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A jam submission

Harbor City HostageView game page

Best game ever
Submitted by Tea — 34 minutes, 28 seconds before the deadline
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Harbor City Hostage's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#103.8144.231
Gameplay#133.1903.538
Overall#143.3053.667
Writing/Story#252.9123.231

Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Really cool with the mechanics you were able to achieve with RPG maker! Makes me want to try and play around with an ABS too :P

Developer

I'm glad you liked it, it was a lot of fun to make, but lots and lots of bugs lol

Submitted

I was really digging the River City Ransom vibe here, like beating up gangsters, witty banter, and items that have no descriptions! It was an enjoyable experience that really hit the nostalgia buttons, and the dialog in the final scene was amusing.

You definitely pushed the limits of what the engine can do, and from a technical standpoint, it's an impressive effort. I don't think everyone should try to make games like this with this engine, but it was nice to see that it can be done!

Submitted

Oh, and my favorite part of the game: beating up enemies with a fish! 😆

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

That's cool! I'm glad you enjoyed it! It probably takes having played the game to really like it, and to understand some of the game design choices. And I agree! RMMV is NOT  the engine for this kind of game lol!

Submitted

Hello! So yeah, this a thing: a beat'em up with the RPG Maker MV engine. Welcome to the merciless world of Harbor City Hostage where you make money by stomping on your enemies' corpses! Sounds dicey, right? And it is.

Alright so, before I go on, I wanted to say: I saw the Soda and was asked to not buy it by some random picture. So I bought 22 of them. You know, for science. So for anybody who's curious, here is a list of what the Soda does:

- It's supposed to increase stats by 1 and deals damage to your character. BUT!
- There is a missing SE file (Growl.ogg). This is a minor problem that can be easily solved.
- However if the Soda kills you, you are teleported on a blank map called "World", then after you passed the messages of the Soda's effects, you're back to level 1 (possibly with 0 HP). Reusing the Soda at 0 HP, should bring your health back up. You can't move, simply jump and kick, but your kick have no effects and you can't move on with jumps because you have to defeat your enemies first - thing you cannot do in the current state, softlocking the game.

Actually the Soda bug is only dangerous if you let it kill you. The Soda deals exactly 100 points of damage. To avoid it softlocking your game, you simply have to use it while being above 100 HP left.

Now, with curiosity out of the way, let's begin:

- You can kick and jump when you're in the mall, but not punch for some reason.

- Actually, descriptions for items you propose would have been nice. We're kind of invited to buy item without a clue about what it does.


- This is a known problem, but I'm going to say it anyway: after getting defeated and coming back to a previous level, some enemies/bosses of that level and others may be inactive. Common enemies are immune to punches and kicks and bosses are immune to thrown weapons.

- There is also instances where the boss was invisible. In that situation, you will likely be able to stand on the same square and land free kicks on her (you can't hit her with punches) until she dies, she won't be able to respond. As far as I know, it only works on the first boss after you've defeated her a first time when you run for the end of the stage without defeating all her minions.

- Some messages also feature typos.


- After dying, you are briefly teleported on the level where no enemies are active. It only last a short moment before you get teleported back to the actual playable level. However during that period, you can open the menu and access the options from where you can edit the UI. Something tells me the player is not supposed to be able to do such a thing.


- The battle system would deserve to be more fleshed out. There is no parry, there is no counter, the AI mindlessly go towards you, fights are stat fights, bosses are HP bags... I know, it's still a beat'em up made on RPG Maker, and for that I congratulate you for being brave enough to dare going so far with this engine. And I think, yes, you can do anything you want, and that's why I strongly invite you to go further with it.

Well... This is what I had to say. If you intend to make it a full-fledged bug free game, I'm looking forward to it, this is interesting. Anyway, best of luck for your projects! ^^

Developer(+1)

Hey I LOVE this review thanks for all the awesome feedback! :D

If you liked my sorry version of a super awesome classic game you should definitely try out the game it's based off of.  Making it for the jam was something of a parody. It's called River City Ransom (one of the best games to ever exist) it was on the NES, I bet you could find an emulated version pretty easy.

Yeah, the soda is very jank.

I couldn't get rid of the bugs before the time ran out, but since the game was just for fun and I can't be officially graded, I decided to upload it anyway.

So, yeah, the lack of item descriptions was part of the parody, the original game had many items, but not a single description.

As for the AI, it's not too far off (definitely a little worse) than the game it was made to copy. If I wanted to expand this game I would just code it and not try to use an engine like rpg maker haha.


