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dreadnoughtus · 1 year ago

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Liveblogging after taking an edible and watching

game awards

I don't know what these games are

Oh wait assassins creed VR??

Got distracted my friend texted me.

The dress is kinda flapper ish you know not in a bad way it's fine

What did Forza just win

Oh that's cool good for them I don't drive cars

The height differences......

This would freak me out being on live TV I would hate it ohmygod

Wait huh hometlstuck

This is such strange vibes

Sign language is so sick tho

Why isn't there a general neutral version of mommy and daddy

Oh here come the names I don't know

I'm playing Sandrock while I watch this

Would it be weird if your kid immediately called you by your name like would that fuck them up or

Was told to use beepbo

Alright I'm back

Jk gusher break

BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY

I'm fucking clappiny

Ok but this game fucks

This is about persona 3 btw

I'm absolutely freaking out over her writing

Wait is it a bit

Who

She's in a silly goofy mood

Omg

Oh never mind I wanted more burning things in a fireplace game

Cool if you're into goo.

I'm a googetter myself

?????????

Omg remember this

Ok but I'm hype

HORNS

I'm gay

Hell yea hell yea

Remember when Rocco was sitting all by himself on camera

Guys I really don't hope someone says some dumb shit on stage again

Geoffs walking out music is cracking me up

Get you a mans who sends you two chairs and a table through the mail

Omg remember his speech last year lmao

Oh it's a bit

Damn

What is this lol

Is this a roast

My fucking boyfriendddd

Idris where you at

Idris you're missing the fanciest night in gaming

Our boyfriend won!!!

.....what is he wearing lmaoooo

Security BEEFY this year

Aww omg

He wore his armor I'm dead

I need to replay baldurs gate NOW

That's right baldurs gate!!!! You can fuck a bear!!!!

Geoff relax

Huh lol

Immediate fanservice

...I'm dying

Turned him on??????

Is he gonna fuck us????

Interstellar?????

This isn't interstellar

Damn bro

Wet Chair :/

Daddy's back

Oh free dayum ok

Geoff has the air of a man who presents this as if he himself made these games

Goose guy 2

Wait this is great

This is my kind of game

I love this

Fuck gta6 I got Big Walk

HUH

Is this fornite Lego????

What the huh

Took a break for ice cream

I just got the news Wonka will be presenting

They give them less speech time than on the Oscars

Oh wait this is the cool lady

FINALLY GONZO

Gonzo has good taste

Cocoon was good

Ok Sega ok!!!!!

Hold up anime game I'm awake

Oh nice ok I'm into it

Alan Wake sweep

Apparently the site you have to login into to get a steam deck for whatever is crashing crazy lol whoopsie

I liked venba!!

Wtf

His boy

I'm scared that's just a video

Not the fog machine

His broach is wild

I'm so glad kojima is finally making the movie he wanted to make

Is this wrestling

Huh

This is a WILD collaboration

They have my support

Movies and games!!!!

Ohhh dinosaurs?? I'm too scared to play this

Everything is fortnite now we are all assimilating into fortnite

Monkey 👍👍👍

I cannot escape suicide squad

Nooooot a fan of the remix

NICE CLAWS

Where do I aquire claws

What is Warframe sorry

Acab

Good games!! I loved tchia

This looks sick, ori vibes

So many cool looking games

Man with ponytail?????

THIS IS EVERYTHING TO ME

I want to play rebirth so bad

SHUT UP STOP lol huh?????

Sea of stars was meh sorry I said it

Omg I forgot about hades 2

Cutting to ads from ads is so funny

Holy shit he almost killed the camera guy with one kick

Anthony Mackey doing crowd work lmao

Fortnight

He's zooted

Thank you for the meme s

Thanks for the memeorys

Steve Martin looks different

There's 3 genshins now

Hell yeah democrazy

Are these guys a big deal I just don't know

I feel like I need to have played Alan Wake I guess

BOOGIE DOWN WHITE BOY

Ok but they are shredding

Ok I'm ready for bed how much longer

Stop flirting on stage

Gamer snax

We get it you're a voice actor 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Ok wait the armor??? Ok nice

It's funny tho cause the last thing I liveblogged was last of us, good show

BAGGU REPRESENT

The PR glowup for no man's sky was impressive no doubt

No mans sky 2!

