Proof that even the smallest and quietest of creatures are capable of amazing feats in extraordinary circumstances and against the most imposing odds.
Hi fellow users. I hope you’re doing well wherever you may reside. I haven’t done one of these in a little while, but after playing through this duo of great independent games, I’m pretty convinced I’ve found a pretty solid candidate to nominate. And if I’m being honest, like with other video game characters I’ve covered, especially ones from comparably lesser known indie games like the titular character from Shovel Knight, this gives me a convenient excuse to plug games that I’ve had great experiences with, and in cases like this, that I believe are just as fantastic as the more well-known ones on the market that others may enjoy as much as I have. So, win-win.
As a brief side note, while some of the “who are they and what have they done” section may be very similar to the biography on Ori’s page here, I actually wrote a lot of what’s on their page myself, including the entirety of the Will of the Wisps section, so I’m not plagiarizing by borrowing some of that for this write-up.
What’s the work?[]
The Ori duology is a pair of games developed by Moon Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios, formerly known as Microsoft Studios. The first one is Ori and the Blind Forest, which was released in 2015, and the second one is Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which was released in 2020. Both have been critically acclaimed for their gorgeous artwork, soundtracks, gameplay and even their stories, which not all 2D platformers/Metroidvanias are known for. They’re also known for being quite challenging despite their family-friendly aesthetics, especially when it comes to their platforming (which I can certainly vouch for, especially the first game, which is among the hardest games I’ve played).
In Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori, the main character, is a forest spirit who resides in the fictional forest of Nibel. One very stormy night, however, they’re separated from the Spirit Tree that they were born from when they are blown right out of its branches. Thankfully, they’re adopted by a kind creature named Naru, who treats them like an adopted child. However, while they’re initially happy together, the forest is eventually afflicted by a cataclysmic phenomenon referred to as the Decay, which is causing everything to die out. As a result, Naru dies from starvation and Ori is left orphaned and on the verge of death themselves. Thankfully, they are resurrected by the Spirit Tree, soon after which they find Sein, a small orb of light that was also separated from the Spirit Tree. After guiding Ori back to the Spirit Tree, Sein explains the events that led to the Decay happening, and that to fix it, the two of them must restore the three Elements of Light; Waters, Winds and Warmth, after which they set out to do this to save the forest, all the while navigating very dangerous environments and enemies, including a giant and angry owl named Kuro, who is directly tied to the aforementioned circumstances that led to the Decay.
In the second game, Ori, having (spoiler alert) played a big part in saving the forest of Nibel in the first game, now lives peacefully with Naru (who was eventually revived during the events of the game after she initially starved through means I won’t go into right away), a creature named Gumo and Ku, a newly born owl who is the last surviving child of Kuro, the aforementioned antagonist. While they have a happy life together, Ku gradually becomes depressed due to being unable to fly properly as a result of being born with an underdeveloped wing. Ori, feeling bad for her, remembers they still have a feather of Kuro’s that they used during the events of the first game, and with some help from Gumo, they attach it to Ku’s wing, which allows her to finally fly properly, with Ori accompanying her on the triumphant flight. Unfortunately, Ku and Ori subsequently get caught in a storm and land in different parts in the neighboring forest region of Niwen. While Ori is initially just determined to reunite with Ku, they soon discover Niwen is suffering from a Decay phenomenon very similar to the one that afflicted Nibel, and later on, without going into all the details yet, Ku is gravelly injured by a dangerous creature they encounter. Therefore, it ends up falling to Ori to gather the various wisps that represent the main functions of the forest so its source of light can be made whole again to save not only Ku, but all of Niwen from its worsening condition. And of course, that finally brings us to the topic of the post, which is none other than the main protagonist themselves.
