This review contains spoilers
To be honest, I prefer the first game. Its approach in the form of a very solitary adventure with occasional narration and expository fairy made the story have its own unique presentation, simple as it was
Ori 2 wants to go grander but doesn't quite achieve what it wants to do for most of its duration. Not only most of the "new" mechanics are obviously inspired by Hollow Knight, the presentation is too as the world is more lively with other NPCs. But what HK did with its world is having the NPCs be ones with an arc of their own, dynamically progressing in development as you encounter them across the adventure. Yes, HK grabs a lot from Dark Souls and adapts it into a bug world (name me an element of Hollow Knight's worldbuilding and I assure you in a 90% chance there's a similar element in Miyazaki's game), but it still knew how to handle its mood, you figure out things that are happening and interpret them by yourself.
Ori 2 to tell its simpler story wants to inflate its lenght by having these cute (there's a shoebill in this ♥️), bland non main character NPCs that don't have much characterization and at most their appeal bogs down to them giving you items (I was so pissed when I beat the optional area where you give the wandering shoebill the amulet and it only gives you a clue to a 25% damage reduction powerup as a reward, nothing thematically interesting about the place or even something personal about this character like I would have wanted) or more memorably, dying at one point or another (the frog that gets possessed is plot sensationalism that doesn't add anything because that character doesn't grow on you, nor did he do anything in the adventure up to that point other than tell you where to go). AND it also wants to have the narration that explains things from the previous game. AND it also gives you a exposition fairy a third through the game. It wants to have all these elements and it feels like it is overexplaining a story that is already not that complex.
This way, if not for the competent gameplay (though again, the challenge absolutely pales in comparison to other metroidvanias, despite not having the save state every two steps like the previous game I died less here than in Ori 1) I would have been extremely bored with everything in the adventure that wasn't the beggining, exact middle and end. I was ready to give this a 5/10 because of most of the game.
But well, the beggining again uses that storytelling technique from Ori 1. An horizontal long tracking shot across time (https://youtu.be/de83VL5FVMs starting at 2:14) that reminds me of something Mamoru Hosoda would do in Wolf Children (https://youtu.be/2t_0JtQExQ0). The game introduces the theme of acceptance that again will be discussed using its villain later on, as both Ori's half sister and the new evil owl have birth defects. Ku has the assistance of its family, while Shriek was an orphan since birth and no one took care of it until it became a lonely, grotesque scavenger. If you hear anything interesting from NPCs, it's usually going to be things that explain this villain's backstory.
The game starts with more personal stakes than global ones, which makes attatchment to Ku much easier just like the Doraemon movie released the same year as this game dealt with taking care of a disabled animal that can't fly with emphasis on mutual inspiration for overcoming things despite the physical difficulty (https://youtu.be/WgW1yAAwYu4). The plot stalls since they end up in another island and separate from each other until the middle, since you are just looking for the half sister.
At that point, the main character's little owl sister dies. Because of how cheap death was in the previous game, this twist didn't convince me because as soon as it happened I thought "they are gonna revive her". Of course they confirmed and explained it in the following cutscene, so at least it wasn't an ass pull like Naru's revival in Ori 1. But the way they revive her is still extremely stupid, they will return the light to this new island by reviving its tree like we revived it in the previous game. But didn't the previous game show that beings make of darkness, like Ku, die when the light spreads? It's how the rest of Ku's biological family died!
But well, apart from that inconsistency (the frog doesn't revive because its body is not there anymore, I don't think it's something to consider) there is an inspiration here just like the Doraemon movie. Almost at the end, you find out that eventually all trees die, and another one from other island will send a spirit to recover light from the island where it died.
It is still a very convenient prophecy as you and Ku reaching the island was on complete accident but still, what's extremely interesting is that it implies there was a natural end to things back at the original game's island, and afterwards, that Ori must SACRIFICE HIMSELF and turn into a new tree to revive what has decayed.
The ending blew my mind, the Owl villain goes to die away under the statues of her parents, denying warmth from everyone else until her very demise, and finding solace under what was the only "family" it ever had (very interesting that they don't choose to redeem the villain this time around, it would be unnatural that she would turn good if her whole life she was an antisocial outcast who forced herself not to love). Ori meanwhile achieved trascendance and by becoming the new tree, technically made the whole island his family, even if like the statues to Shriek, he won't be able to directly communicate with them anymore. It is his warmth that will be felt by everyone. The inspiration to make his sister recover after he survived that encounter at the middle of the adventure because she took his place, ended up making everything recover. It's not applicable to our lives as Doraemon's treatment of the subject; but it is quite a poetic contrast still conveyed in a very emotional manner.
