Ori and the Will of the Wisps (PC, 2020)
Graphics-9 Sound-8 Control-8.5 Challenge-7.5 Story-6
Level Design-8 Frustration-6.5/7.5* Fun-8.5/7* Originality-6
Overall Score-8
*Most chase segments after the first one as well as the stealth segment
+
Pretty good sense of vulnerability early on (makeshift weapons, chase segment, general vibe) and in mouldwood depths (use some neutral creatures moving on a set path as guides in the dark here)
Climb walls and certain ceilings from the get go
Can equip up to three weapons and spells to switch between in-between attacks
Start with a downstab (can only be used to bounce once however, can also be used to stop in mid-air and steer out of the way if you're falling into a hazard)
Difficulty options (easy-hard). Besides enemy/hazard and player avatar damage stat tweaks, Easy makes shop items cheaper, while Hard makes shop items cost 50% more
Can buy fast travel pretty early on (teleport to any spirit well/save+healing point from where you are)
Can jump cancel out of attacks (and dash though you have to learn specific timings in-between the swings in a combo and after the first hit with the hammer the dash is delayed to after each swing, with the sword it is always delayed but the swings are so fast that it doesn't really matter)
Great air traversal ability after getting the sword and hammer, dash, bash, triple jump, grapple, glide, light burst. After getting launch (or using the super jump trick) as well you're basically flying through some areas
Satisfying feedback from hitting enemies and objects
Nice visual detail and variety, lighting, animation and overall aesthetics
Good map system overall (marks doors, save points, NPCs and found items; zoomable)
Find an item drop magnet early on
Some large-scale environmental effects (water level manipulation and purifying of poisonous water, gear system+spin a large room by 45 degrees in the mill dungeon/dungeon 1, moving a larger wall part in the optional burrows area, tree collapse in ice area, some removed thorns even outside the town after completing the "thorny situation" repairs, etc.)
Some good puzzles (switch and block puzzles, platforming puzzles (some combined with timed doors), physics puzzles, enemy luring - FF Adventure, one music puzzle - no timing or note length requirement however, some platforming ones have alternate solutions, projectiles juggling and redirecting)
Good optional platforming challenges (spirit trials - on foot races against a ghost player, some upgrade items)
Some risk/reward slot skills/upgrades and some synergies between them. Sometimes have to consider which shards/slot items to equip for a given situation
Help rebuild/repair a home base of sorts with found ore (wellspring glades; Bastion, Terranigma, Suikoden; not as fleshed out as in Suikoden though)
Can double/triple jump in-between mid-air attacks or after falling as well as use attack combos in mid-air with 2 different melee weapons to reach further
Some systemic elements (enemies are also affected by hazards, any sand can be dashed through including weak platforms)
Can juggle enemies with attacks+bash
Some fun scripted events (some chases, enemies breaking out of walls, main villain appearances and some others, etc)
Some interesting new abilities (burrow/digging in sand like a drill - similar to Sonic Colors, grapple which can be upgraded to grab onto enemies - temporary in that you automatically let go after passing the grappling point but due to the forgiving air time you can generally keep grappling the same point, swim dash and dashing out of sand while using burrow - like jumping out of water in Zora form in Majora's Mask but also used as an attack, launch - replaces charge jump (works like bash but without a target), light burst is now a fireball and can be used to crack open some walls)
Some memorable locations (mill dungeon, luma pools - partial underwater tropical area, mouldwood depths - dark area where you sometimes have to not kill the enemies to survive, NPCs sort of traveling along with you makes some situations more exciting such as when encountering the dungeon 1 boss)
Using Ku's feather as a tool after he's badly injured was a good way to create ludonarrative resonance
Nice area transitions
Various sequence breaking possibilities (early healing by bouncing off of an enemy early on (tricky), can super jump/sentry jump upwards by attacking upwards with the sword+activating the sentry at the same time (or timing the sentry activation 3 frames after the attack if in mid-air which is much harder, pressing sentry slightly before attack while on the ground and then holding the buttons also tends to make you jump even higher) - lets you explore one or two areas earlier+reach various items earlier and explore luma pools early (can just barely reach the luma pools without the feather (glide jump); the lower ice area can be entered but is mostly hard gated for the glide jump ability - after the feather you can do the rest of it with this trick for a higher challenge), can skip the first boss by going NE after getting the first torch, can open some shortcuts before you're supposed to with the