Review for Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Game for PC and Xbox One, the video game was released on 11/03/2020
We will always remember the day when new life came to Nibel: we named it Ku.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps begins where he left off the last chapter: the sunset on Nibel is a truly unique show and the music composed by Gareth Coker still accompany the introduction and development of a work of incredible artistic value. We specify it immediately: Moon Studios has packaged another pearl, a metroidvania that evolves many of the mechanics of its predecessor, with a more layered finished product, which however retains the spirit and atmospheres born from the previous title, developing a game that - except for a few small problems - borders on excellence under various profiles.
The egg left by Kuro finally hatched and the cute little owl came out Ku, which grows amid the attentions of Naru, Gumo and Ori. The small bird, however, feels the need to fly, a very difficult task for its current condition: its wing, in fact, has not grown as it should and the little one struggles to hover in the air. The solution is at hand: Ori uses one of the feathers belonging to Kuro to allow the little owl to finally take flight with the white guardian on his back.
While the two friends taste the thrill of high altitude for the first time, we witness an initial scene - like that of the first title - from sublime beauty, which ends however with the arrival of a storm that makes Ori and Ku fall into the lands of Niwen, an inhospitable place that has lost its light and all its guardian spirits, starting a slow decay that has changed the creatures that inhabit it in a dangerously disturbing way. Ori sets out in search of little Ku, who separated from the white guardian during the fall and lost in these mysterious and harsh lands. In doing so he will also have to try to stop Niwen's inexorable decline, which began at Willow death and then with the end of its light, an event that led to the dispersion of four fatuous fires in different places: Ori will have to find them in order to restore the Niwen forest to the splendor it once had, when it was inhabited by the Spirits and life was flourishing.
Just Niwen recalls in its broad structure the world of the first chapter: one wide map divided into perfectly interconnected areas, full of tunnels to explore and secrets to discover by exploiting at the right time and in the right way all the special moves that a guardian like Ori can learn. A vast moveset that makes Ori and the Will of the Wisps even more varied, with clashes that can be faced in always different ways.
Compared to the skills that were unlocked in a linear fashion in Ori and the Blind Forest, this time you can choose a limited number - here called fragments of the spirit - to be activated simultaneously: from the menu it is possible to select at will which ones to equip, customizing Ori in more detail and allowing you to vary combinations based on the type of fights to be faced. To obtain these fragments of the spirit - as well as finding them around - you must complete secondary missions proposed by the inhabitants of Niwen: they are mostly simple fetch quest practically identical to each other, but their addition still helps to provide one more reason to explore the Ori and the Will of the Wisps map more carefully and to give further meaning to the backtracking.
In addition to Spirit Fragments, Ori can equip up to three moves usable via as many quick commands: most of these are obtained during the main storyline automatically or can be purchased from some of the friendly creatures present in Niwen, who exchange items and improvements in exchange for spiritual light, a sort of coin that is found in some not easily accessible points of the map and is dropped by enemies.
Basically this structure further deepens the customization, allowing you to take advantage of different mechanics depending on how you prefer to fight: use powerful but slow or faster but light attacks, increase the number of arrows fired at the same time, allow you to attack the opponent with bursts of energy ; in the same way, selecting the three moves becomes very fast thanks to a comfortable one rotate to screen, that does not affect too much the high pace of Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which improves a lot - compared to its predecessor - the clashes, no longer limited only to an indistinct spam of buttons.
Among the most important factors to keep under control, in addition to green spheres representing Ori's life, there are the blue spheres which indicate theresidual energy. In the previous title these were to be used to create save points, a unique and really curious function though does not return in this sequel, where the saving is automatic and the energy orbs are spent to use particular attacks and special moves.
One choice - to implement a automatic saving - which makes the unfolding of some sections more immediate (how many times in the first did you forget to save?) And which, however, in the version tested by us for the review, caused some problem in respawn and not only: some small bugs have plagued our run; Moon Studios who is aware of this situation and will provide a patch on day one that should solve most of the problems.
The icing on the cake of this combination of challenges made up of well-aimed attacks and dodges to be carried out with the right timing, is the return of one of the most original and functional mechanics of Ori and the Blind Forest: the Blow, which allows you to freeze time near projectiles by projecting in one direction and repelling the projectile in the other. This move, in addition to allowing Ori to reach places otherwise inaccessible, can be exploited for direct the bullets towards enemies or surfaces to be destroyed to clear the passage.
In addition to the Blow, there are other possibilities to solve environmental puzzles and to fight with common enemies and, above all, with bosses: to get hold of the will-o'-the-wisps, Ori must in fact contend with very dangerous enemies in the main areas of the game. These fights - at least on normal difficulty level - feature the right level of challenge and carrying them out requires a fair amount of effort. The fights, combined with platforming stages in which you have to perform precise jumps e well-reasoned moves, make Ori and the Will of the Wisps much more challenging than its predecessor but never unfair, thanks to a set of mechanics that the player can master quickly. Together with the boss fights, the spectacular escape phases to be completed in one great race, surrounded by scenarios that collapse as we pass and chased by a very dangerous enemy.
The whole is contained in what is a game that evolves the structure of the predecessor making the gameplay even more varied and satisfying; thanks to some of the aforementioned mechanics, always well calibrated and that make it fun to try again even when you fail, with Ori who as you proceed in the main plot acquires further moves that make the movements faster, wider and more precise.
Unfortunately - as already mentioned above - the tested version suffered from some technical problem, with drops in frame rate e several bugs, which however did not heavily affect the overall gaming experience. Visually and soundly, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a pleasure for the eyes and ears: the graphic improvement compared to the Blind Forest is clear, a step forward that amazes both in the spectacular backdrops and in the elements in the foreground, which accompany a brilliant level design that connects the map as a single expanded structure of commendable continuity and a soundtrack that adapts perfectly to every moment of the game. Moon Studios has painted a diverse world full of surprises, to be meticulously explored to discover what the lands of Niwen and this new Ori and the Will of the Wisps have in store for us.
There are titles and above all stories in which words take on a secondary importance, in which music and colors come together in a unique artistic show without equal. Moon Studios with Ori and the Will of the Wisps has packaged a great work and one of the best exclusives of recent years. Having it available immediately among the Game Pass titles - or stand alone at an affordable price - makes this new chapter essential not only for platform and metroidvania lovers, but for all video game enthusiasts.
► Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a Platform-Metroidvania-type game developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft Studios for PC and Xbox One, the video game was released on 11/03/2020
