This review contains spoilers
Holy fuck, holy fucking fuck, that game of yours is absurd
Ori and the will of wisps is the delicious dessert to an already quality meal, I loved ori and the blind forest but its sequel almost shames it with how much it improves on and perfects. Basically every aspect is better in will of the wisps, from its overall presentation and sheer scale of its new traversal options, to its versatile and enjoyable combat. The story is generally stronger than its predecessor too with lots of emotional setpieces and heartwrenching moments.
But most importantly, and this is actually true for both of the games, Ori and the will of wisps is breathtakingly beautiful in every sense. I adore the style that they take and the willingness to go the extra mile with the way everything looks, feels and sounds, its just gushing with beauty. The game delivers gorgeous visuals in many different environments each with their own unique presence, but the one that I think serves as the strongest and best example of ori’s artistic triumphs is the area ‘Luma Pools’. Everything about that place mystified me and I honestly just want to live there, its so serene and whimsical and has that tropical flavour we’ve seen many times before but still manages to be quite unique. The vibrancy of its primarily pink and blue palette, the lush overgrowth of its background and foreground elements and the unbelievable soundtrack in this area just captured me. I literally stopped and smiled and laughed to myself a little because of how insanely stunning it felt to be in, not to mention its a really fun area to traverse too, particularly once you get the water dash ability. Luma Pools also highlights an overlooked but essential part of design & animation - FX animation and particle effects.
Most notable in 2D games because of their importance in communicating what’s happening onscreen to the player (and as a way to signify that certain actions were picked up by the game), animating quality effects can do so much for the ‘feel’ of a game - hollow knight and ori really set the bar high for the standard in fx animation yet both also go about it in slightly different ways, in hollow knight everything is extremely clear and obvious since its a very combat heavy game with plenty to pay attention to, so you need to know what’s happening and when, it also fits the fairly flat art style of its characters. The ori games on the other hand, are floaty, loosely stylised with loads of detail and are even somewhat abstract at times. Sometimes this does affect the readability of what’s onscreen particularly during rare scenarios where you are fighting lots of enemies at once, but for the most part, the devs manage to (impressively) find a suitable balance between a detailed & arty style and clear player feedback. There’s also so many abilities and options to play around with yet all of them look and feel distinct, i’ll never stop being impressed with how satisfying all of the different effects and flourishes are.
The first thing that struck me in ori and the will of the wisps is that it makes significant changes in the right areas when compared to its predecessor - like removing the sometimes frustrating checkpoint/saving system and, most notably, almost completely overhauling its combat mechanics. Combat in ori and the blind forest was fine, it was quite passive, generally not very exciting and easy to cheese. Combat in ori and the will of the wisps, however, is more dynamic, more fast paced, more challenging and more combo oriented which I love. This allows for some awesome boss battles too, I kind of wish that there was more of them. There’s tons of ways to approach combat but having one consistent melee attack tool is a very welcome addition. Its definitely reminiscent of other games in the same vein but i’m of the mind that sometimes things are common because they work well and don’t need to be fully reinvented a lot of the time. Sometimes a mechanic is just a stroke of genius and sampling it is perfectly fine too, from more subtle tweaks like celeste’s so called ‘coyote time’ to something much more obvious like the foundations of healing in hollow knight - healing with regeneration in ori is actually almost exactly like focusing in HK and that’s fine! For all of its inspirations and similarities, ori has plenty of originality too like with just how many options it gives you and how insanely well areas are built around them. Plus, there’s the bash mechanic which is so different and really fun to use as well as a whole bunch of brilliant new abilities like grappling & drilling through sand - stringing all your movement options together in races and chases has honestly never felt so good.
As for things that could be improved, its definitely tricky since this game does so much right. The story, good as its emotional highs are, can be a bit of a drag at times where I do just want to get into the fun stuff; I had a similar feeling with the first game. There’s a whole lot of cutscenes and dialogue for a game of its kind that doesn’t always feel like its adding a lot, much of it is flavour and when you look at the scope of the game’s plot and story beats in the big picture, its really not that deep. Wholesome and emotional and beautifully scored, just not very deep, I didn’t feel that much of a personal connection and struggled to find reasons to really ‘care’ all that much - a good example is kwolok’s death, which certainly tries, but just didn’t really have any impact on me! Ku’s death did though, that was a kick in the teeth for sure.
I’ll round this off by saying man yeah, the audio and music in this game are also outstanding, so lush, so pristine, so cinematic. While the score can sometimes come across a bit melodramatic, its always consistently impressive and a rich accompaniment to a game rich with beauty. Audio feedback to traversal and combat and the like is always punchy and satisfying and the quieter moments are always enveloped in a soft ambience which I really love.
Such a huge improvement over the first game which was already a great experience, I think this is probably the second best metroidvania game i’ve ever played and i’m 100% going to play it again, no question!
