Absolutely stunning art and graphics, a downright gorgeous soundtrack, and platforming that feels even better than the first game! Not to mention the combat is been greatly improved as well. Being able to utilize several different forms of weaponry and combine them to face difficult and epic bosses made me feel badass. The story was incredible as well, and it pulled no punches emotionally. I also noticed there was a heavy Hollow Knight influence on this title, with the shards (charms) and the mapmaker Lupo (Cornifer in HK), which was cool! However, I have to take off half a star due to the disappointing amount of bugs that were present on launch. Audio lags, inexplicable crashes, and screens totally blacking out messed with the immersion at times. Once they get those patched, though, this game is near perfection in my opinion.

I started this game thinking, "there is no way this is going to be better than the first one" and i was surprised, Will of the Wisps not only is as good as the previous one but improves and implements upon it, it's truly a masterpiece and the best metroidvania i've ever played.

In a few words this game take what was "okay" on the last one and make it good, like the combat , the saves and teleports, brings new things to the table with amazing NPCs, and some fun side quests.

But in the end It shines yet again on his platform, playing Ori on this game fells so damn good, you fly through the map in a way i was not expecting, going to point a to b is just amazing, and the upgrades all make it even better, the platform is truly what makes Ori an amazing franchise and is at his best in here, unmissable.

The story is also excelent, simple but very touching, and of course the game itself is marvelous. the art and sound design are a straight ace on this one, just looking at it will make you smile.

A near masterclass in modern Metroidvania design, slightly let down by reach that sometimes exceeds its grasp. In trying to flesh out its world it loses some of the simplicity of the first game, and the sheer number of abilities can be overwhelming. The story, while still touching, hits so many of the same notes as Blind Forest that they can't help but fall flat this time around. Still, it's a beautiful game, the level design is fantastic, and it has my favorite traversal in any game of this type, including Hollow Knight. Oh, and the music is literally perfect.

As much as I enjoy the... environmental puzzle-movement (is this anything?)... and the fantastic music, they can't salvage a story that I believe fundamentally misunderstands its own antagonist. And recycling the central pathos of the first game was a bizarre choice. Didn't work for me, I guess.

I'd have to replay both and spend more time thinking about this to construct anything resembling analysis, but all I can muster is a leaden sigh. Despite so much to do, such an abundance of content, the game ultimately feels kinda empty.

Ok, three big things and one weird tangent.

Big Thing 1. I’m yet to find something in a video game that I get more pleasure from than moving quickly and precisely in 2D platformers, and my god does this game do traversal like a dream. Despite its somewhat overwhelming controls you never feel outside of the character, it's floaty when you expect and sharp when you want, always flowing beautifully between the many traversal options it presents throughout the game that consistently complements the previous ones.

It's obviously very similar to Blind Forest, and doesn't introduce anything as groundbreaking as the Bash, but honestly I could just do this forever and never get tired of it.

(also other games should totally just steal Bash, what are you waiting for)

Big Thing 2. So, I have this long standing silly debate with some folks I know about whether Ori is a metroidvania or not. The crux of my argument against it is that the game has no real interest in exploration, it is very linear, guided and progression always comes from story. But Moon Studios clearly loved Hollow Knight, and while I appreciate the added complexity to combat and the quirky characters with charming voices populating the world, it still isn't a game about exploring. And that becomes very clear when you look at how the map guy works. While in HK he is basically just selling you paper so you can draw your routes, making it so you can only see where you’ve already been through, here it's like he’s the one playing a metroidvania and just selling you the results of his work after he’s done.

I really do love these games as platformers, but they got nothing on really good metroidvanias, and trying to double down on that without really committing to it just seems like a waste.

Big Thing 3. It’s wild how they’re just straight up repeating the same tricks from the first game with the story here. Kinda feels like they can’t do anything other than ‘first five minutes of Up’ type of storytelling.

Weird Tangent. Is this the best Spider-Man game ever made!? I really think the only way we’ll ever come close to replicating the acrobatic, fast paced and precise mobility of that character in a video game is by limiting the movement to two axis. The 3D games always reduce the more extravagant traversal scenes to cheap QTEs because it would be impossible to control a character in situations like that, but we do it with Ori all the time! And he crawls on walls! And has this glowy rope thing he shots at stuff to get closer and he fights animal-like beings and… you get the idea.

