4/5 ★ – RetroRanger's review of Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition.

Ori and the Blind Forest was supposed to become one my favorite games of all time. A beautifully handpainted metroidvania with fluid movement, a touching story, and a soundtrack so memorable that I recognized the songs despite never playing the game. Ori had all of the ingredients to be one of the best games in my favorite genre, but I simply found myself expecting and wanting more from the game. || Spoiler-free || Ori and the Blind Forest is not only a great game, it is an important one. Any time a 2D platformer or metroidvania comes out and just obliterates the competition when it comes to art style and sound design, it is an important game. Hollow Knight and Celeste are among my favorite games of all time, and both were important in the same regard. Ori is no different, proving once again that the best art direction a game can take is the one that breathes the most "character" into the game, not the most realism. Playing Ori is like having a 2D adventure on top of a watercolor painting - a unique experience in such an artistic genre. Likewise, no Metroidvania can stand on its own without a good soundtrack - and Ori delivers there as well. A playful, spiritual, and atmospheric soundtrack accompanies this game, and its "main theme" is sure to be remembered and recognized for years to come. Ori is also a blast to play with some of the most fluid and fun movement and abilities in the genre, making backtracking exciting – a requirement for good metroidvanias. I especially enjoyed the bash ability that allows Ori to launch themselves off of nearly every enemy and projectile. This ability in particular not only made backtracking much faster and more satisfying, it also opened the game up for more skilled players to find secrets or have more engaging combat. More really should be said about how good the movement in Ori is. It’s not meant to be precise like Celeste and Hollow Knight. It’s meant to be fluid, graceful, and free - and it certainly achieved that. The movement in Ori isn’t just satisfying to control through, it’s also a sight to behold. It really is a special experience watching Ori glide through the world. This is why the combat system, which was highly criticized, is so disappointing. Much has been said about the button-mashing combat in Ori, but it’s biggest issue is that it really clashes with the games biggest strength - movement. Having to stop and button-mash projectiles to kill an enemy really hurt the fluidity of the game. Combat ends up feeling like a hindrance to movement instead of a cohesive compliment to momentum. It's clear that combat was not meant to be complicated or even the main focus of the game. Ori is a movement game focused on fluidity and platforming. Combat is an afterthought, and even though it hurts the game under the critical microscope, it doesn't take away too much from the overall enjoyment of the game. Unfortunately, Ori had 2 other flaws that, in combination with the underdeveloped combat, did hurt my overall enjoyment of the game. Those two flaws were the lack of conveyance and innovation. Maybe the problem is becoming more prevalent as games continue to push the limits of creativity and art direction, but Ori and the Blind Forest is a serious offender of bad conveyance, and it was very frustrating. Conveyance is extremely important in 2D platformers, where falling into a pit, hitting traps like "spikes," and precise platforming often mean the difference between life and death. Ori has a watercolor art style and it really brings the world to life. The forest feels alive and old, lived in, and mysterious. Splashes of color and smudges of weeds and trees in both the foreground and background make the game ooze with atmosphere. The issue is that this "wild and natural" watercolor art style makes it very difficult to distinguish between what is a platform and what is in the background, and what is a trap and what is scenery. I stopped to take in the scenery many times during my playthrough, but it wasn't because of how beautiful it was - it was because of how confusing it was. Often before I made a jump, I would have to stop and take a second look at what I was jumping towards to figure out if it was a platform, or simply something in the background. This problem became much worse once I started dying to traps, such as "spikes," that looked like pieces of the scenery instead of obvious gameplay obstacles to avoid. I realized how substantial this problem was once I made it to the snowy area and died to frozen "spikes" that were just on the ground and looked like frozen pieces of grass! This problem of conveyance also comes up in the "escape" sections of the game which see Ori escape a collapsing or burning environment in a fast-paced sequence. These are often my favorite moments in games that do them well, but I again found it difficult to navigate these sections because of the lack of proper conveyance. Ori’s art style works against the gameplay by not giving the player proper conveyance. Platforms are hard to distinguish from objects in the background, and traps, such as “spikes,” are often hidden among the scenery – causing a lot of frustrating deaths. Ori's other issue for me was the lack of innovation - an important problem to address when developing a metroidvania. The metroidvania genre is one of the oldest and most recognizable genres in gaming - and it was nearly perfected once it was introduced! Gamers still talk about the retro Metroid and Castlevania games as being their favorites, and a handful of them stand up today against the kings of the genre, such as Hollow Knight. With a genre that is so old and recognizable, and so easy to do well, innovation is very important. Ori is not innovative - it just does everything a metroidvania does very, very well. It's an extremely polished metroidvania that takes the best elements of the genre and executes them well, but it doesn’t innovate or add. I found nearly every secret the first time I came across it, and I predicted how each roadblock would be overcome with an ability obtained in the future. There were moments when I almost felt like I playing on auto-pilot. Ori was predictable and familiar, and I even found myself getting bored of playing this gorgeous game, simply because of how familiar it felt. Now, saying that Ori didn't try anything new isn't exactly the truth. Ori implemented a "save wherever you want" feature that is sometimes great and sometimes awful. Not only was the feature more of a hassle over simple checkpoints (that would have been in the exact same spots I put my save spot), but the feature didn't add anything innovative to the game. All it really did was replace auto-save checkpoints by allowing the player to make their own. The feature was not expanded on, nor did it add to the Metroidvania formula. It simply replaced convenient checkpoints, and frustrated skilled players who forgot to save and went on 10–20-minute runs without dying, only to be taken back to their last save point, with all their progress lost. Different is not innovative. If the feature had added new gameplay elements, rather than simply replacing auto-save checkpoints, maybe it could have been something truly innovative and special. As a last note on this issue, I do think that the combat was a creative attempt to do something different, but there are a lot of issues with claiming that it was innovative. Without getting into it too much, the biggest issue is that the combat directly counters the movement and fluidity of the game. If Ori wants to innovate with its combat, it first has to get combat basically right within the game's own focus - which is movement and platforming. Ori didn't accomplish that in this game. In movement games, the combat and momentum need to be cohesive, working as one fluid part instead of separately as they do in this game. Sonic the Hedgehog set this simple foundation in 1991, which saw Sonic's movement and combat working together as one piece, and even complimenting each other as combat led to further momentum. An Ori sequel simply needs to build upon this foundation set nearly 30 years ago, and find ways to innovate or improve upon it. The metroidvania and 2D platforming genres are my favorites and always have been. I'm very particular towards the genre and not only feel like I have a more critical obligation to games within the genre, but also more bias. Thus, I have been hard on Ori and the Blind Forest. Ori is still a beautiful game both on the surface with its breathtaking watercolor art style, and underneath where its surprisingly deep and touching story lies. Metroidvania and platforming fans will find a fluid game with tight controls and fun areas to explore, with familiar abilities that make movement itself fun. Gamers will find a great video game that is certainly worth their time, and certainly worth the praise. Still, personally, my complaints keep Ori from becoming one of the "greats" in my eyes - and I do think that the art style and sound design cause some of these issues to be overlooked by players. That being said, I highly recommend Ori and the Blind Forest, and give it a 4/5, or 8.5/10. Played in: 2022 Played on: PC (used controller) Playtime: 7 Hours Status: Beaten.