Senior producer Daniel Smith has revealed that Ori and the Will of the Wisps is three times bigger in scope and scale compared to the original game, Blind Forest.
The game is an Xbox One and Windows PC exclusive 2D Metroidvania from Moon Studios and is releasing on March 11, 2020.
“We had a lot of fun taking the entirety of the map from Blind Forest and putting it in the one from Will of the Wisps. It’s quite a bit larger,” Smith shared in an interview with USGamer.
It’s not only a matter of size, though, as the virtual studio has introduced several improvements based on the experience of the original game.
“We’ve really taken a lot of learnings from Blind Forest. In Definitive Edition, we introduced difficulty modes. In Will of the Wisps, there are difficulty modes,” the Senior Producer revealed.
“We also feel like the shard system is a great conduit into people being able to tune their difficulty experience. For example, a relatively inexperienced player can equip shards that will give them stronger defensive capabilities.”
In terms of quality, Moon Studios feels “we’ve set a bit of a bar with Ori and the Blind Forest, and we thought it was important to bring a game to fans that’s really a true sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest.”
The team hopes the game ends up being “as beloved as Blind Forest, and I hope it’s as emotionally impactful.”
Smith has also pointed out that Blind Forest has done well on Nintendo Switch, but the studio doesn’t have a plan for Ori and the Will of the Wisps to release outside of the current pool of platforms.
As the embargo on previews has just expired, gameplay videos have started to pop up on the Internet, and if you’re interested, you can find the first 20 minutes from the title as shared by GameSpot.
After several delays, we’ve learned that the game has reached its Gold status, and this means that the launch won’t suffer further changes from the March 11 date.