This is one of the best games that I've ever played and I can describe as a breathtakingly. Ori and the blind forest (the first one) had some problems about your simple combat and low duration, but the same had a emotional and fantastic history and good mechanincs as a metroidvania. The new game - ori and the will of the wisps - show us much more quality about mechanics, art and new features like big bosses and stores compared to first one. You can find many place with great aesthetic and each one have a specific and amazing soundtrack. So, I recommend this game for everyone.

The second game by Moon Studios manages to surpass everything done in the game prior. With continued effort and passion from all ranges of its crew, extending out to the designer of AM2R, to Gareth Coker's continued musical excellence, all the way to the head designers, Ori and the Will of the Wisps offers an amazing cohesive action platformer experience that to me, has no conceivable equal in the ways it excels.

The combat is practically DMC meets platforming, with similar gravity and a whole customizable moveset that extends and prioritizes air time, spacing, and bashing enemies to and fro. You're able to play both defensively and offensively at any moment, and all these options have their own costs and benefits. Each of the enemies are well done in terms of moveset and forcing you to be wary of their movements and danger zones. To extend this further, the combat also supplements the already amazing movement taken straight from Ori 1 (minus bash momentum no longer being conserved, which is really the only negative I have here). Using enemies to construct more air time gives you several ways to sequence break the game at any point. And finally, the bosses are spectacular, every single one having perfectly speedy ways to kill them and their movesets themselves being worthy challenges to master and fight around. Even if you're tired of those, the overworld has several combat trials for you to bash your head on, of which can be retried even after completion.

The level design itself is nothing short of exceptional, with challenges in spades and atmospheric delights at each doorstep. While I wish there was a more path of pain-esque area to fully utilize what you can do with moveset swaps, what's here is still excellent. The escape sequences are also way better now, with most of the trial/error bullshit taken out and keeping the grueling challenge and one-shot nature that is a perfect encapsulation of Ori's speed systems.

I can't talk about the levels of course without acknowledging how absolutely beautiful the art is, with each area having a wonderful color palette and distinct tone. The story and music is just as well supplemented , with what I believe to be Gareth Coker's best work as he makes exceptional emotional moments with Luma Pools and every escape sequence and boss battle. I was brought to tears more than once by just how well executed each moment was.

There are a few miscellaneous things to discuss, I really enjoy the "dungeons" of Ori 2 over the original, I like how upgrades and collectibles work with clear benefits to the latter and each upgrade being very distinct for the former. The Hollow Knight charms system is a worthy thing to grab to utilize here. Lastly, I want to cover my one and only issue, of which might date this review (since there's a patch forthcoming) but needs to be said. The performance bugs as well as optimization is almost awful. For a cohesive artistic experience like this, having sound buzzing if you're not running on a SSD and complete stuttering in a couple areas can really just break the whole thing at times. It's a tightrope you don't want to fall off of, so I hope the patch comes as soon as possible.

Either way, I can't wait to go back and 100% this game several times over, and start speedrunning this game to hell and back. I'm already practicing the boss times to fight as fast as possible. Despite the current issues, I'm giving this one of my best scores. (9.5/10)

Fazia tempo que eu não me envolvia tanto com um jogo e que um videogame conseguia capturar tanto assim a minha atenção a ponto de eu, por muitos dias, acordar já com vontade de retornar a ele.

O misto de de ser agradável e desafiador na medida certa contribuiu muito para esse sentimento. Tirando raros momentos (só consigo contar dois, de memória), a dificuldade dele nunca foi um fator determinante, nunca me fez passar raiva ou ficar frustrada, foi sempre ideal para ser divertida e motivadora. Ao mesmo tempo que a música, arte e história contribuíram para ser um jogo aconchegante e gostosinho.

A todo momento você está descobrindo algo novo, uma habilidade, que torna a navegação por esse mundo tão ou mais prazerosa que no primeiro jogo, um inimigo diferente, uma área com um novo visual e uma nova música (aliás, que trilha sonora impecável), ou ainda um personagem coadjuvante novo, que foi uma das novidades dessa sequência.

A adição de side quests e personagens secundários contribuíram para o enriquecimento do mundo e da experiência. Sim, pode-se dizer que elas são rasas, simples, mas mesmo assim foram novidades bem-vindas. O sistema de combate também foi uma melhora significativa em comparação ao primeiro jogo, com uma variedade de armas e poderes para que você escolha a melhor para a situação, ou para o seu gosto pessoal. Ainda é um sistema de combate simples e é provavelmente a parte mais fraca do jogo, mas tudo bem, porque não é o foco.

