Tap-Repeatedly
  • Features
    • All Features
    • A Weekend With
    • Dark Souls Diaries
    • Death in Fire
    • Diary Of A Call Girl
    • Games of the Year
    • Kermdinger Chronicles
    • MrLipid’s Closet of the Odd
    • My Idea of Fun
    • Quest for 7:00 on the Nordschleife
    • Superficially Relevant
    • Tap Dance
    • Tap vs. Tap
    • Tapping Down Memory Lane
    • The Log of Shame
  • Editorials
    • Tap Editorials
    • Culture Clash
    • Celebrity Guests
  • Reviews
    • All Reviews
    • Impressions
    • Revisited
    • FFC Archives
  • News
    • News
    • Ephemera
    • Site Announcements
  • Forum

Impressions: Ossuary

12/11/2013|Amanda "AJ" Lange|Impressions7
Home » Home » Impressions » Impressions: Ossuary
Impressions: Ossuary

Last week on Twitter I was alerted about the existence of a little game called Ossuary. This is one of those situations where I hundred-percented the game, but it’s a odd enough experience that I’m posting long impressions rather than a full review. I definitely recommend it; it’s certainly not for everyone; but then again what is, especially in games?

Ossuary is an adventure-style game with a top-down perspective. The game takes perhaps two or three hours to complete. The art is in black and white, with some shades of red and an important splash of orange.

Your character in Ossuary has an inventory made up of the Seven Deadly Sins. The primary way to solve puzzles in the game is by presenting the sins as objects to people, which may show them a different viewpoint on a current situation. A guard may be diligent, but, introduce him to Sloth and he may just decide to slack a little on the job and let you pass on by.

amanda_ossuary1

That part of the premise is not super-interesting, as I’ve seen lots of attempts to use the Seven Sins as game levels or objects before. But the way it is actually implemented is interesting indeed.

First of all, every one of the sins has a unique response for every NPC in the game. Since the game is not short on NPCs, this is a staggering amount of writing: and it’s clever! Every character has some unique viewpoint worth checking out, and reading their responses to your prompts is entertaining.

Secondly, the game is based thematically on the Principia Discordia, and interprets both the Sins and Virtues in that light. Where a modern anti-religion like Pastafarianism is a critique of belief itself, Discordianism is more of a critique of dogma. Ossuary in its Discordian tradition presents the Sins as sometimes positive. Sure, Envy may be a little uncomfortable, but doesn’t it also rely on empathy, a way to see the world through someone else’s eyes? Temperance is a Virtue, but isn’t it just one other side of a Sin?

amanda_ossuary2

I’m not wild about the sound design in Ossuary, which makes use of free stock sound effects that get repetitive, but that’s sometimes what a small spare-time developer has to work with. The star player here is really all the words. The game tells you early on that there’s no real way to lose it, so exploring every option will work out in your favor.

The game is a sequel to the game Narthex, and an “HD” version of Narthex is included – a bit ironically, since Narthex is still a pixel art game. Knowing it’s a sequel will make the beginning of Ossuary a bit more clear, but you probably won’t be too confused for more than a couple of minutes.

Ossuary is more of a story about ideas than people, and the main character is just a pointer used to read the words said by other characters. Through these characters Ossuary critiques things like religion, academia, censorship, and two-party political systems in an environment that is both miserably bleak and completely absurd. You probably won’t need to have read Discordia to understand it, but it definitely would supplement the experience. Or perhaps it would serve as a useful introduction to those uninitiated in the ways of Eris.

 

Email the author of this post at aj@tap-repeatedly.com.

12/11/2013 Amanda "AJ" Lange

About the author

Amanda "AJ" Lange

Amanda Lange is a lifelong gamer, game designer, 3D artist, and engineer. She likes RPGs, horror, action, fighting games, and anything pleasantly quirky. Also, she enjoys writing at great length about same, often posting articles to her personal blog at http://secondtruth.com. In the past, she has worked on educational titles, and taught game design and art in Detroit, MI. She is currently living in the Philadelphia PA area where she works with Microsoft.

