Every now and then there's a game that changes the way you look at all types of games in the same genre.

Take Witcher 3 for example, good RPGs are now bad because we now know that is possible to do better, MUCH better.

For many of you this game will fly under your radar, many of you might even ended up here by mistake. Whatever the reason i don't care just BUY this game.

This is a masterpiece, this is the Witcher 3 of metroidvania 2D plataformers.

The story is beyond good, is beautiful, it'll break your heart and make you smile, it wont bore you and it has enough to keep you engaged.

The MUSIC? The music in this game has life, it tells a story in it self, without a word you can understand the world around you, it whispers in your ear, never yells, it tells you a secret for you to keep.

The art style is stuff of dreams, the color palette is vybrant but also dull when it needs to be. The hand drawn vistas and landscapes are worth the games price, just so you can bathe in how good this games looks.

The controls are just good, and they have to be, because this game is HARD, it rewards acuracy and quick reflexes, have you got those?

I died 422 times on my first playthrough and let me tell you, i'd die 422 more just hoping this game would be bigger

This IS the 2D plataformer to beat, this is more than a game is an EXPERIENCE

EDIT: Replayed it with my best friend, still as good, still as heatwarming still as awesome

Ok... the game... oh gosh, my tears, I can't hold it.... Because THIS IS A MASTERPIECE. Here are the pros and cons (or not) for this game.

The pros:
+ Well-written and touching story about love, forgiveness and sacrifice.
+ Beautifully hand-drawing, from characters to every detail of the environments. (Too much clear water :)) ).
+ Ahhh, musics to my ears.... It made me cry.....
+ Responsive control. Nice.
+ The platforming section is really well-executed, tricky gameplay.
+ As the upgrade version of the original game, with more contents, more balance, more secrets,... more grinding for the ability poinits.
+ Now it has 4 difficulties, from Easy to One-life... I hate one-life mode :)).
+ A huge map with lots of exploration.
+ There are parts of the game when it requires you to escape from certain death. Well, It's time to ultilize your skills to get you through danger.
+ This game reminded me of the game named "Cat Mario", the game which makes you suffer from falling, dying, danger at every corners. RAGE!! :)).
+ The game now is more compatible than the original one.
+ The game is best example of Unity Engine Games that can run smoothly on low-end pc.
+ No FPS drops.
+ First playthrough with 340 deaths for finding EVERY SINGLE SECRET in hard mode, how bad could it be? :)). I bet that i will die even more if the game were bigger.
+ Can you make a speed run from beginning to the end without using ability points, no death, under 3 hours in one-life mode? How long you guys can endure it? :)).

A MUST-HAVE GAME for anyone who want solid (with some trolling and surprise moments :)) ) and challenging gameplay with pure story-telling. And I am still waiting for the sequel "Will of the Wisps". Oh boy, I cried even more when i watched the sequel trailer..... Amazing game to the end.....

_Epic Final Score: 10/10.

This is an action platformer in the Metroid style. As you explore areas you gain new abilities that allow access to previously unpassable ones.

It plays as good as it looks - which, considering it looks phenomenally gorgeous, is no small feat.....

The controls are responsive, and the platforming gets nicely tricky (though not too frustrating). It also has several really cool "escape" setpieces that are just right for being challenging, and making great use of your skills.

You get the ability to slingshot yourself off of certain objects, which includes enemy projectiles, and these sequences make crazy use of that. Mixed up also with various jumping / gliding / wall jumping bits that make them very exciting to do. For a 2d platformer it really is quite thrilling when these setpieces kick off.

It's an exceptional game mechanically, and hugely enjoyable - plus its also surprisingly hard on the highest difficulty, so represents a fairly big time to complete.

There is a downside depending on your tastes - the story and music are pretty twee stuff, and the "voice acting" is just kiddyish gobbledygook.

But other than that its a very engaging, artistically stunning game, and I highly recommend it.

If anyone ever told me a video game cannot be a piece of art, I would show them Ori and the Blind Forest (soon to be the Ori franchise).

Ori and the Blind Forest is one of few games that recieves very little negative attention (only notable negativity come from those complaining about the Definite Edition release). There is very little wrong with the game itself in terms of gameplay, glitches, and music. The story itself is known for making even the toughest of men cry as well. Everything in the game itself seems to come together and forge a masterpiece.

