Challenge, failure, frustration: retry. Challenge, success, elation! On to the next. Thus is the cycle of Ori & the BF.
There's so much to love, here: the art, the music, the aesthetic, the gameplay. A good Metroidvania isn't the easiest thing to pull off, but Ori's certainly done it: I did a quick playthrough of the game, always progressing, enjoying (almost) the whole thing. I feel that I could go back through the game and enjoy it all over again, seeking out all the secrets, diving into the world. It's fun, challenging, & smart. For that reason, I would definitely recommend it: it can be really frustrating sometimes, but the reward of mastering the puzzles & mechanics is very much worth it.
Why not 5 stars, then? Because the ending level is terrible. Throughout the game, there's this idea that you should try & fail, but in so doing you can learn the patterns to succeed the next time; the last sequence throws out that whole process by deciding to introduce RNG on a bunch of random things, so you can't just rely on muscle memory. It's fun in concept, but terribly frustrating in execution, so much so that it hurts the game. It was great fun--up until that point--but now I don't want to go through the game again, because I know I'll have to go through another hour of the random garbage in the last chase. It honestly feels like the devs got 99% of the way through but had to skip the last 1%, which destroys the ending & sours the entire experience.
This is one of the most enjoyable & wholesome games that I have ever played. I'd definitely recommend it, with a caveat: it's not for those who want an easy time, & it's weighed down by the ending sequence.
There's so much to love, here: the art, the music, the aesthetic, the gameplay. A good Metroidvania isn't the easiest thing to pull off, but Ori's certainly done it: I did a quick playthrough of the game, always progressing, enjoying (almost) the whole thing. I feel that I could go back through the game and enjoy it all over again, seeking out all the secrets, diving into the world. It's fun, challenging, & smart. For that reason, I would definitely recommend it: it can be really frustrating sometimes, but the reward of mastering the puzzles & mechanics is very much worth it.
Why not 5 stars, then? Because the ending level is terrible. Throughout the game, there's this idea that you should try & fail, but in so doing you can learn the patterns to succeed the next time; the last sequence throws out that whole process by deciding to introduce RNG on a bunch of random things, so you can't just rely on muscle memory. It's fun in concept, but terribly frustrating in execution, so much so that it hurts the game. It was great fun--up until that point--but now I don't want to go through the game again, because I know I'll have to go through another hour of the random garbage in the last chase. It honestly feels like the devs got 99% of the way through but had to skip the last 1%, which destroys the ending & sours the entire experience.
This is one of the most enjoyable & wholesome games that I have ever played. I'd definitely recommend it, with a caveat: it's not for those who want an easy time, & it's weighed down by the ending sequence.