Microsoft kind of sucks when you actually think about it. Now I’m not trying to trash anybody who plays on an Xbox One with that opening statement, because to be frank I was like them at one point. I was limited done to one console at a younger age and would spend countless hours playing the small library of games I had on my Xbox One. Just having a casual fun time and making the most of what I could afford. I’ve spent several hours playing The Master Chief Collection, Doom 4, BioShock, Fallout 4, and more. Eventually I got bored of the system and stopped playing on it all together. Leading to my interest in gaming dying down. Why would I get bored of the Xbox One when it has a huge store of games? Don't take be offended, but a majority of the games I played on it were shooters and they got really repetitive after awhile.
Not only that, but the console had a pretty mediocre catalogue of exclusives and nothing of interest to help them stand out in the market. Their flagship franchise Halo is being handled by a studio that doesn't even understand what made the original trilogy so amazing. The developers who worked on Sunset Overdrive, Insomniac Games, were actually the same guys who made Ratchet & Clank and are now striking back with their iconic Playstation mascot. They also developed the recent Marvel’s Spider-Man for the Playstation 4 which turned out to be one of the best games they have made in recent memory. Forza Horizon is just another driving game that is being mass produced each year, and Gears of War while not declining as rapidly as Halo is slowly losing it's audience as it strives away from the heavy impact action the series is known for.
Let’s compare this to the Playstation 4’s library. What made the Playstation 4 library so amazing is that it had good third party support, and the developers were freely able to create whatever they wanted. Santa Monica created God of War, which is a masterclass in badass combat and storytelling. Offering a unique spin on norse mythology while still conneccting to the greek plot of the original games. Naughty Dog created Uncharted 4 which not only has one of the best stories in the series, but combines everything Naughty Dog had learned up until that point to create a swashbuckling adventure. Guerilla Games created Horizon Zero Dawn which reworks some of the problems most generic open world games have. Then there’s FromSoftware who made the challenging lovecraftian inspired action RPG, Bloodborne, the console's first major selling pont and the reason the Playstation 4 kicked off. There’s so many titles I can add onto the list. Shadow of The Colossus, Persona 5, Infamous: Second Son, Nioh, Days Gone, Yakuza 6, and many more upcoming exclusives like Ghost of Tsushima and Death Stranding.
The day I finally got a Playstation 4 for these games was the happiest day of my life. It was fantastic, the games were incredibly well designed and made use of the console’s hardware! I got exposed to different genres of games and my love for gaming grew even bigger. Sony actually knows what they are doing with their system and team of developers. Encouraging creativity and variety. Letting the developers take their time to make masterful products with top notch quality I’m already envisioning what’s happening at Microsoft right now. A bunch of managers screaming and running around a table while everything is on fire. That’s how I sum up the management at Microsoft for you. Now Microsoft isn’t as bad as let’s say Activision or Electronic Arts, but it feels like it’s getting towards that level. There hasn’t been a major standout exclusive on the Xbox One these past few years, well maybe one. The big one not many people know.
In 2010 a little team of indie developers known as Moon Studios was found composed of several developers from around the world. In 2011 they would later sign a deal with Microsoft to work on a new game for their system. Moon Studios consisted of some very talented developers and even a few highly skilled artists. They envisioned a game that had painting-like graphics that came to life and the story would beautifully unravel as the player progressed through the game. They also took inspiration from side-scrolling platformers like Rayman and the maze-like design of metroidvanias. Using their creative talents and knowledge on game design, Moon Studios began working on what they called a ‘love letter’ to the metroidvania genre. It would take years to finish up the final product, but if it's anything most developers learn it’s that it takes time to make a polished game. Later in 2015, Moon Studios published Ori and The Blind Forest and while it wasn’t one of the most best selling games on the Xbox One it received quite a bit of praise. The public praised Ori for it’s uniquely styled graphics, emotionally heartbreaking story, and it’s superb level design. Ori and The Blind Forest even went on to be nominated for a few awards at the end of the year and was almost considered the best indie. May not have won, but Ori is one of the newest groundbreaking entries for the metroidvania and stands tall along with contemporaries like Hollow Knight.
Recently I just picked up a handful of games using a gift card and Ori just so happened to be one of them. I just finished Owlboy, which was an incredibly written and well paced metroidvania that exceeded my expectations, so I decided to move onto another indie metroidvania title. I’m so glad that I decided to try out Ori and The Blind Forest next, because my time with the game was thrilling. I don't know if I’m on a hot streak with indie games recently, but there’s something about Ori that makes it stand out besides just the beautiful artstyle. It was pretty challenging at times and the difficulty curved towards unpredictable directions, but what I got was a magical experience worth going through from beginning to end. Today we’ll be talking about why I think Ori and The Blind Forest is so amazing and why it deserves your attention. So follow your glowing friend, and prepare to light your way through the blind forest.
Story
Once upon a time there lived a being known as the Spirit Tree, an ever growing guardian of light that looked after an ancient forest full of wildlife. He shined his light across the land forcing any form of darkness that threatened the forest away, but during a terrible stormy night one of his children of light was blown far away and was never seen again. Abandoned and cold, the child was later found by a small sloth-like creature named Naru and was then taken in to be raised. The child was named Ori and together they would grow up with Naru. Properly fed, loved, and sheltered. As time passed on, the forest began to slowly shrivel up and the small duo's food supply started running low. Ori sets out for a quick trip to fetch their caretaker some food, but when they return home they find Naru stone cold dead due to starvation and being taken by the darkness. Alone and without a family, Ori sets out into the forest to find a safe place to stay and later she wakes up next to the legendary Spirit Tree.
