An awesome platform game that combines beautiful visuals and awesome mechanics mixed with a tear jerking story.

As some of you may know, I recently streamed this game from start to finish and I could not stop praising the game despite some sections being better suited to those with better hand eye coordination than myself.

Narrative.

• From the moment you start the game, you are sucked into the story of the game, and that same story is ever evolving as you play the game more and more.
  The start of the game, you are greeted with a tree that has lost a leaf/light who lands in a lonely creatures lap, turning into the tree spirit Ori. With subtitles, the story plays out like a fairytale, until the creature dies, leaving Ori all alone. And this is all a long cutscene at the start of the game before you get into actual gameplay.
  Once reborn, Ori is greeted by Sein, who is the light and eyes of the Tree Spirit, Nibel that Ori fell from. Sein has a much bigger roll to play in not only the story of the game, but the fighting mechanics too, as it can be used as a weapon against enemies.
  Nibel, the deep voice that speaks a language no one knows, but is subtitled non the less, tells the tale of Ori during the entire game, bringing that fairytale aspect into the game. Combining this with the fucking awesome music, and I mean epically created, crafted and assembled music makes the game feel more emotional than any other game I have come across.

• When playing the game, you will encounter 2 other beings. Gumo who is the last survivor of the Gumon clan and, Kuro.
  Gumo initially hinders your attempts at advancing further in the game, but after an accident and you help him, he then becomes friendly, helping you at various points further in the game.
  Kuro on the other hand is very antagonistic towards you from the moment you see him. He is a large shadowy owl type bird that seeks to destroy any light that came from Nibel, including Ori. The hostility comes from when a burst of light from Nibel after Ori was lost, this killed off Kuro's young hatchlings. Not wanting it to happen to her yet unhatched egg, she took the core away from the spirit tree, Nibel. This core is in fact Sein, your floating orb that helps you battle enemies.
  Without the core in the Spirit tree, the three other elements can not be supported, and so the forest fell into chaos. You have to restore the three elements and then return Sein to the Spirit Tree.
  Of course the story is much more complicated than this, as you have a combination of flashbacks from several creatures you meet along the way and the narration by Nibel. There are also aspects that combine both story driven action but also combine new game mechanics that you will inherently receive the further you progress into the game. Not many other games are able to do this, but with that story telling and learning mechanic.... it is a combination that sucks you right into the game, almost becoming addictive as you just want more of the emotional connection that the game gives you.

• It is a story that has inspiration from fantasy, fairytale's and mythological mediums but it melds it into the gameplay perfectly to create a game that is truly inspirational in itself while remaining unique and separate from anything else before it.

Image Source/Credit - @TechMojo's Live Stream.

Visuals.

• You should all know by now that I love a game that is heavily stylized, and this one takes that idea to the next step, bring us something that plays hand in hand with the story that is being told and played.
  There are several sections of the game, each with there own ''style'' and environment. One particular section that I remember above all is the Moon Grotto. When you enter for the first time, the area as a whole is very dark with limited light sources available, and the only way to see correctly is by using Sein. It only gives you a small area in which to see, which makes it a very difficult section to begin with. The story is that the forest has become a land of chaos, and this plays into that story very well.. The further you advanced, and when you return the light to that section, ''life'' returns to the Moon Grotto, and the entire environment is lit up, bright and looking fresh. Combined with the music, it is an awesome thing to behold.

• The character you play has some fantastic animations to begin with, and as you progress in the game and become more 'equipped' with more mechanics, each additional animation required for said mechanics, is just as good as the last.
  As a whole, it kind of looks like a 1970's Disney movie but much, much more smoother. The colour pallets used are very similar to that era of cartoon animation also, but with the obvious enhancements of modern animations.
  Back to the background/environment of the game, although there are many different sections for you to discover and play through, the artistry used is absolutely awe inspiring. It just looks beautiful, from the dark and gloomy, to the bright and vibrant. It is just a fantastic game as a whole to look at and play through. This is one of the main reasons why this small indie game became so popular.... I mean, just take a look for yourself.

Image Source/Credit - @TechMojo's Live Stream.

Gameplay.

• While the story and visuals of the game are as good as they are, the mechanics on the other hand are a totally different subject.
  The main feature of this games mechanics are the learning/progression pickups you get the further you play the game. You start the game off with minimal abilities, namely jump. But you can discover spirits in different sections of the map and absorb there light. This will enable you to do something different, so you can now dash on the ground, dash rebound of enemy fire or the enemies themselves, letting you essentially jump further into the direction you want.
  One section of the game, The Ginso Tree escape, is by far my favourite section of the game. And with good reason. It not only introduces you to one of the games core abilities that you have to use more and more as you progress, but you have to use this new ability in a maze of puzzles and then in a fast paced escape to safety.
  Bash is the ability I briefly described. Basically, it allows you to lock on to object like lanterns, enemy fire or the enemy's themselves to hurl yourself into the direction you wish to go. This simple yet powerful mechanic allows you to stay in the air for longer by skilfully manoeuvring yourself to bash of several objects in sequence. Unlike a double jump that is always available to you, bash requires some thinking time to achieve your goal. It does this by briefly pausing time for a few seconds, allowing you to get the direction of your bash just right. You would think by pausing time, it would bring the game to a halt, but in fact, because there is no breaks in the music, and it only last a couple of seconds before it forces you back into normal time, it works perfectly with the flow of the game. That couple of seconds thinking time, is just enough to allow masters and novices alike to progress further into the game.
  In the tree, it sort of tests you on this ability in various puzzles and obstacles. When you become comfortable with how this new mechanic works, you are then put to the ultimate test by escaping the Ginso tree. This section you will spend some time on, guaranteed. You will die more than a few times in your attempts to escape. Now in other games, dying over and over again on the same section can become very frustrating very quickly, yet with this game, you just keep going back for more. The way in which the game achieves this is by seamlessly transitioning you back to the start of the escape after you die with no breaks in the music and no cut scenes to sit through. It is just pure hand eye coordination action at its finest. I think I died about 30-50 times attempting this on the live stream, yet when I finally escaped, I felt huge pride and relief, wanting to do more of the same.

• The only real downside to this game is towards the end. Yes the learning mechanic is awesome as it allows you to use your new found skills to explore further and reach places you couldn't before, but by the time you are towards the end of the game, you have more skills than there are buttons on your pad. At times I felt overwhelmed with what skill I should be using, and in many instances, I was using the wrong skill, sometimes resulting in me dying. This I found to be very frustrating. And I think I'm not alone in that assumption. The game just got gradually more awkward to control. If the devs didn't add as many skills it would have been a more pleasant overall experience at the end, as you don't necessarily need all those skills to complete the game. That is really the only complaint I have about the game. Everything else is fucking awesome.

Image Source/Credit - @TechMojo's Live Stream.

Overall I really enjoyed playing the game and sharing it with all of you during the live streams. The story in itself tugs on the heart strings and can be very emotional, yet it remains very gripping. The visuals are hugely inspired, giving us some awesome looking artistry, and something truly unique. And then the gameplay, if I could kiss the devs, I would. All of these aspects are intermixed together, elevating each other to be even more than themselves.

9/10

It is a game that I feel can be played over and over again, and you will never get board. It is almost like a Zelda dungeon meets MeatBoy, combined with a dark Disney fairytale. It is just a damn shame that by the end of the game, the devs over did it a little with the skill mechanics. Hopefully, the next game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the devs would have taken everything that they learned from this game and make something that will be near damn perfect. It is a platform game like no other and will become a modern classic very soon.

What did you think of this game?

Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading.

Stu @TechMojo

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