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Holo Tactics: The battle for Eden's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #19 | 3.522 | 3.522 |
| Theme | #27 | 3.522 | 3.522 |
| Overall | #34 | 3.217 | 3.217 |
| Gameplay | #40 | 3.087 | 3.087 |
| Ambience | #46 | 3.304 | 3.304 |
| References / Humor | #65 | 2.652 | 2.652 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I got wiped by the pebbles. I think the concept is good but it was a bit hard to figure out the correct tactic.
Lovely puzzle, definitely a 5 on innovation.
Wouldâve greatly benefited from an undo system since early wrong decisions arenât always punished until later, and it takes significant time to test the solution so retries donât feel great.
Nonetheless fun to reason about all through, which is the part that matters!
Iâm a fan of Fire Emblem so I enjoyed the idea of the game, even if I agree with people that itâs more puzzle-like right now. I do understand making an SRPG on a crunch is hard, I have first-hand experience, so itâs cool for what it is. I think the concept of using the rewinds to help snowball the player stats is really interesting. The art and music are nice too.
I didnât end up beating the game though, unfortunately it was grindy to get to a good position to win, and after a few tries even getting to a point where Laplus could kill, I didnât use the plusmates well enough on turn 1 (which I couldnât return to on my final reset) and lost. It felt a bit too punishing for the scope of being a short game for a jam, but I recognize you have plans to change it after. In terms of map design, I think itâs generally solid, but agree that the whole right side of the map is not really doing much right now with how fragile the plusmates are, so I would recommend adjustments there if it wasnât already in the plans.
I also would suggest a confirmation prompt for exiting out of the game, as I lost a run halfway through because I misclicked it instead of end turn.
Great work overall, Iâd like to see the idea expanded on!
Thanks so much! Totally agree with everything. That being said, rather than changing this particular game, I'm feeling more like making a totally new (Hololive) game but with the same mechanical concepts. Just telling you so you don't look forward to this specific game being updated, haha. I learned a lot, so I hope I can create something new and better eventually on my own time. And I will implement your (and everyone's) feedback if I get there!
Thatâs understandable, I look forward to seeing what comes out of a new game then!
Great setting, great pixel art, great mechanics!
I really liked the gameplay and the way you implemented it (ally and enemy placement, for example).
The main puzzle was quite interesting too (having to use the plusmates as decoys), but sadly I didn't get to clearing it. It took me to long to level up La+ and when I finally was about to face Biboo she one-shot me. I was out of rewinds... and also of time (I was using a borrowed laptop).
I think that since La+ only gets her attack upgraded and not her defense or anything else, the rewind limit may not be necessary (maybe a counter of how many times you use it for some bragging rights).
Still, I really liked it and it shows you have a pretty clever tactical mind ;D
Thanks a bunch! Yeah, I'm also starting to think unlimited rewinds might be better, or at least just the option for a casual mode or something. In my efforts to try making something super hard because I was worried it was too short and would be too easy, I think I made it too hard, lol.
definitely a good concept. More in line with puzzles than tactics. At some point I was even doing maths like in Into The Breach.
The story setting is interesting!
I see how you implemented the time limit and the ability to rewind time to "change your fate". Cool!
I also liked the in-game instructions.
I was going to complain about the enemies being too strong compared to my team's squishy little guys, but after reading the comments here I see that the game is not supposed to be played as a tactics game but as a puzzle game.
The game seems to require very precise plays to be beaten. I tried a couple of times but lost my patience.
I wish there was a "story" mode so those of us who just want a casual experience can see what happens at the end of the story.
I also wish there were volume controls.
Good game!
Thank you for the feedback! I agree with everything you said, haha. Hopefully I can make something better down the line!
Ooh, Fire Emblem meets time shenanigans! I love it! The characters are cute, the story is interesting, and it's very impressive you made such a robust Fire Emblem combat system in the game jam. Fantastic work!
The in-game tutorial is greatly appreciated. Always good to have clear instructions for a game-jam game, that's easy to get lost in the rush.
As mentioned, it would be nice if there were more options for how to play. One idea might be something like Plusmate kills increasing La+'s health, while La+ kills increase her damage. Or more variety in allies/enemies.
I hope you had fun this game jam! Thanks for making this!
