Ori and the Blind Forest

[schneefink]

I finally finished "Ori and the Blind Forest"! I haven't explored the areas that they added in the Definitive Edition yet, and there's several hidden spots that I haven't yet figured out how to get to; I might try getting those too eventually, but for now it feels like an ending.

I almost stopped playing in the Misty Woods, when I got stuck at a tricky bit with little health and no energy left, that took a long time and was very frustrating. After that I went back to the early areas to "level up," so to speak, and that helped a lot: turns out the game is easier and more fun when you have more than twice as many energy cells, life cells, and skills. There were still tricky areas after that (the spikes at Sorrow Pass killed me a lot), but it never felt as frustrating again. I'd started using walkthroughs quite early on, but then I tried without again and for the most part that worked fine too. (More accurately, I tried areas without the walkthrough and only looked at it either when I felt stuck or after I got through to see which secrets I'd missed.) I probably could have done without walkthroughs but that would have taken me twice as much time and been less fun. Overall it took me about 21 hours on easy mode over two weeks; I'm sure people who play more games find it a lot less challenging than I did.

The story was fine, Naru and Gumo are sweet and Ori is cute. (I never quite trusted Sein, or more accurately their judgment. "Kuro destroyed the Light to save her children and we'll just restore the light without considering that Kuro might just do the exact same thing again"? Not really long-term problem-solving here.) Imo it was just the right amount of story for this game.

Overall, apart from the frustrating moments in the middle, I had a lot of fun. The visuals are beautiful and the soundtrack was great too.

Comments

[cephy]

Good to know! I remember looking at that game at one point and wondering if it was something I should play.

[schneefink]

You play a lot more games than I do, so your experience could be very different! Yesterday for example I kept noticing what a newbie I am when I tried out Outer Wilds and struggled so much with the perspective and navigation that I fell off a bridge about seven times. (I've decided to put it aside for later.)

[nonesensed]

Been thinking about getting this for my sister, so it's great to hear from someone who's played it! (And who might not be a 24/7 game which my sister also is not). Glad you had fun with it :)

[schneefink]

I did! I'm thinking about starting the sequel soon, definitely in the not too distant future :)

[nonesensed]

Ooh, there's a sequel? Shows how out of the loop I am XD Hope the second game is just as fun!

[schneefink]

It was widely highly praised, so I am optimistic :)