Ori and the Will of the Wisps

February 14, 2021

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the second installment of Ori on PC. It does not appear to be on humble bundle yet, so I'll just give you a steam link to check out. The game is also on XBox and Nintendo. The first game in the series was Ori and the Blind Forest, which while a completely separate game, perhaps a good one to check out as well.

Let's put this forward straight from the start - Ori is a ridiculously gorgeous game, high quality 4K, everything moves or responds to you. Like grass, twigs, mushrooms and flowers that will bend if you walk past. And best of all, you don't even need a super high end computer to enjoy this game.

Difficult

Despite all it's cute looks and charming graphics, you have to understand one thing or you're going to be very frustrated while playing.

This game is hard.

It's a metroidvania at it's roots, but rather than shoot or hack 'n slash your way out of boss fights you'll have to race the boss. Which means, if you mess up a jump and lag behind - you fail. There's an infinite number or retry attempts, but that's still going to take you a few tries. I recommend playing this game on easy mode. Later if you've finished the game - try normal / hard for the achievements.

Ori and the blind forest has similar mechanics - and I tell you this honestly they were not the most fun part of the game for me. I would happily skip them entirely and simply enjoy the exploration and gorgeous graphics of the game. But sadly, you can not.

Ku the purple owl

The game and title screen start you off showing Ori and Ku. Ku is raised by you and your two friends (who you'll recognize from the blind forest). Unfortunately, Ku does not really have much of a role in this game. Yes, a few scenes, but in the end you'll wonder why they bothered to add Ku at all.

Ku is there to help you understand why you're trying to gather the lights. Aside that, he or she is there in only one other scene in the game where you can actually control the owl and do some dodgy flying.

If you were hoping to enjoy a lot of Ori and Owl action, or even a two player area in the game, you will be disappointed.

Villains you love to hate

Much alike the blind forest, will of the wisps has a big nasty villain. Shriek is a giant mutated owl who will bother you once or twice. You get to play hide and seek with them later, as well as a boss race and so on later. (Spoilers, maybe?) In a way shriek is what Ku might have been if you didn't raise him with your loving little monster family.

Shriek hates all sound and light and will happily attack or tear to bits and eat any living things. As it happens, Ori glows - so you're her favorite snack.

The juicy metroidvania bits

As mentioned earlier Ori is a metroidvania at it's core, and this is what kept me going in the game. The movement is smooth, the scenery gorgeous. You will die - a lot, but exploring all your new abilities and areas will keep pushing you forward. Jumping abilities, rolls, arrows, grapple, a light sword and many more things are to be found and mastered.

Unlike the blind forest, you don't need to worry about a skill tree. All the bonus perks can be found in hidden locations around the world, or learned through a merchant. Some may also be upgraded. Life and energy can be upgraded in much the same way - find your secrets.

If you've gotten pretty far in, there's a few maps and a quest which will help make all the secrets visible on your map. This should please any completionists out there, as the chances of missing things in some of the secret areas are very big.