Game Overview

Gameplay

The best part of Will of the Wisps is the way Ori becomes more capable without ever making the world feel small. Early on, you are carefully feeling out ledges, hazards, and blocked passages. Before long, double jump, dash, grapple, burrow, and swim dash turn that same terrain into a playground. Backtracking works because you return with a completely different set of possibilities, not because the game simply asks you to retrace your steps.

Traversal has a lovely sense of momentum, especially once several movement tools are available. You can approach tricky spaces with more than one idea in mind, and finding a new route through an area is often as satisfying as reaching the destination. The environmental puzzles fit naturally into that rhythm, asking you to read the space around Ori rather than stopping the adventure cold for detached brainteasers.

The shard system is a meaningful improvement over a fixed upgrade path. Collecting spirit shards and deciding which enhancements deserve a limited slot lets you shape Ori around the parts of the game you enjoy most, whether that means leaning harder into combat or improving mobility. Hidden combat shrines that expand shard capacity give exploration another useful reward, though completion-minded players may feel the pull to scour every corner.

Spirit Trials are a strong optional outlet for players who want to turn familiarity into speed. Racing against ghost replays gives a route a competitive edge and makes rewards feel earned through cleaner execution. If precise platforming brings out your stubborn side, these challenges can become a satisfying second game within the larger journey. If not, the main adventure has plenty to offer without treating them as the point.

Graphics

The hand-painted environments are gorgeous and unusually varied. Sunlight pours over snowy roots and warm orange foliage in one area, while another sinks Ori into moonlit blue shadows, tangled branches, and ghostly plants. Ori’s small white glow remains easy to pick out against all that dense scenery, and it makes the character feel like a fragile spark moving through a huge forest.

Several locations frame the path like a storybook scene: an immense door in a weathered, amber-lit structure, or a dark industrial-looking interior silhouetted around a pool of blue water. The backgrounds can be busy, but their layers of roots, ruins, hanging vines, and distant light give each space a strong sense of place.

Story

This is a heartfelt rescue story centered on Ori’s effort to save Ku, heal a fractured land, and understand a larger destiny. That direct emotional goal gives the exploration real weight. You are not roaming simply because the map is big. You are pushing forward because the world and its inhabitants need help.

The game wisely pairs its personal stakes with the broader damage done to the land. As new areas open up, the journey feels like a search for both a friend and a way to restore something broken. That combination gives the fantasy setting more pull than a simple collect-and-upgrade loop would have managed on its own.

Its storytelling lands best when you let the mood breathe between difficult platforming sequences. Quiet moments in the wilderness, ominous spaces, and the contrast between warmth and darkness keep the emotional tone present without taking over the game. If you came for a story with a sincere center, Will of the Wisps has one.

Overall Experience

Will of the Wisps is the kind of action-platformer that rewards curiosity almost constantly. A new movement power does not just check an upgrade box. It changes how you read the world, and that makes exploration feel alive for a long stretch. The combination of agile traversal, puzzles, optional speed challenges, and customizable shards gives you plenty of reasons to keep digging into its interconnected regions.

Frustration can set in when a demanding platforming section asks for repeated attempts, particularly if you are chasing a cleaner run in a Spirit Trial. Still, the core movement is compelling enough that retrying usually feels like practicing rather than being punished. The game asks for patience, but it regularly pays that patience back with a new path, hidden shard, or more confident way to move.

If you enjoy Metroidvanias where exploration and mobility matter as much as combat, this is an easy recommendation. It is especially rewarding for anyone who likes watching a once-limited character become wonderfully agile across a world built to be revisited. The emotional stakes and superb scenery make the journey memorable, while the flexible upgrades give it more replayable texture than a straightforward linear platformer.

Retro Replay Score

8.9/10