History VideoGame / Holdover

* MortonsFork: Much of the game’s high difficulty is due to it being very timing-based to keep you on your toes of having to avoid more than one form of death simultaneously. For example, there’s a room where Marie has to crawl underwater in order to avoid a long row of searchlights from security lasers. [[OxygenMeter If she keeps her head underwater for too long, she’ll drown]], but if she chooses the wrong time to bring her head above water to catch a breath, she gets vaporized by [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]], instead. [[https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/100315147 An 2022 art commission was requested to illustrate the tension of this further]].

* {{Retraux}}: The game's retro graphics were intentionally made to resemble the graphics of computer games of TheEighties and TheNineties, such as what can be found on the UsefulNotes/{{MSX}}. This also extends to the ambient music that plays through nearly the whole game, as it wouldn't sound too out of place from ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid''. [[WordOfGod Fox]] even stated that that the game was designed to be as if it were made in 1994, the same year that ''Super Metroid'' made its debut and further [[TropeCodifier codified]] the {{Metroidvania}} sub-genre it established that ''Holdover'' bases itself on.

** The Japanese version of the game, including [[https://image.ibb.co/cRct2A/next-projs.jpg this Japanese pre-release image]], outright states that this swimsuit is just for medical purposes and is completely useless for protection, at least against the SpikesOfDoom and [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]], that is. Better than sticking with the white swimsuit, at least, as Marie is just otherwise instantly stripped naked upon [[OneHitpointWonder a just-as-instant death]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: A darker game compared to Fox Eye's previous fare at the time, such as the [[{{Moe}} cutesy]] [[WidgetSeries widget]] PuzzlePlatformer ''VideoGame/AquaCube'', and the SliceOfLife [[BeachEpisode Summer]] AdventureGame that is ''Blue Port''. This game in contrast is a BadFuture SciFi {{Metroidvania}} with gloomy, decayed environments and a sense of loneliness and isolation for its protagonist throughout its entirety, hence its title. Also, besides [[AuthorAppeal drowning]], other things that can kill Marie include being impaled by spikes and shot by security lasers, both of which [[BloodyHorror leave a blood splat behind right as she gets fatally hit]]. All blood spawned from these violent deaths will stay until the game is completely removed from the player's computer, but it can be toggled off, however. [[spoiler: The ending of the game also has Marie describe some rather bleak notes of what has happened to the world during her slumber, but she nonetheless finishes off on an encouraging, if not somewhat [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] note.]]

* OxygenMeter: [[AuthorAppeal The cornerstone of the developer's]] SignatureStyle. At the beginning of the game, Marie starts out with the shortest, and fastest-dropping one out of all of Fox Eye's protagonists due to her condition, and it's completely separate from her [[OneHitpointWonder very fragile]] LifeMeter. If it gets too low while she's underwater, she'll move at a slower pace due to her struggling to hold her breath until she drowns or reaches an air pocket to breathe in. This is the most important feature of the game, as Marie spends ''a lot'' of time underwater. Getting enough blue hearts upgrades the meter, and makes it easier to progress through a majority of the game.

* MortonsFork: Much of the game’s high difficulty is due to it being very timing-based to keep you on your toes of having to avoid more than one form of death simultaneously. For example, there’s a room where Marie has to crawl underwater in order to avoid a long row of searchlights from security lasers. [[OxygenMeter If she keeps her head underwater for too long, she’ll drown]], but if she chooses the wrong time to bring her head above water to catch a breath, she gets vaporized by [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]], instead.

* WalkDontSwim: Marie is known to be the first and only Fox Eye heroine that can't swim, not because she never learned how to, but because she ''literally can't'' [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome due to the weight of the devices on her ankles]]. As stated above, she is forced to walk, crawl, jump, and sink her way through submerged passageways, burning quite a bit of oxygen doing so.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Marie is the first successor after ''Blue Port'''s Rico as an example of this trope within Fox Eye's [[AuthorAppeal subsequently-long list of blonde heroines]]. However, this is initially [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], because her [[IllGirl recovering illness, crippling handicap]], and [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou the nature of her adventure]] has made Marie feel hopeless and wary at first.

* IllGirl: Marie, herself. The reason she was put into the facility in the first place was that so her father could cure her from an accident that put her in a coma 10 years ago. Even after she wakes up in the beginning of the game, she has to wear heavy computer anklets that are meant to repair her organs, and her motor skills have suffered due to being in her sleeping capsule for so long, giving her numb legs and stiff arms that limit her ability to jump and climb. The weight of the anklets also make Marie the only Fox Eye protagonist that [[WalkDontSwim can’t swim]], and she also suffers from having the worst OxygenMeter of any other heroine in the circle. Even after it has been fully upgraded, it still drops at a faster rate compared to other Fox Eye games while moving underwater. Collecting blue hearts, [[spoiler:as well as finding certain upgrades for her legs and arms]], improve Marie’s condition in different ways.

* OxygenMeter: [[AuthorAppeal The cornerstone of the developer's]] SignatureStyle. At the beginning of the game, Marie starts out with the shortest, and fastest-dropping one out of all of Fox Eye's protagonists due to her [[IllGirl condition]], and it's completely separate from her [[OneHitpointWonder very fragile]] LifeMeter. If it gets too low while she's underwater, she'll move at a slower pace due to her struggling to hold her breath until she drowns or reaches an air pocket to breathe in. This is the most important feature of the game, as Marie spends ''a lot'' of time underwater. Getting enough blue hearts upgrades the meter, and makes it easier to progress through a majority of the game.

Find its website [[http://www.foxeye.squares.net/product/holdover/index.htm here]].