Ori and the Blind Forest
High Concept
A little spirit has to save an entire forest from the darkness.
Someone has stolen the light from the Spirit Tree in the Forest of Nibel. Now it’s Ori’s duty to restore the peace and bring the light again.
We play as Ori, a white little creature from a forest in a human-free world. Our tiny hero starts with a few basic commands such as a single jump, and the ability to control another little spirit called Sein. Sein is a companion fairy Zelda’s Navi-like which fires light balls that damage the enemies and open sealed doors.
As the game progresses, so the controls do. We end the game with at least fifteen possible combinations of specific moves vital to complete each and every puzzle.
The cognitive processes involved in learning and replicate the controls make this game not just easy to play, but highly beneficial for our psyche.
This kind of games are commonly called “Metroidvania” (because their similarity to both Metroid’s and Castlevania’s gameplays): One big map you can explore, going forward or backwards as its quests demand. You can play Ori and the Blind Forest in Xbox One and any Microsoft Windows PC. This game is suitable for all ages, it doesn’t seem to have a specific target.
The game is challenging, but never impossible. It has many checkpoints and every sequence is easy to learn once you’ve played it. Plus, the controls are almost intuitive.
Ori and the Blind Forest
Review
Moon Studios is legally based in Vienna, but its workers are from all around the world. Former Blizzard’s artist Thomas Mahler lead this team founded in 2010, the year that they started planning their first videogame.
Inspired in The Lion King, The Iron Giant and Hayao Miyazaki’s work, Ori and the Blind Forest was meant to be a coming-of-age story focused on the art. And they did a great work about it.
Art
Every element in Ori’s background is unique. They decided not to duplicate the designs so it could look more natural, so every tree is a separate work of art. Hence the amount of years that took Moon Studios to finish this game.
The character design is exquisite. Every creature in the forest is special and has its perks. Some creatures’ personalities doesn’t match their actual designs and that’s even more rich.
The ambience is always pleasant to the eye. Nature’s elements with a light glow and full of color.
The Original Soundtrack, composed by Gareth Coker, is one of the best features of this game. 32 tracks make an amazing album full of nature’s sounds and beautiful melodies. Not just perfect for every scene of the game, but also for any moment of relax in your daily life.
There’s a few voice actors, but mostly for the whimpers of the characters when they jump or get hurt. The most important of them is the voice of the Spirit Tree, the narrator of this story. The Spirit Tree speaks a language unknown to us humans. His deep voice mumbles words that seems to make every sense, even when the language is as fictional as the rest of the elements of the game.
Gameplay
There are three main systems in Ori and the Blind Forest.
The first one is the Ability Tree. The player must choose between three branches of abilities: one for attack, one for defense and survival and the last one is for making pick-ups easier. In order to unlock the abilities, the player must collect the yellow orbs that enemies drop at death.
The strategy of this game is focused on picking the right abilities to make your playthrough easier. You can combine abilities from two or the three branches, but you must know that they unlock in chain and the next one always costs a little more points.
Then there are the Energy Shards, which allows the player to create something called Soul Links: quick checkpoints that also works as access to the Ability Tree. Energy shards are obtained by destroying crystals placed in different locations of the map and sometimes by defeating certain enemies.
The last system is present in most games. The Life Cells are green orbs that shows how much life Ori has left. Life Shards can be obtained by defeating enemies and punching certain plants.
There’s a fourth system, but it doesn’t depend on gathering items. The Ancestral Trees are placed in different locations, and they’re vital to progress in the game. You must find them. They provide the player with new moves and, by definition, new controls.
There are 9 Ancestral Trees. The abilities provided by them are such as double jump, dash, climb walls, bash through the air and stomp among others.
Ori and the Blind Forest is a masterpiece that justifies by its own the very notion of videogames being a form of art. My final rating is 9 out of 10.