Reuniting with their place of birth. Once Ori is fully awakened she meets Sein, a ball of light that informs them of what is going on. Sein states that the Spirit Tree was able to supply the forest with light in the past, but a strange owl of darkness named Kuro attacked the Spirit Tree and stole the core of light that allowed the Spirit Tree to shed his light onto the forest. To restore the Spirit Tree, Ori has to venture into the forest and recover the three main elements that helped supply the forest: water, air, and warmth. It’s only by bringing light back to the forest that Ori will revive Naru. So she makes haste to traverse across the land, figure out what happened to the several creatures that lived in it, fight against the creatures of darkness, and bring prosperity back to the forest.
Gameplay
Ori and The Blind Forest is a pretty basic metroidvania once you get into it. You explore each area collecting items, solving puzzles, opening up pathways to make backtracking less tedious, and fighting enemies along the way. The levels are interconnected to one another meaning you’ll be traversing across what is basically a big 2D open world. You can discover secrets, unlock warp points, and find checkpoints that allow you to heal and save your game. Ori can attack enemies with the help of their friend Sein, the floating ball of light, who locks on the closest foe and starts launching balls of energetic light at them. It gets very button mashy, but it’s a pretty quick way to deal with enemies even though you don’t have to put any effort into killing them.
By exploring areas you can discover upgrades and new skills which allow you to unlock routes to new areas. These skills not only function as new ways to traverse the environment, but also can even help out in combat as well as to counter certain attacks. These abilities include charging up an explosion that can break through walls and deal a huge chunk of damage, a feather to glide through the air or reach high areas using gushes of wind, or an ability that allows you to lunge yourself through the air when there is a projectile nearby and send the projectile flying backwards from where it came. One special ability Ori has is the ability to create soul links which are basically the checkpoints and save spots in this game. When Ori dies he spawns back at the soul link, resetting whatever progress you made after creating it. You can’t create save points when you're in areas that are dangerous or surrounded by enemies, which is pretty fair since this requires the player to learn from their mistakes and save when it’s the right time, but these soul links require a lot of magic which is needed to perform some powerful abilities. I like this mechanic, because it doesn't mean players have to backtrack to certain areas to save their game and it makes them manage resources.
Throughout the game you collect energy cells which are gained from beating enemies or finding them in plain sight. With enough energy cells you can upgrade Ori’s abilities at soul links which increases their attack power, agility, and physical capabilities. So collect all the energy cells you can find, because you are going to need them by the end of the game. There aren’t really any bosses, but occasionally there are chase sequences which require the player to navigate quickly through linear cinematic corridors. This is where the difficulty tends to spike randomly, but these sequences can be very cool and the stuff that happens will make your jaw drop. Besides that there isn’t much else to say about Ori. There's no boss battles and any cinematics are very short, but other than that The Blind Forest is a thorough metroidvania which always leaves control to the player. It’s well designed and continues to build up on unique ideas. With hope on your side you should be able to return peace to the forest.
Thoughts
Ori and The Blind Forest is truly a work of art. The spectacular visuals, incredible moments, presentation, and music is what makes The Blind Forest sch a majestic experience to begin with. The graphics are the best part of this game and Moon Studios really did set out to make it beautiful. A painting that came to life and told a story on it’s own. There is a vibrant amount of colors and the environments are wondrous. Several cool shades of blue, green, purple, and much more help make the world of Ori feel relaxed even during the darkest moments. The soundtrack is lovely and really gets going when those cinematic chase sequences and emotional moments kick in. Finding a way to deliver multiple feelings at once. The story is something I thought I wouldn’t care about so much, but luckily it drew me in. It has a lot of tension, build up to important events and twists, and keeps you playing to see what happens next. A lot of people cried while playing this game because of how well presented the story was, and while I never cry while playing a game I can certainly agree Ori succeeded at telling a compelling story. The controls are tight, Ori never feels slippery to control and always snaps towards the direction you want to go. The game also has quite a bit of replay value thanks to collectibles and extra areas you can explore.
I do have quite a few criticisms for Ori & The Blind Forest. The combat is lukewarm at best. You just stand there and mash the X button until the enemy is obliterated. That’s all you have to do. Sure a projectile may be shot at you or an enemy may fly around like a pinball, but moving out of the way to avoid their bodies slamming into you is easy when half the time they end up missing. Just keep mashing the X button until they are dead. There are some foes who get you to utlize your other abilites, like the ones who can't be defeated unless you sned back their projectile, and those fights are a little more diverse but not by a whole lot. I said there are a lot of secrets to discover when you explore the game, but the rewards for doing so aren’t that great or worth pursuing. It's not like Hollow Knight or Axiom Verge where you unlock a new equippable charm, weapon, or stuff that actually changes how you play the game. Finally, Ori is lacking the amount of main story content most metroidvanias would have, meaning there isn’t much to do and the run time ends up being really short.
Besides those issues, Ori & The Blind Forest is really good. I can recommend it to anyone who loves the metroidvania genre and wonder if the gameplay matches up to the stunning visuals. The answer is of course, yes. I would also say it’s the perfect game for Xbox One users, but while writing this review I figured out the game is also available on PC. So you don’t really need an Xbox to play probably the only good exclusive on their system, huh. In the end I am giving Ori & The Blind Forest an 8.5/10 for being pretty good. I wish the best of luck for Moon Studios and the upcoming sequel.
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