Lol thanks a bunch, I can't believe I made the combat system either; it was way harder than I thought it would be. I really like the Plusmate kills increasing HP idea! That would be super fun. I also definitely wanted to add more varied allies/enemies. But I had a lot of fun and learned a ton... hopefully I can expand this somehow with my newfound knowledge! Currently working on something bigger with this, but with life and all that, getting lost in the sauce a bit. In any case, definitely gonna do more jams in the future; didn't know they would be such a fun challenge. Thank you for playing and commenting!
Interesting concept. It's kinda strict with how you have to play. La+ only one who can do anything useful. I would make that you can level up others. Also would be great if you show pebble's travel distance.
Totally! Yeah, if I expand this into a larger game, I'd like to make more than just La+ retain her experience. By the way, you can click on the pebbles to show/hide their travel distances!
Really like the concept with this one, I don't think I've seen a puzzle sort of fight done like this before. I do have to echo that it feels a tad too difficult, but clearly you've already been cooking up ideas on that one.
Really like the art and the music, and it would be awesome to see this expanded into a full game with the rewinding and power scaling as the core mechanic. But great work!
Ohhh I get it. This is less of a Tactical RPG and more of a puzzle game. I feel like the goal is to try to find the optimal way to farm EXP for La+ within the 5 turns that you are given. The Plusmates are kinda like pawns in chess, where they're really just there for luring enemies, tanking hits, and soaking up damage.
Once I realized that I think the game made a lot more sense.
However, there are still a few things. I feel like the "solution" to this puzzle appears to be quite strict and you really have to optimize grinding and make the best use of the 5 loops back. You not only do you need to get to her within 7 turns but also kill her as well. Laplus is the only one who can do reasonable damage so you I feel like you really need to get enough to kill her in roughly 3 hits. That's actually pretty strict as far as grinding goes.
Because of this I feel like the punishment for failing is too severe. A big part in puzzle games Is to be able to try out things and see whether it works until you figure out the puzzle.
I just got to the part where I could kill Laplus in 3 turns but then accidentally left Laplus vulnerable and she died. This made me have to start from the very start. I feel like a retry function that starts you a little less far back would do wonders for this game. Maybe to the start of the last turn.
In addition, there is no undo otpion if you accidentally place a unit in the wrong spot, which makes the game quite unforgiving.
Besides that, good job with sprite work and music!
Definitely! And thanks for the feedback! I went into this trying to make something more like a tactical RPG, but when I realized I'd only have a single map, I decided to make it a super difficult tactical "puzzle" for the jam instead. If I were to expand this, I'd be toning it way down and making it more of an actual RPG. For the game as it is right now, I agree with everything you said!
I wrote my comment while super sleepy and just reread it. I am surprised you were able to parse my ramblings. So many typos....
Cute sprite work, very charming!
The difficulty for this is quite high. I think it would've been nice to have the plusmates not be as squishy as they felt more like a body shield that baits the enemies then dies. I'm always a fan of tactics type games and you did a good job implementing the system in two weeks.
Totally valid, thank you! I agree. Toward the end of the jam, since I only had one map, I just decided to make it more difficult so it felt more like a challenge. If I were to add more maps or expand this, I'm totally toning it down lol.
Neat game! I think there's some fairly interesting emergent strategy in it, like the fact that its optimal to always wait with your guys when they're full HP and only attack when they're 1hp. The reason is simple, they can only ever get 1-2 attacks off (unless they kill with an attack but you will always rather let La+ do that), so if they attack ever at full hp, they will be left low hp and will die without getting their attack off. If you just wait next to the enemy and they hit you, then you will be able to hit them back and guarantee your 2 attacks.
Yup, I liked the game theory for this game too! Spent like two hours optimizing the first two time reversals to make La+ as strong as possible
That was so hard... was so close to losing (3 hp left). Neat game!
Woohoo! ăăă§ă¨ăďźI'm glad the difficulty seems to be about where I wanted it, heh. Impressive that you ended up with a Plusmate up there. Good job!
Really fun game! I didn't manage to beat biboo but i was really close to xD Though the 3 Plusmates on the right feel kinda useless being there with 2 pebbles guarding them, especially since they can't really deal damage on their own, so wasting turns to free them is kinda worthless.
Very true! I was wondering about that during development, haha. Thanks so much for the comment and feedback, and super glad you found it fun!
I didn't use them at all the first few loops while I was grinding La+. However during the final few loops I thought they were pretty nifty to lure pebbles around to different places.