Ori 2 wants to go grander but doesn't quite achieve what it wants to do for most of its duration. Not only most of the "new" mechanics are obviously inspired by Hollow Knight, the presentation is too as the world is more lively with other NPCs. But what HK did with its world is having the NPCs be ones with an arc of their own, dynamically progressing in development as you encounter them across the adventure. Yes, HK grabs a lot from Dark Souls and adapts it into a bug world (name me an element of Hollow Knight's worldbuilding and I assure you in a 90% chance there's a similar element in Miyazaki's game), but it still knew how to handle its mood, you figure out things that are happening and interpret them by yourself.
Ori 2 to tell its simpler story wants to inflate its lenght by having these cute (there's a shoebill in this ♥️), bland non main character NPCs that don't have much characterization and at most their appeal bogs down to them giving you items (I was so pissed when I beat the optional area where you give the wandering shoebill the amulet and it only gives you a clue to a 25% damage reduction powerup as a reward, nothing thematically interesting about the place or even something personal about this character like I would have wanted) or more memorably, dying at one point or another (the frog that gets possessed is plot sensationalism that doesn't add anything because that character doesn't grow on you, nor did he do anything in the adventure up to that point other than tell you where to go). AND it also wants to have the narration that explains things from the previous game. AND it also gives you a exposition fairy a third through the game. It wants to have all these elements and it feels like it is overexplaining a story that is already not that complex.
This way, if not for the competent gameplay (though again, the challenge absolutely pales in comparison to other metroidvanias, despite not having the save state every two steps like the previous game I died less here than in Ori 1) I would have been extremely bored with everything in the adventure that wasn't the beggining, exact middle and end. I was ready to give this a 5/10 because of most of the game.
But well, the beggining again uses that storytelling technique from Ori 1. An horizontal long tracking shot across time (https://youtu.be/de83VL5FVMs starting at 2:14) that reminds me of something Mamoru Hosoda would do in Wolf Children (https://youtu.be/2t_0JtQExQ0). The game introduces the theme of acceptance that again will be discussed using its villain later on, as both Ori's half sister and the new evil owl have birth defects. Ku has the assistance of its family, while Shriek was an orphan since birth and no one took care of it until it became a lonely, grotesque scavenger. If you hear anything interesting from NPCs, it's usually going to be things that explain this villain's backstory.
The game starts with more personal stakes than global ones, which makes attatchment to Ku much easier just like the Doraemon movie released the same year as this game dealt with taking care of a disabled animal that can't fly with emphasis on mutual inspiration for overcoming things despite the physical difficulty (https://youtu.be/WgW1yAAwYu4). The plot stalls since they end up in another island and separate from each other until the middle, since you are just looking for the half sister.
At that point, the main character's little owl sister dies. Because of how cheap death was in the previous game, this twist didn't convince me because as soon as it happened I thought "they are gonna revive her". Of course they confirmed and explained it in the following cutscene, so at least it wasn't an ass pull like Naru's revival in Ori 1. But the way they revive her is still extremely stupid, they will return the light to this new island by reviving its tree like we revived it in the previous game. But didn't the previous game show that beings make of darkness, like Ku, die when the light spreads? It's how the rest of Ku's biological family died!
But well, apart from that inconsistency (the frog doesn't revive because its body is not there anymore, I don't think it's something to consider) there is an inspiration here just like the Doraemon movie. Almost at the end, you find out that eventually all trees die, and another one from other island will send a spirit to recover light from the island where it died.
It is still a very convenient prophecy as you and Ku reaching the island was on complete accident but still, what's extremely interesting is that it implies there was a natural end to things back at the original game's island, and afterwards, that Ori must SACRIFICE HIMSELF and turn into a new tree to revive what has decayed.
The ending blew my mind, the Owl villain goes to die away under the statues of her parents, denying warmth from everyone else until her very demise, and finding solace under what was the only "family" it ever had (very interesting that they don't choose to redeem the villain this time around, it would be unnatural that she would turn good if her whole life she was an antisocial outcast who forced herself not to love). Ori meanwhile achieved trascendance and by becoming the new tree, technically made the whole island his family, even if like the statues to Shriek, he won't be able to directly communicate with them anymore. It is his warmth that will be felt by everyone. The inspiration to make his sister recover after he survived that encounter at the middle of the adventure because she took his place, ended up making everything recover. It's not applicable to our lives as Doraemon's treatment of the subject; but it is quite a poetic contrast still conveyed in a very emotional manner.