Rak's Ori and the blind forest playthrough

[Rakaydos]

My subnautica play-through got a lot of views, and since Ori was just on sale (and was already pencilied in as my next game), it seems like now it the time to finally put my Prawnsuit Backpacking days behind me.

So, Ori and the Blind forest. I've heard it's similar to Hollow Knight- a exploration platformer, but it sounds like the map size is considerably smaller. And it's got a good story. Anything else I should be aware of, before I boot it up tomorrow?

[PhantomFox]

It's focused more on the exploration and puzzles, less on the combat. The opening sequence may make you cry. The game has a sequel now too!

[Rakaydos]

The sequel was on sale too, but one thing at a time.

The intro was... heartwarming and tragic. I'm not a crying person, but I can feel the push in that direction.
Some introductory platforming (and a "dodge the creature" psudo-combat) to reach the homing-attack wisp opened up the map. The save system is unusual- you can save wherever, but not whenever- the ability to save recharges at specific points.

After getting the wall jump, I went awhile without saving, got a second blue light, and died. I'm not sure where I got it, though. Eventually, I made it up to the tree, found out about the villian-owl (I know about the sequel's companion) and saved at the well.

[Rakaydos]

1 hour and 48 minutes in and I'm stuck.

Spent the first few minutes backtrackign tring to find that energy cell I stumbled over last time, to no avail. Started toward the Ginsu Tree and got the charge attack, and a map that pointed more north than toward the tree.

Following the map brought me to a few fire element enemies that took some killing, forcing me to prioritize damage upgrades. A green rolling enemy can clearly damage a breakable floor, but there's green, presumably breakable walls that it just cant reach. I feel like I need an updraft ability. There's something on my map just ahead, but it's behind a wooden gate, and the only other wooden thing I see is a pillar behind one of those green walls I cant break.

Also there's a guardian on this path that can only be damaged with soul charges, and I only can carry 2, not enough to come close to defeating him.

[Rakaydos]

Map room lied to me. The correct path was into the unknown.

Once I got back on path, it was a relatively short trip to the Ginsu tree... where the dungeon key promptly got ran off by a gremlin. The moonlight grotto was an interesting subarea, with lots of mechanical obsticals. I didnt clean the place out, but I did get several Life Cells and at least 1 energy cell., along with the artefact I need to enter the ginsu tree. Oh, and also double jump. That's kinda important. (not much in the way of vertical height, though more than I had before, and the character is floaty enough to get a lot of horizontal air time.)

The ginsu tree is set up as a portal maze. About halfway up, I get the projectile jump, which seems like the sort of ability the game is built around, Ori's signature move. Jump close to a lantern, enemy, or an enemy projectile, and you can fly in any direction, and/or send the projectile in any (opposite) direction.

3 hours in, I just reached where I can see the heart of the tree, and have two sections to clear out. I've got 4 energy, and 7-8 life.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yeah, the firey area is a pretty late-game spot. The ginsu tree is the intended first dungeon, and the Bash move is indeed Ori's signature. It's a good one to get a lot of practice with, you'll need to be good with it later.

Also, if you're at the heart, you're about to find one of the coolest things the game does, and also some of the best music.

[Rakaydos]

Ah, the escape sequence. I remember hearing about it, it's interesting to see it in practice. "Nice job fixing it hero."

The left path was easy enough I actually missed something in it because I went through it too quickly, but the right path took a few tries to get right. It took a failure or two to realize that the escape sequence wanted me to continue upward, not go back down, and I messed up the platforming a few times, but overall it was fairly straightfoward.

Pure water is returned to the world. Big Owl is NOT a fan.

Saved by the gremlin. Now I'm in a swimming tuturial area. it's just barely possible to reach different air pockets without damage if your line is perfect... so I failed to discover the underwater dash (just jump) for awhile- I thought the section with the moving crushers was impossible, so I got stuck again. Fortunately I figured out what I was missing. Map stone, runestone, and a new ability. Now I can break my own unstable floors and pound posts to open wood doors. It's also a combat ability to kill the enemies I used to use to break those floors and walls.

4 hours total, I have half the map and about a third of the game complete. All the "1 ability point" abilities and about half the ancestral tree powers.

