Happy Bones

An interesting and ambitious RPG Maker game. I also had a problem with the recent patch and the developer was very lovely and got back to me post haste.

WOW. I've played ALOT of indie rpgs (also rpgmaker games) in my lifetime, and this one is the most unique I've played. The art style is very interesting; reminding me of early deviantart art in the 2000's (in a good and nostalgic way). Even though, yes, some may say the art style is crude, there is obvious love and care put into everything drawn. It gives the game a special identity (which makes sense why the creator has indirectly retconned the second game in terms of its' design; is nothing like the original). The story is the second thing in the spectacular trinity of the game's identity. Without spoiling, I will say that there are specific details put everywhere that adds depth and importance on the lore. I'm honestly blown away at how interesting and vast the story can be expanded upon, and I hope that the remake of the game does just that. The third and final part of the Happy Bones identity trinity that I have some love and dislike towards is the gameplay. It's nothing special in terms of rpg terms, but the varying gameplay styles between all the classes are very good. The brave is the brute class, with everything being focused on damage. The occultist is your obvious mage class, with high magic damage but low health. Your holy is the defensive class, with buff and debuff utility. The burglar is the dodge tank, who attacks twice and has the ability to steal items. The final class is the fool (personal favorite), who is a mix of a dodge tank and the occultist. They have the highest damage output in the game with their juggle ability, but you have to be very wise with your mana. The part of the gameplay I dislike is the format; it can become a little tedious. Debuff the enemy, buff yourself, attack, then repeat. This isn't a singular issue with Happy Bones; this is an issue I've faced with many jrpgs and rpgs over the years. However, I will say that Happy Bones tackles this issue the best way it can by making all of the classes special and fun to play. DOUBLE HOWEVER... I can't say the same about Hell mode.... Hell mode is my least favorite part of the game. Essentially, take the base game and make it EXTREMELY difficult. Some class that were able to function well in the normal game almost can't anymore. The holy class does 0 damage to all enemies in the early game and gets mauled by everything. The occultist gets two to three-shotted by some enemies in the same turn. While it does feel unfair but not necessary like Hell Mode. I don't think a true hard mode making exp and money low and enemies hit harder; that just gives the player more chores in terms of grinding. Maybe I'm just getting bad at rpgs and my way of optimizing efficiency in higher difficulties; but I still think that the holy class doing 0 damage is bad design in hell mode. I still haven't finished hell mode, my run is stuck at the third boss at the orphanage. I do hope Hell Mode gets smoothed out in the remaster. For the too much didn't read section: Happy Bones is a gem. It deserves coverage and I hope the creator continues to make installations and improvements. I want to make a video series on the remake whenever it comes out because there needs to be more coverage of the games overall. The final thing I want to mention before I finish this review is that the creator is a sweetheart. He always communicates with the community on steam and twitter; and will give fans who own the first game a steam code for the remake whenever it comes out.

I've only begun to scratch the surface of this game and I love the atmosphere and the enemy designs. I would have liked a better explanation of what each character is like going in. I chose The Fool and I feel like I may want to restart. Great game so far though.

It's obvious a lot of care went into this. The art style is simple, amusing, cute and grotesque. A solid amount of side content. Fairly interesting storyline. I'm not a fan of JRPGs and yet I enjoyed Happy Bones quite a bit. Even though it's horror themed I couldn't call this neither scary nor creepy though. First time playthrough: 4 hours 12 minutes 7/10

Si estas leyendo esto, cómpralo, simplemente cómpralo. Acabas de encontrar una joyita oculta de los videojuegos, algo bastante especial, no lo dejes pasar. Vale el precio completo, que es bastante bajo también. No quiero entrar en detalle porque no quiero spoilear, es algo que es mejor que experimenten por su cuenta. Si en algún momento fueron o siguen siendo fans de los juegos indie RPG de horror que llegaron a ser muy populares años atrás esto es un must play. El arte puede que no le guste a algunos, pero tiene un charm que le agrega a la atmosfera bizarra que tiene el juego, no se dejen influenciar solo por eso. También disfrute bastante de la historia y de la música, es de esos juegos donde no puedes parar de jugar solo para ver que fumada te encuentras después. Por lo que vi a los devs se ve que les importa mucho el juego y aprecian a sus jugadores. Se comunican abiertamente y con entusiasmo con los jugadores, el juego recibió un episodio DLC gratuito, varios updates de balance, y justo hace dos días acaba de recibir otro update con la clase nueva "The Fool" (Que encontré bastante entretenida de usar) cuando estaba en medio de mi primer playthrough. A devs como esos dan ganas de apoyarlos. Estoy interesado en ver como sigue todo en Infernal y en ver que mas produce Frosted Fears en general. Si tienes dudas de si comprarlo o no, solo lánzate, no te vas a arrepentir.

