Samurai Punk’s Feather features a bold proposal. This is a game with no combat, no threats, no enemies at all. It’s all about pretending to be a bird, flying around on an open island, and exploring. It’s meant to be a relaxing flying simulator of sorts, or at least it looks like it should be one. That’s fine, we live in a post-Pilotwings and Flight Simulator society; games that are lauded for their relaxing nature and focus on pure, unadulterated flying. Is Feather worth being mentioned alongside these flying juggernauts?

Long story short, no. Feather is a very puzzling experience, not because it is hard to play, but actually because I find no reason for it to exist. It does exactly what it advertises, being a nonviolent game about flying around as a bird. It does feature some beautiful landscapes, albeit low-poly and riddled with reused assets. The soundtrack is indeed relaxing, even though it totally contrasts with the feeling of flying around at high speeds.

The controls are actually quite responsive. Moving around as a bird is easy and intuitive, with a neat control scheme that lets you accelerate and slow down with the Dualshock 4’s triggers. I can even use the borderline useless trackpad to move my bird around, which was a somewhat cute addition. I have to admit that, after playing Super Mario 64 for the past week or so and having to deal with its dated flying mechanics, Feather feels like a breath of fresh air. Sadly, this is everything positive that I can say about it.

Simply put, there’s nothing to do in here. You fly around as you wish, with no objectives to complete, no stakes, no unlockables, no nothing. You can occasionally flying through special rings to change the soundtrack or the kind of bird you’re playing as, but you’ll quickly get bored of Feather after half an hour or so. I found no reason to keep on playing it for long. The game does that typical cheap trick of showering you with stupidly easy trophies to try to convince you to stick with it for a bit longer, but I did not feel motivated at all to keep on exploring that small and completely barren island.

Feather is alright when it comes to its presentation, but I’m still trying to understand what the hell is its purpose. I’ve been flying around, looking at some cute low-poly sights, and wondering if there was some objective to complete, if I should flying through all rings and amass some collectibles. It’s just pointless. I’m not saying the game is bad due to its nonviolent and relaxing approach, on the contrary. But please, give us something to do in it.

 

Graphics: 7.0 The low-poly art style is pretty cute, even if the game constantly reuses assets to populate the island. It is prone to some major framerate drops every now and then.	Gameplay: 6.0 The controls are actually smooth and intuitive. Too bad there’s just not a lot to do to justify the usage of said control scheme…
Sound: 7.5 The soundtrack doesn’t exactly fit with the gameplay loop of a bird flying at high speeds, but it’s beautiful and relaxing.	Fun Factor: 2.0 Feather is beautiful and serene, but there’s absolutely nothing to do in here, to the point you might even question why the hell was this even released as a game to begin with.
Final Verdict: 5.0

Feather is available now on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch.

Reviewed on PS4.

A copy of Feather was provided by the publisher.