Ori and the Blind Forest review!

I wrote about this game five years ago. My writing sucked back then, so let's do the topic justice, especially since I actually had a chance to play the game this time. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to my review of a game called Ori and the Blind Forest.

A little bit of context before we begin. Ori and the Blind Forest was a game developed by Moon Studios, a small indie dev team that, at the time, consisted only of ten people. The game was published by Microsoft as part of a special project to make indie games more mainstream. While Ori never hit the kind of success games like Minecraft or UNDERTALE, it was indeed successful, gaining a fandom, some merchandise, and even a full on sequel released just a couple months ago known as Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I did not know any of this when I first wrote about this game, since the only reason I wrote about in the first place was the because of the beautiful art style.

 

Ori and the Blind Forest tells the story of Ori, a fairy/dragon/spirit/thing adopted by a panda-like creature named Naru. The two form a close bond, frolicking in the forest, eating fruit all day, and having a good time. But one fateful night, Ori's "father" the Spirit Tree lit the skies ablaze looking for his lost child. Ori never came back home. And thus, the forest of Nibel (where the game takes place) begins slowly dying. After a few weeks, all but the oldest of groves have withered away. Even Naru succumbs to the effects of the encroaching darkness, leading to one of the most tragic openings in a video game, ever. That's not hyperbole. The scene where Ori hands Naru one of the last good fruits in the forest, only to slowly realize that Naru has passed away, is one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen. The music combined with Ori's howl of sorrow are what really sold the scene for me. And this is only in the first 10 minutes of the game! Yeah, it's gonna be an emotional roller coaster, so strap in.

With no reason to stay, Ori heads off in the wilderness to find a new home. She too succumbs to darkness, but the Spirit Tree manages to use the last of his strength to revive her. Quick side note; Ori canonically doesn't have a known gender (it's a supernatural forest guardian). The dev team said on multiple occasions that Ori's gender is up to personal interpretation. Ori looks and sounds rather feminine in my opinion, so for simplicity's sake I shall refer to the character using female pronouns because writing "they" and "them" for a singular entity hurts my brain (and "It" comes across as mean-spirited).

Back on subject, after being blessed with great agility, Ori must set out into the Blind Forest with the help of Sein (pronounced "sign" according to the dev team), a living light that guides Ori to her next destination as well as protect her from most enemies. And it's here that the game play really opens up. Ori and the Blind Forest is a Metroidvania, which means I am inherently biased because this is pretty much my favorite genre. But even by the standards of other Metroidvanias, Ori is still one of the greatest examples of a game in this style done right. Ori's movement is fast and fluid, and only becomes more so as you unlock more abilities, the majority affecting how you move around. It is a challenging, sometimes brutal experience, especially in later areas. But it never really feels unfair. Indeed, the more you play and practice, the more you feel like a graceful creature soaring through the air. Actually, "soaring" would be inaccurate. I'd describe the platformer more as "falling with style"

If I must criticize one thing about the game, it's that the combat is a little bare-bones. Ori's main attack is the Spirit Flame, where Sein shoots out a stream of magical fire at the closest enemy. While the movement abilities can be used (with some creativity) to spice up the combat, the abilities intentionally designed for combat purposes feel awkwardly balanced. You see, a big mechanic in this game is the ability to place down your own save points. Said save points are tied to a limited energy source, which is fine... If it wasn't for the fact that most of the combat abilities, such as the Flame Burst and Spirit Ball, are tied to the exact same resource needed to create save points. As such, the combat abilities weren't really worth using since (at least if you play like me) you want to conserve Energy so you can put down save points at optimal locations, such as right after a difficult platform section so you don't have to go through it again. But that's pretty much the only legitimate criticism I can bring here, since Ori does so many other things perfectly. The game has most of the Metroidvania staples, a wall jump, a ground-breaking stomp, etc. But what makes Ori unique is the Bash ability. This lets you bounce off of enemy projectiles, certain objects in the environment, and even enemies themselves. You can use any of these as a footstool to perform an extra jump in the area. This one ability is smooth, easy to use, and gives Ori a unique identity among other games in its genre.

In order for Ori to restore the Blind Forest to its original splendor, she must collect the Elements of Water, Wind, and Warmth. First of all, alliteration is fun. Second of all, to accomplish this, Ori must track down three dungeon like areas (and their corresponding door-keys) and use all of the abilities she's acquired so far to climb to the top of the dungeon. Once he grabs an Element, a dramatic chase sequence starts up, pushing your platforming skills to their limit. Ori doesn't have traditional boss battles (seeing how the game's main theme is that violence is never the answer, and that you should try forgiveness and redemption first), but the chase scenes are the closest equivalent. And all of them are brilliantly designed. Yes, they are difficult. Especially if you play on higher difficulties, which require you to complete the entire chase with no check-points at all, meaning if you die here, you start the whole sequence over. But once you realize the set pattern everything happens, Ori's movement becomes second nature, and you find yourself acrobatically weaving through hazards like a graceful falcon. Or a panther. Or just any animal that's associated with speed and agility. You get the point.

The story is great, and this is probably the most emotional game I've ever played. From the tear-jerker opening to the bittersweet ending, Ori's story consistently gave me goosebumps... When it wasn't making me teary-eyed. I fully acknowledge that the hero's parental figure passing away is a cliche done to death by now, but the execution was so well done. And the main antagonist, Kuro the Owl, was a fantastic villain. Sporting a menacing design and an unsettling screech, Kuro is the being responsible for "Blinding" the forest. This deed is initially treated as an act of wanton cruelty, but once you figure out Kuro's backstory, you learn that she was once the mother of three baby owls. But when the Spirit Tree "lit the skies ablaze" at the beginning of the game, his light burned Kuro's children alive, killing all of them save for a single unhatched egg. Everything Kuro has done was because she is still processing her grief, and feels the only way her last child can be safe is if the Spirit Tree is no more. But no Spirit Tree means no forest, for they are one and the same.

As for presentation, this game is gorgeous. Just look at any screenshot on this review. This is a game where you cannot argue about how great it looks. The environments and backgrounds remind greatly of Studio Ghibli. And if you have never heard of Studio Ghibli, think of them as Japanese!Disney. They are well known for making beautiful movies. The characters seem to be 3D models instead of 2D sprites, which is a rarity for this kind of game, but also doesn't really look that out of place. And to give you and idea of how good this game is, visually speaking, my mother watched me playing it once upon a time and was like "I would love to play this". My mother is not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination. But the art style was so good that it made my mother want to sit down and play a video game. Think about that.

In terms of music and sound, both of which are good. The music can range anywhere to relaxing and zen-like, or it can be intense and frantic, depending on the situation. It's actually really good to listen to while working on something, like your homework for example. The sounds Ori makes are also adorable, and the screech Kuro lets loose before attacking is terrifying. So I tip my hat off to the sound designers. They did something right.

In conclusion, Ori and the Blind Forest is a shining example of a Metroidvania done right. It combines an emotional story with superb platforming and fluid movement, all wrapped up in a very visually (and musically) pleasing package. While I didn't care for the combat, I understand that combat was not a really high priority on the dev team's minds. The game is of a shorter length, taking me about 15 hours to beat (you get a Trophy/Achievement for beating the game in less than three). And after 500+ deaths. Yes, the game keeps track of how many times you've died (again, you get a Trophy for beating the game without a single death). Funnily enough, I started my play through on Hard mode, banking off my experience with previous Metroidvanias. Then I learned that Hard mode turns everything into an instant-kill. So I found myself lowering the difficulty for the sake of my sanity. But with all of this being said, I give Ori and the Blind Forest 9 fairy/dragon/spirit/things out of 10.