The Legends of Owlia Demo

Sometimes hatred allows people to do extraordinary things, in a bad way, obviously. However, it’s still fascinating to see how far can someone go because of a grudge, although this is mostly a plot mechanic in movies and video games. The rivalry between different kingdoms is also a great way to tell an interesting tale, especially when one of the sides is clearly evil.

The Legends of Owlia is a retro RPG with a top-down perspective and simple gameplay mechanics, in which you play the role of the savior trying to stop an entire country from being destroyed. Don’t expect anything too great when it comes to the gameplay mechanics either, since all you have to do is attack enemies, explore the world and make sure you survive its dangers.

The story starts when Mermon, who is the king of a race of people living in the sea, decides to take over the land as well. However, the land is occupied by owls, who call their kingdom Land of Owlia. Naturally, these owls are the good guys, so after Mermon starts his invasion it is up to you to help the birds to survive the attack and secure their kingdom.

As mentioned before, the gameplay is not original in any way, which is quite the bummer. However, at least your character can use an owl as an attack method, so that can be fairly interesting. There are other abilities as well, not to mention the fact that you can fight a variety of enemies along the way. On the other hand, the lack of a proper challenge might make it difficult to keep going sometimes.

The maps are too basic as well, since usually there’s just one type of tile covering the entire area, except the occasional tree or house. Obviously, the atmosphere suffers because of this, given the fact that it’s tough to imagine yourself somewhere else when the level design expresses nothing. The retro graphics wouldn’t be a problem under normal circumstances, but here they just make things worse.

All things considered, The Legends of Owlia could have achieved a lot more with the elements at its disposal, but the lack of attention when it comes to level design and mechanics ruin everything. However, all is not lost, since the game can still be improved with enough work and dedication.