The main gameplay of Ori and the Blind Forest is the platforming. It features a unique respawn system I have not seen in any other game (though someone else may be able to name one), utilizing an ability to create a respawn point anywhere at the cost of energy. This energy can also be used for a blast charge that can break some walls. Respawning by itself needs strategy, deciding whether the energy could be used for a better cause or not. Platforming itself isn't frame perfect like many say, the game was very responsive with the jumping and was never frustrating at any time. This is one of few games where I had not one issue with the movement and controls.

As for glitches in Ori and the Blind Forest, they are so few that you are highly unlikely to experience any in the entire thing. You aren't going to be coming across a Spore: Galactic Adventures experience here, where you have to be purposefully avoiding things in order to prevent glitches. The lack of game-breaking glitches is actually rather impressive. Yes, there are some, though it appeared to me you have to be purposefully trying to cause them to occur.

The art and music in Ori and the Blind Forest is the most notable thing in the whole game. The music score by Gareth is incredible. Once you hear the songs, with how emotional and fitting they are for the game, you could easily see as to why they recieved such praise. The art design is incredibly unique compared to similar games as well. It is a 2D game that looks and feels as gorgeous as a 3D game. The backgrounds and foregrounds are utilized to their greatest potential, being able to see the antagonist, Kuro, flying at you from a distance to Gumo hiding in the foreground behind tall grass. The two combined, art and music, end up creating a visual masterpiece that is incredibly pleasing to look at. Despite how simple Ori's sprite appears to be, it is at the same time very detailed with the animation and look. Everything in the game looks and moves like something that is alive.

The final part of the game, the story, is known to make grown men cry. While it isn't the most unique story when you first start, with Naru perishing and Ori going on a quest for 3 elements, it ends up becoming apparent as to why it is unique later on. Gumo, Kuro, and even Naru end up making the story incredibly unique for many, many reasons. Each character has a lot of backstory, and it is incredible how it is told without words. Gumo, Naru, and Kuro are incredibly detailed and interesting to learn about despite how simplistic they appear to be. We learn all about Ori throught the whole game, similar to Kuro. Every character, even the dead ones, have so much thought and effort put into them that it shows what Moon Studios is capable of.


Gameplay: 8/10 - It could do with better combat, but since the platforming was nailed incredibly well with the platforming being the main focus as well, the combat can easily be looked over.
Soundtrack: 10/10 - This is the only soundtrack I can say I have never enjoyed more in my entire life. Every song fits the scenario and changes the mood drastically. Without the work Gareth did, Ori and the Blind Forest would not be so amazing.
Art Design: 9/10 - The game looks and feels exactly like you are playing a painting. The characters move and look like they are alive as well. There is very little I could say bad about the art of Ori and the Blind Forest.
Story: 8/10 - Every single character has a massive amount of thought put into them and has their entire story told without the need of text. Even the least interesting character, Sein, is still incredibly interesting to think of. Every character in the game has incredible amounts of story put into them and the game tells it without saying it directly. What happens to Kuro, you have to piece together. Why the ending is sad, you have to tell yourself as to why. The character's stories are incredible, and the game might have been even better if it was even more focused on them as opposed to the elements Ori and Sein were searching for.
Bugs/Glitches: 9/10 - While there will always be bugs, I did not experience a single one during my entire time playing the game. I thought this was incredible, considering how buggy many games are today. The game still has some glitches as expected, but the lack of any glitches that occur during the playthrough of it is astonishing. They seemingly have to be activated purposefully.

Overall: 9/10 - Ori and the Blind Forest is perhaps one of the greatest games I have ever had the chance to play. I highly urge anyone who hasn't play Ori and the Blind Forest to do so. With Will of the Wisps coming out soon, now would be the time to play the original masterpiece that began my new favorite franchise.

So, I've bought this game a few years ago and never had THE TIME to actually play it.
Well, I played it and ... I never thought I would cry so much. I wish I had played it earlier.
I lost my 3-year-old at the begging of this year, and grieve hasn't gone yet. I've been feeling very depressed and this game gave my heart such a warm hug that I can't explain...
This is truly an art form. Loved the story even more.
I watched the credits to the last person, and I'd like to say to each of them a very warm THANK YOU. You have no idea how this helped me.
Saving up to buy the second one.

