Ori and the Will of the Wisps’ bosses are tough. So tough, I’d gotten so good at fighting friendly ‘Guardian of the Marsh’ turned corrupted murder-toad, Kwolok, and died so many times, that I earned the associated achievement for speed-running his encounter the first time I licked his froggy face.
That’s not to say that Wisps is frustrating. On the contrary, it’s a ‘if you die it’s your fault game’. I was to blame for every death.
Like each Metroidvania before it, you begin Wisps controlling a laughably underpowered character and end it feeling like a god. At the outset, Ori can scarcely muster a double jump. Ten hours later, you’ll be chaining triple jumps, wall grabs, grapples, bashes, dashes, burrowing, swimming, gliding and 360-degree ‘launches’ without touching the ground and wondering how you ever coped without them.
Executing all of this feels incredible. Ori is lithe and nimble and flows across the screen in graceful arcs, but, can also turn on a dime; pausing in mid-air and launching in a straight line in any direction. It’s exceptionally responsive and immensely satisfying and, while the skills above may seem a lot to learn, Moon Studios award them a perfect pace, so you never feel overwhelmed.
In addition to permanent abilities, Ori can collect Spirit Shards; upgrades you can turn on and off at any time. These range from the scarcely noticeable to the game-changing. The Lifeforce Shard, for example, merely raises damage dealt by 10% when above half-life. In contrast, the Triple Jump Shard, adds, you guessed it, a third jump to Ori’s repertoire, allowing you to reach inaccessible areas far earlier than had you chosen not to utilise it.
Struggling with a platforming section? Switch on the Sticky Shard to stick to and climb on walls. Troubled by a tricky fight? Turn on the Life Harvest Shard to seize more life orbs from your vanquished foes. It’s a fascinating system, allowing you to change the difficulty and mechanics available to you in both traversal and combat at any time.
My favourite Shards are Splinter and Quickshot. Both augment Ori’s new ‘Spirit Arc’ ability, a ranged attack allowing Ori to fire a single arrow in any direction. Splinter and Quickshot alter it by splitting the arrow into multiple arrows and allowing you to fire 25% faster respectively. These upgrades feel like collecting a power-up in a ‘shoot ’em up’ like Darius or R-Type – widening and accelerating your shots – and dramatically alter the character of combat.
You can upgrade Shards by trading Spirit Light (Wisp’s lowest level collectable) in the game’s central hub, Wellspring Glades. A pleasant autumnal haven you can develop by trading Gorlek Ore (another collectable) with the ‘Goron-Esque’ Grom the Builder. I relish the chance to build-out towns in action games – Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s Monteriggioni, for example, is excellent – and Moon Studios put the mechanic to good use with each upgrade granting access to more collectables and shortcuts.
Without spoiling anything, the ending of Wisps is definitive. While there is always some wriggle room for the series to return, it appears Moon Studios will not lead it. They’re reportedly moving on to an Action RPG and, based on the polish manifest in Wisps, I cannot wait to see what they produce.
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