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S2 Ep77: Ori and the Blind Forest
70 Plays6 years ago
Full Spoilers: Ori and the Blind Forest
Join Dave and Jake as they are immersed in the beautiful synthesis of musical, visual, and mechanical art that is Ori and the Blind Forest!
Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
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Join Dave and Jake as they are immersed in the beautiful synthesis of musical, visual, and mechanical art that is Ori and the Blind Forest!
Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
https://www.facebook.com/SoapstonePodcast/
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Transcript
00:00:26
Speaker
you
00:01:06
Speaker
How's it going, everyone?
Introduction of Hosts
00:01:07
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake, I'm Jordan, but my co-host is always Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? I forgot what my response is going to be for this. As he started talking, I was like, it's coming. It happens. Yeah, it's it's basically 100% just set in stone, like rote recitation at this point.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yeah, and thankfully my part isn't a default response for that. I need my own wrote statement I have the easy part because my part is set in stone yours is the part that like you're like Oh, no introspection. How do I actually feel and all these other things? Yeah, it's like playing Othello and you're white. You only have one move It's mirrored on all sides, but I'm playing as black. Do I go for that first inner corner? I don't know. I also don't know cuz I assume this is chess
00:01:53
Speaker
No, it's all fellow
Board Games Discussion
00:01:55
Speaker
You have like is that a musician? It might be it sounds like it would be It's also a William Shakespeare play. I could say said Shakespearean play. I don't know why I need to mention bill, right? Well, it's less pretentious since you didn't say Shakespearean. I
00:02:14
Speaker
Anyway, it's like these black and white tiles around the same size as like a checker, but it's white on one side, black on the other. So anytime you encapsulate somebody else's colors between yours, you flip everything in between.
00:02:29
Speaker
Hmm. Oh wait, I think I've actually, I know of this game. I don't think I've ever heard it called Othello. Maybe I just never got the title for it. It has another name. I forget what it is. Cause this is one of those like basic games that not to say it's a basic game. It's one of those old as fuck. It comes like the pack of like eight board games type of thing. Yeah. And it's like programmed into everything. You're just like, Oh yeah, put a dot here. The one that I had was lines in particular, but I think the, the function is basically the same. Can't remember the name of it though.
00:03:00
Speaker
Well, I know there's also like the Asian version, which is like go. I mean, that's, it's a different game, but there's go and they go and look who or something. There's a lot of surrounding your opponent's, uh, pieces and end games as it turns out. Yeah. And that's what we're talking about. Oldest fuck board games. Remember backgammon.
00:03:19
Speaker
Yeah, actually, we had a backgammon. I guess everybody did a freaking backgammon case that was like a suitcase that folded up and had all the pieces in there. Yeah, like those little pegs. Yeah, it looked like it was it should have been like a gambling game or something like that with like the board.
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, my favorite part is like after you unfold it because it's only like just fold it in the middle Yeah, and it was made of like hardwood you slide out the little metal tab in the back to be like this is where I've hidden all the pieces Yeah, I was like, yeah, what up? I'm just imagining you like show up to a business meeting. You're like, well, here we go time for my notes You just open your back and you're like dang it That's not what we're talking about though
00:04:01
Speaker
What are we talking about?
Ori and the Blind Forest Overview
00:04:03
Speaker
Ori. Additionally, the blind forest. I will close my eyes for this whole podcast. Prove me wrong. Listen, it'll be the forest. I'll be Ori.
00:04:15
Speaker
I'm lost. All right. So Ori's been out for a good bit at this point. Like four, seven bits, roughly. Seven years? I have no idea. I was actually using bits. I'm not sure when this came out. It's been a while though, cause it's been in steam for me for a very long time.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yes. But this is a solid as fuck game. I remember when it first came out X amount of time ago. Yeah. The graphics for everything are super pretty. The gameplay is very smooth, which is always appreciated in a platformer. And then it also had like an interesting story, good music. It was just knocking everything out of the park.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah. And even like going back and replaying it, it still holds up and I feel that way entirely. I agree with all of Dave's points. As always, you guys can. No, no. I, uh, so sometimes we play games and I'm like, ah, I don't know if I'll really, you know, like this or not. I have like a little bit of interest, but I'm uncertain. Like there are times I take jumps to replay a game for, uh, the podcast and Ori like caught my attention very quickly.
00:05:25
Speaker
I'm actually really surprised because I tried to, or I played through it a bit a long time ago, and I only got like a few hours in or so. Got to like the Gintso tree or something like that. I got to the Misty Woods, that's what it was. And then for one reason or another I stopped playing. I assumed like Fallout came out or something like that. One of the good ones.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah, you could make an argument on that point but coming back to it i'm surprised that I ever stopped because It's hard to put down. Yeah, um Everything is just super smooth and it starts out. I actually re-watched the trailer. It's not the trailer the opening cinematic Yeah, where it's like I am the tree. This is Ori. Yeah and um
00:06:14
Speaker
Think you're initially like a you're some spawn of the tree, right? You're a feather or a leaf Basically that when you when it actually hits the ground turns into Ori. Yeah. Yeah, and then you get adopted by like this big fat Sweet a wholehearted thing. Yeah, Nauru is the the big bear looking thing. Yeah, which I immediately felt like oh Nauru is love. Gotcha. Oh
00:06:40
Speaker
Oh, I mean from Zelda. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I don't know if that's actually supposed to be a reference or not, but I'm like, gotcha. Naru is love. I assume everything is a reference to other games. Yeah. Even if it's not game related, I'm like, oh, nice. Nice homage to Street Fighter. Cool. Yeah. But you have the opening cinematic of Naru adopts Ori and they're going through like the woods and just like collecting fruit from trees. Yeah. They're just eating, you know, having a good time. Yeah. There's Eden hanging out. Build a bridge.