Who are they and what do they do?[]
Ori is the main titular character of these two games. They’re a peaceful forest spirit that resides in the forest of Nibel. As mentioned above, they’re separated from the Spirit Tree, which acts as the guardian of said forest, one stormy night when they’re blown out of its branches. Thankfully, they’re quickly found and adopted by a peaceful and nurturing creature named Naru. The two share a happy and peaceful day-to-day life together for a little while, but one day, there’s an unusually bright flash from the Spirit Tree, and following that, the forest starts to inexplicably decay. As food gets scarce, Naru allows Ori to eat the last piece of fruit they have one day; to return the favor, Ori scavenges a whole bundle of the last remaining pieces of okay fruit in the nearby area for her a little later, but unfortunately, by that point, Naru has already starved, much to Ori’s heartbreak. Orphaned again, it isn’t long before Ori becomes extremely weak while navigating the forest on their own and collapses. Thankfully, they happen to be within sight of the Spirit Tree, which revives them.
Shortly after, Ori comes across a being named Sein that takes the form of an orb of light. As it turns out, they’re the light that was originally part of the Spirit Tree, so they lead Ori to the tree itself where they explain what was caused the Decay phenomenon; the really bright light Ori and Naru saw before it happened was during a special event called the Light Ceremony, in which Sein and the Spirit Tree sent out this light in the hopes Ori would see it and find their way back to them. Unfortunately, as is discovered later in the game, this same light can prove fatal to some of the creatures in the forest, and it just so happened this same light killed the three children of a giant owl named Kuro. In a blind fury, as well as to adamantly protect its only remaining child that hadn’t hatched yet, Kuro viciously attacked the ceremony, during which she grabbed Sein and separated them from the Spirit Tree. Without its source of power, the Spirit Tree could no longer maintain the three Elements of Light, the Waters, Winds and Warmth, to maintain the balance of Nibel. Therefore, it falls to Ori and Sein to rekindle these elements, first by heading to the Ginso Tree to the east to restore the Waters, then the Forlorn Ruins to the west to restore the Winds, and finally, Mount Horu to the north to restore the Warmth.
During the trip to the Ginso Tree, Ori does one of his most notably good deeds outside of the main quest; upon reaching the tree’s entrance, the two witness a creature named Gumo, who is later discovered to be the only survivor of the Gumon clan due to the Forlorn Ruins freezing, stealing the Water Vein, which acts as a key to get into the tree. Despite leading them through an array of deadly environments and traps, when Gumo ends up trapped by a large boulder that falls on and pins him down, Ori helps him by pushing it off. Noticeably touched by the gesture of kindness, Gumo willingly surrenders the Water Vein, allowing Ori and Sein to enter the Ginso Tree. Traversing the tree, the two manage to liberate it of its corruption, allowing the forest’s waters to become clean and safe again, whereas before, they had grown toxic and couldn’t even be touched.
Next, Ori and Sein head to Forlorn Ruins; after navigating the dangerous and twisty Misty Woods and finding the Gumon Seal, which acts as the key to the ruins, the two manage to navigate the frozen hazards of it to reach the center and rekindle the Winds, allowing all of the forest’s air channels to start circulating again, which allows them to reach various areas they couldn’t before thanks to all of the updrafts. Meanwhile, while still depressed over being the last of his kind, Gumo is inspired by the duo’s determination to save Nibel. Therefore, in part because of that, and likely to repay Ori for their kindness earlier, he takes his clan’s treasure and brings it to Naru, where he uses it to miraculously revive her.
On Ori and Sein’s end, they next travel to Sorrow Pass to retrieve the Sunstone so they can access Mount Horu. After doing a good deal of travelling upwards, they finally reach the peak and retrieve it, though Sein notes that they must now make haste for Mount Horu since its occasional rumblings are giving off the warning that, without the Element of Warmth to keep the mountain’s lava moderated, a major eruption is imminent. Thankfully, the two get there before this happens, and though it proves to be their biggest challenge yet, Ori and Sein manage to stem the flow of lava in various points of the volcano before restoring Warmth at its center, preventing a full-scale eruption. Unfortunately, though they managed to stop the worst of it, a local forest fire still occurs, and Kuro attacks them for the third time in the game, forcing them to flee. Though they initially manage to evade her, she catches up just as they get within sight of the Spirit Tree and attacks, having Ori at her mercy. Thankfully, Naru, who had been guided through the forest fire by Gumo, finds Ori and hugs her adopted child despite Kuro menacingly looming over them. However, this display of affection manages to bring Kuro to her senses, reminding her of the love for her own children. Realizing the damage her actions have caused and that even her remaining unborn child is now in danger because of the forest fire, Kuro grabs Sein and reunites them with the Spirit Tree herself; this causes the Spirit Tree to give off an enormous burst of light that, while it unfortunately destroys Kuro due to her kind’s aforementioned sensitivity to light, also extinguishes the forest fire and restores Nibel to its former self. Later on, Ori, who has recovered from the ordeal, is seen watching new spirits similar to them being born from the Spirit Tree in its surrounding fields while Naru and Gumo watch from afar, with it also being revealed that the trio have taken the egg with Kuro’s remaining child into their care, with it just about to hatch as the game ends.
