Ori and the Blind Forest

96%
Game Brain Score Based on 14,704 reviews
  • story
  • music
  • gameplay
Ori and the Blind Forest Game Cover
Ori and the Blind Forest sets a new standard for the platform/adventure genre, by managing to handily surpass the games that inspired it in terms of storytelling, gameplay, and presentation.
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In Ori and the Blind Forest, players control Ori, a white spirit, as they navigate through a metroidvania-style world to save the forest of Nibel from a dark energy known as the Blind Forest's decay. Using platforming and puzzle-solving mechanics, Ori gains new abilities and upgrades to explore the open environment and restore light to the forest. The game features a touching narrative and beautiful hand-painted visuals, accompanied by a sweeping orchestral score.

  • Nintendo Switch
  • PC
  • Steam Deck
  • Windows
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X|S
  • Xbox
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

96%
Audience ScoreBased on 14,704 reviews
story3,367 positive mentions
grinding94 negative mentions
  • story6,290 mentions

    The story of "Ori and the Blind Forest" is widely praised for its emotional depth and simplicity, often described as heartwarming and touching. Players appreciate the minimal dialogue, relying instead on visuals and music to convey powerful emotions, creating a narrative that resonates deeply. While some find the story predictable or cliché, many agree that it effectively engages players, making them care about the characters and their journey through a beautifully crafted world. Overall, the combination of stunning graphics, a captivating soundtrack, and a poignant storyline contributes to the game's status as a masterpiece in the platforming genre.

    • “The storytelling is elegantly woven into the gameplay, making Ori's journey an impactful experience that stays with you long after playing.”
    • “This heartwarming yet tragic story of friendship, loss, and hope is told with minimal dialogue, relying on visuals and music to convey powerful emotions.”
    • “Ori and the Blind Forest is a beautifully crafted game that combines challenging platforming, a heartfelt story, and breathtaking visuals.”
    • “The story is simplistic.”
    • “The story on the other hand was something I had no connection to.”
    • “The story is flat but still very wholesome.”
  • music5,920 mentions

    The music in "Ori and the Blind Forest" is widely praised for its emotional depth and orchestral quality, enhancing the game's beautiful visuals and storytelling. Many players highlight the soundtrack as a standout feature, often describing it as one of the best they've ever encountered in a video game. The combination of captivating melodies and atmospheric soundscapes creates a deeply immersive experience that resonates with players long after they finish the game.

    • “The soundtrack by Gareth Coker is exceptional and elevates the game’s emotional impact.”
    • “The music adds a layer of immersion that makes Ori’s journey through Nibel feel even more meaningful.”
    • “The combination of visuals, storytelling, and music forms a harmonious trifecta that elevates Ori and the Blind Forest to a level of artistic brilliance rarely seen in video games.”
    • “The music didn't restart with each attempt but flowed continuously, giving me the push to keep trying.”
    • “The tension disappears after so many tries, turning the game into a slog with the same bland repetitive music playing throughout (I found the music to be forgettable).”
    • “The music can be a bit repetitive at times, but the visuals are quite amazing for a platform game, and gameplay is great with a controller.”
  • gameplay4,652 mentions

    The gameplay of "Ori and the Blind Forest" is widely praised for its fluid mechanics, beautiful visuals, and engaging story, creating a captivating experience for players. While many enjoy the challenging platforming and innovative mechanics, some find certain sections frustrating due to difficulty spikes and trial-and-error gameplay. Overall, the game successfully combines tight controls with a rich narrative, making it a standout title in the metroidvania genre.

    • “The gameplay is fluid and precise, demanding mastery over its challenging mechanics.”
    • “The gameplay is engaging, featuring a combination of platforming challenges, puzzle-solving, and combat that is both rewarding and enjoyable.”
    • “The gameplay is smooth and responsive; you can use a mouse + keyboard combination, a controller, or just the keyboard.”
    • “The game also fails to explain new mechanics well and leaves a lot to the player to figure out.”
    • “This game is not fun when you get into the mechanics.”
    • “The gameplay itself is quite tedious.”
  • graphics4,624 mentions

    The graphics of "Ori and the Blind Forest" are widely praised for their stunning hand-painted art style, vibrant colors, and fluid animations, creating a visually captivating experience that draws players into its enchanting world. Many reviewers highlight the game's ability to evoke strong emotions through its visuals and soundtrack, often comparing its aesthetic quality to that of animated films. While the graphics are celebrated, some players note that the intricate designs can occasionally obscure gameplay elements, adding a layer of challenge to the experience.

