It begins in the real world, where we follow a socially isolated but artistically gifted young girl named Ashley Dengra. One day, she comes home after school and draws up a character named Misa Ikko, a girl with feathery ears and a long bird's tail. Then, Ashley spills a pot of paint onto herself, which also disturbs Misa; from then on, the game follows Misa's exploits in the world Ashley drew up.
Misa Ikko wakes up on the beach, where she learns that all the stars have been pulled from the sky by creatures called Gembugs. After receiving a fire sword from her friend Coral, Misa sets out to restore the stars to the night sky.
Feathery Ears contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Misa Nikko, who'll occasionally need to dispatch the Gembugs with a flaming sword.
- Bottomless Pits: Present during the 2D platforming segments.
- Endless Game: After you collect all of the stars, the game shows an ending scene, but then loops immediately afterwards.
- Flaming Sword: Misa is given one by the Coral, and uses it against her enemies. Besides simply being wielded in melee, particularly powerful swings will result in a fireball lifting off the blade's surface and streaming towards an enemy in the distance.
- Floating Platforms: Plenty, since we are talking about a magical, imaginary world here.
- Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Played very straight: the heat that must be radiated from huge pools of lava means nothing to Misa, and she can even briefly jump off of lava with no ill consequences!
- Little Bit Beastly: In addition to her feathery ears, Misa also has a light blue tail.
- Red Is Heroic: Misa Nikko's outfit is mostly red, and she is the hero of the game.
- Side View: There are segments in the game that are played from a 2D perspective.
- Sinister Silhouettes: All of Ashley's fellow students are only shown as monochrome silhouettes to highlight her alienation from them.
- Temporary Platform: Clouds act in this manner, quickly dissipating under Misa's feet.
- Thought Bubble Speech: The game is intentionally devoid of any spoken or written dialogue, and so the conversations between Misa and Coral are portrayed as pictures and symbols showing up in their thought bubbles.
- Spread Shot: The elite Gembugs that appear in the 2D segments can fire four green projectiles in a cross pattern around themselves.
- Sword Beam: Since Misa wields a flaming sword, she can also get it to concentrate the flames on it into a fireball and fire it at her enemies.
- Wall Jump: Misa can jump from wall to wall to get to higher places.
