The level design in this game is sadly, not good so far.

[Elyenora Westknight]

So I'm in the Ginso tree. Having a fair bit of fun with this game. Loving it overall. But my god the platforming/level design is just flat out not good sometimes. There's a room that I don't know if it's possible to do without getting hit involving portals and thorns. There are several points in the game that have instant death traps that look like normal damagers. And a lot of this game involves leaps of faith into pits without you knowing what's down there, often to fall into instant death spikes.

I hope this doesn't get any worse... It's already getting fairly frustrating.

[Groen90]

Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

If this is already frustrating for you, wait until you get to spike hell (you'll know what I'm talking abuot when you see it), that'll make you ragequit

[Elyenora Westknight]

How is spikes lining the walls and ceiling and only portals to make it through not spike hell already?

Also, yes, it does get worse... I cleansed some... thing and it made water rush through, and my only clue that it was going to hurt me was an achievment notification. That's not good design. Also, this chase sequence is pretty bad. You had to rely on random enemy patterns to make it through, and sometimes it just doesn't let you finish.

[Ray]

I just finished the game and I have to disagree with you. The chase scenes are thrilling and I wish the game had checkpoints you could return to in order to replay them. Obviously in a game like this you will die a lot so I don't know what to tell you.

[Groen90]

You see water rising and flooding in from everywhere, epic music plays and they place you near those bash orbs... what else do you need, a giant message on the screen that says "we don't want you to touch the water"?

[Elyenora Westknight]

Originally posted by Groen90:

You see water rising and flooding in from everywhere, epic music plays and they place you near those bash orbs... what else do you need, a giant message on the screen that says "we don't want you to touch the water"?

There are better ways to tell the player to move other than killing them 3 seconds after the sequence starts. And considering the clean water was supposed to be a GOOD THING that I just cleansed, it's hardly expected that I will quickly need to run. The water literally comes from nowhere. It's not like I just blew up a dam. And I hadn't seen clean water before in this game... how was I supposed to know that this water hurt me?

Is it that big of a deal? Not really. Is it poorly designed? Yeah.

Trust me, I'm loving this game. The level design flaws are pretty much the only major complaint I have. But it's a pretty big complaint.

[Groen90]

Originally posted by Traeus:

Is it poorly designed? Yeah.

opinions ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[SPICYMEATLOG]

Originally posted by Groen90:

Originally posted by Traeus:

Is it poorly designed? Yeah.

opinions ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I mean I thought it was thrilling and briliant. Reminded me of this game (Rayman) I played as a kid -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiJL7Enqm30

Every part of this game I've seen so far has definitely seemed as if time was put into making each part fun and unique. I just finished the ginso tree btw so we are at the same part.

I could have reacted faster at some parts, but I was picking my nose i guess.

[Null]

Originally posted by Traeus:

There are better ways to tell the player to move other than killing them 3 seconds after the sequence starts

Bash orbs and epic music.

And considering the clean water was supposed to be a GOOD THING that I just cleansed, it's hardly expected that I will quickly need to run.

It is a good thing, but Ori is still a living creature that needs to breathe.

how was I supposed to know that this water hurt me?

Would you stand face to face with a tsunami of sterile water? No, you would run for your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ life.

Is it that big of a deal? Not really. Is it poorly designed? Yeah.

Your brain is poorly designed.

[Mandro Cube]

Not true at all.
If you can't access an area, it simply means you don't have the appropriate skills atm. Classic game mechanic.

[Steelflame]

The level design of the game is insanely well done. Just because you are not good enough at platforming to play the game doesn't change the fact the design is good. People do one life speedruns of the game to great success, the record of which is below an hour.

Enemy AI isn't random in the slightest, and if you understand it you can direct the enemies to do what you want, where you want, when you want.


As the game doesn't have actual major combat, escape sequences are the "Bosses" of the game, pressuring you to use what you've learned so far to quickly escape after restoring one of the elements.

