Ori and the Blind Forest
When this game came out, I thought it looked cool. But, I thought nothing more of it, other than I wanted to at least try it to try it out. I'm dubious of new game releases anymore, unless it's a franchise I can trust to be good, but even that is faltering more and more in my mind as Sonic continually gives games that are "meh", Final Fantasy XV has turned out mediocre as a whole, and the Metroid franchise has slowly been going down the drain, except for a fan remake of all things.
So when this game came around, I never bought it...primarily because I didn't have money, but also because I had other things on the mind. Then I was looking for a new game and was going through my Steam wishlist and found that the store page for Ori and the Blind Forest had been replaced with the "Definitive Edition" of the game, for the same price as the last version. I finally picked it up, still didn't play it, but one day I was in call with my friend when I turned the game on just to try it and was assailed with a gorgeous piece of introduction music. I sat there, stunned, listening to it before saying, "I have to play this later when I'm not in call". Sure enough, I got back into it later, and was in for the most amazing platforming experience I've ever had.
Does anyone recall the original Donkey Kong Country games? They have amazing music, a brutal difficulty curve that is satisfying to work into, and a charm that lasts for forever. The same can be said of Mario and other platformers of the older days? Well, Ori and the Blind Forest works to be a modern classic platformer, complete with many, many great ideas that all blend together into a nearly seamless experience of wonder and artwork.
Let's start with how the game handles...and it handles like a dream. I've heard everyone say that they love Super Meat Boy because of how precise it is. Well, Ori and the Blind Forest handles remarkably similar in terms of precision. There was not a single mistake that was made that I didn't feel was my own mistake, rather than Ori's bad handling. Ori moves quickly though is relatively agile, and defenseless, to start with. As the game progresses, Ori obtains a plethora of powers that add to his nimbleness, including wall jumping, double jumping, a charged high jump, the ability to glide, and perhaps one of the coolest inventions ever to any platformer, the ability to hop off of enemies and their projectiles! The definitive edition also adds light grenades (which Ori can also bounce off of) and a new dash feature that makes fast horizontal movement a non-issue.
With as many new movement abilities that Ori gets in his journey, one might worry that the player would quickly become swamped and overwhelmed with their new capabilities. On the contrary, the game does a remarkable job of handling the pacing so that players can get used to their new abilities before really being called upon to demonstrate a proficiency with them. This polish and pacing is the mark of phenomenal game design that works itself through the game and overall adds to the charm of its playibility.
However, just because Ori gets all of these abilities does not mean that Ori is by any means an easy trip. Being far from it, Ori is actually a rather unforgiving little platformer from time to time, with death coming quickly to those who make small mistakes in their precision in platforming, or underestimate their foe at any given time. The number of deaths I racked up on my first playthrough was over three hundred...though I put part of that to starting it on the hardest difficulty outside of "one life", where double damage is a real monster and skills take a huge amount of skill levels to level up...
Oh yeah, I didn't mention, SKILLS! Ori gets experience, or rather, soul energy from defeating enemies or discovering secrets that have soul orbs in them. Ori also gains abilities from "ability spheres" hidden away that automatically give him a skill level to use. Ori can then put a point into one of three skill categories: One for combat purposes (more on how that works later), one for exploration purposes, and one for overall agility and self-abilities like a triple jump, underwater breathing, and other goodies. These skills improve upon what Ori already gets possession of in terms of new toys, and the progression routes can vary, lending to particular playstyles quite well and offering the chance to play around with different skill progressions early on with new playthroughs.
When it comes to combat, it is important to remember that this is a platformer first and foremost. There are no real boss fights. Instead, there are smaller fights that count as "mini-bosses" in most games that offer more combat challenges, and there are creatures to fight throughout, though the combat works in an almost passive sense sometimes. Ori gets help from Sein, a blue orb that follows Ori around and gives him advice, while also acting as a firing beacon and an explosive device, useful for clearing paths, blowing up enemies through walls, or knocking away enemy projectiles. When it comes to any major "boss" encounters, those are generally replaced with an escape sequence that offers just as much challenge as a boss fight might, or perhaps more, by challenging the platforming skills, not the combat skills.