00:07:09
Speaker
Yeah, all the music is very cheery and upbeat and you have the over-the-top light through the trees effects where things kind of glowing Yeah, and you feel at peace and everything is nice and good and If you've played fable, you know, it can't end that way doing your beginner quests in your little town for your getting your sister a birthday present
00:07:33
Speaker
I'll be right back. No, it's fine. I'll be right back. Just blinks. They're dead. She survives. She goes blind, though.
00:07:43
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. Jake and I logged on as a gave up for that for our audio listeners. So we've got references to Legend of Zelda, legends references to Fable at this point. There's a lot going on. Yeah, it's a I don't oftentimes get into side scrollers or platformers, but Ori has just such good feel. And the other thing is feels like that it taps into kind of
00:08:13
Speaker
I want to call it primal happiness basically, but the idea of Ori and Naru, Ori's growing up and Naru's taking care of him, her, it, and whatever Ori is.
Narrative and Art Style of Ori
00:08:27
Speaker
The plural of Ori. Ori is a plural term.
00:08:31
Speaker
This singular is actually all right But It's it's just it really draws you in and part of that is like how like you mentioned the music how happy it is and the art style and like how flowing artistic like a Painting of happiness is basically what the start of the game looks like to me. I
00:08:54
Speaker
And the whole opening cinematic section, because it starts out good, and then you just start running out of fruit, and then you're both kind of like starving, and you think Naru is dead. So you guys are already like, you're like, fuck. So you go out to explore to find food or something else. But the whole opening bit reminded me of Up.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah, because there's oh, yeah, there's like no dialogue happening past like a point It's just like these very short clips, but you kind of walk through their life and you understand their relationship Yeah, and you're like I feel for them and then one of them dies and you're like, no Yeah, Naru gives Ori like her last piece of or his her it last piece of fruit to like there's just one piece left in that like cave house hovel
00:09:45
Speaker
And she's like, nope, nope, feed Ori and Ori's just like, are you sure? And they're like, no, no, I'm fine. Lays out even like taps their belly. Like I'm so full. You're just fat. Filthy liar. But the narrative kind of goes into like a deep coma because.
00:10:04
Speaker
No, no calories to power that thing. Yeah. So Ori sets out on a grand quest as all grand quests set out to find food. Do you want to make a wall? It's, it's, it's really cool too. Cause like Ori does find food in one of the trees climbs, climbs a tree that Naru was unable to climb. Um,
00:10:27
Speaker
Nauru is very fat if I emphasize this. This is the defining characteristic of Nauru, protective, parenting, fat in reverse order. But yeah, Ori brings the food back, but it's too late for Nauru. So it's like,
00:10:48
Speaker
They, they act like animals kind of, but like Disney animals, almost like in a way, like Bambi or something like that. Where it's like, are you okay, mom? Like that's, that's a hundred percent what this is. Bambi references to Dan. Yeah, I know. This, uh, it's a, it's a masterpiece of pop culture references. Um, or, or he also like falls asleep on Naru's like stomach, like feel like, Oh, be okay.
Ori's Game Mechanics
00:11:14
Speaker
And that is actually a Lion King reference. That's true, yeah. My gosh. I'm just gonna keep pulling out random movies. This is a very derivative product. It's a Disney game is all I'm saying. Just can't wait to be king. But yeah, Ori goes out and starts their quest. I think they find Stein pretty early, which is obviously referenced at Stein's Gate.
00:11:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah, sign. Okay, which is obviously a reference to science. No, this is this is the Legend of Zelda Navi reference. Yeah, same voice and everything really.
00:11:53
Speaker
But sign just like a little ball of light that follows you around, but this is how you attack throughout the game. Yeah. Just kind of match the X button and little sparks kind of fly out. Yeah. So it allows you to do your platforming stuff and also just kind of match the X button while you're going along, which is weird, but nice. Yeah. Because there are some times where I was kind of like.
00:12:14
Speaker
treating those two separate actions because some of the frogs would shoot a projectile and I'm like, I have to jump over the projectile. And then I would jump and be like, all right, attack. So I didn't always do it as well as I could have in tandem, but it's a nice option. I think like, um, sign, it also seemed to very, I started out with mouse and keyboard because I'm crazy, I guess.
00:12:35
Speaker
Dude, why? I know. And then I switched over to controller. But mouse and keyboard gets more range on attacks because if you have some control over sign, like the direction. So if you move to like one side, they'll attack from a greater distance in that direction.
