Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a breathtaking masterpiece that elevates the metroidvania genre through its stunning visual artistry, emotionally charged narrative, and finely tuned gameplay mechanics. Developed by Moon Studios, this sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest expands on the original’s foundations, delivering a more expansive and immersive world that feels alive with wonder and danger. From the very first moments, players are drawn into a richly detailed fantasy landscape teeming with vibrant colors, fluid animations, and a hauntingly beautiful orchestral score that perfectly complements the game’s melancholic yet hopeful tone. The seamless blend of hand-painted backgrounds and dynamic lighting creates a living canvas where every environment—from lush forests to eerie caves—is meticulously crafted to evoke awe and emotional connection. Gameplay in Will of the Wisps refines and deepens the series’ hallmark platforming and exploration, introducing new movement abilities, combat options, and a more open-ended skill tree system that allows players to tailor Ori’s progression to their preferred playstyle. The platforming feels precise and responsive, with carefully designed challenges that strike a perfect balance between accessibility and satisfying difficulty. Combat encounters are more varied and engaging than ever, requiring players to think strategically about timing, ability upgrades, and resource management. Additionally, the game’s save and checkpoint system is forgiving enough to encourage experimentation without removing the stakes that make each success rewarding. Narratively, Will of the Wisps tells a poignant and beautifully woven story of loss, hope, and resilience. The game’s characters—silent yet expressive—communicate volumes through their design, animations, and environmental storytelling. Themes of friendship, sacrifice, and healing resonate deeply, supported by a narrative that unfolds naturally through exploration and subtle world-building rather than heavy-handed exposition. Emotional moments are heightened by the evocative soundtrack, which swells and softens in perfect harmony with the story’s beats, making the player’s journey feel profoundly personal. One of the game’s most impressive feats is how it marries its technical achievements with emotional depth. The fluidity of movement and transitions between exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving create a sense of flow that few games can match. The world of Niwen feels vast yet intimate, inviting players to linger and discover its many secrets, hidden paths, and side quests that enrich the main storyline without ever feeling like filler. The seamless integration of upgrades and ability enhancements within the world encourages continuous discovery and rewards curiosity. While Ori and the Will of the Wisps is nearly flawless, some players might find certain platforming sections challenging, especially those unaccustomed to precision-based gameplay. However, the game’s generous checkpoint system and adaptive difficulty options make these moments less frustrating and more satisfying to overcome. The only minor critique might be that the narrative’s subtlety requires patience and attentiveness, which could leave players seeking a more straightforward story feeling a bit adrift. In conclusion, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a triumphant sequel that surpasses expectations by blending exquisite art, compelling storytelling, and polished gameplay into an unforgettable experience. It stands as a shining example of what the metroidvania genre can achieve when creativity, technical skill, and heartfelt narrative come together. For anyone willing to embark on a journey through a magical, poignant world filled with wonder and challenge, Will of the Wisps offers an emotional and exhilarating adventure that lingers long after the credits roll. Rating: 9/10

I will go ahead and say that this: Ori 2 (Ori and the Will of the Wisps) is a great game. Not finished with it yet, but it has my vote. With that said, listen lol. I love Hollow Knight, even played through it twice. This game, to me, is extremely reminiscent of it. Online there are some posts where people got pretty aggressive saying it was a clone or plagiarized or something like that, look, there are obvious similarities, but this has more of a positive vibe to it, and does have some carry-over from the first game. Now I don't think it was plagiarized / meant to have this many similarities on purpose, but they definitely do exist. Really, play HK first and then Ori 2 and you'll see. HK similarities - oh yes, I'm going there ;) : * There is some kind of corruption that has spread, making friendlies become aggressive / insane * There is a mapmaker that you can find in each zone of the map, which sells you maps. In HK this is also true, although imo better-executed. * There are mosquito-like bugs which dart directly at you, which take multiple strikes to defeat. I realize other games have this, just another similarity * There are slow-moving explosive flying enemies * There are fast-moving explosive enemies which fall from the ceiling * There are creatures which explode after a bit when defeated * Your main weapon is a long, white blade. In Ori 2 you don't need to use it, but it is clearly intended to be your main weapon. * There is a downward main weapon strike which bounces you off of enemies, though in Ori 2 it only works the first time while in the air for some reason * There is a bash-the-ground mechanic which can break breakable floors * There are a number of townspeople / NPCs which make verbal noises, maybe even words in another language. This was not the case in Ori 1 - only your guide ever spoke. * There is a double-jump mechanic (triple-jump in Ori 2 as well if you can pay for it). Again, no, not unique to HK. There is also a continuous wall-jump mechanic. * There is a dash / dash-mid-air mechanic * There is a lantern / light mechanic, used in a spider's dark lair level, with spiders crawling down the screen in the foreground at times * You collect money from enemies defeated. Ori 1 did not have this mechanic. The same thing by name was used as experience points where you could purchase abilities in an ability tree, which I liked better * And other similarities with spoilers that I'm too lazy to format correctly Just saying, it's not one or two similarities, so I see where people are going with that. But also of note is that things changed so dramatically from the gameplay mechanics of the first game, it tends to raise an eyebrow a bit more. I honestly liked the first game better, and imo, Ori should have been able to keep at least some of his skills when you start this game, it just seems a bit monotonous to have to find basic skills all over a again. I realize this is also the case with other metroidvania-style sequels. But really, Ori 2 is a great game by itself, a really solid platformer, of course the artistic style matches the first game, with some good changes. It has its challenges. Music is really great, character development is ok. One of those titles which is difficult for me to put down :D

