as i approached ori and the will of wisps (from here on ori 2 so you can guess what ori 1 is unless you got damage in the prefrontal cortex in that case I'm very sorry its ori and the blind forest) I knew I would end up crying like a bitch again at least 1/3 of the first game and somehow yes that was true I cried a lot but definitely less than the first game like the first game is honestly just that emotionally scarring and while playing ori 2 I was like oh anyway im not crying as much as ori 1 maybe im suddenly a mentally stable human being and then I'd cry and reconfirm my psychological instability
now as I'm talking about this I already forgot everything I wanted to say so this is gonna be hard maybe as hard as the final dungeon or as hard as my dick when I think about the locomotion that this duology made me experience
as a direct sequel of the first game obviously lots of stuff from that one carried over to this one in a quality augmented state
namely the battle system got SO MUCH THOUGHT put into it that it doesn't even remotely compare to ori 1 they really snapped with this one they said yknow what gaming community mocked us for making a shit battle system so that's what happens when you fuck with some shut ins make ori wield a fucking hammer
on a mechanical note its like ... umh ... how can you explain this battle system ok anyhow you get a flash of light (a sword or a stiletto? wait isnt stiletto the heel in english oh my god i hate this language anyway the thin sword) but then you can expand your arsenal with some other weapons (I LOVE the hammer guys I fucked with the hammer too much it was so fun to use and also to see it used like little small ori with a fat ass hammer was TOO much i actually ended up unlocking the hammer like early in the game and the others during the postgame and i havent used them not even once but idk i used the shuriken once and hated it so i just closed the game lets go) and also you can get umh skills ? or shit like that that unexpectedly work like the badges in hollow knight as soon as I saw them I was like oooooh now I get where they got the inspiration to further the ideas in the battle department and honestly I do not mind hollow knights combat is top notch so they learned from the champion
as I also said in the ori 1 review this also results into better boss battles and WHAT THE FUCK do I LOVE the boss battles in this game there's not many of them maybe like 5 in total but they are so cinematically pleasing mechanically outstanding and emotionally drenching sometimes and theyre an absolute pleasure to sit through very good moon studios you outdid yourselves again
now back to the best part of both games tho the movement ok well we already settled that ori locomotion is of utter brilliance and things here didnt change that much since the first game so i wont say something that i already said in the other review so i will just say that apart from the mapping of the buttons shit remained quite the same less some new abilities so thats it
clearly its still a pleasure to roam in this magnificent environment that now is another place its not nibel anymore lets go
niwen is now the focus of the game and if youre asking how the characters get here youll have to wait for the story section smartass
moon studios still know how to create tremendous environments and atmosphere its just incredible
every biome of niwen feels alive breathing and flourishing and its drawn and animated in a way so gentle and tender that i can just feel the love that was poured into this game through the fucking scene i swear its unreal
graphics got better somehow but thats not the most important part because the art direction is just as splendid as ever the mere sight of any screenshot of this game online will make you gasp in awe i just know it its just color theory everywhere how do they do that
plus something that accompanies these already immersive places is the soundtrack that somehow got broader and more solemn than the one in ori 1 which was already impressive im just gareth coker just how do you do that im asking seriously please share some of your talent with us plebs because this feels like god got their favourites and it doesnt sit right with me
honestly for a soundtrack that is precisely 2 times the one of ori 1 this is just evidently more mature and well put together everything here just sounds like honey poured in my headphones and i cant ask for anything else it got every mood possible from sorrow joy eagerness everything if youre not going to play the game at least listen to this OST its just UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
"but bestie its the recurring trope of recent game music where they just layer as many instruments possible into it just to make it sound grand" ok idc i love it suck my dick
lemme think about what else to say ok gameplay is still platforming (less puzzles more action) and the new aspects of the game flow ? didnt love them didnt hate them like the side quests were cute but nothing groundbreaking for me and i feel like they are here just to tick another box into the triple A game trope but still this is ori so i can excuse everything
collecting stuff for the progression of the character and construction of the village was fun and interesting or whatever but less appealing than the one in ori 1 (i didnt 100% this one im sorry guys im not a true ori stan)
anyhow story wise HEAVY SPOILER felt weaker than the first one but still hit me in the feels ku (daughter of kuro) grows up with ori and naru (the cutscenes made me tear my hair our i swear ori helping ku and shit was too cute i feel like crying again) and tries to find her spot in the world and when she realises she cant fly because of a deep wound in her wing she kind of gets depressed and shit so ori gets back the feather of kuro that he used in the first game and repairs her wing so they fly together in the sky and a storm gets them to niwen and they get attacked by a big bad bird which is walmart kuro and gets also a sad flashback (i cried again) and somehow she ends up killing (almost killing ?) ku so oris new mission here is to get the 3 spirits of light (i dont know how theyre called in english) to help reviving the rotting land of niwen and also ku with it so you just do that (some more traumatic experiences in between) and get in a ruin of sort and reconstruct the golden light of seir and get infodumped about some legacy idk so they get to the dying willow to save the place but shocker theres nothing they can do for the tree itself BUT if seir and ori merge together they can form another spirit tree but shreik tries to kill ori so ori beats her ass and she returns to her dead tribe place and sleeps in the hands of her petrified parents (dont talk to me i was actually a mess honestly those single 3 seconds killed me im sorry this isnt a game for me im too emotional) so ori and seir unite but this means that ori will be trapped in the duty of watching over the land forever and this is actually the most painful trope i can think of this is just miserable im miserable and the ending scene where everyone helps the tree grow and cherish it and such and then naru finally exhaling her last breath near the being that she loved the most ? im sorry i cant keep on writing this is too much honestly this game ruined me again still didnt top ori 1 but damn what a ride this duology is im a corpse
