Ori and the Will of the Wisps

[Morenatsu.]

ori 2 was a cool expansion pack

 

[Citizen]

ori 2 was a cool expansion pack

... to Hollow Knight?

 

[Morenatsu.]

ori 2 was a cool expansion pack

... to Hollow Knight?

hollow knight is the dark souls of ori games

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Tried Shantae, that's just straight up platformer, not a proper metroidvania. Can't stand the humour or blatant fan service. Sprites could use way more walking and jumping frames, and less ass-swinging frames.

 

[Neuromancer]

Tried Shantae, that's just straight up platformer, not a proper metroidvania. Can't stand the humour or blatant fan service. Sprites could use way more walking and jumping frames, and less ass-swinging frames.

As some other guys already said, the various Shantae games are not the same and their general gameplay differentiates from each other.

I guess you tried Half-Genie Heroe, which indeed is more of a platformer (and in my opinion one of the weaker games of this series).

Try Risky's Revenge or Seven Sirens. These two are proper Metroidvanians.
(Some would say also Pirate's Curse, but this game has separate areas which are only reachable via a central hub and there are no other connections or modes of transportation between these areas.)

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Neuromancer, indeed I did try Half-Genie one, as it is not with hipster pseudo-nostaligia pixel graphics, and was on sale. Risky's Revenge I won't even try, it looks shit on screenshots and trailers. Seven Sirens does look nice from gameplay point of view, thouhg not at the price it is now. And I really, really, hate anime t&a. Monster Boy's children anime style was pretty easy to ignore, but crap like in shantae really annoys me (esp tits on snake ladies).

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

And my latest discovery in the genre:


It's Chinese-made, so it's sometimes in Engrish (but nothing too bad, pretty much codex-level ). Don't have much playtime clocked yet. You get your first powers at around 30min mark, maybe faster if you don't suck as I do :D. Graphics pretty smooth, high-res pixel art (no anime nonsense so far). Don't expect beauty like Ori, though it's perfectly functional and nothing is jarring (no difference in sprites/background quality). There seems to be a story, though I'm not paying that much attention. Platforming feels quite nice, if a bit floaty sometimes, and the jump range just feels insane. Map looks to be quite nicely connected, unfortuntealy it shares the recent trend of being just an outline without any upgrades. Quite a lot of secrets, even in the beginner areas. Whole thing has a nice post-apoc/dystopian feeling to it.
Based on my current experience, I'm recommending this to Ori fans, at the <10 GBP price point, with caveat that it is early access.

 

[DraQ]

Doing end-to-end Ori run.

Thejust never fucking stops,
especially after the latest patch allowed getting rid of most of the pointless blur and, Jesus Fuck, it's even more gorgeous than it was already.
People at risk should take care as they might HNNNG and keel over from too much eyegasm.

Everything else is pure awesome as well, as it's always been.
Those are one of the few games where just running and jumping back and forth like a moron counts as rewarding experience, and that's even without even adding OST eargasm into the mix.
And then comes the gameplay proper and the feels'n'stuff.

Plus I can't help but admire the amount of care and skill put into the game - from story (simple as it might be) construction and presentation in 1, to stuff like save system (also in 1) and how it rewards saving after recoverable fuckups, to the general fine-tuning of the gameplay, the way optional goodies become gradually more accessible as you gather abilities, while at the same time their value decreases (due to having less mileage left and progression inflation) and the way the game was explicitly built so that a hypothetical perfect (but not psychic) player could reliably ironman it blind - as it should be.

Experiencing, learning and internalizing lessons of Ori game design should be fucking mandatory for anyone wanting to make a game of any kind.

 

[Morenatsu.]

haha as if any of these games are actually like anime

 

[DraQ]

haha as if any of these games are actually like anime

Ori games are like anime in that they are, among other things, a great homage to Studio Ghibli stuff.
Some other games mentioned ITT are also like anime, but in that they make me a little queasy just looking at them.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Metroidvania in Studio Ghibli style would be lovely. They do lovely fantastic creature, and nicely stylised humans, that nevertheless feel correct anatomy-wise. They also do a great job of the moving bits matching the backgrounds, so it doesn't feel like you're watching cutouts.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I’m not trying to defend Shantae as a game series, it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but imagine not appreciating bouncing boobs and butts in your video games.

