Ori and the Will of the Wisps review: A natural beauty

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  It's a magical world... let's go exploring. [credit: Microsoft ]

Long-time gamers are accustomed to the kind of gated progression offered by adventure games like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. As you travel the map, you catch glimpses of portions you won't be able to access until later on, when you find an upgrade that gives you new powers necessary for the previously unreachable areas.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps operates firmly in this well-established pattern. Ori-the impish, monkey-like ball of light first seen in 2015's Ori and the Blind Forest-is so weak at the beginning of his quest to find a lost, adoptive owl brother that he can't even attack the myriad bug-like enemies in his path. Slowly but surely, though, he finds a wide array of upgrades to his offensive capabilities and locomotion that lets him fully explore a fallen forest world made dark by a mysterious corrupting force.

The most striking thing about Will of the Wisps, though, is how it maintains a feeling of near-overwhelming threat despite Ori's inexorable rise in power. Even as your abilities increase, Ori remains a very small force working against a sprawling and uncaring universe. This becomes most apparent in the boss battles, characterized by detailed, screen-filling monsters whose massive (if repetitive) attacks allow little room for error.

These battles are punctuated by thrilling chase scenes, where Ori has to use every movement ability in his arsenal in quick succession to stay ahead of the ever-encroaching threat. Here, as in much of the rest of the game, players need some extreme levels of technical skill to get through even standard platforming challenges. There are frequent sections when Ori needs to stay off the ground for 10 seconds or more at a time, often using dozens of intricate and well-timed button presses in perfect succession to survive to the next safe spot.

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