Ori and the Blind Forest

[Starwars]

Playing this now after getting it on the STEAM sale and I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

Just did the "escape the flood" sequence and I loved that shit. Sure it took me quite a while to get it right but it was fucking awesome.

Good game.

 

[Wolfe]

Yeah, I really enjoyed playing Ori, it's one of my favourite games this year. Perfect music and atmosphere.

 

[Somberlain]

I know nothing about this game but the title screams of hipster "art" trash.

 

[hajro]

I know nothing about this game but the title screams of hipster "art" trash.

If you want to play a manly proper metroidvania, i recommend Axiom Verge

 

[Berekän]

I know nothing about this game but the title screams of hipster "art" trash.

Not really, I came expecting mostly a shallow but pretty game but it's a pretty good platformer. The "boss" escape sequences are hard and can get some time to do right.

 

[Starwars]

Just finished it, really enjoyed it all in all. I guess it's not hard in the sense that you can save pretty much anywhere you want so there is no real "die and replay the entire level" like in the olden days, but you will definitely die a lot. Took me 11 hours to finish according to STEAM (didn't bother collecting all the power-ups and stuff like that).

Great gameplay, great visuals, great audio and a nice little story. Highly recommended, especially since it goes on sale.

 

[Seethe]

There's only two platformers I ever enjoyed in my life. Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and this one. The visuals are really cool.

 

[Markman]

I was planning to get it on black friday sale but skipped it cause I already was over budget with all the strategy releases last month. Gonna get it at xmas sale for sure if they discount it same or more.

 

[flyingjohn]

 

[Valestein]

I know nothing about this game but the title screams of hipster "art" trash.

If you want to play a manly proper metroidvania, i recommend Axiom Verge

A more manly and hardcore Metroidvania is Rex Rocket.

 

[Ivan]

Shadow Complex is better

 

[Damned Registrations]

So I got around to trying this. Pretty disappointing honestly. It reminds me of Dust: An Elaborate Title. It looks pretty but there's no real challenge to it, and no meaningful sequence breaking (yeah you can get an extra health pip or whatever but all the major upgrades require the previous upgrade or story progression to acquire; you can't skip anything.) This was admittedly much better looking than Dust (probably the best looking platformer I've seen aside from SotN) but the atmosphere was pretty... unfocused? I'm not sure how to describe it. The enemies and characters are just kind of weird random things without any particular theme. There are a bunch of spikes everywhere but no real reason to be there. It certainly didn't have a 'forest' vibe to it, all the areas felt pretty generic and cave like. The story was insultingly simple, and I usually like simple or cliche stories. The lack of punishment for dying takes away all the tension from exploring, and the generally easy difficulty and the fact that you can't miss the important upgrades or get them early means it's not really worthwhile. The exception to this are 3 escape sequences during which you cannot save. These suck, because they're filled with instadeaths and have only 1 viable path, so it's basically just some annoying trial and error shit. It also ruins the mood because death puts you right at the start of the escape sequence, so it's not tense like when they had these in Metroid or Megaman games; where failure would set you back much further (and in the latter's case, you often had optional bonus loot to grab along the way, which had a lot more meaning to it) not to mention it really sucks the life out of the climactic moment when you start it over again 10 times in a row- these sequences are definitely the hardest parts in the game so if you're dying at all, you'll die more here. There's also the problem that these sequences involve a lot of cinematic flash and spectacle, but you've no time to admire any of this shit, because you need to be intently focused on your character lest he fade into the very bright and bloomy scenery.

Would rate this below all of the actual Metroidvanias and Metroids, but above Dust at least, because this was at least nice to look at while playing.

 

[Seethe]

Dust? Isn't that a brawler? What the shite? It has nothing to do with this game.

 

[Damned Registrations]

It's got about as much Metroidvania features; an open map with various powerups that let you into the next area and a primitive xp system. Hell, it had equipment too, which actually puts it closer to the genre if anything. If you're going to call Dust a brawler than this is a platformer like Super Meatboy.

