Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020)

Read safely, spoilers are blurry. Image's descriptions may appear when you hover over images and may contain spoilers, beware.

Total time played: 7.5 hours

Difficulty: Hard

This can absolutely be a GOTY. I am probably at 7 hours in the game, and it feels like it is just starting. Wow! The wellspring had a really cool level design and some nice puzzles. Also, I have now most of the movement abilities unlocked and it's just a pleasure to move around. The traversal mechanics in this game may be at the level of Marvel's Spider-Man or Just Cause 2. It's quick, it's well animated, you have lots of ways of doing it and you get to learn how to move around.

This game succeeds in giving you real emotions. Feelings of joy, distress, excitement, fear, deep sadness and surprise. It doesn't need a lot of storyline to do it, and that's simple unbelievable. It's amazing.

BIG SPOILER IN IMAGE BELOW, BEWARE

And the visuals! Oh my. I don't know if I'll ever experience the astonishment I get with the scenery and well-crafted imagery in this game. It's simply amazing. Sometimes I just sit there, staring at the beauty of the scenes this game offers.

Character design is amazing, each character has its own charisma. And enemies, mini bosses and bosses can get really scary and imposing.

There are some drawbacks to the game though, that I'll write more about in my review.

I'm stunned and deeply addicted to this game right now, and what's better, it feels like I had just started when I am 7 hours in! Wow!

Some of the bosses and mini bosses I have encountered:

Ori and the Will of the Wisps - First Impressions

Beautiful.

2 hours in, and everything is a complete improvement. From the splendid heartwrenching visuals and music, to the mechanically deep movement system and now combat system, to the one to one level design, everything so far is an amazing step up. It's ridiculous, to an extent it almost invalidates the first game, but I haven't gotten to any escape sequence or tried to speedrun/sequence break yet.

Also this game has DMC AIR RAVE. AIR RAVEEEEE.

Either way I'm really looking forward to the rest of the game. Already a solid GotY entry for me, if not hitting my top 10 god DAMN.

Thanks to the Corona Virus all of my lectures have been cancelled, starting today, which coincides perfectly with the release of this game... I'm not mad lol.

As expected, this game is amazing. So far it looks like it tops the already fantastic original by a long shot. The best improvement over that one is easily the combat. It's soo goooooood. And the movement of this nimble little monkey-like spirit.... it's perfect. I'm so bingeing this.

Read safely, spoilers are blurry. Image's descriptions may appear when you hover over images and may contain spoilers, beware.

Total time played: 2 hours

Difficulty: Hard

Couldn't wait after finishing Ori and the Blind Forest last night, started playing Will of the Wisps just after midnight. Animations for this game come from another universe!!! Damn! It's just so f*cking gorgeous. Would love to play this in a 4k OLED TV, but I don't have one no more! Movements are smooth and the essence of the franchise is absolutely there. This is an absolute must play ladies and gentlemen!

That freaking wolf mini boss gave me a hard time!

Some images from my playthrough:

While it's true I have mixed feelings about the first game I am kind of hoping that, since this won't be coming to Switch, Microsoft will put it up on xCloud so that I can give it a whirl. It doesn't have to be at release, just eventually some time.

Also, as of Monday 9 March 2020, six people have rated it a 5/5, one a 4/5 and one other a 1/5. So that's cool, I guess. Anyone with a reviewer copy bound to an NDA until release day?