Ori and the Blind Forest

[Eric]

This is an extremely well made Metroidvania-type game, with an amazing soundtrack and some of the best damn graphics I've seen this gen.

It's on Steam and Xbox One, do yourself a favor and pick it up, or at least put it on your wishlist for a steam sale.

[ManaMan]

Looks beautiful. I'll definitely have to check this out on the Steam store.

[Shrinweck]

Beat the first major dungeon (the water vein) last night and had a blast. I've read that there are three sequences that you have to do perfectly (no checkpoints) after each of the 'dungeons' and what I thought was going to be dreadful was actually quite lovely.

Also this game is cute as fuck.

[Shellie]

My boyfriend Day9 likes it, so it has to be good

Seriously though, it looks fantastic, just not the style game I like. Sine will be all over it, I'm sure.

[bovine]

yeah. It's real good.

[Shrinweck]

Game blows. Ending made me cry like a baby. Fuck them. (So good)

Edit: Me talk gud

[Eric]

Game blows.

[Shrinweck]

Played through this again since this is basically the most graphically advanced game my backup PC can handle and cried like a baby at the end AGAIN. Once I cleared the wind tree and the map was covered with updraft the graphics card on this thing shit itself and the game would play in slow-mo with an updraft on the screen. Game is super easy in slow-mo lol. Cleared the last chase from the boss on my first try because of it.

Oh, well, at least I got to do it legit once. Still surprised I like this game since I'm not big on Metroidvanias. Besides being well made it's probably the save system that softens the blow of the handful of infuriating sequences.

[ManaMan]

Just finished it last week. I thought it was an enjoyable and well made game although I ran into issues with game play speed on my laptop. Sometimes the game would run agonizingly slow and others too fast. I really loved the gameplay and all of the actions that Ori could do as you advanced. There were no boss battles, you never have to face off with the owl or anything. However, in place of boss battles are long, drawn-out sequences where you have to outrun some natural force (water, lava, etc) and you're unable to save. I found these annoying. Maybe it's my lack of hand-eye coordination (why I've traditionally stuck to RPGs ).

Sorry Shrinweck, I didn't cry at the end.

Overall the game was worth the money and I'd recommend it.

[Shrinweck]

You unfeeling monster :D

[Shrinweck]

Sequel release date finally announced for Feb 11 2020. Looks amazing.

[Julius Seeker]

Also coming to Nintendo Switch.

[Zeus]

So when I got Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for 2 months for $2 (and before I got cheated out of an extra month for $1 less) I finally got to play this game.

It is certainly a gorgeous game with fantastic music and a cool story. There's lots to do, it's a fun and challenging Metroidvania game.

But it has an Achilles heel that drags it down to just "very good". The game is unbelievably cheap with its deaths. The extremely touchy controls that work so well when trying to do quick and crazy jumps also lead to super fast deaths, particularly in later stages. But by far the most annoying thing is getting wasted when the screen just don't scroll fast enough. This is especially a problem when floating upwards (like out of the tree).

So play it, it is worth it. Just keep in mind Ori and The Incredibly Cheap Deaths Forest will live up to its moniker.

[Eric]

Ori's cheap deaths are fine, because you can make your own respawn point, and/or there's one given to you before a stupidly cheap/difficult section that is going to certainly kill you.

[Zeus]

Sure you can make your own "save" points. And that's also a strength and a weakness at the same time. Who the hell wants to save all the time just in case you end up running into a ridiculous situation you have no idea was coming? Also, after playing a game like Bloodstained, it's been re-affirmed to me there's a benefit to having strategically-placed save spots with a challenge to get to the next one. It just shows better game design and balancing IMO.

So sure, the "save wherever you want" helps stave off the frustration of the cheap deaths. And quite honestly is probably the only reason that I kept going with the game because it was so annoying how cheaply the game killed you. And I'm happy I did because I did end up enjoying the game. But that don't mean that it wasn't still annoying as hell.