00:12:51
Speaker
really interesting not worth it because It kind of screws up all of your other controls that grow increasingly complicated as you go through the game But they're really cool. They're only one of two people that talk in the entire game to sign is the the eyes and will of the great tree and The only other person who talks is the great tree of themselves who like is narrating the story and
00:13:18
Speaker
but doesn't even speak in English. Fucking if you're in America, come on, man. What do you mean they don't speak in English? Like the voiceover whenever you're. Well, all of the voiceover is kind of like in the same way in Animal Crossing. Yeah. No, I was saying the great tree. Do we play the same version of this game? Because my great tree was definitely talking in English.
00:13:39
Speaker
So mine had like captions underneath where it was like, here's what they are saying, but they were making kind of vague sounds like, as you would imagine, like an Easter head Island statue kind of talking. Huh.
00:13:55
Speaker
Actually, you might be correct. You might be correct. Maybe my brain just interpreted that as just read it as English. Did we play the same game? Yeah, I think so. Same deal with sign. Talking in Simlish while everything's being translated to English in your text box. Or whatever language you play the game in, I presume. It would be kind of an oversight. There's actually no other language support. Sorry, guys.
00:14:18
Speaker
But yeah, you're free as Ori to go out and explore the world, which is really nice because the game has a really consistent map system. I don't know what the keyboard button was, but it's select for me on controller to bring up your kind of like overhead map, like shows where Ori is. You can pan to literally anywhere else in the game that you've explored.
00:14:43
Speaker
Like metroidvania in that way where all parts of the world connect there's not Loading sections where you go into a different part of the map. It's just one giant map. Yeah, sometimes it'd be like hey you got to go over here you're like
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah. It's actually crazy that they pull it all off with no loading. Technically even the teleports, which you can, you can find like teleport locations, which heal you, allow you to save and teleport to another location on the map. I forgot about that this time around. Cause I walked and ran and dashed everywhere. Totally forgot about that shit. Yeah. I mean, most of the time it doesn't save you all of that much time because of another super cool thing about Ori, which is as you're making progress.
00:15:27
Speaker
The world changes and Ori gains new abilities that speed up all of your traversal. Yes, 100% true.
00:15:38
Speaker
Cause I know you can get a third jump at a point, not to like passively just leveling. Yeah. The other thing is like, it's cool. You can kind of choose which things you build into a little bit. Yeah. Certain things are gated by you need a prerequisite, but I always went tack first to help deal with enemies along the way. And then they had other utility things like, Hey, we'll indicate on your map. Here's a point you can get health. Yeah. Here's XP. Here's a hidden area as you go along. But being able to like kind of run and jump up walls, I think is one of the first ones.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think I don't know if you get that from the tree or not you probably do because that ability comes in really early But a lot of times you'll you'll also get abilities when you like awaken the spirit trees Which are basically like Ori's brothers and sisters that have died essentially and grown into trees and
00:16:29
Speaker
I was like, oh, it was like, oh, yeah. Because like a sign names them basically called them by name. When you talk about talk about them, they're just like, oh, this one's really resilient. And she would always she would climb every mountain and things like that. And you're like, great, new ability. Suck that in. But it really diminishes that your siblings life experience when you find the other one just allows you to walk up walls entirely. You don't have to keep mashing the jump button.
00:16:57
Speaker
Yeah, Ori basically has turned into the Hyper Soldier sibling, Super Soldier sibling by the end of the game. It's kind of like the...
00:17:07
Speaker
Highlander yes tree children you're quickening off of every Child's death hmm, but I like it's kind of dark The wall run the charged jump yeah the charge explosion to break through walls My favorite though, and I think they always whenever they introduce a new mechanic. They have good utilization of it throughout the level Yeah, feel like hey remember that part you couldn't get to go back there and have some fun. Mm-hmm My favorite one though is the dash
00:17:38
Speaker
Okay. So for any like enemies or projectiles, you can press Y. Yeah. It kind of freezes time and you can angle things and you will go in one direction and the enemy or projectile will go in the other direction. Yeah. So sometimes you need to specifically line it up to kind of ricochet a projectile in a certain way to have it break something to open up. Yeah. Like a wall or something. Yeah.
00:17:59
Speaker
Or you're just mad dashing through stuff. Yeah. Um, like I like later in the game where it's just like, Hey, we have all these birds lined up and you can't fly at this point. Yeah. But what you going to do? And it's like, I'm going to dash through all of them and it feels so cool. And it really quickens the gameplay too.
00:18:17
Speaker
It is the most powerful ability in the game by far because it's offensive, it's defensive. Enemy projectiles do way more damage. When you return them. Yeah, when you return them. It's just so freaking good. And like you were mentioning, like most areas have you use, like most puzzle type games or platformers are like, you got a new thing?
00:18:39
Speaker
Here, use it in this area. And like, uh, that ability, the dash or the bash or whatever it's called, like, uh, is used nonstop through the entire game. Every escape sequence that exists. You're using that like crazy. How do you feel about the escape sequences? They're really, they're really interesting. I actually like have mixed thoughts on some of them. Cause like the first one, so like Gensotri.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, it starts to flood and the whole thing is rising, so you need to keep staying outside of the water level and waiting for things to dash up to get the next height. Ori is restoring the elements and you're just like, great, water's flowing and then you die because you don't anticipate that it's going to just kill you. I think most people died the first time, at least. Yeah.
