I headed toward the Misty Woods. I like the sequence where Kuro is blocking the way, prompting you to find a way above her to scare her off with rocks. When I first encountered the scene, it smelled of "plot flag barring you from progress until you go do stuff elsewhere," and it kind of is, except it's a problem you can solve immediately. And it's a neat way of getting you Kuro's Feather! I've always really liked gliding abilities in platformers. It tends to be more satisfying to me than flying, because you're still dealing with the limitations of gravity, but have such expanded mobility. Also, I forgot to mention that we see Ori pulling the same gliding maneuver with a leaf for about a second in the intro!
Anyway, the scope and scale of the Valley of the Wind is impressive, making gliding across it a very dramatic moment, even if it's quite straightforward.
The Misty Woods is Ori at its most Zelda. It's an interesting little area, not really giving you many side paths or options, but instead testing your newly found mobility by providing very cramped, hazardous environments. It's artistically really neat, with its wavy visuals, mist, ever-shifting landscape, distorting features, and the bright white flowers contrasting against the dark environment.
I really never gave the Stomp enough credit in prior playthroughs. Now that it's upgraded to Ultra Stomp, it can wreck enemies even with a bit of distance, dissipate projectiles, and hits with some very satisfying feedback. It reduces just about any enemy at this point to about a quarter health at best, and stuns them, so they're easy picking for zapping. Combat is definitely better than I had remembered.
It's possible to clear out the Misty Woods before "solving" it, but I missed one collectible, so it was fun trekking through it afterward. It even gets a nice, more upbeat musical remix (foreshadowing Will of the Wisps as you recover each of the wisp fragments?). I like that it emphasizes how even things/places associated with darkness aren't necessarily evil or sinister, a recurring motif throughout the series.
The only major power-up here is the Wall Cling, which for the most part is a convenience rather than a massive upgrade. It is very helpful for dealing with the platforming obstacles unique to the Woods, however, and I know it's needed to get the most out of a later upgrade.
Next it was down to visit the Forlorn Ruins. I don't think I ever really visited or paid attention to the very bottom of the main Valley of the Wind room. There are no Energy/Life/Ability Cells down there, so I may have just skipped by it. It's rather mundane at a glance, but I really love how it captures the detail of "the foot of a mountain." There's the bottom of a waterfall, logs scattered across the water, and trees growing at odd angles. It's not the same kind of spectacle found elsewhere in the game, but it was very reminiscent of when I hiked around Yosemite a couple of years ago. It just felt very well realized.
The transition to the Forlorn Ruins is understated, but well done. You have some increasingly challenging scenarios where you have to redirect the green rolling enemies to smash barriers, and meanwhile, you start seeing increasing evidence of artificial structures as you descend.
I know that things like altering gravity is not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's well done in the Ruins. I enjoy it because you can resume normal gravity/controls at any time, and you're given freedom in how you determine it's best to proceed. There's a lot you can do without messing with the gravity at all, and sometimes timely switching is rewarded. It's a great test and reward of spatial awareness.
I also really like the glimpses of Gumo's own journey, especially as he witnesses Ori and Sein displaying selflessness when they think no one is watching, and his acknowledgment of the dead members of his kind.
I mostly like the second escape sequence, but it's a bit frustrating. The previous sequence encouraged rushing as quickly as possible, and this one is similar, with instant death waiting if you don't advance quickly enough. But there are a few points where you have to stall or retreat, and that's not immediately intuitive (and downright contrary to what the sequences encourage). However, once you learn the mechanics, you learn you have a lot more flexibility than you may initially think. You see, when you use Kuro's feather in an updraft, you gain altitude, but you move rather slowly. It's fast enough to get through this sequence...if you know what to do. But what players may not immediately realize is that gaining altitude with the feather, even for a moment, "refreshes" all of your airborne capabilities (double/triple jump and air dash). Simply slowing your descent with the feather does NOT do this, and at a glance, it may not seem important, because if there's an updraft, you can reach anywhere with the feather that you could with extra jumps/dashes. But the jumps and dashes are much faster than floating and gliding with the feather, so you can navigate this section with a lot more speed and agility once you realize this is how the game works. And once you know that, it's cool. You don't get a new ability during the entirety of the Ruins, so the introduction of updrafts to many of the game's rooms is as close as it gets.
You end up landing on Kuro's Nest, which is also the site of the most heartbreaking cutscene of the game. This one's hard for me to watch, honestly.
Like the gravity-screwing of the Ruins, I can understand the stealth sequence to escape Kuro getting under some gamers' skins. But it's not really a stealth sequence...just a platforming sequence where you have a time limit on stretches of it.
For my first couple playthroughs, I thought I was locked out of the Ruins after this sequence, stupidly not realizing that there's a warp point inside. This time, I also realized you can just smash the boulder that closes it off.
This stretch isn't QUITE as strong as the Ginso Tree/Black Root Burrows in my mind, but it's still a lot of fun.
www.destructoid.com
Godhome, does NOT count as an actual death. However, dying in the White Palace or to the Radiance DOES result in a Game Over.
