Ori and the Blind Forest

Anyone played through both the original and the definitive edition yet? How much new content is there?

There’s a decent amount of new content. Two pretty large new areas that look and play quite differently from everything else. Though what was surprising to me was that they connect to each other and you play through them pretty much sequentially. I thought that they’d space apart the new areas a bit.

The new abilities you get from those areas are a lot of fun to use, and they also make it easier and quicker to backtrack to get anything you missed.

I’d say it adds around 2-ish hours to the game. And I took around 9 hours to beat the original version my first time playing it.

Wow, the beginning of this game was just amazing.

I’m playing on Hard, since I figure if there’s one thing Rayman Origins has taught me, it’s how to play a 2D platformer decently well. So I think I can handle this.

One thing I’m already finding very cool is the attack ability. It’s the first platformer I’ve played where attacking is more about dodging than it is about attacking.

You’re in for a treat Rock8man. Really good game. I don’t remember what difficulty I played on, but there were places I had to repeat because I found them difficult.

I loved the game. I think that if you can handle the most difficult levels in Rayman Origins and Legends you’ll have no big issues here.

That said, there is a certain “escape level” that is very trial-and-error, and easily the hardest section in the whole game, about halfway through, I think. Still very worth getting through.

And the music in this game (and the way it’s used) is sublime.

I learned the double jump yesterday. Yesssssss. I’ve been craving the double jump since the beginning of the game. It felt so good to finally get it.

I always took skills that made traversal easier. I gotta see as much as I can!

Today I spent over 90 minutes repeating the same sequence over and over, trying to get through an area as it floods with water. And I loved every minute of it. In the end, my hands were so exhausted. I was sore from holding the controller and doing the same moves over and over, and yet, I just had to keep going, I had to have one successful run before I quit.

And I finally got it. It felt so good.

I just love the moves in this game so much. I thought Rayman Origins had pretty much written the book on 2D platform games, and there was nothing left to add. I was wrong.

The “Bash” ability in Ori and the Blind Forest is the most unique, brilliant move I’ve ever seen in the genre. And it’s all physics based, and leads to some really funky interesting moves if used properly. And every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so it’s really a double move, and that also leads to some really cool things sometimes.

I also love that this game doesn’t coddle you. It’s physics based all the way, even in a sequence like the one I described above. We’ve seen sequences like that in many games, but usually they make it easy for the player. They help you along a little. But not this game. Every jump in this sequence was still full physics. If I jump and then use Bash too late, I’m losing momentum as I bash, and I maintain that momentum, and might not be able to reach my target. I love that. They don’t cheat. It makes it hard, but completely fair.

Yes! Completely agreed. It was super tough to beat that sequence but I loved every second of it! Especially the drama of the cutscene right after, and then the contrast of the peaceful blue water you start at next

There were some very tough sequences that took me a lot of repetition, but the joy at finally making it!

And the music in the blue water area. Soooo beatiful.

I see myself replaying Ori in the near future. Really enjoyed it overall.

You guys are making me regret not grabbing this in the Fall sale. Let’s hope it’s the same or deeper discount for Christmas.

The variety in this game is simply amazing. I think they have even more variety in moves and game elements than Rayman Origins by this point.

Did you guys refrain from looking up solutions and solve all the areas yourself? I’ve been stuck on this one area for a couple of days now. I’m carrying around a ball, or sometimes dropping it. When I carry it around, gravity keeps getting moved around to whatever is “down” for me. It’s a very interesting room, and I’ve made some progress in it despite being stuck. But I am still stuck. I’ll give my brain at least one more day to percolate on this puzzle. I’m sure I’ll get it eventually. Also, kudos to this game for not being afraid to get really hard occasionally.

If there’s one thing Braid taught me, it was that it will feel really good if I figure it out by myself.

I did look up a few solutions, and this was one of them. I felt kind of dumb after, as is always the case, but I hate being stuck and frustrated more than looking up a solution and resuming my fun!

I can’t remember if I looked anything up in this game. I try to avoid it as much as I can, but I do give in eventually when I’m stuck. Man I remember when you had to call a hint line for $1.99 a minute to get unstuck.

I got through it. So satisfying.

The only thing I’m worried about at this point is that I got this one bonus energy area early in the game. To do so, I had to move around some blocks in order to block an energy beam and get past it, and then use that block again to block a different beam. I got down there and got my bonus and got out. But there was another dead end there that I couldn’t unblock yet. Later I got the ability to unblock that blockage, but now I can’t get back to that area because the beam is in my way and the block I used to block in the first time is now below the beam. So I might not be able to get 100% of the stuff in the game because I actually did a section of the game too early.

If only I’d ignored that area until later. I could have gotten everything down there.

So I was stuck on the stealth section for about a week. I finally got through yesterday. It wasn’t so much that each individual action was hard, it was that I had to about 7 actions in a row without the ability to save the game. I always get a little irritated with that type of forced difficulty where it’s tough because of how many things you have to do correctly in a row without a mistake.

Still, I’m through it. And now that I’m in Sorrow’s Pass, I eventually had to stop because this music is so sad and beautiful. Stop making me emotional for no reason game! I’m just platforming here! I don’t need to start crying for no reason while I’m platforming!

It’s funny how music can do that sometimes. I’m a sucker for haunting strings - I don’t remember what that particular music was in Ori though.

Ori has great music. I remember this one place with water all around - the music there was so beautiful, so soothing, that I stayed still there, just listening to the music, for a longer time than my actual platforming time that day. So good.

This game is so beautiful. There are a lot of great design concepts in it, and tremendous setpieces. I’ve never seen a game get so close to transcendantly good only to let its flaws drag it down to barely tolerable. Seriously, the level and challenge design in this is sometimes god-awful. Just bad bad bad.

Many great games are hard but fair. Ori is hard and unfair. Examples: You often can’t tell where walkable terrain ends and deadly spikes begin. Enemies are placed off-screen that can attack or drop on you out of nowhere. The controls are often unnecessarily unresponsive. Areas that are designed for certain special abilities are actually traversable earlier if you want to try them a billion times; and you do because you don’t know that ability is coming up. When you’re trying to outrun a big thing I won’t spoil, the part that kills you is totally unclear because it undulates and looks pretty instead of telling you “If you go past this part, you die.”

To top it all off, the save system is a clever and terrible invention. Let me save where I want? Cool! Charge me energy I need to use on five other things, so that sometimes I just happen to not be able to save where I want? So bad.

I’m making my way through it, because the amazing parts are amazing. The art direction is stupendous (but, again, often at the cost of playability). It gives Trine a run for its money as the best looking game ever made. If they had cared about solid gameplay design and good player feedback, this would have been an all-time classic. What a shame.