This game is really fun and has a lot of gameplay.

good game but sometimes the screen turns purple and you have to exit the game to fix it. I would play it!

this game is a love letter to both metroidvanias and platformers, and everyone who enjoys either genre should play it. the first game is already great, but will of the wisps improves upon the formula in just about every way

Great single player experience. Very satisfying to play after a hard week of school/work and you don't want to spend time with anyone. Bought this game because I was trying to learn about the Unity Engine and now, I'm addicted to it.

Amazing game! This sequel keeps the general flow of the first game, but improves and adds new features. Sometimes, that is all it takes to make a great sequel! Also, the OST is just as good if not better than the first game.

play if you want an engaging game with a story that will make you cry! well, it made a rat cry every single play-through. game is very relaxing and has puzzles that make your brain work a tiny bit :) squeak! - rat •<3O~~

One of the best games ever made. Have played this and BF multiple times and will play again. I am so in love with this series. Here's to hoping for a trilogy someday. ILY MOON STUDIOS PLS MAKE ANOTHER!!!!!!!

Great game, stuning graphics and nice story.

Played it back when it released on XBox Game Pass and boy does this hold up. I can't think of anything that should be different here, this game is the definition of perfection. No notes, cudos to the defs. Anybody looking for something beautiful and you never played Ori 1 or 2, buy both and thank me later.

Amazing game with stunning graphics, incredible story that will leave you emotional. highly recommend

Side quest can make me almost cry. This game is suitable for player who love adventure-story game.

Beautiful art style, pretty good combat, and one of the most tragic scenes in gaming imo. It will still be compared to hollow knight though, which is admittedly a bit better

Ori and the Will of the Wisps masterfully blends tear-jerking storytelling with challenging platforming and exploration. Its hand-crafted world and dynamic soundtrack create an unforgettable experience, even if its narrative pacing and progression systems occasionally falter. For anyone seeking an emotional 2D adventure that rewards curiosity and skill, this sequel shines as a modern classic. The tale picks up almost immediately after Blind Forest, with Ori and the newly arrived owlet Ku swept into a forest succumbing to rot and decay. Environmental storytelling and poignant cutscenes weave a Lion King–esque narrative about family, loss, and hope that resonates at every turn

A better game than the first one, it's just the new music, new mechanics, new story and gameplay, everything still so beautiful.

I adore this game. It fixes every issue from the original, plus the combat and movement are super slick smooth. Super heartfelt all the way through, with drop dead gorgeous artwork and music. Looking forward to full release of their next game plus GIVE US ORI 3!!!

Play it. I HOPE they make a 3rd in this series because its that good. Few games have that perfect combination of gameplay, graphics, music and this is one of them. This is in my top 10 games I've played, and I've played a lot since MSDOS days. Recommend OLED HDR if you can, https://www.nexusmods.com/oriandthewillofthewisps/mods/4 Supports 7.1 / Dolby Atmos audio

I have tried everything to swap the trigger and bumper controls and I can get the right swapped but the left doesn't properly. Even through steam. I just can't play this game with the lack of controller remapping. I have been more frustrated than I am having fun and so must call it there.

simple, chill and fun and sleepy game hh

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is even more incredible than the first. It keeps everything that made Blind Forest amazing and adds even more. The movement is faster and smoother, and the combat is much better. The music and visuals are just as beautiful, and the story is full of emotion. I felt completely connected to the game from start to finish. It’s a magical experience. One of the best games I’ve ever played.

Great game so far but im stuck because the game bugged and didnt give me an item (Kuros feather). Now i have to just quit playing or restart from the very beginning.

Finished both games back to back and I just have to say, for a sequel this hit all the right stuff. It feels like a fresh version of the first game while keeping the essence of what made the first game so magical. Loved playing both of these amazing games and definitely recommend to pick them up if you're wondering if you should get them. Get both, the previous one and this and play them in order to fully understand and appreciate the beauty and magic of these games.

Maybe this is my most beloved jump-and-run. The world is full of details and love, the gameplay is just great, the variance in how you can play it - I just love it!

