Bone Appetit

First off, I love the artstyle and super f with the music... feel like people aren't appreciating the soundtrack (funky post punky shi instead of same old chiptune). Gameplay wise, I really like how weak I started out vs how much stronger I got... I almost quit at the beginning because I was dying so much but that's what made finally powering up feel so good. In the later game, some of the solutions to the "puzzles" or secrets were really obtuse and I had to look at a map. Which is fine. I did find the majority of secrets on my own. Final boss was a sponge and I didn't quite use my brain so again I had to watch a video online to see what to do... maybe I'm dumb but I would've liked maybe a bit more hint. Wasn't able to afford the red helm and ran out of food on the map, would've liked to have seen what that did but oh well. Really hope the creator of this game makes more of this kind of thing. <3

Really liked this. Found some of the controls a bit tricky e.g. double jump. Loved the artwork/style

Short little metroidvania with a strong emphasis on exploration and plenty of chances for sequence-breaking. Also, great music and bad humour

Don't see a lot of discussion about this Metoidvania and that is a shame, I really enjoyed my time with it and I like more people to experience it for themselves. I own a lot of games on Steam and most of them have a hard time keeping my attention, this is one of those games that I could not stop playing until I finished it.

ゲーム序盤で手に入る鞭の説明文に「シモンの」（悪魔城の彼ですね）と書くなどギャグ要素が多く見られますが、探索とアイテム入手の繰り返しで行動範囲の広がりと自キャラのパワーアップが楽しめる、至って正統派なメトロイドヴァニアです。 武器の種類が豊富で、敵によって効果に差が出る工夫もよくできています（例：昆虫や寒冷エリアの動物は、剣よりも松明の炎のほうがダメージを多く与えられる）。 日本語非対応のためとっつきにくいかもしれませんが、開発者や有志の方が作成されたアイテムの説明やマップがガイドにあるので、翻訳ツールに掛けながら遊んでみてはいかがでしょうか？ （追記） プレイ時間はVanilla Mode（ノーマルモード）を3回、Old School Mode（ハードモード）を1回クリアした結果です。 マップを作りながら進めていたのでだいぶ時間が掛かっていますが、1回あたり3～4時間でクリアできる内容だと思います。

For a short indie Metroidvania, it's surprisingly interconnected and non-linear, lots of good secrets, a huge cache of equipment for all sorts of situations, the potential to sequence break, and a fair amount of quirky stupid humor. At first it started off difficult, dying in but a few hits and the black knight boss being invulnerable from the front and immediately doing an unavoidable attack when hit from behind. But as soon as I bought the shield from the early shop to block the counterattack the fight was significantly more manageable. Later bosses all have some sort of "equipment weakness", although I ended up getting enough health to just facetank my way to victory also (except the final boss). However there are a few minor rough edges, although somewhat expected for an old-school retro. I couldn't find an option to remap keyboard controls in-game or change the in-game volume, and some platforming aspects are a bit janky. Overall a very solid game and lots of replayable potential.

