Ori and the Blind Forest is a platform adventure video game designed by Moon Studios, an independent developer, and published by Microsoft Studios. The game was released on March 11, 2015 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. An Xbox 360 version is scheduled to be released later in 2015.
Developement
Ori and the Blind Forest is being developed by Moon Studios, a worldwide collaboration of designers and programmers who have been working on the game for the past four years, with Microsoft acquiring the game about a year after development started. One of the lead team members is Thomas Mahler, an artist formerly working with Blizzard Entertainment. According to Microsoft producer Daniel Smith, Moon Studios is not located in any one location, but instead staffers can be found throughout the world, from Austria to Australia and Israel to the United States.[7] Gameplay programmer David Clark described the team as being inspired by current and classic adventure games, notably the Rayman and Metroid franchises, and that Ori is intended as a "love letter" to those games.
The core components of the game story have not been revealed, although the designers say they were guided by works such as The Lion King and The Iron Giant and that it would be a "coming-of-age story".The art style is meant to appear hand-drawn, similar to the more recent Rayman titles that utilize Ubisoft's "UbiArt" graphics engine; the game instead uses the Unity engine.The game takes place in one large map, and is planned to be rendered at 1080P and 60 frames per second with no visible loading time as the player explores. According to Mahler, the game's backgrounds are all individual components, with none duplicated as in other similar titles. As an example, Mahler explained, "You see this tree in the background and this mushroom and this rock? That's the one and only place you'll ever see those assets."
Critics
Writing for Game Informer, Andrew Reiner gave the game a 9.5/10, praising its accessible yet challenging gameplay, well-designed controls, strong storytelling, surprising plot twists, rewarding exploration, orchestrated music, breathtaking and mesmerizing environmental design, as well as the wonderfully scripted challenges, which requires players to utilize creative thinking. However, he stated that the combat system in the game is not as refined as the platforming. He named the game "one of the best games of the year" and claimed that "There isn’t a bad moment in Ori and the Blind Forest".
Chris Carter from Destructoid gave the game a 9.5/10, praising its well-executed and light narrative, satisfying upgrades as well as the visuals, which he compared to the Rayman series but he stated that "[Ori] easily surpass them in quality". He also praised the game for allowing players to set their own checkpoints anytime. He summarized the review by saying that "It succeeds in being both a great introduction to the genre and a rewarding experience for the hardcore audience" and called the game "a new classic [as a metroidvania]"
Nick Tan from Game Revolution gave the game a 4/5, criticizing the short length, meaningless health bar, low replay value, as well as the game for not providing direction and guidelines to players in escape sequences
Gameplay
The player controls Ori, a white guardian spirit. Long ago, Ori fell into the forest and was adopted by a bear-like creature who raises Ori as its child.A malevolent entity, Kuro, appears and takes Ori's mother from him, forcing Ori to explore the forest on his own. Initially, Ori is very weak and can only jump about. During the game, Ori meets Sein , who will both guide Ori on his adventure and attack enemies.As the player gains experience, they may choose new abilities for Ori and Sein, allowing Ori to explore more of the game world.In addition to save points scattered in the game, players can create "soul links" at any time they choose to serve as checkpoints. However, soul links can only be created using special resources collected during gameplay; the needed resources are not in abundant supply, forcing players to create them only when necessary.Developement
Ori and the Blind Forest is being developed by Moon Studios, a worldwide collaboration of designers and programmers who have been working on the game for the past four years, with Microsoft acquiring the game about a year after development started. One of the lead team members is Thomas Mahler, an artist formerly working with Blizzard Entertainment. According to Microsoft producer Daniel Smith, Moon Studios is not located in any one location, but instead staffers can be found throughout the world, from Austria to Australia and Israel to the United States.[7] Gameplay programmer David Clark described the team as being inspired by current and classic adventure games, notably the Rayman and Metroid franchises, and that Ori is intended as a "love letter" to those games.
The core components of the game story have not been revealed, although the designers say they were guided by works such as The Lion King and The Iron Giant and that it would be a "coming-of-age story".The art style is meant to appear hand-drawn, similar to the more recent Rayman titles that utilize Ubisoft's "UbiArt" graphics engine; the game instead uses the Unity engine.The game takes place in one large map, and is planned to be rendered at 1080P and 60 frames per second with no visible loading time as the player explores. According to Mahler, the game's backgrounds are all individual components, with none duplicated as in other similar titles. As an example, Mahler explained, "You see this tree in the background and this mushroom and this rock? That's the one and only place you'll ever see those assets."
Critics
Writing for Game Informer, Andrew Reiner gave the game a 9.5/10, praising its accessible yet challenging gameplay, well-designed controls, strong storytelling, surprising plot twists, rewarding exploration, orchestrated music, breathtaking and mesmerizing environmental design, as well as the wonderfully scripted challenges, which requires players to utilize creative thinking. However, he stated that the combat system in the game is not as refined as the platforming. He named the game "one of the best games of the year" and claimed that "There isn’t a bad moment in Ori and the Blind Forest".
Chris Carter from Destructoid gave the game a 9.5/10, praising its well-executed and light narrative, satisfying upgrades as well as the visuals, which he compared to the Rayman series but he stated that "[Ori] easily surpass them in quality". He also praised the game for allowing players to set their own checkpoints anytime. He summarized the review by saying that "It succeeds in being both a great introduction to the genre and a rewarding experience for the hardcore audience" and called the game "a new classic [as a metroidvania]"
Nick Tan from Game Revolution gave the game a 4/5, criticizing the short length, meaningless health bar, low replay value, as well as the game for not providing direction and guidelines to players in escape sequences
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