Harpy Gaiden

​

Harpy Gaiden is the third installment of the Day in the Life of a Harpy series,
and with it, it brings a whole new story, a whole new character, and the most
refined and fun game to come out of the series to date.

I've spent 4 months straight working on this game, which, with how much I
was crunching time on this, it's kind of harmed me physically.

The development involved a couple dozen people, getting feedback from
testers via discord and whatnot.

More info can be found on the itch.io page.

All funds from this game will go directly into the development of Mugeneko.

Download here

Roast me.
Edit : This was my 413th post ha ha funny homestuck​

 

I won't be able to check it out until tomorrow afternoon, but I'll be able to drop a review on it as I play it!

Also

I've spent 4 months straight working on this game, which, with how much I was crunching time on this, it's kind of harmed me physically.

For the love of Hussie, PLEASE go rest and take care of yourself. A good dev must always take care of themself!

 

Ok, so I played through it and I have several things to point out:
-I was never able to get into the first 2 games but I'll admit this one is much better.

-First thing I noticed is that the game looks really nice, great effort was put into the graphics.

-Some enemies are kinda a chore to fight.

-Now there is a bar for the flying mechanic so I can know how long I can fly.

-The levels are too long. They wouldn't be if something changed at some point but some of the enemy combinations are just repeated and they sure make the game longer but it gets boring quick.

-I would make enemies drop something, weather it's points or a coin it doesn't matter.

-The boss fights are weirdly easy, in some of them you just need to spam the 'x'key, in others you do the same thing but you also keep pressed the up key(difficulty spike right here).

-I frankly think the fact that the spades give you a new piece of health when you reach 100 is kinda stupid, I don't want to stop and collect every single one, how about something else?

-What the fuck is this!?

I gotta be honest though, despite all my complaints, I actually enjoyed playing your game so good job.

 

Okay, so I'm about to play the game right now, and I have a small question to ask you, Jade. Is there a means to support you besides through Itch.io? Cuz I skipped that name your price part entirely for the download, but I do have something to offer.

If I really enjoy this game, I'll donate $20 to the cause and help you with your progress to Mugeneko. And forgive the payback for the Hululu plush. Just feel like helping a fellow game dev out.


EDIT: Okay. I've played the game. I'm probably not gonna play NG+, I fear having to fight Xyssia in a higher difficulty. But uh, have some notes I made along the way while playing it.

Spoiler: Game Notes

Bold indicates reflection on them post-playthrough

- The title song could use a bit of work, as well as some volume cuz it sounds so quiet (my volume is at a high level, too)
That's literally the only music criticism I have here, most of the soundtrack is pretty forgettable, but I do enjoy the songs used in the Dev Corridor and in the final boss' castle.

- So I got in the dev corridor and... I really feel like I wasn't supposed to enter the place

- I'm sure the Jade boss is good, but I really want this to not be accessible from the first level, especially when the Itch.io page tells the player to go look for 6 blades.
I should probably phrase this better, while I encourage the blades to be searched for cuz idk what kind of random macguffins they are, literally the first secret you find is the Dev Corridor rather than a blade, and that would normally be forgivable if one of the blades was a reward for fighting Jade. I had to ask Osky about the whole thing and he said there are none.

Now, I never defeated the boss, but I felt a bit disappointed that that wasn't the case. It really would've been preferred if this easter egg was placed later on in the game rather than right in the first level.

- This turret placement sucks ass

- Bee boss is good

- The pillar here blends in with the foreground a bit too much

Now this irks me, because there are similar pillars that do appear solid against a dark background do turn out to be solid. I'm not a fan of foreground inconsistency.

- Flying skulls passing through this area is such bullshit

This is part of something that does get pointed out later on in my notes, but tl;dr the game needs a ducking mechanic.

- Second boss is wayyyy too easy. Just spam and win

- Xyssia should really use a tell on where she goes after shooting her projectiles, which would really be a godsend for her second phase.
Okay, this is my BIGGEST complaint about this game. All the other bosses, they're either fun to fight or way too easy to fight. Xyssia however, she is not, and it is all because of a huge lack of tell in her teleportations. I think my thoughts spoken on two separate discord servers would speak it better than I would right now, but here's my huge gripe with the Xyssia battle.

