Moon Studios knows what it's doing here. Occasionally there's bugs, sometimes gamebreaking ones, but with the patches those have been mostly worked out by now. That out of the way, this game is gorgeous. Even better than its precursor, Ori & the Blind Forest, with the visuals, the sounds, the animations, everything. Loading into the game is a joy in itself just to run around and look at the world. The controls are tight and work beautifully on either mouse and keyboard or controller.

Unlike its precursor, you actually fight in this game, and it's handled surprisingly well. There's a wide variety of attacks and abilities to use, and although I never felt like there were many intense fights outside of the bosses and combat shrines, any of the abilities felt decent to use. Being made for use with a controller, there's a certain amount of auto-aim even with mouse and keyboard. As a mouse and keyboard user, this annoyed me on occasion, but for the most part it was actually a plus, keeping combat fluid and letting me focus on dodging and keeping my tempo. Combat isn't all, of course, and the intense escapes that Blind Forest players are familiar with make a return as well, making sure you never know what's around the corner.

This is a short game, as you can see by my playtime it took me slightly less than 18 hours to complete the game once, with most (but not all) collectibles and sidequests. Replay value is limited to those collectibles, sidequests, and achievements. If you're into that, expect plenty of challenge getting the one life mode achievement, among others. For everyone else, this game is still well worth your money. It's a fantastic, well made game in every way that you might want to replay just so you can experience its exquisitely crafted world again. If you're new to this series, I heavily recommend getting the precursor to this game, Ori and the Blind Forest, so you can see just how far Moon Studios has come.

Moon Studios knows what it's doing here. Occasionally there's bugs, sometimes gamebreaking ones, but with the patches those have been mostly worked out by now. That out of the way, this game is [b]gorgeous[/b]. Even better than its precursor, Ori & the Blind Forest, with the visuals, the sounds, the animations, everything. Loading into the game is a joy in itself just to run around and look at the world. The controls are tight and work beautifully on either mouse and keyboard or controller. Unlike its precursor, you actually fight in this game, and it's handled surprisingly well. There's a wide variety of attacks and abilities to use, and although I never felt like there were many intense fights outside of the bosses and combat shrines, any of the abilities felt decent to use. Being made for use with a controller, there's a certain amount of auto-aim even with mouse and keyboard. As a mouse and keyboard user, this annoyed me on occasion, but for the most part it was actually a plus, keeping combat fluid and letting me focus on dodging and keeping my tempo. Combat isn't all, of course, and the intense escapes that Blind Forest players are familiar with make a return as well, making sure you never know what's around the corner. This is a short game, as you can see by my playtime it took me slightly less than 18 hours to complete the game once, with most (but not all) collectibles and sidequests. Replay value is limited to those collectibles, sidequests, and achievements. If you're into that, expect plenty of challenge getting the one life mode achievement, among others. For everyone else, this game is still well worth your money. It's a fantastic, well made game in every way that you might want to replay just so you can experience its exquisitely crafted world again. If you're new to this series, I heavily recommend getting the precursor to this game, Ori and the Blind Forest, so you can see just how far Moon Studios has come.