In Will of the Wisps, which takes place right after The Blind Forest, Ori, Naru and Gumo witness the egg hatch, with the new owlet being named Ku. Ori immediately embraces her lovingly and develops a very close, sibling-like bond with her, and the four initially spend their peaceful days as a happy, surrogate family. Unfortunately, Ku also happens to be born with an underdeveloped right wing, so when she comes of age and starts trying to fly, she’s unable to properly. After multiple failed attempts, she falls into a depression, with the others feeling bad for her and Ori spending the night with her trying to comfort her. However, Ori then remembers they still have a leftover feather from Kuro that they used in the first game to glide around and goes to get it, thinking it could help solve Ku’s flying problems. After finding it and bringing it to Ku, they show it to Gumo too, and with some help from him, they manage to attach it to Ku’s wing. Ku then makes another flying attempt with Ori riding on her back, and this time, she successfully manages to get into the air, much to everyone’s joy and excitement.
Unfortunately, while the flight initially starts off as a very triumphant and scenic occasion for Ori and Ku, they happen to get caught in a storm while flying over the neighboring region and forest of Niwen. This causes them to lose the feather, which in turn, leads to the two falling out of the sky and landing in separate parts of the forest. After waking up in the Inkwater Marsh, Ori is greeted by some local, friendly creatures called Moki that tell them where they are and urge them to go seek out a giant toad named Kwolok in their hollow to the east since he is likely to know exactly where to find their friend. Though they have to deal with some aggressive and dangerous creatures along with environmental obstacles along the way, with the help of some neat abilities and weapons they gain by absorbing the light from various Ancestral Trees similar to in the first game, Ori manages to make it to Kwolok. An imposing, but wise and gentle creature that watches over the Moki and has been protecting them from Niwen’s own Decay phenomenon, Kwolok confirms that Ku is further to the east in an area called the Silent Woods, but also tells Ori that getting there isn't possible until the waters, which are still and corrupted, are cleansed, which can be done by heading to the Wellspring’s water mill to the west to get the wheels there back in motion again.
To help Ori with this task, Kwolok entrusts them with a wisp known as the Voice of the Forest to help guide them. Ori is successfully able to get the wheels at the Wellspring in motion again and cleanse the waters, after which they subsequently head to Silent Woods where they finally reunite with Ku. The two then try to navigate the area together and find Kuro's feather so they can go home, but while searching, they encounter and are subsequently attacked by a giant and vicious owl named Shriek who is deformed from the Decay. As a result, Ori falls into a pit, and when Ku tries to stand up to Shriek, she attacks her too and leaves her in bad enough condition that she falls into a coma.
Ori subsequently finds Ku in this state, brings her back to Kwolok's Hollow where they wrap her in a leaf and mourn her state along with the Moki, with Ori lying down next to her. Kwolok subsequently appears and explains that the Voice of the Forest, who had just caused some flowers to sprout around them, is too weak to completely heal her. He then goes on to explain that the Decay all of Niwen is suffering from is the result of their Spirit Hollow, which served the same role that the Spirit Tree serves for Nibel, passing away. The light that it carried subsequently broke into five different wisps that have scattered throughout the region, and only by reuniting them into one can the willow's former light be restored. Therefore, Kwolok tasks Ori with tracking down the other four; the wisp that represents the Memory of the Forest to the north in Baur's Reach, the wisp that represents the Eyes of the Forest to the south in Mouldwood Depths, the wisp that represents the Strength of the Forest to the west in Luma Pools, and the wisp that represents the Heart of the Forest to the east in the Windtorn Ruins, so Ori can unite them with the wisp representing the Voice that already accompanies them, with Kwolok vowing to help out however he can.