    • “Ori and the Blind Forest is a beautifully crafted game that combines challenging platforming, a heartfelt story, and breathtaking visuals.”
    • “The graphics are stunning, the soundtrack is enjoyable, and the gameplay is spot on!”
    • “The combination of visuals, storytelling, and music forms a harmonious trifecta that elevates Ori and the Blind Forest to a level of artistic brilliance rarely seen in video games.”
    • “The game maxes out at graphics so old we don't even use them anymore but it has the option to change to them.”
    • “To start with the biggest problem of all: even though the game looks beautiful, the performance is atrocious so you have to turn down your graphics to the point where it looks like a blocky pixel game from the 90s, thus making one of its good values irrelevant.”
    • “The visuals are really pretty, but they do a very poor job at communicating vital information to the player.”
  • emotional1,842 mentions

    The emotional aspect of "Ori and the Blind Forest" is widely praised, with many players noting that the game's touching story and stunning visuals evoke strong feelings, often leading to tears. The narrative, which revolves around themes of love, loss, and hope, is conveyed with minimal dialogue, relying heavily on its beautiful art and exceptional soundtrack to create an immersive emotional experience. Players frequently mention being emotionally invested from the very beginning, with many citing the prologue as particularly heart-wrenching.

    • “This heartwarming yet tragic story of friendship, loss, and hope is told with minimal dialogue, relying on visuals and music to convey powerful emotions.”
    • “Ori and the Blind Forest is a visually stunning and emotionally captivating platformer that takes players on a heartfelt journey through a magical world.”
    • “The game's narrative is heartwarming and poignant, with moments that will tug at your heartstrings and stay with you long after you've finished playing.”
    • “At first, I was hesitant because I am not into platformer games as much, but holy crap, did this game make me emotional and it is freaking enjoyable.”
  • atmosphere616 mentions

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its breathtaking visuals, enchanting soundtrack, and immersive storytelling, creating a rich and emotional experience for players. Many reviewers highlight the hand-drawn art style and the seamless integration of music that enhances the game's mood, making it feel like a living painting. Despite some criticisms regarding gameplay mechanics, the overall consensus is that the game's atmosphere is its standout feature, drawing players into a beautifully crafted world filled with vibrant colors and emotional depth.

    • “The game's breathtaking visuals and gorgeous soundtrack create a serene and mesmerizing atmosphere that immerses you in the game's universe.”
    • “The atmosphere of this game is something to marvel at times.”
    • “The atmosphere is rich with color, vibrancy, expertly crafted and mastered, nothing is bland in this world, some parts are dark, scary, others are bright, happy and bring you joy.”
    • “The atmosphere is so emotional that even after the 20th try on a hard part, I can't just quit and leave little Ori alone.”
    • “The atmosphere completely destroys the well-crafted atmosphere of the game.”
    • “The atmosphere of this game alone is enough to sell it; the art and the music all work beautifully to engulf the player in a brand new world.”
  • replayability188 mentions

    The replayability of "Ori and the Blind Forest" is a mixed bag among reviewers. While some appreciate the game's beautiful design and mechanics that encourage multiple playthroughs, many note its limited replay value, particularly after completing the main story, as it lacks features like New Game+ and often locks players out of previously explored areas. Overall, the game offers some replayability through achievements and speedrunning, but many players feel it doesn't provide enough incentive for repeated play.

    • “The replayability of this game comes mostly through reliving the story, or speedruns.”
    • “An absolutely beautiful game with tons of replayability, trying to catch everything you missed the first time around.”
    • “The mechanics are cleverly built in an immersive and impressive world - one mechanic builds on the next as you earn them, making exploration rewarding and replayability an option.”
    • “The only huge drawback which massively impacts my opinion of this game is its replayability.”
    • “The game does not have much, if any, replay value to speak of.”
    • “There is little to no replay value after you finish the game, but that's okay.”
  • grinding105 mentions

    The reviews highlight a significant divide in player experiences regarding grinding in the game. While some players find the grinding and backtracking tedious and frustrating, particularly in combat and certain platforming sections, others appreciate the exploration and skill progression without feeling overwhelmed by grinding. Overall, the game is visually stunning and engaging, but many players feel that certain mechanics and design choices lead to a repetitive and tedious experience, especially for completionists.

