LogFAQs > #959430858

16. Ori and the Blind Forest (Xbox One, 2015)
15. Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Xbox One, 2020)



This criminally-underplayed series on B8 was the catalyst to me buying an Xbox One in 2015. I was always going to get one, but once Blind Forest came out, I decided it was time to take the plunge. It was everything that I hoped it would be and more.

When Blind Forest was in development, Moon Studios spent their first year almost exclusively on the art and controls, and both are apparent and outstanding from the start, well, at least the latter when given the opportunity. A game taking place entirely within a fictional, naturalistic environment was something completely up my alley, but the final product almost seems impossible. Whether it is night or day, in a marsh or grotto, you will be met with a painstakingly vibrant and richly-detailed blend of foregrounds and backgrounds that are sublime, perfect even. It is impossible not to stop and take it all in an overwhelming sense of wonder. It is mind boggling that a handful of people, mostly corresponding over the internet at that, were able to come up with this.

In an exploration action game such as these two, movement is something that is very important to me, and I would assume just about everyone else. Ori rises above the rest in this department with not only its responsiveness and high degree of control, but the way it fits into level and combat design make it one of the more exhilarating experiences out there. Like many games in that genre, your traversal options start out limited but expand during the course of the game. In Blind Forest, you will eventually just be able to zip along virtually the entire world in such a breathtakingly seamless fashion. Movement in this game might be my favorite in any video game, and even though it has been a couple years since I last replayed it, I still think about it every so often.

Now this isnt to say that Will of the Wisps screwed anything up. Ori still has virtually all the same tools and then some as they maneuver around the world. Its just that the game and its world are structured differently. Blind Forest was a more uniform experience that emphasized momentum and dancing through the air, so to speak, to get around the world and even fight. Will of the Wisps is a relatively slower and more methodical game with more dangerous, restrictive areas with set pieces and lengthy locked-in segments. Theres also a different combat system that has you wielding spirit weapons as opposed to the projectile-based combat from Blind Forest. Will of the Wisps completely changed things up from Blind Forest, but they did an amazing job with all the major shifts and additions.

Honestly, Will of the Wisps is the clear superior game of the two, but Im ranking them back-to-back for a reason that I dont typically value much in video games, and that is story. Neither game is story-centric per se, but due to the heavy emotional attachment to them, the few story moments do stick with you. Both feature plenty of somber themes and plot points, but I found Blind Forest to ultimately be a hopeful journey for everyone involved. Will of the Wisps, on the other hand, is an absolute fucking downer from start to finish. Some might personally interpret its ending to be hopeful. I really understand why someone would have that takeaway, but I found it to be depressingly blase, making all the sorrowful stuff from before hit even harder. Because I dont believe you can skip cutscenes, I cant see myself replaying this game for a long time, if ever, but I could easily play Blind Forest every year.

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