Why You Should Be a Bit Disappointed With Ori and the Blind Forest

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Why You Should Be a Bit Disappointed With Ori and the Blind Forest

Ori and the Blind Forest has been getting very good user reviews on Steam, and that makes Yahtzee disappointed in you.

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[snave]

I feel like I must've been the only player who wasn't emotionally hit by the opening. I simply assumed with prior knowledge of all the acclaim that the game had heaped on it for its story that there was a catch. I was pretty convinced that Naru was an evil creature showing its sensitive side or Ori some sort of unwilling elemental embodiment of nastiness. By the time I realised it was just a benign plot setup, I was already at the tree.

 

[Thanatos2k]

I think Yahztee is going to have to eventually accept that people LIKE the "indie game formula" he decries.

 

[SKBPinkie]

"Why you should like..."

I genuinely thought people were past this garbage. It's kind of a shitty / arrogant way to title your argument and it's something that I've only seen Kotaku / Polygon doing.

Also, you're "disappointed" in people? Boo hoo. You're actually emotionally affected by people liking a game? Congrats, that's a new low.

OT: This might sound weird, but hear me out - "innovation" or "uniqueness" is severely overrated by the gaming press. To the point where they don't seem to care much for the implementation / polish of good mechanics and only seem to care about games that they can talk about, something that generates conversation.

"Unique" games help them do this, while games that "follow the formula" don't, even if they're really good games in terms of how they handle, how they "feel" (that nebulous term when talking about action games), and how good the overall game design is.

I swear it feels like people in the gaming press actually like talking about games than they do playing them. It's why I stopped paying attention to reviews at some point, and just watch a playthrough for an hour or so to make a buying decision.

 

[hawk533]

To all those nitpicking the title of the article, read the url on the article. The original title is "Ori-and-the-Blind-Forest-Is-More-Style-Over-Substance". It gets edited by someone else after Yahtzee finishes it.

 

[And Man]

To all those nitpicking the title of the article, read the url on the article. The original title is "Ori-and-the-Blind-Forest-Is-More-Style-Over-Substance". It gets edited by someone else after Yahtzee finishes it.

I've always wondered why there was a different title in the URL for most content

 

[sid]

To all those nitpicking the title of the article, read the url on the article. The original title is "Ori-and-the-Blind-Forest-Is-More-Style-Over-Substance". It gets edited by someone else after Yahtzee finishes it.

Ew, you're right, that's horrible.

You know, this is kind of interesting. Changing something as simple as the title from an objective and uncompromising summary to something more akin to buzzfeed-level clickbait changed the whole perspective of the article for the reader, and if the first few comments are anything to go from, really changed the intended message.

 

[Zakarath]

Personally, I loved it for the feel of the gameplay, its great OST, and yes, its aesthetics & style. True, the story and themes didn't rate significantly above passable, but they weren't where my focus was, anyway.

Also, who are you to say I'm wrong to love me some sweet animations and particle effects? I'm a 3D artist. It's kind of my thing.

 

[flying_whimsy]

Heh, so many people getting pissed off at yahtzee's blunt opinion. Isn't that what drew most of us to this site to begin with?

I'm also getting tired of the child versus the big evil world, mainly because once you've played one game like this, you've played most of them. The aesthetics can make all the difference, though; which I think is why so many people like the game. Also, given how few people apparently finish the games they play, it wouldn't surprise me if most of them didn't get to that ending and were instead just feeling the emotional pull from the opening.

I had some more to say relating bad coming of age setups with the typical 'through the looking glass' stories, but it doesn't fit this discussion very well.

 

[theuprising]

I feel like I must've been the only player who wasn't emotionally hit by the opening. I simply assumed with prior knowledge of all the acclaim that the game had heaped on it for its story that there was a catch. I was pretty convinced that Naru was an evil creature showing its sensitive side or Ori some sort of unwilling elemental embodiment of nastiness. By the time I realised it was just a benign plot setup, I was already at the tree.

I think you should place a cross on your forehead and chant "The Lord Jesus commands you spawn of Satan to BEGONE!"

