In the resurgent genre of Metro Vain Yous, 2000 fifteen's Beautiful and Tightly Designed, or Ian, The Blind Forest Stand is one of the best releases in recent memory with Rory and the will of the Wisps developers.

Moon studios have set out to do what all developers should do with any sequel and make a game that is even bigger and better.

And they have resoundingly succeeded on all fronts.

Will of the Wisps, takes the biggest strength of its predecessor and hones them even further to the point of perfection and at the same time introduces significant improvements to the aspects that did not work so well in the first game.

The result is a starting Lee excellent game and one that will go down as one of the best this genre has ever delivered.

Like Blind Forest, Simply moving around is an absolute joy and will of the wisps.

Platforming is as tight as ever, and it's bolstered by the level design, constantly introducing new wrinkles and elements for you to contend with, forcing you to think about using your move set in new ways on a near constant basis.

Well of the wisps platforming also reaches the heights of its predecessor and then surpasses them very quickly, with the game handing you all your abilities from the first game quite freely.

In just the first few hours.

Though, it starts out with the simplest of mechanics.

It doesn't take long before you're weaving together a complex web of jumps, dashes, avoiding environmental hazards and Maur to make your way around levels.

Fast, tight and fluid Movement was one of Ori and the Blind Forests biggest strengths, and its sequel is well aware of that fact.

Having cranked it all up to 11 the tight platforming also goes hand in hand with exploration, which is a core part of any Metro Vini a game and being the expertly crafted Metro Albania title that will of the wisps is exploration is always hugely rewarding.

The fluid movement means that you're always ready and willing to go off the beaten path, which is aided by how well designed each corner and crevice of the map is.

The reward you get for your exploration also always bring with them a rush of dopamine and always justify the effort that goes into getting to them.

Finding a hidden nook in a wall somewhere might lead you to a nice cache of currency that you can use for progression purposes.

While getting through platforming got Linz that might lead you to meteor rewards.

As such, the rewards and the journey of getting to those rewards are both always equally satisfying.

Level Design impresses on a larger scale as well, in spite of being much larger than the map in the first game or in the will of the wisps map doesn't skimp on quality and instead delivers on the diversity front in droves from desert sands, sparkling pools to frozen mountains and dilapidated forests.

There's a huge amount of environmental variety in the game, which translates to variety and game play mechanics as well.

Each location brings its own set of threats and dangers to deal with its own set of roadblocks and challenges, which means that each new area you visit feel significantly different from the others and tone, atmosphere and so much more.

Best of all, in spite of being so unique, they all feel like part of a single, larger, cohesive world, with each area blending in tow.

All the others, very believably, an organically not only does this stand as a testament to the games?

Incredible visual design.

It also adds immensely to things like world building.

An environmental story telling storytelling was, of course, a crucial element in Oriente Blind Forest and for the most part, will of the wisp stands toe to toe with its predecessor.

The earlier hours of the game lack the laser sharp focus of the first Games narrative.

It starts out with a simple objective of reuniting with coup after you get separated in knee win, a strange and dying land and a clear and gold doesn't come into play until you're a few hours into the game.

At that point, or Ian, the will of the wisp settles into a structure that fans of the first game will be more familiar with and the larger narrative revelation start coming in with greater frequency.

There's a ton of hard hitting moments with great emotional resonance in here, for moments involving the main characters that shape the narrative early on to smaller, more isolated stories restricted to secondary players.

In this story, well of the wisps keeps hitting you with truly affecting developments, and they're all delivered with great aplomb.

Backed by excellent swelling music that never fails to hit an emotional beat.

Those secondary characters are something that blind force was lacking in to a great extent.

Unlike Mabel, though, anyone is home to lots of creatures that act as M.

P.

C.

S.

And their addition introduces Maur improvements than one might expect.

Thanks to excellently and succinctly written dialogue, each of the NPC is you run into has an endearing personality from a giant frog like being with moss growing over his face to the adorable monkey like creatures known as the mochi.

To a map maker you encounter on multiple occasions.

Every character in any one is a valuable addition to the story and to varying extents.

Each and every one of them contributes to the game strength in world building and storytelling.

For anyone who's played O'Ryan the blind forest, though, it's not much of a surprise that Will of the Wisps excels in such things as map design, visual design, platforming and storytelling.

What will come as a bit of a shock to the system is just how radically better the combat is this time around.

Combat and blind forest was a dull affair at the best of times, and it's shallow and repetitive nature student stark contrast to the impeccable quality of other aspects of the game.

Orian, the will of the wisps writes those wrongs and insurers that combat can proudly stand in the company of the games.

Other achievements.

The biggest factor that contributes to that success is the fact that you now have access to actual weapons and quite a few of them at that from weapons that allow you to unleash bursts of quick attacks to those that are slower but deal more damage to those that you can use from a distance.

