Ori and the Blind Forest

Gameplay

Ori and the Blind Forest is a 2D platform game, the player controls Ori, a white guardian spirit. He has the ability to jump and climb and many other abilities. Sein can shoot Spirit Flames to combat enemies or obstacles. Ori is required to interact with his environment as he jumps from platforms and solves puzzles. Ori is faced with enemies as he makes his way to restoring the forest. The player helps Ori collect health shards, energy shards, new abilities, and upgrades. Beside Ori is Sein, who is the light and eyes of the Spirit Tree. The game world unfolds to the player in the fashion of a Metroidvania, with new abilities allowing the player to access previously inaccessible areas.

In addition to save-points scattered in the game, players can create "soul links" at any time they choose to serve as checkpoints. However, soul links can only be created using energy cells collected during gameplay; the needed energy is not in abundant supply, forcing players to create them only when necessary. The player can gain ability points to buy various perks and upgrades, such as increasing the damage of the spirit flame. These upgrades can be bought anywhere a soul link has been created and if the player has enough ability points to buy the skill they desire. An ability point is created when Ori collects enough experience by killing enemies and destroying various plants found throughout. Each skill must be bought in sequential order from one of three trees to allow the next, more expensive skill to be accessible.

Plot

The voice of the Spirit Tree in the forest of Nibel narrates the story of when Ori fell from the tree during a storm as a newborn and was adopted by a creature named Naru, who raised Ori as her own. A cataclysmic event soon makes the forest and its food supply wither, and Naru dies. Newly orphaned, Ori was left to explore the forest on his own. After collapsing near the Spirit Tree of the forest and being restored to life by it, Ori later meets Sein (pronounced /saɪn/), a being who both guides Ori on his adventure and attacks enemies. To restore the forest, Sein guides Ori to recover the light of three main elements supporting the balance of Nibel: Waters, Winds and Warmth.

Ori and Sein come across two beings in their quest: Gumo, the last survivor of the spider-like Gumon clan and whose home supports the Wind element; and Kuro, a giant owl who is hostile toward Ori. Her hostility and the forest's cataclysm are explained in flashbacks. When Ori was lost, the Spirit Tree released a flash of light to look for him, which killed all of Kuro's recently hatched offspring. To prevent this from happening to her yet unborn child, Kuro took away the core on top of the Spirit Tree, which is actually Sein. Without the Spirit Tree's support, the three elements cannot be sustained, and Nibel lost its balance. As the element of Wind is rekindled, Gumo, realizing what Ori and Sein intend to do, uses his clan treasure that stores the light from the Spirit Tree to revive Naru, and takes her to where Ori is.

After the final element, Warmth, is restored in the volcano Mount Horu, Kuro captures Ori and Sein as the fire from Horu starts to spread. Naru, who had been separated from Gumo, arrives to find Ori unconscious and is heartbroken, which makes Kuro remember how she also was struck by the pain of losing her children. As the fire spreads and is about to reach her remaining egg, Kuro takes Sein back to the Spirit Tree, which emits a flash of bright light that dissipates the fire and restores the forest, but Kuro is destroyed by the light. Time passes as the forest begins to flourish once more, and Ori is shown sitting on a log watching new spirits being born in the field at the foot of the Spirit Tree. Gumo and Naru watch together from afar, before the latter goes home, where Kuro's egg now rests, just in time to see it hatch.

Development

Ori and the Blind Forest was developed by Moon Studios, a worldwide collaboration of designers and programmers who have been working on the game four years before it was released, with Microsoft acquiring the game about a year after development started. One of the lead team members is Thomas Mahler, an artist formerly working with Blizzard Entertainment. According to Microsoft producer Daniel Smith, Moon Studios is not located in any one location, but instead staffers can be found throughout the world, from Austria to Australia and Israel to the United States. Gameplay programmer David Clark described the team as being inspired by current and classic adventure games, notably the Rayman and Metroid franchises, and that Ori is intended as a "love letter" to those games.

The designers say they were guided by works such as The Lion King and The Iron Giant and that it is a "coming-of-age story". The designers were also heavily influenced by the work of Hayao Miyazaki, particularly with one of the levels "Valley of the Wind", being a nod to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The art style is meant to appear hand-drawn, similar to the more recent Rayman titles that utilize Ubisoft's "UbiArt" graphics engine; the game instead uses the Unity engine. The game takes place in one large map, rendered at 1080p and 60 frames per second with no visible loading time as the player explores. According to Mahler, the game's backgrounds are all individual components, with none duplicated as in other similar titles. As an example, Mahler explained, "You see this tree in the background and this mushroom and this rock? That's the one and only place you'll ever see those assets."

