I was severely on the fence, when I was trying to decide to get Owlboy. The reviews were raving about it, claiming it was such a fantastic game. But I have been fooled by these gushing reviews of “indie darlings” too many times in the past (Golf Story, for instance). And when a game has a dev cycle of almost ten years, that usually spells disaster. However, I am happy to say that, for the most part, I greatly enjoyed my time spent with Owlboy.
Owlboy centers around Otus, a mute (and they stress this fact a lot… yes, he’s a mute protagonist, very original…) owl… boy… person… thing… It’s not really clear just what Otus is. He’s clearly got owl-like features, but he also looks a lot more human than some of the other owl-ish characters in the game. And he flies by using an “owl cloak” not wings. Plus there are non-flying humans (I think) in the game as well. So it’s all a little confusing. But it doesn’t really matter. Otus lives in a world of floating islands, where he and his fellow owls protect the people against marauding sky pirates. But first, Otus must learn how to be an owl.
The game starts out showing Otus being “trained” by an older Owl teacher, Asio. Problem is, Asio is a total jerk, and Otus is pretty incompetent. This tutorial section teaches the player the basic mechanics of the game. However, it does so in the worst possible way, by setting up the player for failure. No matter how hard I tried to do what the controls said, I failed. Asio would tell Otus to fly up to a platform, and the game’s button prompt taught me how to fly, but I couldn’t reach the platform, ultimately falling back down to the ground. I would then be berated by Asio, being told how useless I am. We then moved on to the next lesson, picking up objects and moving them. Otus can lift and pull objects out of the ground (similar to Super Mario Bros. 2) with his talons and throw/drop them. Once I lifted the item, Asio instructed me to take it over to a different spot. Doing so breaks the object, resulting me in getting lectured, again, for being such a failure. This is not the way to get the player invested in your game. I did not like being set up for failure, and if this had been a trial demo, I probably would have stopped playing right there. But, as I had purchased the game, I begrudgingly continued on. I’m glad I did.
After this brief, poorly designed tutorial, the player is thrown into the meat of the game. Otus is now free to explore his home village of Vellie. Most of which is just juice, as nothing in the village is of much importance. However, once Otus meets up with his human(?) friend Geddy, the game really begins, as the two investigate a mysterious figure running into a hidden cave below the village. This cave is where the player will really be able to get a feel for all the game’s mechanics. As Otus, you can fly or walk at any time. Flying controls very well (which is a must for a game like this), all you need to do is jump into the air and start moving around with the joystick/d-pad. No monotonous button presses required to keep flying, no limit to how long you can fly (as so many other games have those kinds of restrictions in place for flight mechanics). It was truly freeing. Walking was a little less well handled. The controls for walking weren’t as tight as I’d like, but I found myself flying more often than not, so that wasn’t really an issue. Otus can also get a burst of speed by rolling (either while walking or flying). This was greatly appreciated as the base speed was a tad too slow at times. And finally, Otus can use a spin attack to attack enemies and interact with certain environmental puzzles. Unfortunately, this spin is virtually useless against almost all enemies. It can stun them temporarily, but not defeat them outright. This is where Geddy comes into play.
Geddy carries a pistol with him, and if Otus carries Geddy in his talons while flying, he will gain access to Geddy’s pistol. Controls for this were just fine. While flying with Geddy, the player simply needs to use the right stick to aim in a direction (with a full 360 degree aim available) and fire with R2 (I played on the Switch). So, where Otus’s spin attack was pretty useless, Geddy was able to dispatch most enemies with ease. While this was certainly an interesting way of handling the weapon mechanic, I was at first a little irritated. Any time I wanted to fire my gun, I had to go pick up Geddy. This seemed overly complicated. Why not just give me a gun? Of course, as I explored the cave, I found that the level design was full of puzzles that required two people. Mainly pressure plates, where I would need to drop Geddy on a plate to open a door, for me to get through. Honestly, the whole thing reminded me of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, where Link teamed up with the Rito girl, Medli, in the Earth Temple, only in reverse. At any rate, I eventually reached the cave’s “boss,” and that’s when the game really clicked for me.
This boss was initially immune to Geddy’s pistol. And I realized that I needed to attack it with Otus first. In doing so, that would make it vulnerable to Geddy’s attacks. So, it became a clever little fight of avoiding attacks, attacking with Otus, attacking with Geddy, rinse and repeat. It was surprisingly fun. What’s more, beating this boss gave me the best item in the game, something that immediately cleared up any concerns I had for carrying around and keeping track of my companion. A teleport button. Acquiring this made everything more simple. I no longer needed to physically pick up my companion to use his gun. I could just have him teleport to me instantly at any time. By pressing R2 (or whatever button might be the “shoot” button) Geddy would instantly appear in Otus’s talons, and start firing away. In this sense, the game really did just “give me a gun” because I now always had access to it.