shuriken (throw it just right to make it go through one-way barriers and damage them on the way back - feels a bit glitchy) - this lets you skip more than half of mouldwood depths (as in you go to the boss without the light ability and then the darkness gimmick is removed), can reach somewhat higher by attacking upwards in mid-air (can be used to get Launch earlier along with burrow+using an exploit where you warp back to the silent woods spring after triggering a cutscene w/ shriek to the W of it, if you get launch early you can get to the final dungeon very early, also used to reach some money containers (a few more if you also attack downwards right afterwards if you were jumping up through a thin platform), also used to skip a puzzle leading to a key early on), can get some crazy hangtime letting you jump further by combining the sword and hammer attack combos, can bounce on an enemy in mid-air to reach a HP piece earlier, can skip lowering the water at one point in inkwater marsh on Easy, can also super jump in a different way around certain slopes but it's harder to pull off - lets you skip riding Ku; more with glitches)
Many stats recorded by the game (talk to Motay in the wellspring glades)
Optional slot item to make fake walls semi-transparent ("secret shard" in the sand area)
Optional underwater breathing upgrade (cheap to buy)
Some pretty good bosses (toad, the spider boss besides the chase segment, final boss)
There's a shard to make enemies respawn faster if you want to grind quicker or have more of a challenge
Upgradeable bash length+added damage (ultra bash shard)
Each ability tree's shape resembles the shape of the ability you acquire from it
Cool how the narrator's identity is revealed in the end
Skippable staff roll
Can switch out shards and weapons at any point here (in HK you have to be at a bench to switch charms and in Valdis Story you have to pay to respec your skills at a certain vendor)
+/-
Partially non-linear after the beginning post-prologue gameplay (opens up a bit more after gaining the sword and double jump - 1-2 ability trees and 2-3 combat shrines to go to as well as a couple of side quests to do, can choose between three things at a time to repair at the glades/home base, can get into the optional burrows area (music puzzle) early if you figure out the puzzle or know the sequence already, can do luma pools after the silent wood part (feather) if you use the super jump trick or get launch earlier - otherwise you can go to the sand or ice area or to mouldwood depths (can't do the sand area dungeon until finishing the other areas however), the "clear cave entrance" rebuilding project clears the entrance to the cave below town but you can only explore the cave after the Mouldwood Depths (the darkness itself hurts you - lame!), non-linear final dungeon)
Various items to go back for in each area and you go back into kwolok's area, the sand area and the silent woods area to progress (as well as the town for an optional area and to rebuild it), though overall the game retains the hub and spokes feel of the original
Auto-saves frequently instead of letting you save (almost) where you want to - can choose from a list of backup saves at any point. Heal spell gained early
Very frequent checkpoints and item collection/exp/boss progress is saved however if you picked up an item at the end of a platforming challenge and died getting back out then you need to redo the challenge. Nearby enemies also respawn after dying
Save points/spirit wells also restore HP (life) and MP (energy)+you can teleport between visited ones - spirit wells
Off screen respawning for HP containers (horizontally, not vertically) and MP containers respawn after 8 seconds or so (sometimes, other times you have to move a few screens away) - generally makes it easy to farm them after finding one
The skill tree was changed into a slot system and you find the skills/upgrades by exploring or buying them instead (FF7, Bastion, Hollow Knight) - means you can't simply grind to reach what you want nor plan your build in advance. Instead there are vendors that you buy skills, upgrades and sub area maps from with money (yellow orbs). Few slots at first (only three)
Pretty cutscene heavy
Melee combat focused but there is also a bow (which replaces a function of the light burst from Ori 1?). Have to fight in combat shrines (enemy wave challenges) to gain more slots for skills/shards and in "battle arenas" outside of them for some shards
Forgiving mid-air movement while attacking (can move backwards a bit during a swing+there's some hangtime during an attack combo (can be used to reach further when jumping), can't turn around during a sword swing however)
Minor collectathon element (about 4 key parts per area - these are generic meaning you can use them on any door, 20+ ore - optional)
Quest markers on the map screen (can't turn them off but at least they don't show the path to the next goal)
Hitting walls activates the rumble feature for some reason (overkill)
Non-interactive dialogue and silent protagonist
Can make your attack combo longer by beginning it before landing (from 5 to 8!)
