After the success of Ori and the Blind Forest in 2015, people are very excited to see the cute white creature Ori to embarks on another adventure in the sequel - Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The beautiful soundtrack and stunning visuals are the reason to keep people waiting, even though the game has gone through three consecutive E3 of only teasing.
And as expected, the developer Moon Studios still needs more time to better polish Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The game was planned to release in February 2020, but at The Game Awards 2019, Xbox Game Studios has announced that it will come out one month later.
To make up for this long wait, they've released a brand new trailer of the game. And I must say, Xbox Game Studios is very good at this, as the trailer looks very atmospheric with satisfying platforming scenes and many new mechanics as well. You can see them for yourself down here:
What we have known about Ori and the Will of the Wisps so far
Ori and the Will of the Wisps take exactly where its prequel has dropped, following Ori on a brand new journey. If you remember the start of Ori and the Blind Forest, you'll know that Ori is a strange creature that has dropped down from the upper world. And in this game, Ori will travel to the world above the magical forest to figure out his true identity.
Since Moon Studios is still the one creating Ori and the Will of Wisps, the game is not going to step much further than the aesthetic Metroidvania experience in the previous title. You'll still control Ori via a responsive system, allowing to smoothly platform through a colorful world but with hostile enemies. The core of the series will be kept, but this one will see several outstanding updates.
The first one is the Autosave system that will save your progress once you reach a specific location. This is much more convenient than the previous manual checkpoint mechanics, where you have to spend some needless steps to save your game.
The second one is the new skillset system. Unlike the previous one where you only gain new abilities through the skill trees by leveling up, Ori and the Will of the Wisps features a shard-system, where you will unlock new skill upgrades by placing shard in certain slots. This new skill system is more flexible than the previous title, but it's more difficult since you'll have to explore more for the shards.
Aside from the new story and new enemies, the last and the most noticeable one is the enhanced combat system. Ori can only perform a kind of soul strike in the first title, but from what he has experienced, he can do a whole bunch of new tricks. They include a whip to pull Ori to a certain place or pull something out - most useful for exploring and platforming. For combats, Ori now has several more abilities, including a light sword and a light-arrow-shooting bow.
Those new features will make his journey even more attracting, as well as bringing new experience for enthusiastic gamers.
Release date and supported platforms
With this delay, Ori and the Will of the Wisps will come out on March 11, 2020, instead of February 11. I don't have any problems with that, especially regarding Moon Studio's statement that it's necessary for "the best gameplay experience possible."
At launch, the game will support PC and Xbox One, and you can already pre-order the game via Steam now at the price of $29.99.