We're always talking about mountains

Dragons so I'm in

Can I be a wolf man

Badass title

Stretching this is what I'm always saying unironically to everyone

I love tonberry king

Omgggg monhun!!! Chocobo

Huh what modded controller???

He flutin

Gotyyyy let's goo lol

Bg3 🫡🫡🫡

I sleep 😴

I'm not reading this back

#goty #game of the year awards

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ifbench · 2 years ago

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So recently, I've been playing Ori and the Blind Forest, and I just finished the game today!

I've been liveblogging my experience of it with a few friends on Discord, and ended up writing almost 3400 words with my overall thoughts on the game.

Felt like a waste to just leave it all there, so I'm posting it here as per their suggestion!

Warning: Major spoilers for Ori and the Blind Forest below the cut!

(For context, I used to have an intense fear of lava, though I've mostly moved past it, and I feel extremely uncomfortable with post-apocalypse stuff, though I'm trying to increase my tolerance to it.)

General Stuff First of all, was not expecting this to be a metroidvania when I first started, but I was very pleasantly surprised! Only other metroidvania I remember playing was Metroid Dread, and I had a lot of fun with that one too, so it's nice to be playing more of the genre. Was also not expecting this to be post-apocalyptic, albeit a localized one. Was significantly less pleasantly surprised by that. To be honest, I was considering dropping it when I made it to the first ancestral tree and found out that almost everyone died, but I figured, I already made the thread, I already bought the games, I'm interested to see if it has a happy ending, I don't want to disappoint [Friends who watched me liveblog], and I'm trying to build up my tolerance to this sort of stuff, so I pressed on. Absolutely worth it.

Controls The gameplay was really slippery to start with, but as I got more and more used to it and got more abilities it became more fluid, versatile, and fun. Though I still occasionally had trouble with the controls, particularly with places where enemies were in areas I had to climb, and places where I had to bash, move around, and glide/climb/dash all in tandem. The keys for saving, throwing light orbs, climbing/gliding, and dashing are all on the left side of my keyboard. The keys for movement, jumping, stomping, and superjumping are on the right side of my keyboard. And I need to use the mouse for attacking and bashing. I do not have three hands. I think this game was designed for members of Ori's species, because it feels like it needs two hands on the keyboard and a tail on the mouse to play most effectively. Often I was wildly juggling the left keys, right keys, and mouse in order to make progress. Like, there's this one area in Mount Horu where it seems like it expects you to bash, move left and right, and glide in order to take out all the enemies and open a door. It was painful. For both me and Ori. I also often accidentally used the charge dash when I didn't mean to, especially after I learned the climbing skill. Other than that, the controls are pretty nice!

Skills The basic wall jump is very easy to get down and it's super fun to just leap up solid walls. The charge flame…I honestly didn't use much expect to break stuff with it. The basic spirit flame was a very unique combat tool! A mid-range homing attack as my main offense was very interesting and fun, and it was nice not really having to worry about aiming with it. The dash was super fun to use, especially once I acquired the air dash upgrade. I used the air dash a lot, and probably sequence broke with it a ton. Got a lot of collectibles with it that I'm pretty sure I was supposed to need glide or bash or such to get. The double jump is, well, a double jump. It's not too special or unique, though I loved the puzzles with it in the Ginso Tree. The triple jump was super useful when I had to juggle. Helped keep me in the air longer when I needed to attack in midair and such. The bash ability was my favorite skill in the game. So much fun to use, and so versatile! Being able to use enemy projectiles as an extra jump, as well as being able to redirect them at the same time, and being able to use that to counterattack? It's a smorgasbord of potential, and it's utilized excellently. I love the puzzles with it, and its tutorial in the Ginso Tree was amazing. A few puzzles to get you situated with it and its uses, before putting you to the test with it in the escape sequence. Master it, or die. Tangentially related, the light burst was really fun, too! An aimable projectile that can be used for both combat and puzzles. I honestly didn't use it for combat much, only in situations where enemies were too far away for the spirit flame and things weren't hectic, but I liked the puzzles with it! I also used it in conjunction with the bash a lot. I actually figured out you could bash off of them on my own, long before I got to the tutorial explaining that you could. Like the air dash, I'm almost certain that I sequence broke with it a ton. Tossing a light burst directly upwards and then bashing off of it was essentially a charge jump before I had the charge jump, and with it I made it to many, many areas I'm pretty sure were supposed to be accessed via the charge jump.

