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Owlboy...
9 years ago
(TLDR: Owlboy is an incredible game spoiled by a truly shitty last act and ending.)
So my Bird and I have been playing Owlboy together. This is a game that my Birdy has been waiting for, for a very long time, and I admit sparked my own interest a few years back, when he made me aware of it. It's absolutely every bit as incredible as you have heard.
It's clear that this is a labor of love. The animation is painstaking, and reminds me of the kind of work seen in the Metal Slug series, or even some of Vanillawear's work. It's so smooth, with so many frames. The main character of Otus is immediately loveable and sympathetic, and you feel for his plight all the way through the game. And the soundtrack... My gods, the soundtrack! It's awe inspiring, and achingly beautiful. The kind of music that puts a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye at times.
The story is deeply emotional, and deals with grand themes, alongside personal ones. The wish to belong. To fit in. To find your place. To do the right thing. This is made even more poignant by the main character's put upon state when we first meet him. You get to watch and help this young owl rise to fulfill his potential.
If only it wasn't for that ending. That Damn ending...
Okay, clearly I'm going to be going into spoiler territory here, so you've been warned. MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Still with me?
Okay.
Here's my problem.
The last 10 minutes of the game effectively renders the rest of the game moot. You don't fight the pirate captain. You DO fight a person who turns out to have been right all along, and if you had just left things alone, things would have turned out for the better. That's right. Your not even the real hero of the story. The owlboy that the game's title refers to is not you. It's Solus. You see, it's he that started the whole mess in the first place, but with the goal of trying to save the entire world. And he has the right idea.
One can argue about his methods, clearly. He should have come to Otus about what he'd found, not risked a gambit with the pirates, and then double crossed them, which resulted in so much death and destruction.
He also shouldn't have kept what he found such a huge secret, especially when Otus and friends would have made sure that the right people heard what needed to be heard, and if they didn't take it seriously, Otus and Geddy would most likely have taken up the burden themselves.
Regardless, though, it's Solus in the end that has the right idea. Gather the three relics, and perform the Antihex to save the world.
I understand the operatic tragedy that's going on here. Otus and friends are mistaken due to Solus' past deeds, about his ultimate intentions. It results in a confrontation that buys enough time for the pirate captain to arrive, and create the circumstances in which Otus must more or less sacrifice himself, not just once, but twice, to see that the world is saved.
It results in everyone but Otus surviving. But our poor put upon protagonist, who's fought so hard to make things right in the face of so much initial derision? He gets to fall to his death, all alone, separated from his friends.
Or least that seems to be what happens. The very end is rather ambiguous. Which is another issue in itself. But I'll get into that in just a moment.
Otus deserved so much more than this. Throughout the game, despite the derision of many, including his own teacher, he has struggled, not for himself, but for others. For the entire world. And not only does he get dead for his troubles, but it can be argued that he's not even the real protagonist.
And all of this happens in that last 10 minutes of game-time.
Now it IS true that there's some additional information that is gleaned when you travel to the Sanctuary, that might give you some solace (no pun intended) as to what exactly is happening in the end, as well as hope that maybe Otus will survive after all.
But to do this, you need three special coins that act as keys... And one of those coins is in the floating tower where you confront Solus for the last time. To visit the Sanctuary, you must travel through a sparkle in the wall just before entering the room where Solus is casting the Antihex, and travel back in time.
This is rather like playing Bioshock, but to access the audio logs, you must wait until near the end of the game, and then break all the dramatic tension leading up to the final boss to turn left just before you meet him, so that you can spend the next hour or two going through an expository info-dump, to clue you in on what really is going on. Oh and they're only available if you went out of your way to pick up these special collectables.
To say this is clumsily handled is a huge understatement...
I understand that maybe they wanted to be ambiguous about whether or not The Loop had been broken, and therefore whether or not Otus survives to the end of all this. But the rest of this game with the exception of this optional side quest to the Sanctuary, is not ambiguous at all.
It's a curve ball thrown right at the end. After spending the whole game making you deeply identify with the protagonist, they put into question the whole purpose of his quest, and then leave the game on a cliffhanger, with you wondering whether poor Otus is alive or dead... Dick move, D-Pad. Dick move...
All I can hope for, is that maybe this is dealt with in a sequel, or failing that, at least D-Pad will eventually let us know what happened to him, because as it is, that ending really put a bad taste in my muzzle...