The difficulty curve is overall amazing, but there are a couple of slip-ups here and there concerning spiking difficulty curves. The first escape sequence can come as an unexpected surprise for those unprepared and is rather difficult, with tight timing required in order to escape. A trap triggered by an NPC early in the game can also prove frustrating to get around without dying, and the final area, while a culmination of everything that the player has learned, also still manages to work in new tactics and tricks and some rooms in it can be very, VERY demanding and difficult, even for a player on the verge of completing the game. The misty woods are also a huge spike in difficulty for those unprepared...and all of this culminates as well for a new mechanic that players have to get used to, checkpoints being put down by the player. Ori can set down checkpoints himself and choose where the checkpoints are, for the most part. However, this is a double-edged sword for two reasons. The checkpoints cost energy, which Ori only gets so much of and is a rare resource at the start of the game, meaning that setting a checkpoint down could use some energy vital to making progress. Also, because the player can make the checkpoints, the game offers little in terms of checkpoints. Important areas, such as the start of an escape sequence, automatically place one down, and save points in specific areas act as checkpoints too, but other than that, there is nothing in terms of checkpoints. This can lead to high frustration when half an hour of progress goes down the drain due to an unexpected death when a player hasn't made a checkpoint in quite some time simply because they slipped into a state of being too secure about their skill at the game. I myself prefer this checkpoint method, but I can see how it can be very frustrating for newer players.
There are some other minor problems too. Getting 100% is not just about finding all the items, it's about exploring every inch of the map physically. This wouldn't be a problem if the map had a clearer indication of which areas weren't "touched" by Ori, essentially. The map grays out what hasn't been explored, but that "grayed out" portion can look extraordinarily similar to the rest of the map. Or worse, the map can show that area as explored, but not count it in the game code because Ori hadn't actually been IN the area, Ori had just seen it. In terms of actual gameplay, the instant death lasers are no fun, the high damage spikes are fairly unfun, and small hiccups in loading can be experienced if the player moves too fast through an area with "dashing." However, these are minor problems to the game that, in the end, don't contribute enough to the frustration factor to be a true detriment.
Moving onto the presentation, this game is absolutely gorgeous in every sense of the word. The music, composed by Gareth Coker, is stunning and a treat to the ears. Every track tells a story, and there isn't one theme in the game that I don't like. That is VERY RARE in games for me to not at least have ONE track that I just find to be lackluster, and Ori and the Blind Forest has not a single track that I don't adore. From start to finish, this game is a musical masterpiece.
But the music isn't the only thing that Ori's presentation has going for it. The graphics are stellar as well, with an almost "painted' look to the backgrounds lending to stunning scenery, a phenomenal art direction causing things to pop and be distinct and every area to feel like it has something going for it, and animation work that means that everything moves so smoothly that it is like experiencing the flow of a real work of art. This is where games need to be going, not back to "crunchy pixels". Those don't look nice half the time: this kind of artwork is simply vibrant and stunning and appeals to most everyone.
WARNING: There are spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk! If you are curious as to the overall score I have scored this as, it is a 10/10.
All of this, of course, wouldn't be complete without the storytelling, and this game has a fairly simplistic, but overall heartwarming and fun story to tell. Ori is a small feather/leaf that gets taken off of the Great Spirit Tree of the Forest of Nibel during "The Great Storm". He is dragged off and flung through the forest until he comes to land and becomes a small angelic looking mouse creature that is adopted by a lumbering, plump but kind creature named Naru, who takes him as her own child. The years go by and the two live happily together, gathering food for themselves and enjoying the plentiful goods of the forest. On one fateful day, the Spirit Tree calls out to Ori in a great ceremony, illuminating the forest in its light. Naru, however, scared of the light and fearing for Ori's safety, scrambles into their home to hide him and herself from the light. It is here that things start going wrong. The forest begins to wither, food becomes increasingly scarce, and finally, the only food that is left, is unreachable by Naru. Weak, hungry and despairing, she holds out all hope for Ori and gives him the last of their food. Ori, however, is not content to let this sit by. He discovers the food source that Naru couldn't reach and gathers enough for them to have together and comes back home...only to find Naru is dead. She passed away from hunger while he was out finding food, leaving Ori alone in a dark world, with a forest that once was alive and teeming, now dying and blind to its own demise.
