Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an outstanding – if too safe – sequel to the already great Ori and the Blind Forest, boasting the same mesmerizing aesthetic, haunting soundtrack – dude, this series’ main theme is ridiculously good –, and engaging mechanics, like that lovely bash ability.

The story in Will of the Wisps revolves around the search for a cute baby owl named Ku. Ku was frustrated that she didn’t know how to fly, so Ori – a forest spirit in the form of a glowing fox – helped her do it, which led them both to be caught in a fierce storm and hurled onto an unknown land. Now, Ori sees himself in this strange, sick forest full of monsters and fierce beasts with the mission to find Ku and heal the place.

Unlike Blind Forest, which featured a memorable first cutscene that was completely disconnected from the rest of the game, Will of the Wisps presents a more cohesive narrative. The search for Ku is well-integrated into Ori’s main quests, with everything that the fox does moving him one step toward the owl, and, eventually, some developments even connect both of the fox’s goals, making saving Ku and healing the land the same thing.

It’s not a particularly moving story – there’s nothing like the aforementioned cutscene with its devastating sense of finality – and it doesn’t know what to do with some of the old characters, either, as they appear heading to Ori in some cutscenes but never get to impact the main events in any shape or form. What it nails, however, is quite important: the main antagonist, despite being a fierce, scary monster with “evil eyes”, is quite relatable, with a tragic backstory that reframes their behavior as the result of being alone and ostracized by others. At one point, Shriek – a huge bird with strange legs that make them look deformed – will be hunting Ori relentlessly, and at another, they’ll be seeking shelter under the fossilized wings of their parents. We feel for Shriek.

There are more characters to meet this time around, too, such as the bird Tokk, who loves ancient lore, the giant and wise frog Kwolok that guards the marshes, and the various Moki, little ferrets with pointed ears and bright yellow eyes, who like to speak together in a funny way.

These people can give us quests now, and some turn out to be quite dramatic, such as the one called Family Reunion, which has us build a house for a Moki and then tell his family the good news. With a vibe that could suit a Bloodborne’s storyline, this quest reinforces more than anything else in the game the horrible state that its world is in: the wells are all poisoned, the forests are the lair of feral beasts, but it’s the destiny of these small ferrets in search of a safe place to settle that sells us the idea that things may not end well for all these little animals. Family Reunion makes the stakes feel real.

Unfortunately, most sidequests in Will of the Wisps never come close to matching this kind of poignancy: Family Reunion is the exception, not the rule. Most are just basic fetch quests, like Tokk telling Ori that he lost his compass, and so we go to the designated place to find the compass. Another has a Moki losing their acorn, so we go to the designated place to retrieve the acorn. Simple, shallow stuff like that.

There’s an on-going quest to rebuild a town, which serves as the game’s main hub, that is also a big missed opportunity, as we rarely feel the impact of restoring it: the visuals remain largely the same, it rarely opens new quests, and the items it rewards us with are useless if we’re already exploring every nook and cranny of the map collecting everything. Lastly, the town’s music theme doesn’t even change and evolve to match each big upgrade – a staple in this kind of quest –, which is a shame.

The soundtrack in Will of the Wisps is still pretty great, though, building an eerie atmosphere that perfectly matches the overall art style and the sadness of some scenes – there are almost no upbeat tunes to be found here – but it indeed overuses the main melodies of the first game, instilling little personality to the new areas and events. In other words, it sounds great…but it kinda already heard it before.

But speaking of things new, Will of the Wisps tries to put more focus on combat, to its detriment. We attack with a kind of sword of light, but we often find or buy new weapons and skills for Ori. The problem is that the enemy design here is quite basic, never pushing us to actively use these upgrades. Early on, for example, we can buy a hammer that destroys shields, does a great deal of damage, staggers enemies, and has a pretty good range, which means that Ori doesn’t need any other thing to defeat any enemy for basically the rest of the game. Will of the Wisps gives us many combat skills and weapons, but forgets to also give us good reasons to employ them.

The level design, on the other hand, is stellar. To encourage players to explore and come back to previous areas to try newfound platform abilities, the game makes them very helpful in traversing the environments, which are built to offer a good challenge the first time through and be a breeze when we come back later with our new powers (such as having tons of grapple points that function as shortcuts). Metroidvanias often make the mistake of turning abilities into glorified keys, with just one particular use, but Will of the Wisps actually makes them fun and rewarding to play around with.

The game also opens up during its middle portion, allowing us to explore four different regions in any order, with the abilities we come across in one helping us explore the others. And the various kinds of collectibles we come across are actually useful in some way or another: some increase our energy or health, some are required to upgrade the hub town, and some are shards that act as difficulty modifiers (equipping them can give us more health or an extra jump, making the game easier, or can make the enemies hit harder and have more health, but drop more rewards when defeated).

The environments, meanwhile, are breathtaking – in the “you’ll take several screenshots to use as a wallpaper” type of breathtaking – being usually divided into various layers to pass a great sense of depth – this would have looked even more amazing in 3D. Sometimes, though, there’s too much going on: in the first hours, for example, when we attack with a torch, the particle effects can totally obscure the enemies, so we may lose track of them after attacking, which is never great. But it’s a nice touch the fact that the bosses usually appear in one of the deepest layers before coming right at Ori, offering a bit of build-up to their fights.

Finally, the platforming itself is great, but it was already great in the first game. Again, we have the bash ability that transforms enemies and projectiles into moveable trampolines while redirecting them, which changes how we approach enemies, as they are not just obstacles to be destroyed or avoided anymore, but potential tools to reach new platforms. Will of the Wisps, however, doesn’t do anything new with the ability, happy to just employ the same old tricks of its predecessor.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps, then, will certainly feel familiar – perhaps too familiar – to those who played the first one, but it’s still a great game in its own right. So, with more interesting quests and characters, the next installment may be something to behold.

January 02, 2026.

Review originally published in February 09, 2021.