[b]TL;PR[/b] Happy Bones to me is one of the best hidden 2D Rpgs Ive found in a long time. It has great exploration, a bit of a mysterious factor, speedy gameplay, customizable classes, a story that may even have more to it (in da future mon), and Secrets! Oh my days...the secrets... So play it if you like those things too. Now that you've skimmed over my TL;PR comment, please feel free to check out more of this other crap I deigned to write about below. [b]Gameplay[/b] The best part(s) about Happy Bones gameplay is it's ability to let you flow thru battles after you understand it's available classes in a first person Dragon Warrior-esque style, the environment, and the exploration. These are the biggest parts of the gameplay. As stated above, the battles are done in 1st person view ala Dragon Warrior. In older versions of the game, the battles only showed graphics accosting the monster the protagonist was facing, but after some time, Frosted Fears updated their craftiness, and decided to put in, in game animations for each classes' various attacks(very nice touch). Things like this to me are reminiscent of Dragon Quest/Warrior 3 on the Snes, and I personally cannot remember any jrpg lovers hating on animations in 1st person view battles. (Bark out to Phantasy Star on Genesis!) When you're not facing random battles (yes they be random), you'll be slowly walking around in the world exploring and trying to get those sweet sweet secrets, treasure chests, or lore. 😮 The game has a lot of random secrets, and as long as you pay a small bit of attention to some of the lore you can usually find the secrets or just mash your button along every wall to find them. (Kidding...or am I?) I do know some of the exploration stuff requires you to pay attention to where you are in the game, so it seems like once you hit specific story/boss milestones that's where some things may change or become available so don't be afraid to (slowly) walk back to a previous location to see if anything has changed. The point above regarding milestones also applies to buying stuff in shops too. And of course there are the classes. To keep it short and sweet, each class has it's own playstyle which makes the game shine with said classes' individual skills. I myself love min maxing in single player rpgs, especially when the party is small. (My dream parties' size in all (j)rpgs is like 1-3 people) And Happy Bones fits that bill with it allowing you to play as the bad arse single party lady Laura who goes recking shi* in the whole Mansion? I cant tell how big the place is. 😁 I got a chance to try various playstyles with the classes and found my favorites quickly, based on a combination of my exploration, grind/battle styles, and equipment swapping. I was quite pleased on those bits of replayability, and options overall. Hopefully you will be too! As a side note keep in mind secrets you find in the game also only help specific classes, so there is an incentive to play through the game numerous times just to test out the various types of gameplay... and maybe even see if you can find extra stuff you weren't able to access before! [b]Story[/b] The story finds Laura looking for her fam after they told her to come visit cause of reasons, and she arrives to find they are not right at the front door welcoming her and asking where the heck she's been. Being the non hesitating person she is, she says fudge it and starts to explore the big mansion(?), and gain powers like it was an everyday thing in her world, and beat on people like its a blackjack table she's never lost at. That's pretty much it without spoiling stuff 😂. The game does set it self up for a sequel which by the time you may be reading this might be the case. I personally didn't mind the simplicity of the story, but for those looking for something deep, please look elsewhere. This game is definitely all exploration and gameplay. There are of course some beginning, mid, and end game big cutscenes which delve more into the initial reason for Laura's visit, but the meat of the game... our lovely protagonist doesn't say anything. She just encounters stuff, and rolls with the punches. By the time the end of the game comes, is the only time where you're like wowie... Some emotion... Not a bad thing unless you love character growth...(which we all do) [b]Aesthetics[/b] The art style looks pretty damn good for the simplistic style the game is going for. At least it's not generic rpgmaker default art, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. I personally loved the monster assets, our protagonists' art, and all the boss/mob styles. Whoever did the animations for normal and boss battles hit it on the mark. I can still only think once again they got inspired by Dragon Quest 3 or other similar first person type games where less is more to a specific degree, but you put just enough to make people go oh snap!!! I wasn't expecting that (animation)... 😊 To add on to the above, the horror style fits specific parts of the environment with color where it's needed for gore, and dreary or dark where you can't see anything! No complaints here. But I'm a person who can see all the colors too! :P [b]Misc[/b] Music was preetty damn good too, and catchy. There were more than a few times I stopped, and just let the music play without a boss battle interrupting it. Whoever did the music or wherever it was pulled from, do that type of style or something similar to it again. And for the love of all Happy Bones, get some good marketing for music and everything! [b]Overall[/b] This game is one of my top random arse Indie RPG games (double G). I try and tell patient people to try it out when I can, and when I'm not "Hacking the Gibson", I try and go back to play different styles/classes and write down notes on them. The game isn't super long but each play thru for the classes should be about 5-7 hours (YMMV), depending on how a person(you) rolls, or if they get nuked immediately. [b]Pros:[/b] ~Quick Combat ~Great exploration/environment ~Secrets to find ~Classes' available skill's playstyle ~Music is awesomsauce ~Post Final boss gameplay ~Difficulty Mode options ~Multiple playthroughs allow more secrets uncovered, and different playstyles [b]Cons[/b]: ~Slow Walking (way too slow) ~Save anywhere not available till later ~Story lackluster ~Game too short (cause I'm greedy) ~Not more locations to explore ~Some secrets are too hidden, requiring luck to find them [b]TL;DYDR[/b] If you want a good, smooth explorative horror type (Indie) Rpg, I personally don't think you can go wrong with Happy Bones, Play it right meow! And the Alpha DLC! And the upcoming Sequel! Indie Rpg Score: 7.9123/10 (Don't you dare round up) 😲