The game was first unveiled at E3 2014 during Microsoft's pre-show press conference at the Galen Center; E3 was also the first time a number of Moon Studios employees actually met face-to-face. Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi, in charge of marketing for Xbox One, stated that they considered opening the conference with Ori, but instead chose Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. During E3, attendees waited in long lines to play a demo version of the game, often waiting in queues 7-8 people deep for each of the four consoles featuring the game.

Sometime after E3, Moon Studios announced on the game website that an Xbox 360 version of Ori and the Blind Forest was in development and planned for release sometime in early 2015. In November 2014, Moon Studios updated the status of the game and announced plans to push back the launch of the title into "early 2015" for Xbox One and PC, but no further mention of the Xbox 360 version was made at the time. Asked to clarify the status of the Xbox 360 edition, Moon Studios confirmed it was still in development and would be released later in 2015. As of February 2017, there has been no further announcement on the status of the Xbox 360 release.

A "Definitive Edition" was announced at Gamescom 2015. The expansion contains new areas, mechanics, and artwork. Specifically, it adds in an easier difficulty level, and enables fast-travel between spirit wells to help traverse the game's world. This version was released on March 11, 2016 for Xbox One, on the one-year anniversary of the game, while the Windows version was released shortly afterwards on April 27, 2016. Those who have already purchased the original game are able to upgrade to the Definitive Edition for $5.00. In May 2016, Nordic Games announced that they had partnered with Moon Studios and Microsoft to release a retail version of The Definitive Edition for Microsoft Windows. It was released on June 14, 2016.

Critical reception

Ori and the Blind Forest received acclaim from critics, with praise particularly directed to the game's story, visuals, gameplay, music, exploration, and environmental design. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 89.20% based on five reviews and 88/100 based on 12 reviews and the Xbox One version 88.52% based on 52 reviews and 88/100 based on 73 reviews

Writing for "Game Informer", Andrew Reiner gave the game a 9.5/10, praising its accessible yet challenging gameplay, well-designed controls, strong storytelling, surprising plot twists, rewarding exploration, orchestrated music, breathtaking and mesmerizing environmental design, as well as the wonderfully scripted challenges, which requires players to utilize creative thinking. However, he stated that the combat system in the game is not as refined as the platforming. He named the game "one of the best games of the year" and claimed that "There isn’t a bad moment in 'Ori and the Blind Forest'". Chris Carter from Destructoid gave the game a 9.5/10, praising its well-executed and light narrative, satisfying upgrades as well as the visuals, which he compared to the Rayman series, but he stated that "[Ori] easily surpass them in quality." He also praised the game for allowing players to set their own checkpoints anytime. He summarized the review by saying that "It succeeds in being both a great introduction to the genre and a rewarding experience for the hardcore audience" and called the game "a new classic [as a metroidvania]"

Ray Carsillo from Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the huge variety of environments, the delicate hand-drawn art style, remarkable and memorable story, and the quick save system, which has effectively avoided annoyance and frustration. He also praised the game for putting emphasis on platforming, puzzle-solving, and exploration instead of combat as it allows players to fully appreciate the level design. He also praised the game for capturing the balance between too forgiving and too punishing. However, he criticized the framerate issue as well as the game for forbidding players to re-enter certain areas. He stated that "[Ori and the Blind Forest] is polished enough to rarely break the immersion it inspires. It’s one of my favorite titles of 2015 so far and an unforgettable debut for indie developer Moon Studios." Kevin VanOrd from GameSpot gave the game a 9/10, praising its vibrant visuals, carefully designed levels, thrilling and exciting escape sequence, terrific pacing, rewarding challenges, as well as the narrative, which he compared to "Okami" and "Panzer Dragoon Orta." He also praised the game's opening sequence, calling it "among the best story sequences of any game." However, he criticized the occasionally frustrating levels.

Lucas Sullivan from GamesRadar gave the game a 8/10, praising its exquisite animation, phenomenal atmosphere, uplifting music, and intuitive gameplay, which he stated "has conveyed a real sense of lightweight agility." However, he criticized the save system, which may lead to constant death, the difficulty spike, as well as the unforgiving difficulty in the escape sequence. He summarized the game by saying that "Completing Ori's six-to-nine-hour journey will certainly leave you feeling warm, fuzzy, and accomplished - just be ready to dig in for some particularly trying segments." Nick Tan from Game Revolution gave the game a 4/5, criticizing the short length, meaningless health bar, low replay value, and the game not providing direction and guidelines to players in escape sequences.

Sales

According to Moon Studios' Thomas Mahler, Ori and the Blind Forest became profitable for Microsoft within one week of the game's launch on Xbox One and PC; and Gennadiy Korol, co-founder of Moon Studios, said the game was profitable for the studio itself within "a couple of weeks." Mahler described Microsoft as being "super-happy" with Ori and hinted that the franchise may see a future installment. He also stated that the Xbox 360 version of the game was still in development and was expected to launch later in the spring (Q2) of 2015.