MZ - Bone Idol: A Game of Bones (2024 Edition) + New OST!

​

ESCAPE YOUR GRAVE​

PUT ON YOUR BEST BONES... ​

AND GET READY TO PARTY​

I had a lot of fun with this game! It felt very video game-t in a good way.
The writing and jokes were definitely the strongest part of the game. Not every single joke landed, but for the most part, I enjoyed reading the dialogue.
The gameplay-cutscene balance was great as well. I would definitely leave it as-is.

The UI was fine and accomplished it's purpose. A little more flair might be nice, given the Halloween theme, but I understand wanting to avoid looking tacky.
I thought that your use of the RTP was great as well. I'm always put on edge when I see RTP, but this was one of the legitimate uses, and there were a ton of edits and custom stuff as well.
Everything looked good together, and didn't appear to be mismatched.

Having the sound effects set lower by default was a good decision. A lot of the time they can be pretty obnoxious, so this was a nice change.
The music was nice, but at times could be a little quiet.

The combat was pretty simple, but quite fun. I really liked the trap skill, because you could set it up behind an enemy and than push them into it with the other character.
In general, it felt balanced. I will say it would have been fun to have a boss (and maybe there is one later) that forced you to use the "move" command.

I loved all the little sidequests and interactions. I spent a lot of time just exploring and talking to people.

The puzzle section was fun. I will admit I got stuck on the SKELETON puzzle, but I did figure it out, and it did feel pretty good.
The witch's hut part with the chests was a bit frustrating, as it was mostly just trial and error. It was also difficult to remember, so it took a lot of tries.

I stopped at the insta-death stealth section with the eyes. That kinda stuff can be a dealbreaker for me, lol. I tried like 20 times, but I couldn't get farther than the third screen before I was sent back to the start. I would tweak that section a bit.

Hey Tridium!

Thanks so much for playing and for taking the time to share your thoughts. I really appreciate it!

I'll for sure make some tweaks in the next update to tone down the stealth section a bit based on your experience.

Just so you know, there's a clue to the witch hut puzzle on the signpost near the first chest... No trial and error needed ;)

Thanks again for checking out Bone Idol and good luck in your future projects.

Ah, thank you for the correction. I guess I just missed it.

Just a quick question before I go any further.
I seem to be unable to choose which enemy I attack. Have I overlooked something obvious?
Thanks.

EDIT
As I mention in the review, seeing that you don't come to the forum very often I decided to go ahead without that information.

In the main I enjoyed playing this. The mapping was well done, the music fitted extremely well and gave the right tone for the game. Dialogues were well written, with plenty of jokes without it becoming too much – a difficult balance to strike.

The combat was fine apart from one point which definitely detracted. I could not find a way to choose which enemy to target. I left a query on the thread, but when I saw you didn’t come to the forum often I decided to carry one. This inability resulted in me dying unnecessarily. I wanted to target the enemy which inflicted sleep, but couldn’t. Before I’d defeated the front row enemy, Ossian was asleep so I was on my own, and then I was put to sleep as well. The inevitable happened as although taking damage woke me up, I was instantly put to sleep again.

Only having one revive item – I may have missed another – again gave me another game over. Bones died. I revived him with 10 HP. The enemy had the next turn and killed him again. With nothing left to revive a second time, Ossian couldn’t hold his own against 2 enemies and went down as well. As candies only give 10HP, which was the only healing drop I had, I wonder if you might consider giving the player a second revive? Being sent right back to the beginning is a bore, unless one uses a save nearer the moment of defeat, but that wouldn’t necessarily deal with this problem. If I’m low on HP exactly the same thing could happen again.

The puzzles were fun. I even managed to get the puzzle to open the door which in turn opens the tree for the skeleton key. Normally I struggle with this one and usually end up just choosing randomly until something happens, but this one I could work out quite quickly.

I had to bail out on the stealth section, I just couldn’t complete it, which was a shame because I was looking forward to playing further.

Hey Kes,

Thanks so much for checking out Bone Idol. (And sorry for missing your earlier messages - I've been away for work and only now back to check messages!)

Really glad you enjoyed your time in the game. Based on your feedback:

• If you have a melee weapon equipped (or no weapon), you can only target enemies on the front row. There are ways to manipulate this, such as by using Priss and the 'Fetch' Trick, but it's intentional that distant enemies can usually only be targeted with ranged Tricks and weapons. I'll try and find a way to highlight this in-game so that it's clearer for future players.
• I'll definitely tone down the stealth in the next update (Tridium also mentioned this).
• I can add some extra revives in the early game. The Trick 'Up All Night' is your friend for healing in-battles too; the candies are mostly best used between fights when you can eat a whole bunch.

I might make a little walkthrough video for the stealth section and post here.

Thanks again for playing Kes, it means a lot. Happy Dreadballing!