 

[kangaroodev]

I tried this game thinking it was some pretentious platformer that's trying to preach something, but I was seriously wrong.

I'm 90% into the game now, and seriously it's just great if you like platformers. The things that I like the most in order: world design and music, controls. The music in the game is really really nice and I lowered the sound effects to listen to it better while I play, and I just feel like there's a lot of attention put into the levels. They aren't just randomly made, so you can progress to the next area and shrug it off, it all connects well, and the nice details of the grass and other things moving when you touch them is nice.

This game just feels like it flows good, I can't explain it. Everything is thought out to connect well. You can just stomp some enemy, boost yourself from an incoming projectile just after that and then triply jump to a high platform, it's nice because you feel very mobile. And there are a lot of secret areas to unlock, that give you spirit power or something (forgot name) that let's you choose abilities from 3 styles. Which are not overpowered really. So all this mobility comes handy if you want to unlock areas. Another awesome thing is when you move from one area to another and the music and level graphics smoothly transition, there aren't any loading screens except for when you enter something like a cave/big tree.

The combat is pretty simple, because those attack projectiles don't require you to be precise, but you'll have to pay attention to the levels and enemy/obstacle placements, and they are well hidden thanks to the art style. I think that it's one of the best recent platformers and that it deserves more attention.

I have no idea if the company who made this are sjws or not but I'll just tell you that the game itself isn't, and either way it's made by a whole bunch of people that have different opinions since it looks like the team is not that small. Nothing preaching in the story so far, it's good. Seriously try this game if you enjoyed Rayman Legends/Origins, I think it's a bit similar and if you like that you'll like this too. It's a lovely game.

 

[kangaroodev]

Completely agree, I finished it and it wasn't preachy at all, it was a damn great platformer with a great art style, soundtrack and fun gameplay. The difficulty was just right too, it wasn't too easy and you won't find yourself blaming the controls when dying, cool game.

 

[J1M]

Story parts are stupid. Gameplay was pretty good. Would have been a modern classic if they had boss fights in the game.

 

[Ivan]

the combat was garbage.


solid platforming though

 

[Damned Registrations]

There ought to be some other genre definition for games like this, that appear to be open world but really aren't.

 

[Edward The Mediocre]

Open Cock-block world
Open cock world
Cockblock-vania
Met-cockblock

Open tease world would of work but that doesn't have the word cock in it.

 

[Angthoron]

It used to be called non-linear world design once.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Cockblock-vania

I like this.

non-linear world design

Oh yeah, that rolls right off the tongue

 

[Angthoron]

Cockblock-vania

I like this.

non-linear world design

Oh yeah, that rolls right off the tongue

I'm sorry, it's meant to describe a design approach, not offer a conversation item at Starbucks.

 

[Damned Registrations]

It wasn't really the point of what I was describing anyways. Something like the original castlevania games or other platformers is fine- what I take issue with are games that present themselves as being an open world, but which offer arbitrary obstacles that force you through it in a particular path, with nothing off the beaten road except trivial things like currency or other non-unique items. It's a cheap ploy to lure in fans of a particular genre, just like adding rpg stat systems with no tangible effects, or dialogue/story options that all lead to the same result.

 

[DraQ]

I've been playing it lately (in between my sessions of toying with ships and tweaking railguns in COADE) and having unexpected amounts of fun (often crossing into FFFUUU-n).
Overall the game resembles Miyazaki's stuff in terms of overall atmosphere.
Stunning soundtrack, good art direction, a lot of charm, good, great, gradually unlocked mobility (which you really need to tackle increasingly "you've got to be fucking kidding me" challenges where you have to navigate some convoluted environment often riddled with hazards and/or moving while mostly staying in the air and barely ever touching anything, let alone anything horizontal).
Would heavily recommend.

Also, validated me as member of PC Master Race - tried playing it with a pad, but my hands just don't bend that way.