Overview
Developed by Moon Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios and iam8bit, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a video game released on March 10, 2020 and available on Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. The genres associated with this entry are action, adventure, fantasy and platforming, in an exclusively single-player experience.
The player once again takes the role of Ori in a new adventure connected to Ku and the discovery of a land different from the forest of Nibel. This time, the journey takes the small spirit creature through a larger world inhabited by new characters, as well as creatures and dangers encountered during the search.
The game retains a two-dimensional structure built around platforming and exploration. Environments are traversed using Ori’s movement abilities, while acquiring new skills gradually makes it possible to reach previously inaccessible passages and explore the different regions more extensively.
Mobility therefore remains at the center of the gameplay. Ori’s abilities can be combined to chain movements together, overcome obstacles and complete platforming sequences that gradually require greater precision. Exploration and puzzles directly use these possibilities rather than functioning as separate systems.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps significantly expands combat compared with the first installment. Ori now has access to new spirit weapons, spells and attacks that allow direct confrontations with the creatures encountered throughout the adventure. Choosing which abilities to use gives greater importance to preparing for encounters and to the way the player wants to fight.
The Spirit Shards system complements this evolution. These fragments can modify or strengthen different Ori abilities and must be selected from those available. The player can therefore adapt some of the character’s properties to their approach, whether focused more heavily on combat, mobility or other aspects of progression.
Enemies also play a more significant role. Alongside the creatures encountered during exploration are large enemies and boss battles, while certain escape sequences continue the tradition of the first game by requiring several movement abilities to be combined quickly.
The world also includes more characters encountered throughout the journey. These inhabitants contribute to the discovery of the different regions and expand interactions beyond Ori’s main path, giving greater presence to the communities and creatures living in this environment.
Specific activities complement exploration. Spirit Trials offer speed challenges in which the player must cross an area as quickly as possible while making efficient use of Ori’s movement abilities.
Spirit Shrines follow a different structure. They confront Ori with waves of increasingly difficult enemies in timed challenges, with rewards earned by completing these encounters.
This diversification brings combat, platforming and progression closer together. Acquired skills are therefore not used only to open new passages: they can also be applied during combat, timed challenges, escape sequences and the different situations encountered throughout exploration.
The art direction retains the identity of the first installment with hand-painted environments, detailed animation and multiple visual layers that give the world depth despite its 2D structure. The new regions offer their own landscapes and atmospheres while maintaining the visual continuity of the series.
The music once again relies on a fully orchestrated original soundtrack, used to accompany narrative moments as well as exploration, combat and shifts in atmosphere. Image, animation and music therefore remain closely connected to Ori’s journey.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps uses the Unity engine. The game expands upon the foundations of its predecessor by broadening its combat and customization options while keeping mobility, exploration and platforming as the main drivers of progression.
Key takeaways
- Ori embarks on a new journey after a flight puts Ku in danger, with the goals of reuniting the family, restoring a broken land and understanding Ori’s own destiny.
- The game retains a 2D structure combining platforming, exploration and progression through new abilities.
- Combat is expanded with new spirit weapons, spells and attacks.
- Spirit Shards make it possible to strengthen and customize some of Ori’s abilities.
- Spirit Trials offer speed challenges, while Spirit Shrines revolve around waves of enemies to defeat.
- Hand-painted environments, animation and a fully orchestrated soundtrack continue the visual and musical identity of the first installment.
Conclusion
Ori and the Will of the Wisps retains the mobility and exploration that structured Ori and the Blind Forest while developing several components around these foundations. Acquiring new abilities continues to gradually change the way the world is traversed and how its different regions are accessed.
Combat, however, takes on a more significant role through spirit weapons, spells and the Spirit Shards system. These elements provide more possibilities for adapting Ori to encounters without removing the central role of platforming.
Spirit Trials, Spirit Shrines, bosses and escape sequences also broaden the situations in which the character’s abilities are used, connecting mobility, combat and progression more closely.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps therefore continues the formula of the first installment by expanding it into a larger world and a gameplay system where exploration, platforming, combat and customization occupy a more balanced place.
Good to know
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps was released on March 10, 2020.
- The game was developed by Moon Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios and iam8bit.
- It is available on Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
- The genres listed in this entry are action, adventure, fantasy and platforming.
- It features a Single player mode only.
- The game uses the Unity engine.
- Spirit Trials and Spirit Shrines add speed challenges and combat trials respectively alongside the main exploration.
