Ori and the Will of the Wisps

 PC
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1370 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,201 out of 1370
  2. Mixed: 75 out of 1370
  3. Negative: 94 out of 1370

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  1. Systolic
    Oct 31, 2020
    6
    The combat system is not very good, the character itself gets lost in sight, due to the great amount of bright things in the environment, sometimes i find myself not knowing where the hell Ori is, cause everything is shining when im in combat, also, the hit box system is pretty bad when it comes to bosses, specially the spider at the dark forest. The checkpoint system is terrible, theThe combat system is not very good, the character itself gets lost in sight, due to the great amount of bright things in the environment, sometimes i find myself not knowing where the hell Ori is, cause everything is shining when im in combat, also, the hit box system is pretty bad when it comes to bosses, specially the spider at the dark forest. The checkpoint system is terrible, the graphics and story are cool.… Expand
  2. nightinis
    Jun 29, 2020
    7
    It's a beautiful and emotional game with many ineteresting mechanics that get introduced with each new area. And it feels great having mastered all of them and truly feel like you own the magical forest as you swiftly glide across the screen avoiding obstacles and dashing enemies. However, the reason I can't give it a very high score is that some escape sequences are not balanced.It's a beautiful and emotional game with many ineteresting mechanics that get introduced with each new area. And it feels great having mastered all of them and truly feel like you own the magical forest as you swiftly glide across the screen avoiding obstacles and dashing enemies. However, the reason I can't give it a very high score is that some escape sequences are not balanced.

    Specifically I've stopped playing at the escape from the sand worm in Windtorn Ruins and I'm not sure if I'll ever go back to the game. And although Ori is notorious for its escape sequences I think there's a point where it stops being hard and becomes annoying. I have successfully finished the first instalment in the series "Ori and the Blind Forest" which already had some tough sequences like the escape from the Ginso Tree. And I was happy with other sequences in "The Will of the Wisps", so I know I can master them relatively quickly and enjoy the reward of finally beating them.

    The issue I'd like to raise here with the development team is one of balance and enjoyment. In my opinion certain sequences are just out of balance with the rest of the difficulty of the game. If you start the game at normal difficulaty and you finish 70% without a problem and suddenly you're stuck is that really just an indication of an unexperienced player? Had the game indicated that this difficulty is not for my non-professional-gamer leasure experience earlier on, maybe I would have started with "easy" - although I doubt if that would've let me avoid these sequences.

    I've also seen countless other people drop the game at this point (look for threads on Reddit or comments on YouTube). As someone pointed out these sequences are not as much about your skill and decision making as they are about your muscle memory after 100th attempt. I'm also curious what the effect of using different controllers (Xbox vs PC) has and how much testing was done on each of them.

    Would only recommend to people who really know what they're getting themselves into and who are sure they will enjoy repeating the same on minute sequence over and over for hours so they can pat their muscle memory on the shoulder.    … Expand
  3. 5unk3n
    Jul 27, 2020
    7
    I played the previous game so much fun, I kept waiting for this game. Dreamy graphics and BGM were perfect. But this game closer to Hollow knight. It's as if the Hollow Knight is covered with Ori graphics. And there were some parts of the story that I couldn't understand.
  4. DrKrimel
    Jan 3, 2021
    6
    I like this game. It is beautiful and most of the time it is a lot of fun. But then there are these stupid trial and error passages, and they are awful. They destroy most of the game for me.
  5. Jidou
    Mar 18, 2020
    7
    Ori and the Will of the Wisps. After the breathtaking adventure we had for the first time in the blind forest, moon studios prepare us for yet another amazing journey, or is it? The will of the wisps is a game that made me feel a lot of conflicts after I finished it. Even tho it has stunning visual, amazing story and storytelling, very decent and well-developed characters and a story thatOri and the Will of the Wisps. After the breathtaking adventure we had for the first time in the blind forest, moon studios prepare us for yet another amazing journey, or is it? The will of the wisps is a game that made me feel a lot of conflicts after I finished it. Even tho it has stunning visual, amazing story and storytelling, very decent and well-developed characters and a story that binds to the ambiance of the world are some of the many advantages this game has. The problem is that many times gamers tend to look at a game only a storytelling way ( which if this was the case this would take a solid 9+ ). But sadly I felt it's gameplay a bit disappointing. There were way too many similarities for example with Hollow Knight as they had adopted the trinkets system as well as the sword skills etc. This though is a very small issue that many might not even consider, what made me dislike a part of the game is repetitiveness in compare to the previous one ( blind forest ), as it is like we are visiting the same locations or the story is kinda the same ( without being though ) and in general, I felt that moon studios wanted to create something new but without venturing away from the safety of the Blind Forest. The game lacked some very major gameplay characteristics like simplicity, clarity, and bug-free.