So my Bird and I have been playing Owlboy together. This is a game that my Birdy has been waiting for, for a very long time, and I admit sparked my own interest a few years back, when he made me aware of it. It's absolutely every bit as incredible as you have heard.
It's clear that this is a labor of love. The animation is painstaking, and reminds me of the kind of work seen in the Metal Slug series, or even some of Vanillawear's work. It's so smooth, with so many frames. The main character of Otus is immediately loveable and sympathetic, and you feel for his plight all the way through the game. And the soundtrack... My gods, the soundtrack! It's awe inspiring, and achingly beautiful. The kind of music that puts a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye at times.
The story is deeply emotional, and deals with grand themes, alongside personal ones. The wish to belong. To fit in. To find your place. To do the right thing. This is made even more poignant by the main character's put upon state when we first meet him. You get to watch and help this young owl rise to fulfill his potential.
If only it wasn't for that ending. That Damn ending...
Okay, clearly I'm going to be going into spoiler territory here, so you've been warned. MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Still with me?
Okay.
Here's my problem.
The last 10 minutes of the game effectively renders the rest of the game moot. You don't fight the pirate captain. You DO fight a person who turns out to have been right all along, and if you had just left things alone, things would have turned out for the better. That's right. Your not even the real hero of the story. The owlboy that the game's title refers to is not you. It's Solus. You see, it's he that started the whole mess in the first place, but with the goal of trying to save the entire world. And he has the right idea.
One can argue about his methods, clearly. He should have come to Otus about what he'd found, not risked a gambit with the pirates, and then double crossed them, which resulted in so much death and destruction.
He also shouldn't have kept what he found such a huge secret, especially when Otus and friends would have made sure that the right people heard what needed to be heard, and if they didn't take it seriously, Otus and Geddy would most likely have taken up the burden themselves.
Regardless, though, it's Solus in the end that has the right idea. Gather the three relics, and perform the Antihex to save the world.
I understand the operatic tragedy that's going on here. Otus and friends are mistaken due to Solus' past deeds, about his ultimate intentions. It results in a confrontation that buys enough time for the pirate captain to arrive, and create the circumstances in which Otus must more or less sacrifice himself, not just once, but twice, to see that the world is saved.
It results in everyone but Otus surviving. But our poor put upon protagonist, who's fought so hard to make things right in the face of so much initial derision? He gets to fall to his death, all alone, separated from his friends.
Or least that seems to be what happens. The very end is rather ambiguous. Which is another issue in itself. But I'll get into that in just a moment.
Otus deserved so much more than this. Throughout the game, despite the derision of many, including his own teacher, he has struggled, not for himself, but for others. For the entire world. And not only does he get dead for his troubles, but it can be argued that he's not even the real protagonist.
And all of this happens in that last 10 minutes of game-time.
Now it IS true that there's some additional information that is gleaned when you travel to the Sanctuary, that might give you some solace (no pun intended) as to what exactly is happening in the end, as well as hope that maybe Otus will survive after all.
But to do this, you need three special coins that act as keys... And one of those coins is in the floating tower where you confront Solus for the last time. To visit the Sanctuary, you must travel through a sparkle in the wall just before entering the room where Solus is casting the Antihex, and travel back in time.
This is rather like playing Bioshock, but to access the audio logs, you must wait until near the end of the game, and then break all the dramatic tension leading up to the final boss to turn left just before you meet him, so that you can spend the next hour or two going through an expository info-dump, to clue you in on what really is going on. Oh and they're only available if you went out of your way to pick up these special collectables.
To say this is clumsily handled is a huge understatement...
I understand that maybe they wanted to be ambiguous about whether or not The Loop had been broken, and therefore whether or not Otus survives to the end of all this. But the rest of this game with the exception of this optional side quest to the Sanctuary, is not ambiguous at all.
It's a curve ball thrown right at the end. After spending the whole game making you deeply identify with the protagonist, they put into question the whole purpose of his quest, and then leave the game on a cliffhanger, with you wondering whether poor Otus is alive or dead... Dick move, D-Pad. Dick move...
All I can hope for, is that maybe this is dealt with in a sequel, or failing that, at least D-Pad will eventually let us know what happened to him, because as it is, that ending really put a bad taste in my muzzle...
