Ori and the Blind Forest

Ori and the Blind Forest is a solid game and quite enjoyable, but I do not consider it in the same tier as some others. The game is a metroidvania, but unlike Hollow Knight or Guacamelee, focuses a lot more on platforming than combat. Which is good, because the combat is generally bad. The exploration is very enjoyable and rewarding and they do an excellent job of making the different sections have their own feel.

One of the all stars of this game is the Bash mechanic, where you launch yourself off a projectile, reflecting the projectile back. Once this ability unlocks, it completely warps everything about the game. It becomes both your main combat and main platforming tool. It is such an interesting mechanic, that Guacamelee 2 actually used a limited, tweaked version of it with Eagle Boost. It's also quite similar to Spectre Knight's aerial slash in Shovel Knight. Bash is super fun, like a hookshot or a dash, and I expect variations of it to be implemented to tons of games moving forward.

Where I think Ori and the Blind Forest fails is in a lot of details. Something like the Climb ability is given obnoxiously late in the game, forcing you to rely on bad controls of wall jumping nearly all game. The exploration is rather wonky too, where after the linear Tree sequence, you can get like 80% the powerups immediately thereafter. Other than the Bash mechanic, there's not a lot of interesting abilities. It looks like the sequel may add a hookshot thing which looks awesome. Everyone loves hookshots.

I know this game gets a lot of praise for its aesthetics, but I personally did not like it at all. The whole "everything glows and is a glowy orb" thing does not appeal to me, especially in a genre that requires precise movement. I found it difficult to discern exactly where the hurtboxes and hitboxes were due to all the glowing. Frankly I don't get why people like glowing so much.

If you're looking for a more platform-oriented metroidvania then I would recommend Ori and the Blind Forest.