There's quite a few of these in the worry in the will of the wisps.

Each of them feels appropriately unique from each other, and each feels great to use animated expertly and landing with punchy impact.

You can equip three of these at a time, with each one assigned to a face button and changing What you have equipped is also very smooth and quick process.

You hold down the left trigger to pause the action and quickly select the weapon you want from a radio wheel.

As such, mixing and matching various different weapons in combat to counter unique threats is easy and seamless.

A decent amount of enemy variety also encourages you to keep doing just that.

Some enemies might prefer to stay out of reach, while others might like to get up close and personal, while others still might pose different threats with chaotic and erratic attacks.

Mixing and matching these weapons while also using Orry Suite of Traverse A LL Abilities is what defines combat, especially when you're faced with harder foes or a number of enemies at once.

And it's an absolute blast.

Not only does it feel great from a mechanical perspective, it also boasts copious amounts of visual flair one on one.

Encounters against some of the smaller enemies do tend to be a little button mashing even now.

But the best of the best encounters can look like bright and flashy dances, and these are the ones that will stay with you the longest.

The part of or Ian, the will of the wisps that benefits the most from the new and improved combat system is, unsurprisingly, the boss fights.

There are quite a few of these in the game, from many bosses toe larger set piece encounters and all of these, the latter, especially our treat, combining great design, challenge and combat to deliver memorable encounters.

Surely there are huge step up over the first games.

Boss fights escape sequence is make a return as well, and these two have seen significant improvements.

For the most part, the artificial difficulty, spikes and the arbitrary requirements they imposed on you in the first game have been ironed out.

And now there is thrilling to play through, as they are to look at another aspect that's been completely reworked.

And Rory in the will of the wisps, is progression.

Dropping this skill tree of its predecessor completely will of the wisp introduces a system that Hughes out much more closely to the charms in hollow night.

Scattered throughout the world are shards, many of which can also be purchased, and they offer various unique advantages.

One might allow you to stick to walls to make platforming easier, while another might give you additional health.

If you're feeling particularly confident, you can equip a shard that lets you deal significantly more damage at the cost of also taking greater damage.

But if you want to play things safer, you can equip a shard that makes you more resilient.

Or you can equip both together and try to negate the first one's negative effects with nearly three dozen shards.

To find a news, which also greatly incentivizes exploration, Cory and the will of the wisp introduces a ton of accessibility, giving you a lot of options and how you want to approach any given situation.

Each of these shards can also be upgraded, often multiple times, while you can also seek out and finish combat trials to increase the number of shards you can equip at a time.

Needless to say, progression and will of the wisps is dense and complex, and together with its vastly improved and varied combat, it introduces something I'd never thought possible in the first game.

Actual, meaningful build variety.

This is also a much meatier package than its predecessor.

The main story is about twice as long as the first game, which makes it a pretty full featured experience as it is.

But there's also a lot more optional content to dive into, thanks to a bigger map.

There's a lot more room for exploration, which, as I've mentioned, is extremely rewarding.

Then there are those MP sees I spoke of earlier, who can occasionally hand outside quests which are also consistently well decide and worth tackling, either for the rewards they lied to or the narrative context they add to the world And the side characters O'Ryan the will of the wisps also, as a hub area of sorts, a safe haven from the creeping dangers of the Games world, where the friendlier residents of knee went all band together to build up a safe haven.

Not only is this location just a joy to walk around and simply existent while you converse with various M.

P.

C s, you can also slowly build it up and make it better by looking for pieces of or scattered throughout the map and using those to help build improvements.

There are also seeds to find all over the map that contribute toward this, too, and sing the area come together grow and expand as a direct result of your effort is extremely gratifying.

One area where Rory in the will of the wisps does have some noticeable issues is in the technical side of things, the visuals and the art designer excellent, but the game's performance is a bit inconsistent.

I played the game on Xbox one X, but there were moments when it would drop.

Frames are suddenly freeze for a couple seconds.

Thankfully, none of this affected gameplay all that much, and the freezes and frame rate drops would usually happen either immediately after I'd fast traveled or during cut scenes.

Moon Studios is also working on a day one patch that will supposedly iron out these issues.

So here's hoping that works as intended orient.

The will of the whist shortcomings are few and, for the most part, negligible.

The game's brilliant smacks you in the face right from the get go, and it doesn't let up until the very end.

Nearly every moment is finally crafted.

Nearly every nook and cranny lovingly designed with Rory and the will of the Wisps Moon studios have realized the full potential of their debut title and entered the upper echelons of Metro Vania history.

And that wraps it up.

If you like what we are doing, please consider subscribing to our channel.

And don't forget to switch on the bell notification icon.