As a whole, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a beautiful, tragic, and complex story told on a stunning landscape and full of unique and loveable characters that will make you feel...so so many emotions. It’s gameplay is incredibly satisfactory with challenging, creative puzzles, hidden rooms, and difficult-enough enemies. I would, and already have, recommend this game to anyone and everyone.
To say that to play Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an emotional rollercoaster would be an understatement. Filled with incredible, joyful highs and soul-crushing lows, Will of the Wisps is one of the few games in the last year that has truly held a vice grip on my heart. Developed by Moon Studios, this action-adventure Metroidvania is masterfully crafted and manages the perfect balance of intriguing storyline and challenging gameplay to keep you glued to the edge of your seat the entire time you play. I mean, I played it for 12 hours straight – I just couldn’t stop. I laughed. I cried. I honestly think it’s one of my top ten favorite games of all time, and it’s primarily due to the thrilling and intense storyline. (warning: SPOILERS AHEAD)
In this sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, you embark on a new quest as spirit guardian, Ori, while seeing some familiar characters (Ori’s caretaker Naru and antagonist-turned-friend Gumo) as well as new faces and NPCs (owlette Ku, dozens of Moki, Grom the builder, Lupo the mapmaker, etc.). These NPCs also bring a new game feature in the form of quests to WotW – which I’ll be discussing briefly later. In the prologue, you learn that Ori’s little family has grown by one when they discover orphaned Ku. You watch as the owlette grows up and as her and Ori’s friendship and bonds build and deepen. Soon, Ku yearns to take flight, and the only thing holding her back is her weak and sparse right wing. Ori finds a structured feather for her and together, they fly off to explore the beautiful, vast world of Niwen. Unfortunately, a treacherous storm strikes and separates the two – Ku being lost in the decayed Spirit Wood guarded by the terrifying Shriek (also referred to as the Shrieker).
In the first half of the game, Ori sets off in determination to rescue Ku. Along the way, he sees, firsthand, the effects of the Decay spreading from the fallen Spirit Trees in the Spirit Woods. This Decay slowly takes the life of any who spend too long within its reach and eventually turns all life into dust and stone. This plotline formula is simple and very familiar to many gamers, but it is deepened via the characters you meet as you travel through the land. Families have been displaced and broken, and loved ones have become lost to the Decay. These unique stories are explored throughout quests in the game. Some quests involve rebuilding the world in order to help the characters recover from the Decay. One such requires you to bring Gorlek Ore that you find in hidden places around the map to Grom in order to fund and supply his projects to better Wellspring Glades. In another quest, you meet a moki who has gone in search of a safer home for his family. After you help him, by giving ore to the healer, he gives you a key to his house and asks you to check on his family in the Silent Woods. When you get there, they have already been turned to stone. Thus ensued the first instance of me sitting on the floor crying. You can see his stone wife and child in the house! And then, to top it off, you have to deliver the dreadful news with a stone teddy bear. It’s depressing and just one of the many storylines affected by the Decay. Although, the story is not dreary and grim all throughout. These moments are balanced by the bustling lives and communities of other NPCs who are making it through the dark times. They are joyful, high-spirited, and give gratitude at every good deed completed by Ori.
Moreover, the antagonist is also layered and complex. It’s not so simple as good versus evil. The Shrieker is given a sad backstory in which she has also been influenced by the Decay as well as the ignorance and mistakes of other characters creating the monster that she is presently during WotW. Born from the ashes of the Decayed Spirit Woods, she appears skeleton-like and, to be honest, very creepy and scary-looking. As a child, she tried to make friends but was rejected because of fear and ignorance. This backstory highlights a common theme and issue in today’s society that many can relate to. This is surprisingly subtle and easily missed in such a game which, on the surface, could be seen as childishly direct good versus evil.
These really intense themes and moments are also foiled by the stunningly beautiful art style and design of the world. Each level is brimming with detail and interest. There are hidden characters and hints at other lost stories and lives that have fallen to the Decay. In the Spirit Woods, in almost every shot or background, you can see animals and characters who have been turned to stone.
What I love most is the three-dimensional, painterly style of characters and the settings. In a game, this method (three dimensional elements in a two dimensional game) can be either brilliant and wonderful or very choppy and strange to experience. In WotW, they employed stacked layering in most shots which help to normalize the 3D characters. In a way, this really reminds me of Disney’s pioneering animation style at the beginning of their era of animation with the multiplane camera. Additionally, the colors are bursting and vivid. All in all, it’s just beautiful. I guess that’s subjective, but still, it’s necessary to mention how alive this world was created.
Personally, for me, an interesting art style and storyline is enough to help me enjoy a game – even with the most boring and plain gameplay. WotW’s gameplay is world’s away from this scenario. As I touched on earlier, the gameplay is JUST as intense and exciting as its plot and characters. In many ways, Will of the Wisps is an expansion or upgrade from The Blind Forest as a foundation. Many of the added features – namely, abilities, skills, and quests – elevate the gamer’s experience completely.
To start with, the movement of Ori is smooth and extremely satisfying. It’s primarily aerial and evokes a similar sensation as web slinging travel in Spider-Man (2018). There are many new abilities that Ori learns from Spirit Trees – one allows you to cling to walls and one allows you to breathe underwater – further increasing exploration and the prospect of discovering sneaky hidden rooms and areas. It was so delightful when I managed to find difficult pathways to secret areas, and frustrating but also still really cool when I, inevitably, had to look up how to get to some areas. My favorite ability was definitely “bash” which allows Ori to latch onto objects, projectiles, and enemies to shoot himself in different directions, while also sending the thing he’s using in the opposite direction. This ability is used creatively and extensively throughout the game from destroying blockages to allowing Ori to travel further and higher. While there are many helpful passive abilities, there are some really cool and interesting active abilities that can be combined to make Ori an unstoppable force. Spirit Arc is, essentially, like shooting an arrow of spirit light to do damage to energies. Launch actually turns Ori into a projectile. What makes this system even greater is the fact that you can cycle through them all throughout the game. There are many strategies involving different sets or combinations of abilities and skills that come together in unique methods of gameplay. It’s all up to preference. What I mean is, there’s non obvious, “right way” to play the game. Any player can use a unique combination of abilities and skills using what works best for them to create an individualized, personal experience.
I have to say that I found the entire experience almost completely immaculate. I love the deeply complex characters and their stories as well as the versatile gameplay and puzzles. It reminded me very much of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in many ways – which is also one of my favorite games ever. The only gripe I had was that the Nintendo Switch version is a little bugged. Sometimes, when I moved too quickly through a level, frames would drop or the actual scene would lag and not move alongside my character. One time, I accidentally clipped through the floor and walls, and I had to restart my game and lose a little progress (see below).
Additionally, as many other Switch players have experienced, the game crashed a lot. On my 12-hour playthrough, I experienced about 10 game crashes due to software error. Thankfully, the developers have announced a patch that will be released sometime soon. Even though this didn’t affect my love of the game as much, I definitely can see how demotivating these bugs could be for other players.
As a whole, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a beautiful, tragic, and complex story told on a stunning landscape and full of unique and loveable characters that will make you feel…so so many emotions. It’s gameplay is incredibly satisfactory with challenging, creative puzzles, hidden rooms, and difficult-enough enemies. I would, and already have, recommend this game to anyone and everyone.