~ DIFFICULTY ~

🔲 My 90 year old grandma could play it
🔲 Easy
✅ Normal (can vary depending on which difficulty you play on as well as how good you are at video games) (And to clarify, i played on normal difficulty)
🔲 Hard
🔲 Dark Souls
🔲 Understanding Dark Souls' story

~ GRAPHICS ~

🔲 MS Paint
🔲 Bad
🔲 Meh
🔲 Graphics don't matter in this game
🔲 Good (nothing special)
🔲 Beautiful
✅ Masterpiece

~ MUSIC ~

🔲 Bad
🔲 Not special
🔲 Good
✅ Beautiful

~ Audience ~

✅ Kids
✅ Teens
✅ Adults

~ STORY ~

🔲 Bad
🔲 Text or Audio floating around
🔲 Average
🔲 Good
✅ Lovely

~ PRICE ~

🔲 Free
✅ Cheap (I bought during sales)
🔲 Perfect price
🔲 Could be cheaper
🔲 Overpriced
🔲 Complete waste of money

~ REQUIREMENTS ~

🔲 You can run it on a microwave
✅ Average
✅ High end
🔲 NASA computer

~ LENGTH ~

🔲 Very Short (0 - 4 hours)
🔲 Short (4 - 10 hours)
✅ Average (10-30 hours)
🔲 Long (30-50 hours) (if you go for everything in the game)
🔲 Extremely long (50-100+ hours)
🔲 No ending

~ FUN ~

🔲 I'd rather watch paint dry
🔲 Hard to enjoy
🔲 Repetitive
🔲 Actually pretty amusing
✅ The kind of fun you'll remember
🔲 Ride of your life

~ REPLAYABILITY ~

🔲 It's a one-time experience
🔲 Only for achievements
✅ If you wait a few months/years
🔲 Definitely
🔲 Infinitely replayable

~ Bugs ~
✅ Never heard of
🔲 Minor bugs
🔲 Can get annoying
🔲 ARK: Survival Evolved
🔲 The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

~ WORTH BUYING ~

🔲 No
🔲 Wait for sale
✅ Yes

Full Review [kinglink-reviews.com] -- Curator Site

I’ve tried to start this review a few times, and the fact is I haven’t come up with an opening line. I’m looking at Ori and the Blind Forest today and the fact is, I don’t know if I have the words that are properly worthy of the game. Ori and the Blind Forest is just an amazing game, and worthy of praise, probably far more praise than it’s received. I’m going to try to do it justice.

So I heard about how gorgeous Ori and the Blind Forest was. I’ve heard similar words on other games like Owlboy and didn’t like it that much. At the same time, I’ve seen pictures of Ori and I was curious about it. I’m not a huge fan of graphics though, as I feel a lot of times graphics allows games to ignore gameplay. However, when a game is great, graphics can enhance it. If you look at The Witcher 3, it’s a great game, but the graphics in it are fantastic and really add to the experience. But how great can graphics be in a 2D platformer? I feel there is a limitation to the graphics accomplishments to the point where they can fall into an over-engineered category pretty quickly.

Less than five minutes into Ori I understood the graphical hype, I was blown away by the graphics. The opening is very cinematic and well crafted. Ori is a child or a pet of Naru, a strange character who lives in the forest. We see quickly their lives together and what happens to them.

This entire prologue section is just a visual feast. It’s wordless and yet it shows time passing, emotion, and character growth. It’s incredible and just looks amazing while doing it.

In fact, the game looks so good, I played half of my 15 hours with the game at 1280×720 resolution. I didn’t even realize I was playing the game at less than 1080p, because the game’s graphics are that solid. I then switched it to the proper resolution and was impressed yet again. I can’t even explain how good this game looks especially in motion. Sadly I believe those techniques don’t translate well to screenshots, so I didn’t get many screenshots while moving but the game is impressive in the visual department.

So while that opening is very impactful, it’s one of the only points in the game to really have a strong focus on the story. The rest of the game steps back and develops into a Metroidvania style game. Which means you run around and get items that unlock new areas of the world and allow you to explore more, as well as backtracking and getting items a second time.