So far, the game feels quite a bit more linear than hollow knight- probably about Metroid Prime 2 level of linearity. There's room for backtracking for stuff, but the next objective is always right down that path there.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yeah, Ori 1 is one of the more linear metroidvanias. It's got a bit of exploring, but most of it boils down to coming back to a previous area for a few goodies.

[Rakaydos]

Speaking of exploring, now that I have the signature ability, time for a big cleanup run. 5 hours in, 9 energy cells, 8 life cells, the ability to detect secret areas, and 80-90% of the upgrades in the half of the map I have access to. went back and cleaned out the first dungeon 100%, too.

There was a dark area I had access to, but had no way of navigating or escaping if I fell. Pretty sure this will have to wait for after the Fire dungeon.

There's also a lot of wooden gates that have no obvous way to be opened, which is what blocked me from about half of the upgrades. Annoyingly, they dont show up on the map as closed doors. Several others required a jump I could totally make if there was an enemy projectile in the area, but there wasnt. And others were behind "breakable floors" on the cealing. (I might need to go back to a few of those now that I've got secret room senses, but I'll save that for my post-wind dungeon cleanup run)

I'm pretty sure that's all I gen get for now, so, next time, I'm off toward the Mists.

[Rakaydos]

6 Hours, 14 minutes - Valley of the winds and the Misty Woods.

the first undertaking is driving off the giant owl, doing that got me the deku leaf Kuro feather. Then it was into the lost wood misty woods, which alters it layout whenever you look at it wrong. The ability to climb seems redundant with the ability to infinitely walljump, but the section contrived a few scenerios, such as platforms that appear or disapear when you jump, or narrow sections with a wall on one side and a spike on the other. The final bit involved carrying a lantern, removing most of your platforming abilities, as you dodge a regular projetile through a narrow corridor.

Once I got the relic for the wind dungeon, the map cleared up, and there was something I miseed in the now not so misty woods. Went back for it, got an achievement, and 100%ed the woods.

Started down the valley of the winds, finally took a break after completing the Valley mapstone.

[Destro_Yersul]

Fun fact: there's an easter egg hiding in that general area. It's not super hard to find, but it's really funny the first time you encounter it.

[Rakaydos]

I dont know about any easter egg- either I missed it or I forgot it.

7 hours 18 minutes. Found the entrance tothe dungeon. gravity manipulation puzzles- remembering to save to reduce backtracking was important here.
The gremlin's family died? And the big owl hates us becaus the deku tree's call to us killed her babies. Also, she pissed. After the escape sequence, a stealth segment. I spent awhile trying to blow up that log before going in, so I missed it as a way out for the longest time.

Finally safe, and a save. Next up is the area with fire enemies I wandered into by accident, earlier.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Finally safe, and a save. Next up is the area with fire enemies I wandered into by accident, earlier.

Don't forget, you can also create your own save point for a bit of energy. Sorry if you already knew this; just the way you've been talking about saving makes it sound like an infrequent thing for you.

[Destro_Yersul]

It's not a big easter egg. It's just that one of the enemies is near a cliff, and if you punt them off they do the wilhelm scream.

[Rakaydos]

Don't forget, you can also create your own save point for a bit of energy. Sorry if you already knew this; just the way you've been talking about saving makes it sound like an infrequent thing for you.

infrequent because it's limited by energy cells, but I'm saving more often than just at wells. I only recently got a significant number of energy cells, and sometimes I'll burn charges just for the 2 points of healing.

[Rakaydos]

8 hours, 42 minutes.

We meet again, my old nemesis... Windows Stickykeys!

So, first thing I did was go back into the wind dungeon to get the last few upgrades. I didnt quite have triple jump, so some of this platforming (gravity puzzles without gravity manipulation!) was incredibly hard, and one of the sections was only possible with damage boost. (a long glide across a room to grab a spiked lip to get the height to go over the lip) wind dungeon 100%

Still a lot of upgrades on the map I cant access. guess it's up to the sunstone. perhaps I can burn through some of the wooden walls with it.

Updraft wind platforming! feather of course lets you glide upward. just one problem- feather is keyed to left shift. The hotkey to activate Windows Stickykeys is to tap shift 5 times in succession, so any time I needed to maintain a height, not really rising or falling, I would get an audio warning half a second before the game minimizes and windows asks me if I want to activate it. This was particularly annoying in the Spike Maze section.