A wonderful game and an extremely fun metroidvania, the platforming and combat felt incredibly fun. The graphics are gorgeous, the animations are amazing, the sound design is enthralling, and the new quest system is an entertaining addition to the game. This game is amazing. However, I have to say: I find the story lacking. Spoiler free version, I felt like there weren't as many payoffs as the first game. There are wonderful story beats and parallels in the first game that set up an emotional reward, and then knock it into the goal perfectly. This game... does not do that in my opinion. And in one case, it actively feels bad. Do I recommend it anyways? Yes, because the game aspect is fun, and most of the story is enjoyable, if not on-par with the first game. Look into spoilers below if you want more detail, but I will be discussing the story and ending, so be warned. [h1]MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW[/h1] [spoiler]The game starts you off with Ori and Ori's new sister, Ku. It's adorable and heartwarming, siblings helping siblings succeed, and then begin to have fun and exploring a new area. Then classic story beat of "everything goes wrong, siblings get separated" to set you up for your gameplay, and separates Ori and Ku from their "parents" for story reasons. This is where the story starts to become not as deep as the first game, at least in my opinion. As I was playing, the hints of Ku, and the abilities leading up to their reunion made me feel like we were about to get a tag-team ability, or at least a few levels of it. And then the game actually does let Ori and Ku tag team... for all of five minutes. The shriek comes in and kills Ku, and you spend the rest of the game trying to put the wisps together in order to heal her back to life. Gumo and Kuro also arrive to see their dead kid, and Ori isn't there to greet them, as they're off saving Ku with the wisps, almost done collecting all of them to reform the light and heal Ku! All of that is fine and good, a little disappointing, but more importantly, it sets you up to have an emotional moment for the family to reunite, Ku to revive, and Ori and Ku to enjoy their sibling dynamic now that they're both back together and healed... And then the ending comes along and just [i]smashes[/i] that to pieces. Ori gets the light back to the willow tree, and the light does a complete 180 of the "use light to heal Ku" plan (or at least I never picked up on any other plan) and tells Ori that they have to sacrifice themselves to become a new spirit tree. The light flies down toward Ori, and then Shriek grabs it and crushes it, and big boss fight happens. After you beat Shriek, Ori accepts the light and never gets to say goodbye to their family, never gets to see Ku healed, Kuro and Gumo never get to see Ori again after watching them go missing in the storm, and Ori is just... removed from the family with no actual lead up to let you get used to it. What the hell, game. And then it ends with Ori turning out to be the narrator of the game, despite the fact they used the same voice actor for the first game (I'm pretty sure anyways - it sounds identical) Kuro dying of old age at Ori's roots, and no actual mention of any of the people you helped along the way. NONE of the story beats that you set up in the game get paid off, the ending comes out of left field and feels like a punishment more than a reward, and the entire thing just makes me feel sad because I spent the last however many hours thinking we were gonna heal Ku and have a happy family again... only for Ori to just be torn away from that with no chance to say goodbye.[/spoiler] Overall, while I do recommend the game and think that it's worth picking up, I regret the story and am disappointed by the ending. Phenomenal game mediocre story, and the first game is far better in both gameplay and story. At least in my opinion.

Once again, Moon Studios outdoes itself by delivering a gorgeous game with a beautiful soundtrack and story that tugs at the heartstrings.

I came to the Ori series looking for a game as good as hollow knight, I really enjoyed the first game, but this game, the sequel, it completely blew me away, it was completely different from the first game and I actually enjoyed the experience more than hollow knight, this was definitely worth buying.

nice story and music. love ori so much

10 hours into Ori and the Will of the Wisps and I’ve died 400 times, cried twice, and stopped every 5 minutes to admire how stupidly pretty it is. Movement feels like butter, the music slaps, and the story’s already in my feelings. A++ would get emotionally wrecked again.

Well designed game, really fun + looks amazing on HDR. Prefer it to the original

Gameplay was fun and challenging. Good story line and phenomenal soundtrack.

My first try of this kind of genre. This game makes me feel really emotionally sad but happy in the end.

Tough mechanics in this games, especially on PC with M&K, but I've never used controllers, so had no choice. Had to cheat at many points :P

Ori is a character that 36 year old me loves as much as 10 year old me loved Crash and Spyro. Cinematics, story, soundtrack, gameplay... simple but challenging. 10/10 across the board for this series.