Ori makes his way in a tearful experience, slowly starving to death himself, before finally passing away in a clearing before the Great Spirit Tree. As its final act before it loses all power, it grants Ori life again, as Ori is the last thing standing between the forest and death. And this is where the game truly begins, after a ten minute, tear jerking scene that opens the game with a splendor the likes of which few games have accomplished. From here, the story takes a small backseat of full on storytelling to let the player discover events on his own.
Ori finds Sein who explains that their "enemy" was the cause of this, and "she" is the one who must be stopped before the forest collapses into death. It's because of "her" that dangerous enemies now fill the forest, the waters are poisoned, the very air is stagnant and heavy, and the essence of warmth and life to the forest is dead. When Ori and Sein reunite with the now comatose Spirit Tree, Sein speaks to Ori of "the enemy". Kuro is a great bird filled with hatred and wrath for the beings of light. On the night of the lighting of the forest, Kuro came and destroyed many of Ori's kin and then ripped Sein from the Spirit Tree, prompting the downfall of the forest in a slow death for no other reason than misguided hatred. It is now up to Ori to restore the three elements of Nible: Water, Air and Fire. Only then will the Spirit Tree gain enough strength to reawaken and save the forest.
Ori begins by going after the water element, along the way finding Gumo, a member of the Gumon, a peculiar race of beings consisting of a single ball that is their body, and arms and legs. They have proven to be incredibly agile and fast, or at least, Gumo is. Gumo doesn't say much, but at first has intentions to keep the water stone for himself. It is the only way into the Ginso Tree, which houses the element of water. Ori chases Gumo into a trap and has to escape his hideout. Gumo tries very hard to kill Ori to protect his "treasure", but Ori eventually escapes after Gumo triggers one final trap, but traps himself in the process, where he may have stayed until he died. Ori, in an act of compassion, frees Gumo from being buried, at which point Gumo gives Ori the water stone and lets Ori proceed.
Ori takes the water stone and enters the Ginso Tree, which has become rotten and fouled with decay. Ori cleanses the corruption, and escapes the now flooding Ginso Tree, thanks to the element of water working to cleanse the corruption. Now on top of the tree, Ori takes a moment to enjoy the pure, clean water raining down from the sky...when Kuro appears. She takes immediate notice of Ori and her hatred flares in her once again at discovering that one of the kin of light survived. She knocks Ori off of the tree and seems to finish him...and would have, if not for the timely intervention of Gumo, who saves Ori from Kuro's grasp, and from drowning, letting Ori down somewhere below the Ginso Tree.
With the waters purified, Ori now moves to empower the winds. During this, he is pursued by Kuro, whose hate has been reignited by the discovery of Ori, and she will stop at nothing to see him killed. Ori manages to bypass Kuro at the Valley of the Winds by dislodging some of it onto her, which doesn't do much more than anger her, but it does knock a feather loose that Ori can now use to enter the Misty Woods. After becoming lost but never giving up hope, Ori lights the torch in the woods, setting the forest back in order and gaining the entrance to the Gumon Sanctuary where the element of air is held. However, Ori arrives to find a gruesome scene. When the forest went blind, the Gumon tried to escape their sanctuary as it crumbled. Only Gumo escaped. The rest found themselves trapped in their own sanctuary, and all of them froze to death at the entrance, their remains well preserved in ice.
Ori takes the spirit stone that had been given to them as a gift and uses it to traverse their now hellish domain, finally setting things right by placing the spirit stone in its rightful place. But, Gumo has come home, and finds to his dismay that everyone he knew is dead and realizes he is the last of his kind. He follows Ori to the chamber of the element of winds and listens as Sein declares that they will take back Nibel for everyone that has died, especially the Gumon. Moved by the passion and vigor displayed by Sein and Ori, Gumo feels compelled to act, and takes the spirit stone, which inadvertently causes the collapse of the sanctuary. Ori escapes out the top and emerges in the most unlikely spot yet: Kuro's Nest, the home of their enemy. It is here that he finds one solitary egg and through some unexplained source learns the real nature of Kuro's hatred.