She really would've made a pretty fair boss if she has either of the aforementioned nerfs to her battle. It's not fun getting pelted for no reason. This is in a way reminiscent to my complaints to the Naga boss from Harpy 1, but rather than beginner's coding, it's bad boss design.

- Also, as I'm trying to make my way back to Xyssia, I think it's become evident that pressing Down should really make Radi duck rather than look down. It's kinda backwards when Mugeneko allows there for a ducking feature and Harpy Gaiden allows looking down, but is completely useless since the camera's strictly fixed to your movements and the only kind of interactions there are are in-between the levels in the cutscenes. And you don't control Radi during those scenes.
I barely figured out what the looking down is for while I was in the castle, but even then that was only used for one time in the game. And that was for something entirely optional. The game really should benefit from a ducking ability.

- Back to playing it cuz i'm a masochist. No, not that kind of masochist.

- Somehow beat Xyssia first try

- This window should not look like a solid block in the foreground at all

See thoughts on the pillar from the second level.

- 4th boss is such a pushover compared to Xyssia
How is a buff Minotaur girl so easy to defeat? I can understand the battle being brains vs brawn, but I've done so much small brain skills while playing this game that I'm shocked that I still somehow managed to outsmart her.

- 5th stage... Now I've played Harpy 1 before, and there's some platforming there that would really work if this were Harpy 1. However, this game is supposed to be an improvement over an improvement over Harpy 1, and I can say that the old Harpy 1 style platforming does not merge well with Gaiden.
Ahaha, is it weird that I somehow enjoy Harpy 1 over this?

- Harrier too easy

- Found all 6 blades
So what is their purpose, exactly? Because I got no resolution about that after playing. Unless they're actually keys to unlocking NG+

- I love the 6th boss, she's pretty fair
She's probably my favorite boss, not because she's a Dullahan, but she's really threw me for a loop when her second phase started. Her element of surprise was great, and we need more stuff like this!

- Final boss was mehhhh, things got very anticlimatic after defeating her and the credits just roll.
Something tells me this game was rushed, because there's no proper ending to the game. Just a Mega Man 2 style ending (barring the seasonal changes) and the credits rolling. And then there's this cow girl telling me to try again after beating it, which just confuses me even more. Makes me feel like the game is trying to tell me that I'm just wasting my time playing it for no good reason.

So final thoughts on the game... It's average at most, and I feel because of my short lived time in the Xysspon discord server, it kinda feels like a bit of a bummer to play after so many talks about you and everyone talking about working on it. The least I can say is that I gave this game a try. This game is definitely a 6/10, tbh. It's not bad, but there are some parts in it that would really spoil the fun real fast due to a lack of something that the player could benefit from, even in a challenging spot.

Spoiler: BONUS: Boss scores

Stage 1 boss: 6/10
She's a fun, basic boss to fight.

Stage 2 boss: 2/10
While it is an option to fight the boss as intended, the tells are far too slow, and you'd be already done before they can do anything.

Stage 3 boss: 2/10
She really would've gotten a 7/10 if her second phase got fixed, she'd easily make a speedrun/no damage run killer because of this.

Stage 4 boss: 1/10
The falling blocks she makes should have more varied patterns, the sizes just don't matter when they fall in the same positions regardless, just stay still and shoot.

Stage 5 boss: 1/10
Too easy to tank damage and spam at, upon first time playing, I was under the impression that she would aim directly at you since a natural instinct is to fly in the air to evade her, but that illusion is immediately shattered when you find out she always aims up regardless, even if you just stand on the ground and watch her miss.

Stage 6 boss: 7/10
I feel like you've gotten aware of how easy the other bosses are (except for Xyssia because she sucks), and it really felt like this one was easy at first. But then came the actual part of the boss and I had a very good time fighting her. She was still not much of a challenge, but she was the most fun and interesting one of them all.