funky lil game with an epic soundtrack and an interesting plot

a simple game short sweet and to the point

I like the unique classes in this game, the save system is a bit painful (have to repeat lots of progress after dying) so this game isn't for me, but I love the vibe of it. exploring the house is fun and I love the unique battles.

Happy Bones is an atmospheric indie horror RPG that blends psychological tension, unsettling fantasy, and classic role-playing mechanics into a memorable adventure driven by mystery and exploration. The story follows Laura, a young woman whose quiet life changes after receiving an unexpected message from her father, who disappeared years ago. Her search for answers leads her into the heart of a sinister cult and a series of increasingly disturbing locations where reality becomes blurred by supernatural forces. Rather than relying on constant scares, the game focuses on creating a lingering sense of unease through its storytelling, gradually revealing hidden truths that keep players invested from beginning to end. The game's most distinctive strength lies in its visual presentation. Every environment, enemy, and character carries a handcrafted aesthetic that gives Happy Bones an unmistakable personality. The artwork embraces grotesque and surreal imagery instead of polished realism, creating monsters that feel genuinely unsettling and locations that remain memorable long after leaving them behind. This unconventional art direction enhances the horror, making every new area feel unpredictable while reinforcing the game's dreamlike atmosphere. Even familiar RPG settings become unsettling thanks to the unique artistic style that defines the entire experience. Exploration plays a significant role throughout the adventure, rewarding players who are willing to investigate every corner of the game's world. Hidden lore, optional secrets, and side activities encourage curiosity while expanding the narrative beyond the central objective of finding Laura's parents. The story unfolds at a measured pace, allowing mysteries to develop naturally instead of revealing every answer immediately. This gradual approach creates a satisfying sense of discovery, with each revelation adding new layers to the game's supernatural mythology and the motivations of the cult that serves as the central threat. Combat follows a traditional turn-based format but gains additional depth through the inclusion of five different character classes, each offering unique abilities and strategic possibilities. Players can tailor their playstyle toward offense, defense, magic, or more specialized approaches, making repeated playthroughs feel less repetitive. Battles require careful planning rather than mindless button presses, particularly against stronger enemies that demand proper resource management and tactical thinking. Animated attacks and cinematic sequences also add energy to encounters, preventing combat from feeling overly static despite its classic foundations. Sound design complements the game's oppressive atmosphere exceptionally well. Haunting background music and carefully chosen audio cues build tension without overwhelming the player, allowing quieter moments to feel just as unsettling as the more dramatic encounters. The soundtrack reinforces feelings of loneliness, uncertainty, and dread, helping each environment establish its own emotional identity. Together with the game's unsettling visuals, the audio creates an immersive horror experience that remains consistently engaging throughout the journey. Although Happy Bones succeeds in many areas, it is not completely without flaws. The combat system, while enjoyable and supported by class variety, remains rooted in familiar RPG conventions and may eventually become repetitive for players seeking greater mechanical innovation. Some exploration elements could also benefit from additional environmental interactions or deeper character conversations to further strengthen the world-building. Furthermore, the deliberately rough artistic style may not appeal to everyone, especially players who prefer more polished or conventional visuals. However, these issues are relatively minor compared to the game's creative ambitions and rarely detract from the overall experience. What ultimately makes Happy Bones stand out is its willingness to embrace originality. It combines horror, mystery, dark fantasy, and role-playing mechanics into a cohesive adventure that confidently follows its own creative vision. Instead of imitating larger horror franchises, it builds its identity through imaginative artwork, compelling world-building, rewarding exploration, and a narrative filled with intrigue. Players looking for a horror RPG that values atmosphere and creativity over spectacle will likely find plenty to appreciate. Rating: 7/10