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When I Lost Ori in the Great Storm [Ori and the Blind Forest]
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I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered User regular
I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered User regular
Out now for PC and Xbox One!
What is Ori and the Blind Forest?
Ori and the Blind Forest is a Metroidvania style adventure platformer, and the debut game for Moon Studios. Gameplay is largely based around precision platforming, with some combat to keep things a little interesting, and like any good Metroidvania games you'll be backtracking to grab power-ups as soon as you learn new skills (like Smashing that rotted log you couldn't get under before). It's pretty difficult, especially some of the optional collectibles. Oh and I guess it's got some pretty incredible art and music too.
Note to PC players: the KBAM controls are...not great. You'll want to use a USB controller if you have one. I switched from KBAM to gamepad about 2 hours in and it's remarkable how much better it feels.
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So.... I'm completely blown away. Not only by the game, which I'll get to, but by the fact that this appears to be the only Ori and the Blind Forest thread on the forums! Like.. this got 2 replies, and the sequel (Ori and the Will of the Wisps) got NADA. Hell, doing a search for Ori turned up more strange stuff from 2005-2008 than anything for the game, and a search for anything Ori related through page 14 didn't turn up things.
Maybe the game was discussed in other threads. I don't know. But honestly? This game deserves so much more love than that around here.
I have just completed a marathon of the games. After beating Doom Eternal on Game Pass, I knew Ori would be high on the list. I had avoided seeing much about either game, including tuning out of Andy's speed playthroughs of Wisps when it first came out.
I'm glad I did.
The art style is absolutely incredible, and everything about the game is FLUID. Once you unlock all the skills, well.. in the first game you feel like a badass. In the second, you feel like you can do anything. Sure, there are some fiddly bits there where you have to use the bumpers like a madman, and both games did make my hands hurt. But it was worth it. It was SO worth it.
I was definitely crying at multiple points of both games.
But what blows me away is how much you can see they learned from their contemporaries! Hollow Knight and Breath of the Wild are all over this game. Hollow Knight in the sheer variety of things to do and the size of the game. Breath in the wild with the gated non-linear nature of the game. They still manage to tell a story with a cohesive beginning, middle, and end, but you can just feel the world open up to you at a certain point.
Thoughts on Will of the Wisps, from the ending:
Man. I really wanted to befriend Howl and Shriek. It looked like Howl might've gotten caught in the tar pits or the ash/decay... and Shriek.. well, poor girl. She could've been friends with Ku, or Ori for that matter. Ori tried, for their part.
I had a feeling in the back of my mind that Ori wouldn't be the same at the end of this. It really settled in when they reach the willow tree, of course, but... Of course there's a cycle of life going on here. In fact, I think I figured out shit was gonna hit the fan when you saw the murals. I was like.. .Orrriii....
I want to go and see all the behind the scenes they made for this game. Game Pass having the Definitive Edition of Blind Forest was great to see how they developed the movements, and how the game evolved from being about Sien to about Ori. And of course there were the Golbat stand-ins for baddies.
Finally, I wonder if the ending would have been different if I hadn't 100% completed the side quests. I think I'm gonna go look that up now.
I need to go do all the time trials and such. I think my scores are in the 170k plus on the leaderboards, but I think I can do better!
Even though it's a demanding game, being able to simply go wherever the level takes the player and knowing it's almost always forward progress is the comfort food of videogames. To say nothing of the gorgeous art and music. the entire tapestry fucking rules, all of it, and was completely overshadowed by most everything else in every category for every major game award in existence.
They're broadly similar in that they're both metroidvania platformers? Hollow Knight is a lot more combat focused, Ori is a lot more platforming focused. Ori has less build variety than Hollow Knight (just a skill path, really).
This really isn't true of Will of the Wisps, btw. They refined the combat a lot and some of the boss fights were incredibly intense. They also went from a simple skill tree to an ability selection system where you choose which equipment you are using... you can switch at any time though.
I love how the music in Will of the Wisps blends together and morphs based on what you are doing.
I never felt it was that bad. I'd say there is some spots where precision is needed, but not in long terms. The biggest thing is that there's an ability that allows you to bounce off things. When it happens, the game slows down and you have about 2-3 seconds to plan your next move. That definitely helps.
There are also setpieces that are heavy in platforming. But when you die, you respawn nearly instantly so it becomes a matter of trial and error.
But definitely nothing like the White Palace, IMO.
Bash (which launches the player in one direction and reflects the projectile/enemy in the other) might be my favorite platforming ability ever devised - the games open up with some absolutely bonkers platforming and puzzling sequences once the game seriously leans into it and it factors heavily into combat as well.
Shortly after you get it, you're in an escape sequence that guarantees that you'll have mastered it by the time you leave (a dozen or more deaths later but that's okay because the soundtrack for that section is fantastic).
That last boss fight in WotW where
Was amazing once you got it down
But there are an oddly significant number of Let's Plays out there that handicap themselves by forgetting the feather exists and are bashing off projectiles in constant freefall in total panic lol
Dude I had the exact same realization in bold.
And then I fucking did it and it felt good and then the story gave me a little sad.
Game pass is Microsoft's Netflix like service. You pay a subscription fee, and then get access to the games on the service. The catalogs are different between PC and Xbox, but the prices per month are different as well. You still have to buy some dlc... But honestly, it is very much worth checking out and they do a $1 for the first month trial.
I have no intention of buying an Xbox. I still have ultimate because I tell myself I might wanna try out the streaming stuff.
Then the second was an insta-buy because I wanted to put some money in the composer's pockets and once again the whole thing was great as well.
(That bit during the Mora fight where Ori's theme takes over the song...)
Wait, is that what they are working on next? because they basically have my undying support at this point.
Yes. Basically zero info, but they've said they're currently working on an ARPG that's being published under Private Division that's also publishing Kerbal 2, so I expect maximum indie quirk to ensue.
I may run through these again on hard mode, though I don't hate myself enough to try for zero deaths.
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
Glad I didn't stop there and finished it since I really loved the ending. Some of it was predictable, but the overall ending was great. I'm dreading starting up the second game since I saw it has more jumping, but maybe I'll get to it after a good break.
Steam: betsuni7
But a lot of that is pretty front-loaded in the openings and the trailers. It's not like players are being blindsided, being a cast of twee characters thrust into a hostile world is kind of par for the course.
I've been getting back into Blind Forest on the Switch port which plays like a dream (real wizardry at work). I definitely miss the combat options of the sequel and there's also something about the platforming that feels like they might have retuned things between the first and second game but I can't quite put my finger on it. It was probably imperceptible back when it came out but I find myself missing jumps a bit, especially trying to land on walls.
But I just restored the water tree and that sequence impressed me so much I can't wait to play more. That was a very well done section with great music.