With Ori and the Blind Forest, there are thorns for every rose. An evocative opening provides a bittersweet reminiscence, which becomes more resonant as the player retraces and resurrects the storied past of the forest by navigating a tangled hawthorn of allusions to classic games.

When Super Meat Boy came into focus for a previous Symposium, we were invited to contemplate that game’s overt celebration of the Hardcore and how entrenched its roots could still be within the past and current ecology of gaming. Should we do the same for a game like Ori and the Blind Forest, which calls back to many of the same level design tropes within a more lush and alluring presentation?

We’ll meet to discuss this and more on Thursday, March 3rd at 9:30pm EDT / 6:30pm PDT; voice chat over Skype.

(Image from RockPaperShotgun’s Wot I Think: Ori and the Blind Forest.)