Kuro is a being that is not like the light, but a living being nonetheless. She hunted food for her chicks and took good care of the three of them, while the last one remained in its egg still. Then, on the night of the call, something tragic happened. The light reached into Nibel, searching for Ori. In doing so, it came into contact with Kuro and her chicks. While Kuro was strong enough to withstand it without much fear, her chicks...were not so fortunate. In a terrible accident, the Great Spirit Tree destroyed Kuro's own children, and Kuro flew back in all haste only to find that her chicks were burned to death by the light, completely lifeless before her. Grief inevitably struck and when anger came, it turned into pure rage and utter hatred for those that had destroyed her chicks. She flew to preserve the last bit of herself she had: her last remaining egg. It was for this reason that she still pursued the light, intending to preserve the life of her last child.
Kuro chases Ori out of her nest, but doesn't pursue Ori out past the bottom of the valley. Ori makes his way then to the top of the highest mountain, Sorrow Peak, to claim the Sunstone that will grant access to the holding place of the final element: The element of Fire or Warmth. As Ori races to the peak, Gumo takes the spirit stone to the dead body of Naru. He had witnessed these events sometime before, apparently, and knew of Naru, and in an act of selflessness, brings Naru back to life, redeeming his earlier selfish actions far more than any other action before this. Naru hears the tale of Ori from Gumo and follows him, now wishing to see her child once more.
During this time, Ori now makes his way into Mount Horu, which is now an active volcano that is threatening to erupt at any moment. As Ori ventures inside of the incredibly dangerous area, filled with lava and powerful creatures, Naru works with Gumo to make it past the flames and crumbling terrain to get to the temple, intent on seeing her child again. Ori bests the temple's challenges and finds the element of warmth, igniting it, only to have Kuro come down and ignite the flames into a blazing inferno. Ori narrowly escapes, with Kuro seeming to leave them for the fire, thinking she has won. However, this is not the case. As Ori glides to the spirit tree, Kuro finally snags her prey and flings a seemingly lifeless Ori to the ground.
In the midst of all of this, the forest is now alight and burning, the death knell of the forest sounded, and Naru works her way to Ori. She braves Kuro's wrath and in a powerful scene, kneels to pick Ori from the ground and sorrowfully embraces him, displaying her motherly affection to Kuro directly. This triggers something in Kuro, as she is finally reminded of her own desires for her children, and suddenly realizes what is going on around her. She realizes what her wrath has brought, as it seeks to destroy the forest as well as everyone else in her own selfish push for revenge. It even threatens now her final child, with the fire ready to claim its life as well. In an act of retribution, Kuro takes the seemingly lifeless Sein as well and flies back to the burning spirit tree, and puts Sein back in his rightful place. Light flashes out from the spirit tree and seeks to purge the forest, but in doing so, it takes Kuro's life as well, but it was a sacrifice that Kuro made to protect her last child from her own inexcusable hatred.
In the end, the forest regains itself. The green returns, the mountain sleeps as a dormant volcano, and the children of light flourish forth with Ori taking his spot where he belonged in the first place. Naru and Gumo now live together, along with their new companion, Kuro's last child, who Naru now intends to take care of as well. The final scene shows the first crack of the egg as Kuro's chick begins to find its way out of its egg.
Much of the story is shown instead of being told, with some small bits of narration coming from Sein or the Great Spirit Tree. This adds to a story that is filled with emotion and powerful scenes, rather than being one that tells the player everything. The player is free to make judgments about the reality of the situation: was the Great Spirit Tree at fault or was it an accident? Was Kuro's hatred justified or not? There are other similar questions to be asked throughout.
With amazing gameplay and presentation, Ori and the Blind Forest is a gem that should not be ignored. I score it a 10/10. There is little to this game that I find noteworthy as being a scarring problem, and this game stands out from the rest of its competition as a "one of a kind" piece, even if it isn't perfect still. There are very few platformers that can match this games talent, and very few games that can match this game's overall beauty in terms of art, music, and story. If you haven't played this game, then do yourself a favor and play it. It's only $20 on Steam for an experience that is an unforgettable ride that is sure to please time and time again.