Not much verticality to the double jump
Many more NPCs (vendors, quest givers)
Some fetch quests
Overly directed intro gameplay/semi-interactive cutscene that might as well have been a long cutscene - skippable though
Some aim assist for the bow however it costs some MP to use
Neverending Story/Disney/Lord of the Rings-like atmosphere (kwolok for the first especially, shriek's area feels pretty Lion King-esque)
Two ability gates are weapon-based and there are two weapons that can remove them (breakable floors and walls - hammer or spirit smash)
Can't attack NPCs (a bit silly when encountering the sleeping bear blocking your way)
Can reach some items earlier by taking some damage
Borrows some platforming gimmicks from Sonic and DKC Returns and the weak but reappearing platforms from Super Metroid
Static difficulty (at least in terms of the combat shrines) - earlier areas don't become harder if you do them later on
Can skip some in-game cutscenes by quitting to the main menu and reloading
Bounty (2x money dropped but enemies are a lot stronger) stacks with the other shard that makes enemies drop more money+you can bash or lure enemies into spikes to ignore health
Can't trigger bash while swinging a melee weapon
World restoration theme (evil corruption has made everyone bad and decayed the land)
Twillen (shard vendor) and the traveling map vendor seem borrowed from Hollow Knight (then again the latter is based on Tingle from Majora's Mask)
Two optional OP buffs (25%+/50%+ damage - ancestral light items) - can't unequip these
Re-uses some gameplay elements and area themes from Ori 1
Can only charge light burst while standing still on the ground - needed to be able to bash off of it
No MP regen (not enough MP is restored after death) but can make enemies drop more MP after entering luma pools (earlier if you used super jump to enter) and use an MP leech ability after getting the feather (Catalyst at the lower ice area entrance). Before that you can either die and respawn with some MP or save and quit then reload to restore 1 bar of MP
Weird how you're encouraged to smash furniture inside the mokis' homes
The bought maps show key piece locations before having seen them as well as over 90% of an area's map (spoils a bit much of the exploration but they are optional)
Can't use shuriken or stomp to get further into luma pools earlier (horizontal/floor glowing wall right after the shortcut opening breakable wall)
Some breakable one-way wall shortcuts are pointless (luma pools, burrows-southern inkwater marsh, more?)
Finishing the item trade sequence (last one is in the sand dungeon) shows all remaining hidden items on the map - can't toggle it
No enemy freeze ability
No neutral or friendly creatures besides NPCs and the fireflies
-
Plenty of stuttering and some lag (gtx 960 gpu, 8gb ram and i5-6400 cpu so above the minimum). Your avatar also becomes a bit blurry on low graphics settings+it doesn't remove the stutter and lag
Some control/interface issues (can't speed up in-game cutscene dialogue - only skip the whole cutscene via the pause menu, can't place map markers - doesn't show found switches for example, no mini-map, the map marks breakable floors but not walls (which are sometimes used as floors too), hazardous liquids and sand are not visible enough on the map screen - generally have to zoom in to spot them, automatically jump when attacking upwards, have to jump on health containers - can't attack them which can break flow somewhat, can't see how long you have left to upgrade a skill, some tutorial messages pause gameplay while others don't, can't choose "replace" if all slots are full, some delay when healing and you can't do it while climbing or in mid-air+doesn't register if you start pressing before landing (Hollow Knight), have to go into the menu to see how much money you're carrying unless you just picked some up, can't look down/up far enough and it's kinda slow, a bit too floaty/low gravity movement after using the grapple, one of the money containers and one ore piece in the north of inkwater marsh aren't shown on the map after seeing them (the ones you have to cleanse the water to get to; true for one or two other items as well) - apparently done to make you pay the map maker in town to reveal them which is lame (could've given you a nice discount for mapping the silent woods), one of the hidden areas doesn't update the map after finding it - below kwolok the toad, sometimes loose vertical camera when moving around, can't save shard slot setups for quick swapping - See Aria of Sorrow or Shaman King 2, although it looks like it the hammer swing doesn't hit enemies behind Ori)
1 minute+ of loading on bootup. Also takes 5-10 seconds to shut down in total
