Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020)

There is something that I can't still completely get around in this saga and it's the physics of jumping off a grabbed wall. Instead of having full control, you kind of jump in a forced diagonal. then, if you are holding to a pillar and want to get on top of said pillar, you have to do a weird 270° turn also with little fine control on where you land. I thought it was something unintentional after playing the first but now that I'm on the second, I feel like it was a design decision and one that I don't understand.

Well, that or I suck at the game.

This was such a great sequel. I don't think I'll ever be able to play the first one again though, because it'll just make me wish I was playing the second instead lol.

The two most notably impressive aspects of the game are the visuals and the score, both of which are utterly phenomenal. The level design was also really great, which is often the key to having a successful metroidvania. The combat in this game was also a serious step up from its predecessor. The combat in the first game felt clunky and uninspired. The combat in Will of the Wisps clearly takes from Hollow Knight to result in a much more engaging fighting system.

One thing I did have an issue with was the difficulty of the game. Ori and the Blind Forest was incredibly challenging to the point of being almost unfair at times, but this game was nowhere near challenging enough. There were a few bosses that I had to face a few times in order to master the battle, but throughout my whole playthrough I found myself wondering, "When is it going to get as hard as the first one?" Nevertheless, the aspects of exploration, puzzle solving, finding secrets, fighting enemies, and completing quests were all very rewarding and resulted in a really great game.

I wish I could rate this higher. The artwork and story seem like they'd make for a great side-scrolling platformer.

My core issue is with the gameplay. The tricks involved in getting past barriers start at difficult and became impossible once the torchlight vector launches began. I simply couldn't advance. Perhaps the issue is with the Steam port, perhaps my controller wasn't sensitive enough, but I've had no issues in the past making it through a number of platform agility games.

If you can try it first for your system's gameplay compatibility first, I would do that.

This game is obviously made with care and detail, and I like some things about it in my first couple of hours, but I’m not really feeling it too much overall yet. Not surprising since I didn’t really like the prior game, but from all the acclaim this got, I thought it might be a different enough experience to really grab me.

For now, I’m getting annoyed more than I’m getting immersed. The main appeal for me is methodically clearing through the game’s more puzzle-y platforming areas, but I think I might as well just go play Celeste or something at that point instead of plowing through another Metroidvania-style action platformer that is less appealing to me than so many that I’ve already played.

I’ll give props for the cutscenes, which while not really my style, are obviously well-done. The default attack feels good, a fast, furious sword flurry that I wish the enemy designs allowed you to enjoy a bit more. The generous checkpointing is exactly what a certain similar game would benefit from to reduce its tedium. Overall I do agree with the consensus that this is a clear step up from the last game.

Look at this Ori Collector's Edition craziness. It's $169 USD to ship to Canada. That's just simply too much for me. I didn't like the first one enough to drop almost $230 CAD on this. But it is really pretty. I just wish I could buy the games separately for the standard single game cost.