Ori and the Blind Forest is Enchanting as Hell If Hell Were Magical as Shit [TGS Hands-On]

Ori and the Blind Forest told a beautiful story in the time I had it. I would have loved to get some kind of gameplay in, but the TGS demo only came loaded with the prologue, which requires only holding the stick and a very rare and consequence-free jump.

It's a very artsy game that reminded me at different times of Okami, Journey, and what my imagination pictures The Last Guardian possibly being like. The prologue told the story of the protagonist—some kind of child form of a god or something—that ended up orphaned in a forest and was taken in by a big… thing named Ori. Ori looked like No Face from Spirited Away, if he really let himself go.

 

Ori's 2D world was gorgeous and colorful, with pleasant, mood-fitting music at every turn.

I don't know if the biggest emphasis lies on some kind of puzzle-solving or platforming gameplay in the future or what, as this prologue chapter was just that—a brief, story-driven introduction. It's listed as a platformer, so I wish I would have been able to do some platforming. What I saw was lovely, but it didn't give me any gameplay to evaluate.

I was told that the game was made by Moon Studios and is being published for Xbox One and PC by Microsoft. Exact release dates are expected before the end of the year, but nothing specific has been announced.

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