Ossuary

Ossuary might be the most fun religious game I've ever played since the Shin Megami Tensei series. Ossuary is basically Bible Adventures but for Discordianism - and actually fun to play. But what's Discordianism, you ask? Well, in the late 1960s, a small group of american counterculture theorists, magicians and writers decided to sketch out a parody of all religion - which turned out to be a completely valid religion in its own right. This religion has as its "main" texts several editions of The Principia Discordia. These editions laid out the contradictory, absurd, non-foundation for a religion that has somehow stuck in culture. Discordianism, the world's first open source religion, is basically a collage of Zen Buddhism, western philosophy, parodies of ceremonial magic and a healthy dose of drugs. And you're one of its Popes. Ossuary is a clever way to express the views of the Principia Discordia in game form. The world of Ossuary is an allegory of what is called the Aneristic Delusion and the Curse of Grayface: the current "fallen" state of humanity. It's a world where people take themselves too seriously with ridiculous results. What the Principia presents as metaphorical, Ossuary represents as literal. All of the factions in Ossuary come from the Principia Discordia. Your quest in this game is to collect Sins and share that corruption with others, hopefully helping them chill out a bit. Ossuary is only very slightly a "game", it has minimal interaction. But it's an excellent way to immerse yourself in Discordianist thought. It's a way to interact with the tenets of a religion. If you care for useless philosophical navel-gazing, enjoy paradoxes or are in any way attracted to any occult tradition, I strongly recommend Ossuary. If you're a serious person who wants serious action-packed games, you might want to skip this. Or better yet, open your pineal gland and try something outside your comfort zone.

Buyer beware: Treat this game as if it were a visual novel with very little to no gameplay. It's more of an interactive venture into philosophy and whatnot. A "Talk N' Walk" if you will. Gameplay amounts to talking to NPC's over and over and collect a variety of four particular "core aspects" each of the 4 main NPC's will require of you. In doing so, you get an "ending" which is a summary quote of the ideologies behind that particular NPC's beliefs. There is very little to play here. A very loose definition of what a game is. You really need to understand this BEFORE you spend $8 on it. To re-emphasize my point: it is not so much a game, as it is more a visual novel. I impulse bought and I will admit I was a bit annoyed. Especially since I got all 6 endings in under 2 hours. The disappointment subsided however due to the amount of text that is included and the atmosphere the game gave. So, when you see it as more of a sprawled out book while you keep your hands busy doing other things, then it becomes a bit more tolerable. Also, tagging it horror is a bit poor taste. it isn't really "horror." The aesthetic gives it a "horror" look but it isn't really. It's all atmosphere. The cool thing is when you get 6 endings, the developer opens up to you via a notes page so it is always nice to have that kind of transparency. There is also 26 achievements with the bulk being secret ones, so I imagine that will be where most of the "replayability" will come from. Finding all those. There is also a couple other things I couldn't figure out post game, so I imagine there is even more hidden stuff or whatever if that is your bag. The developer was kind enough to release a demo. Play THAT first. In doing so, it's basically playing the actual game for free. The gameplay does not change, and what you get in the demo is what you get in the real game. Have a good day.

Enjoyable philosophical puzzle game. Make no mistake: Ossuary is a highly intellectual pastime. But it is not pretentious. It shows you different moral or ethical positions, but doesn't assign any one to you. The philosophy is not retrofitted to some pre-existing puzzle gameplay (*cough*Talos*cough*), but rather integral to the game: as you explore your surroundings (some sort of afterlife?) and talk to people, you acquire the seven deadly sins, only there are two sides to them: they can do harm or they can do good (e.g. envy might make you respect someone else and motivate you to become more like them). When you talk to the ~100 characters in that limbo (each with their own little dialogue), you'll encounter quests: to solve them, you need to explore, and you need to ply the "gatekeepers" with just the right sin to make them want to do what you want them to do. But there's more: puzzles that don't advertise themselves as such. 6 endings that can be experienced on the same save game slot. There's a lot done right in this game. If you like to read, to think, to puzzle, to explore people and concepts and game levels, then you should play Ossuary. Few games come with so much in such a small package. If you don't like to explore, you might find it rather short and not worth it; but it lasted me 3 hours and was very much worth its reduced price. Well-designed, thought-provoking, original: recommended! [i]Now there are still another 9 achievements I could be getting...[/i]

This game came out in 2013 and I only learned of its existence a few days ago. The surprise for me was seeing how good it was received back then, so I wonder who else, besides me, also let this little game slip past their fingers. That said, I was given the chance to check this game out, and I’m glad I did so. [b]Ossuary[/b] is the name of a place, somewhere in the depths of Hell, a place made of bones where you arrive without knowing who you are. What is curious about this place is that nobody knows where all the bones come from, considering that no one has ever witnessed anyone dying. I’ll refrain from mentioning anything related to the plot and the story of the game for I think that is the best the game has to offer, my goal here is to expose the mechanics of the game. As a game, [b]Ossuary[/b] is hard to describe, it has some puzzles in it but the main focus is on dialogue and interacting with various NPCs, which there are plenty - I think at least over 80 different NPCs. The puzzles themselves might not be that easy to spot at first, it’s only when you’re further into the game and come upon certain things or pieces of dialogue that you’ll start to wonder about something that you saw when you first came into this place. If you’re expecting this to be a game with engaging gameplay you’re out of luck. The game is pretty much just running around from place to place while attempting to solve conversation puzzles. That is what made the game and the dialogue so engaging for me. As you play and talk to people you can get infected with one of the 7 deadly sins. These sins can be used on every NPC and each of them will trigger a different piece of dialogue. The NPCs response to you sometimes can provide a little background to the game world, sometimes it helps you accomplish an objective but, overall, it all happens behind this great satire and exposure of interesting and thought provoking philosophical, moral and ethical paradoxes, positions and dilemmas. That is what makes this game great. [b][h1][u]Final Thoughts:[/u][/h1][/b] Overall, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy [b]Ossuary[/b] as much as I did. It features an excelent atmosphere, albeit repetitive, excellent thought provoking and, at the same time, funny dialogue, conversation based puzzles, a rather unique and intriguing setting and a particular set of extremely well done riddles. I highly recommend it if you’re into games that deviate from the traditional meaning of games or if you’re looking for a great satire.

