Ori starts off deceptively saccharine, borderline reminiscent of Up’s beginning scene. Giving a glimpse into the overarching theme of healing nature and restoring peace. A quaint enough premise. Make no mistake though, Ori and the Blind Forest can be a tough game. If you are set on playing it already I would strongly recommend sticking to the Definitive Edition of the game. Not only is the price hike not so painful after all these years but it gives some really nice QoL changes that I definitely noticed. Primarily, it adds a couple new abilities like a dash and the ability to teleport at spirit wells, which was a huge boon in saving time backtracking.
Beyond its flashy, mystical art style, there’s a few things they added to really differentiate Ori from the generic platformer crowd. For instance, saves are done through creating mystical orbs in the environment, which also act as a conduit to spend upgrade points. If you don’t have enough energy, you can't make a save point. It’s not as bad as it sounds, as this is circumvented by finding more energy cells so you’ll never realistically run out before you get more. It only becomes a nuisance when you forget to create one after a good while and ALL your progress has been undone. It’s not a particularly rare occurrence either. There’s no shortage of one-hit or half-health damaging obstacles. Just be mindful of unexplored areas and save liberally anytime you make a good chunk of progress.
With over 10 abilities and 7 main sections Ori is a good little Metroidvania with a lot of agency on how you get around. A lot of areas can be accessed in multiple different ways, both a blessing and a curse. The game has a great rhythm and I always found the necessary abilities naturally, but sometimes using them was easier said than done. A button remapping option would have been really welcome here, especially considering most of the 10 abilities only use three total buttons. Time significantly helped overcome muscle memory, but every now and again I would accidentally press the wrong button and get a different ability than I hoped for.
It’s your standard indie fanfare in terms of having a bubbly, sweet narrative. It starts strong and maintains a consistent tone, but Ori has what I like to call a frozen dinner quality of a story. It’s there, it’s simple, it’s just sorta shallow and not really filling. That might be a bit harsh, I think I’ve just seen this story too many times to be moved by it. That notwithstanding, the game really is extremely polished. If you can get used to the controls you can do some gnarly platforming tricks. Each main mission area uses puzzle gimmicks to their fullest extent and can get really fun with how it makes you think outside the box sometimes. While not without its twists and turns, Ori is very accessible and worthy of its praise. And one more positive about the Definitive Edition: you can always adjust the difficulty if you have too much trouble with the game.
Beyond its flashy, mystical art style, there’s a few things they added to really differentiate Ori from the generic platformer crowd. For instance, saves are done through creating mystical orbs in the environment, which also act as a conduit to spend upgrade points. If you don’t have enough energy, you can't make a save point. It’s not as bad as it sounds, as this is circumvented by finding more energy cells so you’ll never realistically run out before you get more. It only becomes a nuisance when you forget to create one after a good while and ALL your progress has been undone. It’s not a particularly rare occurrence either. There’s no shortage of one-hit or half-health damaging obstacles. Just be mindful of unexplored areas and save liberally anytime you make a good chunk of progress.
With over 10 abilities and 7 main sections Ori is a good little Metroidvania with a lot of agency on how you get around. A lot of areas can be accessed in multiple different ways, both a blessing and a curse. The game has a great rhythm and I always found the necessary abilities naturally, but sometimes using them was easier said than done. A button remapping option would have been really welcome here, especially considering most of the 10 abilities only use three total buttons. Time significantly helped overcome muscle memory, but every now and again I would accidentally press the wrong button and get a different ability than I hoped for.
It’s your standard indie fanfare in terms of having a bubbly, sweet narrative. It starts strong and maintains a consistent tone, but Ori has what I like to call a frozen dinner quality of a story. It’s there, it’s simple, it’s just sorta shallow and not really filling. That might be a bit harsh, I think I’ve just seen this story too many times to be moved by it. That notwithstanding, the game really is extremely polished. If you can get used to the controls you can do some gnarly platforming tricks. Each main mission area uses puzzle gimmicks to their fullest extent and can get really fun with how it makes you think outside the box sometimes. While not without its twists and turns, Ori is very accessible and worthy of its praise. And one more positive about the Definitive Edition: you can always adjust the difficulty if you have too much trouble with the game.