Ori and the Will of the Wisps

[Machocruz]

Although the theme and vibe are not to my taste, the visuals in these games are tremendous, probably the best in several categories right now. Any word on what the developer's next project is?

They're supposedly working on an Action-RPG

Ori and the Blind Forest devs are making an action RPG • Eurogamer.net

I dunno. Basic bitch influences, but think they're going to revolutionize the genre. The theme and art might change my mind, but not very inspiring so far.

 

[Ivan]

I so want more games like Ori - metroidvanias with emphasis on environment traversal and not too much combat. Sadly I don't see anything like that

Currently playing Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. It's damn good and features strong exploration/puzzles and serviceable combat. (don't let the cheesey/kiddy song turn you away)

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Art is bleh, they do have a demo fortunately. It didn't even show up on steam for me as I filter out everything with "Anime" tag.

 

[Jrpgfan]

I so want more games like Ori - metroidvanias with emphasis on environment traversal and not too much combat. Sadly I don't see anything like that

Currently playing Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. It's damn good and features strong exploration/puzzles and serviceable combat. (don't let the cheesey/kiddy song turn you away)

Reminds me of Shantae, which is another pretty great metroidvania.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Thanks for the suggestions! Not the kind of art I like (prefer less anime-like), but if gameplay is good...

I so wish Hollow Knight wasn't as hardcore (or that I had the reflexes to get good), as it has really good level design and delightful atmosphere.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

So, Monster Boy... Gameplay is quite fun at least in demo, again not as tight as Ori. You can see lots of places to backtrack later when you have better skills. The childishnes of it is very off-putting however, the worst of the worst of sunday morning anime crap. However, according to my 4yr old kid "this game is like the rabbit game" (Ori, she watched me play both, was a bit scared at some boss fights), and she wants to watch me play it. I'll just play it with no sound, as the annoying audio is too much.

 

[Momock]

Thanks for the suggestions! Not the kind of art I like (prefer less anime-like), but if gameplay is good...

The Shantaes aren't great games, to be honnest. The best one is Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, and it's like a 7/10 game, so it's good but... yeah.

 

[Citizen]

The Shantaes aren't great games, to be honnest. The best one is Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, and it's like a 7/10 game, so it's good but... yeah.

Djinn boobs man

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Seven Sirens was decent too, albeit way too easy, and it’s the only one that’s a straight Metroidvania; the others are more like hybrids between Metroid and DKC.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Shantae is awesome, you fucking plebs. Much better than a lot of more acclaimed titles.

Plus

Djinn boobs man

 

[Momock]

Okay, okay... Djinn boobs, you win.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Shantae is awesome, you fucking plebs. Much better than a lot of more acclaimed titles.

Plus

Djinn boobs man

Half-Genie Hero was a pretty big disappointment, but otherwise I agree.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Shantae is awesome, you fucking plebs. Much better than a lot of more acclaimed titles.

Plus

Djinn boobs man

Half-Genie Hero was a pretty big disappointment, but otherwise I agree.

I disagree. I thought it was p. fun aswell. I don't think there's a single entry in this franchise I didn't enjoy.

 

[DraQ]

Art is bleh, they do have a demo fortunately. It didn't even show up on steam for me as I filter out everything with "Anime" tag.

I saw the art style and went "nope".

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Shantae is awesome, you fucking plebs. Much better than a lot of more acclaimed titles.

Plus

Djinn boobs man

Half-Genie Hero was a pretty big disappointment, but otherwise I agree.

I disagree. I thought it was p. fun aswell. I don't think there's a single entry in this franchise I didn't enjoy.

I don’t think it failed at what it was trying to do, but I think it took the franchise in the exact opposite direction most people wanted it to go.

 

[Momock]

Half-Genie Hero was a pretty big disappointment, but otherwise I agree.

It's way better thant Seven Sirens. It has the best transformations, some good rooms where to use them, some good levels, difficulty levels and bonus stages with other characters.