There is an ethereal voice similar to Bastion that delivers minor exposition as the “Spirit Tree”. Where Bastion was heavy with its dialog, Ori and the Blind Forest rarely uses the effect, but when it does appear it’s executed perfectly to drive the story in a minimalist narrative.

There is also the character of Sein, who is played similar to Navi from Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Sein is a disembodied spirit who guides Ori through the game and helps him and the player know what to tackle next.

The narrative though does appear during some levels and tells a little more of the story as the game plays, and it’s always done well in the main game, but after playing the whole game it never rose to the level of the opening segment. Instead, it gave mere flashes of brilliance versus a solid narrative.

Yet, the look and feel of the delivery of the story is amazing. Even the villain looks unbelievably good every time they are on the screen. He’s on the screen enough, but I wanted to see more of him because he’s so vibrant. The experience of the story makes me love the game because while it’s not always the cleanest in its storytelling, it’s gorgeous as it does it, and is done with such style.

If the story is that good, the question is, does the gameplay rise to the same level.

Well that question evolves into what type of game the player wants, Ori and the Blind Forest is a platformer, but it’s also one of the harder platformers I’ve seen in recent years. I played through the Definitive Edition, which I’ll touch on later, but I played on the normal difficulty which should be equal to the original game.

I died a lot. The final total was something over 500 deaths, and while some of them were silly, and a few of them were because of poor play, there is a lot of challenge here. I’ve said before that I hate the “Dark Souls” comparison because hard games have been here long before Dark Souls. But it tends to be more towards that difficulty than Limbo or Braid.

At the same time, I gave up on Hollow Knight, whereas with Ori and the Blind Forest, I could never put it down, and part of that is due to the style of failure in Ori and the Blind Forest. I never died because a challenge was too hard, or required too much memorization. Instead, the game always had a fair challenge and I constantly was required to build my skill up to the reasonable level the game demanded.

There is another important distinction between Ori and the Blind Forest, and other difficult games. Ori has a unique way to allow you to change the difficulty. You’re giving the ability to create save points in the game, and they persist. From there you can move forward and when you die you will always return to that save point.

This costs energy which the game gives away often, but never enough that you can save after every challenge. The energy is used for special attacks and save points, so the player has to decide if he wants to save or wants to use a solid (but not overpowered) attack. However, you can always return to a save point to save a second time if you desire. This system can allow players to create no-win situations, but the game doesn’t allow the player to save in “Unstable” areas, or when near a monster so it is difficult to get into a horrible situation. Maybe not impossible, but definitely harder than a save anywhere system.

Most of my deaths were caused because I forgot about the Save system, and would play for five to ten minutes to lose and realize I hadn’t saved, and then have to tackle the same hard challenges. However, I could have used the save system a lot more and made the game a little easier. There’d still be the hard challenges I had to overcome, but I wouldn’t have had to tackle them nearly as many times.

The level design in Ori and the Blind Forest is as solid as the rest of the game. While there is a lot of challenge and difficulty in the game, the dangers are almost always clearly stated, and there’s a good variety to the areas of the world. There are quite a few areas in the game, with three major sections of the game played on the main map each leading to a dungeon for the player to trek through.

My personal favorite was probably the second section which took us through the amazing Misty Woods which had a constantly evolving level, requiring the player to backtrack and find new locations multiple times, this was followed by the Forlorn Ruins, which was gorgeous but had some interesting mechanics, that I’ll avoid spoiling here.

Every level was something new and different and I wanted to see what was coming next. However, each dungeon ended with a rather long “escape” section. These were all interesting but they probably are the hardest part of the game, usually requiring a near perfect run for about five minutes. Most of the traps for these runs are unknown so you’re likely going to die a few times just to learn the level.

If you want to read more and see a final score, you can see the full review with pictures and video at https://kinglink-reviews.com/2018/05/25/ori-and-the-blind-forest-review/ You can also check out my Curator page at If you want to hear more from me, you can show me that by following my curator at http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31803828-Kinglink-Reviews/

Feel free to follow my review page!

Ori and the Blind Forest was a huge surprise when it originally came 5 years ago and with the sequel, right around the corner, I decided to replay one of the best and fantastic platforming Metroidvanias out there.

