Ori and the Blind Forest

I’d found myself out of gaming around the mid-2010s. Sure, I had my go-to games (that were distressingly becoming ‘retro’) and weirdly found myself keeping up with gaming news despite my not having bought a video game in several years but actually putting time or money into any of the deluge of FPS or battle royale titles flooding the market? Wasn’t happening. Skip to September 2017: I’m in a new flat, in a city I vaguely know, waiting three weeks for a job to start all on my own. What’s more, luxuries such as television or internet beyond that of my pitiful data allowance were still days away. I had a creaky old laptop and the small number of books I’d managed to squeeze into my car on the way up North. I ended up booting up my neglected Steam account and scrolling through all the games I’d read about and swiftly avoided.

Then I came across Ori.

Truthfully I’ve never gravitated towards 2D platformers with a preference for 3D adventure games with a heavy platforming slant. However boredom led me to download Ori and the Blind Forest on a whim. Well. I was taken from the very beginning right through to the well-earned final cutscene.

Firstly the music. Before you even push start the first theme begins playing over the development titles and it’s wonderful. You immediately get the feel of what you’re about to step into. Beautiful, mystical, sad. Throughout the score changes and weaves through the story and gameplay so well at times you hardly notice it as another aspect. It merely is the game as much as any character or gameplay mechanic.

Oh and if you want to get your heart broken in the first 5 minutes of a story? Boy, is this the game for you! No dialogue (besides the omniscient subtitled narrator tree) and no characters resembling humans yet the opening remains one of the most heart-wrenching and beautiful beginnings to any story I’ve encountered. Throughout the game remains firmly based around kindness and friendship and how they can triumph over violence and anger (carried on beautifully in the sequel might I say…) Not a word is spoken by Ori (our Navi-esque fairy friend has a lot to say but they remain silent unless there’s genuinely something interesting to bring up) or the creatures we meet but emotion is carried so well by these little cartoon characters that you’ll hardly notice the lack of script. Hey, it’s worked for Link for a few decades.

One of my favourite games of all time is the original Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus for many reasons but one of the things that makes it so replayable for me is the fluidity with which Sly moves. It’s literally a pleasure to just run and jump around a level. Ori does this and more. Ori’s movements, whether simply running (or elegantly triple jumping a lá Mario) or employing the impressive moveset at Ori’s disposal, are a joy to have control over. I’ve played Ori a now embarrassing number of times and as such can run the first chapter pretty damn quickly if I do say so myself. But rather than it being a panicked sprint it’s an elegant and charming jaunt through the forest even when done at speed. Ori is also noteworthy for the lack of focus on combat (there’s some but any compulsory fights are few and far between). Ori’s moveset involves some offensive moves but those most utilised are the ones based around running, jumping, gliding etc. Even the ‘boss levels’ are escape sequences rather than fights and require you to have mastered your collected abilities. And I do mean mastered. They’re not easy. But Moon Studios pitch the difficulty perfectly. It’s a challenge, one that will result in a few (or a lot of!) deaths, but it’s never too hard. Anyone who thinks games of yore were harder and that kids these days have got it easy should pick up Ori. It’s no Dark Souls, it never feels punishing, but to build a game with little to no combat that has interesting and challenging platforming that’ll keep anyone drilling away despite the death count racking up (yes the game does keep count!) is a novel thing these days and an impressive feat Moon should be applauded for.

Lastly a quick mention of the art. I gravitate towards pretty games but it’s by no means a requirement if everything else is well done. Ori is gorgeous. The characters, the varied environments, the animation, it’s just lovely to look at. Even the creatures and levels hit hardest by The Decay are tragically beautiful. Every time I load Ori I’m hit by the sheer beauty of the game. Hell, if you don’t like platformers you should buy this anyway just to look at it.

Ori remains one of the very best games I’ve ever played. Possibly some of that comes from it being such a surprise or being the game that got me back into gaming. Regardless, I can’t fault it. Pick this up (the Definitive Edition is the only one currently on offer and the added dash ability is so much fun to use) regardless of your usual genres of choice. Just be prepared to shed a tear or two.

10/10