Final boss: 6/10
Her attacks are very interesting, and actually, I feel this would actually benefit if made in a pseudo-random pattern. Just kinda sucks that after searching for her in 6 stages, there wasn't a proper conclusion after beating her. All the other bosses were given a cutscene, but not this one. Ah, well.

 

Picked it up...
Hey, quite impressive! Enjoyed the secrets... Did something silly on my first playthrough... just... because. Did a "pacifist" playthrough. Only fired at doors, and bosses. That did up the difficulty... (especially those stupid blobs... required near pixel perfect jumps on stage 2...) But, the monsters were thankful in the end. Probably.

Spoiler: random thoughts

Found the secret level... <3... Was that the area that was in a previous game? Hadn't played your previous games, but that battle... was entertaining. (Wonder if it had any effect on the ending or other areas? Red borders?)
Oh and the dagger finale... well played. There wasn't much story, but the ending was satisfying! And to find out there's a +! Whoa! (Didn't read the description before downloading...)

... And so was playing through + and really cutting loose after holding back in New Game. Spared no one... fun fighting... UNTIL I think I forgot a dagger. Reached the boss and it hit me... "I don't think I picked one up! F-" Can't walk backwards to previous areas?! Argh... Kinda annoyed about that, but oookay.
Gotta start over later.

Overall, the classic graphics were great. Though the color scheme in some New Game levels gave me a little issue with determining what was background and what was ground. Nothing too bad, but enough for me to mention. (Probably should have taken a screenshot when I thought that. whoops)
As for + though: looked excellent everywhere and made it easy to determine what was what. Nice.

The spade(?) collectables seemed to be pretty pointless sadly. Errr, I mean the health bonus was VERY NICE in pacifist, so I made an effort to collect every one of them... xD ...But for a normal game, maybe there should be a counter at the end, displaying how many were collected. And a total time? The game moves pretty swiftly, so it could lend well to speedruns. With 100% and any%. Plus every non-boss enemy dies with one hit that I saw. (Well, I didn't actually attack any enemies in New Game lol... But, with + it was one hit kills so far. So probably the same...?) If that info already exists, I feel dumb, and quite tired.

Oh, there isn't an inventory screen right? I wanted to see how many daggers I had picked up, but couldn't check to see if I missed one...

New Game appeared too easy in retrospect, since you could dodge most things. (Oh and the first normal boss couldn't even hit me on the ground...? I just stood there for a while...)
New Game+ seems like the right difficulty, though missing the little bit of story. (I like more story in my games... hint, hint... ) Though, haven't finished + yet. Stopped after the dagger mishap. Looking forward to it later.

The music was good. I just want to sit on the title screen and listen to that one again. <3 Oh and loved the atmosphere of those few build-up sections... Before the big fights. Having zero enemies suddenly, and having unique sights made it fun to explore, wondering what was coming.
I am a little disappointed the uh, secret level boss didn't get an upgrade in + though Was looking forward to a ridiculously hard fight!

Anyway, it seemed polished enough for me to buy after playing it. Take care of yourself, and I hope to play your next game in the future!

 

Is there a means to support you besides through Itch.io?

Right now we are putting all of our itch.io payments to a semi-proper payroll

All funds go straight to the development of Mugeneko, I get none of said funds, I am putting them all directly to the other devs, all that I want is for you guys to spread this game to others, that's all I care about honestly.

Edit:
About NG+ feeling like the proper difficulty, I've gotten that alot since I added it, and I'm going to be keeping that in mind for Harpy 3. I just don't want to alienate casual players, I'm working on a mobile port of Harpy Gaiden that's even easier than the main game as is just because I really want to grab the audience that is most likely to spend money on my game (a.k.a people who like monsta), the issue is, said audience is... usually pretty bad at games, surprisingly.

I'm keeping all of these criticisms in mind, and will likely make a 1.1 that includes tons of tweaks (at least, the ones I can make without rewriting major parts of code, I'm not gonna add in backtracking, but expect that in H3) And I know exactly which areas have a contrast issue in NG+, so don't worry about that.

