Moon Studios continues to pour years of talent and effort into developing some of the prettiest environments and smoothest controls in the entire industry. But they still CANNOT make an actually interesting Metroidvania. The world design isn't particularly memorable when it needs to incorporate Ori's movement, the enemy variety is still horribly lacking, the addition of quests was underwhelming, and exploration / backtracking is still as unrewarding as the original. The first game had an incredibly strong emotional hook carrying the player through while this one really stumbled to connect with me. But in the end it was still overwhelmingly pretty and quite fun to play so I guess I didn't mind?

The best parts of the game are practically linear anyway so hot take: the sequel to Blind Forest should have doubled down on a linear structure to really take advantage of the movement and combat first and foremost, rather than making a halfbaked 'vania. That may have been fine in 2015 but by 2020 so many better examples of the genre exist out there.

So in the end, many parts were drastically improved, some parts were worse, some aspects were underbaked or didn't deviate enough from the first title and as such kept many of its issues. It's fun and a brilliant visual spectacle, but five years in the oven for a game that's kind of "Ori 1, but again" is definitely a bit of a shame.