I personally think this a good move, syncing up better with the children’s story book vibe prevalent in the gorgeous cartoon animations, melodic soundtracks and endearing plot.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as I still died on numerous occasions during my 10-hour adventure – plus there’s always the ‘Expert’ difficulty for those craving a challenge – but this Ori entry does feel more like a friendly Nintendo platformer opposed to ruthless side-scrollers like Super Meat Boy and Dead Cells. This inevitably results in a gentler difficulty curve when compared to Blind Forest. An early health-replenishing power up contributes towards this free-spirited play, as does the new shard system – plucked right of Hollow Knight – which sees equipped collectables greatly reduce enemy damage or improve your effectiveness against airborne villains. Will of the Wisps throws this feature on the scrap heap, with frequent auto-saving allowing you to be more reckless and experimental. This encouraged caution for every obstacle, especially since enemies and environmental hazards dealt so much damage. In Ori and the Blind Forest, you had to create your own checkpoints, which used up your precious magic meter.
Still, the Xbox One X or a high-performance PC is highly recommended here, even if it’s just to ogle the gorgeous 4K visuals.Īnother major change for Will of the Wisps includes the new autosave feature.
These spectacles provide the ultimate test for a newly attained ability, proving to be a hugely enjoyable crescendo for each of the five major zones, reaching the same sort of adrenaline-packed heights as Uncharted and Rayman Legends.Įnemy encounters and chase sequences do occasionally suffer the odd frame rate blip with the Xbox One S, but performance has improved dramatically since a patch update, and I can only see it getting smoother in the future. It’s the breathless platforming set pieces where Will of the Wisps truly shines, where Ori must escape a giant rampaging monster or collapsing building by jumping, dodging and swinging to freedom. On the other hand, combat is a lot more fun now, allowing for epic-scale boss battles and more frequent fighting to add diversity to the platforming. I’ve got mixed feelings about this new combat-heavy approach, as it awkwardly contradicts the peaceful nature of Ori which is a core driving force of the story.
You can even purchase new attacks and upgrade existing ones with in-game collectables, although I personally didn’t see a need to ever deviate from the standard blade, bow and bash attacks.
You can have multiple enemies on screen at the same time now, as Ori dances across the forest like an acrobatic ninja, cutting down monsters before they’ve had a chance to react.
In Will of the Wisps, combat encounters are a lot more fast-paced and frantic. This is a big deviation from its predecessor, Ori and the Blind Forest, where your best strategy of attack was almost always hurling enemy projectiles right back at them, resulting in slow but calculating skirmishes where timing and accuracy was king. You’re given a litany of weapons and attacks in Will of the Wisps, from a spirit blade for slicing and dicing your way through monster hordes, to a bow that excels at striking airborne beasts from a safe distance. But while the roots of this 2D platformer Metroidvania remain intact, there have been enough tweaks to ensure a distinctly new adventure. Ori and the Will of the Wisps could have easily played it safe and stuck ardently to the blueprint of its acclaimed predecessor.