    The game provides you with so much content that it is never properly explained how it can be used ( which in some cases it is good cause it allows you to explore it) in some others, it is just too much. I felt that there were way too many skills and weapons for you to wield even though there was a clear overpowered set where you could overpower most of the enemies in the game with ease. I truly used 1/4 of my entire arsenal in the throughout my entire gameplay. And so I think it lacks simplicity.

    Over that there were situations where fighting a boss was not hard only because the mechanics of the boss were hard, but because the environment around me did not help my eyes and my senses to follow ori. There were situations that I was taking damage and because of the many particles and many flashing lights on the screen I did not see that one of my dashes did not take action, I took some damage and did not know where ori is. This was happening occasionally and it is the first time I experience it so much in a game and I thought it would be right to be addressed.

    Lastly and sadly the game had a lot of minor and major bugs. Most of the were minor with little effect on the game itself and still, it was not appropriate to be playing a game of such range and still drowning in pools of mud without touching them, teleporting at death or having yourself trapped in a corner and eventually dying.

    My final verdict is that ori and the will of the wisps is still an incredible and amazing game. From visuals to storytelling it is a creation of masterpiece, but I believe that moon studios did not "invest" in the implementation of the game as much as they did on the storytelling of its adventure.    … Expand
  6. MaxmilianKohler
    Feb 19, 2021
    7
    This sequel is much more combat focused, and seems to have taken many aspects from Hollow Knight. Thankfully it's nowhere near as bad as Hollow Knight, but it's certainly a lot worse than the first Ori. I enjoyed playing the first Ori multiple times, but this is not a game I'll be playing again.

    There are way more abilities than the previous Ori. The upgrade and ability system is very    This sequel is much more combat focused, and seems to have taken many aspects from Hollow Knight. Thankfully it's nowhere near as bad as Hollow Knight, but it's certainly a lot worse than the first Ori. I enjoyed playing the first Ori multiple times, but this is not a game I'll be playing again.

    There are way more abilities than the previous Ori. The upgrade and ability system is very similar to HK.

    In Hollow Knight the maps are 100% necessary. In Ori they're 100% preference since the map reveals itself as you explore anyway. So they don't make you run around a dark maze the whole game like HK does.

    Some nice changes to the environment. It's more "alive" in both visuals and audibles.

    I'm disappointed at the first "boss fight" with the massive wolf. It seems to be going in the direction of "really hard = fun", and generally doesn't make sense. What you're supposed to do is very unintuitive. I had to look up a playthrough on youtube only to see that someone very good at the game barely survives as well, and that the fight indeed makes little sense.

    There are lots of little things that make it a lot worse than the first game. Eg:
    * At one point there is no way to continue, but unbeknownst to you you have to step far enough in one direction to trigger a cut scene that will allow you to continue. I didn't step far enough the first time and ended up going back for 30 minutes through the previous parts of the map trying to figure out where to go.
    * Having to do mundane/tedious things over and over because... I don't know why. Did they simply do a bad job in the beta/playthrough testing, or did they actually want mundane parts of the game to be demanding such precision?
    * The hook doesn't work many times when it seems like it should. A similar issue with jumping - I have triple jump but when dashing out of water during a race I only have 1 jump.
    * I experienced something similar with bash. I knew how it works from the previous game, but when I got the "shoot the fireball then bash to reach higher" part it wasn't working and I had to look at a playthrough to determine that I just needed to keep trying till it finally worked right. And I'm regularly experiencing problems with bash not working properly.
    * Then in another part of the game you get these explosive things to follow you, and you've done it a dozen times already so you know how it works, but then this one just isn't working. I look up a playthrough and see the person doing the same thing as me, but it works for them.
    * There's a bug with achievements not unlocking. Restarting the game resolved it for me.