Some tedious aspects (game could've used more shortcuts or teleporters in spots (southern and/or western inkwater marsh - burrows entrance in the south, the one below the glades one could've been moved or the glades one could've let you choose where to put it when repairing it) - either that or a teleporter beacon, need some MP to teleport w/ the fast travel feature and MP containers are sometimes more scarce than HP ones (HP ones could've dropped MP if you had max HP), can't trade in found shards/skills that you're not gonna use, some shard skills such as magnet and triple jump could've been permanent abilities instead (sticky could've been a separate one that you could toggle), some parts where you get stopped completely when dashing by small bumps on the ground - they can be hard to see in advance, can't access opher (weapon vendor) at a few points, ultra bash (do damage w/ it) starts off too weak, silly how you need the feather to remove the leaf piles when you have other super powerful weapons - only a few of them at least, some insta-death hazards in the dead woods and during chases, the gorlek enemies' projectiles can't be used to crack open the glowing walls with bash apparently (could've been an alternate solution to luring the sand enemy), overflow could've been a passive ability - converts either HP or MP to the other if you're at max when picking some up, the enemies that pop out of the ground and shoot lobby shots for bashing could've shot a bit more frequently and activated quicker, one of the lighting via pot puzzles in the ice area, pointless shortcut between luma pools and inkwater marsh (underwater stream), some of the exploding enemies you need to lure in the sand area are too specific about how you need to move to lure them properly, some of the seeds aren't worth getting)
Sometimes a bit hard to read enemies due to the flashy effects during combat, Occasionally a bit unclear what you can interact with
Various one-way paths early on
On the map screen it looks like there's an unexplored path in southern inkwater marsh (next to one of the trees) unless you zoom in a lot
Some trial & error (one part of getting past shriek in the feeding grounds area - stupid how you're supposed to hide after being seen behind a tiny sail+if you make it to the next cover instead you're auto-killed, parts of the escape out of dungeon 1 - still easier than in Ori 1 though, some cheap enemy placements near platform ledges, can't use bash on the sand worms or the mines, a few red herrings in terms of hidden paths, luma pools/spider boss/sandworm chase segments, some boss patterns, the crushing traps kind of blend into the background)
Some temporary dead ends early on (luma pools entrance, music puzzle in the SW, into the darkness quest if you chose to remove the thorns instead of restore the homes in the glades) though if you have fast travel it's a minor problem
The spinning puzzle of dungeon 1/mill kinda solves itself
Kinda lame how two of the town repair options just add more moki houses and the "gorlek touch" option has no gameplay benefit despite costing 10 ore
Most NPCs stand around doing nothing (some travel off screen)
Would've been more interesting if you could either save Ku or play as her (at least for a bit more than the short segment before her serious injury to establish more of a connection, also a bit annoying how the game goes into a cutscene as shriek appears instead of weaving the scene into gameplay). Might've been interesting if you could save kwolok the toad too by hitting only the monster possessing him
Seemingly undodgeable attacks during the first boss encounter (still pretty easy though)
The repair animations at the glades could've been better
Some skills kinda suck (Swap (swap MP and HP) since no MP is refilled when using it, Life Pact in most situations (spend HP to cast spells/use MP-based weapons), )
Pointless additional path to the first key in the dead woods reunion segment
Sometimes uneven difficulty (difficulty spike at the spider boss if you go there early and at the sand worm chase segment unless you went for an early Launch; the optional dark cave area is too small and easy, somewhat easy final boss due to a checkpoint being placed right before the last phase, in general going back and using your abilities to get to items could've been a bit more challenging - oftentimes you're just going through the motions compared to what you used the ability for in the area you got it in)
Can't change difficulty while in-game unlike in the prequel
Parts of the sand area (windswept wastes) and water area are very similar in terms of puzzle design
Re-uses some enemies in several areas (makes them feel less unique). Some like the gorlek enemies have somewhat differing patterns however
Could've had one or two more minor bosses after establishing more of a boss focus in the first areas
Not quite enough shard slot number upgrades (only 5 and you start with only 3 slots; would've been fine if the ones mentioned above were permanent upgrades instead)
Short and linear sand "dungeon" and you don't get to fight the worm
No new enemies in previously visited areas besides the ones appearing in the cleansed waters
The backstory for Shriek doesn't make much sense (shriek (pretty funny how she's born that way btw) was shunned by the adult owls for no reason, then the game implies that she can't be redeemed as an adult but how do owls turn out the way they do if they started out as empathetic and curious then? some are affected by their surroundings while others are predetermined personality-wise?)
