SPOILERS AHEAD for ‘Ori And The Will Of The Wisps’! You’ve been warned.
The first thought I had when I first laid eyes on Ori And The Will Of The Wisps was “holy crap this is gorgeous,” and the game duly delivered on that promise as it was like playing through a massive gallery of beautiful watercolour paintings.
But after spending 15 hours combing through every nook and cranny of Ori And The Will Of The Wisps (all while admiring every single enchanted forest and magical grotto I came across), I emerged from the experience a tear-streaked, anxiety-riddled mess who was convinced that I had just played one of the frontrunners for 2020’s GOTY (Game Of The Year).
Speaking of other tear-inducing events, the GOAT team talk about the cancellation of the 2020 Australian Grand Prix and the roll-on effect of it on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
For all of Ori And The Will Of The Wisp‘s Disney-esque visuals, this is not a game for children. After a heartwarming prologue where we witness Ori become BFFs with Ku, an adorable owlet, the game separates the two just as you get emotionally attached to the characters and what unfolds is a masterful blend of Metroidvania platforming gameplay and storytelling. It’s brilliant and stressful in equal measures.
Ori is all about movement and solving puzzles using said movement. While the problems aren’t Sekiro levels of hard, they’re situated right in that uncomfortable space between “this is about the limit of my skill level if not just beyond” and “I simply must finish it or it’ll weigh on my mind.”
Chalk it up to the masterful worldbuilding, excellent balancing of puzzles, and developers designing the world to give players an overwhelming sense of exploration, but whatever it was, it gave me anxiety on so many levels.
I got anxious about taking one path over another. I got anxious about not finishing some challenges as I feared I might miss something. Hell, I got anxious whenever I failed a particularly hard problem as doubt crept into my head over whether I’ll ever be able to clear it.
And that’s not even getting started on the boss battles, which are new for Ori And The Will Of The Wisps. Not only are some of the boss designs nightmare inducing (again, in a good way), but some of the encounters put you on a knife edge between success and failure. It’s a perfect recipe for repeatedly spiking your heart rate.
But the leading cause of all this anxiety in Ori And The Will Of The Wisps is the story. The stakes are immediately high when Ori and Ku get separated at the start, and I was anxious to complete everything as fast as possible just to reunite the adorable pair.
Unsurprisingly, things aren’t that simple. Not only do Ori and Ku get separated again immediately after reuniting, Ku gets fatally wounded by the game’s big bad named Shriek, an enormous undead owl that looks like the Grim Reaper’s pet.
What was a fleeting moment of happiness was quickly replaced by a sledgehammer blow to the gut. Underneath that polished (if buggy) Metroidvania design and child-like aesthetic is a deep exploration into emotional themes like familial bonds, nurture vs nature, and sacrifice.
So not only was I anxious to finish the game in order to see what happens to Ori and Ku, now there were emotional stakes to the entire experience and I was determined to earn that happy ending because Ori and Ku deserve it goddamn it.
And after all is done and dusted, we’re left with one final tearjerker where Ku is revived but at the expense of Ori sacrificing itself to not only save his BFF but also the entire land. Was it worth all the tears and anxiety just to end on such a bittersweet note? Yes, yes it was.
Ori And The Will Of The Wisps is like an anxiety rollercoaster that lasts 15 hours, has you on the physical and emotional edge throughout most of it, and will leave you in tears while convincing you it is GOTY-worthy stuff. It’s brilliant.
It’s only early days in the 2020 video game calendar, but based on Ori And The Will Of The Wisps and some of the other quality titles that have been released (and still to come), the race for GOTY is going to be an epic affair. My anxiety and stress levels will hate all of this but it’s going to be all worth it if all the upcoming games come anywhere near the quality of Ori.
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