Ori and the Blind Forest

Ori and the Blind Forest
Developer(s)	Moon Studios
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Studios
Director(s)	Thomas Mahler
Composer(s)	Gareth Coker[1]
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox 360
Release date(s)	Microsoft Windows & Xbox One WW March 11, 2015 Xbox 360 TBA
Genre(s)	Platform adventure, metroidvania[2]
Mode(s)	Single-player

Ori and the Blind Forest is a single-player platform adventure video game designed by Moon Studios, an independent developer, and published by Microsoft Studios. The game was released on March 11, 2015 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One, with an Xbox 360 version of the game currently in development.

Players assume control of Ori, a white guardian spirit, who has the ability to wall jump and pairs up with a spirit named Sein, the 'light and eyes' of the Forest's Spirit Tree, who is able to shoot Spirit Flames. In order to progress forward in the game, players are tasked to move between platforms and solve puzzles. The game also features a system called "soul links", which allows players to save at will, and an upgrade system which gives players the ability to strengthen Ori's skills.

The game was developed by Moon Studios, which does not have a headquarters. The development team members are from around the world. The game was acquired by Microsoft Studios, which served as the game's publisher, a year after the beginning of the game's development. The game story was inspired by The Lion King and The Iron Giant, while some of the gameplay elements were inspired by Rayman and Metroid franchises.

Upon release, the game received critical acclaim, with players praising the game's gameplay, art style, story, action sequences and environmental design. The game is a commercial success, with Moon Studios' co-founder Gennadiy Korol saying that the game was profitable for the company within a few weeks after its initial launch.

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot showing Ori and Sein (blue orb above Ori's head)

Set as a 2D open world platform game, the player controls Ori, a white guardian spirit.^[3] He has the ability to jump, climb and has many other abilities. Sein can also shoot Spirit Flames to assist in combating enemies or obstacles. Ori is required to interact with his environment as he jumps from platforms and solves puzzles. Ori is faced with enemies as he makes his way to restoring the forest. The player helps Ori collect health shards, energy shards, new abilities, and upgrades. Beside Ori is Sein who is the light and eyes of the Spirit Tree.^[4]

In addition to save-points scattered in the game, players can create "soul links" at any time they choose to serve as checkpoints.^[5][6] However, soul links can only be created using energy cells collected during gameplay; the needed energy is not in abundant supply, forcing players to create them only when necessary.^[6] The player can also gain ability points to buy various perks and upgrades, such as increasing the damage of the spirit flame. These upgrades can be bought anywhere a soul link has been created and if the player has enough ability points to buy the skill they desire. An ability point is created when Ori collects enough experience by killing enemies and destroying various plants found throughout. Each skill must be bought in sequential order from one of three trees to allow the next, more expensive skill to be accessible.

Plot

The voice of the Spirit Tree in the forest of Nibel narrates the story of when Ori fell from the tree during a storm as a newborn and was adopted by a creature named Naru, who raised Ori as her own.^[7] A cataclysmic event soon makes the forest and its food supply wither, and Naru dies. Newly orphaned Ori was left to explore the forest on his^[8] own.^[5][7][9] After collapsing near the Spirit Tree of the forest and being restored to life by it, Ori later meets Sein /saɪn/, a being who both guides Ori on his^[8] adventure and attacks enemies.^[6] In order to restore the forest, Sein guides Ori to recover the light of three main elements supporting the balance of Nibel: Waters, Winds and Warmth.

Ori and Sein come across two beings in their quest: Gumo, the last survivor of the spider-like Gumon clan and whose home supports the element of Wind, and Kuro, a large female owl who is hostile towards Ori. Her hostility and the forest's cataclysm are explained in flashbacks. When Ori was lost, the Spirit Tree released a flash of light in order to look for him,^[8] which killed all of Kuro's recently hatched offspring. To prevent this from happening to her yet unborn child, Kuro took away the core on top of the Spirit Tree, which is actually Sein. Without the Spirit Tree's support, the three elements cannot be sustained, and Nibel loses its balance. As the element of Winds are rekindled, Gumo, realizing what Ori and Sein intend to do, uses his clan treasure which stores the light from the Spirit Tree to revive Naru, and takes her to where Ori is.

After the final element, Warmth, is restored in the volcano Mount Horu, Kuro captures Ori and Sein as the fire from Horu starts to spread. Naru arrives to find Ori unconscious and is heartbroken, which makes Kuro remember how she also was struck by the pain of losing her children. As the fire spreads and is about to reach her remaining egg, Kuro takes Sein back to the Spirit Tree, which emits a flash of bright light which dissipates the fire and restores the forest, but kills Kuro in the process. Time passes as the forest begins to flourish with life once more, and Ori is shown sitting on a log watching new spirits being born in the field at the foot of the Spirit Tree. Gumo and Naru watch from afar. The latter goes home, where Kuro's egg now rests, just in time to see it hatch.