New ability: superjump! Charge on the ground or wall to destroy breakable walls opposite. This definitely will let me access some upgrades I missed. I've also got triple jump at this point.

And the sunstone. Also, Gremlin has revived my friend! Woo! Save, quit, and figure out how to defeat stickykeys once and for all. Ease of access menu... ok, there's a checkbox I can disable. Victory!

[Destro_Yersul]

I don't know what stickykeys is even for. I've never heard of anyone who actually uses it, just people for whom it ruins games where you need to press shift a lot.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I don't know what stickykeys is even for. I've never heard of anyone who actually uses it, just people for whom it ruins games where you need to press shift a lot.

I suspect it's an accessibility thing. If you're someone who lost a hand in a car crash, not needing to press multiple keys at a time would be useful.

[Rakaydos]

9 hours, 35 minutes. Not much to say, pretty much just map cleanup.

For the most part the items I cant reach seem to have a non-interactable lantern nearby. I'm going to a fire dungeon, I'm pretty sure that will work out. It's the exceptions that bother me. In the far right of the map theres an upgrade behind a door, and I cant find a lantern, switch, or a pillar to pound.

[Amechra]

I don't know what stickykeys is even for. I've never heard of anyone who actually uses it, just people for whom it ruins games where you need to press shift a lot.

The reason that you haven't heard about people using it is that you probably don't run in the same circles as the people who need it (since a lot of them are, like, retirement age). And if you do, they probably keep quiet about it due to the stigma of having to use assistive tech.

EDIT: As for why they decided to make the keyboard shortcuts for these kinds of features (stickykeys, filterkeys, etc) so easily triggerable by normal use instead of, say, putting the accessibility menu in an obvious, easy-to-access place... your guess is as good as mine.

[Rakaydos]

10 hours 43 minutes. "Wait, that's it?"

Found the lantern for that door in the swamp I couldnt find, so it's off to the fire temple to hopefully get a lantern lighting ability.

Central hub with both sides cut off. Need to climb all the way to the top with only the projectile jump, basically. A single door leads to a section that opens up the top two side rooms, which each open up the next two rooms, and so on, before finally lowering the lava (after an early escape sequence). Meanwhile mama, who the gremlin revived, is coming in to show you her support.

When you reach the heart of warmth, big owl is having NONE of that. Another escape secuence, outrunning the owl and the flames the owl is spreading. Several of these areas look like areas outside the dungeon, so you're running all the way back to the deku tree. The big owl finally corners you, your attack wisp snatched... and mama comes to hug you, and tell mama owl how owful she is being. Dont you have kids?
Sure, the last one is in her nest.. being burned up by the flames SHE spread. Only one way to stop it... And the owl sacrifices herself to revive the tree and stop the fire. Roll credits.

There's an entire section, and at least one ability, I never explored/aquired. I was expecting more distance between "saving the world" and "stopping the villian." The afterstory is cute, though, with just a hint of the egg hatching with the whole mismatched family together.

[Landis963]

10 hours 43 minutes. "Wait, that's it?"

...

There's an entire section, and at least one ability, I never explored/aquired. I was expecting more distance between "saving the world" and "stopping the villian." The afterstory is cute, though, with just a hint of the egg hatching with the whole mismatched family together.

There's two sections, with associated abilities, that if you were simply following the plotted line you would have skipped over. This is because they were DLC. The story bits associated with them are mama's backstory.

[Rakaydos]

10 hours 55 minutes: got out of mount Horu (something of an adventure, given how deep I was), and explored the black root burrow deep enough light it up. got the charge move and dodged a rolling boulder (Raider of the lost arc achievement get) in a way that seems to have locked off an ability/skill node.

Nothing I've gotten so far suggests being able to light lanterns without the section specific lantern lighting orb, so I would have to go deeper. I'm 8 levels away from completing the skill tree, have all the life cells, and am just short a few energy cells.

[Rakaydos]

11 hours 55 minutes- all collectables, Master of the Forest achievement. There's a map stone I never activated, in one of the dungeons, but meh.

[Destro_Yersul]

That was certainly a lot faster than Subnautica. Ori is a much more contained game though, and lets you teleport, so there's a lot less time spent just getting around.