 

[theuprising]

I liked Ori, don't tell me I SHOULDn't you pessimist who finds no joy in anything but the most amazing games ever.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yahtzee, I think you're the guy that ties The Escapist together. I love ZP and Extra Punctuation, I even follow your Let's Drown Out channel (more than you do, at this point). And because I do I know by heart your policy about NOT checking out user feedback, because you like being The One Aloof Man Outside Society that you usually mock (and also because commentators are usually an insignificant portion of actual viewers/readers anyway). But here's my bit of thinking to the annals of internet pages: nobody likes being told what they should and shouldn't like.

Even if it's just a phrasing thing, don't start an article with HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD DO THIS or HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULDN'T LIKE THAT. Even if someone agrees with the hypothesis of the article, you're still coming across as telling people what to think (shaming them otherwise) rather than offering your own educated insight on the matter. And that's on par with third-rate blogging pundits like Movie Bob. You're way better than that, man.

 

[Artemicion]

If you play a metroidvania game for the story and not the gameplay, you have only yourself to blame when you're inevitably disappointed.

 

[Monoclebear]

Pretty much my excact thoughts on the game, and there is no doubt that art is absolutly beatifull but its story is kinda meh.

As a side note, if the titles of these articles are actually edited do you really need to make such dumb clickbait titles?

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I think Yahztee is going to have to eventually accept that people LIKE the "indie game formula" he decries.

He's not saying that it's a bad formula, he's saying it's an overdone formula. He even said that he could have gotten on board with it for this game if they went beyond just using the formula.

I haven't played the game, but despite the criticism I still kind of want to. Call it shallow, but the visuals look absolutely amazing, and I can drudge through an otherwise mediocre games for those

 

[Silent Protagonist]

I am not sure I agree with the style over substance allegation. This is something my opinion has changed on over the years, but I would argue that art and animations in a game can be very substantial. Visuals and art style can evoke an incredible amount of emotion and tell you so much about the world and the tone of a piece in a way a wall of text or bit of dialogue likely never could. The art style of a game has a massive impact on what Yahtzee seems to regard as one of, if not the most important aspects of a game, namely the story.

The indie formula is, more broadly, not "large headed child in big scary world" but taking a very simple and easy to code mechanic, and pushing it to its limit to deliver a very emotional piece of fiction. Whether they do this through writing or visuals or whatever, it is a matter of using games to make the non "gamey" elements of their design to shine through in a way many would not regard as possible. Yahtzee's much loved "Papers Please" is an excellent example of this, using very simple mechanics but evoking incredible emotions regarding the morality of your actions through the little bits of dialogue and the grim context of the game itself.

I would speculate that Yahtzee's issue with the game is not style over substance, but what he regarded as a lazy, poorly written, and cheap ending that erased much of the emotion weight of the story.

 

[Charli]

Pft, I don't deny that the aesthetic of this game is everything to me. And I Don't care. It was masterfully laid over a competent platformer.

And sometimes, that's enough in a world of clunky animations in 3D shooters and First person adventures. Something that connects together so neatly and seamlessly as you play as to feel like a dream.

 

[Covarr]

Every time I see an innocent kid out of their league like this, it reminds me of Telltale's The Walking Dead (season one, I haven't played season two yet). Now there's a game that had problems left and right, but it got something right that other games, this included, tend to mess up: real, complex characters. I don't mind shallow characters in games, but in something story-driven like this, the characters need to be developed enough that any emotions you feel while playing are for the actual character, not for the role that character fills.

Ultimately, the problem with this game is the same as the problem with those "inspiring" videos that get shared on facebook every ten minutes: we're being told to care about events, about what happens to someone, but hardly given a person to care about. You can tell me that a person on their deathbead with cancer got a ton of support and love and maybe a touching letter from their family, but without knowing who that person is, what makes them unique, it ends up feeling saccharine.

If you wanna write cookie-cutter stories as a frame for gameplay, whatever. Do it. But if you really want to make me feel something, I'd really appreciate it if you gave me a developed character to relate to or empathize with, not just a scenario.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Obbi]

First off, shame on the editor or whoever's in charge of headlines. You know better.

Secondly, this is a Nintendo argument. People are gonna like what they're gonna like. The only difference here is while Nintendo games stay in their own garden, indie games like this are the result of almost crowdsourced focus testing. It's derivative, but competent.

Though this reads juuust a bit of "I have concerns that these types of games are going to keep showing up. This might shove more noteworthy titles out of the spotlight, and cause many to miss them." I don't think that's ever going to be the case.