A Bird Story

Excellent storytelling with clever transitions, color contrasts, and subtle expressions that make this game feel like watching a movie.

Rating: ⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Let me preface this by saying:

Gameplay Breakdown

• 70% Unskippable, meandering (forced watch) cut-scenes
  
• 20% Flashbacks that feel like filler
  
• 5% faceless or shadow-looking NPCs
  
• 3% random moving trees
  
• 2% speech bubble for a "?" or an "!"
  —————————————
  
• 100% Draining, Empty, and Forgettable
  

Pros

1. It functions.
   
2. Pretty visuals.
   
3. Supporting an indie game developer is noble.
   
4. Might help you sleep. (Or rage-clean your room out of frustration.)
   

Cons

1. Snail-like Pacing – Every scene drags on like it’s allergic to progress.
   
2. Pretentious Writing – It tries to be poetic but ends up embarrassingly shallow.
   
3. No Real Gameplay – Interaction is nearly nonexistent.
   
4. Emotionally Void[/b] – Not a single scene stirred any real feeling.
   
5. [i]Predictable Plot – Saw every “reveal” from a mile away.
   
6. Shallow Characters – No development, no connection, no care.
   
7. Looks Nice, Feels Empty – Style over substance to the extreme.
   
8. Stress-Inducing Boredom – I literally stress-ate halfway through just to feel something.
   
9. Leaves You Worse Off – Less hope. More crumbs. A vacant stare into the distance.
   

Burning Questions, Answered Coldly:

• Worth the money? No
  
• Worth the time? No — not even during a blackout.
  
• Story-rich? Story-flat.
  
• Emotional impact? Only if you count regret.
  
• Should I get a refund? 100% yes.
  
[*] Any joyful moment? Only when the end credits rolled and realised I was free.

Final Words:

This is a fairly short game/story. It is poignant story of a boy and a bird, and their adventures together. The music is lovely, game play is relaxing. There is no script, it is all managed through actions. I thought it was quite beautiful, and fun to spend an evening playing.

Nobody writes a story like Kan Reeves Gao. This is a very short game (even for this creator's palette), coming in at just over an hour. However, in it's very short lifespan, he has been able to convey the passage of time from the construct of a child's mind perfectly and say so much without saying a single word. Tell me, who else can state the emptiness of a home with just a pile of notes? Or, who else has programmed in fun like jumping into rain puddles simply for the sake of it?

I had played this game long ago, and figured that I should come back to get the achievement. So much of it I had forgotten, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I missed. Gao truly is a storyteller.

All of that being said, however, this is still very much like his earlier works in that the story is more concept than tale. Yes, it does have a beginning, middle, and end; however, it is clearly meant to be a hype piece for the next installment in the series (Finding Paradise). I would suggest it if you are a fan, but it is not paramount to Finding Paradise's story. Overall, I would consider it an 8/10.

I cried :(

PROS:
Very good narrative technique, telling the story without using a single word. Very remarkable
Nice pixel art
It has some really beautiful moments

CONS:
Maybe a little bit boring and slow at the beginning. I don't need to wait until the character brushes his teeth. Some ridiculous little tasks for you to remember this is a game

Cute short story about a boy and his bird.
The story isn't anything too crazy, but that's not a bad thing.
The gameplay is really calming and I think that's what the devs were going for.
Overall, a nice game to just drift away for an hour.

0% words. 100% good feelings.

Recommended for: Just like the game I can make this review very short. It's basically a walking simulator with a nice story. There are a few moments that have a bit more interaction, but it is still 99% pressing the directional keys to go from one scene to the next. If you like those sorts of games you can check it out.

My experience: Personally I don't like walking simulators. The only reason I bought this game was because I really liked To The Moon from the same developer, plus it had a huge discount. If it weren't for those two things I would have never bought this game. Fortunately it is very short and I did like the story. For this reason I will give it a thumbs up, but I rather wish Steam had a neutral option.

Technical: I had no technical issues while playing. (Win10,7800X3D,RX7800XT)

Personal Rating: 2/5

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☑ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☑ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☑ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template


I like the story, it is relaxing. The audio is good.

just life and something you learn at the journey, nice

I haven't felt such comfort or smiled so wide in a while, so please, if you have an hour and a little more to see this through, please do. It's as sweet as it is cinematic, sit down and enjoy. :)

Such a sweet, dreamlike lil game that says a lot with just pixel art and quiet moments. ~

Sometimes words are just obstacles to good stories.

Amazing game with great artwork and music. The conclusion is also awesome.

good

Lovely little game, definitely give it a try ★★★★☆

- Perfect sound design with expressive pixel art characters
- Touching attention to detail
- A beautiful short story – simple yet impactful

WORTH TO TRY for both fans and newcomers, more emotionally potent than a film.

Brilliant work, Kan Gao.

