After seeing how well received Ori and The Blind Forest was, I knew that the moment I had a chance to try out the sequel title to the series was one I had to take. Lucky for me, and all other Xbox Game Pass owners, not only did Ori and The Will of the Wisps by Moon Studios launch on Xbox alongside Steam but it was immediately added to the list of games on Game Pass! This gave me the perfect opportunity to see if Ori could live up to its original title with the latest game.
Story
After raising a young owl and teaching it to fly, Ori and Ku are out on their first flight when they come across a mighty storm that causes them to separate and crash. Now the pair must first find each other before overcoming the challenges the strange land has in order to get back home. At least they won’t have to complete this journey completely alone as they find both friends and foes along the way.
Gameplay
This game starts off by showing some basic movement controls and a bit of the platforming aspects. From here it gradually builds up to more moves, powers, and so much more that will all need to be unlocked and utilized for players to successfully complete the journey they are on.
Soon you will find that the platforming sections are actually quite difficult and plan to only get harder from here. Just as soon as you start getting comfortable with the abilities you start with and how the platforming works, your first boss will appear forcing you to do a race-for-your-life platform section before thrusting you into a mighty fight!
The good news is that the first boss fight you only have to take down a good chunk of its health. From there you will find your first light tree and be granted your first ability which is essentially a light sword for fighting moving forward. Go ahead and put this on your main attack button because it will be there for pretty much the whole game, given you don’t prefer the slower yet heavier hitter sledgehammer-like attack you unlock later on. These light trees can be found throughout the entire map and all provide a new move for players to use on their journey. Some will be useful in specific areas while others will have multiple uses, but either way you will want to unlock the entire wheel.
Aside from the light tree abilities, you can also unlock Shard Powers. The difference with these is that you have to equip the shard for it to be actively in use and you only get a few slots to do this. Starting off with only four and having the ability to open more by finding expansions on the map, these powers will prove useful if properly combined. I’ll go ahead and mention now that the Triple Jump seemed like a helpful yet unnecessary power to me when I first saw it, but you should get that unlocked as soon as possible because it opens up so many opportunities even in the early on areas and will save you time back-tracking.
Altogether, the map is loaded with collectibles that are all blocked by a unique platforming challenge of their own kind to grab. These include a range of items, such as currency orbs, life fragments to boost maximum life, energy fragments to boost maximum energy, power shards, and side quest items.
Focusing on the combat aspect, this game pretty much lets you fight in your own way using whatever abilities you have unlocked. If you prefer to fight from a distance, they have arrows, attacking spirit helpers, and more that you can unlock to use against them. If you like to be up close to your victims there is a range of melee weapons that can be used in their own combination of attack styles. While each ability and fighting style really only offers a handful of moves and combos, the fights are still a challenge of their own but really aren’t the focal point of what makes the Ori games challenging.
Other than going for the collectibles and main objects, the game also provides a few things to do on the side. These options include side quests, combat shrines, and shrine challenges. Side quests, just like the main quest of the game, don’t give you a direct guide on where to go and rather just hint as to what you need to do then leave it to you to get that task completed. Combat shrines are pretty self-explanatory and shrine challenges are typically races with a start and endpoint preset and a quick cutscene to show the intended path for the race.
Visuals
This is hands down one of the most beautifully crafted games out there! I love the way everything looks and how every area really stands out from the rest, giving a unique style to each section of the map. Even the enemies are altered to match the area better and provide their own form of attack.
Audio
When the sound effects work, they are fitting and well designed. Overall, in the sound department of the game, the music is the best part and definitely brings an auditorial aid to the visual beauty that the game provides.
Replayability
Other than wanting to grab all the collectibles and complete all the side quests, there isn’t much reason to go back through the game once you have beaten it. However, the game is quite long and the map is pretty huge so your first playthrough is going to take a good amount of time to get through in the first place.
What It Could Have Done Better
Performance issues are really the only thing holding this game back from being perfect. There were constant times where the screen had a delay and needed to catch up to me due to loading and even then there were late pop-in assets coming on the screen. This issue went over into the sound effects department at times and I just wouldn’t hear anything from key aspects such as a slam attack or moving a lever and activating a switch. If this didn’t happen a lot then it wouldn’t be a big deal, but I saw performance drops literally everywhere I went in the game. I think I speak for everyone when I say I would rather a longer load time over a laggy gameplay experience.
The worst thing these performance issues did was the occasional soft-lock it caused. If they didn’t already have a built-in backup plan where you can reload your save from the backlog files then I would have had to restart the game at least three times from what I can recall.
Verdict
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a beautifully crafted platformer! Everything was so visually impressive and I admired the fact that the challenge was focused more on the platforming than the combat yet neither aspect was truly easy. I hope they keep up the series and maintain the simplistic story with amazing gameplay style the series has going. Easily a game worth getting and currently one of the best games offered on the Xbox Game Pass!
