Ori and the Will of the Wisps Review (workaholic)
I will go ahead and say that this: Ori 2 (Ori and the Will of the Wisps) is a great game.
Not finished with it yet, but it has my vote. With that said, listen lol.
I love Hollow Knight, even played through it twice. This game, to me, is extremely reminiscent of it. Online there are some posts where people got pretty aggressive saying it was a clone or plagiarized or something like that, look, there are obvious similarities, but this has more of a positive vibe to it, and does have some carry-over from the first game. Now I don't think it was plagiarized / meant to have this many similarities on purpose, but they definitely do exist. Really, play HK first and then Ori 2 and you'll see.
HK similarities - oh yes, I'm going there ;) :
* There is some kind of corruption that has spread, making friendlies become aggressive / insane
* There is a mapmaker that you can find in each zone of the map, which sells you maps. In HK this is also true, although imo better-executed.
* There are mosquito-like bugs which dart directly at you, which take multiple strikes to defeat. I realize other games have this, just another similarity
* There are slow-moving explosive flying enemies
* There are fast-moving explosive enemies which fall from the ceiling
* There are creatures which explode after a bit when defeated
* Your main weapon is a long, white blade. In Ori 2 you don't need to use it, but it is clearly intended to be your main weapon.
* There is a downward main weapon strike which bounces you off of enemies, though in Ori 2 it only works the first time while in the air for some reason
* There is a bash-the-ground mechanic which can break breakable floors
* There are a number of townspeople / NPCs which make verbal noises, maybe even words in another language. This was not the case in Ori 1 - only your guide ever spoke.
* There is a double-jump mechanic (triple-jump in Ori 2 as well if you can pay for it). Again, no, not unique to HK. There is also a continuous wall-jump mechanic.
* There is a dash / dash-mid-air mechanic
* There is a lantern / light mechanic, used in a spider's dark lair level, with spiders crawling down the screen in the foreground at times
* You collect money from enemies defeated. Ori 1 did not have this mechanic. The same thing by name was used as experience points where you could purchase abilities in an ability tree, which I liked better
* And other similarities with spoilers that I'm too lazy to format correctly
Just saying, it's not one or two similarities, so I see where people are going with that. But also of note is that things changed so dramatically from the gameplay mechanics of the first game, it tends to raise an eyebrow a bit more.
I honestly liked the first game better, and imo, Ori should have been able to keep at least some of his skills when you start this game, it just seems a bit monotonous to have to find basic skills all over a again. I realize this is also the case with other metroidvania-style sequels.
But really, Ori 2 is a great game by itself, a really solid platformer, of course the artistic style matches the first game, with some good changes. It has its challenges. Music is really great, character development is ok. One of those titles which is difficult for me to put down :D