👍 The good parts:
+Great atmosphere and level design.
+Short and sweet story.
+Amazing soundtrack
+Fun and challenging platforming.

👎The bad parts:
-The combat feels more annoying than fun most of the time.
-Short game with few high adrenaline moments such as the final chase.

Not much can be said about the short story without spoiling the entirety of it, however, the gist is, you're playing as a creature of a forest called Nibel, a creature of light, and something bad happened and the light of all Nibel has vanished and you're tasked with restoring everything as it were.

There's a sorta villain of the game which you'll face and you will, of course, meet some additional characters on your journey. Ori and the Blind Forests story while not the deepest thing out there, it has huge charm and could potentially have an emotional impact on some.

Story rating: 8/10

The gameplay is a combination of platforming exploration with combat. You'll have a huge map to explore filled with secrets that can upgrade your skills. Your skills will be mandatory to upgrade as they will allow for better and faster exploration and combat. As you progress through the game you will also automatically find new skills that will allow you to access places you couldn't before.

The combat is secondary to everything and that includes its skill tree which will indeed help you deal with enemies faster however far from mandatory as the main aspect of the game will be platforming and exploration so my recommendation is, focus on the other two skill trees. There are also no bosses so you don't need to worry about combat at all later in the game. The high adrenaline encounters are just timed platforming events that will test your said skills.

Overall the platforming aspect while challenging, it's far from something a casual person would have difficulty dealing with and the combat while annoying most of the time, it can be avoided.

Gameplay rating: 8.5/10

All platforming and Metroidvania games have had an amazing soundtrack and Ori and The Blind Forest is one of them. Most if not all the songs are orchestral and epic and when the timed events happen, that's where the soundtrack truly shines. Too bad there are few moments such as those.

There's some small voice acting in the game which is fine and the overall sound effects are all good.

Audio rating: 8/10

The atmosphere and level design for such a small game are incredible and while some textures and backgrounds have not aged well, the overall aesthetic of the game is beautiful. Mad props to the team who animated Ori because watching it jump, swim and other acrobatics was incredibly well done. Each zone feels unique and well constructed in such a way that it makes sense when you move from one area to another.

As for performance, the game runs impecable as you'd expect and I had no bugs in my entire playthrough.

Graphics, performance and tech analysis score: 8.5/10

If you never played platformers Ori and the Blind Forest would be the perfect start. Don't go in expecting incredible Metroidvania combat but do go in expecting a charming story and a wonderful map filled with challenging but fair platforming sections and lots of secrets to discover.

I know this review probably won't be seen but hey, loved the game, story rich, buy it.

(Already played the original game? => skip the first few paragraphs)

Ori and the Blind Forest is a very beautiful metroidvania platformer. It has won several awards for it's art and music. The entire world is handcrafted and every area has a unique feel to it. You play as Ori, a tiny being in a huge forest. Your task is to restore the elements and restore balance in the forest of Nibel. During your adventure, you will gain abilities and skills that give you access to previously unaccesible locations.

The game has a unique save-system where you can place a checkpoint ("Soul Link") almost everywhere. Are you stuck? Create more savepoints. Forget to save and die? -- Too bad, you're going to have to do that all over again.

Besides that, the game allows you to pick skills from a skill tree that give you more freedom in how you want to play. Want to explore, pick some of the exploration skills. Need more fire power, pick a damage increasing skill.

This game is an extended and improved version of Ori and the Blind Forest and is a stand-alone experience. You do not need to play the original game first (the core game is the same).

Why buy this if you already own Ori and the Blind Forest?

- New abilities that both change how you move around and change combat in a new way.
- A large, optional, beautifully crafted and varied new area which tells Naru's backstory. You need to backtrack to find it.
- No more closed-off areas; Spirit Wells can be used to warp across the map and you will have access to every location, even after you finish the main storyline.
- Difficulty scaling. Was the original game too hard (or too easy)? Try the new 'Easy', 'Hard' and 'Single Life' modes, each with their own leaderboards.
- Behind the scenes content and concept art!
- 7 new achievements to get!

Like the original; probably best played with a Xbox 360/One controller, although not impossible to play on kb/m.