First of all: I wanted to love this game! I was totally addicted when I saw the screenshots and videos! To support the project I bought the Deluxe Edition. Pro: Nice retro graphics with C64 color palette, addictive story telling, beautyful story graphics. Med: Sound is ok, main theme makes you depressive the more you hear it. Con: - Worst here is the inhuman difficulty. Treat it like this: Normal mode: Extremely hard, Easy level: Very hard. I ended up with only me and 2 found chars around the lighthouse, starving and no heal possibility without food around (you NEED food to heal up while resting). That way it's impossible to me to continue the game. I'm not allowed to travel any further or into a town, very frustrating. I wish I could return it. - Battles are unbalanced: You can sometimes win a fight but you most often win it while 1 or 2 chars lie on the ground. Simple bashing with warrior/swordsman seems to be the most effective option, all others die too quickly. - No in-game map - No quick save option (and you need to save A LOT!) - Often it's not obvious where to walk to. You think you are in front of a wall but you can walk over it. - Even "lower" monsters like rats and crabs are VERY hard. There is no learning curve that way. - No manual (you get quick info in between but not telling you everything) - Changing screen settings makes the game hang, the Mac crash (you can't return) - In battle mode it's hard to see/differ monsters or party members because often all are squeezed together. I really wanted to enjoy this game (what a game should offer) but I ended up in many frustrated moments and in the end in a situation where I can't continue. I played the whole Ultima series, Bards Tale, Dungeon Master, Dungeon&Dragons but Skald beats them all in regard of difficulty.
I've played Ori on Switch but I'm sure it's great on every platform. There is so much love in this outstanding 2D platformer: Meaningful story, beautyful rich detailed GFX, very fitting sound. The developers of ORI want you to progess. Well, there are some key paths where it's tricky and partially hard (normal mode). In such a case you can (temporarily) reduce the difficulty level to pass such key positions. With every new ability you see the game and some areas with a new perspective. With those it makes sense to return some areas in order to reach previously unreachable levels. The controls are smooth and fair in every way. If you fail it was you not the game. All over a very well designed 2D platformer with some new features and some tricky riddles. For full or reduced price: You will miss something in your gamer life if you haven't played Ori.