Eventually, Ori is able to track down and recover the Memory, Strength and Eyes of the Forest (which the player can go after in any order they prefer). One of the most positive things that Ori manages to accomplish along the way is that, during the trip to Mouldwood Depths to recover the wisp representing the Eyes, they are eventually attacked by Mora, a giant spider that is the mother to all the other spiders that call the depths home, but has been corrupted by the Decay since it made the darkness in the depths worse and caused her to steal the wisp. However, once Ori is forced to engage her in battle, Ori manages to defeat her, which in turn, frees the wisp, allowing it to join the others and lift the darkness of the depths, which causes Mora and the rest of the spiders to be freed of their corruption. Mora and some of the spiderlings subsequently thank Ori for this, with Mora allowing her children to travel outside of the depths again rather than stay cooped up there due to acknowledging how much even creatures like them need the light. On a lesser note, by retrieving the wisp in Baur’s Reach, Ori is thanked by Baur, the giant but benevolent bear that was perpetually sleeping there, for retrieving the wisp since by doing so, spring will eventually come back to the area, which has been plagued by an extended winter due to the Decay.
Tragically, however, during the search for the Strength of the Forest in Luma Pools, Kwolok is corrupted by Foul Presence, the same abomination that caused the water mill at the Wellspring to stop working and the water to become corrupt, and is forced to attack Ori. While Ori manages to fend him off, which allows Kwolok to regain control long enough to fight back against and destroy Foul Presence for good, he still sustains fatal injuries and passes on, though not before urging Ori to reunite the wisps and look after the Moki and Niwen itself in his stead, while Ori and the Moki sadly mourn him. Ori and the Voice subsequently head through Windswept Wastes and make it to Windtorn Ruins, where they discover a set of murals detailing how among other things, Spirit Trees and light have always needed each other to protect their respective forests, how the spirits of Niwen suffered and died out when they lost the light, and a prophecy of a spirit restoring Niwen to life again.
After making it to the bottom of the ruins, Ori finds the wisp representing the Heart and reunites all the gathered wisps with the Voice, which together form Seir, the Spirit Willow's former light. After subsequently escaping from a giant sandworm, the two then head for the Spirit Willow itself by heading back through the Silent Woods where they’re attacked by Shriek along the way. Thanks to their renewed strength, Seir manages to attack and weaken her; however, Ori actually interjects and tries to befriend, or at the very least, reason with Shriek due to having heard about her tragic backstory from Baur about having been born deformed and without parents or siblings because of the Decay, not to mention being shunned by all the other owls. However, too blinded by her past to recognize any gestures of goodwill by this point, Shriek rejects them with an angry screech and flies off. The two subsequently journey through Willow's End to reach the Spirit Willow, and upon arriving, Seir reunites with the Spirit Willow. However, while the Spirit Willow is revived enough to communicate with Ori, it confesses that its time has "passed", namely that it is too weak and will pass on altogether soon, meaning Ori needs to merge with Seir and become Niwen's Spirit Tree to save it, though this will come with the obvious cost of leaving his previous existence behind.
However, right after this explanation, Shriek appears again and attacks Seir, separating them from Ori. Left with no choice but to fight with all of Niwen at stake, Ori engages Shriek in a climactic battle and manages to defeat her. While Shriek retreats back to Silent Woods and uses the last of her strength to situate herself under the wings of her parents' corpses, Ori is left badly wounded and exhausted after the fight as well. Limping their way weakly to Seir, Ori begins to have flashbacks to all their happy experiences with their loved ones (Naru, Gumo and Ku) along with their similarly more positive interactions with the residents of Niwen before merging with Ku, having accepted that becoming the new Spirit Tree for Niwen was the only way to save both Ku and the forest itself.