00:19:30
Speaker
It that one's like really I think that one's cool and it's also fair because you see where all of your you're like bash points of contact are to jump off of and keep climbing and The first time I played the game I got past that point because I got to the misty forest or misty woods But I struggled a lot and again so tree and this time like I cleared it much quicker like I don't know if it's just
00:19:57
Speaker
My brain honed in on the previous experience. I think it is a little bit like riding a bike Yes, some of that muscle memory and also just more experience in playing platformers or other comparable games But I felt the same way because remember the first time I did it I was bashing my head against the wall and I was like, yeah It's one of those I came back to it. I was like I was having that much trouble. Mm-hmm, but this time around I think it was I
Escape Sequences and Challenges
00:20:20
Speaker
Maybe like five attempts. Yeah. And the first four attempts, I like died at like the second or like the very last portion. Yeah. I suppose I got past that. I was done. I was like, really? That's where I fucked up right at the end. Yeah. The, uh, the different areas are, are really cool. Kind of leading up to the escape sequence. They all have some sort of mechanic or puzzle.
00:20:40
Speaker
Like the tree, the Ginso tree has left, right teleporting walls. So you can move for like portals. Yeah, the portals. Yeah. From like a wraparound screen, like Pac-Man or something like that. I don't know why I went to Pac-Man. There's definitely more relevant. Not joust, Pac-Man. Right. Yeah.
00:21:02
Speaker
But yeah, no, it's, it's super cool. And the music's awesome when you're escaping to the escape music. Like I'm going to recommend the soundtrack for this game right now. We'll probably do that more than the episode, but the escape music's great. It's, it's freaking awesome. Um, and it feels good when you finally complete it. Cause you're just like, I just mastered that ability. That's necessary to get through here. Um, and then I die at the next section. Spikes. Oh.
00:21:29
Speaker
That is actually, if I had, if I were to name gripes with the game and maybe it's too early, but, uh, there's very few it's, it's not even necessarily on the game. It's my personal way. I play games, but man, did I forget to save at some key points and I don't know. Now there were times where.
00:21:53
Speaker
You could probably take a couple of hits and it's easy to get health back throughout a lot of points. Like maybe there's like a little health node, maybe kill an enemy or something that'll drop health. Yeah. Cool. But as you're going through, you're like, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm good. And then you die.
00:22:09
Speaker
All right, I'm just back to, you're like, oh, that far, huh? Yeah. So I would go through certain sections like three times and I'd be like, okay, we're doing incremental saves. Yeah. Which is just, you have to have, there's health and there's energy. Right. You need to have enough energy to save, which again, you can get from nodes or crystals and stuff.
00:22:30
Speaker
And there also is a bit of like a recharge times. You can't like save every two seconds. Right. Um, you also can't save in like unsafe territory, right? If you're right next to a boss or you're on uneven ground, like a hanging platform, but beyond that, yeah, they kind of like in a way.
00:22:48
Speaker
They had to be really judicious in their game design strategy to like put crystals at good locations. And I'm sure there's a few points where they sort of missed it. Thankfully, they are pretty good at putting the occasional one energy point crystal around the map to make it more tolerable. But I could see if you were like bad at platformers in general.
00:23:10
Speaker
how a system where it takes your resources to save and Then once you're out of that resource, you can no longer save that could get frustrating Say like you're at a really difficult area where you have to make it through in one pass But you're out of energy entirely. There's no crystals ahead of you I say this as a theoretical example because I was literally in it like and I
00:23:35
Speaker
What would have been the the second? dungeon area I Can't remember the name of it, but describe what it looks like it's it's all of the the machines that kill you unless you have the light orb For the the Gumen Gumen oh
00:23:54
Speaker
The ice one? Yeah, the ice one. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I can remember the name of it, but that one Because I really like I ran out of energy and I was had to complete this this one sequence I was like man if I could get one save point I'd be so so happy I started to get really upset and I was just like talking Jenny and I was like I
00:24:14
Speaker
All right, this is one thing I'm holding against the game is like they don't give me any Resources when like I really need to save and then there was like a crystal red head news Like I just stopped mid sentence sentence. I was like, okay. All right fine I'll take that point back, but If you're worse than me it would be really bad Cuz I don't think you're bad either cuz remember when we were playing Celeste I was like I beat this boss. You're like cool. It's like how long it take you to beat that boss? You're like
00:24:42
Speaker
I don't know, like my third try, and I was like, fuck you, Jake. Yeah. But I really like the- It depends on the day. Sometimes it's really bad. I really liked the ice dungeon. Oh, yeah. Because the mechanic there is you have to pick up a ball of light. Yeah. Because a lot of the sections are covered in lava. But if you have the ball of light, it turns to ice, and you can also essentially walk up walls. Yeah. Or whatever you're touching, you can walk around that like you're stuck to it.
00:25:12
Speaker
Any of their machinery is like gravity is relative. Yeah. When you have the ball of light. Yeah. So there's some nice fun directional gravity platforming for like, Oh, I'm going to jump off this and the fall to the right. Exactly. And stuff like that. So it really shakes up in a nice way.
00:25:27
Speaker
I think the defining part of that dungeon was the first time I got to one of the squares where you can walk around it if you have the ball of light. And I was like, I have absolutely no idea what they want me to do here. I can walk around, I can jump to my death, whatever.
