Feathery Ears: Review

So we are back to a game made by Sayuri and Eager Passion. This was a game I was looking forward to, as Sayuri seems to been leaning into a sorta meta narritive, which I'll get to monumentally. However, this game was meant to be a short project, until Sayuri got a invitation to go to Gamesrome, which made her think to make the game more ambitious. But did it pay off? Well let me start by I think is better than Wings of Glass, which is saying a lot, but I'm already giving a away to much.

Rules:
1.Spoilers are abounding, and depending on the game, can spoil the experience. While not super story heavy, be warned going into the review.

2. I will not put aside any bias, but will try to be fair for games I do not like. This is my personal opinion. If you want to send your opinion, please do so in the comments below.

3. I am reviewing the PC Version.

Lets wield the fire sword! And also see cute lesbian relationships too, I guess. This is my review of Feathery Ears.

Story
OK, so the story is told without daiologe through draw cutscenes, which are very nicely presented! However, I have grown up on too many games where almost everything is voiced, so I do personally find it a bit weird, but I know for a fact that's just me, because the characters move VERY expressively. However, this does make the story a bit trick to describe because while I know what's happening(or at least have some idea), I don't know the whys and the hows. I am autstic, as some of you know, meaning I infer things the wrong way sometimes... or don't infer things at all, so that might have something to do with it.

Anyways, Ashaly Dengura is a 9th grade student with a lot of ideas, particularly Misa Ikko and Coral, the latter of which she is working on, and while try to working on her, accidentally performs the art of the isekai anime by spilling paint on herself. From here I believe we are transported to the world where Feathery Ears takes place, probably based on ideas either in her mind or in her sketch book.

As you start the game and get used to the controls, Misa goes to Coral to receive the fire sword, a sword that might be the master sword of this game because it does get s**t done. From here it's all about completing the levels and releasing the stars(which may or may not be literal souls) back into the sky.

Towards the final levels, a hooded figure(who may or may not be one of the stars) attacks Misa, but Coral helps her heal up as she ends up climbing the tower to the sky, and they end up looking at the stars together. 

Overall, this is a really good and basic story told in about 2-4 hours depending on how fast you are. One of the things that I did like was the cute relationship between Misa and Coral, you can obviously tell they are more than friends, and it doesn't feel awkward at all, which is good!

Gameplay
I'll be honest, this game defiantly feels different to wings of glass gameplay wise, but that's what makes very cool!

First if all, you have the dive from Wings of Glass, but it is a lot more power up, and helps you go a lot further. This move was very useful to me, as I found that the extra height that the dive game before I started to fall got me to certain platforms better than jumping alone. You also run faster and this helps your momentum when jumping and it helps to give more energy to the gameplay loop.

The fire sword is very powerful and is not only effective as a short range weapon, but a long range weapon as well as it shoot fire beams, which cover a pretty good distance and with the aim tool, make it pretty hard to screw up hitting your target. If Kingdom Hearts 1 controlled like this game, I would probably be less harsh on it. 

The level design usually calls on you to find the stars in the level. In 3D, this is really cool with the open world design that Sayuri has been proven to be very good at. In 2D, it becomes a little too straight forward, as the levels in 2D feel like are designed to be very streamlined and fast, making the collectables a little too easy to get in my opinion. I think having a few different paths like in Sonic games, or having a small metroidvania style area would help the styles of the 2D sections and 3D sections match up a little better. Besides that I have no real complaints beside maybe a few stars being a little too tricky to get in the 3D sections(i.e the third to last level requiring a lot of precise jumps to get certain stars in my opinion).

Looks, Sound and final Thoughts
This game is gorgeous and I played this on the highest setting, where everything really pops! The last level was probably my favorate because it just involves you going among the clouds and ​a purple skybox and it just looks amazing.

The sound track is made by Naoya Sakamata, and she does an amazing job with the music. Every piece of music felt catchy, fun to listen to, and belong in there environment. 

Overall, this is a fantastic game bar none, if a little bit short. However, I would still say play wings of glass first, so you can appreciate this games mechanics. You can get Feather Ears on the switch, but I would say also get the PC version, the graphics on that port of the game, have been severely down graded.

Here is a comparison of the original and the Switch Port of Feathery Ears. FE was originally made with an "Every Frame Should be Beautiful" core. I'll see if I can ask to bring back some of the magic and luster.#IndieGameDev #indiegame #madewithunity pic.twitter.com/ULtiTAnS9F

— Eager Passion Commissions OPEN (@SayuriArtsy) May 13, 2020

First game review in a while, and it was a pretty good one if I say so myself. Hopefully more reviews soon, as I actually bought video games that one time!

But for now, thanks for reading, and I'll see you guys next time.

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