-Beautiful artstyle
-Amazing soundtrack
-Great game

Light on the actual gameplay, this short story-driven game is definitely an interesting experience, especially if you play it after playing "Finding Paradise." It's basically the story Colin and Faye mention of how Colin nursed an injured bird back to health when he was a boy, and in keeping with Colin's remarks about how he can't recall which parts are true and which are his imagination, the story includes many fantastic elements that obviously didn't happen like that. It's also interesting to note that the whole game lacks text or dialogue, so if you haven't played the later, longer entry in the series you won't even know the protagonist's name.

A really cool short heartwarming game, loved it. The characters feels so alive even though it's pixel art it's so cool
And a great soundtrack
What else can I ask for ?


Bird.

two words, confusing and beautiful

Never have I been so confused yet so touched by a game before and A Bird Story will do that to ya. For $3.99 on Steam, it’s an easy game to play to 100% achievement since all you basically have to do is finish the story. I finished the story in a little over 1.5 hours. It’s basically a visual novel without words (yes, there is ZERO dialogue). It plays fine on the Steam Deck itself, but you do have to pull up the Steam keyboard for some commands and then exit out of the keyboard and click the X button to confirm the action.

You play as a little boy who helps out an injured bird and progress through the game as you go through the story. Now, where it confused me is where it got me thinking… am I dead? or, am I dreaming? because how is it that I’m able to fly on a paper airplane with my injured bird? Or, how is it that I go through this door and I’m in a forest and then I end up at my school? Lol. Anyway, I digress, but the ending was touching.

Plagued by the same issues as the previous titles. Did not have a good time with this one. That hour and a half felt like forever.

a beautiful game with a nice story and music

Sad Good Soup...

I don’t know why I played this game for over an hour... it felt like I was hypnotized or something

This story actually made Cry, which I haven't for a long time, I thought I lost the ability to.... and this game made me realize that I indeed did not and I needed to know that..... This Is so much more than a game to me now.... Thank You to the Developers for making such an amazing masterpiece and for helping me reconnect with the ability I thought I lost..... It genuinely means the world to me.
And Again, Thank you so much for putting your work out there, It is helping more people in ways than you Know.

great game

A short game with a bittersweet ending. If you own (or had owned) a pet, I bet you can relate to the story very much.

The artwork is pixel and it's beautiful! There are no dialogues and only speech balloons that pop up at times with a picture of what is being said (or asked). The story is narrated very well and I am in awe with the Story writer who conveys progress with no words.

There will be a lot of parallels to real life, but it's up to the player to grasp them. It's short but packs more content that what you'd imagine for a game of this length.

9/10

A quaint beautiful little story with a lot of heart. 8.5/10

lovely. i really like the artstyle

It's a really charming short story that can both help you pass a bit of time, and give you a different feeling about how birds are present in a person's usually dull and repetitive daily life.

It's a rather boring and short game. The story could also be better especially that its mostly just non interactable. The design is pretty good, but that's already it.

do i regret getting it? kinda
should you get it? i don't know, its your money. but i saw that others do like it, so read the other reviews and make your own picture.

I god this game a long time ago and never played it due to negative reviews saying it was bad and a waste of time. I finally decided to sit down today and give it a shot, and for what it is, I was satisfied.

A bird story is short, and the story it is trying to convey is done well without them using dialog. The music is nice, the art is beautiful, and it has just the right amount of sad moments mixed together with feel good moments.

I've played through 3 of the Freebird Games... games now and i haven't been disappointed with them yet.

truly a bird story of all time

boring ahh game

Compared to the full games I don't recommend this short piece. With pixel art games either dialogue or gaming mechanics are essential in my opinion. Story driven games like To The Moon and similar games or games with good mechanics like Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley or Dwarf Fortress do well with pixel art. But this is too "abstract" to be as enjoyable and memorable.

girl...im gonna go cry now. not sure if its out of sadness or happiness

A short and charming story that’s really enjoyable. It’s definitely worth the price, and I love how everything was put together. It takes about an hour to complete, making for a nice, quick experience.

Nice short story to pass the time, definitely worth at 80% off.

A Bird Story is the second game released within the Kan Gao universe. It was released as a little teaser for the next full title, Finding Paradise, but it's recommended to play after said title by the devs. While more than a little confusing on when to play the games in the series, this adventure was cute and continued to have a great soundtrack.

While loving the first game, this title left a lot to be desired. It presents a raw story about companionship and showed how subjective decisions can be in the real world. I liked it, but could probably complain more about it than praise. I'm still going to recommend it because I think it will add a lot character development for Finding Paradise, but could probably be skipped.

It's just really boring.

very sad

bird

its like the before the second old guy you help but you dont cry in this one

Too boring for me. It's nowhere near a masterpiece like "To the Moon". Even though it's not bad, I don't think it's worth the money I paid for it.

Cute game, lovely sound track, and generally a good morale journey. Plus it's an easy 100% completion.

Great entry in the series

A Bird Story