Again, donations would help me a ton in making Mugeneko and Harpy 3 great products.

Harpy 3 won't come for a long while, but it will be the first Harpy game to be sold properly, and will be polished enough to warrant that.

People in my server have been telling me to focus on Harpy instead of Mugeneko, and I'm ashamed to admit that's a better decision financially, but I'm a stubborn person so I'm going to just grind on Mugeneko once I'm done with the mobile port. About the server, it is now verified, and can be found via the Discord server discovery function!

 

So after some convincing that Jade has spoken in DM, I'm currently playing the game in New Game+.

I'm currently stuck in Stage 3 because while it is a fun stage to play in, the lack of checkpoints is killing me, but so far NG+ definitely has its improvements over Normal mode, which is actually kinda having me questioning why normal mode is worse.

Honestly tho, I completely didn't realize NG+ Stage 3 was completely unique, I was expecting Xyssia at the end, but we got a whole new boss as well! But I digress, as I have yet to beat the boss, so this is where this update is gonna end off so far.

 

I heard people say this game wasn't hard, so I've decided to play it the way it was probably intended.

Like a 4:3 game being played on a 4:1 screen.

Somehow this is playable, haha!

Okay, moving on.

Spoiler

-Okay, looks like we're using GameMaker Studio 2 here?

-These leaves seem to jitter about as they move. I'm assuming this is because you didn't round their positions for rendering them?

-Like the bow as a weapon. Pretty cool.

A few elements of poor design I've noticed so far:
-It was not possible for me to tell that water was a bottomless pit before falling into it.
-What is RADI? Is that my health? I think I lost some when getting hit, but I'm not sure.
-You can't look down in mid-air, and your bow disappears, but you can still aim down and indeed shoot arrows when in mid-air.
-These skulls have enormous red particle trails, which look cool, but are misleading as that part does not deal damage. Only the skull part does.
-The sounds things make on death sounds exactly like the player's hit sound, which makes me very confused when I kill an enemy.

Some good design:
-It was not obvious that I could jump more than once until a ledge at the start that showed me I could double jump. However I didn't see the jump count indicator and I was left thinking that I had a double jump until later a health pickup way up in the air clued me into the fact that I could jump ... 13 times. Reminds me of Moas from the Aether, if you know what I'm talking about.

OK let's keep going.

-First boss down. Basically forces you to fire up, which is good in case you hadn't already figured out how to do that. But nothing very engaging difficulty-wise.

-Is there a point to killing these critters? Some of them don't really pose much of a threat, and they don't even drop anything...

-2nd boss down. See notes above.

-AAA a threatening enem--oh it dies in one hit.

-Yay I got knife #2. Forgot to mention these - what do they do?

-The arrows already render above tiles, but they should probably also render above skull trails so that you can't lose track of them.

-The checkpoint (the tall thing with a fire on it) in this room being all the way to the left might mean people won't find it, because it looks like you're meant to go to the right.

-I made it to the third boss. I have no idea how they hit me, but they killed me...

-Ohhh this bit is actually hard. I like it! I just wish there was a button I could press to reset to a checkpoint when I get hit on my way to the boss! Like in Cave Story.

-OK I manged to get them to 2 points, although it looks like the fight only speeds up from there. I was hoping it would get more complicated too! :0

-Just tried it out to see what would happen when you run out of jumps ... NOTHING! Seriously if I ran out for real I'd be really hard-pressed to tell what was going on. If I were you I'd play a evil-sounding version of the jump sound effect and have the place where the jump-count meter should be flash red.

-Uhh why does this boss teleport on top of me. That's not very fair.

-Who is this girl in the game over screen, by the way? It can't be me, their trousers are much shorter.

-BOSS 3 DOWN! Loved this boss because it keeps you on your toes at all times, and forces you to balance offensive and defensive manoeuvres. It's hard to make a boss completly predictable and still really tough. Unfortunately I think it suffered from a common issue that I also have when making bosses. You have a simple core idea, and you make a couple of attacks ... and after that it's just not obvious where to progress from there, and you're really happy with what you already made, so you just declare it finished. Next time: harder, more complex bosses.

