Developer: Moon Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Platform: PC, Xbox One, 360 (TBA)
Tested on: Xbox One
Ori and the Blind Forest – Review
Ori and the Blind Forest, the latest exclusive title for the Microsoft platform(s) is an enticing fairytale that needs to win over the hearts of many gamers who are still deciding which platform will escort them into the ‘next generation’. The title surely proves to be a great asset to Microsoft’s exclusive lineup.
Story
Ori, the rabbit-like child that was once part of the giant tree of life, accidently drifted off in a storm and ended up with a bear-like creature that decided to raise and love Ori as if he was her own child. Even though Ori seemed to have a pleasant youth, the fun times would not last. Because his surrogate mother ‘left’ him when the world went dark, he has to embark on his own journey to restore the light, of which he was once a part.
As vague as this may sound, the story elements in this game would be spoiled too easily, if we described them more. Expect tear jerking scenes, beautifully portrayed sequences and above all, loveable characters that will accompany you throughout your adventure.
Graphics
Graphically this game looks amazing, even with its 2D graphics. Vibrant colors, great looking characters and a lush world to explore, are the things Ori and the Blind Forest have to offer.
The color palette, in combination with the artstyle, might look a tad like a brighter ‘Child of Light’. The overall style might not be completely original, but the character design proves to be cute and ominous at the same time.
Overall the world has a lot of different artwork to offer. Every environment has its own theme, backgrounds and obstacles. When roaming through the fairly big world, you will see many different designs.
An honorable note goes to the bear-like creature that cares for Ori, as she could easily be imagined in one of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies. The overall atmosphere creates a great fairytale-like experience, in which you could roam around for quite some time. In short: simply amazing.
Sound
Ori and the Blind Forest has a soothing soundtrack, whilst staying adventurous at the same time. You will be presented with relaxing music throughout your journey, but things will speed up slightly when you’re in peril.
There’s a limited amount of voice acting present in the game in a made up language. The language used for the game actually adds (up) a lot to the overall story value. It makes the game feel even further away from home, in a land that is only seen in fairytales and the likes.
Gameplay
In essence the game is a hardcore puzzle platformer, that seems to be inspired by games of the good old days. The difficulty has been cranked up quite a bit, in this game that might seem adorable at first but gets increasingly harder with every step you take.
The game mechanics prove to be quite simple: jump, climb and maneuver your way through the lush world that has been robbed of its light. At the beginning of your journey, you will only be able to jump, but as you progress you will learn new abilities such as wall climbing, attacking monsters, dashing, floating and so on. Most of these abilities prove to be easy to use, but the game will push you to the limit to truly master them. You will often find yourself using your abilities with enormous precision, in order to pass obstacles or simply reach new places in the hostile world.
Even though the game will teach you the essential abilities when you truly require to use them, you are able to learn certain skills as well. When you defeat enemies, you will pick up certain ‘cells’ that give you experience for you to spend on certain extra abilities. You will have three different branches on your skill tree, each focusing on a different aspect. One focuses on attack power, whilst the other two are more for supporting skills. You will have to decide on your own, which skills will be the best for your play style, as it will take quite some time for you to earn ability points.
As mentioned earlier, the difficulty of the game is quite high. This will make sure you will die – a lot – throughout your journey. The creators came up with a fairly fun and original mechanic to ease the burden of dying a lot. You will be able, to create soul links, with your ‘mana cells’. This allows you to create a checkpoint (on certain locations) for you to respawn in case of your impending doom. You will come to love this option during your playthrough. At the beginning of the game, creating checkpoints will be a lot harder than when you have progressed a bit, seeing your mana meter will grow throughout the game.
The difficulty itself will certainly cause certain excruciating moments, but overall the catchiness will make you come back for more. It’s pretty much the 2D, fairylike brother of ‘Dark Souls’. For some reason you will want to keep going, in order to see how Ori will end up doing his best to restore the light in the world.
Ori and the Blind Forest is a fairly short game, but it will keep you occupied for a certain amount of hours. The difficulty makes sure you can’t fly through every area too quickly, thus stretching out the overall gameplay duration. Other than the main objectives, you will be able to find upgrades for your health and mana meters.
Sadly, this beautiful game is not without flaws. The game itself tends to crash a decent amount of times when trying to boot it up (Xbox One). This tends to get tedious when it happens several times in a row, especially if you’re ‘dying’ to get back in action.
Conclusion
Ori and the Blind Forest is an amazing platformer, with a fair amount of tear jerking moments. Amidst the chaos of dying, you still want more and you will probably keep coming back for more. A beautiful fairytale that will not disappoint. That being said, the game will still invoke some rage, when you have died for the 200th time.
Ori and the Blind Forest - Review,
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