don't bother playing this unless you (like me) have fallen into a state of mental ruin so intense that you're able to understand the most absurd and meaningless things Seriously, this is a really effing good game, but it's surreal and confusing from start to finish. That's what makes it so enjoyable to me. I'm a philosophy buff and pretty into the occult so it was right up my alley; it's not for everyone. I do wish, somewhat, that it was a little longer, but I imagine if it were any longer it'd get old quickly. The concept is better suited for a shorter game.

It is short. The gameplay is text-based puzzle solving. It is confusing, and in the end seems to ask more questions than it answers. If you are still undeterred, I highly recommend you buy this brilliant game. Its writing manages to evoke a unique and often unsettling lore and setting, and it poses questions with an intelligence I have scarcely seen in videogames as a whole. It is creepy, atmospheric, often surreal, and yet made me laugh multiple times. Do yourself a favour and pick this one up. Maybe don't even play it immediately. Forget about it, leave it for yourself to stumble across later on. You wont regret it.

Oh boy, this game was such a pleasant surprise from start to finish. When I initially found out about this game, I was interested in it because hey - I like "off the beaten path" type games that seem to invoke a bit of thought that you normally wouldn't have when you play your average platformer or fps. So I bought the game, started it up a few days later, and low and behold I see the developer's name: Gregory Weir. I was shocked and amused by how I managed to pick up a game by a game dev I've really admired for quite a few years. I've lost count of how many times I've played How to Raise a Dragon, Bars of Black and White, Looming, and, most of all, The Majesty of Colors. So needless to say, I was stoked to play this game, and it did not let me down. I pretty much finished this game in one day. It is based off of Principia Discordia, which is a book for a religion of sorts called Discordianism. I cannot figure out if this relgion is a satire or 100% serious, and I guess thats, in some ways, a good thing. You play as a character trying to escape from the Ossuary. The gameplay mostly consists of solving puzzles and encouraging the seven deadly sins on people in order to progress and gain information for the four members of the sacred order who each seem to have their own agenda in order to protect the Ossuary. Along the way, you will expose the truths about the Ossuary and what they tell to their people in order to keep up a facade and keep everyone in check. There is a lot of humorous dialogue that seems to poke fun at religous and politcal stances; from a museum filled with impure things that you actually aren't allowed to see, to two political parties in which membership you are allowed to switch back and forth with as you so choose. Also, cabbage people. The puzzles are not terribly difficult, but are a nice challenge to figure out nonetheless. The gameplay adds nicely to the story as it allows you to figure things out at your own pace. The fact that every person in the Ossuary has different dialogue depending on what sin you impress on them is a very nice touch as well and offers some amusing conversations. I can tell the game was lovingly made, and the ending notes added yet another pleasant surprise to my experience. There is another game by Gregory Weir that might be easy to forget, but by playing Ossuary, I remembered it. Checking on the Ludus Novus website I found the "game" Narthex. It is a very short game with pretty similar graphics and art to Ossuary that advertises itself as having an ending that's "not worth getting". It is also a game that was made to try out a conversation engine. Its the game Ossuary was born from. Another nice surprise to see after finishing the game. I reccommend this game to people who thought what I initially thought when buying this game. It is not a game with a ton of "gameplay" but it is every bit as engaging as any other game. Its a fun experience and now I know a little bit about this bizarre religion of Principia Discordia. And most of all, I was reminded of why I enjoyed Gregory Weir's games in the first place.

People are complaining that this is a short game, but it's really just a game that you need to take your time on and enjoy the aspects of. It is text-rich and quite beautiful, I do not regret purchasing this game. Quite an enjoyable time. At first I found it odd that there was only one soundtrack in game, but as I played on, I found it more fitting, as if the music were also stuck with the monotony of the world you are exploring in Ossuary. Do take breaks in between, though, it can be hard on some people's eyes after a while.

In exploring the yard and talking to the people around you, you are slowly burdened with sins which you can then use to infect other people and get different response from. Spend time around the particularly lazy, and you’re infected with Sloth, which is the perfect remedy for that highly-wired guard who’s been watching that key for several days without sleep. Talk to the right people and use the correct combination of sins and it won’t take you long to collect all seven -- it’s then that you realise just how many words have been ploughed into Ossuary; every single person has unique responses to all seven sins. In the heart of the fortress, sixteen soldiers stand in formation and, should you like, you can prompt eight unique responses from all of them. It doesn’t advance the plot any, but every one of them has their own insight and reactions to the world around you that could have effortlessly been written off with the adventure game trope of “That does not work here”. You could spend a lot of time coaxing these response out of people. If they don’t actually offer any responses, well, odds are you found a cabbage. Deal with it as you please. Full Review // http://www.honestgamers.com/12570/pc/ossuary/review.html

*Review in progress* This is just an odd game. I'm still confused of what's going on, but I'm just talking to the NPCs, and figuring out what everything means. The game is interesting so far. I would advise anyone who wants to purchase this game to play the demo first. Right now I'm enjoying the experience of the game. It's nothing to be excited about, but it might make some players want to keep on playing to figure out the curse of grayface and everything else that the game has to offer. Buy this game if you like riddles and mysteries. 8/10 (rating and thoughts may change as I progress in the game)