Game Review: Ori and the Blind Forest (Definitive Edition)

Metroidvania video games are often daunting to me.  I know this is rich coming from someone who plays and loves Soulslike video games, but I find the sense of progression in those games is fairly linear for the most part.  Metroidvania’s often intimidate me due to their sense of scale.  The maps in these games are often large and will usually incorporate some sense of back-tracking as you traverse.  The main idea of these games is to progress, unlock new abilities and then use those abilities to unlock additional areas and secrets in areas you previously explored.  I know that really doesn’t sound like that difficult a requirement, but I hate the idea of potentially missing out on elements in a game, it’s like a weird anxiety of mine. Taking that into consideration you can imagine a whole game built around the prospect of locating hidden elements riddles me with stress.  I’m getting better at pushing myself to experience them however, the last proper Metroidvania game I played was The Messenger, and I gave that a full 5-star rating at the time.  One particular Metroidvania game I’ve had my eye on for a while now was the Ori series, and with my Game Pass subscription active I figured now was good a time as ever to jump into the first entry, Ori and the Blind Forest.

Developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft, Ori and the Blind Forest was released on March 11th 2015 across PC and Xbox One as part of Microsoft’s Xbox exclusive lineup; a definitive edition of the game followed a year after. It’s interesting to note that the Moon Studios is one of the more unique developers out there, based on the fact they have no set location and are instead a collaborative organisation consisting of staff across the entire world. Working on the game for 4 years, the studio touted inspiration from animated classics such as The Lion King, Iron Giant and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with the story and visual blueprint of the game.  Wishing to revitalize the modern day Metroidvania genre, the team at Moon Studios took key inspiration from Rayman and Metroid itself when planning the core gameplay design.  Upon its release, Ori and the Blind Forest received universal reception, aggregating a very high 90 critical score on OpenCritic.  On the sales end I couldn’t find any specific figures for the game but interviews noted the game became profitable within a few short weeks of its release. 

The narrative of Ori and the Blind Forest takes place in a magical forest called Nibel.  The heart of the forest is the great Spirit Tree which projects its energy all throughout the land. Ori is a Guardian Spirit, a child of the Spirit Tree who was sadly lost during a wicked storm that ravaged Nibel.  Found by a forest resident called Naru, Ori is brought up by the motherly figure as an adopted child.  Despite their strong bond however, Ori eventually loses Naru in the wake of a cataclysmic event which is draining life from Nibel and depleting its natural resources.  After struggling to make their way through the forest, Ori soon comes across the Spirit Tree and with the help of an entity of its essence titled Sein, is tasked with locating and restoring the light of the three primary elements that support life throughout Nibel.  This will be no easy task for young Ori however, as the forest has fallen to darkness with many a peril infesting its roots and rivers.  One major threat Ori will have to contend with on their quest to save the land is Kuro, a dark owl which is determined to stop Ori from restoring light to the land by any means necessary.

There’s no voiced dialogue in Ori and the Blind Forest so a lot of the key context and emotional depth is projected more so from a visual end.  For the most part, the narrative is fairly easy to grasp though its format of storytelling does make it difficult to pick up on deeper levels of context at times. Ori works well from an emotional perspective because it spends a great deal of time defining the key relationships that Ori shares with the people they care about.  The opening segment of the game does a great job in making the player care about Ori as a character and in turn the world they inhabit.  While the cast of the game is fairly limited, there’s a great level of devotion to realizing them within the confines of the world’s distinct visual charm.  Despite lacking any written or voiced dialogue, you are able to understand their responses to a sequence clearly, which helps make their presence in the game all the more defined.  The journey you go on with Ori is filled to the brim with danger but there an excellent balance with levity and hope during certain scenes. It’s a game which knows how to present its emotional beats seamlessly and keep you invested to see how things play out.

Ori and the Blind Forest also devotes itself to the Metroidvania blueprint consistently as well.  On a mechanical level the controls for Ori are fairly tight and responsive, putting great devotion on fluidity and motion as you run and jump across the games massive map of platforming levels.  Nothing feels remotely clunky when it comes to the movement of the game, which is an element that helps keep things fast-paced and engaging. This wouldn’t be a Metroidvania also without a key lineup of abilities to utilize, and this game has that in spades. As you explore and progress throughout the game, you’ll unlock a total of 13 skills which will allow you to traverse in ways initially locked off to you.  These skills are all distinct and offer the player a gradual sense of progression with how they are able to help you overcome the environment and dispatch your enemies in a more efficient manner.  It all meshes together to help keep the game feeling consistent and never boring.

What also helps on that front is the level design in itself.  The game holds a plethora of visually unique areas to travel across during your quest to save Nibel. Each level has its own distinct art style that helps define it and make it stand apart from the others.  I love how dynamic each area feels too, there’s a lot of clever ideas presented in how each area has unique obstacles to overcome.  The early areas you’ll start out in will present you with fairly easy enemies and environments to overcome, but the further you progress, the more challenging the game becomes in its later stages.  I’m not one to criticize platformers being difficult because that’s often at times the inherent DNA behind them.  I will however note how the progression becomes less gradual during the later stages of the game as the game really throws you into some insanely difficult scenarios with little context or guidance.  I still managed to overcome the challenge they presented, I just feel it gets really intense near the end there and it could have been incorporated a little better in retrospect.

The games art style deserves a section of praise all of its own.  For a game designed and released over 10 years ago, Ori and the Blind Forest’s unique presentation helps maintain a timeless aura.  The environmental design especially stands out to me, the way there’s so many unique foreground and background frames which are individually animated and react in line with the motion of your characters actions is such an impressive detail that helps make everything fell that much more real. Colour and angles are used in combination to smartly indicate to the player the level of threat they are up against within the environment with the decay that has taken root in each area.  It’s not just the visual scope of the game that stood out to me either, it’s also the official score.   Gareth Coker’s compositional work on this game serves as the integral layer that gives the games levels and storyline the necessary emotional resonance.  His tracks are able to draw such a deep response from you whether it’s fear, elation or sadness.  There are few composers out there who can invoke such a reaction so easily, but it’s clear to see that Coker’s got that skillset on an instinctual level.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a video game I would implore any self-respected video gamer to play. There are few games out there that can capture the essence of the classic Metroidvania games with so much ease, but Moon Studios showcase a clear passion and adoration for the genre within this game.  There’s so much layered into this game that makes it well-deserving of your investment.  Whether you’re playing it just to experience the story and world or want to 100% it and find and do everything available to you, there’s so much content here to fulfill your approach to the video game. I hear really good things about the sequel for this game too, so I’m excited to see how Will of the Wisp is able to top was is already a pretty high bar set by this initial entry.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