Ori and the Blind Forest

What a beautiful and frustrating game.

Player Agency Taken Away

This game was carefully designed and many of the sequences were impressive, making great use of the skills you acquire as you play through the game. It isn't new for a developer to disable sections of the world and ask you to revisit zone you've been with new skills to get to impossible-to-reach places. The issue I have with this game is that, while some areas looks unreachable, they are actually within reach if you are willing to take a health hit, but once you get past those obstacles you are now stuck in an area you were not supposed to be without certain abilities. My first play-through at normal difficulty I was constantly putting myself in situations like that and for a while I had no idea where to go. My second play-through at hard difficulty make it clear that I should not even try certain areas until I get certain abilities: because many of the environmental threats were fatal-instant-kills. But ultimately it meant you couldn't very well traverse the world map even though the game allows you, or you must complete certain part of the game a certain way. Like if you failed to bash a particular enemy in the chain you'll have no chance.

Trial and Error

Perhaps it is just my experience, but my play-through attempts involved my character dying many, many times (332, thanks Xbox Live stats). It would have been less frustrating if I didn't have to watch the same cut-scenes over and over again. I developed the habit of creating a save point very, very frequently and that took away the option of using the energy crystals for other forms of attack that requires energy, which I imagine would have been more fun.

Once I finished the game once and figured what I was supposed to do, I replayed the game on easy difficulty. What a difference it made! The game was immediately less punishing and I could start to notice all the beautiful details.

At least during 3 sections of the game you are just running for your life to escape something, and missing a jump or not reaching a spot means starting all the way from the beginning again. Oh my god, I had to put down the controller and come back the next day for one of them, just so I don't have to sit and watch the cut scene again. Unlike the rest of the game, you cannot create a save point ever for those events; why would the developers to this to me?

Art Focus

The art is beautiful, even if I am naturally attractive to shiny or glowing things. Ori, the character you control, is white with a soft glow so it is fairly easy to see where he is. He is naturally high-contrast because he doesn't look nearly as complicated as the backdrop. He automatically locks onto nearest enemies and you can see a soft red glow around your next victims.

There are a lot of things dying in this game and they were all part of this sappy, emotional story. I am not sure if I understand why those characters all had to die to make the story work. Perhaps someone else appreciates the story more than I did. All I could think of was how I couldn't skip the cut scenes I've already seen before.🙁

I am a big fan of Studio Ghibli animations and anything that looks remotely similar is a big plus. Ori has big and expressive eyes but most of the time he looks confused, like I was, not knowing where to go. The tail was a nice touch; it is too bad it didn't do more. I wish there were more pictures in the gallery. Sein is not nearly as annoying as the fairy in Zelda because he mostly gets out of your way but from time to time he also steals focus and take away your control. I guess it is impossible to design a helpful fairy companion that you want to be friends with?

Annoying Jumping Mechanics

Ori jumps based on how hard or how long you hold the jump button. I feel like it is hard to get the timing just right so I often managed to send Ori to his death because I fat-fingered a jump. So sorry!

At some point in the game you acquire the double-jump ability. However, what you really want is the triple-jump, which is only unlocked with sufficient ability points invested in your skill tree. I played through hard difficulty without triple-jump, but knowing that it existed just added to my frustration. So, I think unlike most other games, you want to start playing Ori at hard difficulty first... and start another game at easy difficulty later. This will provide better "guard rails" so you won't be so lost and wondering all over the world like I did. The easy play-through will be so much more enjoyable, even if you still have to sit through all the cut scenes again.

Feeling of Achievements

It felt good to finish the game. I played it with Game Pass, so it didn't cost me extra to try it out. It was a good thing, too: I don't know if I'd want to play the game. Xbox tells me I've accomplished 97% completion. I don't think I care about the missing 3%. However, I think if you have the subscription, you want to play this game: it is very well-made and I think generally worth the time.