You continue the spirit's journey with a wider set of movement and combat abilities, including a proper attack combo system this time around. Optional shard-based upgrades let you tune your abilities to suit your own playstyle before diving into tougher platforming challenges. It runs smoothly and looks striking in motion, building on the original rather than reinventing it.
Gameplay video
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Screenshots & review notes
The verdict
The sequel is bigger, more ambitious, and occasionally overstuffed, but it rarely loses the emotional throughline that made the original special. A worthy, if slightly less lean, follow-up.
The mechanics
Combat finally feels like a real system rather than an afterthought, and the shard-based build customization adds welcome flexibility to how you approach fights and traversal.
Presentation
Technically, this is the more impressive of the two games, with denser environments and set pieces that push the Switch's hardware without noticeable strain. It's stunning in motion.
Staying power
Optional spirit trials and shard hunting give it real replay legs beyond the story. Recommended for returning fans, though newcomers should really start with the first game.
Frames captured from the gameplay video above; notes are our own take on the game.
What it's like to play
You return as Ori, now venturing beyond the first forest to help an injured owl named Ku, in a sequel that keeps the same basic jumping and dashing but adds a proper weapon system this time around. You still move with the left stick and jump with a button, but now you can equip actual weapons and spells to different buttons, letting you fight back directly against enemies rather than relying on an automatic companion attack. The opening sequence, following Ku learning to fly alongside you, sets an emotional tone before dropping you into a much larger world than the original game offered.
Most of your time goes toward exploring this expanded map, picking up shards that let you customize things like extra health, stronger dashes, or better luck finding items, and returning to a central hub area to spend resources on upgrades. New abilities like a grappling hook and a burrowing move keep unlocking fresh ways to move through the world, and combining them creates a real sense of fluid, almost acrobatic travel once you've got a good handful of tools. A full playthrough takes around twelve to fifteen hours, longer than the first game, with proper boss fights added that weren't really present before.
Some fans of the original prefer its simpler, movement-only focus and find the added combat and side quests dilute what made the first game special. The game runs well on Switch though not flawlessly, with occasional dips during especially busy scenes. If you enjoyed the first game's flowing movement and want more of it with combat and side content layered on top, this delivers a bigger, if slightly less focused, follow-up.