86 PCWorld APRIL 2020REVIEWS ORI AND THE WILL OF THE WISPS
system that mimics Hollow Knight’s Charms.
These give Ori modifiers, allowing players to
triple-jump or grapple off enemies or reflect
incoming melee damage, and so on. You can
have three equipped to start, and unlock
more slots as you go. Again, hundreds of
potential combinations mean plenty of
options for speedrunning.
For the one-and-done adventurer though?
It feels a bit slight. I found a Spirit Shard setup
I liked, and had little reason to stray from it,
and definitely no incentive to hamper myself
with Shards like “Enemies respawn faster.”
There’s also a merchant that sells you
additional combat skills—but again, since Will
of the Wisps can’t guarantee you’ll buy them,
none end up feeling necessary.
I don’t think the open-ended nature is atfault here, as Blind Forest’s straightforward
(almost entirely linear) design felt constricting
at times. Will of the Wisps is too afraid to
punish the player though, by which I mean
too afraid to force them to make a second (or
third, or fourth) journey to a zone with new
skills unlocked. And isn’t that what you want
from these Metroid-style games? That feeling
of returning to an earlier area and uncovering
new secrets?
That said, I still had a good time with it.
Will of the Wisps didn’t have the same impact
on me as Blind Forest, but Moon Studios has
built an incredible world and a mythology,
and they know when to layer on the swelling
strings to give the story emotional heft.
If our review’s spent less time talking
about that aspect, it’s only because I spent a