00:25:43
Speaker
And then there's this aha moment where you're like wait gravity is relative to the surface I'm on this and then you jump off of the right side Facing to the right of the screen and fall to the left side to the next platform and you're like, oh Yeah, gotcha
00:26:02
Speaker
Those three are really good when they don't cram it down your throat for like, you go here, you go here now. Yeah. It's nice if it's like breadcrumbs where you kind of like look and you play around and you try something and then you have that discovery. As I've said for all games, it's nice to like let people figure it out. Yeah. But it shouldn't be.
00:26:25
Speaker
super complicated where it's like right hey did you not see that one highlighted pixel over there yeah you can go interact with that exactly you shouldn't be digging for secrets to figure out the main path forward it should be something where once you figure out the one mechanic you're like oh and then your mind just like explodes and you see you see the game for like
00:26:45
Speaker
What that I see you for who you right? Yeah, I was gonna say something super dramatic, but basically you see the the level differently Which is definitely the case in Ori like as you continue to get upgrades and things that is the level that I had That was the escape that I had the most gripes with though Because it's a memorization escape
00:27:06
Speaker
because you have like falling projectiles and other things but it's mainly the falling projectile because like this is a rock being destroyed like these giant boulders will fall down and you have to go in like these nooks yeah so you don't get crushed to death because it's a one-hit kill yeah so i like i that was the one i retried the most because like it's i was like okay well maybe if i like fast fall i can avoid the protect now okay i gotta go to like the left no that kills me all right i'll go to the right okay that's where i need to go then i've learned that segment and i can go to the next piece
00:27:36
Speaker
less of a fan of that and There is some intuition. I think like the last drop there is a nook off to the left so you can see it and be like ah Gotcha. It's like it juts in enough to be like I gotta fit in there and some other things have already fallen We're like, okay. I got this. Yeah, that makes sense. Mm-hmm
00:27:56
Speaker
I think, yeah, that was one I had the most kind of trouble with, but they're all, they're all cool. As it turns out, whatever Ori's doing, reclaiming the elements and stuff, it's very dangerous because completing the dungeon starts a runaway attempt. It's like you're playing a freaking descent.
00:28:17
Speaker
Like you set off the reactor you're like, yeah. Well, we got to go. Yeah People are gonna be like did the podcast cut out? There's like a 10-minute pause or 10-second pause Jake's mind works But yeah, they are they are really cool cool music to them it's kind of like to make a shitty analogy like going into somebody's home and Unlocking the element of gas and then leaving I feel dizzy
00:28:47
Speaker
The other really cool payoff to unlocking the elements is each one changes the world.
00:28:54
Speaker
Like, uh, when you finish ginsotri, you're like, oh, we've re established the element of water, whatever we've freed that. And then it rains. And then, um, all of this poison muck and like stuff that's toxic to Ori just becomes clean water. And you're like, Oh, that opens up like a bunch of the world and no longer is this area nearly as dangerous.
00:29:19
Speaker
like there's something just rewarding about going through an area that had a bunch of obstacles and Like hazards, but something that you've done has made it safer It's like sonic good future No, it's cool cuz you're also getting like all of these different options and mechanics and solutions problems on top of that Yeah as you're opening up things
00:29:46
Speaker
Or wind for the other wind Wind was actually really dope. Oh, yeah, because at a point we forgot to mention the other character. Uh, is it kuro? No, uh the bird. Yeah. Yeah, it's kuro. Yes. I got it Yeah, I should know that one's female. I knew that one. Yes So there's the character of kuro which is a giant fucking owl. Yeah, um, actually just an owl but yeah
00:30:10
Speaker
It's a it's a big owl Maybe you're very very small as Ori essentially she had like some outlets which are super cute. Yeah There's a catastrophic event that happens where they died. Yeah, so the owl is now like
00:30:28
Speaker
Fuck everybody. So it's like an antagonist throughout most of the game. And we'll kind of like block your path at certain points. But after an engagement with the owl, you get one of the feathers. So now you can glide everywhere. You drop a rock on the owl, I think.
00:30:45
Speaker
Because you use your power attack take you I like uh, I made it up there Not too bad because the camera pans and it's like this is the part where you have to jump from bird to bird to bird to get really high And then you just slam down on the rocks above its head. Yeah Okay
00:31:02
Speaker
Like all of that feels really good, but like the glide is awesome because Once you unlock wind and a lot of the world changes, there's kind of just like these heat vents of like wind going up Yeah, so sometimes you have to like go through things and like balance your height elevation aka I was just mashing the glide button. Yeah kind of hover stepping. Oh, yeah. Yeah, exactly Right. I did the same thing. Which is really fun. It looks kind of janky because of the animations but
00:31:28
Speaker
But it's effective when you're doing the ice escape and you're going up and they're like these uh Ice vents where it just shoots out like freezing air, which will damage you You can't like ascend the whole way. You have to sometimes slow your descent. You can either hold on to the wall or you can like Awkwardly in the air, which is cool. That's so good. Yeah
00:31:50
Speaker
No, the the feather feather was another upgrade that just changed the game. Like we talked about the bash feather plus bash gives you almost like unlimited or basically unlimited air time for later sections of the game. As long as there's an enemy that shoots projectiles, you're like, thank you for the infinite lift. I will be up there. It's it's freaking great. It feels really good every time you get an upgrade in that game because it just opened so much up. There's also the.
