Recent reviews by Eagle

Definitely worth a shot, regardless of whether or not you've played the original game. The entire game has been overhauled and even the story itself has been changed, so there's plenty to enjoy for both veterans and newcomers alike. As this is a demo, you can expect a few rough edges here and there, but overall, the game feels like an improvement over the original from 30 years ago. You can tell the developers wanted to turn this into more than just a simple remake and I applaud them for taking that risk.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a great platformer, but it is not without its flaws. Although there are some clear improvements compared to its predecessor, this new installment unfortunately has a few shortcomings that detract from an otherwise great experience.

Gameplay aspects such as movement, combat and navigation have all been significantly improved, which generally makes for a smooth experience. The game also includes new friendly NPCs that you can interact with, although most of them will send you on pretty basic fetch quests. In addition, the game has many new abilities and upgrades you can unlock, though some of them are so expensive that you will probably not use them until you’ve already beaten the game.

Some gameplay mechanics aren’t always clearly explained in the game, such as being able to jump higher when you swing from horizontal rods and being able to touch certain obscure switches. Not knowing what to do can be quite frustrating, especially since it’s often not clear whether this is due to not having acquired a certain ability yet or because you’ve missed a tiny detail. This can lead to unnecessary backtracking, which further adds to the frustration.

Overall, although there are some clear improvements in terms of gameplay, some additions feel a bit poorly executed. It took me slightly less than 20 hours to 100% the game on hard mode.

The music in this game is good, though oftentimes less memorable than the tracks that were used for its predecessor. The arguably more melodically-driven style from the previous game has been replaced by a mostly ambience-driven style. This makes the music “suit the scene”, but at the cost of making the music less memorable. That said, both the sound effects and the music contribute to a very immersive experience.

This game is gorgeous to look at. The game is certainly a lot more colorful than its predecessor and the overall composition is made up of a number of different layers. This creates a nice sense of “depth” in the world. The particle effects are excellent and the animations are very smooth. That said, I do think that its predecessor had a more “focused” and “intimate” artistic style to it, but whether or not that’s good or bad is down to personal preference.
 
This is unfortunately where the game has dropped the ball in my opinion. The game introduces many new characters, but most of them hardly undergo any development during the story. The game sets high expectations for certain characters when they are first introduced, but simply fails to deliver on those expectations by the end of the game. This leads to a number of plot holes and awkward moments in the story where certain outcomes do not seem to match with set expectations.

In addition, the core “mission” of the protagonist is very similar to the one (s)he had to endure during the first game. In fact, a lot of key story aspects of this game are very similar to the ones used in the original game. That is not necessarily a bad thing on its own, but it would have been nice if they had taken are creative approach to developing the story.

This game is definitely a blast to play, but there are some quirks that make this game less memorable than its predecessor. If Moon Studios decide to make a definitive edition for this game, I would probably wait for that one to come out before giving this version a try, as the plot holes and gameplay annoyances that exist in the game can definitely be “patched out” by future content.