So when this game came around, I never bought it...primarily because I didn't have money, but also because I had other things on the mind. Then I was looking for a new game and was going through my Steam wishlist and found that the store page for Ori and the Blind Forest had been replaced with the "Definitive Edition" of the game, for the same price as the last version. I finally picked it up, still didn't play it, but one day I was in call with my friend when I turned the game on just to try it and was assailed with a gorgeous piece of introduction music. I sat there, stunned, listening to it before saying, "I have to play this later when I'm not in call". Sure enough, I got back into it later, and was in for the most amazing platforming experience I've ever had.
Does anyone recall the original Donkey Kong Country games? They have amazing music, a brutal difficulty curve that is satisfying to work into, and a charm that lasts for forever. The same can be said of Mario and other platformers of the older days? Well, Ori and the Blind Forest works to be a modern classic platformer, complete with many, many great ideas that all blend together into a nearly seamless experience of wonder and artwork.
Let's start with how the game handles...and it handles like a dream. I've heard everyone say that they love Super Meat Boy because of how precise it is. Well, Ori and the Blind Forest handles remarkably similar in terms of precision. There was not a single mistake that was made that I didn't feel was my own mistake, rather than Ori's bad handling. Ori moves quickly though is relatively agile, and defenseless, to start with. As the game progresses, Ori obtains a plethora of powers that add to his nimbleness, including wall jumping, double jumping, a charged high jump, the ability to glide, and perhaps one of the coolest inventions ever to any platformer, the ability to hop off of enemies and their projectiles! The definitive edition also adds light grenades (which Ori can also bounce off of) and a new dash feature that makes fast horizontal movement a non-issue.
With as many new movement abilities that Ori gets in his journey, one might worry that the player would quickly become swamped and overwhelmed with their new capabilities. On the contrary, the game does a remarkable job of handling the pacing so that players can get used to their new abilities before really being called upon to demonstrate a proficiency with them. This polish and pacing is the mark of phenomenal game design that works itself through the game and overall adds to the charm of its playibility.
However, just because Ori gets all of these abilities does not mean that Ori is by any means an easy trip. Being far from it, Ori is actually a rather unforgiving little platformer from time to time, with death coming quickly to those who make small mistakes in their precision in platforming, or underestimate their foe at any given time. The number of deaths I racked up on my first playthrough was over three hundred...though I put part of that to starting it on the hardest difficulty outside of "one life", where double damage is a real monster and skills take a huge amount of skill levels to level up...
Oh yeah, I didn't mention, SKILLS! Ori gets experience, or rather, soul energy from defeating enemies or discovering secrets that have soul orbs in them. Ori also gains abilities from "ability spheres" hidden away that automatically give him a skill level to use. Ori can then put a point into one of three skill categories: One for combat purposes (more on how that works later), one for exploration purposes, and one for overall agility and self-abilities like a triple jump, underwater breathing, and other goodies. These skills improve upon what Ori already gets possession of in terms of new toys, and the progression routes can vary, lending to particular playstyles quite well and offering the chance to play around with different skill progressions early on with new playthroughs.
When it comes to combat, it is important to remember that this is a platformer first and foremost. There are no real boss fights. Instead, there are smaller fights that count as "mini-bosses" in most games that offer more combat challenges, and there are creatures to fight throughout, though the combat works in an almost passive sense sometimes. Ori gets help from Sein, a blue orb that follows Ori around and gives him advice, while also acting as a firing beacon and an explosive device, useful for clearing paths, blowing up enemies through walls, or knocking away enemy projectiles. When it comes to any major "boss" encounters, those are generally replaced with an escape sequence that offers just as much challenge as a boss fight might, or perhaps more, by challenging the platforming skills, not the combat skills.
