I had very mixed feelings on this game when first starting out, but it won me over in spades by the end. In my opinion, Ori's strongest point is its movement / platforming, but only when you've unlocked the majority of Ori's moveset. I would've thought my highest point of praise with this game would've been its art, but despite the beautiful sets and characters, I had my frustrations with the art, too.
Artistically, it's obvious that this game looks beautiful and sounds just as good. Though a bit unmemorable aside from a few tunes, the soundtrack does all it needs to in solidifying the game's atmosphere as simply wonderful. The characters are charming to look at, and the visual effects and backgrounds are pleasing to the eye. However, I found myself often getting swept up in 'pixel vomit', where clarity was often lost in the muddle of too much happening on screen. Sometimes it was hard to tell which objects were in the foreground or background, for example, and enemy (and player) attacks were often hard to follow or see.
On the point of combat, this game's is nothing special at all. It's a 1-button button-mash for the most part, though later moves in the game do allow for some fun movement involving enemies. The most fun way to deal with enemies was by far simply dashing around / evading them and not killing them at all.
Platforming-wise, I found this game imprecise and floaty at first, which often was a detriment during tight platforming challenges. However, after unlocking more moves, things started to click. Moving around the world of Ori is the most fun thing to do once you have enough moves to make it fast and fluid. The caveat to this is that the first few hours of the game can feel like a slow and cumbersome drag. Once it clicks, though, it feels nothing short of amazing. The areas / levels themselves aren't very memorable, though, and I never managed to build much of a mental map to guide myself around, often flipping the map open and shut over and over because I didn't recognize where I was.
One more nitpick I must address is the game's "create-your-own-checkpoint" system. This is a neat idea in theory, but it honestly doesn't work at all. Too often did I lose minutes of progress simply because I forgot to save. Reverting back to a checkpoint and being forced to rewatch cutscenes or tread old ground isn't fun. You could argue this is my own memory's fault, though the game itself doesn't help any way in reminding you. In fact, since the checkpoints use a finite resource that can also be expended through combat, it unconsciously re-enforces the fact that you should hold onto them and not use them frivolously. Odd system.
Positives:
+ Movement in the latter half of the game
+ Art style and music
+ Skill-tree rewards exploration and strategy
+ A couple movement-based specific moves that I won't spoil here give this game a unique identity from peers of the genre
Negatives:
- Occasional lack of visual clarity
- Checkpoint system
- Combat
- First half of the game feels slow and a bit sloppy
Artistically, it's obvious that this game looks beautiful and sounds just as good. Though a bit unmemorable aside from a few tunes, the soundtrack does all it needs to in solidifying the game's atmosphere as simply wonderful. The characters are charming to look at, and the visual effects and backgrounds are pleasing to the eye. However, I found myself often getting swept up in 'pixel vomit', where clarity was often lost in the muddle of too much happening on screen. Sometimes it was hard to tell which objects were in the foreground or background, for example, and enemy (and player) attacks were often hard to follow or see.
On the point of combat, this game's is nothing special at all. It's a 1-button button-mash for the most part, though later moves in the game do allow for some fun movement involving enemies. The most fun way to deal with enemies was by far simply dashing around / evading them and not killing them at all.
Platforming-wise, I found this game imprecise and floaty at first, which often was a detriment during tight platforming challenges. However, after unlocking more moves, things started to click. Moving around the world of Ori is the most fun thing to do once you have enough moves to make it fast and fluid. The caveat to this is that the first few hours of the game can feel like a slow and cumbersome drag. Once it clicks, though, it feels nothing short of amazing. The areas / levels themselves aren't very memorable, though, and I never managed to build much of a mental map to guide myself around, often flipping the map open and shut over and over because I didn't recognize where I was.
One more nitpick I must address is the game's "create-your-own-checkpoint" system. This is a neat idea in theory, but it honestly doesn't work at all. Too often did I lose minutes of progress simply because I forgot to save. Reverting back to a checkpoint and being forced to rewatch cutscenes or tread old ground isn't fun. You could argue this is my own memory's fault, though the game itself doesn't help any way in reminding you. In fact, since the checkpoints use a finite resource that can also be expended through combat, it unconsciously re-enforces the fact that you should hold onto them and not use them frivolously. Odd system.
Positives:
+ Movement in the latter half of the game
+ Art style and music
+ Skill-tree rewards exploration and strategy
+ A couple movement-based specific moves that I won't spoil here give this game a unique identity from peers of the genre
Negatives:
- Occasional lack of visual clarity
- Checkpoint system
- Combat
- First half of the game feels slow and a bit sloppy