Maybe the second time is the charm.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a sequel that almost all sequels should strive to be like. Every aspect of this game was looked upon and improved in a way that feels right.

Some of the best improvements were done on the level design. I feel like there are a lot more options when it comes to pathfinding and challenges, rewarding more skilled players with a quicker path. They obviously learned a lot from the last game as the general platforming in the overworld has improved a lot too. The dungeons also add a nice boost in challenge when you start to get used to what the game has to offer. The combat has also been changed slightly, and while still not perfect, it is a lot better compared to the first game.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps also introduces a new badge system called spirit shards where you can select which different abilities you want to equip. These can also change how you play the game, adding a bit of character customization. It's a nice feature, but I didn't end up changing my shards that much in my playthrough.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps have made many different improvements that all make me very happy to see and play with. I can't find many negative things to say, unlike the first game which shows how much care they put into crafting a better experience. After all this, I'm happy that Ori ended up as one of the better Metroidvanias of the 2010s and will hopefully inspire new games with how much it does well.

Literally an example of how should squels look like.

What is this game about:
Its a very atmospheric platformer with amazing story and even more amazing soundtrack.

Good things:

- Story
- Soundtrack
- Level design
- Graphics
- Side quests
- Mechanics
- Puzzels
- Collectables which arent annoying and fun to collect and look for
- Ability to speedrun some sections and compete with other players
- Map / game world


Bad things:
- Visual bugs


Story:
The story isnt really special in terms of structure (You can sometimes easily predict how the story is going to continue or you are not really surprised of certain verdict of the story etc).
What is special about the story tho is its form of telling its self.
The game tells its story visually in cutscenes instead of dialogues.
Dont get me wrong, there are dialogues in this game between npcs, but its in form of "click and another sentence will apear in the bubble”.
The reason why i said “in bubble” is because the npcs or more like creatures have its own language.
The soundtrack gives the story a one of a kind atmosphere, so i think you can understand now why cutscenes dont really have dialogues.


Level design + mechanics + side quests:

The level design is very good and i think i can safely say its better than in the first game.
Unlike the first game, the sequel actually improved combat as a whole, plus you unlock new abilityes via shop, skill trees (like in the first game) and some of them trought out the story.
Another nice addition is side quests.
Side quests in this game have actually some little story and your actions that you take not only in some side quests actually mean something and will show trought out your whole playtrough.

Map / game world:
As it was in the first ori, the world is much more colourfull and alive, i think the game trailer and gameplay show its self, so theres no need to say anything about it.
Its just amazing.

Bad things:
The only “bad thing” that i can come up with are visual bugs.
These bugs werent frequent (actually it only happened to me like three times or so), but still it was pretty wierd.
Thankfully, it isnt anything game breaking and will fix basically automaticly.
To be exact, it was a wierd texture bug with mobs, which made them significantly bigger than they should be.


Overall:
Overall its an amazing game which should every platformer player give a chance (its basically need for them/you).
If you arent a platformer player tho, i still think you should atleast give it a chance :).

The one bug i came across with didnt really affect my experience.

I recommend it even for the full price, even tho if you will buy it like me in sale for 10euros, its basically a steal lol.

10/10

(Copied from my steam review)

Simply incredible. Improves upon so much of what was introduced in Blind Forest, without letting you forget what made that game so special in the first place. The music and atmosphere are simply incredible in here, and I really enjoyed all the new game mechanics that were introduced. The story, while nothing new, still managed to really hit me hard (I just don't like seeing bad things happen to that sad little owl!), and by the end I found myself feeling very overwhelmed with emotion. This game really is something special.

The only issue I have with it were that the Switch version felt really laggy at certain points, and the load times were way longer than expected. Although, I guess you could say that "this game is TOO good to run on the switch" could really be seen as another compliment...

I had a lot of high expectations coming into this one based on the unanimous praise I've seen everywhere. I really wanted to like this one considering another metroidvania, Hollow Knight, is among one of my favorite games of all time. However, it fell short of any expectations I had for it. I do want to clear though, by no means is this a bad game-it's good, just not great. Unfortunately, I don't exactly know why I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. The best explanation I can come up with is that this is the first game I've played on PC and I'm still very unfamiliar with keyboard and mouse so I had a tough time getting Ori to control exactly how I wanted. I got better over time and by the time I reached 100% I had a much better grasp but I never really hit my stride with this one. Otherwise i can't really point to any major negatives to the game itself. I just keep finding myself comparing this game to Hollow Knight and I just don't get the same feelings while playing this one. Maybe it's just a me thing...it's not you Ori, it's me.

I looove this game. It is gorgeous of course. The story is cute, the gameplay is sososo satisfying...just great.

The first full boss fight (that I remember at least) was a total pain, though, didn't like that part.

Also think all the heavy comparisons people draw with Hollow Knight aren't warranted, they both have very unique and separate identities even with the similarities they do have. They mostly just happen to be the same genre, other similarities are pretty small.