[Mandro Cube]

Yes, as almost every actual plateformer it uses decades of mechanics learned in previous games. If you want something without any difficulty, don't play plateformers at all, Ori is one of the easiest great games of his type...

[5nUg_4l3X]

Originally posted by Traeus:

So I'm in the Ginso tree. Having a fair bit of fun with this game. Loving it overall. But my god the platforming/level design is just flat out not good sometimes. There's a room that I don't know if it's possible to do without getting hit involving portals and thorns. There are several points in the game that have instant death traps that look like normal damagers. And a lot of this game involves leaps of faith into pits without you knowing what's down there, often to fall into instant death spikes.

I hope this doesn't get any worse... It's already getting fairly frustrating.

Actually, no. After 8 hours of very relaxed game I learned you can look up and downwards. Delay your jumps and stretch for very long distances and even keep grabbing walls with the wall jump forever. You're just lacking wits

The insta death you mention; you're not paying attention

And for a while you find a game that makes you work for it and you think it is a throwback?? I also got stuck in this part of yours, but passing through was refreshing and accomplishing. A feeling I don't get many times with this trend of making games easier and more casual.

(...you smell like troll.)

[Melodia]

I don't think any of the spikes are actually insta-death, just they hit for as much/more than your current HP.

[WolfPad]

Originally posted by Melodia:

I don't think any of the spikes are actually insta-death, just they hit for as much/more than your current HP.

Some spikes are instadeath in a few areas.

No offense OP, but you're just being whiny. You're entitled to your opinion but clearly you're just not made for games that require skill and have a moderate level of difficulty. This game is exquisitely designed down to the last leaf.

This "Metroidvania" style of game is cherished for being punishing to careless players and encouraging exploration and progress through tiral and error. Most games today hold your hand throughout the entire experience and it's because gamers like you complain about difficulty and call it poor design.

Again, not trying to be rude just calling things as I see them.

[Elyenora Westknight]

The metroidvania genre is cherished for having super refined platforming. The level design itself is often so well designed it becomes a character in itself. This game doesn't quite get there.

The spikes doing varying things based purely on what the designer decided to make them do is easily the clearest example. There is no clear indication to the player why certain spikes are different. They could've made certain spikes more red than others, or emit a glow.

By contrast look at Super Metroid. Your abilities are made super super clear in that game. It does an amazing job at teaching the player what each and every tile does. This game constantly changes the rules in subtle ways to let you know you can't rely on that information. This is called conveyance, and this game doesn't do it so well. I'm probably doing a terrible job communicating my irks with this game, because it's very hard to describe.

And is this game difficult? Not really... You can save anywhere for god sakes. They gave the player that ability to compensate for the level design lacking conveyance. Dying isn't a setback, it's an experiment, by design. I just don't think that's good design. Metroidvania isn't about trial and error by death platforming.

Originally posted by WolfPad:

No offense OP, but you're just being whiny. You're entitled to your opinion but clearly you're just not made for games that require skill and have a moderate level of difficulty. This game is exquisitely designed down to the last leaf.

This "Metroidvania" style of game is cherished for being punishing to careless players and encouraging exploration and progress through tiral and error. Most games today hold your hand throughout the entire experience and it's because gamers like you complain about difficulty and call it poor design.

Again, not trying to be rude just calling things as I see them.

A. You're thinking of the Souls style of game, not metroidvania. Completely different design philosophies.

B. I play many games of high skill all the time. Can you beat Super C without a turbo controller? Can you get to Machine Gun Willy in Double Dragon 90% of the time you play? I could list more examples, but it's a dumb argument, I'm sure you have your own achievments in pure skill.

Again, it's not that this game is particularly difficult, that's not my complaint. Because it isn't. They gave you the save anywhere ability as a spell to compensate for the weird level design difficulty spikes because it's not tuned well.

Also again, I am truly enjoying playing this game. I'm kicking myself for not playing it sooner. I do not think this is a bad game by any stretch, far from it, I think it's a very good game, with some blemishes. But thinking it's a good game, and thinking it's perfect are two wildly different things.