Modernized flourishes make the design feel timeless. Filled with expertly designed puzzles, a consistent array of foes both big and small, and a bevy of secrets, Owlboy‘s levels call back to the days of the NES and SNES. Throughout the adventure Otus and team enter a series of unique, and lavish dungeons. Owlboy takes another cue from Nintendo with their dungeon system.
Very few games think of the identity of the protagonist when considering how to approach combat effectively. Otus’s job is to fly, solve puzzles, and survey the landscape.
Each friend joins up with Otus (think: a buddy system), and has their own unique ability. Instead of turning Otus into a powerful force as the game progresses, his allies perform the attacks, while Otus serves more as a conduit for the player. Because Otus is a smaller owl, the lone mute in town, the underdog, his journey wouldn’t work without the help of others. The combat of Owlboy is integrated seamlessly into the narrative. It’s worth playing for the brilliant conversations alone. The script is arguably the best piece of writing in a game this year. While it doesn’t necessarily have the most original story, the writing makes this save-the-town tale novel. Often, it is achingly funny and sad all in the matter of a single conversation. The writing is surprising in the most wonderful way. In a nod to revered Nintendo franchises, all of the dialogue is spoken to and around Otus.
When the town is attacked by air pirates, you set out on adventure with a cast of indelible friends. Owlboy somehow manages to never skip a beat. Dialogue in these games is often cliched, good versus evil tropes that borders on irrelevancy. After all, a game doesn’t have to have a good story to be a success, and in the Metroidvania subset of games, too much story can negatively interrupt the pace of play. Most of them have focused on solid, addictive gameplay to propel them to goodness, and occasionally greatness–few have concerned themselves much with narrative in any meaningful way. There have been plenty of good retro style sidescrollers since the indie game surge started around the time Braid was released in 2008. Here’s five reasons why Owlboy soars to the skies of must-play games. And it is almost assuredly the best indie to come out this year ( The Witness being the other centerpiece of the 2016 indie scene).
Owlboy is available for $24.99 on PC via Steam, Humble Store, and GOG. D-Pad Studio went through obvious ups and downs throughout the nine year development, but, impressively, the final product is well-worth the wait. Owlboy, announced in 2007, was finally released for PC on November 1st.