It's been a long time since I played Ori and the Blind Forest but I do remember it being a bit of an artistic masterpiece that I never finished because there was some sort of ice-jumping level that required pinpoint accuracy to make it through the event and I stopped playing one day and thought I would come back the next day then never did come back or if I did it was even harder because I had lost familiarity with the controls and then I just walked away forever. I still have that game too but I really feel that attempting it again would be a waste of time because the same exact progression would likely occur.
In Will of the Wisps they have a difficulty selector and I already really enjoy this because I feel like a game should be experienced first and then if you want it to be more difficult you can do that. When I was younger, or even in my 30's, I was ok with games being hard as nails but now I don't really feel that way.
One of the things that people enjoy about the two Ori games is that while there is a story there, it is not always terribly clear exactly what it is. There is mostly a bunch of moving around with an ominous voice telling you a couple of vague things about the world that you occupy, but what is actually going on in its entirety is often left up to the user to fill in the blanks.
The gameplay starts out really easy, as one would expect, and then it gets progressively more difficult, which I think one would also expect.
Now my memory of Blind Forest might be a bit muddled but I don't recall there being a great deal of offensive attacks going on and it was more about a platforming experience than anything else. In Will of the Wisps you collect a bunch of things and it has more of a metroidvania sort of feel to it that the original game had in some capacity, but it was overall a lot more linear.
You get your first weapon pretty early on and then the game slowly but surely introduces you on how to use it. It's a pretty simplistic thing. Then you have a couple of semi-boss fights, I guess sub-bosses and none of those are very difficult either. Mostly, the battles I think are meant to be kind of a pushover and the real meat and potatoes of this game are you doing a bunch of platforming in order to get new unlocks that I am yet to really understand. I would imagine that they have something to do with you being able to unlock new abilities and that is fine by me.
The lighting, color, and the sound are just outstanding in this game and I don't feel as though many other games are on the same level as this one. Just getting a torch early on seemed like a real adventure and it quickly opened up new avenues for exploration and this is the sort of backtracking that I do not mind at all.
There isn't really XP in this game, so there is never going to be any grinding per se, but there are incentives to revisit areas that you have already been in because there are areas that you will be able to access once you acquire a new skill that you couldn't reach before.
I just love how new abilities are shown to you in the tutorial part of the game and how it becomes immediately obvious what you are supposed to do with these skills. The only thing that really gives you any trouble at the start is mis-timing a jump here and there that sends you back a little ways but since this is a rarity, you don't really mind doing it, and the game again, is so beautiful that none of this ends up feeling like a chore.
I can already tell after just an hour of playing that the explorable areas are going to be absolutely massive and this could be, but I am not yet sure, a way to prevent me from getting frustrated at a particular part that I simply cannot get past the likes of which I encountered when playing Blind Forest. Many metrodvanias have employed this idea such as Hollow Knight as well as the the "Ender" games Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia where if you got to a part that was too hard, there was plenty of other places to explore before you return.
in my mind this is damn near perfect metroidvania thus far but I will have to wait and see if something changes along the way. At the moment I have only partially explored a couple of regions and I am quite certain I will need to return to grab the things that I couldn't yet access. I will kind of look forward to it when that time comes.
I can't really say that this is true for me as far as Nine Sols is concerned because the map system as well as simply getting around is pretty confusing in that game and I will actually be a bit surprised if I ever return to it. Kind of unlikely seeing as how I am already aware of the fact that Nine Sols is considered one of the most difficult metroivania platformers in existence.
Although intimidating this first boss encounter has been stalking you for a while and rather than defeat it, the game is preparing you for an encounter that will likely happen again later once you have more power
If you are more of a casual player but also appreciate fantastic graphics and sound, I think either of the "Ori" games are going to be right up your alley. This is a game that can probably be made more difficult but it's still reasonably challenging on the easiest setting. If you discover that it is too easy at any point you can change it any time you feel like it, and vice versa if it is too hard.
I'm playing on a Nintendo Switch but the game is available on all platforms as far as I know.
all unsourced images are from my own gameplay