00:32:21
Speaker
I wanna say like the ground pound. Yeah, it's like stomp or something. Yeah, like so if you jump and you hold down, you just turn to a wall and like slam into the ground. Yeah. Sonic style. Uh-huh. But there's a point later in the game or after you've opened up some areas, it's like, hey, you've gone all the way up this tree and done this thing, you gotta go back down. Yeah. So you have like this kind of long core, this long column with some things in between, but you can kind of just jump down it and just go down the whole way.
00:32:47
Speaker
And it feels really good to be like, I did all this back to where I want to go. Yeah. There's actually a gif on steam on the community thing I saw where it's just like, uh, Ori like goes full anime or something where starts at the very top and then drops the entire distance down the tree to stomp at the bottom. Uh, it's, it's cool. I don't know. It's fun. Yeah.
00:33:12
Speaker
How do you feel about some of the other sections with Kuro where Kuro's very aggro and you have to... The hunt. Yeah, essentially not be out in the open and stay behind something. That was one of the other parts I had like one minor gripe with and it's just because I didn't...
00:33:27
Speaker
Felt like some points in the game things could be telegraphed a little bit more But there's one part where you're in this frozen area. I think the first time Kuro's hunting you So basically she's back there in the background also her eyes like glow. Yeah, like blue and it's like white blue and
00:33:45
Speaker
And then clearly evil. It's freaking awesome. Great character design. But you're behind a rock, and anytime you leave the rock, her animation changes. She sees you, starts to prepare to jump up, jumps up into the sky, and then one second later, she swoops through the screen and kills you. So you can only spend so much time out in the open. And the gripe I had is the solution is you had to stomp.
00:34:13
Speaker
through ice to get to like water beneath to hide from her or else you couldn't make it to the next section but i had no idea you could stomp through ice yeah uh there's no tell for it as far as there's actually a hole at the very end of it i saw the hole at the end because i made it i jumped there and i was like i did a quick stomp down uh but i didn't know you could actually break through the ice to do that really okay so what i was trying so i tried and failed but i was in the same boat
00:34:37
Speaker
You succeeded where I failed. You succeeded where I failed because I tried to make it to that hole in the ice and I kept dying instead of being able to get there. I didn't think to stomp through. I had them on my save file to not have a giant owl in it. Yeah, that works. They're cool sections though because it really makes Kuro an actual threat.
00:35:03
Speaker
Because you have to move quickly. You have to move from cover to cover. You might have to change terrain, block off Kuro's path. There's like two or three different chase sequences in the game or stealth sequences, I guess, where Kuro's trying to get you. Yeah. And like the game, the game makes it very obvious that Kuro's incredibly dangerous and she absolutely hates you.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah, they already, like, make her terrified by making her a giant owl with, like, glowing eyes. But also, there's a point where she's guarding... Before you drop the rocks on her head, she's guarding, like, this whole pass area. Yeah. And, like, they show, like, hey, giant bird, I thought you were cool. So you go out, you're like, so I'm gonna explore around here, and then immediately just... Just swoop. Use no towel. Yeah. You just hear...
00:35:51
Speaker
Gone. And you just get swiped and it's an instant kill. Yeah. And you're like, I respect the bird. Yeah. There's no messing with Kuro really for quite a bit of the game. Um, it's kind of like the spider from Lindo. Yeah. It's like, Hey, there's this thing. I'm meant to be afraid of it for a reason. Yeah. Have fun.
00:36:11
Speaker
The thing is, though, like we haven't really gotten too much into like the characters of the game. We talked a bit about Naru, but Kuro is one of the most interesting characters in the game, I think, because you mentioned like the outlets, the cute outlets all died. So cute. So cute. So cute. It's like it's a cut scene when this happens. But so the start of the game is a storm happens and
00:36:39
Speaker
Ori is blown away Falls to the ground and the spirit tree the originator of Ori and the all of the Ori's siblings, I guess sends out like this blue wave of light looking for Ori just like seeking but Kuro and her birds are basically darkness essentially
00:37:01
Speaker
like either they have an essence of darkness or the light itself is destructive i think based off their eyes they have some essence of darkness but that's my head cannon i don't know i want to say the light's destructive yeah light could be destructive it doesn't the outlets are innocent yes um they're definitely innocent in either case but uh
00:37:19
Speaker
Currow goes off leaves the nest and This wave of light that's searching for Ori is what kills the owlets She sees it like approaching her nest flies back, but it's too late. Yeah, and so she's left with just one egg But like her eyes are also normal at that point and then like when she like reaches her head down to like nuzzle her dead children Yeah, that's when her eyes changed like that blue white like the like the super saiyan eyes It is the super saiyan eyes
00:37:48
Speaker
And then she like swoops back towards the tree and then it starts attacking nearby. And you kind of see like the other Ori siblings, like mad, dashing away like, Oh, fuck. Yeah. There's there on the ground and she, she rips a sign out of the tree. And, uh, basically like silences the light essentially. Um, and yeah, so once you get that revelation, which is like midway through the game, maybe a little later, you're like, Oh,
00:38:16
Speaker
Oh, no. You know, maybe this is kind of on me. Are we the baddies? Are we the baddies? So are we the baddies moment for sure? Because you in a moment kind of.
