Ori and The Blind Forest
Looks are deceiving. Ori and The Blind forest on the surface seems very appealing. You may think that you are in for a 5 or 6 hour happy platforming experience with lush, beautiful scenery and a very heart warming tale of fantasy and friendship. Maybe along the lines of the Trine series or the recent Child of Light. Those elements are there but what the game eventually turns into is an extremely difficult and frustrating experience that requires the utmost concentration and pixel perfect control of a character that has a tendency to do the very opposite you intended him to do. But it’s a really good game if, and only if you are prepared for a very hard challenge. To give you an idea after finishing the game with all the dlc on normal it took me 14.5 hours and I died over a thousand times. Yes it counts how many deaths you had, as if to poke fun at how bad a gamer I actually am. But it is gorgeous and the gameplay is very fluid and responsive. You will invest in the story and the characters and the rpg elements are very satisfying. All those things make up for a game that could have you forking out for a new controller and maybe some quiet meditation time. Overall though, it’s worth it.
The first 3 or 4 hours of Ori and The Blind Forest are quite enjoyable. The platforming and puzzle solving will create a sense of ease and achievement. The opening scenes tell a tale of loss and sadness then hope and give a reason for Ori and the player to traverse this maze of a forest trying to bring life back to it and restore it to its former glory. Ori will have a limited number of moves and finding your way around won’t seem all that difficult. It’s only when the character progression begins and Ori gets new abilities like power jump, glide and wall climb that the way in which you must navigate the levels gets really demanding and the slightest of hiccups results in death. The game really demands a cool head and steady hand as you attempt to avoid all sorts of spike traps, falling objects, lava and enemies that fire very annoying projectiles. To make matters worse the only weapon that Ori possesses is Sein which is a kind of electric ball that is utilised by mashing the x button. The problem with it is that it has a very limited range and fighting enemies results in a kind of war dance until you or your opponent gets hit enough times to die. It’s unique but takes some getting used to.
Ori will become stronger though as you progress gaining a lot more health and having more powerful attacks. A saving grace is the save system. If Ori has the required amount of energy obtained from destroying certain crystals and killing enemies you can save the game at almost any safe location. It means that if you know there is a difficult upcoming area you will have piece of mind that you can always begin again at the beginning of it if you fail. To be honest if it wasn’t for this way of saving the game, it would have been one of the most difficult titles on this generation of platforms. There are some sections of the game that require the player to traverse, avoid, dodge, climb, glide and fight all at the same time though and they will last for several minutes without the ability to save so all in all the game doesn’t need to be any more demanding than it is. Then there’s the forest itself. It’s a massive maze designed to make you use every ability at your disposal to stay alive. Not only that, at times it can be very hard to know what path to take to get you to your destination. The game will tell you where to go but not how to get there. The map will only show you areas you have already been unless you have found a map fragment and placed it in the map stone which are both hidden in hard to find places.
The variation of art style in the different sections of the forest are both refreshing and beautiful. The player will get the sense that Ori really is lost in a gorgeous and vast death trap with the odds greatly stacked against him. The level design is top notch and some of the ways the developers came up with making you find your way and solve puzzles while engaging in combat all at the same time is really ingenious. It’s what makes this game great. You can tell that a lot of thought and heart went into the production of the game all the time being an adventure and story of belonging and love. There are a ton of 2d side scrolling platformers. It’s a genre that began way back with the beginning of gaming itself but what sets this title apart is not just the puzzle elements but the sheer skill that is required to maneuver through the levels. It’s about precise timing and acute movement that will make you say ‘Yes I did it!’ when you finally make your way out of that section you tried numerous times. It’s difficulty is the reson it gives so much satisfaction especially on completion. With the Definitive Edition Ori and The Blind Forest adds two new areas allowing for more player progression and some new skills like air dash and Sein burst. It also adds another four or so hours to the overall experience and is worth the download if you own and liked the base game.
I played the game on normal and that was difficult enough but there is a hard mode and a one life mode so the game was obviously designed to test even the most skilled of gamers. What the developers have created here can be compared to a beautiful wild animal that is so stunning and majestic to look at but once engaged can kill. It’s that stark contrast that sets it apart from the other games in this genre. The player will find it hard to get a flow of progression going or any decent sort of momentum because just when you think you have weaved your way out of a lethal situation something entirely different will most likely end your run. But trial will usually reap the rewards you seek. The beauty, the characters, the rpg elements, the story and the really intelligent level design will compell you to push forward and discover the fate of Ori and the forest that so desperately wants to kill him. Despite the fact that this is not a triple A title is a testament to the rise and worth of arcade and indy titles on todays market and, being a Windows and Xbox eclusive it really makes it a jewel for the Microsoft brand in gaming. It has all the elements that make a great game — fluid and great gameplay, wonderful design and visuals and a compelling narrative all the time being a title that requires genuine skill and an intelligently planned strategy to complete. One of the best arcade titles on any platform in recent years. Well worth the buy.
