If you can steel yourself for a challenge and come to grips with an unwieldy ༒checkpoint system, Ori and the Blind Fore🐻st will mesmerize you with its lush world and incredible artistry.
Pros
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Incredible art and audio make the forest and its inhabitants feꦕel vibrantly ali☂ve
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Ori's movements feels agile and precise
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Varied stage themes keep things interesting
Cons
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The save-anywher🔜e mechanic can be more punishing than conve💧nient
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Some spikes in difficulty that can spoil the more climactic sect🔥io🧸ns
There are moments in Ori and the Blind Forest when you'll want to put down the controller and just take a breath꧙. Usually, it's because you're simply amazed by its magnificent artistry, pausing to appreciate the beauty and depꦚth of the moonlit forest or the sweeping orchestral score. But occasionally, it'll be out of frustration, or the sense that you're repeatedly bashing into a brick wall. Ori is a demanding platformer that 2D enthusiasts will cherish dearly, though you'll need to brace yourself for some serious demands of your skills and patience.
Right from the get-go, everything about Ori's presentation is pure magic. The gorgeous hand-drawn art, exquisite animation, and powerful music make you feel like you're taking part in an animated movie, calling to mind beloved films like Princess Mononoke and The Secret of NIMH. As the adorable bunny-squirrel-thing Ori, you're tasked by a Na'vi-like spirit companion named Sein to unite the elements of Water, Wind, and Warmth, which will restore life to an ancient forest. It's a pretty straightforward motivation for a 2D Metroidvania-style platformer, but the narrative does dabble with heavy themes like sacrifice and vengeance. Also, be forewarned: the intro will make you want to weep like you did during the beginning of Pixar's Up. Hey, it's cool: I did too.
Once you've dried your eyes and stꦉarted bounding around this massive woodland, you'll find that Ori controls with the kind of quick, deft precision that defines the most gratifying platformers. Running and jumping through trees and over boulders feels tight and intuitive, conveying a real sense of lightweight agility and being in tune with Ori's movements. As with any Metroidvania, ღyou're continuously stacking new exploration-enabling abilities into your repertoire, and each stage helps you come to grips with things like wall-climbing or double-jumping in a way that's comfortable and natural.
Just when you think you've mastered Ori's movement, another element comes in to keep you on your toes. Maybe you'll need to lug around a gravity-shifting orb to line up physics-defying jumps inside a forge that's frosted over, or get the hang of mid-air gliding with a leaf to ascend through a windy mountain pass. The incredibly varied areas always introduce fresh mech🐎anics to match their unique surroundings, each one feeling invigoratingly different from the last while still building on what you've learned thus far. And unlike many Metroidvanias, which taunt you with just-out-of-reach collectibles that you can't attain until much later, Ori usually has the means to reach helpful power-ups as he encounters them (provided you can actually spot their clever hiding places).
Run for it
I won't give away too much about Ori's antagonist, but every time she shows up, you're liable to experience a rush of awe and fear. Her gigantic frame is perfectly woven into the environment, creating some incredible scenes of foreground action as you flee from the ominous, ever-nearing threat in the background. Even if you end up seeing these animations over and ♋over again due to repeat deaths, they're still awesome.
☆☆☆☆☆
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Genre
Action
Description
Find your courage and save the forest of Nibel from an evil ruler.
Lu🔯cas Sullivan is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+. Lucas spent seven years working for GR, starting as an Associate Editor in 2012 before climbing the ranks. He left us in 2019 to pursue a career path on the other side of the fence, joining 2K Games as a Global Content Manager. Lucas doesn't get to write about games like Borderlan🌃ds and Mafia anymore, but he does get to help make and market them.