Ori and the Blind Forest

Ori and the Blind Forest is a 2D Metroidvania; a platform game with an emphasis on exploration, collecting items and upgrades, and backtracking to previously inaccessible areas. The player controls Ori, a white guardian spirit, and Sein, who is the light and eyes of the Spirit Tree. As Ori, players must jump, climb, and use various other abilities to navigate the game's world. Sein can shoot Spirit Flames to combat enemies or break obstacles. Ori is required to interact with the environment by jumping from platforms and solving puzzles, and is faced with various enemies. The player helps Ori collect health cells, energy cells, new abilities, and upgrades. The game world unfolds to the player in the fashion of a Metroidvania, with new abilities allowing the player to access previously inaccessible areas. In addition to scripted 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 energy cells collected during gameplay; the needed energy is not in abundant supply, forcing players to create them only when necessary. The player can obtain ability points to gain upgrades and benefits, such as increasing the damage of Sein's Spirit Flame. These upgrades can be achieved when the player has enough ability points to learn the skill they desire, anywhere a soul link has been created. An ability point is gained when Ori collects enough experience by killing enemies, destroying various plants, and finding spirit light containers or ability cells (which instantly awards Ori an ability point). Each skill must be learned in sequential order from one of three ability trees to allow the next skill to be accessible. Ori can learn new abilities such as wall jumping, and double jumping. == Plot ==

The voice of the Spirit Tree in the forest of Nibel narrates the story of when Ori, a guardian spirit, fell from it during a storm as a newborn and was adopted by a creature named Naru, who raised Ori as her own. A cataclysmic event soon makes the forest wither, and Naru dies of starvation. Newly orphaned, Ori is left to explore the forest on their own. After collapsing near the Spirit Tree and being revived by it, Ori later meets Sein, a small orb who guides Ori on a journey to restore the forest. Sein tasks Ori with recovering the light of three main elements supporting the balance of Nibel: Waters, Winds, and Warmth. Ori and Sein come across two beings in their quest: Gumo, the last survivor of the spider-like Gumon clan, who were wiped out by the forest's cataclysm, and whose home supports the Wind element; and Kuro, a giant, shadowy owl who is hostile toward Ori. Gumo initially steals the key to the Water element, but he returns it after Ori saves him from a rockslide. After the Wind element is rekindled, Ori and Sein find Kuro's nest, empty except for a single egg, and they learn the source of her wrath and the forest's cataclysm: when Ori was lost, the Spirit Tree released a flash of light to look for them, which burned and killed all of Kuro's recently hatched offspring when she was away from her nest looking for food. Determined to prevent this from happening to her yet unborn child, Kuro took away the core on top of the Spirit Tree, which is actually Sein. Without its core, the Spirit Tree could not sustain the three elements, and Nibel lost its balance. Meanwhile, Gumo overhears Ori and Sein's intentions to restore Nibel and uses his clan treasure that stores the light from the Spirit Tree to revive Naru, taking her to where Ori is. After the final element, Warmth, is restored in the volcano Mount Horu, Kuro attacks Ori and Sein as the fire from Horu spreads. Naru, who had been separated from Gumo, arrives to protect Ori from Kuro. Kuro softens, remembering the pain of losing her children. As the fire spreads and is about to reach her remaining egg, Kuro takes Sein back to the Spirit Tree, which emits a flash of bright light that dissipates the fire and restores the forest, but Kuro is destroyed by the light. Time passes as the forest begins to flourish once more, and Ori watches new spirits being born in the field at the foot of the Spirit Tree. Gumo and Naru watch together from afar, before the latter goes home, where Kuro's last egg now rests, just in time to see it begin to hatch. ==Development==

Ori and the Blind Forest was developed by Moon Studios, a worldwide collaboration of designers and programmers who had been working on the game for four years before it was released, 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. 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 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. , there has been no further announcement on the status of the Xbox 360 release and has been considered cancelled. Specifically, it adds in "easy" and "hard" difficulty levels, which alter health and damage inflicted by enemies, and "One Life" mode; it enables fast travel between spirit wells to help traverse the game's world and it enables full backtracking through the map. This version was released on March 11, 2016 for Xbox One, on the one-year anniversary of the game, while the Windows version was released shortly afterwards on April 27, 2016. Those who have already purchased the original game are able to upgrade to the Definitive Edition. In May 2016, Nordic Games announced that they had partnered with Moon Studios and Microsoft to release a retail version of the Definitive Edition for Windows. It was released on June 14, 2016. Following from Microsoft's working relationship with Nintendo after the release of Minecraft and Cuphead for the Nintendo Switch and the Banjo-Kazooie series receiving representation in the Switch crossover title Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Definitive Edition for Nintendo Switch was announced during Nintendo's Indie World showcase and was released on September 27, 2019. ==Reception==

Ori and the Blind Forest received "universal acclaim" for the Nintendo Switch version and "generally favourable reviews" for the Windows and Xbox One versions, according to video game review aggregator website Metacritic. Praise was directed to the game's story, visuals, gameplay, music, exploration, and environmental design. Sales According to Moon Studios' Thomas Mahler, Ori and the Blind Forest became profitable for Microsoft within one week of the game's launch on Xbox One and PC; and Gennadiy Korol, co-founder of Moon Studios, said the game was profitable for the studio itself within "a couple of weeks." Mahler described Microsoft as being "super-happy" with Ori and hinted that the franchise may see a future installment, eventually leading to Ori and the Will of the Wisps. He stated that the Xbox 360 version of the game was still in development and was at the time expected to launch later in the spring (Q2) of 2015. Awards ==Legacy==

The main characters, Ori and Sein, were announced as a playable fighter in the independent fighting game Rivals of Aether on June 12, 2017 and were released in Q2 2017. A direct sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, was announced during E3 2017 and shown again during E3 2018, Gamescom 2018, E3 2019 and The Game Awards 2019. It was released on March 11, 2020. ==Notes==