Honestly, banger. An upgrade on the first game in absolutely every way. The gameplay is fantastic, combat is diverse and there's so many different ways to tackle it. I settled on a combination of abilities but I think a completely different play-style would've been 100% viable. An incredible upgrade on the first game where the combat was one of my biggest gripes. The platforming was also fantastic, it felt precise, and consistently evolving with new abilities. Finally the story, goodness, it had no right to be as gut wrenching as it did. Full of emotional moments and triumph, it really did set a new bar for me for metroidvania storytelling. Fantastic game, highly recommend.

(Reseña sacada de mi cuenta de Steam: APolChrome)

Ori and the Will of The Wisps es un juegazo. Si ya Ori and the Blind Forest era un juego sobresaliente, esta secuela dice "quien sos" y mejora en todo lo mejorable a su precuela. Si bien al principio, puede sentirse un poco secuela continuista, a lo largo de la aventura te das cuenta de que es algo distinto, pero en el mismo universo. Vamos a desgranar todo.

El mapa de su precuela no terminó de encantarme. Pues este juego soluciona todos los problemas que mencioné (como la mucha linealidad para un metroidvania) y añade un montón de cosas por hacer. Y sí, son UN MONTÓN. En el mapa, habrá NPCs que tendrán distintas funciones: algunos mandarán "rumores" (que son unas mini misiones secundarias de ver un lugar), otros te darán mejoras u objetos a cambio de dinero y otros tendrán funciones muy marcadas, como venderte mapas, darte misiones secundarias o darte cosas a cambio de otra moneda. Solo con esto, ya mejoran muchísimo el mapa, porque te dan a conocer que hay más gente. Además, hay una especie de santuarios en los que por pruebas te dan dinero, que expande más la exploración.

Jugablemente, es increíble. Los controles son igual de fluidos que los de su precuela, pero añade una cantidad de mecánicas a las del juego base, que acostumbrarse al anterior después de haberlo jugado será muy difícil. Son muy variadas y consiguen que tanto el movimiento como el combate de este juego sean una maravilla. Esto sumado a una especie de sistema de amuletos como el de Hollow Knight, expande las posiblidades hasta el infinito.

Las boss-fights son muy buenas, pero hay muy pocas. Todas siguen un sistema parecido (que no destriparé aquí) pero se sienten muy diferentes entre sí y son muy difíciles, por lo que el hecho de hacerlas bien, es un logro increíble. Las mazmorras se echan de menos, habiendo solo 2 en todo el juego pero las que hay están diseñadas de manera excelente.

Audiovisualmente es lo único en lo que no se podía mejorar a la precuela. Es igual de bonito, tiene entornos muy variados de aspecto y de colores (diferenciando los elementos con colores característicos) y el diseño de personajes, enemigos y jefes es increíble. La OST es para ir a la casa de cada uno de los compositores y felicitarles individualmente. Algunas canciones son obras de arte que llegan al corazón.

Si bien la historia no es lo que más destaca del juego, está bastante bien. Tiene algún giro que nadie se esperaría y que a algunos podría llegar a sacarles lagrimillas. Toca temas muy parecidos a los de la precuela, y hace una narrativa bastante buena.

Resumiendo, Ori and the Will of the Wisps es un juegazo (casi obra maestra) que perfecciona a su precuela en todo lo perfeccionable que tenía. Recomendadísimo

Ori and the will of the Wisps é talvez um dos melhores jogos que eu já joguei pensasndo em o que ele faz em uma perspectiva técnina. As mecãnicas são espetaculares, a movimentação desse jogo é inimaginavel, fluida, complexa gostosa, rápida e foda pra krlh. Os Lugares que o jogo manda você explorar são lindos e possuem um level design efetivo, bem feito, ritmado e incrivelmente interessante. Os puzzles são lógicos e razoavelmente tranquilos a exploração é rápida e nçao atrapalha o rítmo e em geral é um mundo incrível de se explorar. O jogo também é lindo, cada segundo desse jogo pode ser exposto num museu com uma profundidade de cores, cenários efeitos, esse jogo é lindo de se ver e se ouvir com uma história tocante e linda. Mas tem um motivo de porque eu to dando 4.5 estrelas ao invés de 5, Jogos nçao sçao só suas mecânicas Dinãmicas e estéticas, e sim experiências artisticas completas. E esse jogo nçao artingiu o mesmo nível sentimental pra mim. Eu não tava tão engajado, surpreso, o efeito não foi tão forte quanto outros e acabou que mesmo essa experiência tenha sido incrpivel ela tbem foi um pouquinho vazia. O jogo é tipo quando um chefe profissional vai fazer uma comida que sua vó fazia, é técnicamente melhor mas falta aquele temero que só cresce no quintal da sua casa de uma planta estranha que vc nunca viu em lugar nenhum

While the story is much improved over the first, some of the gameplay sections were much more frustrating. Adding sidequests to the game completely bloated the map, making it much harder to navigate and get around. I was often confused as to what marker on the map was the main objective, so i would have to stop what I was doing to read the quest log. My biggest complaints with the original were completely exacerbated in this game. Even how you get specific abilities being tied to vendors or side quests made progression fell much less organic. Not a bad game but definitely one of the weaker Metroidvania’s