Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a platform game that was released in 2020 and is a sequel to the game Ori and the Blind Forest. A friend suggested to play the latter (on Nintendo Switch), but saw the Will of the Wisps to be on sale when I was first looking for games hence I played it first.

I love platformers so I was already attracted to it naturally but when I checked the gameplay on Youtube, I was like WOAH THIS SOME GOOD LOOKING ENVIRONMENT HERE so it was a no-brainer decision for me to be the first game I played on Switch.

The game focuses more on the story and exploration rather than being rushed to finish another level or some shit. That means you can take your time and appreciate the visuals which I will show later on.

I will not explain much on the mechanics but rather focus on some commentary about the story and the gameplay so spoiler alert if you don't want any better not read this lol.

The Story

The game is about some spirit named Ori which looks like a shiny mew (but cuter) and since I wasn't able to play the Blind Forest (the prequel) I didn't have any idea who they were or how an owl hatched there or whatever despite the parents not looking like an owl.

Anyway, so the owl named Ku had a defective wing and obviously wanted to fly but can't. They attached the mother's feather to the wing so Ku was finally able to fly.

You know the first thing they did when Ku was finally able to fly? Ku and Ori flew up high and far away from home. Of course a storm happened so they both got separated so now Ori has to find Ku in the big forest. Fucking genius.

The Gameplay

So naturally you gotta learn how to jump, attack and use other skills early on in the game. Like any other games, you gotta explore to find the shit you need to gain new abilities and stuff like that (you know what I'm sayin).

I really like how smooth the jumping experience was and it was really satisfying to jump and climb walls lol. I mean some games can get you pissed off just cos it was hard to jump or the jump wasn't that powerful you know.

Aside from the already wonderful experience even just after playing it for 10 minutes, your eyes will be happy cos literally every part of this game is so beautiful. It's a fucking masterpiece everywhere. I mean just look at that. I dig that look a lot.

You can also talk to NPCs for side quests if you don't wanna proceed to the main quest first.

I actually wanna explore first and gather stuff and do side quests just so when I get to the boss part I'm not a fucking weakling and I can defeat them without dying or repeating it again hehehe.

just

look

at the fucking

visuals <3 <3 <3

Anyways so back to the story...

There's this bitter adult owl that lives in the decayed part of the forest and of course Ori's friend Ku the fucking owl was there. In like 25% of the game, you will already find Ku (which was weird cos I thought it was too early?) but of course the bitter owl Shriek (who likes to kill EVERYONE) spotted them there.

While Shriek was focusing on attacking our guy Ori, Ku, a genius she (or he? whatever) is, lunged at the big bitter owl???? Of course it didn't do anything else than to provoke Shriek and gained her attention.

Of course she died.

Hahahaha.

So now what's the point of being here and continuing the game when our dumbass friend (which was the reason we got here in this mess in the first place) is dead already? XDD

Glad you asked.

So life goes on after the death of Ku. Ori found his new life purpose on restoring the light to the forest cos it's slowly decaying due to the death of a big spirit tree. The decay turns everything to stone the longer they stay there, just like those cute little things (Moki) in the background. Eventually the whole forest will turn to stone like that too if Ori doesn't do anything.

So our mission now is to find the 4 other lights which was spread across the bigass forest.

Challenges

Even if the developers want you to focus on the emotional story, they still made the game pretty challenging. There were parts in the game that was difficult to navigate. Some you have to do it all over again for quite a few times.

Some parts you will need to control your emotions and try not to panic in the escape scenes. Though it wasn't really that hard but it still was able to made me stuck on some parts.

The place that I hate the most was in the cave. I mean, look at that. How can you navigate properly when you can only see a small portion of the screen?

Okay, gives you anxiety right cos you won't know what's next. Cute.

Actually the scariest part of this one is that you will have to stay with the glowy things to have a light because once you move out of there, the darkness will swallow you in a few seconds (cos you don't have your own light), and I'm not talking about the screen turning black that's scary... but the actual whispers you will hear while the darkness is slowly swallowing Ori.

like the fuck????

This game turned from ethereal wonderful stunning paradise into horror Amnesia-Outlast game real quick like CAN YOU CHILL FROM WHISPERING YOU DEMONS???

Anyway you will find a new ability somewhere deep in the cave that will allow you to summon your own light so FUCK YOU DARK CAVE BITCH I CAN NOW CONQUER THE WORLD LOL.

Anyway back again to the story...

Later on, it was revealed that Shriek (the villain owl) was hatched in the decay where everyone was a stone and so she looked really different from the other owls. And these motherfuckers didn't welcome her from the community and even pushed her away so she became a bitter psychopath killing everyone she sees.

Shriek was given a chance to change, but she remained in the darkness and doesn't welcome any warmth anymore.

She chose to die in the arms of her stone parents.

ok, so what now? Ku is still ded

After being able to find all the light, that bigass tree will talk to Ori and that Ori should replace its place and become the tree again since he is a spirit and that's his destiny.

For the sake of his friends and everyone living in the forest, he absorbed the light and became the tree (or seed for now). So basically he's gone.

Then Ku is alive again??? Brought back to life by the tree which was Ori. And boom, even had her other wing repaired lol. Good guy Ori.

The tree slowly grew and so the forest is saved. :D

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Conclusion

This is honestly a really good game and has a touching story that tells us that not everyone can be saved and some really choose to stay in the darkness, which is a realistic approach and didn't have that toxic positivity.

The stunning visuals on top of a good story and a great musical scoring really just made this game so lovable and even deserves the high ratings it got.

I don't know if they will make another sequel but pretty sure I will watch out for more games from the game studio/developers in the future.

And again, the stunning visuals!

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I hope you enjoyed reading this commentary as I tried to make it as entertaining as possible.