Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition

Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition brought to PlayStation 4 in 2019 one of the most beautiful 2D storytelling experiences of its generation. The story of the orphan Ori, who tries to save the dying forest of Nibel, is told with almost no dialogue — only through movement, music, and hand-painted backgrounds that feel like living illustrations from a storybook. In terms of gameplay it's a metroidvania built on precise platforming: the player gradually acquires new abilities (double jump, dash, gliding) that unlock previously inaccessible parts of the map, elegantly linking world exploration with the player's growing dexterity. Enemies and the environment are often lethal to the touch, so the game works both as a calm walk through a landscape and as an uncompromising test of reflexes during escape sequences.

The Definitive Edition added new areas, tougher boss fights, a supplementary map, and faster travel between key points compared to the original release, fine-tuning the game's overall pacing and removing unnecessary padding from the first release. On PS4 the title ran smoothly, and the musical score by Gareth Coker was among the most praised on the entire console — orchestral pieces manage to switch within seconds from calm melancholy to the tension of life-threatening escapes from natural disasters, where a single wrong jump means death. The hand-painted backgrounds with layered parallax remain among the most visually rich the 2D platformer genre has ever offered.

Ori and the Blind Forest is now considered one of the defining titles of the metroidvania genre alongside Hollow Knight, and is often cited as an example of how powerful storytelling can be without a single written word. Despite its fairytale aesthetic, it's a game that can be mercilessly demanding, and it's precisely this combination of beauty and frustrating precision that made and still makes it an experience players remember long after finishing it. The success of the Definitive Edition also paved the way for the sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

Why play it: For fans of metroidvanias alongside Hollow Knight who appreciate storytelling without a single written word - a fairytale aesthetic hiding a mercilessly demanding game whose combination of beauty and precision is remembered long after finishing it.