-Wish I could pause.

-Kero Blaster vibes from this sta--AA what was that thing!

-Some of the sprite rotating looks kinda bad. :/

-Boss 4 down. Back to easy town again. Honestly that entire stage felt easier. I thought the last was going to be the final stage because it was quite challenging. I'd probably just switch them.

-Love instantly dying by falling into bottomless pits. -3-

-Okay the game's level design finally decided to test my jumping ability. That was good.

-Returning to checkpoints doesn't heal you again? Guess I'll die.

-Why am I collecting all of these aces? It's satisfying and all, but what do they do?

-Boss 5 down. Cool boss, but I didn't really get to see their abilities much because I was too busy pwning them. They were vulnerable most of the time, and weren't constantly attacking, so I just shot them and tanked their damage.

-OK they heal me. I thought I'd get something for collecting them all, and the yellow things were what healed me... guess I was wasting my time. There is simply no visual connection between the aces and my health. This should speed things up at least.

-There's way too much space between the last checkpoint.

-After trying a few times to get to the boss I made it and killed them easily once I figured out that they don't shoot up like Curly... but then they surprised me with a second form that instantly took half of my health away. Aside from being hard to hit, it also has entirely questionable collision that made me very dead and very not happy.

-Boss 6 down. This has taken way too long. This game has kinda overstayed its welcome in my opinion. I don't want to be a bitch who complains about people putting "too much" effort into things or whatever, but usually I expect to be able to finish a game like this (independently developed, free, bla bla) in one sitting ... and I've been here for nearly 3 hours now.

-Ah good the last stage was very short. The final boss was pretty cool, but wasn't very hard either.

Overall it was a pretty fun game. The music was quite nice, especially. It was very good that enemies were colour coded red, especially when those mines showed up.
I'd say a lot of the elements of the design need work, but it's getting there.

 

Who is this girl in the game over screen, by the way? It can't be me, their trousers are much shorter.

@Luneria2 took some liberties with the character design in her art, I only made some slight adjustments with the sprites when downscaling to make it cleaner and cuter at the lower resolution.

I'll def. add a tell to Xyssia in 1.1, I just kinda expected people to stay on the ground and aim up (like in the final boss)

Also the blades are used for unlocking the true final boss.

Again, if the game felt too easy (or boring) you should try New Game +, according to like, everyone I've talked to, that's the difficulty that makes the game actually fun.

 

Again, if the game felt too easy (or boring) you should try New Game +, according to like, everyone I've talked to, that's the difficulty that makes the game actually fun.

The difficulty was quite up and down. The hardest stage was the 3rd one, and the second hardest was the 6th... then like ... the 5th.
I'm not sure if greater difficulty would really solve the length issue. Unless it gives the bosses extra attacks like in Terraria or something?
Anyway I might play the second quest or whatever the game called it, but didn't feel like spending another 3+ hours on a game that I'd just finished.

 

After screensharing the rest of NG+ to Jade and the other devs, as well as being able to defeat the final boss a couple hours later on my own time, all I can say is, what the hell is Spice up to with the final boss? D:

After reconsideration, thanks to NG+ essentially fixing most nitpicks I had with the game in Normal mode, alongside facing the final boss' second phase as well as the unique stage and boss used for level 3 in NG+, my personal scoring has moved up from 6/10 to 8/10. However, there's one more obstacle for me to come across before I'm officially done with the game. And it's lurking in the comfort of Jade's bedroom...

EDIT: i think i've overhyped the battle by a teensy bit, but what's important is I've completed the game in its entirety. Definitely worth its 8/10, and ng+ made me feel much more satisfied than previously. Definitely worth giving $20.

