Ori and The Blind Forest

Ori and the Blind Forest is one of those games that reminds you why simple gameplay, when done right, still works. It’s a beautiful 2D platformer that focuses on movement, timing, and flow rather than overwhelming you with systems or clutter.
The progression feels natural. You unlock abilities as you play, and each one meaningfully changes how you move through the world. Backtracking never feels like a chore because new skills open up paths that previously felt impossible. The platforming itself is tight, responsive, and satisfying, especially once the movement really clicks.
What stood out most to me was how easy it is to just sit down, grab a controller, and play. No friction. No unnecessary complexity. You fail, you retry, you improve. The difficulty spikes are real, but they feel earned, and overcoming them is genuinely rewarding.
Add to that the art style and music, which do a lot of heavy lifting emotionally without needing excessive dialogue, and you end up with a game that feels focused and confident in what it wants to be.
Ori and the Blind Forest doesn’t try to reinvent the genre. It just executes it extremely well.

I completed this game a few weeks ago. It was my second time getting 100% achievements here. I also completed the Definitive Edition (DE) and the second game. I accidentally cleared all achievements via the steam console, so after a 2 year break, I replayed the game. It's still a masterpiece. Yes, the DE is better in every aspect, yes, you don't need to play the original game if you have the DE, because it's the same game but with a lot of improvements. Nevertheless, even without all the DE features, Ori and the Blind Forest is the best game in the genre.
Simple but cute and emotional story, gorgeous visuals, beautiful audio design and perfect gameplay make this game a well-cut diamond. The gameplay in particular feels genuinely satisfying: polished, thoughtful and ideally integrated with every other aspect of the game. I know what I am talking about here. The second Ori suffers from an identity crisis, whereas the first game has a strong focus on platforming with some basic combat element which is just a cherry on top.
This game can be hard, especially if you are aiming for 100% achievements. The only difficult achievement is the one-life completion. Yes, it's just a single achievement, but oh boy, it is the hardest one I have ever earned. I completed Hollow Knight at 100% with all bosses on Radiant, I completed all bosses in Cuphead on S-rank, I got Infinity in TBOI, but none of those achievements can match Ori's bullsht. Altogether, I've spent more than 100 hours in this game (including the DE), and I can probably finish it in 1 hour and 20 minutes with my eyes closed at this point. Maybe it's a skill issue, but this is still my proudest gaming achievement.
Anyway, as I said before: if you are not an achievement hunter, don't bother with the original version - just play DE and be happy!
Review of Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
Review of Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Curator page

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Exceptional
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10

10/10 - I died a total of 532 times while playing through the game, and yet it never once annoyed me. On the opposite, it kept me hooked from start to finish. The way games should be. An absolute masterpiece!

A 2D platformer that looks amazing and plays amazing.

I'm maybe half way through the game, have die over 300 times, but I'm still having fun!
Luckily I'm stubborn enough to get through the harder parts \o/
EDIT: I finished the game and it's honestly just stunning.
The story, music, sound design and visuals are all amazing.
It made me cry, laugh, curse, and even scream couple times when I got scared in couple of events.
I will be playing the next Ori but surely return to the original too! (probably trying Definitive Edition next)
PS. The game is little hard on my hands because of joint issues but I still highly enjoyed it even that I died a lot in the longer sections of jumping! Apparently Definitive version will have difficulty settings, so I'll try it next to see if Easy will be little easier on my poor fingers.

Pretty good metroidvania game, I understand why people like it so much.
The story is pretty interesting and a bit emotional too.
The mechanics, visuals, sounds, locations and controls are nice, overall.
It also has some challenging parts, but those are kinda fun too.