Kind of silly and overly cutesy how neither the spider boss nor her kids die after beating her when kwolok did
Cliché story besides some attempts to humanize the final boss. Also doesn't show what happened to Shriek after Ori became a tree - did she just go away, die or what? The corruption/decay is not really explained either, only that the previous tree in the new land grew old
Swim dash isn't used much if at all outside of luma pools
Bugs:
-Minor physics bugs when using the grapple if there's a thin wall in the way (get stuck for as long as you hold the button)
-Occasionally weird physics around upside down slopes in ceilings - could reach Veral in the glades earlier because of this but can't go further east anyway
-Minor scripting issue with the kwolok's wisdom side quest - can't complete it before doing the silent woods segment
-The ice wall W of the well in the upper ice area suddenly melted during my playthrough without having lit any shrines in the area (was just moving against it and pressing square+cross on the controller which weren't mapped to anything at the moment) - this let me explore most of the rest of the area without launch but eventually I couldn't get the key piece to the light burst room
-The gorlek enemies' AI can sometimes glitch out a bit making them less aggressive
-Collecting the fourth key piece in lower ice area (opens door to spirit trial) didn't register for me - game got stuck at 98% for that area
Notes:
-Can combine shards for more money dropped with faster enemy respawning for faster money grinding
-Upwards slashing at weak sand platforms gives you another mid-air dash
Level Design-8 Frustration-6.5/7.5* Fun-8.5/7* Originality-6
Overall Score-8
*Most chase segments after the first one as well as the stealth segment
+
Pretty good sense of vulnerability early on (makeshift weapons, chase segment, general vibe) and in mouldwood depths (use some neutral creatures moving on a set path as guides in the dark here)
Climb walls and certain ceilings from the get go
Can equip up to three weapons and spells to switch between in-between attacks
Start with a downstab (can only be used to bounce once however, can also be used to stop in mid-air and steer out of the way if you're falling into a hazard)
Difficulty options (easy-hard). Besides enemy/hazard and player avatar damage stat tweaks, Easy makes shop items cheaper, while Hard makes shop items cost 50% more
Can buy fast travel pretty early on (teleport to any spirit well/save+healing point from where you are)
Can jump cancel out of attacks (and dash though you have to learn specific timings in-between the swings in a combo and after the first hit with the hammer the dash is delayed to after each swing, with the sword it is always delayed but the swings are so fast that it doesn't really matter)
Great air traversal ability after getting the sword and hammer, dash, bash, triple jump, grapple, glide, light burst. After getting launch (or using the super jump trick) as well you're basically flying through some areas
Satisfying feedback from hitting enemies and objects
Nice visual detail and variety, lighting, animation and overall aesthetics
Good map system overall (marks doors, save points, NPCs and found items; zoomable)
Find an item drop magnet early on
Some large-scale environmental effects (water level manipulation and purifying of poisonous water, gear system+spin a large room by 45 degrees in the mill dungeon/dungeon 1, moving a larger wall part in the optional burrows area, tree collapse in ice area, some removed thorns even outside the town after completing the "thorny situation" repairs, etc.)
Some good puzzles (switch and block puzzles, platforming puzzles (some combined with timed doors), physics puzzles, enemy luring - FF Adventure, one music puzzle - no timing or note length requirement however, some platforming ones have alternate solutions, projectiles juggling and redirecting)
Good optional platforming challenges (spirit trials - on foot races against a ghost player, some upgrade items)
Some risk/reward slot skills/upgrades and some synergies between them. Sometimes have to consider which shards/slot items to equip for a given situation
Help rebuild/repair a home base of sorts with found ore (wellspring glades; Bastion, Terranigma, Suikoden; not as fleshed out as in Suikoden though)
Can double/triple jump in-between mid-air attacks or after falling as well as use attack combos in mid-air with 2 different melee weapons to reach further
Some systemic elements (enemies are also affected by hazards, any sand can be dashed through including weak platforms)
Can juggle enemies with attacks+bash
Some fun scripted events (some chases, enemies breaking out of walls, main villain appearances and some others, etc)
Some interesting new abilities (burrow/digging in sand like a drill - similar to Sonic Colors, grapple which can be upgraded to grab onto enemies - temporary in that you automatically let go after passing the grappling point but due to the forgiving air time you can generally keep grappling the same point, swim dash and dashing out of sand while using burrow - like jumping out of water in Zora form in Majora's Mask but also used as an attack, launch - replaces charge jump (works like bash but without a target), light burst is now a fireball and can be used to crack open some walls)
Some memorable locations (mill dungeon, luma pools - partial underwater tropical area, mouldwood depths - dark area where you sometimes have to not kill the enemies to survive, NPCs sort of traveling along with you makes some situations more exciting such as when encountering the dungeon 1 boss)
Using Ku's feather as a tool after he's badly injured was a good way to create ludonarrative resonance
Nice area transitions