Again thank you for the amazing feedback! :D

Submitted

Yeah, your entry made me think about a game, but I forgot its name. ^^; The Switch proposes to emulate the game, having the console and the access to the feature, I could try out River City Ransom which is, indeed, a neat game.

Yeah, if I remember correctly you managed to send your game for the jam juuust in time, right?

Ah I see. But I think it's still a waste, this is an aspect you could have used to improve from the source material. But I understand your point of view.

About the AI, enemies in the original game didn't got stuck to you like glue to optimize their damage, some wait for an opportunity to strike or surprise like when you turn your back on them for example. River City Ransom also had varied enemies that could come to you armed. You could them disarm them to equip yourself and have an advantage against them in retaliation making each of them a little more unique and bring something new to the player to toy with.

Also, if you mean to expand your game in the end, it's perfectly fine to use an engine. It's just that RPG Maker... isn't exactly... made... for that. ^^;

You're most welcome! Despite all the flaws and oversight it can have, you did a good job on your entry. I enjoyed it. ^^

Submitted

I was amused, the obvious nod to one of my favorite games of all time was a great start. The story was amusing, and the characters were great. The game play was interesting but crazy buggy. With one exception every single boss just stood there and let me beat them, and the exception was one boss was invisible and I had to leave the screen and come back to hit her. I still really enjoyed it, wagging my boots at someone and hurting them was too much amusement.

Developer(+1)

Cool, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself.

Yeah, it turned out to be a buggy mess, which is why RMMV and ABS are a bad idea lol. I'm sure with enough time, the bugs can be resolved, but is it worth it?

Submitted

Enjoyed mowing down mobs with punch and boot graphics. Makes me curious about the ABS too. Confused about the ultimate looking attack I bought for 800 moneys. Did it do anything? Fun that the items were mysterious and did a variety of things. Of course the Hoagie and Tea were the best.

Developer

It all happens kinda fast so it's hard to tell, but it makes it so you attack 3 times.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, did you pick up and throw any weapons?

Submitted(+1)

I used a rock and a fish! I should have checked for more throwables though.

Submitted(+1)

Oh, I forgot my favorite thing, which is that the text sound is all punches. That was extremely satisfying.

Developer

Lol, that's cool, I'm glad you like it :D

Developer

DON'T BUY THE SODA, IT'S BUGGED ><

Um, was pretty fun although I am a huge "wasd" movement fan so arrow keys for movement give me trouble. I was "doing it" till I got to the vendor and I think maybe I got "hungry"??? Anyway kept getting...

Fail to Load: audio/se/growl.ogg

Still fun and very creative. REALLY want to learn ABSystems next!

Um, was pretty fun although I am a huge "wasd" movement fan so arrow keys for movement give me trouble. I was "doing it" till I got to the vendor and I think maybe I got "hungry"??? Anyway kept getting...

Fail to Load: audio/se/growl.ogg

Still fun and very creative. REALLY want to learn ABSystems next!

Developer

Yeah the soda is bugged, I didn't expect it to be a hot item LOL! It's actually a troll item and does damage instead of healing you. =P

Yeah totally noticed but the growl was what bit me:

Developer

***WARNING IF YOU FIND AN ENEMY JUST STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN DOING NOTHING, THROW SOMETHING AT IT, IT SHOULD KILL IT**** Not bosses though, just punch them, lol.

Submitted

Ok first run I HAD to dash and die into the pole. Second run I advanced like, 3 streets, bought a lot of items and then you I got stuck. The red haired dudes wont move and you cant kill them thus you cant advance.

It was fun though, im not used to ABS on Mv. Please bring the menu back after item consumption, it is a pain to open the menu and use an item when you have like 10 or so.  But great job,  it was fun and the boots (kick) icon was cleaver.

Oh, the game is missing the growl.ogg (I dont know why it isnt there since it is rtp so it beats me how it got lost haha.) and the boss where the silver hair dudes are, is missing its walking sprites.

Developer (2 edits)

Yeah... I couldn't completely squash that bug before I ran out of time, lol. If you throw a weapon at it, that should fix it.

Thank you for playing! :D

And oh yeah, the growling SE, for the soda... shoot. Le sigh... lol

Submitted

Ah, that makes sense, since I used the Soda and IT KILLED me, so I restarted and then the bug appeared.  Well you should continue it like a side project.

Developer

LOL! That goes to show you shouldn't be drinking soda :D :D I'm surprised you found that so fast lol!