Ori and the Blind Forest

[spatular]

I've seen so much praise for this, review scores and whatnot, i was sort of sceptical but got it anyway. was sort of underwhelmed in the areas of graphics and emotion, it does look really nice and the story is alright i guess but too much hype.

anyway onto the important bit - it plays flipping brilliantly, the enemies sometimes seem a bit pointless, especially at the start, then you unlock something really cool that makes them more interesting/not-pointless. it's a platform puzzler metroidvania sort of thing - with only a small amount of puzzling so far, more like complicated and satisfying platforming like super meat boy/guacamelee, it's tough but not super difficult yet anyway, and i'm not that good at platformers. some sections are so much fun i didn't mind dying and retrying if i messed them up. controls great too which is pretty important when things get tricky. so yeah double thumbs up so far.

edit - oh yeah there's an interesting save system too, not many proper checkpoints but you can save/checkpoint pretty much anywhere you want, but it uses energy so you can't do it all the time, and that energy can unlock doors so do you save or keep the energy in case you need it? not sure what i think to this yet but it's not been a massive help/hindrance either way. and there's a sort of rgp lite levelling up thing where you unlock perks and stuff.

edit 2 - mini bosses so far have been a bit disappointing. not sure if i've fought a proper boss yet.

[spatular]

oh man i've been playing this non stop tonight, nearly 8 hours, 94% done, got most of the collectibles, only 2 perks left to unlock, about half way through what appears to be the very last part of the game. it's been great, some lower points, but mostly really great, and challenging, and fun. and then right near the end i've got myself stuck in a bit of scenery, pressing all the buttons trying to get out i've made a save point in there, no way out, no way to restart anything, quitting the game and reloading just puts me back in exactly the same spot. amazing. .

so public service announcement - if you appear to be stuck in scenery - exit the game and reload before making a save point in there.

shows how good it is though as i'll probably start it again tomorrow. but it has dampened my opinion of the game quite a lot still.

[retroed]

I put around 7hrs in on the first couple of days and am currently on what appears to be the final area. Hoping to get on it tonight to finish things off. All perks unlocked and at around 85%. It's such a good game.

Clearly a lot of love has been out into Ori and the Blind Forest. The story being drip fed along the way is just enough to keep you interested, and is genuinely emotive. The mechanics are near flawless, I feel in complete control at all times and to use the classic gaming cliche, if you mess something up you know it's your fault and not that of the game's. Unless it freezes.

I've had a couple of issues where the game kicked me out of the game completely and reset the Xbox. Didn't stop me coming back, though!

This is the best Metroidvania I have played in a long time. Beautiful looking, superb soundtrack, perfect balance between unlocking the next ability. It has it all.

[spatular]

yeah absolutely awesome game. played pretty much the whole thing again yesterday and finished it today. took about 6 hours second time so a bit faster. but having to do the whole thing again did take it's toll though, was getting a bit tired of it by the end. shame, it's probably perfectly balanced for a play through and i'd have loved it if it finished when it should have.

[illdog]

yeah i've got this on my steam list too, will pick it up when it's cheap. i like kuru kuru kururin.

[spatular]

good plan, it'll be like £2 in the xmas sale or something.

[radiofloyd]

Just played this for an hour and a half, sickened that that happened to you Spatular. This has got to be one of the best games of the year. The game's art has a nice storybook quality, the level of detail is really nice. The atmosphere (with the gibberish voices and all) reminds me of Twilight Princess. I think if you like Zelda or Metroid you will love this. The opening was hilariously emotive (I think they were going for the Up effect) but it was still a nice opening.

And like others have said, the highlight is the gameplay. It's an excellent mix of exploring and platforming, with a small amount of combat (simple so far). It's one of those games where you want to explore every last nook and cranny to find every secret. Everything is just really smooth.

So yeah, look forward to playing the rest of this.

PS: I've noticed that every time I unlock a few achievements in a Steam game my average percentage completion game goes down - which can only lead to one conclusion, that Steam ignores games where you haven't unlocked one achievement. My percentage at the moment is at a humbling 27%. Looking at my friends whose profile displays their average completion, Sly and Craymen have the best with 33% and 34%, and wholehole has the worst with 19%.

PPS: What's up with Bob? Hasn't been online since 2012?

[radiofloyd]

Four hours into this now, in one day. This computer is paying for itself already. This is one of those games where you make progress so quickly that it's hard to keep track. But story wise I've collected the water vein back from that toad thingy. I almost have water breath which will really allow me backtrack and pick up a lot of bits and pieces.

[radiofloyd]

Oh my god...just spent the last hour trying to escape the Ginso Tree where you have to keep warping upwards away from the rising water. Anyone who has done this will know what I mean. Anyway, eventually I did it. Whoop whoop. Super Meat Boy eat your heart out.

[radiofloyd]

Spent the last while going around mopping up upgrades. I think I've gotten everything that I can with my current ability set. Most areas are almost 100% - Sunken Glades 99%, Ginso Tree 98%, Moon Grotto 98%, Thornfelt Swamp 97%. My lowest one is the Hollow Grove at 69%, there's a whole I can't access because I can't break down a barrier. So now I have to explore the areas branching from Valley of the Winds. I can't go any further in Misty Woods because of Kuro. So it looks like I have to go north, to an area with more spiders! And explore the rest of the Valley of the Winds.

[radiofloyd]

Super Meat Boy eat your heart out.

Oh my god this game is relentless. The Forlorn Ruins wrecked my head. It took me ages to figure out how the orb works (like gravity boots in Twilight Princess). And even after that it was nuts dodging the laser beams. And then like the Ginso Tree it had another one of those on-rails escape sections which you have to complete from start to finish in one go. The difficulty of this game is pitched higher than you would think, I have respect for anyone that has completed it!