Of course, Geddy isn’t the only “weapon” in the game. Later on Otus will meet Alphonse (a former sky pirate) and Twig (a stick bug who pretends to be a spider). Each character has their own specific uses. Alphonse carries a short range shotgun, which is powerful, but it takes time (almost too much time) to charge up before he can fire it again. The shotgun is fire based, so it is used in certain environmental puzzles as well (such as burning away vines or lighting torches). Twig has two unique weapons: the web pellet gun (which can tangle enemies up in webs) and the grappling gun (which can be used to grapple walls to reach inaccessible areas or to grapple enemies/objects to pull them into Otus’s clutches). At first, the grappling gun seemed useless to me. Otus can fly, after all. But there are certain areas where flight is prevented, such as corridors with strong wind, or any area with a waterfall. So, it came into play quite a bit in the latter portion of the game. Switching between these companions was as simple as pressing “L” or “R.” And so, with these three friends, and Otus himself, all the game’s mechanics are established, and mostly used quite effectively. I would also note that both Geddy’s pistol and Alphonse’s shotgun can be upgraded by getting enough of the game’s collectible “Buccanary coins” (collecting these coins also results in Otus upgrading his health, and getting useless cosmetic items, like hats).
Combat in the game works well, although, I will say a good number of enemies felt a little too bullet-spongy. I don’t expect an enemy to drop dead after one hit, but there were times when it seemed to take a little too long. Plus, this game has the most severe knockback I’ve ever seen (even worse than Shovel Knight, which is saying something…). For the most part, falling isn’t an issue, so getting knocked back never resulted in death, but it was still pretty annoying. Getting hit in any way from any enemy, sends Otus flying, usually bashing into a wall, dropping his current companion, while dropping to the ground. It’s a little too much.
The level design in the game is a bit of a mixed bag. There were times where I knew where to go easily, I could figure it out just fine. The level design was great. But there were other times where I felt a bit lost. And while this game isn’t exactly a metroidvania, it is similar. And the inclusion of a game map would have been immensely helpful. Especially considering that there are so many collectible coins to collect. Knowing where I’ve been or even how to get back to an area I’d visited previously would have been fantastic.
There were also some levels that, while not confusing, were just irritating. The designers clearly have a love for stealth games, as there are plenty of sections in levels where stealth is mandatory. This is usually done by hiding behind boxes placed in the foreground or avoiding spotlights. Basic stuff. I just didn’t find it very fun. I don’t like stealth games. But that’s just me.
One level in particular though, I need to call out. The dark cave. This is where the game just completely fell flat for me. As the name might suggest, the dark cave is dark. Unless Otus is near a torch or carrying some other light source, the screen is completely black. Even when he does have a light, the circle of light provided is far too small to be considered effective. Couple in some of the game’s worst and most confusing level design, and you’ve got a bad time on your hands.
The final level also irritated me, but for a completely different reason. In this place Otus cannot fly, nor can he make use of his companions. At best, he can glide a bit before falling back down to the ground. While this certainly made the game a more traditional platformer, that’s not what Owlboy is. That isn’t where it’s greatest strengths lie. And this is a huge pet peeve of mine. Designers should never throw out the game’s established mechanics, especially at the very end of the game, just to be different. Make use of the mechanics you spent the entire game teaching the player to use and perfect.
Throwing curve balls like that is the only real time the game falters, for me. There are two other times where the game throws out the established mechanics to try something different. And both times failed miserably in my opinion. One, is a minigame in which you are fired out of a cannon. In this minigame, you can’t control Otus like normal, instead, you can only steer left and right as Otus goes flying around in the air, trying to fly through rings. This is a near impossible task. It is extremely difficult to control Otus, for one. And the speed at which he travels is far faster than most humans can react to. After failing over a dozen times, I decided to just give up on the minigame. It wasn’t mandatory, and it certainly wasn’t fun.
In a similar scenario, there is one section where after beating some sort of rock snake boss, Otus must ride it out of the area… I tell you, I’ve had better control playing Battletoads’ Turbo Tunnels level than riding that freakin’ snake. While riding the snake, Otus must “steer” it to avoid hitting walls and rocks. This is a near impossible task, as the snake is moving in a constant spiral, and the camera is spiraling right along with it. It was dizzying, confusing, and bad.
I realize that by the way I’m going on, it sounds as if Owlboy was a failure. But that is simply not so. It is just more important to discuss where the game falters and could be improved upon. For the most part, the level design is just fine. For the most part, combat works well. For the most part, the boss fights are clever and engaging.
I had fun playing the game. The narrative was good. What’s more, it is a beautiful game. It feels like it was ripped right out of the SNES era. And the music is absolutely amazing. I think my greatest complaint is that it’s just too short (if I had to hazard a guess I’d say it’s about 8 hours long). For $25, I had hoped for the game to be a little meatier. But, that in and of itself should be a good sign. In spite of its occasional flaws, Owlboy left me wanting more. Of course, considering it took almost 10 years to make, I’m not sure we’ll ever get more. But I’m glad I got the time with it that I did.