It's a relatively short metroidvania for those who prefer to memorize the game world and who appreciate replaying a game and taking new paths through it. It has a crude comedic tone, which didn't sit well with me overall but wasn't particularly intrusive either, and not much of a story or ending; it's more of a gameplay first experience. In terms of exploration there are various progression options and decent navigation challenges but also many false walls with no clue to their existence, and you'll need to be patient early on as movement starts off slow and you might run into several difficulty spikes. I would recommend looking up how to get the dash move early to be honest. + Dash ability which lets you run across spike beds and jump after falling/running off of a ledge (see DKC or ball jumping in Metroid 2). With the right gear you can also dash into some smaller enemies to kill them instantly Comedic tone Play as an undead skeleton Enemies tend to be weak to specific weapons Some teleporters, Some shortcuts are opened up over the course of the game Some good bosses (the templars - use the environment (also used vs the final boss), necro (vampire), ) Decent variety Blocking (press down after getting the shield - Monster World IV) - can't move while using it though Some decent spatial awareness puzzles Unlockable new game+/old school mode (draining HP outside of the homebase, save points don't heal, 2x food found+you start with accumulated food from the previous playthrough, cultist shop - buy anything found in the normal mode+some other items, no fountain upgrades) Fairly large arsenal of weapons (15 although some are very similar) - three of them can be upgraded at hidden fountains +/- Partially non-linear structure (can beat the first three bosses in any order - giant bat is tough though, beating the giant bat lets you explore the underground including the hidden area within the cultist homebase, blue rod (dark underwater part) lets you get to the secret shop early) More open-ended old school mode since you can buy the fire protection amulet (which opens up the path through the oven), the helmet and/or the master key before beginning Only one save slot (and you delete it before starting old school mode) ​Frequent save points (which are also healing points) early on. A bit less frequent after the first few Very crude humour Pretty steep difficulty curve (grinding a bit for food (which is your currency) and finding the whip helps as you can then upgrade your DEF) No dodge move Shows enemy names and HP Odd high jump in that horizontal length isn't increased Beating bosses early on doesn't lead to getting a progression item or a crucial path opening up Stat upgrades Health and food drops from enemies are pretty rare Kinda slow movement before getting the dash although if you know where it is you can get it pretty early Can't carry healing items for later use Flip screen/multi screen (no scrolling) Borrows the using frozen enemies as platforms from Metroid Pretty easy final boss if you get the best gear+the frog (faster MP regen) and flood the room (requires a bit of food grinding unless you skip some mid-game gear amd you'll probably have to use a guide to find all the false walls unless you want to push against every wall in the game). Kind of easy late game overall Old school mode seems harder (depending on what you bought at the cultist shop in the beginning) however you can easily grind for health on the first few screen next to the homebase using the red armor+dash (lets you dash into rats and bats to kill them instantly)+necklace that lets you regain health when killing enemies quickly. So if you got the mace from the shop you can take your time to get all the other upgrades and just get a somewhat harder final boss (or not harder if you grind until you have 350+ HP) - Some control/interface issues (overly basic map - only shows the basic room layout+castle exits and where you are (also can't place markers or notes on it), high default jump height, can't crouch, can't examine items before buying them in shops, no button config - using a controller means having to use the stick to move rather than the d-pad, can't light up your surroundings with the torch while wielding a weapon - see Zelda 3 for example (however if you get to the secret shop early you can buy the helmet there and it has the same function), pressing down while standing next to a ladder at the bottom of it makes you grab it, ) Enemies not being hit stunned+randomized damage means it's easy to get hit by mistake even by early enemies - also can't jump cancel your attacks so for fast enemies you might have to soak the hits Not very good humour overall Some trial & error (you should not deposit food early on - use it to buy useful items, use a guide to determine which are useful, some false walls without clues) Can't grab the museum area ladder in mid-air after gaining the high jump - EDIT: This is by design as mentioned below, however it looks unfinished when you can clearly see your avatar reaching it Difficulty spikes in the hidden underwater area once you reach the jellyfish and at the giant bat boss Easy and slow creeper boss (just get above him and use the whip and shield) - also no health refill or save point nearby after it so you need to backtrack if you want to save Some tedious aspects (various temporary dead ends in the early-mid game, some boring backtracking (long fall after the creeper boss that the game goads you into - leads to the beginning of the game (you should instead go right and down here to get the dash), old shops never restock so you need to memorize which ones have what you want+backtrack to them, some other similar falls), some spongy enemies like the mages and red knights, can't ash while underwater - overly slow horizontal movement) A few annoying sfx The yellow magic rod kinda sucks (by design it shoots in a completely different direction from time to time and it's also pretty slow to use) - EDIT: It can be upgraded and I did find the upgrade, sorry I forgot to mention this! A bit short (less than 4h, about 1,5h if you know where to go) Not much of an ending Bugs: -Some minor hit detection bugs around walls - can make you slowly climb walls when jumping into them -Occasional control bug where you won't jump if you're holding dash and standing on a single tile wide platform

A decently small but complex metroidvania. It has a good retro feel that doesn't hold your hand, so it's up to you to figure out the next step or find a walkthrough. Much like other retro inspired games it suffers from unfortunate sound design, but it's not so bad that I wouldn't recommend picking up this indie gem.