![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Have you ever had that one really bad day where everything went wrong and you just got yelled at for a bunch of stuff you didn't do?
Have you ever had that day, every day, for your entire life?
Owlboy is a game about mistakes. Day to day goof-ups, being framed for the crimes of others, having to suffer the sins of the fathers, or even your ancestors. Owlboy is a game about trying your hardest to make up for those mistakes, no matter how many times you get knocked down. Owlboy is a game about never giving up even when you make mistakes.
Owlboy is a game about the world being very large, and about mistakes sometimes not being fixable. After all, the world is very large. You might be little more than a casualty in somebody else's mistake, and they would never know. Or maybe they do know, but don't care. Maybe someone else is a casualty in your mistakes.
Owlboy is a game about freedom. You can fly, the laws of gravity and linear movement don't apply. Owlboy is a game about lacking freedom; you're still confined in a two-dimensional space, and sometimes it feels like you're marching to an inevitable mistake, and yet there's no way to go but forward.
Owlboy is a game about juggling. In fact, I very originally joked around by calling it a "juggling simulator". You can fly, and you can roll and spin around, but you're not very good at defending yourself. That's where your friends come in handy; you can pick them up (along with flying, you're very good at grabbing things) and they shoot enemies for you. One has a weak but efficient peashooter, one has a blunderbuss that destroys most things in one hit but takes a long time to recharge, and one pretends they're Spider-Man. The shoulder buttons cycle through your friends, which is awkward since you use the other shoulder buttons (usually called the "trigger buttons" on XBox controllers) to pick up things and also shoot things. This led to a fair bit of trouble when I just wanted to grab a delicious, health-restoring fruit and ended up with someone clinging tenaciously to me.
Owlboy is a game about mistakes. There is one segment where you have to ride a giant, angry rock snake through a self-destructing cave. Pressing up on the control pad makes you veer upwards, pressing down on the control pad makes you veer downwards. This is, however, relative to the snake's perspective, and the screen is in fact constantly rotating your viewpoint - literally constantly near the end, in fact. This segment, and this segment alone, I felt was an enormous mistake on the part of the developers.
Owlboy is a game about being forgiven for mistakes. Both in narrative, and in gameplay, in fact - death won't set you back more than a minute or two each time, and even though you're relatively fragile (you are a bird person, after all, hollow skeleton etc) it's easy enough to avoid taking damage most of the time.
Owlboy is a beautiful game. Seriously, they spent nine years on this and it shows; the spritework is downright gorgeous, the music fits the mood perfectly (even if I'm not a fan - I prefer more bloopy music over the orchestral cinematic style). I don't know if I'd say it's worth $25 dollars, but that's because I have to be frugal with my funds. It was definitely worth the $13I paid a friend paid to gift it to me via Humble Bundle, though.
Owlboy is a game, but it is not a mistake.
Have you ever had that day, every day, for your entire life?
Owlboy is a game about mistakes. Day to day goof-ups, being framed for the crimes of others, having to suffer the sins of the fathers, or even your ancestors. Owlboy is a game about trying your hardest to make up for those mistakes, no matter how many times you get knocked down. Owlboy is a game about never giving up even when you make mistakes.
Owlboy is a game about the world being very large, and about mistakes sometimes not being fixable. After all, the world is very large. You might be little more than a casualty in somebody else's mistake, and they would never know. Or maybe they do know, but don't care. Maybe someone else is a casualty in your mistakes.
Owlboy is a game about freedom. You can fly, the laws of gravity and linear movement don't apply. Owlboy is a game about lacking freedom; you're still confined in a two-dimensional space, and sometimes it feels like you're marching to an inevitable mistake, and yet there's no way to go but forward.
Owlboy is a game about juggling. In fact, I very originally joked around by calling it a "juggling simulator". You can fly, and you can roll and spin around, but you're not very good at defending yourself. That's where your friends come in handy; you can pick them up (along with flying, you're very good at grabbing things) and they shoot enemies for you. One has a weak but efficient peashooter, one has a blunderbuss that destroys most things in one hit but takes a long time to recharge, and one pretends they're Spider-Man. The shoulder buttons cycle through your friends, which is awkward since you use the other shoulder buttons (usually called the "trigger buttons" on XBox controllers) to pick up things and also shoot things. This led to a fair bit of trouble when I just wanted to grab a delicious, health-restoring fruit and ended up with someone clinging tenaciously to me.
Owlboy is a game about mistakes. There is one segment where you have to ride a giant, angry rock snake through a self-destructing cave. Pressing up on the control pad makes you veer upwards, pressing down on the control pad makes you veer downwards. This is, however, relative to the snake's perspective, and the screen is in fact constantly rotating your viewpoint - literally constantly near the end, in fact. This segment, and this segment alone, I felt was an enormous mistake on the part of the developers.
Owlboy is a game about being forgiven for mistakes. Both in narrative, and in gameplay, in fact - death won't set you back more than a minute or two each time, and even though you're relatively fragile (you are a bird person, after all, hollow skeleton etc) it's easy enough to avoid taking damage most of the time.
Owlboy is a beautiful game. Seriously, they spent nine years on this and it shows; the spritework is downright gorgeous, the music fits the mood perfectly (even if I'm not a fan - I prefer more bloopy music over the orchestral cinematic style). I don't know if I'd say it's worth $25 dollars, but that's because I have to be frugal with my funds. It was definitely worth the $13
Owlboy is a game, but it is not a mistake.
Tags:
From:
no subject
I will keep an eye out for that snake section though.
From:
no subject
I wanted to compare it to the magic carpet stage from Genesis Aladdin except not optional and also your gamefield is rotating constantly.