Atomic Owl Review

Atomic Owl tells the story of the world of Judasnest, home to a conflict between the Crows and the Bladewings that raged for a thousand years. Our protagonist, Hidalgo Bladewing, and his friends are going to their favourite ramen spot after successfully completing a dangerous mission. However, this isn’t the celebration that they were expecting. They are confronted by Omega Wing, a twisted Crow Sorcerer, who unleashes a surge of dark energy called Meza, engulfing the bird warriors and capturing the Bladewing Captain, Hidalgo, and binding him to an eternal tree.

Two years later, Mezamet, a sword, is trying to wake him up. Your blade was hit by Meza energy when Hidalgo was trying to defend himself, and can now talk. He says you have a case of “main character amnesia”. All of your friends have been brainwashed by Omega Wing, convincing them to fight against their own forces. To find the others, Hidalgo needs to travel around the world and battle Tengu, creatures from Japanese folklore, who are taking over Bladewing City and Judasnest, attacking the people living there.

Your sword can absorb Meza directly from the evil monsters that you are fighting, which will be used to power up our hero on this long, looping roguelike journey. When you die, you start back at Twilight Perch, where there is a shop that you can visit to spend the Meza you gathered from enemies to purchase items that are permanent and stick with you before you begin again. However, they are not cheap, so it takes multiple run attempts to get enough Meza to make a purchase. When you are ready for another try, select to rise from the ashes once again, and the Phoenix sends you back to Bladewing City for your next attempt. All the Revenant Wing items that you had picked up on your last run are gone, so you will need to collect new items from fallen enemies to strengthen Hidalgo.

You will become very familiar with Bladewing City, as you replay that area a lot. Fortunately, you will develop muscle memory, making it easier to return to the spot where you last were. You will figure out which of your four weapons: the hammer, blade, chain, and scythe, works best for each type of foe you encounter. The gaps between platforms seemed insanely large and almost impossible to pass until you figured out the right combination of jumps and dashes to make it across. Sometimes, the screen moves forward so far to show you the large gap you need to jump that it moves past your character, so you have no clue where you are standing. This requires you to make a blind jump, which makes it extra challenging to judge. To make things worse, there aren’t many checkpoints in Atomic Owl, so if you mess up any of the jumps, you will have to go back quite far to try again.

As you defeat enemies, some will drop Wing Revenants. These items give you special abilities, like the Wing of the Bladewing, which will slow down Tengu movements when you attack with a melee weapon; the Third Wing, which allows Hidalgo to do a triple jump; and the Swift Wing, which lets you use a dash twice with no cooldown period. These different abilities really help you traverse the stages. Every run you play, you may discover new types of Revenants, as you don’t always get the same ones; it’s totally random.

Atomic Owl has animated cutscenes, hand-drawn characters, and voice acting for them, which is always a nice addition. The stages you visit are brightly coloured and full of neon lights; plus, the city even has a ramen shop! The lighting effects look impressive, with beams of light coming down from the sky, making this world come to life, along with a synthwave soundtrack. The one thing I found odd with the visuals is the fact that the camera seems to be pulled so far out that all the characters and enemies you fight are very small. I guess it can prepare you for what is coming up, but that all depends on how far the camera moves.

I had a few issues with Atomic Owl that caused a lot of frustration, besides the camera moving too far. When you are talking to someone, enemies keep moving and coming towards you, so most of the time I was clicking through the dialogue as fast as I could so that I could attack the Tengu. Speaking of attacking enemies, when you hit a Tengu, your controller starts vibrating like crazy, almost like it doesn't know when to stop. Platforms that you stand on, which are supposed to move you along a line, seem to drop you if you move or if you get hit by an enemy's bullet. This is super frustrating, especially since it’s not consistent, so you don’t know if you are going to fall.

After playing a really good ninja game with great controls, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, it was hard not to feel frustrated playing Atomic Owl. I enjoyed the visuals and the variety of weapons that you could use and swap on the fly, but this is a difficult title, especially since there aren’t a lot of checkpoints where you could save your progress and start from. There is so much backtracking, and since Atomic Owl is a roguelike title, you will be playing through Bladewing City a lot. If you want a challenging, neon-filled experience, Atomic Owl is the title for you. I just found my time with it to be unfair and a headache to play.