amusing, nothing made me really lough out loud.
I think for what you had to work with you used the sounds well enough.
THOSE TREES! Those trees. Other than THOSE TREES I thought the mapping was competent, easy to read and helped progress the game forward well enough. The sprites and faces and enemies all felt used well. But you just had to go and use... those trees....
How dare.
Lets talk a bit about the story it's self. While the over all pacing was very good, meaning that everything progressed rather smoothly a narrative stall hurt the game for more than 75% of the play through. Harold's growth happens in to short a time near the end. It might have been better, I think, if in every town he had to make a choice (even if the player can't make that choice for him) between getting mad and saying NO to some one, or learning a lesson and relenting, even if reluctantly.
Thus, over time, we see a gradual change in him. Then when he gets to the supernatural creatures we have seen him ALMOST there, but then I would have worked it so the lady was far more demanding and pushed Harold's fears and insecurities to far.
Then the pep talk would have had more weight.
Also the end DUNGEON felt out of left field. You had those slimes all over as well as the minotaurs, that would have been a perfect place to give THEM a capital. It would have fit the theme a lot better, and felt like a conclusion to those creatures as well.
I feel cheated out of true Marsha joining the party. What you got against my lil girl mage? Huh?
Overall I really liked this game. It felt like a REAL GAME. It played to hard into the trope of Harold being dumb, it could have been neater around it's over all theming, but it was good.
I hope to see more good work from you in the future!