How do you know a development studio is good at what it does? There are many aspects to this question: Is it a matter of gameplay? Graphics? Writing? All of the above? It varies between studio’s, but in the case of the developers of Ori and the Will of the Wisps, they went out and did the impossible: Make a game more beautiful than its predecessor which in this case is no mean feat.
The first game, Ori and the Blind Forest caught my eye upon its reveal at E3, a few seconds of trailer enough to show the striking visuals and hypnotic music and placing it as a must on my games to play list. When it was finally released, it exceeded expectations, a beautiful thoughtful game unlike any before it. Fast forward five years and its sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps debuts to show that it wasn’t a fluke, and Moon Studios paid attention while at the same time making the visuals even more striking and beautiful.
Like it’s predecessor, Will of the Wisps is a side scrolling platformer and a challenging one at that. However, this has been improved and expanded on, and the same great feeling controls appear again with more traversal options to help you get around the challenging levels. On top of this is layered a combat system that actually changes the focus of the game from platforming to combat and it is just as good at this as it is anything else.
Ori can now equip shards that give him extra abilities, from a third jump to stronger attacks. Some are upgradable, some have downsides such as enemies getting stronger as you do, and some are useful passives such as the one that makes hidden walls semi-transparent. Each area of Niwen, the games locale, has ‘abili-trees’ that grant Ori new powers. Almost all of these combine both traversal and combat. For example, one ability grants you the power to bury through sand. Hit the bumper though and you power forward, causing damage to anything in your path.
These trees also grant you weapons to use, several of which again combine both combat and traversal mechanics. Combining these powers is key to getting around some of the harder sections of the game and it's fun to figure out how best to do so to get around a particular problem. As an example, using the light burst ability to fire a ball of energy into the sky, then jumping to hit, hitting a bumper and using it to jump even higher lets you access higher area’s that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
It’s a cool way to combine the two aspects of the game and really brings both together. I will admit that some of the weapons fall by the wayside in favour of others, but then that is the same in just about every game. Ever. There is enough variety however that it gives you different ways to solve puzzles and fight enemies and the game becomes that bit more replayable because of that.
Another change from the original is that Ori now has a home base that can be upgraded over time. Now, this is, from a mechanics prospective, a bit pointless. It grants you very little apart from some new characters to talk to and a way to spend some of the collectibles dotted around the world. However, it is also beautiful and lets you take a breath and do something easy after all the running, jumping and fighting. It’s cool to watch it expand over time and provide a place for the citizens of the forest to live and hang out, with the odd little secret to find. It also provides a place for another new addition to focus: quests.
Every so often you will encounter a character that will grant you a quest to complete. These are almost all fetch something for the quest giver, be it a hat or something warm to eat. They aren’t overly involved and almost all will be completed through the natural course of playing the game with very little back tracking except for what you would normally do. They don’t provide much in terms of abilities or weapons, but it is a nice little touch to help break things up and get you some of the in-game currency.
Will of the Wisps expands on its predecessor in just about every single way possible. Even the sound is better somehow, drawing you into the world almost as much as those improved graphics. How this team manages to conjure such things out of a computer is completely beyond me, and is a real testament to the skill of the developers. It is bright and colourful where it needs to be, dark and dank when called for and the ‘moving water colour’ aesthetic draws you into the world in a way few other games can muster.
Ori himself moves with grace and fluidity few platformer protagonists can manage and the controls are tight and precise, each death down to you fumbling the controls rather than the game being unfair, though on that there is the issue of all the movement options as it can be difficult to remember which you need at a given moment as well as how close you need to get some to activate over the others. It’s a minor niggle, and might well be down to my own brain not working as well as it once did but it's worth mentioning.
There are just two other issues to mention, which says a lot about the game itself. Firstly, there are multiple chase sequences that generally proceed a boss fight. While these are nothing new to this style of game, they can get frustrating as the boss is always nipping at your heels and the slightest mis-step costs you a life and it always restarts the sequence. No checkpoints to help. Honestly that is the solution, just one check point half way through the sequence and that would be that. I had such trouble with one late game sequence that I looked it up and apparently it took some six hours to complete and some gave up all together. It was controller throwing levels of frustration at points.
The second and final issue is that story wise, the game hits almost exactly the same beats as the original, so it feels like the same tale just with slightly different characters. Honestly that first story was pretty good, so it's not like you get a terrible one here, it's just that the world that is created seems rife with so much potential that retreading old ground seems a massive waste. The story is secondary to the gameplay to be fair, as it was in the first game, so it's not like it will completely ruin the experience.
If you, like me, loved the original, then Ori and The Will of the Wisps does everything you want from a sequel and more, it's just a shame the story is so similar. If you never played Blind Forest and want an excellent action platformer, then the sequel will hit you where you need it and if you just want to experience a starkly beautiful, artfully crafted and amazingly imagined world then jump right in. Ori and the Will of the Wisps, like its predecessor, stands out from the crowd and will stick with you for years to come.