We have not cited random titles, because Owlboy shares a lot of their production philosophy, so the only valid expiry is the satisfaction of the authors with respect to the adherence of the finished product with what is their vision. It is no coincidence that those mentioned are among the best games released this year. Yes, even Owlboy.
D-Pad Studio began to develop it in the now distant 2007, premising that it would take a long time to see it arrive on the market. At the time the project was known only among the goers of the independent PC scene, scene that was also taking its first steps on the console (Braid of the aforementioned Blow is 2008). The reason for the slow development was already clarified then: the pixel graphics art.
Take care:not a pixel art graphic like many others, but the best ever. As some artistic avant-gardes of the twentieth century have unveiled us, the creative act is as important as the work itself; a painting by Jackson Pollock is not readable without knowing its genesis and without understanding what action painting is.
Knowing a little about Owlboy’s story helps a lot to appreciate it and to understand how crazy and at the same time exceptional the work done by the developers, who have deliberately chosen to design every single object of the game pixel by pixel, including animations, imposing limits in the color palette to make their work not only perfect from an aesthetic point of view, but also impressive from the strictly formal one.
In short, Owlboy is a crafted object created with meticulous care, the result of a radical discipline inseparable from the gameplay.
We have reviewed Owlboy, a masterpiece in pixel art that has literally bewitched us! Discover it.
THE STORY OF OTUS
The protagonist of the adventure is Otus, a mute owl boy who in the introduction does not show particular talents and is repeatedly reprimanded by his teacher, who considers him an incapable. Otus seems to fail in anything, apart from combining disasters, and is humiliated in every way by the inhabitants of the city in which he lives, Vellie.
Despite this, he also has trusted friends: people who love him and who help him as much as they can, showing him understanding and affection. After the introduction, which also serves as a tutorial, we take control of Otus and we can explore the city of Vellie.
Here we learn some interesting features of the game, formed by wide and freely explorable levels, even if not open, with secret areas that are accessed by acquiring skills and upgrades.
In short, apparently it is the classic seasoned metroidvania Zelda, but also with some original ideas that make it unique.The first is definitely the power of flight, which allows Otus to move freely around the map and that characterizes the entire gameplay.
The second concerns the nature of the upgrades, linked not so much to objects to be collected, as to the friends who are with us. But let’s go in order. Otus of his is almost defenseless and, in addition to performing a pirouette, at most he can pick up objects and throw them at the enemies or use them in various ways depending on their function.
For example, it can catch clouds that, when squeezed, spill water jets; or you can take caps with which to close the air nozzles. In short, around this mode of interaction are built most of the puzzles of the game, generally not difficult to solve, but very adaptable to the genre and never out of context. In addition to the objects, as already mentioned, Otus can grab his friends by airlifting them. Every friend has characteristics that make it unique and, when he is with the owl boy, he turns into a real weapon.
For example one of them, Geddy, shoots with a kind of machine gun and is of a very slim size, while another more corpulent, Alphonse, is equipped with a flamer shotgun, very slow to recharge, but definitely effective to clean up some areas from the bushes .
Around the maps there are also buried objects that must be unearthed; these can be pots or chests full of gold, or food to swallow to recover energy. The levels are also full of rings that must be crossed and which also yield gold. When you have enough money you can go to a store and buy upgrades, like extra energy, a gun and more.
