Moon Studios has crafted a dazzling world of fantasy and beauty.
Ori and the Blind Forest tells the story of Ori, a small spirit creature who fell out of a great tree. After being misplaced from his home he is adopted by a bear-like creature named Naru. After a few touching moments and exchanges between the two main characters, a cataclysmic event takes place, decimating the forest and killing Ori’s caretaker. In Naru’s stead a small glowing spirit by the name of Sein guides Ori through the forest on a quest to reinvigorate the Spirit tree and save the forest.
Much in the vein of the classic Metroid series, players unlock new abilities for Ori which can open new pathways and previously unreachable areas. While only a few rudimentary platforming abilities are available at the start, eventually moving around the vast forest almost becomes a delicate ballet. Players will dance through the air, ricocheting off of enemy projectiles, climbing walls, and double jumping to great heights.
The deep beauty of Ori and the Blind Forest radiates from every facet of its design, from graceful character animation to the glowing specks and verdant green leaves that flutter through the wind. Each level is hand drawn and this gives the game a heightened sense of craftsmanship, of care. Not only does this give the impression of a studio that really loves it’s creation, but it makes us care even more for this forest. As life and color bleed back into the soil, flow back into the trees, we want to see the forest returned to it’s former glory even more.
Ori’s score is beautifully melancholy, foreshadowing the games events even from initially booting it up. As soon as the main theme begins, players are filled with a sense of wondrous dread, there is something so somber, yet so wonderful pleasing about the musical accompaniment of this title.
With such a serene setting, calming musical score, and fluid gameplay, Ori and the Blind Forest can lull you into a false sense of security. It’s various game mechanics are quite simple when used one by one, but eventually (and very suddenly) incredibly difficult sequences will be thrown your way, in which every move you have learned thus far must be used in perfect combination, to either thwart your foe, or evade a threat. The difficulty ramps up a bit too quickly for my taste. While the game does give you sufficient time to master each move individually, the challenges in between are not always enough to prepare you for what is to come.
Yet within this extreme challenge, I found a satisfying aspect of gameplay. As I died for the fourth or fifth time in a difficult segment of the game, I would notice myself rapidly improving with every attempt, bettering myself each time, becoming more and more agile.
Platformers are not a genre I partake in all too often anymore. It seems that in the vast world of perks, skill trees, and leaderboards, we have forgotten the pleasure of mastering a deceivingly simple platformer. I am however, overjoyed that I decided to pick this one up. Ori and the Blind Forest scratched a gaming itch I didn’t know I had. Not having played platformers regularly since the Genesis, N64, and then Playstation, this title brought me back to basics in next gen fashion.