As a sequel I think Ori and the WIll of the Wisps almost completely invalidates its predecessor. Narratively it hits most of the same notes, there's a night and day difference in the game feel, and the art style is utilized in a way that the original game never quite nailed.
I think the biggest issue I have with this game is the level design. There's a few areas where I feel the progression is a little bit too obfuscated (even for this genre), and navigating certain areas to clean up collectibles can be a pain in the ass due to the teleporter placements. I also found it really odd how many areas finished with a dead end, which feels like a way to nudge the player into warping back to the hub and checking on things there, but it's not the most elegant solution. I guess the biggest problem I have here is that progression didn't always feel intuitive. Also the hub area feels kinda ehhhhhh, not really a fan of buying so many upgrades instead of finding them in the world, and the characters populating it didn't really ever make me itch to come back.
An interesting thing I noticed is that there's a decent bit of Hollow Knight DNA in this game. That's not a dig or anything, but there was quite a few times where a mechanic, a character, or a UI element just made me go "huh, guess they liked that game as much as I did." I find it unlikely that you're reading a review of this without having played Hollow Knight, but if you haven't, drop everything and go do that.
One more quick note on the visuals - the 4K/120FPS mode on Series X is bonkers, makes me sad that very few games this gen will probably take advantage of it.
I think the biggest issue I have with this game is the level design. There's a few areas where I feel the progression is a little bit too obfuscated (even for this genre), and navigating certain areas to clean up collectibles can be a pain in the ass due to the teleporter placements. I also found it really odd how many areas finished with a dead end, which feels like a way to nudge the player into warping back to the hub and checking on things there, but it's not the most elegant solution. I guess the biggest problem I have here is that progression didn't always feel intuitive. Also the hub area feels kinda ehhhhhh, not really a fan of buying so many upgrades instead of finding them in the world, and the characters populating it didn't really ever make me itch to come back.
An interesting thing I noticed is that there's a decent bit of Hollow Knight DNA in this game. That's not a dig or anything, but there was quite a few times where a mechanic, a character, or a UI element just made me go "huh, guess they liked that game as much as I did." I find it unlikely that you're reading a review of this without having played Hollow Knight, but if you haven't, drop everything and go do that.
One more quick note on the visuals - the 4K/120FPS mode on Series X is bonkers, makes me sad that very few games this gen will probably take advantage of it.