00:38:25
Speaker
You understand the motivation. Exactly. Yeah. Um, and if there's anything that this game does really well, it's, it's basically that it's characters with only two people talking and those aren't the ones that get character development.
Character Development in Ori
00:38:39
Speaker
They have like a significant amount of revelations and character development. Um, the other was, uh, is it a gumo?
00:38:47
Speaker
gumo is like the weird lanky it's mike mike wazowski is what he is a taller mike wazowski yeah yeah he's an initial antagonist where he steals something and you essentially go after it and follow him in a couple of sequences it's the ball of light for the the ginsu tree yeah yeah um
00:39:10
Speaker
But at a point he keeps like running away from you and taking the ball. Yeah, he gets a trap there some rocks And then you go help him cuz you're the good person. Yeah, and he's like Hey, sorry about that. Here's this thing back pushes you the ball light. Yes, and it kind of like fucks off
00:39:28
Speaker
Throughout the rest of the game though, he's, um, he's helping out. Like he, he goes. And, um, after you complete the, the cold machine, you know, where you need the light, you can't remember the area, but, um, also his entire race is dead. He's the last of his kind. That was their home was that machine place. And the whole thing got frozen over. So everything's kind of like still there. It's like, Hey, um, your whole species is kind of frozen solid.
00:39:57
Speaker
All dead. He grabs the orb that Ori had kind of placed there to turn all the machinery on, the orb of light, and then escapes with it. Because I guess he doesn't know that it puts Ori in immediate danger. Yeah, that immediately triggers the like, hey, shit's exploding sequence as you run out of the ice dungeon.
00:40:16
Speaker
But he takes that back to Nauru and revives Nauru with that Orb of Light, which is his kind of like redemption arc, essentially. I don't know. It's really cool. There's actually no bad, other than like the straight up bad guys, the goons, the kind of guys you just fight in Ori. There's no bad characters.
00:40:40
Speaker
No, it's just like some Neutral mobs like some angry birds. Yeah jumper. There's like some slugs that are covered in spikes and everybody hates angry birds The movie got what it deserves to run tomatoes
00:40:56
Speaker
yeah it uh I don't know it it feels really good anytime that the characters really get some development there because it all comes together at the end right so um Ori is has freed pretty much all of the elements uh at this point but um Kuro catches Ori and the last it's like um
Emotional Climax and Resolution
00:41:20
Speaker
Uh, something of warmth, amount of warmth, whatever. The final dungeon. It's a giant fire lava mountain. Yeah. So you kind of like get out of that and you're like, I beat the sequence. Hooray. And then you get fucking swooped out of the sky. Yeah. And you kind of get like thrown to the ground and your ass is grass. Yeah. But the revived Naru and Gumo kind of went to go find you at the mountain.
00:41:45
Speaker
Due to some following things from that escape sequence, Naru and Gumo get separated, but Naru essentially continues to go look for you. And then comes up to you in those last moments and goes up and picks you up, even the threat of the giant bird. Yeah, Kuro's just watching your life in her hands right there. She has sign in her claws at this point.
00:42:11
Speaker
So is it hands or claws Jacob? I don't know hands claws. She's a giant hypocrite Terrifying But she sees like the motherly nature in the interaction between Naru and Ori and then kind of remembers like
00:42:29
Speaker
Yeah, I feel that because like everything i'm doing is for my children as well Yeah, and she still has an egg back at the nest. She looks back didn't get delighted Yeah, and she sees that like the fire that she spread when she attacked was actually going to her nest to the nest. Yeah and she
00:42:46
Speaker
I honestly thought at this point that she was going to go back and just like save the egg or whatever, but she has more situational awareness, I guess, than I do. And she's like, oh, there's only one way to get there in time to really stop this. So she takes sign back to the spirit tree and returns it, which causes the spirit tree to emit this wave of light that extinguishes all of the fire.
00:43:10
Speaker
and kills her last bird. No, that would be terrible. Vape rises at Kuro though, so a moment of sacrifice for her and returns the forest to the way it should be. Last bird stays in its egg for a bit and...
00:43:27
Speaker
And in true Kirby style, you actually push the egg off the ledge. You don't do that. You actually do take the egg back to the cave that you and Naru are staying at. Naru takes care of the egg, right? Like puts it in the nest and starts raising it, which is great. Like it's just so good. Like it's hard to you guys don't understand. You just don't understand. Maybe if you played the game, you would understand. Yeah, I know. Jeez. Why are you listening to us? That's a waste of time. Play a warrior in the blind forest.
00:43:59
Speaker
Oh wait, no, I mean, it's not a waste of time. Keep listening to our podcast.
00:44:04
Speaker
Like, sub, and subscribe and never listen. That's what we need.
Listener Engagement and Feedback
00:44:08
Speaker
We need you to listen for the minimum listen time to count as a listen. Then you can just do whatever you want. What is that? I have no idea. Do we know the metric? I haven't tried to game the system too much. I say. I mean, I can access this on Spotify through different machines, different IP addresses.
00:44:30
Speaker
I don't actually get anything if the listens go up, so like, it's more of an ego thing than anything else. So it would sort of defeat the point if I inflated the numbers. Oregon blind forest is good though.
