started playing back in 2017? i think? but got stuck very quickly (was not a quick thinking kid back then lmao) and some time later our xbox broke, but i always remembered Ori very fondly as a game i would have loved to play more.

so you can imagine my excitement when it was on sale on steam!

(tbc)

I'm usually very confident when I come to say why I don't really care for a game. But something about this game just never clicked with me, and I don't definitively know why? I've beat this on both Xbox and Steam deck with close to a year gap between them. And idk, just kind of, everything about it makes me feel nothing? I'm normally very good at stating what's objectively bothering me about a game, but here a lot of it feels not only subjective, but I also feel that I'm wrong for feeling that way.

Like for example the graphics and artstyle. I look at it and find nothing wrong with it, it looks great and all but I'm for some reason just not in love with how it looks. Maybe I don't like the super detailed landscapes in conjunction with the very metroidvania gamey platformer level design with no foreground? It's just kinda flat. Most of the enemies don't really have strong visual designs, maybe it's just that the world itself isn't grabbing me. The whole thing feels weirdly minimalistic which is at odds with how stylish it presents itself. I'm kinda just thinking out loud here.

Then there's the save system. You put your own save points down. Which is another area where I'm left thinking negatively and yet I think objectively this is my fault and I'm wrong. It's so frustrating losing all progress since your last save, which is a totally indefinite amount of time. Doesn't help a lot of your deaths feel very sudden and perhaps, not entirely your fault. Could do a few minutes of easy platforming, nothing is really happening so saving hasn't entered my mind, oh instant death from something you couldn't really see coming. Then you're annoyed at having to redo so much so you rush it and make more mistakes. And I'm just like mannnn, the level design isn't really that fun as it is now I'm having to replay it all 'cuz Ori dies if a stick cracks under him too hard - And it feels extra bad 'cuz it's actually my fault I didn't place a better checkpoint when I had the chance. Had this same problem in Demon Turf, but it's even worse here considering this isn't just an A to B level based platformer.

On a less negative note, I'll defend the combat. I'm all about non-conventional game design these days and conceptually I don't have anything wrong with it. Allowing you to constantly do damage while on the move allows the focus to be on your own positioning. You can dodge projectiles and dance around enemies as you take them down. Feels really good once it's upgraded too. But then the topic of enemy design comes up and I find they don't really take advantage of what this combat would allow them to most of the time. And half the time you're dying to enemies just because their projectiles blend into the background or the way they move isn't really well defined. So like seemingly everything in this game, it's fine but leaves me feeling nothing if not slightly annoyed.

Skill trees, I just don't like 'em conceptually. They're a game design crutch that rarely truly adds to any game. That said, in the context of a metroidvania, I'd rather find EXP chunks that help me get my next level up as opposed to say, my 35th missile upgrade so I guess it's fine here.

The escape sequences and moments with the owl are mostly pretty sick at least. Makes me wish more of the game was full of memorable set pieces. Maybe that's my problem. The game puts out the vibes of a modern cinematic story driven experience, but most of the time you're solving basic puzzles and killing blobs in nondescript locations. Like you're just grinding through standard metroidvania nothing level design just waiting for something cool to happen again. The heights the game reaches so thoroughly outclasses ANYTHING you're doing for 90% of the runtime, and they're so good while featuring almost nothing the rest of the game has you doing. No setting your own checkpoints, just a well crafted dedicated platforming section that says "do this from beginning to end". No random enemies put there just so the empty room won't feel empty, any enemies are explicitly there to move the section forward in a meaningful way. No handholdy exploration where you're looking for exp orbs to level up your skill tree so you can choose which part of the game to make even easier (including just showing you on the map where collectibles are)

Yeah, I think that's what it is. The best moments in the game are thoroughly disconnected from how the entire rest of the game is designed. There's completely wordless, effective storytelling? Great! Why does most of the game not lean into that and instead have Navi follow you around saying nothing of worth. Striking visuals are great, but most of the game you're spending it looking at absolutely nothing. It's got the ability to be a fast paced and engaging platformer with memorable levels, but most of the time you're navigating pretty unremarkable areas that aren't really that fun to explore anyway. With potentially horrendous pacing issues if you forget to place a single checkpoint. It's got nonconventional combat, which is rad, but it's also got a skill tree full of combat upgrades, which is extremely conventional. And none of what you can upgrade really matters all that much, if at all, during the sections I actually really like. Ori is an indie game darling, but actually it's funded by one of the biggest corporations in the world making it feel a tad overproduced in areas.

Dunno, I understand you gotta have peaks and valleys, it can't all be bombastic action set pieces. But I just find the metroidvania style isn't playing into the huge strengths this game shows it can reach. At least, that's what I figure. Like I said for some reason it's hard for me to talk definitively on this game, heck I completely forgot I beat it a second time just last month - I'm mostly trying to explain to myself why I don't "get it" 'cuz I don't like just saying -eh it's just not for me-

I just can't help looking at this game and listening to its soundtrack and thinking "Am I a heckin' buffoon of a monster for not really liking this?" The ost really drives this feeling home like, it's playing all the right notes, with all the right instruments, it's a huge emotional production through and through. But all I can say coming out of it is that almost none of the music really stuck with me, just kinda blends together and 99% of the time means nothing to me.

I can recognize this is a beautifully made game with a boatload of love and effort put into it, which is more than I can say for a lot of games I don't care for. Normally if I don't like something I definitively tear into it and call out every area that went horribly wrong -even if I understand why the game has its fans, as I do here-. But In this case, it's a game that feels a lot less than the sum of its parts. I just don't feel anything towards this game beyond liking the core themes of the story. Idk, I usually have very strong thoughts I love to actively discuss and defend, but this is a whole lot of yappin' to say I don't really have much to say about this game. It's like, okay I guess.