Twig is a humanoid stick insect that fancies himself as a spider and is, again, initially a foe. His flaming shotgun becomes essential, not only in combat, as his firepower and portly frame help in opening up new areas and in solving puzzles, which then leads to them meet Otus’s third friend, Twig. Given assurances that Alphonse wants to atone and will help them take down his former masters, the pair is able to forgive him and welcome him into their little band of unlikely world-savers. He airs his concerns about the nature of the pirate leadership and their recent actions, leaving Dirk to sneer and leave him to the mercy of Otus and Geddy. A fight ensues and, when both pirates are beaten, Alphonse makes clear his intention to surrender. While exploring the Owl Temple – Owlboy’s first proper dungeon – Otus and Geddy bump into Alphonse and his then-partner in crime, Dirk, as the robotic pair attempt to steal the mysterious artefact hidden within. The second friend that Otus makes is Alphonse – an explosive-shotgun wielding pirate, whose first interaction with Otus is as enemies. The first of these companions is Geddy, Vellie’s engineer and Otus’s only true friend, who provides the most vanilla of gunfire. When off tackling dangerous temples, intimidating pirate airships and scary forests, Otus can summon and carry others who provide projectile attacks in combat, where Owlboy plays out like a lite bullet-hell shooter. One theme is allowed to grow, though, and is woven wonderfully into both Owlboy’s story and its core mechanics. That theme is forgiveness. He never confronts his confidence issues, for the most part behaving as if he never had them by smiling his way through the adventure, while commentary on his disabilities is seldom drip-fed, and only when back in Vellie where Asio blames him for everything. These threads are only really flirted with, however, rarely explored with any thoroughness outside of the opening. It also crossed my mind that Owlboy might serve as a warning about the follies of ableism, as Otus is reminded of his lack of speech and clumsy aviation at every perceived failure, yet continues (and ultimately succeeds) in his attempts to save the world in spite of his ‘shortfalls’, and the doubt placed on him because of them. It’s a wonderfully relatable moment where we see how his confidence is eroded by the mere thought that he might let others down, and it’s here I thought that Owlboy might explore the subjects of self-doubt and imposter syndrome. He is a constant disappointment to his mentor, Asio, who believes him unable to perform his societal duties of protecting the floating village of Vellie from the frequent attacks by robotic sky-pirates, and sticks with him solely out of devotion to their race’s tradition.ĭuring this demonstration of his social standing, we get a glimpse as to how badly Otus takes the words of others, underlined in a short, dark scene where he not only internalises the criticism he has received but also imagines that which he hasn’t. He was born mute and unable to fly with the same grace and guile typical of his kind and is therefore seen as clumsy and stupid. Unfairly, the reasons for his being on the lower rungs of life are completely beyond his control. You’re presented with a few thematic threads during the opening of D-Pad Studio’s charming 2D adventure, Owlboy, as protagonist Otus’s lowly social-standing is established. Despite being one of the few surviving members of a proud and ancient race, he is continually scorned by his superiors, bullied by his peers and is, at best, deemed insignificant by even those that like him. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s some spoilers for Owlboy.