Owlboy
Year: 2018
Rating: E10
Time Spent: 5+ hours
I had seen a video of some Owlboy gameplay a while ago that made the game look interesting enough to buy. The retro 16-bit-style graphics were what drew me to this adventure platformer. Now that I’ve played through it, I found it to be somewhat…disappointing. Sure, the visuals are quite striking, and each location certainly has some elemental charm to it. Additionally, the story is relatively simple but also charming in its own way. In the end, though, I don’t think I’ll give this game an additional playthrough. This is mostly because—without trying—I collected almost everything in the game in my first go.
First off, this was a fairly short game, which I should come to expect from independent game developers. After all, Cave Story and Undertale weren’t terribly long, but perhaps I’ve been spoiled by games like Hollow Knight. Secondly, even up until the last boss, I could never quite get the hang of the controls, which was more of a dull irritation than anything else. I did appreciate the frequency in which it autosaved, but this also made boss battles a little more challenging if that’s where I stopped playing before picking it up again. Although, the boss battles weren’t difficult either.
In fact, most of the bosses were fairly simple to figure out their attack patterns in a few tries, most of the difficulty coming from my inability to use the right button at the right time (as mentioned above). I’d almost have preferred a more challenging final battle, though, which the game certainly could have given me. I chipped away at this game for probably about six months. I played when I could or when I was between other games, and it felt good to finish it, if for no other reason than to move on to the next game in my queue.
Some great retro visuals in an otherwise “light” game, I give Owlboy 2.5 stars out of 5.