I'm now in the section where I'm trying to escape from Kuro, the big bird.

Edit: I checked Steam's global stats and 37% of players have gotten this far (unlocked the achievement for reaching this point in the story). Fair play! I think it's a testament to how good the game is.

[radiofloyd]

Well I've unlocked the game's final ability, and I think as far as the story goes I'm onto the final level. On the other hand it's been that good a game that I'm tempted to track down the remaining unlockables that I've missed and to try to get 100% in each area.

[radiofloyd]

Beat the game. When I went to collect the bits I'd missed I discovered that you can't return to the Ginso Tree or the Forlorn Ruins, so that was that.

In the end I finished in 14:40 with 98% completion and 36/50 achievements.

Spatular how the hell did you beat this game in 7 hours with 99% completion? Did you ignore half the enemies?

Anyway, this was a really good game. It was very puzzle/platform centric, especially from the point where you unlocked the bash ability. It was pretty challenging (I died over 600 times) and doesn't hold your hand in any way. I would put it in the same category as Cave Story. I'd give it a solid 8/10.

[spatular]

^ good work dude, yeah i agree it's a great game!

not sure i did it that quick or with that high a %, maybe that was my second run through

[retroed]

I posted this in the for free section, but thought I'd mention it here as well. 

 

The Definitive Edition of this is currently free on Xbox One, two days remaining. It is a new download with its own set of achievements. 

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/store/p/ori-and-the-blind-forest-definitive-edition/bw85kqb8q31m

[DisturbedSwan]

Started this yesterday, put about 3.5 hours into it.

 

Initial impressions were good but not great. There seems to be an abundance of Metroidvanias around at the moment and this kind of just felt like a load of others I’ve played recently, not really standing out from the pack despite being decent overall.

 

The further I got into it the more positive my impressions were though. I now think it is excellent and can definitely see why it has had such praise put on it over the years.

 

After the initial few areas I thought the game was a bit easy so when the difficulty ramped up significantly once you obtain a few new moves it was all the better for it, turning a decent Metroidvania into a fantastic one almost immediately.

 

The controls are sublime too, everything feels so responsive. The warp move I just obtained is absolutely amazing in action, zipping from one enemy projectile/lantern to the next in the Ginso Tree escape sequence was felt phenomenal.

 

[Maf]

I’ve started this on One Life Mode today and the grind is real.

 

1 practice session on normal just to remember the game and I managed to clear the wind temple, so about 2/3rds of the way through. After 2 hours of restarts I’ve finally managed to get to the wind temple (not clear it) on One Life Mode and my nerves are shot. I’ve had to stop and put it down and get some food because I feel fucking ill. Man, the pressure! 
 

At first I was just practicing the Ginso Tree or whatever in one run and made it, but now I’ve done that I’ve resorted to quit outs. Basically I have 6hp and the most damage I can take is off certain spikes which do 3hp. So I save smartly, and whenever I have 3hp I quit out and redo the section until I feel safe enough to make my next save.

 

It sounds insane, but actually because I died 40+ times in my practice session on Normal just, err, ‘learning’, doing it on this mode I’ve only had to quit out about 6 or 7 times or something because I already died on these sections in every conceivable way earlier today.

 

But the wind temple has a lot of OHKO’s in it, particularly the escape sequence at the end. And with how legitimately rattled I am I just don’t feel up to it. I think I might do another practice run up to the wind temple and give it another few goes before dying on the real save.

 

And breathe. This game is so fucking good but this is so fucking stupid! I’m gonna be so butt hurt when I die on some bullshit and have to try this all again!

[Maf]

It’s fun if you like the game.

 

Also when you nail those escape sequences in one run it feels so good. They can be very hard the first few times but once you get the hang of it they’re such highlights.

[DisturbedSwan]

1 hour ago, Nag said:

Reading that rams home the sort of extreme bollocks that people will do to unlock an achievement... fuck that noise, it sounds about as appealing as being hit in the face with a brick every five minutes.

?????

[Maf]

It’s not really about the points or the achievement as much as it is  for 100% completion. If I wanted to rack up points I got a bunch of Xbox games I could unwrap and burn through but the total accumulation of points doesn’t bother me. My gamer tag is nearly 13 years old or something and it still hasn’t broken 100k.

 

Fair enough points and stuff aren’t technically apart of the game so it’s defining 100% in another way, but at least there’s some metric that is like there is more to do.
 

But whether it’s Xbox/Playstation achievement bar, just a stat screen that doesn’t say 100%, or a secret weapon that wasn’t unlocked for doing some super huh difficult thing I just hate letting it lie. Especially in games like Ori which I love to death and back.

 

Speaking of which, cleared the wind temple ?

 

Back to the old save to practice the last 2 or 3 areas! 
 

Oh, god, I’m going to be so annoyed when I fucking die on some random fucking bit of scenery I forgot to account for.

 

EDIT: Also I’m learning how good the stomp move is. For a lot of enemies you can bash them in to the floor, immediately stomp, then bash again and you can literally stun lock a lot of them. Also the slug enemies that shoot little projectiles (that are surprisingly annoying) that turn in to mines with little AoE’s the stomp just destroys the mines from around Ori, too. Which is actually really helpful. I also learned that if you duck while spamming fire the same slug enemies aim seems to go off and they struggle to actually shoot close to Ori. Oh, and enemies that shoot actual fireball like projectiles the stomp sends them in directions away from Ori as long as you stomp when they’re approaching so it’s like a very quick force field as well. It’s got so many uses I never knew about!