Ori and the Blind Forest is a the Rare Near-Perfect Game
Ori and the Blind Forest is a phenomenal game because of the way it combines a simple story, evolving gameplay, and a constant sense of motion from beginning to end. It’s also one of those rare experiences that does everything well and doesn’t wear out its welcome. You can come for the beautiful graphics, the stunning soundtrack, or any of this game’s other impressive attributes, but Ori comes about as close to “perfect” as anything can.
In my favorite moments in Ori and the Blind Forest, I’m jumping from cliff to cliff, gliding around obstacles, then suddenly rocketing into the air. The game gradually adds abilities as players progress, building out Ori’s set of moves from a simple jump to an impressive variety of ways to physically move throughout the world. In a few particularly memorable levels, I found myself in constant motion — avoiding enemies who were never more than a step or two behind as I frantically dashed through scenic mountains and forests. But in both its hectic and calm moments, Ori is unfailingly a blast to play. I always felt like I was in control of my character, and like the levels of the game were opening up more and more the farther I progressed.
The game’s impressive, rewarding sense of motion stuck with me after Ori ended. It’s a deceptively impressive accomplishment — I didn’t even realize how much fun I was having moving through the game’s world unless I forced myself to actively think about it. Some of the Mario games feel like they’ve hit this level of pure fun and joy, and Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight also comes close. But I don’t think I’ve ever played anything that felt quite like Ori. This game is in a league of its own.
Ori’s minimalist, but still deeply moving, story is worth mentioning as well. And I think I’ll leave it at this pretty vague description, since the game’s emotional power is best experienced knowing as little as possible. There’s no spoken dialogue, and only a few named characters, but the developers still tell a big-hearted story that adds just the right amount of weight to everything players do.
Lastly, Ori’s level design is tightly-crafted. It’s a pretty short game by modern standards, which I found deeply refreshing. At just over 10 hours to beat, I always felt like I had just enough time to learn each new ability before I moved on to the next. I’m sure the developers could have added more levels if they wanted to, but it’s nice to play a game that willfully tries not to overstay its welcome instead of trying to drown players in things to do before or after the story credits have rolled.
I always wanted to play Ori ever since I heard about it, and I’m thankful and happy that I got to. Console exclusivity is deeply ingrained into the video game industry, but I’m glad that Microsoft decided to open the gates enough to release this game on a Nintendo console. Even if I never am able to play the sequel (though I kind of expect that I probably will), Ori and the Blind Forest more than lived up to its lofty reputation. It’s a wonderful game, for a plethora of reasons, and I loved every second I spent playing it.
