|| REVIEW || Ori and the Blind Forest (PC)
Developed By : Moon Studios Published By : Xbox Game Studios
Category : Platformer, Metroidvania Release Date : Mar 11, 2015
Over the past couple of years, my interest in the types of games I like to play has expanded massively. I used to be very narrow-minded, I needed the most pristine and up-to-date visuals and I wouldn't accept anything less. Now, I find myself discovering a nostalgic interest in the new games that take on an old style. I used to avoid the bit-style games for their simplicity, but now I dive right into them and see that in actuality those simple games are far, far more.
Unfortunately, this means that in my period of being a shallow gamer, I missed many releases of amazing and iconic games. Ori and the Blind Forest happened to be one of them. Most of the time, I tended to struggle at Metroidvania games, so I began to place some distance between myself and the genre. Lately, it's something I've been pushing myself to get into more and more, and after watching a good friend stream a little bit of this, I decided it was time. So when I was piecing together my lineup of games for the month of May and my St. Jude campaign on my stream, this game found it's place in line.
The first thing that came as a surprise was the hard punch dealt to the gut from Ori's introduction. Setting up the story, we meet our titular character in the opening cutscene. A white guardian spirit, Ori falls from a tree while a storm is breaking out. Very young, Ori is stumbled upon by another creature Naru, who effectively adopts and raises Ori as her own. The hard punch comes when a massive event practically wipes out the forest, withering everything away, leaving Naru to die of starvation. Orphaned, Ori sets out into the forest and collapses underneath a Spirit Tree, but is woken shortly after by the light spirit within it, Sein. Together, they set out to navigate the depths of the Nibel forest and reawaken what has been taken away.
As soon as you begin the game, technically speaking, the entirety of the Nibel forest is opened up to you. However, you'll soon notice that many paths are blocked for you as you won't possess the skills necessary to get around certain obstacles. Right off the bat, all Ori can do is jump.
There are three main objectives in the game, tied in to three very large trees around the land of Nibel. However, there is going to be a lot of things to get around before you need to be concerned about the trees. For the most part, the world itself will almost be your enemy, presenting a ton of platforming challenges in every areas you must go through.
One of the most important things you'll find in Ori are the spirit trees, and I personally loved how they were placed around the map. To get where you need to go, the path unfolds in a straight line, or rather as straight as possible with all the obstacles in your way. However, every so often there are tiny branching paths that split off from the one you're on that have the potential to lead to some fun rewards, including spirit trees. Here, you'll commune with the spirit inside who will in turn teach you one of the numerous skills to help Ori in the journey ahead. These include things like Sein being able to attack, the ability to jump on walls, double jump, and perform a dash.
Speaking of enemies, there are handful of different types that you'll encounter. Some that can fly, some that crawl, enemies that can leap to the top of the screen, and others that will be burrowed way underground. I had a blast learning all of the different enemy types. Some were frustrating at first, but then later on, either through upgrading an ability or learning their patterns, they got to be fun to face off against. My best example is this blob like enemy. At first it moves really slow, but once you deplete it's health bar it splits into two smaller enemies that move a bit quicker, and the same thing happens to them and even the next phase. I hated seeing these guys at first because my attack with Sein couldn't keep up with the splitting, but eventually I was able to level up Sein's attack to where it could hit two targets at once and these blobs became a breeze.
Having finally played this game now, I must say that I am shaming myself for not paying it any attention before. Granted, at the time this came out I enjoyed a much different flavor of video game, but I still wish I had given this one even half of a chance. The story is really strong, and I love the way that it's told, feeding you deep emotional snippets as you reach key points. It's really well paced so that it's not constantly being pushed in front of you, but not so spread out that you forget things. Every other aspect of the game is just as incredible. Controls felt smooth and responsive, I never ran into any issues of being convinced that I pressed a button and the game just ignored me. Except for...you know, those moments where I was frustrated at a section and wanted to blame the game. Hey don't judge, we all do it.
Game Rating : 9.5/10
Game Played On : Steam (PC)Also Available On : Xbox One