Spoiler: EDIT: Oh yeah, have this too

Stage 1 boss: 7/10
Definitely a major improvement

Stage 2 boss: 2/10
It's different, but I couldn't figure out the pattern, and I was able to defeat him the same way

Stage 3 boss: 8/10
IT'S NOT XYSSIA!!! *ahem* Seems hard to fight at first, but after Jade's advice, it's definitely very fun to face.

Stage 4 boss: 1/10
Same as in normal mode

Stage 5 boss: 1/10
Same as in normal mode

Stage 6 boss: 8/10
Just as fun, but with a body included!

Final boss: 8/10
So this is the first phase, but the randomness is into effect. But why care about that part when the second phase is a thing? It's very tough, I'm deffo not as much of a fan of bullet hell type games, Sans and Jevil are a good example, but this one is learnable, and with notes I got from screensharing the playthrough, it is easy to get the hang of it all

Spoiler

If I really enjoy this game, I'll donate $20 to the cause and help you with your progress to Mugeneko.

 

Forgot to mention:
I updated Harpy Gaiden, I fixed a few of the issues people had with the game.
(Namely Xyssia not having a tell and the statues being red)
There was also a couple bugfixes.
Alot of the bosses have been balanced to be more fun to fight against.

 

Btw, it appears to crash if you hit Continue before reaching a save point for the first time. (If no save file exists.) So someone just starting the game who falls in a pit near the start, would be greeted with a crash on continue...

 

Btw, it appears to crash if you hit Continue before reaching a save point for the first time. (If no save file exists.) So someone just starting the game who falls in a pit near the start, would be greeted with a crash on continue...

I fixed that issue before 1.0 and I might've broken it before 1.1 ^^"

 

Hey! Just for fun, I replayed and recorded it. No commentary, but if there are any parts you want to see how another player deals with, the whole thing is here:

Spoiler: Spoilers on secrets!

Not sure if the blobs have smaller hitboxes in the new version, or I just adapted to hopping over them? Playing the pacifist was easier this time lol.

Spoiler

Not a true pacifist run... I should have skipped the first boss. I just like that area!

Genocide run! This was the first time I played all the way through this part. Made it to lvl 4 last time before I had to quit, I believe. Rest was new to me~
I kinda wish there was a score like in the games of old. That and a timer or total time tracker. Maybe factor time into score too? Well, just ideas for other games like this.

There were a few things I noticed that I should have written down... Like the sniping boss was too easy if you fought on the ground. The ricochet effect didn't quite work at that angle.
I'll add more if I watch it again~

If I play it again, I'll ignore collecting, and try for speed...

Well, one more time, good game

 

If I play it again, I'll ignore collecting, and try for speed...

I made a few areas have shortcuts, good luck finding them (They're usually above the room offscreen)

Harpy 2's speedruns were insane, so I was motivated by those to make sure this game would be fun to run.



A little update on Harpy Gaiden:

I've been working on porting it to mobile over the past couple weeks, and I may be able to upload to the play store within the next week or two (depending on how slow Google is with making sure my app isn't malicious)

I'm going to set the price for it upon release at $1.50 USD because I need to profit from it somehow, and I do not have the time to put in ads at the moment, and I refuse to be involved with any product that contains microtransactions.

Mobile port works perfectly fine, I've decided to make levels easier in terms of platforming and enemy layout so the players will have more time to react (muh casual audience)

It doesn't include all changes from 1.1 because I started development of the port literally the day of release.

 

Any chance to see the game / games on the Apple store? I’d happily buy the whole trilogy!

 

Any chance to see the game / games on the Apple store? I’d happily buy the whole trilogy!

As cool as that would be, I cannot afford to publish on the App Store, nor can I afford an Apple product to debug on.

For now I'm going to be working with Android because that is what I have readily available.

Edit : 420th post ha ha california

 

As cool as that would be, I cannot afford to publish on the App Store, nor can I afford an Apple product to debug on.

For now I'm going to be working with Android because that is what I have readily available.

Edit : 420th post ha ha california

Heyyyyyyy you want a blind tester? I'm frickin'. .. I'm down.

 

Ah shit.

Here we go again.

Spoiler

Defeated Jade first try, tho :3