Upon merging with Seir, the Decay is repelled, the forest's vitality is restored, and Ku is not only revived, but her wing is restored as well, much to the joy of the Moki along with Naru and Gumo, who had just arrived via raft from Nibel to search for her and Ori. They all subsequently go to where Ori merged with Seir and discover Ori is gone, much to their collective sorrow. However, they soon notice that they are already starting to sprout as a new Spirit Tree, which lifts their spirits. They resume their life as a family together, with Naru, Gumo and Ku spending much of their time with Ori in their new Spirit Tree form along with the Moki, with Naru and Gumo even nurturing them all the while, allowing them to grow. After a while, Ori becomes a full, giant tree just like the one they originated from in Nibel and even starts giving birth to new spirits.
Corrupting Factors[]
I think this is an overall easy pass. For the most part, Ori is a very altruistic creature that doesn’t show anything remotely resembling corrupting traits. Heck, in the first game, Ori isn’t even the one doing the fighting when hostile creatures attack him, since it’s mostly Sein using their Spirit Flame and Charge Flame moves to defend Ori from them; aside from an optional attack that doesn’t even have to be retrieved, all Ori does to attack is reflect enemies’ projectiles back at them using Bash or cause a bit of damage to anything in close proximity of their body slam. In the sequel on the other hand, yes, Ori does gain numerous attacks to use against enemies, which allows them to use lethal force, but frankly, even compared to other video game protagonists, including some of the Nintendo ones, this is one of the most justified cases of self-defence I’ve ever come across. That’s because practically all the enemies in both Ori games are very aggressive and feral creatures that quickly and repeatedly attack as soon as they spot them or they come within a certain radius, not to mention some of them ambush Ori in enclosed spaces where the only way out is by fighting and defeating all of the attackers. Even then, in addition to it practically being suicidal for Ori not to fight back against these sorts of creatures, most of them aside from a couple of particular bosses and the ones that show up at specific points for said ambushes respawn after a bit of time, meaning they’re likely not even killing every enemy they defeat. Therefore, I really don’t think this is a problem, especially since Ori is always shown to be against unnecessary violence in cutscenes where they actually get to demonstrate their personality.
The only case of this lethal force in self-defence that I would say is in slightly grey territory is when they fight Kwolok since outside of being possessed and corrupted by Foul Presence, they’re a very benevolent and helpful character that had been protecting the Moki and Niwen itself from the Decay as much as they could prior to Ori’s arrival. However, aside from obviously only doing so because Kwolok was possessed and being forced to attack them, it’s worth nothing that initially, Ori actually flees from Kwolok and only engages him in battle when they’re forced into an enclosed space with absolutely no choice but to fight back. And of course, once Kwolok regains control and destroys Foul Presence, Ori looks visibly heartbroken when he’s delivering his final words to protect Niwen in his place, even putting their hand on him right before he fades away. It’s also worth mentioning that neither Kwolok himself, nor the Moki who witnessed it and were similarly sad about his passing put any blame on Ori for it since they all knew that it was Foul Presence’s fault for making him swallow the wisp and try to kill Ori. So while it was definitely sad that Ori was forced to fight and inflict fatal injuries on such a benevolent character, it was only because they were absolutely forced to with no alternative, lest they be killed themselves, which would also doom all of Niwen.
One other small nitpick some might have is that similarly to some other video game protagonists, Ori’s personality could be described as a little thin due to largely being a mute character aside from calling Ku’s name on a couple of occasions and their occasional narration as the Spirit Tree when recalling the game’s events in Will of the Wisps. However, while they may not demonstrate a ton of personality, Ori still easily demonstrates enough of it throughout cutscenes of both games to be far from a flat character. In fact, in addition to demonstrating full moral agency, they consistently demonstrate that they’re quite a kind, compassionate, selfless, sympathetic and even forgiving creature, which I’ll touch on more in the next section. So overall, seeing as how one of the biggest possible issues I can come up with is that they sometimes use lethal force against aggressive creatures that persistently attack them, I think it’s reasonable to believe that Ori is in the clear here.
