Grade: B+
Momentum-driven precision platformer exploring a stunningly illustrated world.
The King’s Bird is a precision platformer at heart, but with a focus on artistic expression. You play a waifish young lady, Quill, who steals a bit of fey power and gains a glowing scarf/cape that gives her gliding power. Before paying for her crimes, though, she flees into exile.
Out in the wilderness, you can use your glide, jump, and dash powers to wend your way through thorn-filled terrain. You spend the vast majority of the game exploring the ruins of an ancient world and slowly uncovering the reasons behind the civilization’s downfall.
The studio, Serenity Forge, set its sights sky-high in terms of what it wanted to accomplish. The first two-thirds of the game, Serenity Forge hit the mark, and they had me amazed and entranced. The game hit on all cylinders with perfect harmony between the various design components. Unfortunately, the latter third of the game, particularly the platforming in the final levels, felt poorly tuned and out of touch with the rest of the game.
Art that inspires
The art styles in The King’s Bird are by far its greatest strength. Just the logo for the game, with the bird superbly nestled into the silhouette of the B, tells you a lot. Serenity Forge put a lot of focus and effort into making something beautiful.
Each scene looks like you’re walking through a surreal painted canvas. As you progress through the levels, you get connected with different soundtracks and color palettes. There are multiple moments in this game that had me stare for a good minute. A couple of my favorites are below:
Music that encapsulates the mood
In addition to the art, each level has a soundtrack that encapsulates the mood. At the beginning of the quest, the soundtrack is upbeat and joyful. But, as you explore further and further into the ruined civilization, the soundtrack changes and becomes more melancholy and haunting. As a bonus to the already great music, when Quill is in flight, you hear a separate vocal singing track mixed into the hearing, which adds a beautiful layer to the gameplay.
The composer, Max Messenger Bouricious, explains more about the nuts and bolts of how it came together.
“In order to best fit the music to such a world, I researched a number of different cultures’ music. Drawing from Native American, South-East Asian, Celtic, and even Sub-Saharan African influences, I began to create a style of music in which flute lines fluttered, ethnic percussion pounded, and choirs, pianos, celestes, and string orchestras filled in the rest of the sound. The result is a fantastical, shimmering, and wistful soundtrack that I hope is worthy to accompany the protagonist on her journey through a magical and mysterious world.”
A story told in pictures
I enjoyed how the story of “The King’s Bird” is told in pictures you discover throughout the game. There is no dialogue in the game, and it’s left to the player to figure it out and connect the dots themselves. Here’s what I gathered for myself, but I have no idea how close this is to the original designer’s intent.
Cutscenes felt rushed
In the few cutscenes within the game, they bypassed dialogue and had a sort of operatic shadow puppet theater. This operatic style, to me, didn’t represent the dramatic tension well. The classical strings that rang out with each character’s hand gesture created more subtraction than addition. This was an immersion breaker for me.
Also, it seemed that the game-makers had to cut corners for the dramatic moments of the game. There was a lack of polish and depth on many of those cutscenes that probably just traced back to a lack of time. This time crunch was obliquely called out in the “how the game was made” dev log video Serenity Forge produced.
A joyful set of game physics that were taken too far for the average player
When you begin “A King’s Bird,” there’s a lot to get used to in the controls, and the on-ramp is not particularly smooth. 30 minutes into my first playthrough, I was hand cramping. The next day, when I picked it up, the same thing happened.
A month later, though, when I picked it up again, something clicked. Instead of frustration, I started leaping and gliding and sliding through the levels like an acrobat. When it clicks, the momentum balancing in the gliding/sliding/diving feels joyous and freeing in a way I’ve felt in very few games before. This momentum and high enjoyment stayed strong for me throughout the first 2 major worlds of the game.
However, somewhere in the latter third of the game, this joyous and freeing platforming experience became a major grind. Perhaps this was intentional as the game’s tone shifted into a more dark and foreboding mood. To me, though, the game didn’t provide the right on-ramp for the crazy stunts you have to pull to get to the end. In other platformers, the high-level precision stunts are left to the “extras” and are separate from the main story (i.e., Celeste’s B-side mix). Instead, the King’s Bird asks the player to do the hardest possible precision platforming to complete the main story. It felt like you were doing great, and then you hit a brick wall all of a sudden.
Assist Mode is available
As a help, there is an assist mode you can turn on, but this feels like a cop-out to a gamer. While I’m not the best platform player, I’ve beat Hollow Knight, Celeste, and Ori, so I’m solidly at your average tier. If I can’t get through to the end of a platformer without cheat mode turned on, there’s something in the tuning that’s missing the mark.
I wondered if it was just me, though, and whether my reaction was biased due to my own lack of skill. Watching a few YouTubers gave me some perspective. The best case in point. In this blind speedrun, this professional gamer was stopped cold for 5 minutes on this one stunt and said with frustration, “what does it want me to do?!”. Yes, indeed, I wondered the same thing at this game point and many others in the final levels.
Overall Impression
The best parts the “The King’s Bird” make it well worth picking up. While you’ll likely need to turn to assist mode to get through to the ending, it’s still a gaming experience I’d recommend for the first two-thirds alone.
Serenity Forge is an indie game studio that I’m rooting for. The CEO, Zhenghua Yang (Z), has an incredible and harrowing tale that led to the eventual creation of the company. It was best summarized on Extra Credit and is a unique and inspiring story. I’m looking forward to seeing what Serenity Forge delivers next!
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