5/5 ★ – BigSliceGaming's review of Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

Ori and the Blind Forest was a massive success when it came out on the Xbox One and PC in 2015 and held up well when it later came to the Nintendo Switch, where I had played it for the first time. I fell in love with Ori right away, and through the challenge and perseverance of some brutal platforming sequences, walked away finishing the game elated from the whole experience. When it was announced that the game’s sequel was coming to the Switch, I bought it and downloaded it immediately when it was available. Given its predecessor was a huge commercial and critical success, Ori and the Will of the Wisps had a lot to live up to and it does so with grace, not only meeting the standards of its predecessor but iterating and improving on it at almost every avenue. The story of Ori and the Will of the Wisps picks up from the end of Blind Forest, but it does so in a way that you can play Will of the Wisps without playing Blind Forest. The main story is beautifully told, and I would describe it as almost visually poetic. Several moments in the story, both in the main story and in the stories of side quests, had me in awe and often heartbroken. One side quest has you looking for a Moki’s family and reuniting them and without spoiling anything, the ending of that side quest hit me right in the heart. The overall story has its peaks and its tragedies, and it is all brought together by a beautiful ending that I will not spoil, but I will say it made me cry. Ori and the Blind Forest was praised for its platforming and Will of the Wisps does not do much different with it, but it doesn’t really need to. Aside from a few new ways to navigate, changes to navigation essentially boil down to polishing what was already there. In Ori and the Blind Forest, you unlock an ability to dash ahead in a quick burst or to get some extra distance while jumping, and that ability makes it into the sequel. What Ori and the Will of the Wisps adds to that is dashing in both water and in sand. There are whole sections of the game dedicated to each. After learning Burrow, the ability to dig and dash through sand, in the Windswept Wastes, you spend much of your time in that section burrowing through the sand and it feels a lot like swimming. Dashing in the water allows you to launch yourself from the surface and into the air and that is exactly what you do with the Burrow ability. Burrowing through the sand, popping out of the surface and into another barrier of sand right above me felt gratifying and was easily one of my most enjoyed gameplay segments. Aside from that addition, Ori and the Will of the Wisps sticks with polishing what the series already does so well. Part of what made Ori and the Blind Forest so challenging is Ori’s intentional combat limitations. Those limitations were of course by design as the game primarily focused on its platforming. But that’s where Ori and the Will of the Wisps really broadens and expands its scope. All the combat in The Blind Forest was shooting enemies that were in Ori’s vicinity from an orb of light that followed her around. In Ori and the Will of the Wisps, combat is much broader and more varied, and the game is better for it. Ori can have 3 active abilities assigned to the face buttons that the player can switch out at any point during the game. Throughout most of my playthrough, I was using Spirit Smash, a heavy but slow attack; Spirit Edge, a close-ranged fast attack; and Spirit Arc, which is essentially a bow. Those are only a few of the options available but it was my personal favorite loadout. There are a handful of other options available that I tried that I was not particularly excited about using myself as far as weapons go. That is not to say they were not good. From what I tried, they are all very well designed and balanced mechanics, but they were not my favorite to use. What makes the interchangeable loadout a remarkable addition is it broadens the combat to be approachable to a wider audience that might have been turned off by Ori and the Blind Forest’s punishing nature. Of course, with a more varied combat and ability system, enemies are more varied as well, including bosses. From my experience with the game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps’ boss fights encourage the use of broader weapon loadouts, which pushed me to change it up. The boss fights are brutal and often had me at the edge of my seat, tightly gripping my controller, but not unfairly so. Any moment of frustration that came about during a boss fight or a difficult platforming sequence was from my own failures and thankfully, the next attempt was just seconds away, even on the Nintendo Switch. I rarely felt like the game broke me away from a flow state during my time with it. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is as beautiful to look at as it is fun to play. Blind Forest was praised for its platforming but equally so for its art style. The aesthetic of the environment shows a strong influence of Avatar’s Pandora, with strong hues of blue light on a florescent forest environment. This aesthetic made a welcome comeback in the sequel and it put a smile on my face to see it again, this time much more detailed and defined. The background and foreground both visually have more depth to them, adding more fully realized environments to the world. This remained consistent throughout the world and in different biomes the world of Will of the Wisps has to offer. I could almost feel the wind brush across Ori’s face as I took her through the trees in Inkwater Marsh. Other biomes include the inside of a mountain with lava glowing through a fog of smoke, a snowy mountain pass glowing with white and blue sparkles and snow drift so well animated that I could feel the Midwestern winter winds slapping me in the face. The world of Will of the Wisps isn’t the only visual thing worth talking about, however. The UI design is outstanding, perfectly balanced between effective communication and being enjoyable to look at. Ori’s entire inventory is designed as a tree; side quest items are at the upper part, in the branches and the leaves; in the center it holds main quest items, the light Ori is tasked with gathering; hanging from the tree are orbs of light representing energy and life cells you get throughout the game, subtle enough to blend in with the tree’s design but obvious enough to communicate what they are; and that is only about half of the elements in that menu. The rest of the game’s menus are just as equally beautiful and effective as the inventory and I spent a few minutes throughout the game gushing about them as much as I am here! Starting up the game and hearing Will of the Wisps’ take on the original theme from Blind Forest gave me chills and it earned a spot on my list of favorite title themes. That kind of feeling is not exclusive to the main menu, however. The game’s whole soundtrack is outstanding and does its job of creating the right atmosphere for each area in the game’s world in succinct collaboration with its sound design. For example, the creepiness and dark tones of the Mouldwood Depths theme mixed with sounds of creepy crawlers along the walls made my skin crawl in the perfect way to feel immersed in that area of the world. Bigger moments like boss fights and climactic story moments have the soundtrack swelling into a perfect companionship of story and music. Almost to a point where the writing and music sort of blend to make the game into an interactive symphony. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a beautiful game, both visually and thematically. From its challenging boss fights to smooth platforming, it’s a delightful and rewarding play that takes the player through a poetic story of tragedy, hope, and loneliness and ended with me feeling torn between happiness and heartbreak. A memorable platformer with combat and traversal that is matched by few games of its genre, I highly recommend this experience, even if you have not played the original.