 

[Terenty]

Try Rain World you pussies. This is peak survival

 

[Morenatsu.]

haha as if any of these games are actually like anime

Ori games are like anime in that they are, among other things, a great homage to Studio Ghibli stuff.
Some other games mentioned ITT are also like anime, but in that they make me a little queasy just looking at them.

Ori is nothing like Ghibi. Have you ever even watched anime?

I’m not trying to defend Shantae as a game series, it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but imagine not appreciating bouncing boobs and butts in your video games.

some of us prefer wagging tails and scaly scales

 

[DraQ]

Metroidvania in Studio Ghibli style would be lovely. They do lovely fantastic creature, and nicely stylised humans, that nevertheless feel correct anatomy-wise. They also do a great job of the moving bits matching the backgrounds, so it doesn't feel like you're watching cutouts.

As far as I'm concerned Ori games give off some serious Ghibli vibes.

Ori is nothing like Ghibi.

What.

Try Rain World you pussies. This is peak survival

I just might.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

<3sRichardSimmons Believe it or not, quite a lot of gamers aren't sex-starved teenagers. I don't care for sex stuff in games, especially if it does not serve any purpose but to attract people to the game. If you want boobs and butts, we have nice threads here for them. I also heard that there might be one or two sites on the internet that show nothing but butts and boobs.

Terenty Rain World feels punishing for the sake of punishing. Playing it felt like a slog, and the mandatory find-shelter at EOD was super annoying. I just didn't find it fun, as it felt like this game is not respecting my time, and is being hard just to be able to say it's harder than dark souls.

 

[Morenatsu.]

As far as I'm concerned Ori games give off some serious Ghibli vibes.

Ori is nothing like Ghibi.

What.

In what way could it be? Uh, yeah, there were, like, some nature spirits in that wolf movie, so, um, it's totally like that Giblets studio, amirite. Never mind that most of the content of Miyazaki's films is about children going on adventures that don't have much of anything in common with Ori at all.

 

[DraQ]

As far as I'm concerned Ori games give off some serious Ghibli vibes.

Ori is nothing like Ghibi.

What.

In what way could it be?

The fuck you're on.

Even if you somehow miss the obvious inspiration (Ori games are just one, long, masterfully crafted loveletter to Ghibli stuff and there is no shame in that), this has been acknowledged multiple times by Mahler himself.
There is seriously no room for interpretation here, so I'm not sure what you're trying to argue here.

https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2020...e-chef-brigade-mutazione-totoro-spirited-away <-Polygon link since I CBA to find anything better.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/hfpsj8/we_are_moon_studios_creators_of_the_ori_franchise/ <-also, a reddit AMA.

 

[lightbane]

I think it might be genetic:

Wasn't Roxor a ratman that hated everything? And Polish, which is probably not the same?

Try Rain World you pussies. This is peak survival

Gamepad required for that one. I don't like the pseudo-pixel graphics of that game, but it looks cool.

As for Ori 2... Does it start with an awful Tumblr-tier VN-style intro like the first game? Also, does Ori assume a male gender/sex at long last?

I'm still waiting to see if an enhanced edition is done, but perhaps I should get it already. Does the sequel let you edit your controls? The first one didn't, which was annoying. Thankfully, I have now a PS3 pad, which hopefully is compatible. Is it, or is the game only accepting of XBOX pads?

 

[DraQ]

Try Rain World you pussies. This is peak survival

Gamepad required for that one.

I might give it a pass then.

As for Ori 2... Does it start with an awful Tumblr-tier VN-style intro like the first game?

Them are fighting words.

Also, does Ori assume a male gender/sex at long last?

Spoiler

Yes.

Does the sequel let you edit your controls? The first one didn't, which was annoying.

