Owlboy

The independent developer returns to once again spread its creativity in the field of 2D games, this time with the enchanting adventure game Owlboy, a game that fulfills people’s dreams of flying and soaring into the depths of the sky. The game was released on PCs more than a year ago after a long struggle and many difficulties and has finally arrived on home devices and here we test it for you.

Introduction to the Game

First let us introduce you to this game. This game belongs to the adventure category and is neither a platform game, as some might think, nor an action game, although it contains elements of both. The game borrows many elements from games such as The Legend of Zelda, which is clearly a big influence. The game developer created it through temples, artifacts and puzzles, in addition to the third Super Mario Bros. game, which is still very popular among platform game fans to this day, as well as Kid Icarus and flying in the two-dimensional game world.

This game consists of a connected or networked world, similar to Metroidvania games, but exploration of this world is not an essential element of the game and there is no map in it. The game world is designed vertically, with horizontal areas representing temples, which in turn are designed vertically, horizontally and interlocking.

Gameplay Mechanics

In terms of gameplay mechanics, this game comes down to flying and exploring areas as Otus. There’s not much you can do on normal islands and there’s only one shop in the game, which has some of the tools you get from collecting coins throughout the game, the core of the entire game. It is embodied in caves and temples that rely on exploration and puzzle solving in addition to fighting and shooting, where our hero Otus carries a helper character and flies, and there are 3 main helper characters in the game with different abilities. Unfortunately, the third and best character among these characters joins late in the game and doesn’t have enough time to use it. Exploring the temple or cave usually ends with a fight for one of the leaders, and the game ends. As you progress, you have to rely on more than one character. Helpful when confronting bosses.

Gameplay Experience

Well, solving the puzzles in the game was fun and there are subtle and entertaining stealth parts as well, but unfortunately the game suffers from being very short and you can beat it in maybe five or six hours. The price (25 US -dollar) is a bit high, especially in comparison. At the same time, compared to many competing independent games, the game maintains a high and strong level of directing for an independent game. The use of music is very intelligent. or just weather effects like the roar of the wind and the sound of rustling trees. There is ingenuity and knowledge of the game master in portraying the atmosphere he wants to create while playing, and the rhythm of the game remains solid until the end. However, the gameplay wasn’t entirely perfect, and what perhaps marred the experience a bit for us was the control system and the way the buttons were distributed, which led to us making mistakes even after hours of playing.

Story and Narrative

This game has a lot of interest in the story and its narrative, and you will notice that from the first moment. The game tried to build a world and its own story related to owls and the history of the game world and its floating islands. The effort is relatively good for an independent game, and even if the game’s dialogues are not particularly intelligent, it presents is a promising attempt when it comes to these games. However, if you don’t like reading a lot of text, you may not like this in the game because there are a lot of dialogues and story clips in the game. The story of the game is not at all new and, like many fantasy stories, very hackneyed, but will be satisfactory for those who prefer the presence of the narrative element in games.

Visuals and Art

This game is truly a work of art and one of the most beautiful independent games we’ve ever seen. The backgrounds are drawn in pixel style and a lot of effort was put into drawing the sky, clouds, islands, caves, etc. Waterfalls and huge plants. Great ingenuity and more. It is shown by the game artist and everything you see on the game screen has been carefully animated with many fine details, such as the effect on water when in contact with it or how Otus flies when he receives blows, collides with the nearest wall and falls to the ground, and it’s all done entirely by hand. This is one of the most beautiful looking independent games and one of the most beautiful 2D games in general, especially for those who love the 16-bit graphics style and classic games in general.

Music

Musically, this game also offers many beautiful melodies, from sweet piano melodies that provide refreshment and comfort, evoking feelings that love fantasy and imagination, to melodies that create a sense of danger in other areas of the game.

Conclusion

Owlboy is a charming adventure game full of beautiful details and wonderful backgrounds, but it ends quicker than we would have liked and we encountered some technical errors that caused the game to stop working completely. If you want to go on a fantasy journey while having fun with storytelling then this beautiful game could be for you, and if you are a fan of games based solely on mechanics, creativity in design and great game content then this is Owlboy is not the game that will meet these requirements, and in any case, this game is a living example of the progress that the independent developer has achieved and of its great ability to design games.