Ori and the Will of the Wisps Wiki – Everything You Need To Know About The Game

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a platforming action adventure metroidvania title developed by Moon Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. 

Development

Ori and the Will of the Wisps serves as an exclusive to the 2015 title Ori and the Blind Forest. The game was first officially unveiled by Microsoft at their E3 2017 press event. 

Another trailer of the game was show off a year later, at E3 2018, where it was revealed that the game would release in 2019. Another year later, at Microsoft’s 2019 E3 press event, one more trailer was shown off for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, with the confirmation that it had been delayed by a few months to February 11, 2020. 

A few months later in December at The Game Awards, another trailer for the game was shown, which announced a final delay for its release, which was now confirmed as March 11, 2020. 

It was also confirmed in August of 2017 that Milton Guasti, developer of the fan-remake metroidvania project called Another Metroid 2 Remake (which was cancelled following a cease and desist from Nintendo), had joined Moon Studios and was working on Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, and will support 4K UHD resolution on the Xbox One X. The game also makes use of a new physics-based lighting engine to give greater depth and detail to its environments. Like all Xbox Game Studios-published games, it will simultaneously launch on Xbox Game Pass on the day of its release.

Story

Developers Moon Studios haven’t revealed much about the story of Ori and the Will of the Wisps, but have promised an emotional narrative experience. It’s been confirmed that the game will take players beyond the boundaries of the Nibel forest, which was the setting of the first game, as players unravel the truth about the lost ones, and unravels the mysteries surrounding Ori’s destiny.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an action platformer metroidvania title. However, the game makes several improvements over the first game, most notable in combat. Ori can now equip various different kinds of weapons and special abilities, and player can assign three of them to the face buttons. Weapons and items that can be used in combat include a fast-swinging Spirit Sword, a slow but strong hammer, a bow for ranged combat, a spirit bomb, or a slow and powerful (again) projectile weapon, also for ranged combat. Abilities, meanwhile, can provide non-offensive advantages, such as a healing ability. 

The developers have cited Diablo as an influence for this system, and wanted players to be able to tailor their playstyle in different ways like in that game. The developers also wanted to encourage replayability in the game, so that players would be thinking about and would experiment with their build on each mplaythrough.

Another game that Moon Studios have cited as an influence in terms of the changes they’ve made to combat is Dark Souls. This does not have as much to do with difficulty as it does with how enemies and their design in Ori and the Will of the Wisps will now require players to read their patterns and attacks and deal strikes to their weak points. 

Ori and the Will of the Wisps adds depth to its combat and progression in other ways as well, such as introducing a shards system similar to the one seen in Hollow Knight. Players can find shards scattered throughout the game’s world, and can equip four shards in total. These shards can provide various unique advantages, such as providing a compass that always points to the player’s next goal, or giving players a triple jump ability, or increasing weapon damage at the cost of lower defense.

Various improvement have also been made to the movement and traversal mechanics in Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Moves from the first game return, while new ones are also added, such as a grappling hook that allows Ori to swing through environments. Ori also has a new burrow ability that lets players dive through sand and reach new areas through it. 

Jumping back out of the sand after diving into it also provides players with a boosted jump, giving access to higher areas. This move can also be used in combat. Every move in Ori and the Will of the Wisps – whether related to combat or to traversal – is upgradable as well, and each offers various different kinds of possible upgrades. 

Unlike its predecessor, Ori and the Will of the Wisps have plenty of non-player characters (NPCs) throughout the game. Players can interact with these NPCs to make purchases from them, while some of them can even hand Ori optional side quests. The developers have also made the game more forgiving than Blind Forest. They have done so by providing players with more options in progression and greater freedom to explore, so that if players should ever get stuck, they would explore other areas, gain new skills and abilities, and then return to have a better chance at progressing forward.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps also has asynchronous multiplayer. That comes in the form of Spirit trials, which players can find scattered throughout the game’s world. These trials are time trials that see players racing through a specific course, using Ori’s abilities and skills to get through the course as quickly as possible. Players’ data is uploaded to the cloud, and players can thus also compete with each others’ “ghosts” to beat their best times.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.