Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a platform-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Moon Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. Announced during E3 2017, the title is a direct sequel to 2015’s Ori and the Blind Forest, and was released in March 2020 for Windows and Xbox One. A Nintendo Switch version was released in September 2020 by Iam8bit, and a version optimized for Xbox Series X/S was released as its launch title in November 2020. The game maintains narrative continuity with Blind Forest, and follows the journey of series’ main character Ori in a new region called Niwen.

The story takes place immediately after the events of Ori and the Blind Forest and is narrated by the Spirit Tree. Kuro’s last egg hatches, giving birth to a baby owl whom Ori, Naru, and Gumo name Ku and raise as part of their family. Being born with a damaged wing, Ku cannot fly until Gumo affixes Kuro’s feather to it. Ku and Ori go on a flight that ends up taking them out of Nibel and into Niwen, where a storm separates them. Ori’s search for Ku eventually leads them to Kwolok, a toad looking over the Inkwater Marsh and some of the inhabitants of Niwen, the Moki.

He tells Ori that Ku is in the Silent Woods, the Moki’s former home now turned into a desolate graveyard of owls, but with the waters of Niwen unclean, Ori must set the wheels of The Wellspring back into motion to enter them. Kwolok also gives Ori a wisp, the Voice of the Forest, to guide them on their journey. Meanwhile, Naru and Gumo head off to Niwen via a raft to find Ori and Ku. Upon setting The Wellspring’s wheels back into motion, clearing Niwen’s water, Ori enters the Silent Woods. There they reunite with Ku, but the pair encounters Shriek, a deformed, vicious owl who was an orphan at birth and rejected by the rest of her kind, ruling over the Silent Woods and terrorizing Niwen. Shriek attacks Ori and puts Ku in a coma.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a 2D Metroidvania; a platform game emphasizing exploration, collecting items and upgrades, and backtracking to previously inaccessible areas. The player controls the titular Ori, a white guardian spirit. As Ori, players must jump, climb, glide, and swim between various platforms to solve intricate puzzles. Gameplay unfolds in the form of a Metroidvania, with new abilities and upgrades allowing players to unlock previously inaccessible areas of the map. Some of the foundational gameplay elements were inspired by the Rayman and Metroid franchises. Unlike its predecessor Blind Forest, Will of the Wisps relies on autosaving rather than manually placed “soul links”.

The sequential upgrade system of the first title has been abandoned for a system of “shards” (inspired by the Final Fantasy series’s “materia” system), which can be purchased or found throughout the game to upgrade or modify Ori’s stats and attacks. Ori’s attacks can be managed via a convenient radial menu, and orbs to increase Ori’s health and energy can be found throughout the map. Unlike Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori does not travel with Sein. A new mode called Spirit Trials was revealed at Gamescom 2018. The mode challenges players to race to a goal in the fastest time possible. To enhance competition and strategy, players can see the best times and the routes taken by other players. Will of the Wisps also introduces side quests from NPCs to earn collectible items such as Gorlek Ores, which are used to expand the game’s hub area.