Ori and the Will of the Wisps in the Test

With more than 50 awards and Award nominations, was Ori and the Blind Forest , the surprise success of 2015. For the successor, the Austrian developer Studio Moon Studios around the CEO and Game Director Thomas Mahler now for almost five years. Good thing will while have and that is exactly what has been confirmed here once more, because Ori and the Will of the Wisps can its predecessor in almost all areas outdo, and shows very clearly that the game demands, emotional stories, and a demanding artistic implementation are no contradictions have to be.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps begins exactly where its predecessor left off: The two beings Naru and Gumo take care together with your foundling, the forest spirit Ori, the little owl Ku, the Scion of the deceased boss Kuro from the first part. However, because the wing is damaged, it must be nursed him back to health. Luckily, his substitute family, take care of all the Small and the young bird is swinging in the air. Ori accompanied Ku on his first trip, but the two caught in a storm and falls through a hitherto unknown territory with the name of Niwen. After the two are separated during the crash landing, begins now for the not glowing forest spirit a new, bigger adventure.

As in the first part, also begins to Ori and the Will of the Wisps with a very emotive Intro sequence, but this Time more on the motives of family, friendship and Cohesion. Once again, developer Moon Studios manages to establish right at the beginning of a strong emotional relationship to the protagonist, even if not quite on the same level as the first. You mean, that I get, mainly because of the fantastic background music once again goose bumps, but the pee in the eye is remained of this Time. Anyway: this is Exactly how you start a story!

New Combat System

Game mechanically, leaving you in the case of Ori and the Will of the Wisps on the typical 2D Metroidvania-principle: Hopping, Exploring, Fighting, and the Learning of new skills, in order for the card to arrive. The little forest spirit has now been from the beginning to double and wall jump, you must renounce it, but on his companion. The being of light served in the predecessor as a protector and was able to attack at the push of a button enemies, what is gotten in the result, mostly, in a sense freed the Button mashing out. In part two, but was revised most of all, this somewhat one-sided combat system significantly. So Ori gets sword already relatively soon, a light with which he takes down his enemies can stretch and in the further course of the game ranged weapons or special abilities will be added. But they must be found and activated. Since the spirit shards, which are absorbed by the light energy trees are. So then passive abilities are activated, which then Ori, for example, the Triple jump or the Sprint learning or even along the walls crawl can. At the beginning, can be equipped but only three at the same time, we need to adjust according to the Situation again and again, in the further course of the game, additional Slots are added.

In addition, can be purchased using the “currency” spirit lights up new skills in NPCs for sale. The necessary means of payment we receive is either through the elimination of opponents or we find larger quantities of them in various Hiding on the map. Also many of the optional side quests reward you with resources. At various retailers this spirit can be exchanged lights for new abilities, properties, or improvements in. In sum, all of these innovations ensure that the combat system is now much more dynamic to the touch, and the revised skills and Upgrade System motivated significantly more to experiment with and Try out, as it was in the first part of the case.

Emotional, beautiful journey by Niwen

Not only the combat system has been redesigned, also other smaller screw is rotated. So manual Save only in the spirit portals, otherwise, ensures Ori and the Will of the Wisps your progress automatically. Because these Save-Points were set very generously, the frustration. The Level Design of the now much larger game world is consistently great, sometimes even outstanding. Here demanding jump-passages with crisp puzzles deposits change constantly and make for a pleasant Variation in the Gameplay, but without the playful Flow to interrupt. Add to this a significantly higher number of different boss battles, which raise the overall moderate level of difficulty (at least at the level of easy and medium) but a little bit, but always stay fair. Only the regularly interspersed with escape sequences to scratch then, but sometimes the frustration limit, because here are innumerable Attempts and related death, inevitable. Due to the precise control of the protagonists themselves that no major criticism, but point is, even if the double occupancy has solved some of the buttons and knobs are sometimes a bit awkward.

The story of Ori and the Will of the Wisps will be in about 10-15 hours of play, tells, depending on how many optional side-tasks to do, and how much of your own exploration and discovery urge pronounced, even more clearly. What is striking in comparison to its predecessor, clearly now is the essential präsentere Story and the numerous characters that breathe life into the world of Niwen now there is much more to life. The again fantastic presentation made a significant contribution, that we will not only take on a playfully demanding, but also a very emotional journey. What developer Moon Studios to get here from the Unity Engine is really impressive, because the love of detail and appearance is certainly one of the Best of what we get on this Generation of consoles to see. Extra at this point we should once again top-notch sound accompaniment from the pen of composer Gareth Coker mentioned. The emotional and even a bit melancholic sounds will vary depending on the game situation and for just for the creeps.

Weak on weaker Hardware

Already some days before the official Release showed the test version of Ori and the Will of the Wisps with us in the editorial office, however, with the recommendation for an optimal testing experience the game on a Xbox One X to test. And Yes, on my XBox One I had to fight with a very significant FPS and Performance issues and also the stability and Performance overall, was rather unsatisfactory. We have therefore decided to the Day One Patch for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC to wait before I give a final verdict on the game. On the PC, the improvements are clearly noticeable, but on the console, noticeable drops in frame rate, and, in part, strong, but dull still the game is fun. Even the Call of the card happens to be significantly delayed time. Overall, no dramatic technical deficiencies, however, should make improvements, developer Moon Studios here as quickly as possible.

CONCLUSION

After I Ori and the Will of the Wisps already some hours of play was allowed, asked me, my colleague, Dave, a self-avowed Fan of the game series (his sequel to the first part can be found here), as for now, my first conclusion would be. My short answer: It plays basically the same as part one, only with a bit of fine tuning. So overall, very good! In the case of any other game that would probably have been a pejorative judgment, but if you put in an already magnificent predecessor on the accelerator and the very high expectations of a successor to far more than only it can fulfill, then this statement is put into perspective. For me is Ori and the Will of the Wisps in both playfully as well as in terms of presentation, one of the best representatives of the Metroidvania-genre, which it currently is. The only Werhmutstropfen is the currently weak technical Performance on the XBox One but since the next patch will bring certainly one or the other improvement.

What Ori and the Will of the Wisps is? Continuation of the Ori and the Will of the Wisps with a larger game world and new combat and customization options.
Platforms: PC, XBox One
Tested: XBox One
Developer / Publisher: Moon Studios/ Xbox Game Studios
Release: 11. March 2020
Link: Official Website