Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition

This game is pure suffering.

Ori and the blind forest is a wonderful game. It is beautiful. controls good enough and has a fantastic score. But... The pacing is absolutely horrible. Ori moves so fast, but all the time, there are things that aren't projected properly for that kind of speed and thus get you killed, or swallow a lot of your health (I played on hard). You can avoid that, but doing so, slows you down tremendously. And that kills the fun. I only played for two hours and already encountered at least three hurdles that killed in one hit, when I moved wrong just a little bit. And I said above, that Ori controls good enough, but that's only partially true. The problem is, that the hurdles are too unforgiving. Ori is so fast, that you will be tempted to take risks, but you will encounter at least one hurdle (the one I gave up on, after beating it, because I didn't think the game would get any better), that will force you to go slow, because you just can't do it fast. It is impossible, because of the pattern of the hurdle. And that is something I find absolutely unforgiving, for a game, that gives you such an agile hero to steer. Not to mention the enemys. Why do I get health Upgrades, when two minutes later I get an enemy, that takes 90% of my health with one hit. I could play on easy, and funnily enough, I tried in the last minutes of my playtime, and you take less damage, and enemies drop health, but you still need the same amount of hits for them, so it's not like playing on easy takes away any of the tediousnes of the game. Of course there are a lot of people who like this game to death, and have no problems with the things that I don't like and that's okay. More power to them. It's not a question about "being skilled" or something. It's about expectations. Conclusion: If you don't like Metroidvania Games, or are easily frustrated by dieing a lot of seemingly unnecessary deaths, Ori and the blind forest is not for you. Don't expect a game like Hollow Knight, because it is not. Expect a game more like Super Meatboy.

Very beautiful, nice music and sound effects. Very challenging, but good saving system. 3 moments in the game are w/o ability to save and will require your patience. Just persevere. I recommend to anyone looking for something beautiful, metroidvania-like and challenging still with decent save system.

After completing all the game areas 100%, I can say that the game is good but not a great platformer. The visuals still hold up remarkably well, even in 4K. The music is also of high quality. The story revolves around saving a forest, which isn't my preferred type of story, but it's okay. There are no NPCs to interact with, story progress happens in cut scenes. The game is surprisingly challenging, especially in the late game, considering its Disney-like visuals. The late game introduces numerous movement mechanics which have to be utilized. The emphasis is on demanding platforming, featuring plenty of puzzles - with a huge amount of spikes, which I personally dislike. Fortunately, you can save your progress almost anywhere. It feels quite old-school that each main "mission" includes a scripted escape sequence instead of a boss fight (there are no boss fights in this game). It reminds me of something from the old PS2 era, like rail shooters. Initially, the movement feels too soft, because of the animation style. especially if you're coming from a game like Hollow Knight. However, halfway through the game, it became less of an issue. Melee attacks behave like homing lasers of some sort, later you'll also have some jump/throw attacks. Most enemies are generic glowing, blob-like creatures with fast animations and attacks. The visuals are somewhat overdone, with glow and animated haze present everywhere, even in the menus. Motion blur is enabled by default. The most challenging late-game levels feature image warping and heat distortion, which I found really annoying. In many areas, it's also difficult to discern which objects can cause damage, particularly in the fast-paced sections, until you become familiar with the area. You can achieve 100% completion in each area using the map system (which is well-designed) after the credits roll. There's no New Game Plus mode. It's worth noting that there are no achievements either in the GOG version of the game.

Great visuals and soundtrack. It may cause some confusion, that sometimes the cutscenes are interactive like you get some sec in them when you have to move the characters, then it returns to the story telling. As i see the other reviews, its not only me who found challanging the game at some point, but if you not give up, then you can finish the story. I recomend use controller and collect all special abilities and collectives before the ending. Some parts may feel as others said like "torture" , but if you practice enough you can do it. What makes it hard (other than the harder parts), that you expecting a chill and cute gameplay based on the graphics and sounds and then reality slap you with a pan and waking you up from the calm dream that the visuals and the sound put you into makes harder to focus at the challenging parts. (Atleast in my opinion.) I really like that theres no unnecessary NPC talks and only one character tells the story it keeps you in the pink cloud. In summary its a work of art. The challanging parts are necessary to wake you up and remind you its a video game not a movie.