Hand back your PC driving licence sir:

My OaTBF key binds

Keyboard Rebindings
--------
Activate Key Rebinding: True
--------
Movement Left: Keypad1, LeftArrow
Movement Right: Keypad3, RightArrow
Movement Down: Keypad2, DownArrow
Movement Up: Keypad5, UpArrow
Menu Left: A, LeftArrow
Menu Right: D, RightArrow
Menu Down: S, DownArrow
Menu Up: W, UpArrow
Menu Previous: PageUp
Menu Next: PageDown
Proceed: Space, Return
Soul Link: KeypadEnter, Backspace
Jump: LeftAlt
Grab: LeftControl
Spirit Flame: Mouse0
Bash: Mouse1
Glide: LeftControl
Charge Jump: Mouse4, Keypad5, UpArrow
Select: Tab
Start: Escape
Cancel: Escape, Mouse1
Grenade: Mouse3, Return
Dash: Mouse2, Keypad0
Left Stick: Alpha7
Debug Menu (shhh): Alpha8
Zoom In World Map: RightAlt, LeftAlt
Zoom Out World Map: RightControl, LeftControl
Copy: C
Delete: Delete
Focus: F
Filter: F
Legend: L
--------
Usage:
- There is no guarantee of the game still being playable after key rebinding. Please use with caution and delete this file in case of breakage
- Spelling and syntactical errors will result in the key rebindings not registering properly, and the game will get set to default
- Deleting this file will result in this file being recreated by the game, containing the default settings
--------
Don't forget to restart the game after editing this file!
Don't forget to close this file before restarting the game!
--------
Mouse0 is left mouse button
Mouse1 is right mouse button
AlphaX is the number X on the keyboard (not num pad, the stuff above your keys)

Thankfully, I have now a PS3 pad, which hopefully is compatible. Is it, or is the game only accepting of XBOX pads?

Yeah, do stick to the consoletard stuff, it suits you better.

 

[Citizen]

Does it start with an awful Tumblr-tier VN-style intro like the first game?

This is why I dropped Ori after starting it for the first time, I saw this shit and while it was very beautiful I assumed it was going to be a "story heavy" platformer that would consist of huge unskippable cutscenes/slow walking sequences. When I gave it another chance it turned out I was wrong and the game is non-stop action/exploration, there's literally no other cutscenes/gameplay breaks after the intro

Also lol @ DraQ, imagine playing platformers on a keyboard

 

[DraQ]

Does it start with an awful Tumblr-tier VN-style intro like the first game?

This is why I dropped Ori after starting it for the first time, I saw this shit and while it was very beautiful I assumed it was going to be a "story heavy" platformer that would consist of huge unskippable cutscenes/slow walking sequences. When I gave it another chance it turned out I was wrong and the game is non-stop action/exploration, there's literally no other cutscenes/gameplay breaks after the intro

It has some but as you can see they are unintrusive enough for you to not notice.

Also lol @ DraQ, imagine playing platformers on a keyboard

I use mouse as well.


Besides, bash works way better with mouse than it would with controller. Makes pause effectively spurious.

 

[Citizen]

Besides, bash works way better with mouse than it would with controller. Makes pause effectively spurious.

Bash direction is controlled by right analog stick, so you have pretty precise controls, comparable to mouse at least

 

[DraQ]

Besides, bash works way better with mouse than it would with controller. Makes pause effectively spurious.

Bash direction is controlled by right analog stick, so you have pretty precise controls, comparable to mouse at least

More cumbersome.
For precision directional control there aren't many good alternatives to mouse, as attempts at console-PC FPS crossplay have demonstrated.
Not having analog input for movement is not really a noticeable hindrance in comparison, you rarely need to move at anything but full speed and if you do you can just pulse input, so the only casualty is not being able to admire full range of walking anims.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

I played Ori with both kb+mouse and xbox controller. I am not ashamed to say that it's more fun with controller as I can lean back on my chair for super comfy session. Also, can be farther away, so my kid has unobstructed view. I know most codexers probably don't care, but my little heart grows three times in size when she says that I'm good at this game after I made "the rabbit" beat a boss or just do a long, uninterrupted run (like traversing the glades in Ori 2). Seriously, it's such a nice game to share with a kid, I can't wait for her hands to be big enough to work the controller.