Ori and the will of wisps is the delicious dessert to an already quality meal, I loved ori and the blind forest but its sequel almost shames it with how much it improves on and perfects. Basically every aspect is better in will of the wisps, from its overall presentation and sheer scale of its new traversal options, to its versatile and enjoyable combat. The story is generally stronger than its predecessor too with lots of emotional setpieces and heartwrenching moments.
But most importantly, and this is actually true for both of the games, Ori and the will of wisps is breathtakingly beautiful in every sense. I adore the style that they take and the willingness to go the extra mile with the way everything looks, feels and sounds, its just gushing with beauty. The game delivers gorgeous visuals in many different environments each with their own unique presence, but the one that I think serves as the strongest and best example of ori’s artistic triumphs is the area ‘Luma Pools’. Everything about that place mystified me and I honestly just want to live there, its so serene and whimsical and has that tropical flavour we’ve seen many times before but still manages to be quite unique. The vibrancy of its primarily pink and blue palette, the lush overgrowth of its background and foreground elements and the unbelievable soundtrack in this area just captured me. I literally stopped and smiled and laughed to myself a little because of how insanely stunning it felt to be in, not to mention its a really fun area to traverse too, particularly once you get the water dash ability. Luma Pools also highlights an overlooked but essential part of design & animation - FX animation and particle effects.
Most notable in 2D games because of their importance in communicating what’s happening onscreen to the player (and as a way to signify that certain actions were picked up by the game), animating quality effects can do so much for the ‘feel’ of a game - hollow knight and ori really set the bar high for the standard in fx animation yet both also go about it in slightly different ways, in hollow knight everything is extremely clear and obvious since its a very combat heavy game with plenty to pay attention to, so you need to know what’s happening and when, it also fits the fairly flat art style of its characters. The ori games on the other hand, are floaty, loosely stylised with loads of detail and are even somewhat abstract at times. Sometimes this does affect the readability of what’s onscreen particularly during rare scenarios where you are fighting lots of enemies at once, but for the most part, the devs manage to (impressively) find a suitable balance between a detailed & arty style and clear player feedback. There’s also so many abilities and options to play around with yet all of them look and feel distinct, i’ll never stop being impressed with how satisfying all of the different effects and flourishes are.
The first thing that struck me in ori and the will of the wisps is that it makes significant changes in the right areas when compared to its predecessor - like removing the sometimes frustrating checkpoint/saving system and, most notably, almost completely overhauling its combat mechanics. Combat in ori and the blind forest was fine, it was quite passive, generally not very exciting and easy to cheese. Combat in ori and the will of the wisps, however, is more dynamic, more fast paced, more challenging and more combo oriented which I love. This allows for some awesome boss battles too, I kind of wish that there was more of them. There’s tons of ways to approach combat but having one consistent melee attack tool is a very welcome addition. Its definitely reminiscent of other games in the same vein but i’m of the mind that sometimes things are common because they work well and don’t need to be fully reinvented a lot of the time. Sometimes a mechanic is just a stroke of genius and sampling it is perfectly fine too, from more subtle tweaks like celeste’s so called ‘coyote time’ to something much more obvious like the foundations of healing in hollow knight - healing with regeneration in ori is actually almost exactly like focusing in HK and that’s fine! For all of its inspirations and similarities, ori has plenty of originality too like with just how many options it gives you and how insanely well areas are built around them. Plus, there’s the bash mechanic which is so different and really fun to use as well as a whole bunch of brilliant new abilities like grappling & drilling through sand - stringing all your movement options together in races and chases has honestly never felt so good.
As for things that could be improved, its definitely tricky since this game does so much right. The story, good as its emotional highs are, can be a bit of a drag at times where I do just want to get into the fun stuff; I had a similar feeling with the first game. There’s a whole lot of cutscenes and dialogue for a game of its kind that doesn’t always feel like its adding a lot, much of it is flavour and when you look at the scope of the game’s plot and story beats in the big picture, its really not that deep. Wholesome and emotional and beautifully scored, just not very deep, I didn’t feel that much of a personal connection and struggled to find reasons to really ‘care’ all that much - a good example is kwolok’s death, which certainly tries, but just didn’t really have any impact on me! Ku’s death did though, that was a kick in the teeth for sure.
I’ll round this off by saying man yeah, the audio and music in this game are also outstanding, so lush, so pristine, so cinematic. While the score can sometimes come across a bit melodramatic, its always consistently impressive and a rich accompaniment to a game rich with beauty. Audio feedback to traversal and combat and the like is always punchy and satisfying and the quieter moments are always enveloped in a soft ambience which I really love.
Such a huge improvement over the first game which was already a great experience, I think this is probably the second best metroidvania game i’ve ever played and i’m 100% going to play it again, no question!