Ori & The Will of the Wisps Review Discussion

Irrational Passions Presents

It's time for another Review Discussion, this time on Moon Studios' follow up to a beloved Metroidvania, Ori & The Will of the Wisps.

Editor Quinten Hoffman sits down with Alex O'Neill to discuss what Will of the Wisps has changed, evolved, where combat goes, how it sounds, and the beauty of 2D movement. Alex also mentions the patch situation on console.

Alex's Thoughts: Here's the deal: from top to bottom, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a huge Metroidvania in a way I've only ever seen before in Hollow Knight. Maybe not that insane in the side quests or secret challenges, Ori instead builds on the heart and soul of Blind Forest, and perfects 2D movement. I think this might be the best and most fluid platformer I've ever played. I'm not positive, but the incredible feeling I had when soaring through the environment by the end of Will of the Wisps was tantamount to magic.

The best thing I can say, that aptly sums up how I, as a long time Metroid fan, feel coming off of finishing Will of the Wisps, is this feels like playing Super Metroid for the first time again. It builds on, evolves, and near-perfects ideas that are fundamental to the genre and contemporaries this evokes. And much like Super Metroid, after finishing this game and seeing it's entirety, it's hard to fathom how you could go up from here.

There are pretty noticeable performance issues on console right now, and I played it on an Xbox One X with a code provided by Microsoft, but I haven't played enough since a patch released to say with any finality.

Ori is very good.

Follow us! Quin Hoffman - @Quantum_Arbiter Alex O'Neill - @alfighter27 IrrationalPassions.com - @IrrationalPod