HIGH-LEVEL ART MEETS RETRO
First of all it is beautiful! Seriously, I think I haven't seen a 2D game with such beautiful and artistic graphics. There are ridiculously many details and every single screen is a perfect composition of color and atmosphere. And everything is moving too! - I mean like, when the character runs besides some veins or blades of grass for example. There is so much life in this game, I don't know how else to put it.
Secondly, the game's mechanics and especially the controls are remarkable. I think haven't had so much fun running and jumping around in a 2D game for quite some time. Everything related to the movement feels natural and intuitive. Not to forget the love for detail again; what was the last game you played where you could crouch and then jump and the character would make a backflip for example? I think for me that goes even back to Super Mario 64.
What surprised me very much in Ori was the bashing ability. I didn't expect something like that in the game but it adds a lot more depth to movements and abilities we are already familiar with. I am not sure if this is an original idea but because I can't remember using something like this in that particular way and because it caught me off guard, it certainly feels original and refreshing.
Well, I guess... it's time to take out the red marker and get a bit more critical now, because although I really love the game and it is worth way more than what you're paying for it there are some things I personally didn't like along the way.
METROIDVANIA AND SUPERFICIAL PROBLEMS?
The difficulty for starters. Yes, it is true - I am constantly longing for something challenging, but as I said before, approximately the last third of the game is simply too hard in my opinion. Not only that the maps become filled with more and more instant-death zones (spikes on the walls... and basically everywhere else), the cocktails of maneuvers you need to mix (like bashing + grabbing + double-jumping + wall-running + triple-jumping + gliding + dodging and let's not forget shooting) become a bit too crazy for my taste. But ok, maybe I am not used to such a high level of gameplay anymore. Either way, the main problems this game has in my opinion is 1. that it doesn't have difficulty settings and 2. which kind of goes along, that the upgrades you "buy" for the character hardly ever seem to pay off - at least the active ones. Naturally a game is supposed to get harder, but I was under the constant impression that it really doesn't matter if I had Spirit Flame version 1 or version 3. And it also didn't matter if I had (I think) all the 15 hearts/green things/life orbs - whatever - or just three of them. You see, on the beginning of the game an enemy deals like 1 point of damage. If you have 3 life orbs (HP), you can take three hits. That sounds reasonable, right? But at the end of the game, let's say an enemy deals 5 points of damage instead. Well, that's kind of a bummer if you are only having like 12 HP. - Especially considering that there is hardly ever only one enemy around you. I don't know - I guess purposely - the game is scaling proportionally and thus keeping it constantly hard... which is perfectly fine from one side, but I can't help myself but to miss the point where a game satisfies you by becoming somewhat measurably stronger. You know, kind of as a reward for trying and being ambitious to find all the stuff that is hidden and supposed to make you stronger. "Metroidvania" is a term that always falls when people talk about Ori... so what was different in Super Metroid for example? - Energy Tanks! Hidden very well but immensely powerful in a sense that they really increased your survivability and made you sustain even stronger enemies and longer battles. In Ori it just doesn't feel like that. The later enemies kill you as fast as the first ones while the later battles also all have the same duration like the ones at the beginning. So, without alienating the players across the board, I think there would have been several ways to approach that issue; one for example being the reuse of "earlier" enemies and putting them in the advances regions as well. But the better approach might be to add global difficulty settings.
Another crucial thing that not entirely lived up to my expectations is the map. First of all the zoom is wrong in my opinion, because you can't zoom out to see all of the map - the real map that is. The game lets you zoom out a bit but then it suddenly cuts to the painted map of the forest, which besides being beautiful and probably necessary for the plot - as in: the bigger picture - isn't really useful at all. But there is actually more to the map - or rather to the whole "metroidvania" backtrack/exploration feeling of the game in a whole... This is undoubtedly a difficult point to discuss or even to put to words, because it surely is not easy to make a map like in Super Metroid or Castlevania Symphony of the Night for example. Ultimately the question should be what those games did right, but then again; would it be fair to constantly compare Ori and the Blind Forest with them? I don't know... at the end of the day however I can't ignore the feeling that the map - or maybe "world" is the better word - in Ori is rather small. Yes there are many different locations but the feeling persists that you are trapped in a really "small" forest where everything somehow looks similar and everything forms a total harmonic whole. Why - at least to me - is this not the case in Symphony of the Night for example? There you are just in one, single castle - even smaller than a forest and most certainly whole as well! I am not saying Ori did something wrong, I just find this absolutely interesting. Can it be that the optics in Ori are on such a high level that it becomes almost impossible to perceive the variety? - That the transitions from area to area are maybe a bit too soft? Or a combination of that and some sort of unconscious repression of the areas we didn't like too much? - In my case that would be the Forlon Ruins for example... ah, apropos map and such; the Forlon Ruins is also an area where you obviously can't get back in after you escaped it. So, try to get everything there or else you might be disappointed because you couldn't collect everything in the game! - Yep, I am sorry to say but there is also no free roaming after you've completed the game... actually you can't even load the game and watch the ending again.
Saving in Ori is also an issue. Well, not a bad one, but it certainly is... different. When I first heard about this game I thought there will be special places/portals or rooms where you can save the game (also similar to Metroid & Co), but it turned out that Ori more or less only relies on some sort of quick-save feature, although those save portals actually exist as well. If you ask me, I would bet that this wasn't intended originally. But given the fact how easy you get killed, my guess is that they came to the conclusion that the game would be too frustrating without it. - And rightfully so, seriously! Oh how I hated it when I was kind of "in the zone" but I forgot to quick-save and then got killed completely unexpectedly. It is a shame that at least my approach went in the direction of saving after each single pit or enemy cluster thus completely destroying the "in the zone" feeling... in a way that is even worse than automatic checkpoints.
Man... I feel like unintentionally tearing this game into pieces! Ok, one more thing and I am really done: The soundtrack. Sorry, but although it is very well arranged and more or less fits to the game, I expected more. The main theme is very nice and I like the variations of it but except that there is no iconic melody or theme that gets stuck in your head. Have you tried listening to the full soundtrack on youtube for example? It's just boring for the biggest part and I am sure after 15 minutes you will also just turn it off. Where is the catchy stuff? - The rythmic pieces every platformer needs?
Alright, now I'm done. Please don't get a negative impression of this game because the game is superb! Rightfully this game has good chances to become crowned with multiple awards in 2015 - maybe even becoming game of the year. It is an awesome experience in terms of gameplay combined with a moving story as well as a tribute to the good old days of gaming, while showing the industry that with dedication and people who know what they are doing new and smaller ideas can be way more profitable and appreciated than the 17th sequel of an established franchise. The world needs many more Oris! I am looking forward to playing another run - this time clearing the Forlon Ruins - and mostly having fun all over again. If you are still thinking about getting the game or not: Don't think anymore and just get it!
Play more! Spring more!
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