The difficulty curve is overall amazing, but there are a couple of slip-ups here and there concerning spiking difficulty curves. The first escape sequence can come as an unexpected surprise for those unprepared and is rather difficult, with tight timing required in order to escape. A trap triggered by an NPC early in the game can also prove frustrating to get around without dying, and the final area, while a culmination of everything that the player has learned, also still manages to work in new tactics and tricks and some rooms in it can be very, VERY demanding and difficult, even for a player on the verge of completing the game. The misty woods are also a huge spike in difficulty for those unprepared...and all of this culminates as well for a new mechanic that players have to get used to, checkpoints being put down by the player. Ori can set down checkpoints himself and choose where the checkpoints are, for the most part. However, this is a double-edged sword for two reasons. The checkpoints cost energy, which Ori only gets so much of and is a rare resource at the start of the game, meaning that setting a checkpoint down could use some energy vital to making progress. Also, because the player can make the checkpoints, the game offers little in terms of checkpoints. Important areas, such as the start of an escape sequence, automatically place one down, and save points in specific areas act as checkpoints too, but other than that, there is nothing in terms of checkpoints. This can lead to high frustration when half an hour of progress goes down the drain due to an unexpected death when a player hasn't made a checkpoint in quite some time simply because they slipped into a state of being too secure about their skill at the game. I myself prefer this checkpoint method, but I can see how it can be very frustrating for newer players.
There are some other minor problems too. Getting 100% is not just about finding all the items, it's about exploring every inch of the map physically. This wouldn't be a problem if the map had a clearer indication of which areas weren't "touched" by Ori, essentially. The map grays out what hasn't been explored, but that "grayed out" portion can look extraordinarily similar to the rest of the map. Or worse, the map can show that area as explored, but not count it in the game code because Ori hadn't actually been IN the area, Ori had just seen it. In terms of actual gameplay, the instant death lasers are no fun, the high damage spikes are fairly unfun, and small hiccups in loading can be experienced if the player moves too fast through an area with "dashing." However, these are minor problems to the game that, in the end, don't contribute enough to the frustration factor to be a true detriment.
Moving onto the presentation, this game is absolutely gorgeous in every sense of the word. The music, composed by Gareth Coker, is stunning and a treat to the ears. Every track tells a story, and there isn't one theme in the game that I don't like. That is VERY RARE in games for me to not at least have ONE track that I just find to be lackluster, and Ori and the Blind Forest has not a single track that I don't adore. From start to finish, this game is a musical masterpiece.
But the music isn't the only thing that Ori's presentation has going for it. The graphics are stellar as well, with an almost "painted' look to the backgrounds lending to stunning scenery, a phenomenal art direction causing things to pop and be distinct and every area to feel like it has something going for it, and animation work that means that everything moves so smoothly that it is like experiencing the flow of a real work of art. This is where games need to be going, not back to "crunchy pixels". Those don't look nice half the time: this kind of artwork is simply vibrant and stunning and appeals to most everyone.
WARNING: There are spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk! If you are curious as to the overall score I have scored this as, it is a 10/10.
All of this, of course, wouldn't be complete without the storytelling, and this game has a fairly simplistic, but overall heartwarming and fun story to tell. Ori is a small feather/leaf that gets taken off of the Great Spirit Tree of the Forest of Nibel during "The Great Storm". He is dragged off and flung through the forest until he comes to land and becomes a small angelic looking mouse creature that is adopted by a lumbering, plump but kind creature named Naru, who takes him as her own child. The years go by and the two live happily together, gathering food for themselves and enjoying the plentiful goods of the forest. On one fateful day, the Spirit Tree calls out to Ori in a great ceremony, illuminating the forest in its light. Naru, however, scared of the light and fearing for Ori's safety, scrambles into their home to hide him and herself from the light. It is here that things start going wrong. The forest begins to wither, food becomes increasingly scarce, and finally, the only food that is left, is unreachable by Naru. Weak, hungry and despairing, she holds out all hope for Ori and gives him the last of their food. Ori, however, is not content to let this sit by. He discovers the food source that Naru couldn't reach and gathers enough for them to have together and comes back home...only to find Naru is dead. She passed away from hunger while he was out finding food, leaving Ori alone in a dark world, with a forest that once was alive and teeming, now dying and blind to its own demise.
