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Alphonse, a robot pirate turned good, has an extremely powerful musket that’s balanced by a notably long cooldown, which can be used to light torches and burn away thorn bushes that obstruct your path. Geddy is a soldier who provides regular damage output with his pistol and the ability to shoot down weak barricades. Gaining the ability to teleport them to you at will, you can swap between them to get the appropriate compadre for the right situation. Throughout the game, you will eventually get three companions to help you out along the way. It’s a good thing he doesn’t fight the forces of evil alone then since you could argue he’s the most useless in his band of chaps. It also boasts the loveable clutz angle on with Otus, who, despite meaning well, doesn’t have much aptitude for anything. So if that makes you sick to your stomach because you shun arbitrary things such as emotion, maybe give Owlboy a miss. It’s one part coming of age and another showing the importance of forging friendships. The story is also a heart-warming affair. Throw in the excellent soundtrack provided by Jonathan Geer, which is peaceful and relaxing when entering safer areas but foreboding and frantic when fighting bosses, and you’ve got one of the most engaging games from a presentational standpoint. His eyes widen in a cartoonish fashion whenever he’s shocked while he will curl up into a ball and close his eyes whenever he’s scared or pull his wings tightly around himself whenever he’s feeling alone. You only have to play the opening 10 minutes to see how much time has gone into bringing this merry band to life.īeing mute, Otus relies on his actions more than anyone else, and it’s always easy to see how he’s feeling thanks to this. Being a homage to games of an older era, Owlboy doesn’t have any voice acting, so it’s down to the character’s to show us their feelings when speech bubbles pop up. The presentation is bolstered further by the expressive animations the characters in the game possess, most notably by Otus. There are underground volcanoes, hamlets atop icy mountains and abandoned temples that all look wonderful. And it’s not just the picturesque scenery of Otus’ hometown Vellie where Owlboy impresses. This has allowed D-Pad Studios to create stunning imagery. Visually, it is incredibly beautiful with an art style described by the developers as ‘hi-bit’, which means a pixel art game without the limitations found back in the SNES days, meaning more pretty colours. So how does Owlboy fare against nine years of expectation? That’s enough time to be considered in development hell, and anything coming out from that is rarely exceptional. D-Pad studios started work on the game back in 2007. Aside from its gorgeous visual style and cute protagonist Otus, Owlboy is most famous amongst gamers for its incredibly long development cycle.