I don't know what the hell they did with the last one... I was happy that they come back to metroid-like, but the level design is boring and the scanning of every room and backtracking is tedious.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Not commenting on Shantae, but Monster Boy is good - not Ori-good, but good gameplay. Art is annoying and childish, but the levels are cool, the new paths that the abilities open are interesting. There's lots of interconnectednes. It does feel a bit grindy, with cool upgrades locked behind paying for it with gold, which you also need to buy healing (or I could get good and not get hit :D). Boss fights feel a bit arcady as well, and there's a hidden easy mode - if you die to many times to a boss, your dragon friend will drop health for you quite often.
It does have a bit too many enemies that don't pose any challange, just serve to slow you down. Combat is not very smooth, so all those trash mobs become annoying quickly. There's also bullshit with non-telegraphed surprise spiders dropping on you - I hate stuff you must memorize in the level.
In summary, nice mechanics, some bullshit, not as nice flowing as Ori, but pretty fun nonetheless. If you can stomach childishnes of graphics.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Half-Genie Hero was a pretty big disappointment, but otherwise I agree.

It's way better thant Seven Sirens. It has the best transformations, some good rooms where to use them, some good levels, difficulty levels and bonus stages with other characters.

I don't know what the hell they did with the last one... I was happy that they come back to metroid-like, but the level design is boring and the scanning of every room and backtracking is tedious.

Well, de gustibus non est disputandum I suppose. I don't think HGH was bad, per se, it just wasn't what I was expecting from the franchise and it felt like there was an intentional decision to try to appeal to a broader audience instead of doubling down on what people liked about the first three entries. I would also take issue with your praise of its transformations. It has some very good ones (okay, the best in the series), but it also has some utterly shit and gimmicky ones; definitely a mixed bag overall. Seven Sirens wasn't great either. It felt like they ran out of ideas and/or budget about a third of the way in, but at least it felt like a Shantae game.

Regarding your specific criticism of level design/room-scanning/backtracking in Seven Sirens, I honestly don't remember the game well enough to address that, which (considering the game came out last year) I will admit is fairly damning in itself.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Aaaaand finished. Great game, I cry evry tim.

I'd say Ori 2 is overall a better game than its predecessor, which was already great. There were two things about Ori 1 that I disliked pretty strongly, namely the lmb mashing combat and the dumbo character progression, so I like that they improved both in the sequel. They aren't amazing improvements by any means, especially the combat which is still very light-weight, but it's still better than mashing lmb. Also the game has moki, who are very cool.

That said, I mentioned before that I haven't seen anything as spectacular as the flooding tree escape sequence, and I stand by it. In fact, this is by far the most marked failing of the sequel compared to Ori 1 - the escape sequences in general are simply not as good (with the sole exception of the sandworm, I think, that one was bretty guud). They are shorter and I think much easier than in the first game. That is obviously because they are now paired with bossfights, and that's strike two against it, because apart from the final phase of the final boss (where you have to keep bouncing on the evil rain because THE FLOOR IS LAVA), they are all kind of shit. They are way too easy and unimaginative - you just mash BIG SMASH until they die and move on. It also feels "wrong" on some level that little Ori can step up to all those big-ass munsters and clobber them into submission. The game lost a lot of the feeling of vulnerability that was present in Ori 1, which was primarily conveyed through the escape sequences.

Also, what's with these developers and misunderstood creepy owl antagonists?

Still, I enjoyed it bigly. Good platformung fun all the way through. Though another thing here that felt a bit weird to me was how some of the mechanics were present in only one area and then never used again, like the buttons that needed shooping with the bow early in Kwolok's Hollow, or setting stuff on fire in Baur's Reach.

 

[Morenatsu.]

i agree, moki are very cool. now deviantartists can ship ori with someone other than fidget

 

[Momock]

I agree with Dark Roxor (about everything being an improvement minus the escape sequences. But I've only played two of them for now). I like a lot the adventure aspect (with characters, a village, etc), the reworked combat, the new powers (the digging is super fun) and the nerfed signature move (or at least I think it is nerfed when used against enemies, it doesn't affect them that much unless you throw them into spikes. Maybe somebody with better memories from Ori 1 can correct me). And it really shows that they liked Hollow Knight, LOL (charms and cartographer, really? ).

These last three tays I played the game twelve hours, wich is... way too much, with how colorful the game is my eyes hurt now.

 

[lightbane]

Also, what's with these developers and misunderstood creepy owl antagonists?

Someone here hates owls like British hate squirrels?

