Does ’Owlboy’ Earn its Wings?
Owlboy is one of the most visually charming and beautifully crafted video games that I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Every pixel in this retro-style 2D platformer bursts with exuberance. From the meek and mute protagonist, Otus, to the threatening and quick-tempered Captain Molstrom, Owlboy offers quirky and idiosyncratic character designs that will stick with me long after the credits have rolled. At many times throughout my playthrough, I stopped to take in the beauty of a scenic landscape, a dazzling animation, or the sweeping score that, when unrestrained, made me feel at home in the skies with the protagonist, Otus.
Little details are what made this game fantastic and memorable for me. I will never forget the moment Otus encounters a grumpy looking fish who is wearing a top hat. This little fish just swims back and forth in a shallow pond – about knee deep for Otus. If you choose to interact with it, the fish halts its pacing and raises its top hat, as a gentleman would be expected to do in the early twentieth century. This tiny detail – a fish raising its top hat – was enough to send me over the edge, doubling over with laughter.
The pixel sprites of this game are also among the most expressive and varied I have ever seen in a pixel-art game. Each of the main characters react in a number of comical ways, and you can tell that the developers went out of their way on many occasions to diversify the facial expressions of each character. Rather than static character animations – as would be normal and expected in successful pixel art games like Celeste – the game pairs intense moments with looks of shock, lighthearted moments with eased expressions, and so on. Otus, for example, widens his eyes to about three or four times their normal size when explosions erupt, or menacing enemies enter a battle arena, etc. These character expressions never failed to make me crack a smile.
Owlboy’s landscapes are also breathtaking, detailed in such a way that looks like an entire community of pixel artists banded together to craft the game’s world. Sure, the world’s main hub is relatively familiar to anyone who regularly plays platforming games, but the design decisions that comprise this world are as immersive and vibrant as James Cameron’s Avatar. There are no lazy environments throughout the entire game.
The game boasts relatively few cutscenes, but the seldom cutscenes that are peppered throughout the story cast the game’s world in a vast light. The game’s final cutscene before the credits roll showcases some of the finest pixel art I have ever seen, making me question whether this was truly pixel art or something more traditionally artistic. Whereas so many pixel platformers construct disparate and disjointed sub worlds within their game, Owlboy feels like a fundamentally connected place.
The basic plot begins when Otus leaves his village, meets and later teams up with an unlikely cast of companions. Each companion in some way contributes to the feeling of being misfits – as though a tech nerd, a formerly vicious pirate, and a twig dressed up in a furry-like spider costume couldn’t band together to conquer the game’s enemies: sky pirates. These sky pirates threaten Otus’ home and serve as the merchants of destruction throughout neighboring towns and villages in the game. I was disappointed that the story of Owlboy was largely forgettable up until a certain threshold about two thirds of the way into the game. Nevertheless, these characters persevere and overcome the grandest of obstacles, which is where the story becomes truly memorable.
I was gratified by the game’s bold narrative decision to conclude bittersweetly. For such a cheerful and vibrant game, the tone turns serious, earnest and dark at the game’s finale. The stakes have been substantially raised at this point – where the game’s conflict has been raised from “protect Otus’ village from the sky pirates” to “save the entire world from the brink of gravitational destruction.” The game cleverly baits and switches the stakes of Otus’ quest, flips the narrative on its head, and forces you to confront a character that you otherwise had trust in. The final battle with this character was genuinely challenging and fun to trial my way through. Unexpectedly, I found myself deeply caring about Otus and his companions by the game’s end. And the epilogue of the story, just as the credits roll, was the most poignant way I can imagine this game ending.
In terms of gameplay, however, Owlboy never earns its wings. I initially loved the movement tech of Otus in the air. With satisfying flight, a tight dashing roll, and a quick twirl for defensive attacks, he’s a fun character to control. Platforming isn’t really a concern because of how smooth and efficient flight is when moving through the game’s world. But by the end of the game, the levels strip you of your flight abilities and you’re tasked with obnoxiously precise platforming sequences. I had so much freedom to fly earlier in the game that I never needed to learn the difference between flight and jumping – they’re the same button, after all – which caused this section to be maddeningly difficult. This stuck out to me as a fundamental flaw in the game’s design: to never teach you a basic mechanic that will be required in the endgame.
In fact, button sharing is a common control problem in Owlboy. In addition to the fact that jumping shares the same button with flight, the grabbing and interacting mechanics also share the same button. At times, I’d be trying to pick up an item to progress in a puzzle, only for Otus to pick up one of my companion characters instead. I’d have to move my character several paces away from the object, drop them off, and then return to solving the puzzle. This issue in gameplay could have easily been resolved by simply mapping the actions to different buttons.
Furthermore, the combat mechanics in Owlboy are imprecise at best. One sequence in the late game requires you to speed your way past oncoming bullets by rapidly using the character Twig’s grappling ability – an ability that shares the button with a web-shooting ability, the only difference between them being how long you hold the button. I needlessly died in repeated attempts to zip my way through these tightly woven sequences. When considering the degree of mastery that the rest of this game commands, it’s a shame that the gameplay isn’t as polished. Luckily, the game doesn’t linger here for too long.
Ultimately this game succeeds due to the charm and charisma that this game prides itself on. This charisma is utterly unique, and is why I would argue that this game is relevant to the discussion of video games as an art form. Owlboy is one of those narratives that I would consider wholesome and simple enough for any age, and yet entrenched in familiar tropes and symbolism that we have grown to expect in works of sci-fi and fantasy. I don’t consider Owlboy to be a contender for anyone’s top ten favorite games list, but it could certainly fight for a spot in someone’s top twenty-five.
Owlboy is a must-play if you love games that feel timeless and personal. If you can overlook the game’s occasionally dubious control interface and the handful of pacing issues that certain sequences present, then there is a lot that this game offers. The highlights for me were the vibrant and eccentric characters, strong and often funny writing, an attention to detail that so few games possess, and a restrained but sonorous soundtrack that I continually listen to even after completing the game. The passion offered by Owlboy outshines the many small flaws that besmirched my otherwise glorious playthrough. Thinking through my experience, I am definitively glad that I decided to buy and play the game.
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