Ori makes his way in a tearful experience, slowly starving to death himself, before finally passing away in a clearing before the Great Spirit Tree. As its final act before it loses all power, it grants Ori life again, as Ori is the last thing standing between the forest and death. And this is where the game truly begins, after a ten minute, tear jerking scene that opens the game with a splendor the likes of which few games have accomplished. From here, the story takes a small backseat of full on storytelling to let the player discover events on his own.
Ori finds Sein who explains that their "enemy" was the cause of this, and "she" is the one who must be stopped before the forest collapses into death. It's because of "her" that dangerous enemies now fill the forest, the waters are poisoned, the very air is stagnant and heavy, and the essence of warmth and life to the forest is dead. When Ori and Sein reunite with the now comatose Spirit Tree, Sein speaks to Ori of "the enemy". Kuro is a great bird filled with hatred and wrath for the beings of light. On the night of the lighting of the forest, Kuro came and destroyed many of Ori's kin and then ripped Sein from the Spirit Tree, prompting the downfall of the forest in a slow death for no other reason than misguided hatred. It is now up to Ori to restore the three elements of Nible: Water, Air and Fire. Only then will the Spirit Tree gain enough strength to reawaken and save the forest.
Ori begins by going after the water element, along the way finding Gumo, a member of the Gumon, a peculiar race of beings consisting of a single ball that is their body, and arms and legs. They have proven to be incredibly agile and fast, or at least, Gumo is. Gumo doesn't say much, but at first has intentions to keep the water stone for himself. It is the only way into the Ginso Tree, which houses the element of water. Ori chases Gumo into a trap and has to escape his hideout. Gumo tries very hard to kill Ori to protect his "treasure", but Ori eventually escapes after Gumo triggers one final trap, but traps himself in the process, where he may have stayed until he died. Ori, in an act of compassion, frees Gumo from being buried, at which point Gumo gives Ori the water stone and lets Ori proceed.
Ori takes the water stone and enters the Ginso Tree, which has become rotten and fouled with decay. Ori cleanses the corruption, and escapes the now flooding Ginso Tree, thanks to the element of water working to cleanse the corruption. Now on top of the tree, Ori takes a moment to enjoy the pure, clean water raining down from the sky...when Kuro appears. She takes immediate notice of Ori and her hatred flares in her once again at discovering that one of the kin of light survived. She knocks Ori off of the tree and seems to finish him...and would have, if not for the timely intervention of Gumo, who saves Ori from Kuro's grasp, and from drowning, letting Ori down somewhere below the Ginso Tree.
With the waters purified, Ori now moves to empower the winds. During this, he is pursued by Kuro, whose hate has been reignited by the discovery of Ori, and she will stop at nothing to see him killed. Ori manages to bypass Kuro at the Valley of the Winds by dislodging some of it onto her, which doesn't do much more than anger her, but it does knock a feather loose that Ori can now use to enter the Misty Woods. After becoming lost but never giving up hope, Ori lights the torch in the woods, setting the forest back in order and gaining the entrance to the Gumon Sanctuary where the element of air is held. However, Ori arrives to find a gruesome scene. When the forest went blind, the Gumon tried to escape their sanctuary as it crumbled. Only Gumo escaped. The rest found themselves trapped in their own sanctuary, and all of them froze to death at the entrance, their remains well preserved in ice.
Ori takes the spirit stone that had been given to them as a gift and uses it to traverse their now hellish domain, finally setting things right by placing the spirit stone in its rightful place. But, Gumo has come home, and finds to his dismay that everyone he knew is dead and realizes he is the last of his kind. He follows Ori to the chamber of the element of winds and listens as Sein declares that they will take back Nibel for everyone that has died, especially the Gumon. Moved by the passion and vigor displayed by Sein and Ori, Gumo feels compelled to act, and takes the spirit stone, which inadvertently causes the collapse of the sanctuary. Ori escapes out the top and emerges in the most unlikely spot yet: Kuro's Nest, the home of their enemy. It is here that he finds one solitary egg and through some unexplained source learns the real nature of Kuro's hatred.
