Bijioo wrote on May 11, 2025, 15:13:
so no, it doesn't look like Ori 3 is going to happen. really makes one wonder why THAT wasn't the project instead of this 'Rest for the Wicked' thing that few seem to *seriously* enjoy. bummer indeed.

My guess is the dev team or probably more accurately, their lead project developer and moneymen got together to look at the slate of titles, and they decided Wicked seemed more interesting at the time than rehashing Ori 2 into Ori 3.
Anecdote: Runic Games made Torchlight 1, which was successful, so they made Torchlight 2. After that title the team wanted a break from ARPGs so they made Hob, which as great (and slept-on) as it is, crushed them financially, and they closed. Some of the design team went on to make Torchlight 3 with Perfect Worlds publisher, which was good but not as good.
Sometimes studios want breaks from the stuff they had success with to refresh their creative spirits. I have Wicked on my wishlist but generally avoid early access, but it's sad it's floundering like this as it looks really quite good...

No Rest for the Wicket has about 35k Steam reviews, which as an outsider, seems like a lot. That's more than half of Hades 2, which seems to be their closest competition (Another 'early access' 3rd person action RPG) and even nearly as many as the new Elder Scrolls: Oblivion remake.

It's also labeled "Early access" so categorically, I have no interest in it at the moment.
I know that not personally wanting to spend time/money on an unfinished product doesn't mean that no one does, as some "Early access" games are some of the biggest ones out there, but it's enough for me to just not look at it.

And it's kind of sad if this game kills the studio, because the Ori games were something special.

*SIGH* Another person who would have benefited greatly if he had vented to his dog instead of the internet. Dude, from here, you can ONLY make it worse. Please stop talking.

Apparently he is a conservative snowflake, and they are known to cry about everything.

Yes, because liberals never publicly overreact about anything. SMFH. 🙄

This comment was edited on May 12, 2025, 10:26.

Argonius the 3rd wrote on May 12, 2025, 04:35:
Thomas Mahler has replied

Basically this is all BS.

Apparently he is a conservative snowflake, and they are known to cry about everything. None of the negative reviews I saw mentioned nazis or trans or politics or the Ukraine war or coworkers pasting pictures of Putin on his office door, not sure why he brings that up in a topic about reviews. Maybe this is only his discord but that is a different issue.

roguebanshee wrote on May 12, 2025, 08:35:

Argonius the 3rd wrote on May 12, 2025, 04:35:
Thomas Mahler has replied

Basically this is all BS.

You mean to tell me a gaming site put out a poorly researched article with a click-bait title? Whatever will they think of next?

I kind of feel like this is his own doing if he made the claim. "It was on my discord" doesn't seem like a valid excuse. If you said something in public, you shouldn't be surprised when someone reports on your claim.

Argonius the 3rd wrote on May 12, 2025, 04:35:
Thomas Mahler has replied

Basically this is all BS.

He lied, blames journalists for taking his lies seriously because he made them on Discord, complains about being called a Nazi, says that there was a review bomb being discussed that never happened, and further attempts to justify his lies by saying the Steam review system is broken so he's allowed to encourage positive reviews (by apparently lying).

If he wanted to further damage his reputation, he did a pretty good job.

Argonius the 3rd wrote on May 12, 2025, 04:35:
Thomas Mahler has replied

Basically this is all BS.

You mean to tell me a gaming site put out a poorly researched article with a click-bait title? Whatever will they think of next?

Thomas Mahler has replied

Basically this is all BS.

Scyto wrote on May 11, 2025, 14:39:
Agree with xero the negative reviews look legit what activism is there because I couldn’t see it - seems like it’s hard to the point of being annoying for many.

Yeah plus without having tried it, just looking at videos, I agree with most reviews? It just doesn't look that good a game. Not bad either, sure, but also not really good?

Seems the reviews might be very on-point.

Jim wrote on May 11, 2025, 18:44:
The graph hardly indicates review bombing.
https://i.imgur.com/SGAKtmg.png
There is a lot of well thought out criticism of the game in some of the negative reviews. Like not being able to tell what stats affect weapons, respecs being tied behind hours of grind, stuff like that.
All this drama does not encourage people to buy the game.

Might also be the article is just pretty bad, maybe the original comment by the dev came at the end of a longer discussions. I mean, the "article" calls a discord post a "forum post", which is a bold thing to say seeing how much Discord is the antithesis of all the upsides of a forum in regards to information.