Various sequence breaking possibilities (early healing by bouncing off of an enemy early on (tricky), can super jump/sentry jump upwards by attacking upwards with the sword+activating the sentry at the same time (or timing the sentry activation 3 frames after the attack if in mid-air which is much harder, pressing sentry slightly before attack while on the ground and then holding the buttons also tends to make you jump even higher) - lets you explore one or two areas earlier+reach various items earlier and explore luma pools early (can just barely reach the luma pools without the feather (glide jump); the lower ice area can be entered but is mostly hard gated for the glide jump ability - after the feather you can do the rest of it with this trick for a higher challenge), can skip the first boss by going NE after getting the first torch, can open some shortcuts before you're supposed to with the shuriken (throw it just right to make it go through one-way barriers and damage them on the way back - feels a bit glitchy) - this lets you skip more than half of mouldwood depths (as in you go to the boss without the light ability and then the darkness gimmick is removed), can reach somewhat higher by attacking upwards in mid-air (can be used to get Launch earlier along with burrow+using an exploit where you warp back to the silent woods spring after triggering a cutscene w/ shriek to the W of it, if you get launch early you can get to the final dungeon very early, also used to reach some money containers (a few more if you also attack downwards right afterwards if you were jumping up through a thin platform), also used to skip a puzzle leading to a key early on), can get some crazy hangtime letting you jump further by combining the sword and hammer attack combos, can bounce on an enemy in mid-air to reach a HP piece earlier, can skip lowering the water at one point in inkwater marsh on Easy, can also super jump in a different way around certain slopes but it's harder to pull off - lets you skip riding Ku; more with glitches)
Many stats recorded by the game (talk to Motay in the wellspring glades)
Optional slot item to make fake walls semi-transparent ("secret shard" in the sand area)
Optional underwater breathing upgrade (cheap to buy)
Some pretty good bosses (toad, the spider boss besides the chase segment, final boss)
There's a shard to make enemies respawn faster if you want to grind quicker or have more of a challenge
Upgradeable bash length+added damage (ultra bash shard)
Each ability tree's shape resembles the shape of the ability you acquire from it
Cool how the narrator's identity is revealed in the end
Skippable staff roll
Can switch out shards and weapons at any point here (in HK you have to be at a bench to switch charms and in Valdis Story you have to pay to respec your skills at a certain vendor)
+/-
Partially non-linear after the beginning post-prologue gameplay (opens up a bit more after gaining the sword and double jump - 1-2 ability trees and 2-3 combat shrines to go to as well as a couple of side quests to do, can choose between three things at a time to repair at the glades/home base, can get into the optional burrows area (music puzzle) early if you figure out the puzzle or know the sequence already, can do luma pools after the silent wood part (feather) if you use the super jump trick or get launch earlier - otherwise you can go to the sand or ice area or to mouldwood depths (can't do the sand area dungeon until finishing the other areas however), the "clear cave entrance" rebuilding project clears the entrance to the cave below town but you can only explore the cave after the Mouldwood Depths (the darkness itself hurts you - lame!), non-linear final dungeon)
Various items to go back for in each area and you go back into kwolok's area, the sand area and the silent woods area to progress (as well as the town for an optional area and to rebuild it), though overall the game retains the hub and spokes feel of the original
Auto-saves frequently instead of letting you save (almost) where you want to - can choose from a list of backup saves at any point. Heal spell gained early
Very frequent checkpoints and item collection/exp/boss progress is saved however if you picked up an item at the end of a platforming challenge and died getting back out then you need to redo the challenge. Nearby enemies also respawn after dying
Save points/spirit wells also restore HP (life) and MP (energy)+you can teleport between visited ones - spirit wells
Off screen respawning for HP containers (horizontally, not vertically) and MP containers respawn after 8 seconds or so (sometimes, other times you have to move a few screens away) - generally makes it easy to farm them after finding one
The skill tree was changed into a slot system and you find the skills/upgrades by exploring or buying them instead (FF7, Bastion, Hollow Knight) - means you can't simply grind to reach what you want nor plan your build in advance. Instead there are vendors that you buy skills, upgrades and sub area maps from with money (yellow orbs). Few slots at first (only three)
Pretty cutscene heavy
Melee combat focused but there is also a bow (which replaces a function of the light burst from Ori 1?). Have to fight in combat shrines (enemy wave challenges) to gain more slots for skills/shards and in "battle arenas" outside of them for some shards
Forgiving mid-air movement while attacking (can move backwards a bit during a swing+there's some hangtime during an attack combo (can be used to reach further when jumping), can't turn around during a sword swing however)
Minor collectathon element (about 4 key parts per area - these are generic meaning you can use them on any door, 20+ ore - optional)
Quest markers on the map screen (can't turn them off but at least they don't show the path to the next goal)
Hitting walls activates the rumble feature for some reason (overkill)
Non-interactive dialogue and silent protagonist
Can make your attack combo longer by beginning it before landing (from 5 to 8!)
