Conveying Beauty and Tragedy Through Sight and Sound
This, I have no problems with. The music of The Last Birdling is wonderfully written and I do enjoy it. There were often times where I would just be sitting in my chair, letting a scene sink in and I’d relax by just listening to the game’s music. It really fits the tone and helps convey the emotion of the scene. In terms of sound, the only other thing to note is that The Last Birdling does not include any voice acting, but I think that’s fine. In this case, it allows InvertMouse to put out a reasonably priced product. Instead, a lot of the budget went into the artwork and it shows.
In regard to the artwork, let’s start with things as a whole. The artwork of The Last Birdling is great. There’s a lot of effort put into the character designs, scene layout, and just the quality of the art. While the art style is a bit different than a Japanese developed VN, it’s still very well done. The characters are expressive, the CGs are well done, and at a glance, things seem great. However, it’s the details that matter and where we have a few issues. Once again, using the image above, how old would you say Bimona and Tayo are here? They look like young women, right? Well, look at the image below.
In this image, they look like children. On the surface and with no context, that may seem perfectly fine. However, that’s not the case. The characters haven’t aged up at all, this is supposed to be the same timeframe. This is where the first of two key issues arise in The Last Birdling. Remember a few paragraphs ago when talking about the save/load issue? Well, we can talk about what that was indicative of and that’s consistency.
For as much effort and polish that The Last Birdling has, it’s applied inconsistently. While there are a lot of great ideas in a grand sense, nailing smaller details and keeping them consistent is one of its major flaws. The age thing isn’t the only issue that arises. While less egregious, another example is that the King of the lands that Bimona and Tayo live in is stylized as a Western King. Once again, on the surface, this isn’t a problem. However, the world and other characters seem to invoke an Eastern feel. As such it’s confusing to the reader when we have these two visual styles somehow co-existing in the same space with no explanation. Especially when several other aspects of The Last Birdling’s world and environment are explained. Which brings us to talking about the writing.
A Tale of Two Girls and Thier Impact on Each Other
Once again, The Last Birdling does a respectable job in the grand scheme of things when it comes to the writing. The game knows the story it’s trying to tell and does a decent job of getting to the point. This is a story about Bimona and Tayo and the effect they have on each other. This works very well and you do get the sense they care about each other. Especially since the story takes place over several years, thus we see the impact their meeting as children has on them.
The overall story of The Last Birdling begins with Bimona and Tayo’s first meeting as children, and after certain events, time skips to several years later when the two are older. During the first half, we learn about the state of the world and why Bimona is among the last of the Birdlings. The central conflict here revolves around Bimona and Tayo’s blooming friendship and Bimona’s mother’s disapproval of it. However, things take a tragic turn and we enter the second half of the game where the plot gets a bit darker.
The second half of the story follows an older Bimona and Tayo who have been apart but still remember each other. They have grown and changed, but their bond seems to have lasted. However, how much influence that bond has left is up to the player and their choices. Their adult designs are well done and I can believe both growing into who they become. The overall plot itself and the conflicts presented are also believable, in fact, they are good conflicts and personal struggles. Tayo and Bimona may be older, but life has not been kind to either and it’s reflected here. Once again, though the problem is in the details. In this case, what we are supposed to feel. While I can follow the plot, the writing doesn’t invoke the feeling it’s trying to communicate to me.
When I was playing through The Last Birdling one phrase kept popping into my mind in response to several characters actions: “You’re a jerk”. The problem is that while the characters and their thoughts or actions are believable, the descriptions are too mean, too spiteful. The game is trying to have the characters give realistic responses to certain situations or actions. To be fair, a lot of the things they go through invoke an angry response from a person, it’s part of being human. However, the game simultaneously wants me to feel empathic towards these characters. It sends a mixed message because why I do feel bad for them and can understand their feelings, the tone of the writing just makes them seem jerkish. Case in point the character I liked best was one that barely spoke, Vi. Whom we’ll discuss on the last page.