Taking a small break from the main skills that show up on the pause screen, swimming was surprisingly great! At first, I thought that I constantly took damage when swimming in any water, and that I needed the water breathing upgrade to access underwater collectibles without draining my health. Then I restored the element of waters, and nope! It said clean water for a reason! The swimming was super fluid, though it did often require me to pretend like I'm Ori IRL in order to juggle the spacebar, arrow keys, and mouse in order to fast swim and attack at the same time. Other than that, though, my only nitpick with it was the air meter was a bit anxiety inducing, but that goes away with the water breathing upgrade. Stomp was simplistic, but nice. Aside from breaking certain floors, it was a fun alternate way of attacking enemies, and a neat way of traveling downwards fast. Ground pounds are almost always fun in games.

Kuro's Feather was a skill that I got far more use out of than I expected. With the double jump, air dash, and bash in my grasp, it felt pretty useless, since it seemed like I could already go pretty much any horizontal distance. But no, it still had a ton of use other than that. For one, it's great at staying in midair. No more frantically jumping against a wall as I try to attack enemies, I can just hold shift and attack as I gently glide down. And it lets me double dip on bashing, too, letting me bash of a projectile, stay in midair while I wait for another one to be fired, and then bash again. And then the element of winds was restored, and updrafts appeared everywhere, turning it into essentially flight in certain areas. Climb was similar. I thought it was essentially useless at first, since I could jump up walls already. I thought it might have its uses in letting me climb up curved walls, but it doesn't do that, you can't climb up stuff that's too far past 90 degrees. I thought it was just for the flipswitch-style puzzles in the misty woods, where mushrooms appeared and disappeared when you jumped. But no, it still had its uses. For one, it further decreased the hecticness of attacking in midair. If there was a wall nearby, I could cling to it and attack from there. And beyond that, it made climbing up tricky walls a breeze. I didn't have to frantically jump against walls trying to adjust myself for making the perfect leap to the next section of wall, now I could calmly and precisely adjust my position, before making a controlled leap. And the last of the main skills, the charge jump. Well. I already cleaned out most of the map prior to it with air dash and light burst + bash, so it didn't see too much use aside from Sorrow Pass and breaking walls and ceilings that absolutely required it. At least until Mount Horu. Mount Horu used it excellently, requiring me to time it well with the hot floors, as well as the precision leaps that needed the wall charge jump. But then again, Mount Horu used all the skills excellently, even bringing back the wall jump with the hot walls, requiring me to jump up them instead of clinging to them lest I get burned. Now for the ability tree!

