Certain games are not played for their complex gameplay mechanics or chaotic action sequences, but for their soothing nature and the chance to wind down from the action while still experiencing gorgeous art styles and emotional narratives. For video game journalists like me, cozy games like The Day I Became a Bird are very important because it keeps us sane. After hours of explosive action, stressful sequences, and difficult boss battles, cozy games offer a retreat to refresh our minds and enjoy gaming on the lighter side. This is our review of the PC Steam version of The Day I Became a Bird, in which we explore an emotional narrative in a beautiful art style.
The narrative of The Day I Became a Bird revolves around a school-going boy named Frank, who is a little shy and wants to grab the attention of a girl named Sylvia, who studies in his class. Sylvia loves birds, and she mostly spends her time singing to them, drawing them, or making small bird models out of wood. Desperate for her attention, Frank looks for different ways to find a way to finally speak with her. Very few details about Frank are revealed in the story apart from this, but we do get to explore some of the locations from his life, like classrooms, school grounds, corridors, a park, his room, and an apartment building.
The story consists of different sections spanning over four days in Frank’s life. The gameplay revolves around exploration, collecting golden feathers, solving picture puzzles, or special sections like riding the bike, flying through a dream, or soaring through the skies as a bird while trying to collect a certain number of feathers and golden rings. The mechanics are very simple, and the puzzles are fairly easy as well. An entire playthrough of The Day I Became a Bird can take around 1.5 hours, if you take your time hunting down achievements as well.
The level design is fairly straightforward, with open-area levels like grounds and parks, while most of the game takes place in smaller areas like a ground or a classroom. Each level is beautifully designed, and this is where the game’s art style really shines. While the color palette is not very bright, certain objects in the environment are just plain sketches, and the rest look like a watercolor painting. This makes the visuals very cute and adds a cozy vibe to the overall aesthetics of the game. This practice is common throughout the levels.
The puzzles are simple, with the game asking you to place down small chunks of a picture in the right spots to complete it. These are related to the current narrative point. After every open-world level, you have to solve some puzzles. The third type of levels are chase-cam-like sequences where you have to collect a certain number of Golden Rings to progress further. These include you riding to school, or in one instance, flying in the sky yourself. There is enough variety in the gameplay that you never feel bored, and the amazing art style and the visual design ensure it as well.
The open-world areas also show the attention to detail given to the game, as we are treated to levels with an amazing design. During one instance, Frank visits a park with his classmates and has to collect certain items to make his costume. This is one of my favorite levels of the game because it is not only filled with smaller details but also shows how the developer stretched their legs with unique quests to complete in this particular section. The main highlight of the game remains its emotional narrative, and I do not want to spoil it too much here, but the game does not disappoint and is good enough to keep you glued to the screen until the credits roll.
Coming to PC optimization, the game does not have any sort of performance issues. Granted that it is not a very demanding game, but the game performs optimally on a Steam Deck as well. Controls are also crisp and do not feel clunky at all. Although I was not a fan of the paper-cutting sequence, it was not game-breaking bad for me either. It fully supports any type of controller and comes with a decent list of accessibility options as well.
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Final Verdict:
The Day I Became a Bird is one of the best games to come out this year so far, and despite its short length, I cannot recommend it enough to players who love artistic and cozy games. With a beautiful art style, simplistic puzzle solving, and an emotional story, The Day I Became a Bird is simply a bite-sized story with a big heart, and everyone who loves playing cozy games or games with emotional narratives should definitely give it a chance. Bonus points for allowing players to pet Chief, the dog.
Final Score: 10/10
Disclaimer: A PC Steam code for The Day I Became a Bird was provided for this review by Renaissance PR on behalf of Numskull Games through PressEngine. Read our Review Policy.