    And almost all of this stuff I see people complaining about the exact same bugs a year ago and they're still not patched.

    You essentially have one button for 3 different abilities - glide, hook, bash - and that really messes you up during movement and combat. Also, even the way the abilities are implemented seems poor. Eg: you hook to enemies, which is great, but then for some reason you immediately get pushed away from them, making it totally useless.
    Then later in the game you get another ability very similar to hook, but only works for sand, and is bound to another key...

    Many of the chase scenes seem poorly designed. Have to watch someone else do it to find out why I was dying and what route they wanted me to take. And I see them having the exact same frustrating issues/confusion.

    In the second half of the game there are too many spots where you have to go look up on youtube where they want you to go. And too many parts that are unnecessarily tedious and thus zap the enjoyment out of the game.

    They didn't improve/fix one annoying issue with the previous game where the map shows 98 or 99% complete but there are no obvious places you missed. After running around a bunch I figured out that the things you buy to reveal all the items on the map don't even work properly/fully.

    The longest side quest in the game (that reveals all hidden items) is completely miss-able. I didn't find out about it till the end of the game when I looked something up online.    … Expand
  7. eded9999
    Mar 21, 2020
    7
    It look good, platforming is good, combat is not that great, boss fight doesn't feel thrilling.
    Also there's some weird performance issues sometimes.
    A like the ending, but hate the final boss.
    It's just ok, but better than the first one.
  8. psylife
    Dec 29, 2020
    5
    The gameplay is all about swiftly concatenating together grapples, dashes, and double jumps, while occasionally spamming the attack button in order to dispense with the foes sprinkled around the levels. The boss fights and chase sequences bring nothing in the way of clever level design and puzzle solving.

    There is perhaps nothing fundamentally wrong with that, but the result is a rather    The gameplay is all about swiftly concatenating together grapples, dashes, and double jumps, while occasionally spamming the attack button in order to dispense with the foes sprinkled around the levels. The boss fights and chase sequences bring nothing in the way of clever level design and puzzle solving.

    There is perhaps nothing fundamentally wrong with that, but the result is a rather boring, repetitive and slightly tedious game that quickly outlasts its welcome, despite the constant stream of new mechanics being introduced throughout the adventure.

    What I found most problematic however, was the amount of time that I have spent bouncing all four corners of the map, trying to figure out where to go next. I too often found myself navigating a set of challenging platforming section, only to realize that I had spent the last 10 minutes burying myself deep in the wrong direction.

    It doesn't help that the audio-visual presentation, for all its beauty and polish, lacks variety, originality, dare I say, identity. This is a critique that very well extends to the story and characters.