Kuro is a being that is not like the light, but a living being nonetheless. She hunted food for her chicks and took good care of the three of them, while the last one remained in its egg still. Then, on the night of the call, something tragic happened. The light reached into Nibel, searching for Ori. In doing so, it came into contact with Kuro and her chicks. While Kuro was strong enough to withstand it without much fear, her chicks...were not so fortunate. In a terrible accident, the Great Spirit Tree destroyed Kuro's own children, and Kuro flew back in all haste only to find that her chicks were burned to death by the light, completely lifeless before her. Grief inevitably struck and when anger came, it turned into pure rage and utter hatred for those that had destroyed her chicks. She flew to preserve the last bit of herself she had: her last remaining egg. It was for this reason that she still pursued the light, intending to preserve the life of her last child.
Kuro chases Ori out of her nest, but doesn't pursue Ori out past the bottom of the valley. Ori makes his way then to the top of the highest mountain, Sorrow Peak, to claim the Sunstone that will grant access to the holding place of the final element: The element of Fire or Warmth. As Ori races to the peak, Gumo takes the spirit stone to the dead body of Naru. He had witnessed these events sometime before, apparently, and knew of Naru, and in an act of selflessness, brings Naru back to life, redeeming his earlier selfish actions far more than any other action before this. Naru hears the tale of Ori from Gumo and follows him, now wishing to see her child once more.
During this time, Ori now makes his way into Mount Horu, which is now an active volcano that is threatening to erupt at any moment. As Ori ventures inside of the incredibly dangerous area, filled with lava and powerful creatures, Naru works with Gumo to make it past the flames and crumbling terrain to get to the temple, intent on seeing her child again. Ori bests the temple's challenges and finds the element of warmth, igniting it, only to have Kuro come down and ignite the flames into a blazing inferno. Ori narrowly escapes, with Kuro seeming to leave them for the fire, thinking she has won. However, this is not the case. As Ori glides to the spirit tree, Kuro finally snags her prey and flings a seemingly lifeless Ori to the ground.
In the midst of all of this, the forest is now alight and burning, the death knell of the forest sounded, and Naru works her way to Ori. She braves Kuro's wrath and in a powerful scene, kneels to pick Ori from the ground and sorrowfully embraces him, displaying her motherly affection to Kuro directly. This triggers something in Kuro, as she is finally reminded of her own desires for her children, and suddenly realizes what is going on around her. She realizes what her wrath has brought, as it seeks to destroy the forest as well as everyone else in her own selfish push for revenge. It even threatens now her final child, with the fire ready to claim its life as well. In an act of retribution, Kuro takes the seemingly lifeless Sein as well and flies back to the burning spirit tree, and puts Sein back in his rightful place. Light flashes out from the spirit tree and seeks to purge the forest, but in doing so, it takes Kuro's life as well, but it was a sacrifice that Kuro made to protect her last child from her own inexcusable hatred.
In the end, the forest regains itself. The green returns, the mountain sleeps as a dormant volcano, and the children of light flourish forth with Ori taking his spot where he belonged in the first place. Naru and Gumo now live together, along with their new companion, Kuro's last child, who Naru now intends to take care of as well. The final scene shows the first crack of the egg as Kuro's chick begins to find its way out of its egg.
Much of the story is shown instead of being told, with some small bits of narration coming from Sein or the Great Spirit Tree. This adds to a story that is filled with emotion and powerful scenes, rather than being one that tells the player everything. The player is free to make judgments about the reality of the situation: was the Great Spirit Tree at fault or was it an accident? Was Kuro's hatred justified or not? There are other similar questions to be asked throughout.
With amazing gameplay and presentation, Ori and the Blind Forest is a gem that should not be ignored. I score it a 10/10. There is little to this game that I find noteworthy as being a scarring problem, and this game stands out from the rest of its competition as a "one of a kind" piece, even if it isn't perfect still. There are very few platformers that can match this games talent, and very few games that can match this game's overall beauty in terms of art, music, and story. If you haven't played this game, then do yourself a favor and play it. It's only $20 on Steam for an experience that is an unforgettable ride that is sure to please time and time again.
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