ꜱᴘᴀʀᴋ Posted June 4, 2020 Share Posted June 4, 2020 GAME INFORMATION Platform: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One Developer: Moon Studios GmbH Publisher: Xbox Game Studios Release Date: 27 April, 2016 Price: CURRENTLY OFF ( 75% ) $2.04 USD GENERAL The forest of Nibel is dying. After a powerful storm sets a series of devastating events in motion, Ori must journey to find courage and confront a dark nemesis to save the forest of Nibel. “Ori and the Blind Forest” tells the tale of a young orphan destined for heroics, through a visually stunning Action-Platformer crafted by Moon Studios. Featuring hand-painted artwork, meticulously animated character performance, a fully orchestrated score and dozens of new features in the Definitive Edition, “Ori and the Blind Forest” explores a deeply emotional story about love and sacrifice, and the hope that exists in us all. The Definitive Edition also comes with new multiple difficulty levels. In additional to the "Normal" difficulty of the original game, players wanting to focus on the story and world can now use an "Easy" setting to tone down the challenge of the some of the game's more difficult sections. On the other hand, those wanting more of a challenge can use the new "Hard" mode and self-explanatory "One-Life" mode. The "One-Life" mode will feature an online leaderboard ranking that uses the end game statistics to compare players against each other. To make backtracking to previous areas easier in comparison to the original Ori and the Blind Forest, the Definitive Edition now has a Fast Travel system. Players can now warp instantly between any of the Spirit Wells that they have saved at, allowing for easily transportation between areas to find missed items and secrets. An expanded Theater Mode is also included. Not only can players view all of the cutscenes, but also see early concept material from the game, trailers, and other bonuses from early in the game's development. NEW IN THE DEFINITIVE EDITION • Packed with new and additional content: New areas, new secrets, new abilities, more story sequences, multiple difficulty modes, full backtracking support and much more! • Discover Naru’s past in two brand new environments. • Master two powerful new abilities – Dash and Light Burst. • Find new secret areas and explore Nibel faster by teleporting between Spirit Wells. DEVELOPMENT Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition is a re-released and enhanced version of Ori and the Blind Forest. Initially revealed by Moon Studios during Gamescom 2015, the game was set to be released during the holiday period of 2015 until the studio decided to delay it into the next year. It was then set to be released on March 11th 2016 for Xbox One, while the Windows 10 and Steam versions had been delayed to April 27th 2016. Ori and the Blind Forest was developed by Moon Studios, a worldwide collaboration of designers and programmers who have been working on the game four years before it was released, with Microsoft acquiring the game about a year after development started. One of the lead team members is Thomas Mahler, an artist formerly working with Blizzard Entertainment. According to Microsoft producer Daniel Smith, Moon Studios is not located in any one location, but instead staffers are working from around the world, including Austria, Australia, Israel and the United States. Gameplay programmer David Clark described the team as being inspired by current and classic adventure games, notably the Rayman and Metroid franchises, and that Ori is intended as a "love letter" to those games. The designers say they were guided by works such as The Lion King and The Iron Giant and that it is a "coming-of-age story". The designers were heavily influenced by the work of Hayao Miyazaki, particularly with one of the levels "Valley of the Wind", being a nod to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The art style is meant to appear hand-drawn, similar to the more recent Rayman titles that utilize Ubisoft's UbiArt graphics engine; the game instead uses the Unity engine. The game takes place in one large map, rendered at 1080p and 60 frames per second with no visible loading time as the player explores. According to Mahler, the game's backgrounds are all individual components, with none duplicated as in other similar titles. The game was unveiled at E3 2014 during Microsoft's pre-show press conference at the Galen Center; E3 was the first time a number of Moon Studios employees actually met face-to-face. Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi, in charge of marketing for Xbox One, stated that they considered opening the conference with Ori, but instead chose Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. During E3, attendees waited in long lines to play a demo version of the game, often waiting in queues 7-8 people deep for each of the four consoles featuring the game. Sometime after E3, Moon Studios announced on the game website that an Xbox 360 version of Ori and the Blind Forest was in development and planned for release sometime in early 2015. In November 2014, Moon Studios updated the status of the game and announced plans to push back the launch of the title into "early 2015" for Xbox One and PC, but no further mention of the Xbox 360 version was made at the time. Asked to clarify the status of the Xbox 360 edition, Moon Studios confirmed it was still in development and would be released later in 2015. As of January 2018, there has been no further announcement on the status of the Xbox 360 release, and has been considered cancelled. A "Definitive Edition" was announced at Gamescom 2015. The expansion contains new areas, mechanics, and artwork. Specifically, it adds in an "easy", "hard", and "One Life" difficulty levels, and enables fast-travel between spirit wells to help traverse the game's world. This version was released on March 11, 2016 for Xbox One, on the one-year anniversary of the game, while the Windows version was released shortly afterwards on April 27, 2016. Those who have already purchased the original game are able to upgrade to the Definitive Edition. In May 2016, Nordic Games announced that they had partnered with Moon Studios and Microsoft to release a retail version of The Definitive Edition for Microsoft Windows. It was released on June 14, 2016. GAMEPLAY Ori and the Blind Forest is a 2D platform game. 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 (which gives Ori an ability point automatically). Each skill must be bought in sequential order from one of three ability trees to allow the next skill to be accessible. The Definitive Edition features all the same areas and story as the original Ori and the Blind Forest but with some unique additions. The largest of these are a pair of brand new areas called the Black Root Burrows and the Lost Grove. Designed to be an expansion of the game's lore, the Burrows prominently focus on the past of Naru. Executive Producer Mark Coates states that players will: "...discover her roots, where she came from, and you learn a bit more about her as a character and why maybe she is compelled to do some of the things that she does later on in the game. It’s all interwoven with the already-existing story.” The Black Root Burrows and Lost Grove allow Ori to gain new abilities. One of them is Dash, an ability that lets Ori gain a quick burst of speed in the direction they are facing with a tap of RB. This can later be upgraded in the Ability Tree to be used in the air and also as an attack. Those who venture further in will also gain Light Burst, a skill that is described as essentially a grenade. Triggered by pressing LB, tapping the button will cause Ori to throw grenades at the nearest enemies whilst holding it down will allow them to aim the shot. Both the Black Root Burrows and Lost Grove will be accessible early on the game's story so that players can then utilize these new skills in the rest of the game. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ( RECOMMENDED ) OS: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Core i5 2300 or AMD FX6120 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 550 Ti or Radeon HD 6770 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 11 GB available space OFFICIAL YT TRAILER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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