the end
all in all cool game that definitely didnt leave me expressionless for a hour after finishing it
now as I'm talking about this I already forgot everything I wanted to say so this is gonna be hard maybe as hard as the final dungeon or as hard as my dick when I think about the locomotion that this duology made me experience
as a direct sequel of the first game obviously lots of stuff from that one carried over to this one in a quality augmented state
namely the battle system got SO MUCH THOUGHT put into it that it doesn't even remotely compare to ori 1 they really snapped with this one they said yknow what gaming community mocked us for making a shit battle system so that's what happens when you fuck with some shut ins make ori wield a fucking hammer
on a mechanical note its like ... umh ... how can you explain this battle system ok anyhow you get a flash of light (a sword or a stiletto? wait isnt stiletto the heel in english oh my god i hate this language anyway the thin sword) but then you can expand your arsenal with some other weapons (I LOVE the hammer guys I fucked with the hammer too much it was so fun to use and also to see it used like little small ori with a fat ass hammer was TOO much i actually ended up unlocking the hammer like early in the game and the others during the postgame and i havent used them not even once but idk i used the shuriken once and hated it so i just closed the game lets go) and also you can get umh skills ? or shit like that that unexpectedly work like the badges in hollow knight as soon as I saw them I was like oooooh now I get where they got the inspiration to further the ideas in the battle department and honestly I do not mind hollow knights combat is top notch so they learned from the champion
as I also said in the ori 1 review this also results into better boss battles and WHAT THE FUCK do I LOVE the boss battles in this game there's not many of them maybe like 5 in total but they are so cinematically pleasing mechanically outstanding and emotionally drenching sometimes and theyre an absolute pleasure to sit through very good moon studios you outdid yourselves again
now back to the best part of both games tho the movement ok well we already settled that ori locomotion is of utter brilliance and things here didnt change that much since the first game so i wont say something that i already said in the other review so i will just say that apart from the mapping of the buttons shit remained quite the same less some new abilities so thats it
clearly its still a pleasure to roam in this magnificent environment that now is another place its not nibel anymore lets go
niwen is now the focus of the game and if youre asking how the characters get here youll have to wait for the story section smartass
moon studios still know how to create tremendous environments and atmosphere its just incredible
every biome of niwen feels alive breathing and flourishing and its drawn and animated in a way so gentle and tender that i can just feel the love that was poured into this game through the fucking scene i swear its unreal
graphics got better somehow but thats not the most important part because the art direction is just as splendid as ever the mere sight of any screenshot of this game online will make you gasp in awe i just know it its just color theory everywhere how do they do that
plus something that accompanies these already immersive places is the soundtrack that somehow got broader and more solemn than the one in ori 1 which was already impressive im just gareth coker just how do you do that im asking seriously please share some of your talent with us plebs because this feels like god got their favourites and it doesnt sit right with me
honestly for a soundtrack that is precisely 2 times the one of ori 1 this is just evidently more mature and well put together everything here just sounds like honey poured in my headphones and i cant ask for anything else it got every mood possible from sorrow joy eagerness everything if youre not going to play the game at least listen to this OST its just UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
"but bestie its the recurring trope of recent game music where they just layer as many instruments possible into it just to make it sound grand" ok idc i love it suck my dick
lemme think about what else to say ok gameplay is still platforming (less puzzles more action) and the new aspects of the game flow ? didnt love them didnt hate them like the side quests were cute but nothing groundbreaking for me and i feel like they are here just to tick another box into the triple A game trope but still this is ori so i can excuse everything
collecting stuff for the progression of the character and construction of the village was fun and interesting or whatever but less appealing than the one in ori 1 (i didnt 100% this one im sorry guys im not a true ori stan)
anyhow story wise HEAVY SPOILER felt weaker than the first one but still hit me in the feels ku (daughter of kuro) grows up with ori and naru (the cutscenes made me tear my hair our i swear ori helping ku and shit was too cute i feel like crying again) and tries to find her spot in the world and when she realises she cant fly because of a deep wound in her wing she kind of gets depressed and shit so ori gets back the feather of kuro that he used in the first game and repairs her wing so they fly together in the sky and a storm gets them to niwen and they get attacked by a big bad bird which is walmart kuro and gets also a sad flashback (i cried again) and somehow she ends up killing (almost killing ?) ku so oris new mission here is to get the 3 spirits of light (i dont know how theyre called in english) to help reviving the rotting land of niwen and also ku with it so you just do that (some more traumatic experiences in between) and get in a ruin of sort and reconstruct the golden light of seir and get infodumped about some legacy idk so they get to the dying willow to save the place but shocker theres nothing they can do for the tree itself BUT if seir and ori merge together they can form another spirit tree but shreik tries to kill ori so ori beats her ass and she returns to her dead tribe place and sleeps in the hands of her petrified parents (dont talk to me i was actually a mess honestly those single 3 seconds killed me im sorry this isnt a game for me im too emotional) so ori and seir unite but this means that ori will be trapped in the duty of watching over the land forever and this is actually the most painful trope i can think of this is just miserable im miserable and the ending scene where everyone helps the tree grow and cherish it and such and then naru finally exhaling her last breath near the being that she loved the most ? im sorry i cant keep on writing this is too much honestly this game ruined me again still didnt top ori 1 but damn what a ride this duology is im a corpse
the end
all in all cool game that definitely didnt leave me expressionless for a hour after finishing it