In Will of the Wisps, Ori quickly learns that this forest is under the rule of the malicious Shriek, an owl sporting extreme deformities that result in it walking on its wings like stilts. Unfortunately, we do get a similar entity in Will of the Wisps and while I like how this character extends what we know about owls in this world, it seems just samey enough that I would have liked this antagonist to be a different creature altogether. In Blind Forest, I considered Kuro to be one of the strongest elements, a terrifying and incredibly powerful entity that felt omnipresent while traversing the forests. The subtle movements of the characters convey a ton of feelings and I was certainly moved by certain events and scenes. One of my favorite aspects of Blind Forest was the way the cutscenes were drenched with emotional weight. Far away from home, Ori must learn new skills and embrace new spiritual powers to reunite with Ku and find a way to destroy the corruption choking these woods. Ori and Ku are separated in a new forest that’s dealing with its own problems. Ku was unfortunately born with a crippled wing and struggles to learn to fly but with Ori’s kindness and resourcefulness, the family is able to reinforce Ku’s wing with a feather. Ori, Naru, and Gumo are spending their days raising Ku, a baby owl who is the offspring of the monstrous Kuro who was the frightening antagonist of Blind Forest. Ori and the Will of the Wisps picks up shortly after the events of Blind Forest. I do highly recommend buying the ability to warp between save points early, as it makes traveling that much quicker, even with the long loading screens. My cleanup of collectibles felt needlessly messy and I’m confident that this wouldn’t be an issue on the Xbox but our producer Joe has also been running into clipping issues so this may not be a Switch-specific problem. I also noticed that going through areas quickly and then opening the map, would frequently hard-crash the game. One of the last moves allows one to really zip through areas and the camera can get stuck. Progression in Will of the Wisps, as well as Blind Forest, is all about gaining new movement options. Technical marvels aside, I do feel like the farther one gets in the game, the more the Switch struggles to keep up. I found the entire experience, especially with headphones, to be a perfect way to curl up in a pile of blankets and just lose myself in the forest. Like most of my recent Switch reviews, I played Ori and the Will of the Wisps entirely in handheld mode while using the Hori Split Pad Pro controller. Sure the visuals can be a little hazy compared to the Xbox version but it is undeniably a viable way to play this game. That said, the fact that this game runs at a near-constant 60 fps is amazing. The finer details were covered perfectly in a video put out by the technical wizards at Digital Foundry and I just want to set expectations by saying I do not have that level of knowledge to truly appreciate the subtle visual and programming tricks but I am more aware of it having seen that video and I recommend it for those interested. Even though there are still some qualms, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a strong continuation of the ideas coursing through the first game.īefore diving into the specifics on Ori and the Will of the Wisps, I want to acknowledge how impressive the Switch port is and point out some flaws that I ran into. Much of my issues in Blind Forest have been addressed in the sequel and once again I am playing on the Switch, though I do want to set aside some time to experience the updated 4K version when that releases. I thought the visuals were awesome and the music was incredible but I found the gameplay to be not as well-designed as I had hoped. When Ori and the Blind Forest surprisingly released for the Nintendo Switch, I took the time to play through it for the first time and I walked away not entirely impressed. Much of the recent trend can be pinned on the release of Ori and the Blind Forest, a game that expertly used music, animation, and environmental flourish. One of the hallmarks of the metroidvania genre is the attention to visuals and design.
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