Admirable Standard/Goodness Zone[]
This part’s another easy pass in my opinion. While there may be quite a few other very good-hearted and benevolent characters in these two games, by the end of Will of the Wisps, Ori pretty much sets the bar for heroism and admirability, and needless to say, I think what they do is more than enough to sufficiently stand out. In The Blind Forest, they played a major part in saving Nibel and all of the creatures that reside in it from the Decay by restoring the three Elements of Light that maintain the balance of Nibel, and while ironically, Kuro might have been the one to finish the job by coming to her senses and reuniting Sein with the Spirit Tree, Ori did all of the work up to that last part and were only stopped from doing it themselves because Kuro attacked and almost killed them. Additionally, their efforts to restore some of those individual elements have very positive effects in their own right. This is especially the case with the Waters and Warmth; by liberating the Ginso Tree, the waters throughout the entire forest were cleansed of their corruption, and while it may not have prevented a forest fire from breaking out, stemming the flow of the lava in Mount Horu prevented a full-scale eruption, which certainly counts for something.
And of course, it that wasn’t enough, Ori ends up essentially repeating this with Niwen and more in Will of the Wisps; they manage to retrieve all of the wisps to restore the Spirit Willow’s former light, Seir, back to its whole self, and in the process do many great things for the forest like cleansing their water by unclogging the Wellspring’s water mill, lifting the eternal winter in Baur’s Reach and lifting the darkness in Mouldwood Depths that had corrupted Mora and all of the spiderlings. And of course, by the end of the game, Ori commits their most admirable and selfless action of all, sacrificing their existence as a spirit to become Niwen’s new Spirit Tree both to drive off the Decay since the Spirit Willow no longer could and to save Ku from their coma, despite this meaning they couldn’t be with their family and friends anymore in the previous sense. Not unimpressive at all for a mere forest spirit who started off so fragile and vulnerable at the beginning of the story.
All of those bigger-scale accomplishments are more than enough on their own, but I’d still be remiss to leave out all the kindness and forgiveness Ori shows other characters on a personal level. As mentioned before, despite Gumo initially starting out as a petty thief who took the Water Vein and made them and Sein chase after him through various dangerous obstacles and traps, Ori still helped him when he was pinned down by a large boulder, something that touched Gumo so much that he redeemed himself and revived Naru to pay them back. By the time of the sequel, he’s even living with Ori and Naru as part of their surrogate family and helping raise Ku. They also showed no signs of anger or resentment towards Kuro despite causing Nibel’s Decay, indirectly causing Naru to starve and repeatedly trying to kill them, presumably because they understood where she was coming from when they found out about her losing her children, being driven to a blind rage and trying to protect her remaining child. Similarly, they even sympathized with Shriek, enough so that after hearing her backstory that they actually tried to make peace with her late in the game despite her similarly attacking and trying to kill them on a few occasions, petrifying various innocent creatures in the Silent Woods and injuring Ku enough to put her in a coma. I haven’t even touched on all of the little side quests they can do in Will of the Wisps which includes things like helping a wandering bird named Tokk and various Moki retrieve items they’ve lost, using ore they’ve collected to help Grom rebuild the Wellspring Glades to improve the quality of life for the Moki living there and helping Tuley restore plant life to the Glades by finding seeds and bringing them back to him, because properly covering all of the important stuff has made this long enough as it is.
I think I’ve made my point by now though; they already crossed the goodness zone by the end of the first game, and thanks to the sequel, they firmly cemented themselves as the series’ most admirable character by having saved two entire forests from Decay, the latter at the cost of their existence as a spirit, all the other good they do in the process and the virtues they show to others, including some of their biggest enemies.
Verdict[]
In my opinion, Ori’s a pretty strong candidate for the category for all of the extensive reasons listed, but as is always the case, it’s up to the community. Just keep it civil and use solid, objective facts behind your opinions and we’re good. Sorry that I made this so long as I often seem to do whenever I attempt this, but there was just too much important stuff I didn’t want to leave out. Thanks to those who took the time to read this all the way through and peace out.