Owlboy
It took me way too long to get to Owlboy . There are so many stellar indies on my backlog that continue to get usurped by the bigger-name games. It's a lot easier to talk to friends about big-budget AAA games since they are so much more likely to have played them, but less recognizable games like this can pull off some really special things. I only chose to start Owlboy after owning it for nearly four years because I wanted a shorter game to fill the short lull before Christmas beefed up my library again, but I found that the game actually helped me to better appreciate the value of well-crafted independently-developed videogames. Owlboy is a story-oriented platformer that feels incredibly polished, no matter what angle you consider it from. You play as an owl named Otus, and, along with his friends, you go on an epic adventure that covers important themes, like loss, forgiveness, acceptance, and redemption. The characters and their animations can often feel comically over-the-t