It's an interesting game, but the fact that you can't manually save or run or change the text speed isn't fun.
If encounters don't give exp or items, it nudges the player to avoid combat when possible.
Viewing post in Harold In: Survivor's Guilt comments
Thanks for playing! It’s a shame that some of the design ended up making the experience less enjoyable for you, but everything (other than the lack of a text speed option - which is unfortunately just a limitation with how the speed is set in the textbox) is very much an intentional part of the design.
The game was designed without saving from the very beginning, as the core concept of the game looping with different art & dialogue upon death doesn’t work with the ability to save & load repeatedly.
Avoiding combat where possible is also the intended way to play. Originally every encounter was only going to happen once each, and be completely forced, but then that would’ve left the maps lacking in gameplay & I figured puzzles would’ve taken away from the tone, so additional roaming encounters were added specifically as obstacles to be avoided.
I didn’t add a sprint (not default in RPGMaker 2003) and slowed down the movement speed - partially for the sake of pacing and atmosphere, but also to make avoiding encounters more of a deliberate challenge.