    Play Guacamelee instead.    … Expand
  9. miguelux
    Mar 13, 2020
    7
    Good game with a poor performance. Unaceptable performance ( RTX 2070 S + SSD M.2 + Ryzen 3600X+ 16 GB Patriot 3600 + Cossair MX 750W ). Unacceptable stuttering
  10. Oshiri_Maeda
    Apr 19, 2021
    7
    I don't know. It's the same Ori as before (which is great, loving it!) plus Hollow Knight mechanics. And Hollow Knight mechanics feel quite out of place here, IMO. The game got times bigger, meaning more grind with fights, which are not that great - not bad, but that good to enjoy them again, and again, and again...Basically, old mechanics are great, but we already played with them enough;I don't know. It's the same Ori as before (which is great, loving it!) plus Hollow Knight mechanics. And Hollow Knight mechanics feel quite out of place here, IMO. The game got times bigger, meaning more grind with fights, which are not that great - not bad, but that good to enjoy them again, and again, and again...Basically, old mechanics are great, but we already played with them enough; and new mechanics do not blend into the existing game very good. The first game felt just the right size, both length and mechanics wise, this one is too big and too bothersome to finish.… Expand
  11. ertyz
    Jan 13, 2022
    6
    it was ok.
    nice game if I need to compare among all other games by the way.
  12. JoeyPL5
    Nov 16, 2021
    7
    They really should have stuck to the original formula because Hollow Knight blows this game out of the water in every aspect but art direction. It's unfortunate because this game's world design and mechanics wouldn't seem so bland had it been released before February 24, 2017. Ori and the Blind Forest had a more unique structure that allowed it to be its own unique and memorable adventure.They really should have stuck to the original formula because Hollow Knight blows this game out of the water in every aspect but art direction. It's unfortunate because this game's world design and mechanics wouldn't seem so bland had it been released before February 24, 2017. Ori and the Blind Forest had a more unique structure that allowed it to be its own unique and memorable adventure. This one plays like if Hollow Knight was poorly designed but illustrated by Vincent Van Gogh himself.… Expand
  13. makarosu
    Apr 24, 2022
    6
    Графика 9/10
    Сюжет 10/10
    Музыка 10/10
    Геймплей 3/10
    Минус балл за токсичность разработчика когда эту игру обвиняли в краже фишек из hollow knight и ещё минус балл за баги
    Итого: 6/10
  14. Skizzlok
    Jun 16, 2022
    5
    The most frustrating game I have played in a long time. There are way too many abilities and they are all tied to the same buttons. They tried to make this game feel complex but instead they just made it bloated. I don't understand how this game has so many 10 rankings.
  15. triadne
    Mar 15, 2023
    7
    horrible inconsistent design. some things look like platforms and are, the bit right next to it looks exactly the same but isn't a platform. things that don't look like walls turn out to be walls.spikes hurt you, except when the spikes aren't actually there but are foreground artwork but look exactly the same as the others. the game even gives you extra abilities and doesn't even tell you.horrible inconsistent design. some things look like platforms and are, the bit right next to it looks exactly the same but isn't a platform. things that don't look like walls turn out to be walls.spikes hurt you, except when the spikes aren't actually there but are foreground artwork but look exactly the same as the others. the game even gives you extra abilities and doesn't even tell you. the game is telling you to use your feather to get past a bear, but your ability to float with a feather doesn't work and the game completely neglects to tell you that a special move with the feather is now in your menu. it was at that point that I am done with the game. I can't take any more of the frustration. because there has been A LOT of it, so many things, like getting stuck in walls, controls not responding, enemies action totally stupid and throwing themselves into spikes for no reason,
    multiple useless systems that add nothing to the core game experience.    … Expand
  16. purple_laser
    Jun 21, 2020
    6
    This game would have been sooooo much better if there was a quicksave option.. the saving mechanism just sucks ..

    Also game is mostly about how quickly / times jumps you can make . After a while I will get carpal tunnel.

    But. So many things are cool. The graphics, music , the abilities. But alas... It is unplayable. Also key bindings if changed will cause bugs

    But
  17. gusman
    Mar 26, 2020
    7
    Buen juego con un arte muy cuidado, pero me parece basatnte repetitivo, al cabo de unas horas el gameplay es un poco monótono. Aun así buen juego.
  18. Hitjhon
    Jun 13, 2020
    5
    The game ran terrible at launch so I uninstalled it. Then I heard there was a patch coming and I said ok I'll try it again and still had some audio bugs and some frame drops and also I left the game and thought there was an autosave system in place but no apparently you can only save on some specific points so fine I lost my progress. Finally I saw an update of 12.7 GB so I said to myselfThe game ran terrible at launch so I uninstalled it. Then I heard there was a patch coming and I said ok I'll try it again and still had some audio bugs and some frame drops and also I left the game and thought there was an autosave system in place but no apparently you can only save on some specific points so fine I lost my progress. Finally I saw an update of 12.7 GB so I said to myself finally I can play this game in a decent way.....SOO yeah it deleted my progression again even though I saved the game and verified it before I left but who cares right if the update will delete it anyway and yeah the new resolution scale system was terrible just bad. I know I don't have a great GPU but the first game was a solid 60 FPS game and this one it's just terribe optimized. I think Microsoft will delete this opinion but just wanted to let you know if someone ever reads this.… Expand
  19. wagllgaw
    Mar 23, 2020
    7
    Overall I feel this entry does not compare favorably to other modern platform/metroidvania. Games like Hollow Knight surpass Ori in terms of tightened combat and better realized world building.