 

[DraQ]

Also, what's with these developers and misunderstood creepy owl antagonists?

Someone here hates owls like British hate squirrels?

I think it might be genetic:

 

[DraQ]

Aaaaand finished. Great game, I cry evry tim.

:singlemanlytear:

I'd say Ori 2 is overall a better game than its predecessor, which was already great.

I don't fully agree.
Ori 2 is pretty much Fallout 2 to Ori 1's Fallout 1.
The important part is that whether you prefer tighter mechanics and storytelling, or more everything is largely subjective and, yeah, both games are awesome.

the lmb mashing combat

That's one criticism I don't fully grok. I mean, yeah, combat in 1 was simplistic and bare-bones, and 2 has definitely improved on it, but LMB mashing was the least optimal and the least fun way of handling any combat past the point where LMB mashing was your only offensive option. Bashing projectiles back or enemy into hazard, AoE charge flame with projectile deflection (meaning you could bounce them back with a bit of skill), AoE stomp also with projectile deflection (I once kept stomping that mortar toad thing that was trying to run away while simultaneously bouncing its mortar until it caught up with it - fun!), charge-jump (allowing Shoryukening enemies directly above or launching off walls at them), plus light burst (ballistic sniper/grenade thingy) and charged dash (charge jump, but energy hungry and homing, also punching projectiles back) were almost universally more effective and fun.
Near the end Ori became so much of a little bundle of pwnage even sans Sein that I genuinely felt sorry for the enemies.

Also the game has moki, who are very cool.

Moki were by far my favourite character(s) in the sequel.
That's one of my primary criticisms against 2 - it has many characters but it does weaker job making you care for them and it's also more needlessly talky, while 1 excelled at conveying stuff without words apart from some narration from the Tree and exposition from Sein.
It's also less focused.

That said, I mentioned before that I haven't seen anything as spectacular as the flooding tree escape sequence, and I stand by it. In fact, this is by far the most marked failing of the sequel compared to Ori 1 - the escape sequences in general are simply not as good (with the sole exception of the sandworm, I think, that one was bretty guud). They are shorter and I think much easier than in the first game. That is obviously because they are now paired with bossfights, and that's strike two against it, because apart from the final phase of the final boss (where you have to keep bouncing on the evil rain because THE FLOOR IS LAVA), they are all kind of shit.

I don't really agree. I mean Ginso escape is hard to beat, but 2 had some nicely integrated boss fights and escape sequences, despite the obvious challenge of conveying when fight or flight would be the appropriate response.
Mora was pretty cool, so was the final antagonist.

It also feels "wrong" on some level that little Ori can step up to all those big-ass munsters and clobber them into submission. The game lost a lot of the feeling of vulnerability that was present in Ori 1, which was primarily conveyed through the escape sequences.

I know where you are coming from and generally agree (although the first game somewhat undermined this with farmable XP and fabulous murderskills later in game), but the obvious counter point would be Ori growing into his new role - first of protector of his foster sister and later of

Spoiler

a pretty much physical god-tree presiding over a forest of his own (yes, I cry every tiem too) - a kind of being we've seen just vaporize Kuro who was pretty much a non-negotiable instant death to Ori throughout the first game

.

Still, I enjoyed it bigly.

One of my all-time faves, despite not belonging to a genre I'm particularly interested in (2D platforming).

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

I'm almost done with Monster Boy (in last area, 90% complete). If you liked nice progression, lots of secrets, some good env puzzles, and fun to use powers, you'll like it. You'll have to get past extremely childish graphics, annoying music, lack of pixel perfect collision detection (sometimes it's extremely annoying), and couple bullshit moments (stealth section, pinball section, shmup section, couple of places where lack of pixel-perfect collisions is very frustrating, fucking second race with the pirate).
It has quite pretty background, but sprites could use lot more animation frames. Ori it is not, but it does scratch quite a lot of same itches. It feels like a good gourmet burger, when what you really want is nice juicy steak.

EDIT:
Finished at ~21h and 91% complete. Got all the gold upgrades, and most of the equipement. Don't feel like hunting down the rest of it. Final boss was cancer. This game could definitely use some polishing and removal/change of some bits, but overall recommend. If Ori is 5/5 then this is a solid 4.