Ability Tree I juggled the purple and blue upgrade paths pretty evenly for a while with the occasional purchase on the red path, until I unlocked air dash on the blue path. Then I focused on the purple path until its completion, then the blue path, then the red path. I'd say the purple and blue paths rank about equally in terms of utility, with the red path a bit behind. Purple has a lot of useful stuff, I made significant use of every single thing on there. The spirit magnet and ultra spirit magnet made collecting pickups much easier, and I didn't have to go out of my way to pick them up. The life and energy efficiency upgrades were a lifesaver, making it much easier for me to stay alive and making it easier for me to save more often. And the map upgrades and hidden area vision were extremely useful in collecting everything. The blue path is a bit more varied in usefulness. Rekindle was a lifesaver, air dash allowed me to sequence break a ton, water breath reduced anxiety quite a bit, triple jump extended my airtime even further, and ultra defense pretty much doubled my health. Slightly less useful, but still very useful were the abilities that made me regain health when creating a soul link, and the one that made soul links only cost half an energy point. Essentially allowing me to save twice as often, as well as giving me the ability to passively regain health even with no pickups around. Significantly less useful were charge flame efficiency and charge dash. I pretty much never used the charge flame aside from when it was required, so all it really did was make me able to save slightly more often. Useful, sure, but not very. Charge dash…was pretty much an active detriment. After obtaining it, I constantly used it accidentally, wasting an energy point every time. And it's the only skill in the game to always use full energy points instead of half ones. I did eventually use it a few times purposefully in Mount Horu, particularly in the final escape sequence when I was in a rush, but for most of the game it was just a sap on my energy. Averaging it out, though, I'd say the blue tree's about equal to the purple one. Some extremely useful skills, some regularly useful skills, and a few barely useful skills compared to consistently quite useful skills.

The red tree isn't bad, the other two trees just dwarf it significantly, at least for my playstyle. Charge flame burn, ultra light burst, ultra stomp, and charge flame blast were pretty much null upgrades, since I almost solely used the spirit flame and later bash for combat with the occasional stomp and light burst. Quick flame, rapid flame, spark flame, cinder flame, and ultra split flame help you deal lots of damage very quickly, and split flame and ultra split flame let you attack lots of enemies at once. They do make combat so much more less hectic by decreasing the time it takes, but compared to the other two amazing trees, it's just "good". I do wish there was one final upgrade for after you completed all three main paths. At the end of the game, I had 5 ability points left over, and I feel like there should be some final upgrade for 4 points or something. What would it be? I have no idea. Maybe some sort of endure skill that lets you survive instakills with one half a health point. Seems like it'd be useful for that one-life mode I saw (which I don't think I'm ever going to touch). But that's just a very minor nitpick. Overall, I really like the ability tree! It's super fun and rewarding to try to get all the upgrades, and with you being able to find collectibles on the map that increase your spirit light by a large amount, with some even giving you a whole point, it was a great incentive to explore more. Oh, almost forgot! The purple path also had the spirit efficiency upgrade, which increases the rate you can get upgrades. I think that edges the purple path out against the blue path just a little bit, since it lets you climb the rest of the ability tree faster. Next up, map areas!

Map Areas The Sunken Glades were a nice beginning area. Not much to say about them, but they're neat, and I like that you can explore the area in the final opening cutscene, the one where a heartbroken Ori is limping along. Though I do kinda wish you could go back and explore the prologue areas, though I don't know where they'd fit on the map. Hollow Grove is another pretty simple area, though I consider finding the spirit tree the point where the tutorial ends, and you're mostly left to your own devices. The part where you need to figure out that the frog enemies can break the breakable ground is a great example of that, it's not taught to you directly at all, but it's not hard to figure out by accident or on purpose. But you need to figure it out on your own.

Thornfelt Swamp I consider to have two parts, the part before you enter the Ginso Tree, and the part after the Ginso Tree. The initial part was nice, for the most part. At the very beginning, there was a jump I needed to make up to a wall in order to climb up to the area with the Ginso Tree, and it was precise enough that I was convinced that I needed another upgrade to get there, leading to me starting Black Root Burrows (which I'll talk about soon) and obtaining Sprint before I managed to get the timing down for the jump. Other than that, though, part 1 was fun, introducing me to the enemies that pop out of the ground and lob gravity-affected projectiles at you. My favorite part was the area where you had to break rocks to free more of those enemies to break more rocks and free more of those enemies until one was close enough to break the wall blocking the next area. Part 2 was the swimming and stomp tutorial. It was also mostly nice, though like part 1 I got stuck on one bit of it for quite a while. You actually saw me talk about that part, where I had to use charge flame to break a ceiling that I thought was a stomp floor. It wasn't very intuitive, unfortunately. Moon Grotto was fun! The super long fall made me think, "alright, this is my first 'dungeon'". There's no going back until you clear it. It introduces the double jump, and puts it to pretty good use. It's also the first area I got over 90% explored, exploring that much on my first pass through! The Ginso Tree was fantastic! It probably deserves the dungeon title more than Moon Grotto, being a linear gauntlet that tests your skills. Like I said earlier, it has really fun double jump puzzles, and both teaches and forces you to master bash. And I don't think I'll forget that escape sequence, especially the beginning, seeing the little popup in the corner of the "Run for your Life" achievement, hearing the music get intense, then noticing the rising water and having the realization that I need to flee. Valley of the Wind is an area that…I don't have much to say about. There's two major exceptions, though:

The part where you reach the big open chasm and see Koru at the other side struck fear into my heart, and it was satisfying dropping a rock on her.

The stealth part in the ice area where you needed to hide from Koru. It was super intimidating and fun, didn't overstay its welcome, and prepared you for parts of the final sequence at the end of the game.

Misty Woods was really cool! It was like a lost woods sort of thing, and I love how the layout kept changing whenever you backtracked, really made me feel like the forest was playing tricks on me. I tackled Black Root Burrows in three parts, so I'll seperate it into three parts: Dark, Laser, and Seaside. Dark Black Root Burrows was easily my least favorite area of the game. The darkness made things extremely laggy, I moved very slowly while holding the light orb, and I had to wait for the moving platforms, making it a slog to traverse. Laser Black Root Burrows was interesting! I actually at first thought it was an area I wasn't supposed to be in here yet, and I needed some future skill to deal with the lasers, but I kept trying, persevered, and got light burst for my troubles, which I immediately proceeded to use to sequence break to all sorts of collectibles. Seaside Black Root Burrows is probably my favorite area of the game atmosphere-wise. It feels so serene and peaceful, and aside from the very top of Sorrow Pass, it's the only area with a clear blue sky. It felt like an area of respite, an area where things were ok. I wish there was more to the Forlorn Ruins. I absolutely loved the gravity-bending mechanic of it, and it made lugging around a light sphere actually super fun, compared to Dark Black Root Burrows. But it ended way too soon. I wanted more, I wanted to see what kinds of wacky gravity puzzles they could throw at me! Sorrow Pass was neat! I don't have too much to say about it, but its usage of the newfound wind was really fun, and the part where I had to bash off of falling rocks in order to climb around an overhanging cliff was quite memorable.

And finally, Mount Horu. I'm scared of lava. Not nearly as much as I used to be, but still somewhat. It was a really nerve-wracking area, but also a really fun one! Like I said, it tests you on all of your skills (the required ones, at least. No sprint or light burst puzzles, unfortunately), and you need to have all of them mastered to make it through the 9-room gauntlet it presents you with. And then there's the final escape, where it's just a mad dash away from Koru, trying desperately to make it to the spirit tree while avoiding her wrath, all in one go. It was an amazing final challenge to an amazing game. And with that, I think I've talked about all the gameplay aspects! Now, to finish things off, I'll talk about the story.

Story, Impact, and Final Thoughts It was a simplistic story, but a lovely one. A story of grief, love, and hope. Like I said, I was not happy when I realized this game was localized post-apocalyptic. But I pressed on, hoping to at least have fun. As I progressed father and farther in the story, my attachment to Ori grew, as well as the forest of Nibel. I wanted to see Ori succeed, I wanted to see Nibel saved. And it happened, through time, perseverance, and determination. It felt earned. I think it actually helped me up my tolerance to post-apocalypse a bit, and that's why I decided to get Hollow Knight, to try to continue on that path, after I finish Ori 2. I like that there's no true evil in the story. Koru just wanted to protect her last chick, and even gave her own life up in the end to save the forest. And I'm happy that Naru isn't dead, and that Gumo didn't die, and that at the end we have a found family. Overall, while it has some issues both major and minor, I can safely say that I love this game a lot, I'm really happy I played it, and I very much look forward to playing Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I still don't know why it's called the Blind Forest, though.

#ori #ori and the blind forest #long post #rambling

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