3. You Connect with the Characters through the Storytelling

Ori and Naru as their home dies around them.

See, that’s the thing, Ori and the Blind Forest makes you care about the characters from the start.  As you pass through the “n00b questing” at the beginning of the game, your heartstrings get tugged on by Ori, Naru, and their life around them.  You haven’t just learned the controls, you’ve grown supremely attached to the characters. 

You are sad alongside Ori when Naru dies as the famine persists.  You can see how lost Ori is after that point.  And that’s when the game truly begins.