Not much verticality to the double jump
Many more NPCs (vendors, quest givers)
Some fetch quests
Overly directed intro gameplay/semi-interactive cutscene that might as well have been a long cutscene - skippable though
Some aim assist for the bow however it costs some MP to use
Neverending Story/Disney/Lord of the Rings-like atmosphere (kwolok for the first especially, shriek's area feels pretty Lion King-esque)
Two ability gates are weapon-based and there are two weapons that can remove them (breakable floors and walls - hammer or spirit smash)
Can't attack NPCs (a bit silly when encountering the sleeping bear blocking your way)
Can reach some items earlier by taking some damage
Borrows some platforming gimmicks from Sonic and DKC Returns and the weak but reappearing platforms from Super Metroid
Static difficulty (at least in terms of the combat shrines) - earlier areas don't become harder if you do them later on
Can skip some in-game cutscenes by quitting to the main menu and reloading
Bounty (2x money dropped but enemies are a lot stronger) stacks with the other shard that makes enemies drop more money+you can bash or lure enemies into spikes to ignore health
Can't trigger bash while swinging a melee weapon
World restoration theme (evil corruption has made everyone bad and decayed the land)
Twillen (shard vendor) and the traveling map vendor seem borrowed from Hollow Knight (then again the latter is based on Tingle from Majora's Mask)
Two optional OP buffs (25%+/50%+ damage - ancestral light items) - can't unequip these
Re-uses some gameplay elements and area themes from Ori 1
Can only charge light burst while standing still on the ground - needed to be able to bash off of it
No MP regen (not enough MP is restored after death) but can make enemies drop more MP after entering luma pools (earlier if you used super jump to enter) and use an MP leech ability after getting the feather (Catalyst at the lower ice area entrance). Before that you can either die and respawn with some MP or save and quit then reload to restore 1 bar of MP
Weird how you're encouraged to smash furniture inside the mokis' homes
The bought maps show key piece locations before having seen them as well as over 90% of an area's map (spoils a bit much of the exploration but they are optional)
Can't use shuriken or stomp to get further into luma pools earlier (horizontal/floor glowing wall right after the shortcut opening breakable wall)
Some breakable one-way wall shortcuts are pointless (luma pools, burrows-southern inkwater marsh, more?)
Finishing the item trade sequence (last one is in the sand dungeon) shows all remaining hidden items on the map - can't toggle it
No enemy freeze ability
No neutral or friendly creatures besides NPCs and the fireflies
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Plenty of stuttering and some lag (gtx 960 gpu, 8gb ram and i5-6400 cpu so above the minimum). Your avatar also becomes a bit blurry on low graphics settings+it doesn't remove the stutter and lag
Some control/interface issues (can't speed up in-game cutscene dialogue - only skip the whole cutscene via the pause menu, can't place map markers - doesn't show found switches for example, no mini-map, the map marks breakable floors but not walls (which are sometimes used as floors too), hazardous liquids and sand are not visible enough on the map screen - generally have to zoom in to spot them, automatically jump when attacking upwards, have to jump on health containers - can't attack them which can break flow somewhat, can't see how long you have left to upgrade a skill, some tutorial messages pause gameplay while others don't, can't choose "replace" if all slots are full, some delay when healing and you can't do it while climbing or in mid-air+doesn't register if you start pressing before landing (Hollow Knight), have to go into the menu to see how much money you're carrying unless you just picked some up, can't look down/up far enough and it's kinda slow, a bit too floaty/low gravity movement after using the grapple, one of the money containers and one ore piece in the north of inkwater marsh aren't shown on the map after seeing them (the ones you have to cleanse the water to get to; true for one or two other items as well) - apparently done to make you pay the map maker in town to reveal them which is lame (could've given you a nice discount for mapping the silent woods), one of the hidden areas doesn't update the map after finding it - below kwolok the toad, sometimes loose vertical camera when moving around, can't save shard slot setups for quick swapping - See Aria of Sorrow or Shaman King 2, although it looks like it the hammer swing doesn't hit enemies behind Ori)
1 minute+ of loading on bootup. Also takes 5-10 seconds to shut down in total
Some tedious aspects (game could've used more shortcuts or teleporters in spots (southern and/or western inkwater marsh - burrows entrance in the south, the one below the glades one could've been moved or the glades one could've let you choose where to put it when repairing it) - either that or a teleporter beacon, need some MP to teleport w/ the fast travel feature and MP containers are sometimes more scarce than HP ones (HP ones could've dropped MP if you had max HP), can't trade in found shards/skills that you're not gonna use, some shard skills such as magnet and triple jump could've been permanent abilities instead (sticky could've been a separate one that you could toggle), some parts where you get stopped completely when dashing by small bumps on the ground - they can be hard to see in advance, can't access opher (weapon vendor) at a few points, ultra bash (do damage w/ it) starts off too weak, silly how you need the feather to remove the leaf piles when you have other super powerful weapons - only a few of them at least, some insta-death hazards in the dead woods and during chases, the gorlek enemies' projectiles can't be used to crack open the glowing walls with bash apparently (could've been an alternate solution to luring the sand enemy), overflow could've been a passive ability - converts either HP or MP to the other if you're at max when picking some up, the enemies that pop out of the ground and shoot lobby shots for bashing could've shot a bit more frequently and activated quicker, one of the lighting via pot puzzles in the ice area, pointless shortcut between luma pools and inkwater marsh (underwater stream), some of the exploding enemies you need to lure in the sand area are too specific about how you need to move to lure them properly, some of the seeds aren't worth getting)
