[News] Ori and the Will of the Wisps Devs Talk Potential Sequel and Switch Port

[Hermione Granger]

Since launching in February of this year Ori and The Will of the Wisps has become one of the Xbox One's most critically acclaimed titles this generation. Commercially the game has also had huge success recently surpassing over two million players, no doubt owing some thanks to Xbox Game Pass which has recently been shown to have an impact on sales figures.

With Ori and The Will of the Wisps being a successful follow up to 2015's Ori and The Blind Forest, which was also ported to the Nintendo Switch, there were always going to be questions regarding further sequels and Switch ports. Luckily developers Moon Studios were happy to answer these and more in a recent Reddit AMA.

When questioned about a potential sequel or another game set in the Ori world the developer replied, "We really felt that we told the story that we wanted to tell – Ori's story – across the two games. It's really Ori's journey, and we're happy with where it ended and what we wanted to say through telling that story. If you've finished the game, you can see that we've left the door cracked open a bit for a potential continuation, though we don't have anything specific to share at this point and time." Answering a further question however the team replied "Nibel and Niwen are both filled with storytelling possibilities".

Another user then asked the question on everybody's lips regarding a possibility of a Nintendo Switch port to which Moon Studios replied "We love the Switch! But right now we don't have anything to share when it comes to Ori and the Will of the Wisps port. If it were to ever happen though I can tell you that it would be extremely difficult port to make it run at 60fps that's for sure!". This unfortunately means that if a port were to happen, some sacrifices would ultimately have to be made, likely leaving Ori feeling less special.

So it looks like bad news for Ori fans with no direct sequel or Switch ports in the works however Moon Studios refused to rule out a spinoff based in the lands of Nibel and Niwen.

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/ori-devs-talk-sequel-switch-port/

 

[pkmin3033]

I have to ask this - does it REALLY need to run at 60fps? A lot of Nintendo Switch games are perfectly fine running at 30fps. I realise it's a reputation/culture thing that high profile titles run at 60fps, but from a technical standpoint I question whether or not it really matters. Many people already consider Switch ports "inferior" to console or PC versions - and from a technical standpoint that is often true - but...well, I wonder. The fact that The Witcher III can run on Switch at all kinda annulls any argument that it couldn't be brought in a serviceable fashion to Switch as well I think. I don't think it really matters all that much, because it wouldn't attract any more noise than it will already get from purists crying out that it's not as good as versions on other systems.

 

[Hermione Granger]

I have to ask this - does it REALLY need to run at 60fps? A lot of Nintendo Switch games are perfectly fine running at 30fps. I realise it's a reputation/culture thing that high profile titles run at 60fps, but from a technical standpoint I question whether or not it really matters. Many people already consider Switch ports "inferior" to console or PC versions - and from a technical standpoint that is often true - but...well, I wonder. The fact that The Witcher III can run on Switch at all kinda annulls any argument that it couldn't be brought in a serviceable fashion to Switch as well I think. I don't think it really matters all that much, because it wouldn't attract any more noise than it will already get from purists crying out that it's not as good as versions on other systems.

Yeah, people on the Switch aren't complaining about 30 fps games. I know I wouldn't be annoyed if it was only 30 fps.

 

[pkmin3033]

That's the thing! You don't see many people attacking Switch ports (or even just Switch games) for not being 60fps - at most, it might be a comment in a review or analysis, or a topic on a place like Gamefaqs or Reddit where people discuss it and there's always one person who gets hilariously worked-up over it. Which is fair enough, because it's important to some people. But for the developer to say, specifically, "If it were to ever happen though I can tell you that it would be extremely difficult port to make it run at 60fps that's for sure!" implies that's an essential part of the experience, and even if that's misconstruing the intent of what was said, I still think that's a very odd thing to just bring up like that.

"We might have to make some small sacrifices to performance" or "It would take some time to figure out a way to bring the best possible experience to Switch owners" or something like that, sure, because I'm sure they'd need to do a few other things to it. But to single that out? Odd. Perhaps because the original Ori ran at 60fps both docked and undocked is the reason, but...well, as I say, plenty of Switch games do just fine with a steady 30fps. The original Ori isn't a game that anyone thought would ever come to Switch, and I think most Switch owners would just be grateful to see the sequel come to the platform, and as long it was a stable and responsive experience, I don't think it would matter all that much if it wasn't 60fps. After all, that's the sacrifice you make with the Switch: it's an inferior console in terms of the hardware to the Xbox One and PS4, but it comes with the caveat of portability. It's even rarer that you see people complaining about Nintendo having weaker hardware than their competitors, because it's always been that way.

Maybe I'm just ironically making a big deal out of it. I mean, "no plans" doesn't mean "never going to happen" or anything, but the tone in that is just...really strange. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would be "well, I don't want it on Switch if it won't be 60fps" or something...but I am sure those people have other consoles they would play it on.

Maybe they should have words with Saber Interactive or Panic Button, I'm sure they'd figure something out. xD

All that aside, this is on my list of games to play on Game Pass, so I can't speak about whether I'd be interested in future titles yet. I found the original game to be quite enjoyable - although I died about 200 times, and most of those deaths were in the same places because I couldn't quite get the angles for jumps right, which was VERY aggravating - but not to the extent that I was motivated to immediately try out the sequel. It's always good to see a smaller developer doing well, though!