Good, not great.

[RUSTYWARCOW]

From what I've played, a bit over an hour, I'd say this game is good (6/10, maybe 7/10), but it's not great. Definitely not the 90 metacritic, 10/10 that sites like Destructoid gave it, or even the generous 8/10 polygon stamped on it.

I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing. Here's what I dislike.

Pacing is far too slow.

Puzzles are far too simple and feel rather flat.

Controls are okay but a bit wonky at times, some of the sneaking stuff really feels forced and clunky.

Way too much dialog and too much of it interrupts gameplay.

It feels disingenuous:

- It's barely a Metroidvania... I would call it a game with doors and "keys". But it's a far cry from the backtracking, memory recalling rush when you get a new item, feeling of Metroid or any of its kin.

- And, it's not an open world. It's actually one of the most linear games I've played in recent memory.

The main ground and character pixel art is great, but it makes the less polished, less loved back back grounds look terrible. Some of the caves, clouds, etc feel very rushed / stuck on.

(And yes, it's overpriced, but that's already been beaten far beyond death.)

I'm not trying to say the game is bad, it's not. But, the reviews would suggest it's a masterpiece, and I'm just not seeing it.

[flow]

You've played about a tenth of the game, and your complains are that there's too much dialog and the game is too easy...?

It's called establishing the world and teaching you how to play the game.

[RUSTYWARCOW]

From what I've read it's about 6-7 hours of gameplay if you go through it at a reasonable pace. Not 10.

Putting that aside, why is it great?

EDIT: I'm really interested in how people see this title. And yes, I noted things I dislike, but I'm not trying to make this about complaints.

For instance, are people liking it because it's got a heartwarming dev story (ala the devs took 10 years to make it) or do they really think it's up there if not better than HLD, INSIDE, Shovel Knight, Meatboy.

10/10 means it's a classic. A game for the ages. I don't see it like that. But would like to know why others do.

[Domin0e]

I think you might be trying to find something in Owlboy that it doesn't even try to be. Owlboy is very story-heavy. It's telling you the story of Otus. It's not a game made for gameplay's sake with some light story tacked on. The pacing is, for what the game tries to be, spot on and the amount of dialog and storytelling isn't interrupting gameplay at all since it is an integral part of the experience.

I don't think the Metroidvania tag was added by the devs, as I cannot find them referring to Owlboy as one anywhere, so blame that on Steam users.
I do agree that the puzzles so far have felt a little simple and that it's not Open World, unlike them stating (Then again, it might open up later, like the last couple LoZ did?), but I can for the life of mine not understand why people think the game is overpriced - However as you stated, we already discussed that to death.

Are (some) scores higher than I'd personally rate the game / would expect people to rate the game? Yes, but not by much. Again, I think you're looking for something in Owlboy it doesn't try to be and that might skew your perception. User score is 8.2 on MC, which is pretty much aligning with my personal thoughts.

[[NGNS-SWE] ⚡ Quezkatolen ⚡]

I am 6 hours in, got all 3 companions and just got saved by Geddy.
for me? its 8.5-9 if you really like these kind of games, which I do, its a 9 but its also nothing "epic" tbh, its just a good platformer/metroid/icarus ish game with 2d graphic and great controls and music.

[lukaself]

For me the game hit me in the heart instantly right from the title screen, but I can definitely understand that some people would feel that there should be more, mechanically speaking.

However, what really strikes me is how perfect everything is. Every detail, every control and up to the very way how the music evolves while you're progressing in the story makes this game one of my favorites this year. Oh and the overflowing personality of the characters as well as the writing of course!

[Monkeyjunky]

Spot on, I'd give it a 7/10 so far, not sure if I'll finish it though. Aquaria might be a bit dated looking now but it did this kind of game much better.

The unresponsive and convoluted controls coupled with poor collision detection, lack of a map, basic dialogue, the constant interruptions and yes inconsistencies with the mostly lovely art (although Ori is much better looking) are just a few reasons I would only recommend this game in a sale (edit:as it stands).

[lukaself]

Originally posted by muad'dib:

The unresponsive and convoluted controls couples with poor collision detection

Weird, the style of the game is a matter of taste,but the tightness and responsive controls was one the stronger points in my experience. Also collisions? Do you have any specific examples ?

[Monkeyjunky]

Originally posted by lukaself ☯:

Originally posted by muad'dib:

The unresponsive and convoluted controls couples with poor collision detection

Weird, the style of the game is a matter of taste,but the tightness and responsive controls was one the stronger points in my experience? Also collisions? Do you have specific examples to expose?

Otus has huge wings and carries a giant pirate (sometimes) who obfuscates him, the point at which you take damage is very unclear.

It also seems that even though the game is essentially a twin stick shooter, it's not designed correctly for analogue sticks, Otus seems to only respond fully when you've pushed the sticks the farthest they will go, which creates the unresponsiveness and lack of precision I suspect.

I think some tweaking could address these issues and hopefully that will happen, I want the best for this game.

[RUSTYWARCOW]

Just wanted to say thanks for the civil replies... speaks volumes of the Owlboy fans. Cheers!

[lukaself]

Originally posted by muad'dib:

Otus has huge wings and carries a giant pirate (sometimes) who obfuscates him, the point at which you take damage is very unclear.

