Ori and the Will of the Wisps has immediately entered the top 10 highest rated Xbox One games of all time upon release, according to Metacritic.
The platform adventure game from Moon Studios has a 91 rating on the review aggregator website, based on 36 reviews which were published when the embargo lifted late on Tuesday evening (NZ time).
"The story is fantastic, the world is breathtaking, and all of that pales in comparison to the wonderfully made gameplay that soars both as a platforming and combat game," writes Andrew Reiner for Game Informer.
"Moon Studios has outdone itself with Will of the Wisps, delivering an experience that doesn't have any lulls, makes the player feel clever, and just keeps getting better as it goes."
At VentureBeat, critic Mike Minotti heralds the game "an exhilarating, emotional masterpiece" and says he won't be surprised if it's his favourite game of the 2020s.
Will of the Wisps is a sequel to 2015 game Ori and the Blind Forest, which also landed glowing reviews and earned an 88 rating on Metacritic.
"As a huge fan of Ori and the Blind Forest, Will of the Wisps is everything that I could have wanted from a sequel," writes Minotti.
"It's a longer adventure with fantastic additions, especially the incredible boss fights. The ending sequence will go down as one of the best in gaming history."
Will of the Wisps scoring 91 on Metacritic means it's tied with the likes of Overwatch and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
The only games released on the platform with a higher rating are Red Dead Redemption 2 (97), Grand Theft Auto V (97), Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (95), Celeste (94), Resident Evil 2 (93), INSIDE (93), Forza Horizon 4 (92), Divinity: Original Sin II - Definitive Edition (92) and What Remains of Edith Finch (92).
Will of the Wisps was released in New Zealand on Wednesday.