Sales estimations for No rest for the Wicked are at about 1 million units sold. That's quite good for a 40$ early access game. Maybe the fault is with the studio management assuming that every game they make will sell multiple millions of copies before it even ships.

I feel bad for Moon Studios.
Both Ori games are excellent and I don't see bad reviews because some parts of the titles are difficult.
NRFTW, as some already said, is a work in progress where updates break things in order to fix others.
Moon Studios wanted to try something else, departing from a tried and true formula.
I hope the team finds the right path and wish it all the best!

a typical review bomb would be that the game was woke, or it had a rootkit DRM, or bad monetization or something. I don't think any of that is the case for this game so the complaining is just strange

This game looked cool, I liked the art, but found it nearly impossible to play, I gave up at what I assume was the first boss, but I am not even sure if it was, it's still in early access so maybe it will become playable for guys like me one day. It's mostly positive on Steam, and looking over the negative reviews..... yeah... seems accurate.

several reviews could be considered review bombs, but they are about requesting positive reviews and dated today, soooo?

I believe in the customer's unalienable right to give his or her opinion. I can also understand why the lead developer is saying what he is saying - he poured his everything into his project and it's not proving enough. I think what he is saying sounds pretty petulant, but I can understand why he's saying it. It sucks, but you're not owed positive reviews, and customers possibly being overly negative is an occupational hazard that everyone in his business needs to deal with. Hopefully they can stay in business because this team clearly has considerable talent.

The graph hardly indicates review bombing.
https://i.imgur.com/SGAKtmg.png
There is a lot of well thought out criticism of the game in some of the negative reviews. Like not being able to tell what stats affect weapons, respecs being tied behind hours of grind, stuff like that.
All this drama does not encourage people to buy the game.

I tried the demo of Wicked and wasn't grabbed, I was waiting for the full release. Bought it now just in case it helps, and erm reinstalled Ori 1 because I really love those games.

I’ve played about 30 hours of the game, split fairly evenly before and after the Breach update.
First up, yes,it’s hard. People seem to be expecting Diablo-style gameplay, when this has only a few enemies at a time, and you HAVE to pay attention. That said, some bosses are bullshit. The Lost Huntress, a currently late-game non-optional boss, has a smash attack that hits three times. If the first one hits you, you’re knocked down and you can’t get up before the second, then third smash hit you. My character’s build doesn’t have the health to survive it. If I don’t move out of the attack’s range, at full health, I die. I’ve quit playing until they patch in some sort of fix.

It’s sad, because the exploration, art and regular enemies feel great. It’s a fantastically pretty game, but without an early respec option (apparently it becomes available after the lost huntress fight), you could play for 15 hours and be locked into a character that cannot survive the game. THAT is most people’s complaint. They’ve already said they’re changing how attributes work; we’ll see if that happens soon enough to save the studio.

so he says they're being review bombed - flat-out, objective fact, but doesn't point to the proof. we just have to take his word that the game got reviewed unfairly by people intent on seeing its review score suffer.

seems to me the reviews getting traction point to the same things: relative lack of polish (especially compared to the Ori games, ESPECIALLY the second one - glorious title it is), underwhelming compared to 'Ori', apparently foolish difficulty spikes and recent patching making that problem worse.

these days with games changing patch to patch, Steam Reviews aren't social statements or even whether they like the game all-in, they're becoming customers responding to what a game's current state is. (see: meltdown over Tekken 8 Season 2, the latest patch for Path of Exile 2, etc.)

it's a real bummer the studio's in such alleged financial straits, because I feel "Ori and the Will of the Wisps" really is a tremendous game with seriously rare qualities. as tedious and unfulfilling as I find the Metroidvania genre, they managed to make it so much more playable than usual with pretty astounding visual design and tight movement, combat, kind of everything. even some nice story stuff.

so no, it doesn't look like Ori 3 is going to happen. really makes one wonder why THAT wasn't the project instead of this 'Rest for the Wicked' thing that few seem to *seriously* enjoy. bummer indeed.

Agree with xero the negative reviews look legit what activism is there because I couldn’t see it - seems like it’s hard to the point of being annoying for many.

I had no idea Moon Studios had another game beyond the last Ori release. Sucks to hear they're struggling financially. Guess we won't get an Ori 3.

Looking at this No Rest for the Wicked, some of the negative reviews sound legit. Considering the game is in early access, you can't expect fans to automatically give a thumbs up because the studio had other successful hits. Perhaps dropping it in early access is a mistake, but it sounds like they're in a pickle. They need funds, so they're trying to sell an unfinished game, but then they're mad that the unfinished game has negative reviews?