Right off the bat, Ori is a very beautiful game. Incredibly pleasant to the eyes and to the ears. It has a decidedly strong identity, and I love it. The story isn't particularly complex, but the way it was presented had me invested, and by the end, satisfied. It all works pretty well. In a lesser game, that could easily be all there is to it, but no. This game also has very satisfying and decently challenging platforming sections, both on the slower side and on the faster side. Without spoiling anything in particular, some sections are supported their absolutely incredible imagery. It reminded me of the Retro Studios DKC games, which should be a great compliment. As a Metroidvania, this is the first one I complete that isn't a Metroid game, so I can only compare it to those, but it's fairly decent as one too. The world is big but movement is quite fluid and fast, so combine that with the warp system, and backtracking will be no problem.

Where the game falters a little is combat. Your main method of attack is pretty spammy and just not interesting to use. It gave me more options as I progressed, but it never really went beyond serviceable. You can avoid enemies well enough, though, and I wasn't too bothered by the subpar combat.

If I could give scores on a scale of 1-10 with .5 decimals, this game would be an 8.5. I really liked it and I can recommend it to fans of tough platformers and Metroidvanias. I look forward to playing the sequel in the future.