Development

Ori and the Blind Forest was developed by Moon Studios, a worldwide collaboration of designers and programmers who have been working on the game for the past four years, with Microsoft acquiring the game about a year after development started.^[6][10] One of the lead team members is Thomas Mahler, an artist formerly working with Blizzard Entertainment.^[7] According to Microsoft producer Daniel Smith, Moon Studios is not located in any one location, but instead staffers can be found throughout the world, from Austria to Australia and Israel to the United States.^[11] Gameplay programmer David Clark described the team as being inspired by current and classic adventure games, notably the Rayman and Metroid franchises, and that Ori is intended as a "love letter" to those games.^[9]

The designers say they were guided by works such as The Lion King and The Iron Giant and that it is a "coming-of-age story".^[9] The designers were also heavily influenced by the work of Hayao Miyazaki, particularly with one of the levels "Valley of the Wind", being a nod to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.^[12][13] The art style is meant to appear hand-drawn, similar to the more recent Rayman titles that utilize Ubisoft's "UbiArt" graphics engine; the game instead uses the Unity engine.^[5][9] The game takes place in one large map, and is planned to be rendered at 1080P and 60 frames per second with no visible loading time as the player explores.^[5][11] According to Mahler, the game's backgrounds are all individual components, with none duplicated as in other similar titles. As an example, Mahler explained, "You see this tree in the background and this mushroom and this rock? That's the one and only place you'll ever see those assets."^[10]

The game was first unveiled at E3 2014 during Microsoft's pre-show press conference at the Galen Center;^[7] E3 was also the first time a number of Moon Studios employees had actually met face-to-face.^[10] Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi, in charge of marketing for Xbox One, stated that they considered opening the conference with Ori, but instead chose Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.^[7] During E3, attendees waited in long lines in order to play a demo version of the game, often waiting in queues 7-8 people deep for each of the four consoles featuring the game.^[7]

Sometime after E3, Moon Studios announced on the game website that an Xbox 360 version of Ori and the Blind Forest was in development and planned for release sometime in early 2015.^[14] In November 2014, Moon Studios updated the status of the game and announced plans to push back the launch of the title into "early 2015" for Xbox One and PC, but no further mention of the Xbox 360 version was made at the time.^[15] Asked to clarify the status of the Xbox 360 edition, Moon Studios confirmed it was still in development and would be released later in 2015.^[16] Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition was announced at Gamescom 2015. It will contain a new expansion, as well as new areas, mechanics, and artworks.^[17]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (PC) 89.20%[18] (XONE) 88.52%[19] Metacritic (PC) 88/100[20] (XONE) 88/100[21] Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 9.5/10[22] EGM 9/10[23] Game Informer 9.5/10[24] Game Revolution [25] GameSpot 9/10[26] GamesRadar [27] GameTrailers 8.6/10[28] IGN 8.5/10[29] OXM (UK) [30] PC Gamer (US) 87/100[31] Polygon 9/10[32] VideoGamer.com 9/10[33]

Critical reception

Ori and the Blind Forest received acclaim from critics, with praise particularly directed to the game's story, visuals, gameplay, music, exploration and environmental design. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 89.20% based on 5 reviews and 88/100 based on 12 reviews.^[18][20] and the Xbox One version 88.52% based on 52 reviews and 88/100 based on 73 reviews^[19][21]

Writing for Game Informer, Andrew Reiner gave the game a 9.5/10, praising its accessible yet challenging gameplay, well-designed controls, strong storytelling, surprising plot twists, rewarding exploration, orchestrated music, breathtaking and mesmerizing environmental design, as well as the wonderfully scripted challenges, which requires players to utilize creative thinking. However, he stated that the combat system in the game is not as refined as the platforming. He named the game "one of the best games of the year" and claimed that "There isn’t a bad moment in Ori and the Blind Forest".^[24] Chris Carter from Destructoid gave the game a 9.5/10, praising its well-executed and light narrative, satisfying upgrades as well as the visuals, which he compared to the Rayman series but he stated that "[Ori] easily surpass them in quality". He also praised the game for allowing players to set their own checkpoints anytime. He summarized the review by saying that "It succeeds in being both a great introduction to the genre and a rewarding experience for the hardcore audience" and called the game "a new classic [as a metroidvania]"^[22]

Ray Carsillo from Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the huge variety of environments, the delicate hand-drawn art style, remarkable and memorable story and the quick save system, which has effectively avoided annoyance and frustration. He also praised the game for putting emphasis on platforming, puzzle-solving and exploration instead of combat as it allows players to fully appreciate the level design. He also praised the game for successfully capturing the balance between too forgiving and too punishing. However, he criticized the framerate issue and well as the game for forbidding players to re-enter certain areas. He stated that "[Ori and the Blind Forest] is polished enough to rarely break the immersion it inspires. It’s one of my favorite titles of 2015 so far and an unforgettable debut for indie developer Moon Studios."^[23] Kevin VanOrd from GameSpot gave the game a 9/10, praising its vibrant visuals, carefully designed level, thrilling and exciting escape sequence, terrific pacing, rewarding challenges, as well as the narrative, which he compared to Okami and Panzer Dragoon Orta. He also praised the opening sequence of the game, calling it "the best story sequences of any game". However, he criticized the occasionally frustrating levels.^[26]

Lucas Sullivan from GamesRadar gave the game a 8/10, praising its exquisite animation, phenomenal atmosphere, uplifiting music and intuitive gameplay, which he stated "has conveyed a real sense of lightweight agility". However, he criticized the save system, which may lead to constant death, the difficulty spike as well as the unforgiving difficulty in the escape sequence. He summarized the game by saying that "Completing Ori's six-to-nine-hour journey will certainly leave you feeling warm, fuzzy, and accomplished - just be ready to dig in for some particularly trying segments."^[27] Nick Tan from Game Revolution gave the game a 4/5, criticizing the short length, meaningless health bar, low replay value, as well as the game for not providing direction and guidelines to players in escape sequences.^[25]

Sales

According to Moon Studios' Thomas Mahler, Ori and the Blind Forest became profitable for Microsoft within one week of the game's launch on Xbox One and PC, and Gennadiy Korol, co-founder of Moon Studios, said the game was profitable for the studio itself within "a couple of weeks".^[34] Mahler described Microsoft as being "super-happy" with Ori and hinted that the franchise may see a future installment; he also stated that the Xbox 360 version of the game was still in development and was expected to launch later in the spring (Q2) of 2015.^[34]

Awards

References

External links

• Official site