When Geddy storms off after an upsetting turn of events, I felt his absence as a character more than a temporarily lost ability. I felt invested in the personal growth and development of Otus and his friends because of their many exhilarating victories and devastating failures. While Otus himself remains silent, other characters around him always have plenty of well-written dialogue, imbued with strong underlying themes that make the story-heavy breaks between exploration and combat feel like substantial parts of the adventure. Otus can’t speak, but his little gestures - whether it’s a triumphant smile to welcome a new friend or a sudden bout of shivers at an unfortunate turn of events - endow him with a surprising amount of character. “The eye-catching pixel art style is put to equally effective use on Owlboy’s many characters, whose sprites come to life with a range of endearing animations and expressions. Trying to strictly play Owlboy like a conventional side-scrolling shooter won’t feel as satisfying as it does to experiment with objects and enemies in its world to uncover these new outcomes and rewards - but that doesn’t mean going in with your buddy’s gun blazing can’t also be the correct approach for certain areas. Rather than shooting at the angry, rock-throwing cavemen, you can spin to deflect their projectiles back at them, playing a game of aggressive ping-pong before they eventually give in and explode. Instead of rapid firing into the group of fire gators, you can use the tiny cloud you used to solve a puzzle earlier to rain water down on them, turning them to stone and then spin-attacking to shatter their statues. Most enemies avoid “bullet-sponge” syndrome, and instead have some creative way of being taken down that can sometimes earn you a treasure chest if done properly. (Sometimes literally!) But having those characters there to represent each ability and contextualize their unique contributions to your adventure just adds to Owlboy’s immense charm and personality.Ī good variety of enemies, all with different behaviors, weaknesses, and interesting placements within each dungeon, prevent combat-heavy sections from becoming repetitive. You can cycle between buddies instantly using a teleportation device found in a dungeon early on, which adds some internal logic to the convenience of what is essentially switching weapons and abilities on the fly. Picking Geddy up, flying him through dungeons, and shooting at enemies with his blaster controls with ease on a gamepad, like a simplified twin-stick shooter. His self-proclaimed “best bud” Geddy, for instance, is armed with a tiny short-ranged, but quick-shooting pistol that can blast through wood and some types of rock, and take out most enemies. Instead, Otus must rely on his allies and their unique abilities to fill in where he’s lacking. “Otus’ weakness is a key part of his character, so highlighting his failures and vulnerabilities during dialogue-heavy portions and then turning him into a gun-toting superhero once you enter a dungeon wouldn’t make sense.
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