Ori and the Blind Forest

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In 2D platform game Ori and the Blind Forest, the player controls Ori, a white guardian spirit, and Sein, who is the light and eyes of the Spirit Tree.

Ori can jump, climb, and use other abilities to navigate.

Sein can shoot Spirit Flames to combat enemies or break obstacles.

Ori is required to interact with their environment as they jump from platforms and solve puzzles.

Ori is faced with enemies while making their way to restoring the forest.

The player helps Ori collect health cells, energy cells, new abilities, and upgrades.

The game world unfolds to the player in the fashion of a Metroidvania, with new abilities allowing the player to access previously inaccessible areas.

In addition, to save points scattered in the game, players can create soul links at any time they choose to serve as checkpoints.

However, soul links can only be created using energy cells collected during gameplay; the needed energy is not in abundant supply, forcing players to create them only when necessary.

The player can gain ability points to buy various perks and upgrades, such as increasing the damage of Sein's Spirit Flame. These upgrades can be bought anywhere a soul link has been created and if the player has enough ability points to buy the skill they desire.

An ability point is gained when Ori collects enough experience by killing enemies, destroying various plants and finding spirit containers and ability cells.

Each skill must be bought in sequential order from one of three ability trees to allow the next skill to be accessible.

The voice of the Spirit Tree in the forest of Nibel narrates the story of when Ori, a guardian spirit, fell from it during a storm as a newborn and was adopted by a creature named Naru, who raised Ori as her own.

A cataclysmic event soon makes all of the forest wither, and Naru dies of starvation. Newly orphaned, Ori is left to explore the forest on their own.

After collapsing near the Spirit Tree and being revived by it, Ori later meets Sein, a small orb who guides Ori on a journey to restore the forest.

Sein tasks Ori with recovering the light of three main elements supporting the balance of Nibel: Waters, Winds, and Warmth.

Ori and Sein come across two beings in their quest: Gumo, the last survivor of the spider-like Gumon clan, who were wiped out by the forest's cataclysm, and whose home supports the Wind element; and Kuro, a giant, shadowy owl who is hostile toward Ori.

Gumo initially steals the key to the Water element, but he returns it after Ori saves him from a rockslide.

After the Wind element is rekindled, Ori and Sein find Kuro's nest, empty except for a single egg, and they learn the source of her wrath and the forest's cataclysm: when Ori was lost, the Spirit Tree released a flash of light to look for them, which burned and killed all of Kuro's recently hatched offsprings when she was away from her nest looking for food.

Determined to prevent this from happening to her yet unborn child, Kuro took away the core on top of the Spirit Tree, which is actually Sein. Without its core, the Spirit Tree could not sustain the three elements, and Nibel lost its balance.

Meanwhile, Gumo overhears Ori and Sein's intentions to restore Nibel and uses his clan treasure that stores the light from the Spirit Tree to revive Naru, and takes her to where Ori is.

After the final element, Warmth, is restored in the volcano Mount Horu, Kuro attacks Ori and Sein as the fire from Horu starts to spread.

Naru, who had been separated from Gumo, arrives to protect Ori from Kuro. Kuro softens, remembering the pain of losing her children.

As the fire spreads and is about to reach her remaining egg, Kuro takes Sein back to the Spirit Tree, which emits a flash of bright light that dissipates the fire and restores the forest, but Kuro is destroyed by the light.

Time passes as the forest begins to flourish once more, and Ori watches new spirits being born in the field at the foot of the Spirit Tree.

Gumo and Naru watch together from afar, before the latter goes home, where Kuro's last egg now rests, just in time to see it begin to hatch.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a platform-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Moon Studios and published by Microsoft Studios.

The game was released for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on March 11, 2015 and for Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2019. Players assume control of Ori, a small white guardian spirit, and Sein, the light and eyes of the Forest's Spirit Tree.

Players are tasked to move between platforms and solve puzzles.

The game features a save system called Soul Links, which allows players to save their progress at will with limited resources, and an upgrade system that gives players the ability to strengthen Ori's skills and abilities.

The game was developed by Moon Studios, a collective organization without a set location.

The distribution rights to the game were acquired by Microsoft Studios a year after the beginning of the game's development.

The game story was inspired by The Lion King and The Iron Giant, while some of the gameplay elements were inspired by the Rayman and Metroid franchises.

Upon release, the game received critical acclaim, with players praising the game's gameplay, art style, story, action sequences, musical score, and environmental design. Moon Studios co-founder Gennadiy Korol said the game was profitable for the company within a few weeks after its initial launch.

A Definitive Edition was released in March 2016. A direct sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, was announced during Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 and was released on March 11, 2020.