It also seems that even though the game is essentially a twin stick shooter, it's not designed correctly for analogue sticks, Otus seems to only respond fully when you've pushed the sticks the farthest they will go, which creates the unresponsiveness and lack of precision I suspect.

I think some tweaking could address these issues and hopefully that will happen, I want the best for this game.

Ah indeed, I agree with your points...

However being inspired from retro hits of the SNES it only felt natural for me to use the Dpad instead of the stick. ^^ It's by design I believe. It's a game by Dpad studios after all ^^.

As for the pirate, I just imagined he was designed to be cumbersome to fly around on purpose ^^.

[Monkeyjunky]

Originally posted by lukaself ☯:

Originally posted by muad'dib:

Otus has huge wings and carries a giant pirate (sometimes) who obfuscates him, the point at which you take damage is very unclear.

It also seems that even though the game is essentially a twin stick shooter, it's not designed correctly for analogue sticks, Otus seems to only respond fully when you've pushed the sticks the farthest they will go, which creates the unresponsiveness and lack of precision I suspect.

I think some tweaking could address these issues and hopefully that will happen, I want the best for this game.

Ah indeed, I agree with your points...

However being inspired from retro hits of the SNES it only felt natural for me to use the Dpad instead of the stick. ^^ It's by design I believe. It's a game by Dpad studios after all ^^.

As for the pirate, I just imagined he was designed to be cumbersome to fly around on purpose ^^.

Well I found carrying the first chap not much better tbh.

As for the d-pad, well the main controller for the PC is the 360 controller and the d-pad is obviously awful, also twin stick shooters always use analogue sticks rightfully so, hopefully they will fix the analogue controls being that the d-pad is assigned to hotkey functions in most games for a reason.

Saying that, I will plug in my Xbox One controller some time and see if the game feels better with the d-pad, so thanks for the tip. Ideally the game will work well with both an analogue stick and a d-pad though as it's after all a high-bit game :p

Edit#1, nah I find it to be worse with the X1's d-pad tbh (than the 360's analogue stick), it's as if there isn't so much a turning circle as a turning rectangle, it's not possible to do elegant turns like in Ecco, Nights or Aquaria, it feels clunky and unintuitive.

Seperately the shooting would be fine but it auto-locks on enemies which is annoying and makes it feel like I have to fight the controls again. I wish this game had been playtested professionally but I appreciate the budget wasn't big, it just needed some objective outsider input.

Edit#2 Nah I'm going to wait for a patch, I'm just not having any fun.

[lukaself]

Yeah the Dpad on the old 360 controllers is notoriously awful. They made great progress for the Xbox one gamepad, but I still prefer my special 360 silver gamepad with the Nintendo cross (still don't know how Microsoft did manage to get away with that ^^).

This thing : http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ky1qEBhyVc/TiwCI3yJ7QI/AAAAAAAAAUk/Fn64AZN6Kkk/s1600/P1090065.JPG

As for the elegant turns, I found to be much more Ecco-like when I was using and holding the dash button. Also according to one of the characters(can't remember which one), you fly better on a full belly (health bar) ^^. And indeed I found to be slower when my HP were low.

[Monkeyjunky]

Originally posted by lukaself ☯:

Yeah the Dpad on the old 360 controllers is notoriously awful. They made great progress for the Xbox one gamepad, but I still prefer my special 360 silver gamepad with the Nintendo cross (still don't know how Microsoft did manage to get away with that ^^).

This thing : http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ky1qEBhyVc/TiwCI3yJ7QI/AAAAAAAAAUk/Fn64AZN6Kkk/s1600/P1090065.JPG

As for the elegant turns, I found to be much more Ecco-like when I was using and holding the dash button. Also according to one of the characters(can't remember which one), you fly better on a full belly (health bar) ^^. And indeed I found to be slower when my HP were low.

What an awful idea it is to make you slower when you are on low health, it's hard enough as it is...another point, they really shoud've made dash and spin the same button, perhaps make the spin give you a dash with an upgrade (a spin dash if you will), having it as two seperate buttons is odd indeed as they are too similar.

Ok I'm done with this game for now, I've got other games in my collection that I'm actually enjoying in their current state. Hopefully this game receives some tweaks but till then cya.

[Elegnaim]

I played it for... an hour? two hours? last night. Up to the chase bit in the Owl Temple. I'll admit that I was playing it on my laptop which isn't QUITE running it at full speed, so I'm going to try it on my actual gaming rig before totally casting judgement but uh

I really don't know if I'm feeling it?

Broadly speaking I don't see anything that really differentiates it from the myriad pseudo-Zeldatroid indie games that have been showing up since Cave Story repopularized the subgenre on the PC.

Also save for the thing where you have to fill a bucket with water by dipping it in a pool -- which was a nice touch of environmental interaction -- the puzzles have all felt very... blockpushery/lock-and-key? And maybe they actually build up to something more elaborate and I just haven't gotten there yet -- it's totally possible the game's still in a protracted tutorial mode -- so I don't want to pass judgement yet, but again it all just feels... very generic.

[lukaself]

Originally posted by muad'dib:

Ok I'm done with this game for now, I've got other games in my collection that I'm actually enjoying in their current state. Hopefully this game receives some tweaks but till then cya.

Oh well, at least you gave it a chance !