Indie Analysis: Cuphead & Ori and the Blind Forest
- Juan Rosales
- Jun 12, 2018
- 3 min read
Indie games have always been a vital genre to the gaming industry due in part to their experimental approach with a focus on finding new innovations for play
. Indie games come in all different kinds of genres but the main aspects most share are novelty design/mechanics, solutions to limited scope, and artistic value. Two notable Indie games that share these aspects are Cuphead (2017) and Ori & the Blind Forest (2015).
The novelty design (“what if” question) of Cuphead is “What if every level was a boss fight”? Because of this unique twist, players find themselves playing unique and challenging bosses from start to finish. As a result, the gameplay never feels the same because each boss has their own unique method of fighting the player as well as their own weaknesses. Additionally, the personality and quotes of the bosses more than make up the narrative aspect of the game as they keep the player engaged enough to want to progress through the whole game. Another important mechanic is the high difficulty curve since it alleviates the game’s limited scope. Being an Indie game means a limited budget which usually results in limited content. Instead of generating many average bosses, Cuphead instead relies on fewer tough bosses. The difficulty curve forces players to both replay the same bosses multiple times and play patiently. Both of which add more time and gameplay to a game with limited content. Finally, Cuphead artistic value comes in the form of a 1930’s cartoon. Because of limited funding, Indie games need to both stand out and remain memorable to consumers for better sales and art direction is one way to accomplish both. In Cuphead’s case, the art design adds this welcoming charm to balance out the not-so-friendly-difficulty. More importantly, the nostalgia manages to keep players engaged while the whacky nature adds a layer of unpredictability to aid the difficulty curve.
Much like Cuphead, Ori also uses a novelty mechanic but instead comes in the form of “What if the player could save anywhere”? As a platform-adventure game, Ori alleviates the long time issue of restarting levels and frustrating respawn placements. The save mechanic allows players to respawn past the more tedious/frustrating parts of the level or right before the more engaging parts that require more redos. Essentially, the save mechanic allows players to experience more of what they want and less of what they don’t want which provides a more enjoyable experience. Another mechanic Ori uses is the placement of new abilities and the resulting requirement to return to previous areas constantly. Unlike Cuphead which relies on difficulty, Ori uses this mechanic as a workaround to their limited content. Ori teaches the players new abilities at a relatively slow pace instead of presenting them all at once. They also create a maze like world instead of linear maps. As a result of these two mechanics, the game guides the player through multiple locations and encourages them to keep traveling back and forth between them. More importantly, this combination creates a feeling that the world is vast and spacious and adds to the amount of time the player spends exploring it. Finally, Ori combines visually stunning artwork with a diverse and soothing soundtrack to stand out from other games. While Cuphead relies more on nostalgia, Ori relies more on stimulating the player’s senses to keep them engaged. More importantly, the sensory design encourages players to slow down and soak in the environment while also keeping the world as interesting as possible as the player respawns more in more. Above all, the game uses the art as the narrative drive through its indications of events, animations, and cinematic visuals.