    Ori's strength is in its fluidity of movement and while its levels are well designed to have interesting movement challenges, the enemies and bosses feel like afterthoughts with combat that    Overall I feel this entry does not compare favorably to other modern platform/metroidvania. Games like Hollow Knight surpass Ori in terms of tightened combat and better realized world building.

    Ori's strength is in its fluidity of movement and while its levels are well designed to have interesting movement challenges, the enemies and bosses feel like afterthoughts with combat that doesn't feel as tight or important.
    I also wanted to say that the story didn't capture me as it keeps trying to backtrack its darker themes instead of engaging. I would also like to have seen more growth given this is game two.    … Expand
  20. Aruthar
    Mar 15, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. First of all I had too many game breaking bugs where I had to restart the game. This didn't gave me the pleasure I had hoped for.

    But when the game was running it was the same old butter smooth game play I experienced from the blind forest. Personally I didn't like the big boss battles that much, because sometimes I feel like I cheesed the fight a little. If the boss abilities could be a little bit more telegraphed I would have enjoyed that better, I think.

    What i loved the most where the side missions. They have lots of personality and are a good way for world building. And the best side quest is the one where you help build a home for all the woodland creatures.

    The story is a bit simple, but that doesn't make it bad. Better to have a simple story that is told beautifully than a complex story that is told badly.

    And the last point of this review. The music and art. I have nothing other to says then 12 out of 10. They just did it again. Out of this world.

    All in all its a great game and I enjoyed the time with it. I am sure that the dev's are fixing the bugs right now. When those game breaking bugs are fixed I would give it a 9. But right now that's not the case.    … Expand
  21. killcv
    Jun 20, 2020
    6
    Fantistic art, fantastic music, fantastic graphic and amazing level design. The game is almost perfect, without taking the story and narrative into consideration. The contradiction of story and game progress is depressing.
  22. realWhiteMan
    Mar 5, 2023
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. My rating is based on my impressions of the game. This is not an objective review. I play quite a big number of titles per year and decided to review them as a peace of art and not as a product.… Expand
  23. zNeverSleep
    May 14, 2023
    5
    The game is insane in some aspects. Art direction, sound design, graphics etc. But one thing hold me back and made me quit the game: level design fragmentation. I feel like almost all areas needed something i didn`t have to proceed. 1 time for area is okay, but 2/3? I just lost my will to play because of that (i played for the second time and 6 hours).

Awards & Rankings

9
#9 Best PC Game of 2020
18
#18 Most Discussed PC Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 44 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 44
  3. Negative: 0 out of 44
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 23, 2020
    80
    An honest second installment, which is missing only the courage to leave the traditional dogmas of the genre and try something new. [Issue#303]
  2. Gamer Escape
    Jun 10, 2020
    100
    It’s a shining example of how to do a sequel. They kept the core of what made the original enjoyable while switching up just about everything they could. There are some elements I feel it did better, some where I feel the original did better with, but on the whole they feel like they’re on equal footing. If you want a game that’s more of an experience than simply something to kill time, if you want something that showcases how artistic games can be, if you want an action platformer with plenty of approaches to combat, I can’t recommend enough that you pick up Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Also Ori and the Blind Forest if you haven’t played it already.
    Read full review
  3. Edge Magazine
    May 22, 2020
    70
    Its moments of brilliance are worth experiencing, but they shouldn't blind anyone to the shortcomings of a sequel that, underneath that beautiful surface, is as frustratingly flawed as the first. [Issue#346, p.98]
See all critic reviews »