Sometimes a bit hard to read enemies due to the flashy effects during combat, Occasionally a bit unclear what you can interact with
Various one-way paths early on
On the map screen it looks like there's an unexplored path in southern inkwater marsh (next to one of the trees) unless you zoom in a lot
Some trial & error (one part of getting past shriek in the feeding grounds area - stupid how you're supposed to hide after being seen behind a tiny sail+if you make it to the next cover instead you're auto-killed, parts of the escape out of dungeon 1 - still easier than in Ori 1 though, some cheap enemy placements near platform ledges, can't use bash on the sand worms or the mines, a few red herrings in terms of hidden paths, luma pools/spider boss/sandworm chase segments, some boss patterns, the crushing traps kind of blend into the background)
Some temporary dead ends early on (luma pools entrance, music puzzle in the SW, into the darkness quest if you chose to remove the thorns instead of restore the homes in the glades) though if you have fast travel it's a minor problem
The spinning puzzle of dungeon 1/mill kinda solves itself
Kinda lame how two of the town repair options just add more moki houses and the "gorlek touch" option has no gameplay benefit despite costing 10 ore
Most NPCs stand around doing nothing (some travel off screen)
Would've been more interesting if you could either save Ku or play as her (at least for a bit more than the short segment before her serious injury to establish more of a connection, also a bit annoying how the game goes into a cutscene as shriek appears instead of weaving the scene into gameplay). Might've been interesting if you could save kwolok the toad too by hitting only the monster possessing him
Seemingly undodgeable attacks during the first boss encounter (still pretty easy though)
The repair animations at the glades could've been better
Some skills kinda suck (Swap (swap MP and HP) since no MP is refilled when using it, Life Pact in most situations (spend HP to cast spells/use MP-based weapons), )
Pointless additional path to the first key in the dead woods reunion segment
Sometimes uneven difficulty (difficulty spike at the spider boss if you go there early and at the sand worm chase segment unless you went for an early Launch; the optional dark cave area is too small and easy, somewhat easy final boss due to a checkpoint being placed right before the last phase, in general going back and using your abilities to get to items could've been a bit more challenging - oftentimes you're just going through the motions compared to what you used the ability for in the area you got it in)
Can't change difficulty while in-game unlike in the prequel
Parts of the sand area (windswept wastes) and water area are very similar in terms of puzzle design
Re-uses some enemies in several areas (makes them feel less unique). Some like the gorlek enemies have somewhat differing patterns however
Could've had one or two more minor bosses after establishing more of a boss focus in the first areas
Not quite enough shard slot number upgrades (only 5 and you start with only 3 slots; would've been fine if the ones mentioned above were permanent upgrades instead)
Short and linear sand "dungeon" and you don't get to fight the worm
No new enemies in previously visited areas besides the ones appearing in the cleansed waters
The backstory for Shriek doesn't make much sense (shriek (pretty funny how she's born that way btw) was shunned by the adult owls for no reason, then the game implies that she can't be redeemed as an adult but how do owls turn out the way they do if they started out as empathetic and curious then? some are affected by their surroundings while others are predetermined personality-wise?)
Kind of silly and overly cutesy how neither the spider boss nor her kids die after beating her when kwolok did
Cliché story besides some attempts to humanize the final boss. Also doesn't show what happened to Shriek after Ori became a tree - did she just go away, die or what? The corruption/decay is not really explained either, only that the previous tree in the new land grew old
Swim dash isn't used much if at all outside of luma pools
Bugs:
-Minor physics bugs when using the grapple if there's a thin wall in the way (get stuck for as long as you hold the button)
-Occasionally weird physics around upside down slopes in ceilings - could reach Veral in the glades earlier because of this but can't go further east anyway
-Minor scripting issue with the kwolok's wisdom side quest - can't complete it before doing the silent woods segment
-The ice wall W of the well in the upper ice area suddenly melted during my playthrough without having lit any shrines in the area (was just moving against it and pressing square+cross on the controller which weren't mapped to anything at the moment) - this let me explore most of the rest of the area without launch but eventually I couldn't get the key piece to the light burst room
-The gorlek enemies' AI can sometimes glitch out a bit making them less aggressive
-Collecting the fourth key piece in lower ice area (opens door to spirit trial) didn't register for me - game got stuck at 98% for that area
Notes:
-Can combine shards for more money dropped with faster enemy respawning for faster money grinding
-Upwards slashing at weak sand platforms gives you another mid-air dash