Absolutely gorgeous game. The graphics are timeless. Platforming is immaculate. A perfect sequel in my eyes, nothing from the first game is taken away, only improved upon.

fun game, some parts are difficult, combat is relatively easy on regular mode. Its fun to move around especially after you have unlocked all the abilities. You don't really need to play the first game to understand this one; like ori and the blind forest, the plot is pretty simple not a lot of depth but if you do play the first game there will be a few moments when you'd be like "thats a call back to the first game." Anyway overall fun game

Like its forefather, 'Ori and the Blind of Blind Forest', this Ori Game is of very high quality both in terms of graphics and also gameplay. However I do have several criticisms, firstly the controls which made actually using many of the abilities much more difficult compared to the first game, Especially the swimming and tunneling abilities, the control scheme for them, made the game many times harder than it had any rights to be. There is also the addition of the 'charm slots' and 'weapons types' which should be very familiar to those who had played Hollow Knight. The problem being is that this game, unlike Hollow Knight, had very few boss fights, to justify all the complexity added, which is a great shame, given that I prefer the auto scroll sections as substitutes for boss fights found in the last game, to the much more convential boss fights of this game. This game had auto scroll sections, yes, but they did not hold a candle to the first game. Still this game was enjoyable, and had arguably even better graphics to the first game

10/10, absolute masterpiece. Beautiful and tragic game, with an incredible story. Ku is the best character ever

[u][b]TLDR :[/b][/u] good metroidvania, better than the first game, grab during sale -------------------------------------------------- [u][b]Pros & Cons :[/b][/u] + Gorgeous pure eye candy just like Ori 1 + Level design is less trolly / much improved + Moveset is slightly improved / more enjoyable + Ending is great, legit well played bravo excellent - Controls / movement are still floaty / imperfect / inaccurate - No button to cast from power wheel & too few hotkeys - Still too many time trials / chase segments ( albeit easier ) - Music is less impactful / memorable ( no leitmotif spam ) -------------------------------------------------- [u][b]Personal Verdict :[/b][/u] 8/10 I held a grudge against the studio for a LONG time due to customer treatment. Half of the Ori 1 Definitive Edition features were fixes we expected in a free patch. Yet they did NOT give it out for free, they asked us to buy the game again! ( and they did not patch the OG game with those "features" ofc ) Anyway, finally gave this a chance when it was on *very deep* discount. ( no way was I going to sponsor them at full price again after what they pulled ) And yeah, it's good, if you like Metroidvanias, recommend playing it at some point. I still find the controls a bit too floaty / inaccurate to name it a genre classic. But it's definitely worth a playtrough. LOVED the ending GGWP.

Hands down one of the Best MetroidVanias out there... Beautiful Story and level design, nothing short of a 9 out of 10

Satisfying little platformer with an emotion-filled storyline to carry you through the game's phenomenal art direction. If it is under $10 I'd say its worth the price for the visuals alone. Controls are tight and there are many interesting game mechanics. No, I didn't beat it. But I will one day.

I actually liked the first game better, having played them back to back knowing very little going in. I think a lot of what made the first one so impactful was its ability to tell a moving story with very few words. This game, while still executing the story well, had a more of an RPG feel, with formal side quests and NPC dialogue as a rule. Mechanically I think this game is an improvement over the original, but I think it has a little too much telling instead of showing narratively for it to have the same effect. It's still good, it was just kind of jarring and not AS good.

Amazing game! Loved everything about it, loved the graphics, loved the controls, loved the story. I found some parts a bit tricky, but nothing I couldn't overcome. Highly recommend for someone looking for a great platformer/metroidvania gamer.

Somehow this game has surpassed the first one. Beautiful graphics, really cool new mechanics and very smooth movement.

As it’s the second instalment of the series I was sceptical to whether it would live up to the impact the first had on my teenage years, and I’m so happy my scepticism was wrong. Will of the wisp was way better then I ever could imagine from greatly increasing game play to the plethora of characters and side stories, I know its not the best and greatly follows the structure of the first with its progression and game play, the second game Gave a new move set and, in my opinion, a more fleshed out world. The games ending will forever be in my heart as amazing as I’m unable to even finish a play through now without crying within the first few minutes. Love Ori, greatly recommend, but play blind forest first.

More than a worthy successor to Ori and the Blind Forest. The combat, platforming, chase sequences, boss battles, music, story - it takes everything that was good in its successor and improves the formula. Most importantly, the story and characters, augmented by the beautiful and evocative soundtrack, will easily win a place in your heart. Highly recommended for any Metroidvania lovers.

The game is well crafted in every aspect I can think of, amazing art, music etc... Really held up to the first game, kept the good stuff, and added even better stuff. The keyboard controls are good but the game is clearly controller oriented and I found my hand crumpled up after a few sections with dashes and what not. Overall awesome game would recommend.

Relaxing.... Fun And Unique puzzles and platforming. First game ([h1]Blind Forest[/h1]) also highly recommended..

Really enjoyable journey from start to finish. Also the most screenshotted game in my entire library because of how beautiful the environment is.

For me, this is a perfect metroidvania. Not as sadistic as Hollow Knight, but as enjoyable to explore. A bit too easy if you unlock all upgrades (bonuses to damage and health etc), but it's better than the other way around.