It works. Note that the integer values are stored as 2n+1 in some versions of RPG Maker. I believe it's done that way in XP, VX, and VX Ace. No clue about MV.
Say your HP is 31. 2*31+1 = 63, so that's what you need to search for in CE or other tools.
NFI why it's represented that way, but this will hopefully save you some shitty grinding.
Another way to cut to the meat of what you're looking for is to decrypt and extract the game assets, make a project file in the game directory, and open the game up in the appropriate version of RPG Maker, and then make event menus to skip to scenes of interest.