É, Ori and the Will of the Wisps tem alguns defeitos, mas não acho que eles sejam suficientemente significativos para apagar o brilho desse jogo praticamente perfeito. Na minha opinião é uma aula de como fazer uma sequência, mantendo tudo o que funcionou no primeiro, melhorando o que não era bom e adicionando novas ideias.

É uma experiência que vai ficar comigo por muito tempo e eu sou grata por ter tido a oportunidade de ter jogado e pela felicidade que ele me trouxe, provendo um refúgio, mesmo que temporário, para momentos difíceis.

Will of the Wisps ups the production value by a significant margin over the already gorgeous Ori and The Blind Forest, and dives deeper into a more hardcore action RPG oriented take on the Metroidvania.

For some, this will feel like an ultimate accumulation of the genre. For me, I don't find any value in this, and feel some of the uniqueness and freedom of the original is lost.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps on all accounts feels more tightly and intentionally designed, and the scale is impressive, but I somewhat feel the gameplay acts as an obstruction to the world, characters, and story of the game which otherwise is firing on even more emotional cylinders this go around.

Let me start off by saying you'll be hard pressed to find a game more visual stunning and jaw droppingly gorgeous than Will of the Wisps. Audio, Visual, Story, Gameplay, this game nails every aspect more than it had already accomplished in the first iteration. All of these accomplishments are all the more apparent if you have played Blind Forest, as the game polishes what it succeeded at and drops what it failed at. It's incredible that this game could come from such a small indie team using the Unity engine! I could sit here and write a book on how great this game is, but instead I'll just preorder the upcoming art book that can just visually show how incredible it is. Ori Will of the Wisps will go down as one of my favorite games of all time, I cannot praise it enough.

Just like its predecessor the Will of the Wisps is a gorgeous platforming action game with a lot of creativity in its mechanics and set pieces. But unlike the Blind Forest, the game's got variety on display that doesn't let it outstay its welcome.

While it definitely felt like the challenge level in the sequel is lower, I think it did a way better job at pacing the upgrades progression and utilizing the moveset you gain over the course of the story. The unique floaty Ori platforming is better fleshed out here, leading to the final level where you spend way more time in the air rather than on the ground while grappling, dodging, floating and jumping off enemes and bullets. You just feel far more powerful, and have much fun flexing your accumulated aerial superiority. And while it's not a show stopper, I quite enjoyed the combat: it's snappy and visually pleasing with solid enemy and bosses design.

I just wish Will of the Wisps demanded a bit more from me personally. I barely had any stuggles with platforming, there was only one chase sequence that took me more than a single retry, the healing ability makes most fights in the game really hard to lose and you gather so many health upgrades over the playthrough that by the end your Ori headbutt through obstacles without care in the world. Some of these problems can be overcome with self-imposed challenges, but I would definitely love to see an optional area with more platforming stages that demand mastery of all mechanics to let them breathe even more. Still, when presented a choice between interesting or challenging I will always pick the former. Seems like Will of the Wisps made the same choice.

Just as the first one, the story grabs you right from the start. And just like the first one, it’s visually stunning and its music is truly wonderful.

The fluidity of movement feels great, and the combat is super satisfying. When those set pieces where you have to quickly and acrobatically escape some big danger happen, the swiftness and precision of the controls shine the most, it’s satisfying to both play it and watch it.

It took me a little while to get used to assigning the different abilities to 3 buttons at a time, but it ended up being a great way to quickly change actions and strategies, even during battles.

And those boss battles - what a spectacle. Challenging, stunning and so gratifying.

One time for a little while it felt like there was some randomly longer-than-usual loading times for even opening the inventory or the pause menus, as well as visual hiccups where I’d see environments and characters slowly popup, which was very grating given the sheer fluidness of the game otherwise. And the I got an error and the game shut down entirely. Very strange but it was one time.

One of the new things I really love about this one is the large roster of friendly characters in the world. They’re all wonderfully designed, voiced, and animated. Tokk, Opher, Lupo, Kworok, Lewin, and the others.

The story, all the way to the conclusion impresses with its little reliance on dialogue, favoring beautiful animations and the fantastic music score to elevate the highly emotional beats of the bittersweet tale.

The excellent combination of satisfying movement, tight platforming, fun combat, incredible set pieces, beautiful music, and stunning visuals and animation makes Ori one of my favorite games of 2020, and indeed of the Switch in general.