When video games become art (p.2): Ori and the Blind Forest

Hey there Charlie! I'm using the little time I have left before dying during the Terminale year to write to you.

Last year I started a series called "When video games become art" to present you some exceptional games which, to me; deserve to be considered as work of art. Last time we wondered among the obscure and vicious world of Limbo, today I bring you the poetry and the beautiful colors of Ori and the Blind Forest.

A little bit of context around this masterpiece: Ori and the Blind Forest is to this day the only game from an Austrian studio: Moon Studio. They announced at the E3 in June that a sequel to the first game is in development: Ori and the Will of Wisps.
In the video game industry, and particularly for Microsoft who published it, this game came as a gift from the sky (I'm not even exaggerating). It came out in 2015, an era who was overall dominated by the development of E-Sport, where solo games were almost neglected. We are talking about a year where Skyrim was 4 years old (which is a lot for at the video game industry scale), and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was still in development. The whole team was guided by Thomas Mahler, a former artist from Blizzard Entertainment (the guys behind World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone and Diablo).

This guy is a genius, trust me.

Anyway, when the game came out, it was praised by the critique. Here is a, overview of the prices it claimed/was nominated for:

And keep in mind that this is the very first game of a brand new studio. So in this article I want to ask this question: What makes this game so unique?

Covering the whole thing would make the article waaaaaay too long, so I'm just going to focus on 3 points:

1. The art.
Some screenshots will be more than enough to prove my point:

Keep in mind those are all screenshots, not pre-rendered cutscenes.

You might have noticed that it is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. Seriously, everything from the colors, the light, the character design, the animation (you can't really say from the picture but trust me on this one)... It's a beauty that very few games can achieve. Of course, there is always this will to come closer and closer to phto-realism in the game industry, but too rare are those jewels of pure imagination, these drawings, these paintings... The backgrounds and the platformes are of equal quality; heck, these screenshots could totally make perfect wallpapers! There is a sense of light-weight, of poetry in every sequence of the game. Ori and the Blind Forest really achieved to create a fascinating atmosphere through its art; but not only...

2. The Story and the music.
Even if I love music, I have to admit that I'm not an expert. And this is precisely why the OST is perfect. No need to have a PhD in musicology to understand all of its aspects, all the colors and the feelings of it. I'm just going to give you the link for the main theme (the music launches when you open the menu):

It gives me goose bumps every time... Tbh, I think I've never stared so much
to a menu screen in my life.

If you are looking for a calm music to study or read to, you should totally go for the official OST, it's absolutely beautiful. The overall tone is very light, lots of flute, a very aerial soundtrack. We can also spot the voice of a female vocalist, Aeralie Brighton (even her name sound sweet) which adds to the light-weightiness of the soundtrack. Obviously, the awesome atmosphere is not only a question of art and music, story also has to be good... and boy is it amazing.

There is a whole genre of games known as "narrative games", they are generally games where you basically make decisions and don't have much "real" gameplay, such as Life is Strange, Beyond: Two Souls, Danganronpa... But Ori manages to catch the perfect balance for a platformer between gameplay and story. To sum up the story without spoiling too much:

"Ori is a newborn of the Spirit Tree Nibel, guardian of the forest. During a terrible storm, he is taken away and found by a creature named Naru who takes care of him as her very own son. But when a cataclysmic event happens and the food supplies run short, the young being of light will have to go on a journey to restore the light to the forest".

(It was very hard to sum up without spoiling).

It is a coming of age story, where you'll have to travel across the forest and other places to restore the light in the forest. The only voice in the game is the Nibel's who narrates everything, and Sein, a little spirit guiding and protecting Ori. And even with very few words, the game manages to tell us a beautiful story... and making me cry every time I watch the first cut scene. Go watch it on YouTube, it is stunning.

But if a good scenery, art style and music were enough to make a good game, it wouldn't deviate much from cinema. And this brings me to my third point:

3. A gameplay between agility, challenge and accessibility.

As said in my previous article, cognitive dissonance is something that you want to avoid at all cost in your game. And Ori not only manages to have a very light hearted atmosphere, but the gameplay goes with it. It is all about jumping swiftly, going higher, solving puzzle and even fights without having to kill your enemies. Which is pretty remarkable when you think about it, very few games gives the player the opportunity to finish its story without having to kill or defeat anyone (obviously you'll have to kill some -including bosses- but it's minor). And this is perhaps one of the best qualities of the game: its gameplay experience goes extremely well with its universe, where every puzzle is not giving the impression of not being suited for its environment. Surprisingly, this kind of gameplay often comes with a bitter taste of difficulty: the more stylized the game is, the less accessible it tends to be... But not in this case!

If you are new to video games, difficulty is often something that can be extremely frustrating, particularly when it comes to platformers which often consist of numerous "die and retry" sequences. But Ori manages to offer an immersive experience both for the novices and for the hard core gamers. Indeed, the game manages to guide the least skilled player through its story line, giving enough bonuses and help to face the difficulty without being too frustrated by its difficulty, while offering at the same time the possibility to explore the map with constantly new and harder challenges and even some unique power-ups for the most curious and skillful players. The accessibility is vital for a game, and Ori is part of this very restricted category of games that I can advise both to new players and veterans and being sure that they will both enjoy it.

That is pretty much it Charlie. Sorry for this long article but there are so much to say about this jewel. If I managed to make you interested in this game, it is currently costing $20 on steam, goes down to less than 10 during the Steam Sales, and costs $7.53 on consoles. 

That is all for me Charlie, I loved talking about this game which made my summer so entertaining. I hope you'll get the chance to play it. See ya Charlie!

Kellian