Ori and the Will of the Wisps Review for New Players Today

Six years after release, Ori and the Will of the Wisps still has one of the best opening hours in any platformer. You glide over a dark forest with your owl friend Ku, the music swells, and within minutes the game separates you and leaves a small glowing spirit alone in a hostile world. This Ori and the Will of the Wisps review looks at whether the rest of the game lives up to that start for players picking it up today.

Short answer: mostly yes. It is a more generous, more varied game than its predecessor, Ori and the Blind Forest, and it fixes nearly every complaint people had about that first adventure. It also has a few rough patches that are worth knowing about before you start.

What Kind of Game It Is

Will of the Wisps is a metroidvania: a large, connected 2D world that opens up as you learn new movement abilities. You start able to jump and little else, and finish dashing, grappling, burrowing through sand and launching across whole screens. If the genre is new to you, our explainer on what a metroidvania is covers the basics.

A first run takes most players around 12 to 15 hours. Finding every collectible, finishing side quests and clearing the optional races pushes that toward 20. That is a comfortable length; the game ends before its ideas wear thin.

Movement Is Still the Main Reason to Play

Ori controls beautifully. The core abilities feel instant and precise, and the game keeps adding tools that combine in satisfying ways. Bash, which lets you launch off enemies and their projectiles, remains the standout. By the late game you are chaining Bash into Grapple into a double jump without touching the ground, and the level design is built to reward exactly that flow.

The optional Spirit Trials, timed races through sections of the map, are the best showcase. They are also where you will feel how much more confident you have become since the opening hour.

Combat Is Better Than in Blind Forest, Not Better Than the Platforming

The first game's combat was a single auto-targeting attack. Will of the Wisps gives you a proper arsenal: a light sword, a heavy hammer, a bow, a spear and more, mapped to three buttons you can swap at any time. Spirit Shards, equippable perks bought from a merchant, let you shape a build around faster attacks, extra health or better movement.

The bosses are the clearest improvement. Fights against a giant spider in the dark Mouldwood Depths or a vast owl in the final areas are large, staged set pieces with readable patterns. Ordinary enemies are less memorable, and combat never reaches the depth of something like Hollow Knight. Our look at why Hollow Knight rewards patient players shows the contrast; Ori's fights are spectacle first and challenge second.

The Escape Sequences Are the High Points

Each major region ends with a scripted escape: a flood, a chasing creature, a collapsing cave. You run, Bash and Grapple through a fixed route while something enormous closes in. In Blind Forest these were famously harsh. Here they are more forgiving, with sensible checkpoints, and they are better for it.

The sandworm chase in the Windswept Wastes is the one players still bring up. It is fast, loud and readable on a first try, and failing never sends you back more than a few seconds. If you only remember one moment from the game, it will probably be one of these.

Wellspring Glades Gives the World a Heart

The biggest structural change from the first game is a hub village, Wellspring Glades. You fill it with characters you meet on your journey, and you spend Spirit Light, the currency dropped by enemies, on upgrades and building projects there. A builder repairs homes, a gardener clears overgrown paths, and a map maker sells area maps and charts collectibles.

It gives you a reason to come home between big regions and makes the side quests feel like they belong to a real place. Many of those quests are simple trading chains, but the characters are charming enough that it rarely feels like busywork.

Gareth Coker returns as composer, and the soundtrack carries a lot of the game. Each region has its own theme that shifts as you explore, and the escape music in particular turns a tense chase into something close to a concert piece. Play with headphones if you can; a small speaker loses most of the detail.

The Parts That Did Not Age as Well

Will of the Wisps launched in 2020 with noticeable bugs and stutter on some hardware. Patches fixed most of that, and current versions run smoothly, including at higher frame rates on newer consoles. Still, a few things remain.

• The map can be hard to read in dense areas, with overlapping routes and small icons.
• Some collectibles sit behind backtracking that feels like padding late in the game.
• Story beats are strong, but a couple of emotional scenes lean heavily on music and slow motion to do their work.

None of these break the game. They are the gap between a very good platformer and a perfect one.

Skip the Blind Forest First? Probably Yes

Common advice says you should always play a series in order. For Ori, I disagree. Will of the Wisps tells you everything you need about the first game's story in its opening minutes, and it is the more accessible, better designed of the two. Starting with Blind Forest means beginning with a harsher save system, weaker combat and harder escapes. Plenty of players bounced off that and never reached the sequel. If you love Wisps, go back afterward; you will enjoy the first game more as a prequel.

FAQ

Is Ori and the Will of the Wisps hard?

It has three difficulty settings and generous checkpoints, so most players can finish it. The escape sequences and optional races are the toughest parts, and even those reset you only a few seconds back.

How long is Ori and the Will of the Wisps?

Around 12 to 15 hours for the main story, and close to 20 if you chase every collectible and side quest.

Do I need to play Ori and the Blind Forest first?

No. The sequel explains the important events at the start, and it is the friendlier entry point for newcomers.

Our Verdict on Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is still one of the most beautiful and fluid platformers you can play, with movement that feels better every hour and a world worth exploring fully. The combat and map are merely good, but they never get in the way. If you enjoy 2D games with flowing movement and big emotional moments, buy it, start here rather than with the first game, and give the Spirit Trials a try once you have Bash. For more of our verdicts, browse the games reviews section.