Control issue or difficulty spike?

[duckweedseattle]

I'm in the Valley of the Winds (completion: 11%) and stuck at the part where you have to wall jump back and forth between two vertical surfaces, starting on the left wall, then jumping to the right wall, then back to the left, then back to the right, all while avoiding the thorny patches on the walls. The problem is that Ori's jumping behavior is frustratingly inconsistent. I've probably tried this segment 200+ times but, due to the erratic jumping behaior, I just can't get past it.

Sometimes Ori wall jumps as intended. Other times, he faces the wrong direciton upon jumping (i.e., he faces the wall he just jumped *from* instead of the the wall he's jumping *to*) and ends up doing a half-a**ed jump that doesn't get him far enough. But it gets even worse...

Sometimes, he pushes off of the current surface backwards, which also lands him short.

Other times, upon reaching the new wall surface, he won't wall jump at all any more, despite my button mashes, and he just slides down the wall, causing me to start over.

What's also odd is that once Ori starts doing one of these things, he'll do the same behavior over and over for the next 5-10 attemps. It's almost as if the x-input on my stick has drifted, but calibrating doesn't help and the problem doesn't manifest in other games.

At first, I thought this section was just hard. But if that's the case, it's one *massive* difficulty spike.

Then I thought it might be my stick. I'm using an XBox 360 controller and using the left stick for movement + green button for jumping. But even after switching controllers and then migrating to the d-pad for movement, I'm still having the issue.

Sticky keys are turned off.

I read in another post that changing the game resolution can actually change the input delay, making certain parts of the game harder or easier. I tried changing my native 1980 x 1080 res to both 1600 x 900 and 1368 x, but this didn't seem to make a difference in my case.

I've seen other posts refer to a "charge jump" but I haven't unlocked this skill yet. And, as I'm not trying to break through a wall in this part, I suspect it isn't relevant.

Has anyone else had this kind of issue? I consider myself fairly decent at platformers. I'm currently half way through Cuphead, for example. To me, this feels like a control problem rather than a difficulty spike.

Any feedback or suggestions are appreciated!

[LinkSamus3]

I've never heard of that problem before, so I don't know what it could be. But at 11%, I don't think you're supposed to be there yet. Have you done Ginso Tree already?

[JonoAMano]

It's story milestone timing. Sounds like you don't yet have necessary unlocks needed to explore this section, such as Double Jump, Bash, Stomp. If you see hanging lanterns in this area then you need Bash to traverse it. As DungeonconquerorB suggests, come back to this later in the game.

[duckweedseattle]

Update: After 200+ tries, I finally made it past this section. There was nothing special required... just regular wall jumping. I suspect the problem is a controller issue. Only sheer, dumb persistence got me through it. :-)

[JonoAMano]

Equipped with only Wall Jump, kudos to you. I also use controller, and right after unlocking Charge Flame I'll explore that same Valley section to grab the two small Life Containers on the accessible upper level. One to the upper left is submerged, requiring a rankup Dirty Dive to survive collecting that goodie without both Water Breath and clean water.

The other one to the right is on a flat treetop near an Owl. I usually make a Soul Link after killing the red Bullfrog down below. Just getting up there without any other upgrades is a challenge, but as you found out it is doable. Well done. :-)

Both this game version and the Definitive Edition can be rough on our gamepads, especially on the green "A" button because that's our main locomotion key. That's what usually wears out first on my controller.

[gyarad0site]

definitely sounds like a controller issue - wall jumping should feel pretty smooth/easy

i know you got past that section already, but you'll possibly have similar issues later on. i found out 4-5 hours in that my controller was acting up, too, which was making the game way harder than necessary (the bash ability felt super awkward, making one level nearly impossible).

once i switched to playing on big picture mode on steam (and, since i use a PS4 controller, DS4Windows), the buttons were mapped way more intuitively/responded better and the game became much more fun :) definitely try big picture mode if you don't use it already.

[duckweedseattle]

I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

[Dipole]

Thank you so much for posting this. After my 200+ attempts and finally getting up there, I promptly died from the two enemies up there and literally chucked my controlled against te wall (just gamer things?) After a few dozen more attempts, I found this and it's good to know I suppose that I just have to come back here later...Thanks op!!

[Orchid]

I'm having the same issue now, just playing on nintendo. It is extremely frustrating and I'm starting to consider "returning" the game.
On nintendo you use "B" button. sometimes Ori will jump, sometimes when it tries to reach the opposite wall he doesn't jump again on it. It just slides off, no matter how many times I press the B button. Sometimes it is able to make the jump, sometimes it falls short half way.
The inconsistency is annoying as it is hard to determine a sequence to pass the area. Sometimes it works one way, sometimes the jump works in a different way...

[End_Wokeness]

I just had the same experience at the same exact part of the game. Developers may want to take note, I don't understand why you feel that your audience must have pixel perfect precision, this isn't fun:

Utter garbage platforming hell. I nearly punched the screen of my Steam Deck after trying for over an hour to traverse a vertical jumping area in "The Valley of the Wind", with nowhere else to go and having mistakenly taking a detour into "Black Root Burrows" and dealing with an equally frustrating sequence where you're supposed to hold a light ball and then put it down, putting the ball down completely changes the jumping and physics and you're asked to put this down on a moving floating platform, needless to say, you will fall about 30 times as you're being asked to jump, climb and perch perfectly atop a floating cylinder.

I went through large sections of the map after this trying to figure out how to progress to the Ginso Tree and the only way forward that I could surmise was this vertical area in "The Valley of the Wind" where you have jump, then hop / climb perfectly and then jump across to the otherside and hop / climb perfectly, when I mean perfectly I mean that you have to make Ori go to within one pixel of hitting the thorns that alternate each side of this section, to make matters worse, Ori will randomly slide on the other side after jumping, into the thorns. With full health (6 cabbages at this point) you can get hit twice. For me it was literally impossible to do this without getting hit by the thorns. I don't understand the design here, these thorns could be spaced so that this is challenging but not in a way that it literally requires 1-2 hours of repetitive attempts on the part of the person playing the game. The entire game is like this, escape sequences that must be done over and over until you learn the pixel perfect precision or jumping sequences like this one. I literally could not pass this point. I'm no stranger to games or platformers in general. I consider myself above average in terms of eye hand coordination and gaming in general. This is so poorly designed. I hear the sequel is the same way, more of this pixel perfect jumping. Not recommended unless you have a controller laying around that you really want to punch or throw against a wall.

Running this game at 70 FPS on the deck (display refresh is unlocked) so it's not as though it's input latency related to 30 FPS.

Truly poor design.

[CocolinoFan]

I am stuck at the same place!
I have been struggling for two days to make that jump. It feels like that's where you are supposed to go. I am stuck, progression in this game is a bit broken.

[Partybecher]

Same Problem. I always slide down twice fast then jumping up. Sometimes he jump and sometimes he dont jump. I was streaming on Twitch. Many people say the dont like to buy that game after watching me 2 hours try to jump a simple wall up and fail it again and again.

I pla Jump and Run sincethe 90s like Rayman, Spyro, Hollow Night, Meat Boy, Rougue Legacy and so on.
Never have that problems with bad character controll like in Ori