Recent Posts

  • Side by Side: Spirits Abyss
    Side by Side: Spirits Abyss01/11/2023
  • Side by Side: Very Very Valet
    Side by Side: Very Very Valet12/27/2022
  • Side by Side: Bämeräng
    Side by Side: Bämeräng12/14/2022

Popular Posts

  • Impressions: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
    Impressions: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim11/12/2011
  • PC Gaming Diagnosed with Lung Cancer
    PC Gaming Diagnosed with Lung Cancer02/18/2010
  • Impressions: Star Wars: The Old Republic
    Impressions: Star Wars: The Old Republic10/05/2011
← I’m Irrationally Angry About Transformers Legends
First Person Literacy and BioShock Infinite →

7 Responses to Impressions: Ossuary

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey 12/11/2013

    I think this is on Harbour Master’s List Of Games To Be Talked About Soon as well. Sounds intriguing! Onto the pile it goes…

  • Amanda "AJ" Lange 12/11/2013

    Yeah… I definitely need to check out the other stuff on his list. But this really jumped out at me.

  • Callum Wardle 12/12/2013

    I too have played this game, and as both a student of politics and philosophy once this was really fascinating. The one thing I wished (emphasis on that) is that you could see a more detailed idea of the consequences of each “ending”, but I did not expect such ambition from the game, and imagination probably works best anyway. It’s a problem happily shared with Ice-Pick Lodge’s The Void and all that potential it implies.

  • matt w 12/23/2013

    This can’t possibly be a sequel to Narthex in the sense that you’re expected to play Narthex can it? I love Narthex but part of the reason I love it is the conviction that most people, on reaching the winning ending, will scream with annoyance.

  • Amanda "AJ" Lange 12/23/2013

    @matt w – nope, there’s no need to actually play Narthex, fortunately. 🙂

  • A New Year: 2014 - Future Proof Games 01/13/2014

    […] actually have it out. We released on November 27th, and although we got a couple cool reviews and impressions it mostly got brief news articles and didn't get the attention we were hoping […]

  • Ossuary on Steam Greenlight - Future Proof Games 04/08/2014

    […] has been well received by cool people, but it hasn’t reached as many people as we’d like. Being on Steam would mean a broader […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Log In


Lost your password?
Register
Forgotten Password
Cancel

Register For This Site

A password will be e-mailed to you.


Tap Us

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on SteamFollow Us on RSS

Tap At Random

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Remember Diapers)

02/19/2010|Gregg B|News12
Review – NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits

Review – NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits

07/02/2009|Meho|Reviews8
GSC Game World Resurrects Itself; Sends Nastygram; Vanishes Again

GSC Game World Resurrects Itself; Sends Nastygram; Vanishes Again

12/13/2012|Matt "Steerpike" Sakey|Editorials8
Local Flavor: Ryan Morrison of Island Officials

Local Flavor: Ryan Morrison of Island Officials

08/30/2014|Amanda "AJ" Lange|Local Flavor3
First Person Literacy and BioShock Infinite

First Person Literacy and BioShock Infinite

12/12/2013|Amanda "AJ" Lange|Editorials7

Blogroll

  • A Hardy Developer's Journal
  • Acid for Blood
  • Dubious Quality
  • Electron Dance
  • Fanboy Comics
  • Plot is Gameplay's Bitch
  • The Experimental Gameplay Project

Tap Categories

Tap Archives

Follow Us on RSSFollow Us on SteamFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTube

Tap-Repeatedly finally updated the footer.
Tap-Repeatedly likes oatmeal cookies.
Tap-Repeatedly prefers they have no raisins.

Contact

Your message was successfully sent. Thank You!

Tap-Repeatedly Supports

Search Tap

Tap-Repeatedly Remembers

Brad “Doublesauce” Boivin
Bill “The Game Doctor” Kunkel
Ethan “Finkbug” Sicotte

Copyright © Tap-Repeatedly. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication or distribution prohibited.
Some copyrighted material appears on this site under Fair Use.
If you believe a copyrighted work appears inappropriately, please contact steerpike@tap-repeatedly.com.