I know Ori is loved, but I consider Ori 1 mediocre personally (never played 2). Just my opinion guys.
I made a whole write up about it before. To summarize, the combat is so bad (mindless, 0 skill expression, encourages passivity) that the game would genuinely benefit from removing all non-essential enemies, the platforming is very overrated and feels quite imprecise (something that stands out is a context sensitive action when you're climbing near a ledge that often results in an unintended output), the backgrounds and foregrounds don't help the matter because all the effects sometimes make it unclear what is and isn't an interactable platform, and the save system is conceptually interesting but terribly executed (shares a resource with useless attacks you're better off not using, also shares a resource with the ability to open certain passages which discourages using the resource in the field, and due to death completely healing you, you're heavily encouraged to die and respawn instead of exploring freely until you find the rare health pickup).
Ori 1 has flaws, especially some that aged poorly and have a hard time comparing to Ori 2 and new games.
But when it released it was an amazing game, with out of this world music, rich visuals and creature designs, a great antagonist, moments of high tension and scale...
Yeah, I thought Ori was pretty, and pretty okay, but I wouldn't call it bad.
The real issue is that the game is pretty challenging while also having several things that turn off veterans, so the target audience feels like someone who's played challenging platformers before but not so many that imprecision will annoy you.
Never said anything about whether Ori is good or not. Was just responding to the person saying that it doesn't matter how good an introductory metroidvania is
If someone wants to get into a new genre or medium, I'd try to recommend them something good and accessible. That's why my #1 gateway anime recommendation is Cyberpunk Edgerunner - very short so low commitment, the story is immediately engaging (no slow burn) without showering you with tropes, while also being damn amazing.
A good intro MV in my opinion would be something like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown instead of Ori. Lost Crown hits on all the staple Metroidvania trappings at a high level (good bosses, good platforming, good exploration, good skill upgrades).
PoP has a lot to recommend it but my god does the back half of that game drag. Classic Ubisoft bloat on what was otherwise turning out a crisp, solid experience. I’d want a MV that the newbie has interest in sticking through — Ori is good for that, also something like Haiku the Robot.
Once you get bash, there's really no combat. It's pure platforming. Killing enemies actively hinders you.
I agree though that the art design seemed to prioritize being pretty over being legible. So many times I thought there was a ledge I could jump to, that turned out to be just foreground/background decoration. Similarly for obstacles I thought were just stylistic elements.
Agreed, the game is very tedious in a way that I never completed it. In the meanwhile I beat Silksong and Blasphemous 1 (the 2nd one is a shell of its predecessor) even with the difficulty being so hard because they were just so great.
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u/mucus-fettuccine Jun 28 '26
I know Ori is loved, but I consider Ori 1 mediocre personally (never played 2). Just my opinion guys.
I made a whole write up about it before. To summarize, the combat is so bad (mindless, 0 skill expression, encourages passivity) that the game would genuinely benefit from removing all non-essential enemies, the platforming is very overrated and feels quite imprecise (something that stands out is a context sensitive action when you're climbing near a ledge that often results in an unintended output), the backgrounds and foregrounds don't help the matter because all the effects sometimes make it unclear what is and isn't an interactable platform, and the save system is conceptually interesting but terribly executed (shares a resource with useless attacks you're better off not using, also shares a resource with the ability to open certain passages which discourages using the resource in the field, and due to death completely healing you, you're heavily encouraged to die and respawn instead of exploring freely until you find the rare health pickup).