Far too often these days, developers rely on visual fidelity to sell a game, pushing graphics as far as they can possibly go without sacrificing performance and occasionally taking shortcuts by reusing certain assets in different areas across the game’s environment. You may get some new mechanics to go with the nice visuals, or you may get a game like Ori and the Blind Forest that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but instead refines pre-existing concepts into a beautifully packaged masterpiece.
Moon Studios started developing Ori and the Blind Forest back in 2011 in cooperation with Microsoft Game Studios, and the game was first revealed at E3 in 2014. Described as a two-dimensional “Metroidvania” game, Ori and the Blind Forest stunned the crowd with its visuals and went on to become one of the most sought after games in the Microsoft centre at the event.
The gameplay is surprisingly solid; movement is fluid and fast, allowing the player to cover large areas of the map quickly, combat can be an optional extra once the player gains more abilities, and the save system lets players create a save point almost anywhere, which is also a handy feature. Players are introduced to basic movement and Ori’s “main” attack early on in the 6-10 hour story, but will gradually receive new abilities that enhance their attacking capabilities and help them move more fluidly. None of these abilities replace any existing ones, which is good; they simply build upon what Ori can already do and give the player a number of options to tackle every challenge they face. Players learn these abilities at a satisfying pace; there are certain areas throughout the world that can’t be accessed until Ori has learned a certain ability, and the game actively teaches the player how to use each ability before allowing them to access these areas.
Each region of the world of Nibel has a different visual art style associated with it, so players can always work out where they are visually without necessarily having to refer to the map. Some locations even become landmarks due to the amount of times the player will pass through them repeatedly. Knowing these areas and where they lead to makes travelling throughout the world faster and go a long way towards getting the Achievement for completing the story in less than three hours.
Of course, this art style has to be praised. The game looked gorgeous from the moment it was first announced, and knowing that every environment was hand painted down to each individual tree really enhances its beauty. Right from the opening scene, I was also blown away by the attention that Moon Studios paid to the exceptionally-crafted character animations that appear throughout the game, some of these appearing just once rather than being recycled (Ori carrying a handful of food, for example). This attention to detail is another element that makes Ori and the Blind Forest one of the best looking games that I’ve played this generation.
It’s impossible to go too much further into the review without mentioning the soundtrack. Every piece fits the area you are travelling through or perfectly matches the scene to advance the story, and amped-up beats at the end of each of the three temple runs add a sense of increasing urgency to evacuate the area without straying too far from the established score. The atmospheric music that plays as the player is travelling through the world is audible, but not completely overbearing; you know that it’s there but it doesn’t shout to get your attention, and that subtlety actually helps to give each area of the map an atmosphere different to the areas around it, adding to the aforementioned visual differences in each area to aid the player in navigating through Nibel’s different regions.
Although it’s not overly complex or deep, Ori and the Blind Forest’s story managed to leave a significant impact without hours of cutscenes or hundreds of lines of dialogue. In a way that quite resembles Disney and Pixar’s WALL-E, the game relies on body language, music and visual references, rather than dialogue, to set its emotional tone. What dialogue there is, is spoken by a narrator and Ori’s companion Sein in a language that is unique to Nibel (with English subtitles), further showing that Nibel is its own beautiful little world.
It’s hard to find critical faults with Ori and the Blind Forest; it’s clear that Moon Studios spent a lot of time crafting the game to ensure that it would be challenging but not impossible. Although I racked up around 550 deaths in 12 hours of gameplay, I spent the whole 12 hours knowing that those deaths were not caused by the challenges being too difficult, but by me failing to execute my plan properly or simply employing the wrong strategy for that particular challenge. If I had to pick one fault, though, it would be temple escape sequences; players are not allowed to save during these segments, and so they’re sent back to the start of the escape no matter where they die – even if it’s right at the end. Hell, if that’s the only fault I can pick, I’ll take it – I just won’t ever try to get the Achievement for completing the game without dying!
If you’re a platformer fan this is a must buy, especially for the price. Although even seasoned platformer veterans will find it more than a little bit challenging, the game introduces new mechanics to aid players in completing its most difficult challenges and then gives the player time to learn how to use them most effectively before forcing them to take a challenge on. The temple escape sequences are particularly unforgiving, but overall Ori and the Blind Forest nails a lot of essential aspects when it comes to platformers, and looks absolutely amazing in the process.
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