Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Will of the Wisps built on the success of the first game with a substantially larger and more elaborate world, new gameplay mechanics, and a more emotional, more mature story. After the hatching of the owl chick Ku, Ori sets out on a journey to the lost forest of Niwen to save the dying tree of life, with the main threat being the disfigured owl Shriek, whose own tragic fate lends the story an unusual degree of empathy even for its antagonist. The narrative again unfolds almost entirely without words, through gestures, glances, and music alone, and yet manages to be even more striking than in the first game.

Moon Studios expanded the combat system with a genuine arsenal of weapons such as a sword, a bow, and a hammer, pushing the game closer to the action genre and away from its predecessor's purely contemplative platforming. The world is considerably more open, with side quests, merchants, a gradually built-up little village, and an upgrade system using shards that the player freely equips according to their playstyle. A new automatic save system replaced Sein's manual activation, making demanding passages accessible to a broader audience without losing tension, and full-fledged boss fights were also added, something the first game lacked entirely.

Visually, it is one of the most aesthetically accomplished titles of the generation, with picturesque biomes ranging from flooded caves to desert dunes, and with striking escape sequences in which the whole screen turns into a chase on the edge of the player's reflexes. Once again, they are accompanied by a gripping orchestral soundtrack by Gareth Coker, who manages to move from quiet melancholy to a full orchestra within a single scene. The game launched simultaneously on Xbox One and PC as part of Xbox Game Pass, reaching a record number of players right at release, though it was initially plagued by performance issues that the developers gradually fixed. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is considered one of the high points of the metroidvania genre for the entire decade.