A beehive-haired witch. An oddly intellectual orc. A zombie apocalypse. A short and silly song about beer. They're all to be found in A Boney Night, a retro adventure game from Bernie of Origami Hero Games. You control a witch named Undra, who is woken up in the middle of the night by her mushroom messenger crying out an alert, and sets out to investigate. She is later joined by Kijo Itar, a runaway orc with an unpleasant past, and together they make it their mission to bring whatever ancient evil has awakened to an end. You will be helping them with your trusty computer mouse: click an action on the left (look at, interact with, talk to) to pick it, then click on a labeled object in the environment to tell Undra what to do. Objects and ideas pile up in the inventory at the bottom; you can scroll through it by clicking the arrows, then equip an item by clicking on it with the cursor (with no action attached) and use it on whatever you want to use it on. Of course, sometimes you just want to perform a standard action on an inventory item, which is fine, too. Impatient players can skip through dialogue by clicking, or hold [spacebar] to speed everything up.
A Boney Night bills itself as a callback to the golden age of adventure gaming, when the likes of Guybrush Threepwood and Roger Wilco were stuffing their bafflingly deep pockets with inventory items and using them in all kinds of crazy ways, and with the creative yet logical puzzles, occasional spots of humor, and general retro charm, this game definitely delivers. Of course, there are a few flaws here and there- for example, a set of hotkeys for the different actions would no doubt be appreciated- but the biggest one is that the game ends too quickly. It's not quite long enough to justify the save feature, and at least one plot lead is left unresolved in the end... a hint at a sequel perhaps? Nevertheless, the term "short but sweet" is definitely applicable to A Boney Night, so if you grew up in the 90's and are looking for a coffee-break-sized adventure to stir up your nostalgia, this witch might just cast a spell on you.
Walkthrough Guide
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A Boney Night Walkthrough
You'll start in the bedroom of Undra's house. Before going anywhere, pick up the sickle above the fireplace, and the pepper and wind potion from the shelves above the spellbook. Then go left to the garden.
Try to talk to Mushy Jay. You need some mushroom juice, it seems. Then pick up the staff to the right. Shoots off sparks, eh? Might be useful later.
Examine the Explodora Bush on the left. The leaves are explosive? Sounds useful, but you can't pick them bare-handed. Use the sickle on the bush to get some leaves.
Go back to the bedroom and use the "Understanding Mushy Jay" thought on the spellbook. The thought will be replaced with a potion recipe. You need mushroom tears, a silly song, a big nut... and something to put it all in.
Before leaving, examine the calendar for a useful piece of information that will come in handy very soon.
Go left, then left again to reach the world map. You just came from Home (middle). To the left is the City, and in the upper left is a Tree. Go to the Tree.
After a short and slightly foreboding cutscene, you'll be left alone with the big tree. You need to get a nut from it, but how?
Maybe you can shake some down with some wind. Use the wind potion on the tree. Hmm... it's not strong enough.
Remember the tip from the calendar? Use the pepper on the wind potion, then use the enhanced wind potion on the tree.
...Whoops. Oh well. Take the big walnut off to the right. Note that the glass the potion was in is now empty and ready for a new potion.
Leave and go to the city. The guard will stop you if you try to enter the city, but that's okay-- you don't need anything from in there right now.
Talk to the guard. In particular, ask him for a silly song; the other options are optional.
Go back home. Now you just need some mushroom tears. Mushy Jay is the only mushroom you know, so you need to make him cry somehow.
Use the pepper on Jay and he'll burst into tears. Use the empty glass on him once he's crying to harvest some.
Use the silly song thought on the glass of mushroom tears, then add the walnut. You've successfully brewed your first potion!
Drink the potion (use the hand action on it).
If Mushy Jay is still crying, leave and return; you can't talk to him in that condition.
Once you're juiced and Jay has stopped bawling, talk to him. Ask him about the racket earlier, and you'll get a lead.
Leave to the left and go to the new location on the map: the Tower.
Walk up the ramp and try the door at the top. It's locked; you'll have to get creative to bust it open.
Use the Explodora Leaves on the door. Now you just need a way to detonate them... with a spark or something. Use the staff on the door and that will be that.
Enter the not-much-of-a-door-anymore. After the conversation with the tower's resident, interact with the telescope. New location!
Backtrack to the world map and go to the ruins.
Walk to the right and try to open the gate. Hm, you'll need some muscle to get through them. Lucky thing you just met someone muscular.
Return to the Tower and use the Big Gate thought on the Orc. He'll introduce himself and join you.
Return to the Ruins. Zombies?! Hm, this just got more interesting. Continue right and proceed through the now-open gate.
Nothing to see in the first room, so go another screen to the right and you'll witness a conversation.
You can wander around the "maze" here, but you won't get anywhere without the right directions. Before you go, though, interact with the Skull and Bones at the first junction to steal a bone. You'll need it later.
Go back to the City. The zombie is keeping the guard occupied, so go on in. You'll see a cutscene.
Examine or interact with the Zombified Kid, and you'll get a new thought about the evil aura protecting him.
Before leaving town, pick up the Feather by the gate.
Go back to your Home. Like at the beginning of the game, use the Evil Aura thought on the spellbook to look up a recipe. This time, you need some bone meal, a root of evil, and a dash of honesty.
You've got a bone already, but there's a difference between a bone and bone meal. Give the bone to Kijo to iron out that difference (and see Kijo break character slightly).
Go to the Tree. It's evil now?! Maybe it was the carving that boy made. It's got roots of evil, but even Kijo can't snap one off.
Use the feather on the tree to tickle it. A smaller root will pop up; use Kijo on it to break it off.
Leave now. Your next stop is the Tower; return to Kijo's quarters.
Interact with Kijo's diary on the table to get a page from it and learn some interesting information about Kijo's past.
You've got all the ingredients you need. Use the bone meal on the empty glass, then add the root, then the diary page. Dispel potion complete!
Go back to the City and use the dispel option on the zombified kid. You'll automatically take his knife.
Examine the knife. Hm... those look like directions.
Return to the Ruins and follow the directions on the knife: skulls on the floor (south), three lights (north), path without bone matter (south).
After a cutscene, Kijo will be in trouble and you'll have a task to perform: find a way to defeat the Zombie Lord and rescue your orc pal!
Better start picking up things in this chamber. Start with that pile of bones on the right, and you'll take a bone. Hm... the last time we had a bone, we used it to make a dispel potion, and that would probably come in REALLY handy here. Good thing we still have the recipe.
But how can we make meal out of the bone with Kijo incapacitated? Hm... interact with that stone coffin to lift its lid. It's a heavy lid. I wonder...
Put the bone under the coffin's lid, then interact with it again to crush the bone. One ingredient down, two to go!
To the left of the coffin is a skull bush. Good place to get a root of evil. The sickle won't work, so use the knife on the bush to cut off a root.
Now, the dash of honesty. Last time we used a diary page, so maybe something like that? Interact with the flag to tear a piece off it. Now we just need a writing utensil.
Use the feather on the tar pit all the way to the left to give it a dip, then use it on the old rag to write something honest and quite secret on it.
As before, use the bone meal on the glass, then the root, then the rag with the secret written on it. Another dispel potion!
But this time you can't use the potion directly. Combine it with the knife, then use that on the Zombie Lord to finish him!
Walkthrough by SonicLover!
Posted by: Dora Breckinridge
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November 21, 2013 10:19 AM