    • “It feels very casual and not too grindy or difficult.”
    • “I also liked that you could upgrade your map to reveal secrets and collectibles - so no tedious map crawling to get that 100% completion.”
    • “Reminds me what it's like to play a game for the fun of actually playing it - not grinding through gameplay just to get to the next droplet of story progression, like most modern games.”
    • “But where this game falls flat on its face is the absolutely tedious gameplay.”
    • “The graphical beauty of Ori and the Blind Forest and the fabulous storytelling does not make up for the extremely tedious gameplay mechanics.”
    • “Beautiful game, but very tedious; the timed events are simply poorly done, you have to do them 20-30 times which is annoying and takes all the fun away from the game.”
  • optimization89 mentions

    The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players praising its ability to run smoothly on low-end PCs, while others report significant performance issues, including lag spikes and crashes. Many users noted that despite the game's beautiful graphics, poor optimization can lead to a frustrating experience, particularly on older systems. Overall, while some players enjoyed a seamless experience, others encountered various technical problems that detracted from their enjoyment.

    • “The game has excellent performance but there are a few technical issues with the game.”
    • “Runs smoothly with high visual settings on my potato of a laptop.”
    • “One of the best-looking and best-optimized games this year and maybe forever.”
    • “Lack of consistency, poor performance, and occasional lag spikes don't help the overall flow.”
    • “Even though the game looks stunning, it is really poorly optimized and runs badly on many systems even months after launch.”
    • “Only downside to this game is that it seems to be poorly optimized for PC.”
  • stability82 mentions

    The stability of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting various glitches, particularly related to achievements and freezing issues. While some users experienced significant bugs that affected gameplay, others noted a smooth experience with minimal issues. Overall, it appears that while the game has potential, it suffers from notable stability problems that may require patches to improve the experience for all players.

    • “The art style is beautiful, the game mechanics are fairly smooth and not buggy at all, and the story is well presented.”
    • “It has a great story, no glitches (for me), and a great platformer.”
    • “However, this is a creative, well balanced, relatively bug free (I didn't encounter a single bug in my hours of playing), game and storytelling experience.”
    • “When I start it, it freezes my computer for almost 7 minutes before it starts, and then I cannot even load my save files from before.”
    • “However, the game is infested with deadly glitches that might end your journey and force you to start from the beginning.”
    • “Keeps crashing; I want a refund; the game is too buggy.”
  • character development71 mentions

    Character development in the game is highly praised for its emotional depth and visual appeal, with players noting the unique and memorable character designs that enhance the storytelling experience. The art style, animation, and music contribute significantly to the characters' charm, making them relatable and engaging. While some reviews mention a lack of dialogue-driven development, the game's ability to convey character growth through gameplay and visual storytelling is celebrated as a standout feature.

    • “The fact that they can produce enough character development within the first ten minutes of the game to bring tears to your eyes is a marvel...”
    • “Interesting mechanics, satisfying character development (transition from 'oh crap, enemies' to 'oh boy, enemies, I can use them'), overall good and polished gameplay design, great art, music, good attention to detail and a fairy-tale, Disney-like epic story.”
    • “Music and sound 10/10, graphics 10/10, history 10/10, challenge 10/10, character development during the game 10/10.”
    • “Most of the time cutscenes only tell you what to do next, without there being character development, or foreshadowing or anything.”
    • “They just flipped on all the character development they built throughout the story.”
    • “No character development.”
  • humor38 mentions

    The humor in the game is described as a blend of dark and lighthearted elements, with players finding themselves laughing amidst challenging gameplay and emotional storytelling. Many reviews highlight the juxtaposition of funny moments against serious themes, creating a unique experience that elicits both laughter and tears. Overall, the game is praised for its ability to engage players through humor while also delivering a compelling narrative.

    • “Funny 2D jump and run with a wholesome story about friendship and saving nature.”
    • “In 3 hours, my friend and I had died 275 times, and we just could not stop laughing.”
    • “The storyline had me hooked from the beginning, crying, smiling, laughing, and even getting furious as the story progressed.”
  • monetization4 mentions

    The monetization aspect of the game is criticized for lacking in-game advertisements or purchases, leading some players to perceive it as a cash grab, particularly regarding the pricing of the definitive version. Despite this, the game is still highly regarded as a masterpiece and a must-play indie title.

    • “I don't think I will ever pay full price for the definitive version because of this obvious cash grab unless it was on sale very cheap.”
    • “Oh and without in-game advertisement or purchases...”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

84% average critic score

Buy Ori and the Blind Forest

Play time

10hMedian play time
20hAverage play time
8hMain story
11hCompletionist
7-12hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 108 analyzed playthroughs

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