00:44:43
Speaker
It really is. And when they announced the second one of E3, I was like, ooh, girl, because that trailer looks amazing. You said you hadn't seen it yet, is that right? I had not seen it now. This is Will of the Wisps, right? Yes. So, like I said, everything we described for Ori and the Blind Forest won.
00:45:02
Speaker
See me Gorgeous music Gorgeous design everything felt very smooth the parallax backgrounds are very flush. Mm-hmm. Everything about it is super good and tight Yeah, but the trailer for the second one just makes everything look better. Yeah
00:45:19
Speaker
And as far as I know, that owl hatches and is a part of the second game. We'll watch the trailer after this. Is this just a prequel for that whatever game it was, the Captain Owl thing or Owl Kid? Owlboy. Owlboy, yeah. Yeah. That would be really weird, though. And then Ori got gunned. Sorry.
00:45:43
Speaker
Man the next one comes out and it's like rated M and you're like, I don't know Or the hedgehog and knuckles and knuckles. Yeah and knuckles I Was gonna bring it up then I didn't so I don't really want to you guys should look up if you have any more interest in Ori look up the the spirit woods or the misty woods cuz Mechanically, that's really cool
00:46:13
Speaker
This is something you want to talk about and spoil. Oh, yeah. I mean, we already talked about pretty much all the spoilers. This is a full spoiler episode. What do you like about Misty Woods so much? So like the area breathes when you're going through it the first time until you get the orb of light that solidifies the terrain and the actual interactable like surfaces.
00:46:35
Speaker
Contort with the area like breathing. Yeah, so like it looks like Ories having a trip But the surfaces you can walk on are actively changing. I was like from a technical perspective This is actually really impressive. Yeah Anyways, it's freaking great. Although if it was really late at night, I was like This is kind of hard for me to track visually mechanical bullshit
00:47:01
Speaker
And then once you complete an area and then you might have to double back, but then it's changed. It's not the same area anymore. There's a bunch of vertical nonsense the first time you go through it. And then once you've locked the light in, you go back to the beginning with the orb, which is a really short trek. You lock it in and you look at the area on the map, it's completely linear. It's like, oh, Ori was tripping.
00:47:29
Speaker
It's the full like, uh, just getting lost in the woods. You didn't go that deep, but, uh, you've now lost your way. Exactly. It's a reference to lost woods from legend of Zelda. Oh, I was going to say like anything from a Grimm's fairy tales. Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:47
Speaker
Bet to. Any other thoughts you're looking forward to the Ori fan base? The second one just looks really good. I can't imagine they're gonna go wrong there. Also, this is an amazing game and it's probably like six to eight hours of good gameplay. But it's like, what, 20 bucks?
00:48:11
Speaker
Yeah, you can get it on sale too. It's usually good. It does go on sale. It's a really cheap pickup and it's a solid as fuck game. Yeah. This also falls under the category of like, hit me up. I'll probably buy it for you or I'll loan you my steam copy. AKA I'll just give you my credentials.
00:48:28
Speaker
Right. Don't do that. There's a lot of reasons you shouldn't do that. Yeah. And moon studios first game too, which is hecka impressive. As always, all of the good games are indie games. So there you go.
00:48:44
Speaker
Yeah, last messy piece of shit. Yeah. Get on this game's level. Um, no, it's, it's really impressive. Like how few people from the main studio, like looking at the credits, not that many people made this game. They did work in association with Microsoft, which is why the credits take forever, but like the core team is not crazy. There was a bunch of QA. There was a whole lot of QA in the credits and was like, I believe you.
00:49:14
Speaker
Yeah, I don't remember encountering any glitches. I assume there are like certain things you can break because you said there's a speed run. There is. Yeah. That takes 13 minutes, which is some bullshit. Yeah. I won't go into the specifics here, but look it up on YouTube and then look up the paste bin, which is the technical breakdown of the speed run. Cause it's like interesting to me. I won't subject you to it. However, um,
00:49:40
Speaker
Anything else? Any other final thoughts? Anything you want to leave our listeners with? Good life, sage advice. Oh, I figured if it's so awkward for me to ask you how you're doing at the beginning, when you know the question's coming, there's no way you'll be able to recover now.
00:49:58
Speaker
So some good sage advice in general. These are very blanket statements that it's hard to argue. Stay hydrated, not too much. I drink water when it rains and I accidentally had my mouth open briefly. Once or twice in the shower that happens as well. You breathe in some vapor a little bit in the shower. Sometimes I'm in a public pool and I sneeze underwater and that's the whole deal. Yeah, that's not actually advice though. That's not how you should intake water.
00:50:27
Speaker
In general just try and take care of yourself and be mindful of others and try and take care of them as well And my advice is don't vaporize baby birds as always
00:50:41
Speaker
We know it. We get it. You vape. Baby birds. Baby birds. As always, you can send your feedback in at soapstonepodcast at gmail.com. Nice, nice. Yeah, recovery. Or you can join the discussion on Facebook at facebook.com slash soapstonepodcast where we're always happy to
00:51:04
Speaker
Look at comments and then squint and then start to type a response and think better of it backspace the response Navigate away from the page. I'll throw you a like Alright well until next time we'll see you in the next one. Have a good night