Just finished it up. Hey, devs: beautiful job! I mentioned what I liked in my previous post, and all of that continued to impress throughout. I'd go so far as to say that this is the most solid platformer I've played in a long time, maybe ever.
I'd also go so far as to say that it's the closest thing to my ideal platformer - if not for the escape sequences. Nothing about these scenarios felt fun or rewarding to me, only frustrating. I thought maybe it was to do with being distracted by the amount of effects happening at once and around Ori, plus screen-shake, plus the camera being pretty far out - but I don't think so, as the path is always pretty clearly denoted through the environment. After watching back through these sections on a let's play, I think what really got to me was just the trial-and-error nature in conjunction with the scattered insta-kill situations, the having to start all the way over. The game has a bit of a reputation for its difficulty, and I'm curious now as to whether most of that comes from these escape sections, since nothing else in the game came close to being as off-puttingly difficult. In fact, everything else felt amazingly well-balanced. I realize they're a solution to various problems (gameplay variety, area transition, pacing, tension) and I hate to belabor this but it was essentially the only thing I found to be wrong with an otherwise perfect game. Glancing through the thread it doesn't seem like most people had the same trouble, though, so... maybe I should get good.
Aside from that, everything was pretty incredible. Like some folks, I didn't realize that a couple of sections weren't backtrack-able and missed some things, but I'm going to replay it anyway, so no biggie. Certainly one of the best games this year, and I feel like that's saying a lot given the year so far. I could definitely do with another game in this world, but I'm eagerly awaiting whatever it is you guys do next.
Finally, the only real (not really) question about story stuff: why the fuck didn't Naru just take Ori out and point at the fruit, or throw him at the fruit, or something. I'm assuming the point is the non-sustainability of their situation, but come on dude.
