Joshua Hahn-Varona
3/24/15
Ori
and the Blind Forest Critical Review
Since its first trailer at E3 2014, Ori
and the Blind Forest caught my attention and hundreds of thousands of
others. At first, Ori and the Blind Forest was set to release during the
fall months of 2014, only to be delayed until December of 2014, then delayed
again to its final release date: March 11, 2015. Though it’s not fun seeing
highly anticipated games get delayed, it’s often a good thing as it gives developers
more time to polish and perfect their games. In this case, Ori and the Blind
Forest is perfected. Developed by Moon Studios and funded by
Microsoft Studios for Xbox One and PC, Ori and the Blind Forest is a
potential candidate for a game of the year for 2015, and it sets a high
standard for independently developed, next generation, platforming games both
aesthetically and functionally. Some game review companies even calling it “Paradise.”
Before
I go further with this review, I would like to point out that the type of game Ori
and the Blind Forest is (a platforming game) is not a type of game that I
usually play. I am more of a first-person-shooter, racing and action/fighting
kind of gamer. That being said, this review is more of my attempt at trying a
new type of game without much previous experience with platforming games other
than the typical Super Mario. I figured a new generation of consoles
calls for new types of games to be played. Since I am an Xbox One owner, this
review reflects the Xbox One version of Ori and the Blind Forest, not
the PC version.
When
I look at a new game, a few things that I want to know are: Is the story
compelling? Do I get some sort of connection with the characters? Does it look
good graphically? Does it sound good in terms of both music and sound effects?
Does the game control well? Does the gameplay look familiar at all? After
watching the first trailer
for Ori and the Blind Forest, all of these questions were a definite yes
except for whether or not the game controls well because no one had hands-on
experience with the game yet, but I’ll get into that later.
Ori
and the Blind Forest begins in a cut scene of a storm rattling the Spirit
Tree accompanied with harmonic music when a leaf from the Spirit Tree fall
flies off, which you soon find out is actually the main character, Ori that
falls below to the Forest of Nibel. Ori is a lemur-like, light creature created
by the Spirit Tree. Eventually, Ori is found by Naru who then adopts Ori as her
own and grows a strong bond with Ori, giving you the feeling of a mother/child
relationship. The Spirit Tree, however, wants Ori to come back, and calls out
to Ori by spreading light throughout the Nibel. Unfortunately, the Spirit
Tree’s light angers the antagonist, Kuro the bird because the light harms her
and her newly hatched chicks. Because Kuro is angered, she goes and steals the
Spirit Tree’s light, only to return to see that the light killed her newborn
chicks, leaving only an unhatched egg in her nest that she feels she needs to
protect by finding and getting rid of Ori. But because Kuro stole the Spirit
Tree’s light, the Forest of Nibel is dying, and Naru later dies because of the
lack of food in Nibel. Your job as Ori, is to find and restore the three
elements of the forest to bring light back to the Spirit Tree, and life back to
the Forest of Nibel, leaving you with a great story to unfold that is
both easy to understand and satisfying when it's all over.
Immediately after the opening cut scene, you are
thrown into the bright and colorful world of Nibel. The colors of the game have
a watercolor texture, with an active background and foreground with you in the
middle. Though this sounds difficult to look at, the foreground and background
have only subtle movements like waving trees from the wind in the background
and a few times in the a foreground a creature moves about. This artistic
aspect makes the game feel like the world around is alive at all times, giving
it a sort of depth that I've hardly ever seen before in games. Though the game
does look stunning, sometimes the frame rate drops because too much is happening
on screen. For me, this only ever happened three times and didn't matter
to me. I can imagine on PC it may happen more often since every PC is different
while all Xbox Ones are the same.
When it comes to the audio of Ori and the Blind
Forest, it is second to none. I even love the soundtrack so much that I've listened to the whole track
three times. From the moment you begin the game, you are hit with a beautiful orchestral
soundtrack that interestingly plays in exact sync with the world around you and
the scenes you play. For example, one part of the story has you running away
from lava, and the music ends exactly when you are supposed to be finished with
the escape. The music doesn't cut off or anything. The music and game itself is
timed perfectly. Not only is the music beautiful, some tracks (like the lava
escape track) can even put you on the edge of your seat.
The functionality of Ori and the Blind Forest
is phenomenal. The controls are simple: A to jump or double/triple jump, X to
attack, Left Stick to move. Later on in the game, you acquire new skills that
incorporates things like being able to bounce off of enemies, projectiles and
strategically placed lanterns hung around the game and holding onto and
climbing walls. Now, these controls are easy to learn, easy to use, but Ori
and the Blind Forest is all about precision and timing by being able to
string together all of the skills you have learned to get around the
environment and combat enemies. For me, I had no issues with this type of
gameplay since being a first-person-shooter type of gamer, I am used to using
precision timing to play games. The only problem I had when it came to controls
were problems on my end through possible issues with my controller since it’s a
custom controller or because I had just messed up. Things like accidentally
slamming down into a pit of spikey plants by pushing down on the Left Stick
while in the air got me killed a few times in my play through which is probably
why Twinfinite said the controls feel “tight.”
Some critics, however, feel that Ori and the Blind Forest is too
difficult at times. In IGN’s
review of Ori and the Blind Forest, they docked points off of the
game’s score because it was “unevenly difficult.” Though the game still got a
good review from them, I think the “uneven difficulty” is a good thing. I think
a better word for Ori and the Blind Forest is that it is challenging.
“Difficult” has a negative connotation to it compared to “challenging.” What
makes Ori and the Blind Forest challenging is that, at first, Ori feels
frail and you often die quickly by enemies if you don’t react correctly to
their attacks. There are also three large escape scenes in the game that give
you no checkpoints and each scene leaves no room for error as you escape things
like rushing water or lava. This can prove frustrating failing escapes scenes
over and over but once you get it right, is very rewarding. Because Ori and
the Blind Forest is challenging, you will die a lot, or as the game puts it
more kindly, you will “respawn” a lot. The game even counts how many times you
respawn in the pause menu. Though I wasn’t able to get the exact number of
respawns in my 8 hour play through, I know I respawned well over 500 times.
One thing I wished Ori and the Blind Forest
would let me do was go back into the game after I completed it. Because of
this, I was not able to get an exact number of respawns that I had and I was
also not able to go back and collect all the secret items for Achievements on
Xbox Live. But that’s okay with me, now I can play the game over again with
secret items in mind while traversing the environment. Ori and the Blind
Forest has strong replay-ability because of how good the game is with its
stunning visuals and amazing soundtrack.
Though as I stated before, I don't have too much
experience with platformers, Ori and the Blind Forest's gameplay is intuitive. One
reviewer I read said that "Outside of Bash, there really isn't
much new here." but to me, it is very new, very challenging. This game will
have you fighting enemies from a distance with your fire ball with the X button
while also dodging and bouncing of enemy projectiles with the Y button. It
requires a lot of multitasking and quick reactions that I've never seen before
in a platformer.
Through the innovation in Moon Studios by a beautiful
environment accompanied by amazing music and thoughtful gameplay, Ori and
the Blind Forest will go down as a game of the year for 2015 and possibly a
top 5 games of all time, giving future independent developers a standard to
reach when it comes to platforming games.
