Omori and Why It’s Important

I just played through what I believe to be one of the most important RPGs to come out in years. That sounds like a lot especially since this statement is coming from me, a guy who likes to play hardcore challenging titles like Bloodborne and Hades, but here me out when I say this. One of the most incredibly written and well told RPGs in recent memory didn’t come from a big budget Triple A studio or company like CDPR or Square Enix. It didn’t have the fancy graphics or polish that games like Persona 5 or even something as old as Fallout: New Vegas had either. It does not have the complexity that a majority of RPGs that are wide in scope have, but somehow what it sets out to do is done brilliantly. Those things it “sets out to do” being topics and ideas most developers and writers seem to be afraid to approach one day. This game is a simple indie RPG that was made by a small team of programmers, consisted of a few writers, and used the popular yet condensed game developer’s toolkit, RPG Maker. This game is Omori.

This should have been a game I could have completely skipped and never noticed. Last year was nothing but ruckus and it was very hard to keep track of what was good, bad, and worthy of my time. There were only a few indie games I could catch while steering my massive game shopping boat and remember to play in the future, and by coincidence this game ended up landing into the small indie catching net. What is this game? How did I even stumble upon a title such as Omori? Unlike a majority of video games where I have a good reason or at least some background for playing them, this one's a mystery to me. I was just browsing around the internet and while scrolling through Twitter and Youtube I found a drawing of a sad boy. Why was he so sad? Why was he drawn in such a depressing manner? Where did he come from? I needed some answers at least. I decided to go to my older sister and ask her for answers, since she had knowledge on some of the biggest artists and pop culture topics on the internet.

She knew where the drawing of the young depressed boy came from, and she directed me to a game called Omori. She knew about it’s creator, Omocat, and tolds me it has been a project that spent several years in development and nobody knew when it would finally come out. It was a project a lot of people were excited for and there was even a Kickstarter that raised tons of money. However, this game spent tons of time in development hell and at some point the backers for this project thought it was a huge scam. Everyone just kinda forgot about Omori, but when it finally came out it turned out to be brilliant. Omori came out near the last week of 2020, and it was around that time people were getting their minds ready for whatever lies next. No more of the disasters and controversies of 2020. 2021 was on the horizon. Omori just came out of nowhere and nobody seemed to notice this game finally came out of the Steam marketplace. Omori would not remain unnoticed though, as the game started to take flight and those who didn’t think the game would come out finally got the project they backed all those years ago. Omori was praised for many aspects and garnished more attention as the days went on. Becoming one of the most popular RPG Maker titles.

I began looking into Omori and during that process I began to wonder, “Why do people love this game?” It’s another RPG Maker game, but something about this one was special. There had to be more to it than just a colorful world and classical JRPG styled combat. This game has a 98% average score on Steam right now guys. It’s in the range of popular indie titles like Hades and Hollow Knight. What I’m trying to say is that Omori is within a very small percentage. Why? How? I needed to know. It would take awhile, but it wasn’t until recently that I finally decided to play Omori. Now I know why this game is so important and why it’s within the two percentage range on Steam.

I wanted this to be like the usual reviews I publish on this site, but while thinking about how to type it I figured out that the best way to explain this game was to dive into the later sections of the game. Meaning I would have to spoil major plot elements of Omori. So instead of typing a review I decided to type another analytical essay, which I haven’t typed in awhile. My last essay was about Octopath Traveler and that was almost a year ago. This one is going to be special. Omori is so brilliant and I don’t even know how to start this essay. What I can do for now is read the title. Omori and Why It’s Important.

Who Is OMOCAT

As with all of my reviews and essays, I try to explain who the main leads of the game are and how such a game could come into existence. In this case it would be OMOCAT, but unlike a majority of indie game developers who had the will to make a video game and some skills at programming she didn’t really have any originally. She is an independent artist and puts a lot of time into designing cute characters, pictures, and scenery. She has this very unique style where the picture looks sketchy, but it’s not a point where it looks unfinished or low quality. She still wants her characters and worlds to be fleshed out and pop towards the looker’s eyes. She draws in such a way where it looks like a cute Japanese cartoon aimed towards children or maybe even a drawing you may see a child make. OMOCAT gained a lot of traction for her colorful and appealing pieces of work and this is what prompted her to make an online store. She would sell and manufacture shirts, pins, charms, keychains, posters, and stickers themed after her work. It would all be made out of top quality material and printing the designs into each product would take a lot of time. Her online store and brands grew to massive success and some businesses even partnered up with OMOCAT to sell her clothing to wider audiences. OMOCAT has her own little company right now, but she is still a hearts down artist. She designs characters and even makes comics once in a while. Why am I bringing up OMOCAT right now? It’s to show how Omori came into existence and how the development cycle for the game would lead back to its creator.

One of the series OMOCAT made was Pretty Boy, a short series of comics about a tall aggressive teenage boy falling in love with a short and shy cute boy. The story would be about how the tall boy would pick on the small boy, but eventually they fell in love and started a little family. We’ll bring up Pretty Boy later, but the design of the Pretty Boy could be somewhat of an inspiration for her next big character. Omori. It started off as a little comic about a mute boy having a color pattern of black and white living within an empty white space. He spends each day doing what seems to be boring activities, but he finds them fun and is comfortable doing them each day all by himself. One day he traverses through a door and he ends up in what seems to be a colorful fantasy world. There he hangs out with three friends who are all brightly colored and together they go on magical adventures and play around. Everyone seems to be very happy and near the end it cuts to the depressed boy looking at a pile of photos. What could these photos be and what do they mean to him. We then see him curling into a ball, wrapping his hands around his head, and stressing over the photos in front of him. This is the short comic series that would make Omori and OMOCAT popular.

Omori was a comic created to help OMOCAT cope with her problems during a bad time in her life, but it gained so much traction that people wanted to see Omori be pushed even further. A Kickstarter campaign was opened in 2014 and a short animated trailer showed how Omori would be transformed into a full fledged game. People were excited. She even used a song called My Time created by small musician, bo-en. He loved the trailer and how his song was utilized for it, so he promoted OMOCAT and her project. A ton of donations were made towards the game and once the crowdfunding goal was met Omori was confirmed to be in the works. There wasn’t an official release date for Omori, but OMOCAT promised the game would come out soon and the word “soon” turned out to be longer than people imagined.

Three years pass and another trailer is shown of segments of Omori. Another one or two years pass and there are no signs of this game reaching completion. That is the problem. OMOCAT didn’t set a release date for Omori and didn't do a good job keeping backers of the project notified of the development process. Some people began to think that Omori was a scam and that OMOCAT only created the Kickstarter to gain more money for products or some other reason. I mean I can lose your money and not get what you want immediately, but let’s be realistic right now. Is it easy to make a good video game? Especially when you want to pump as much heart and thought into said video game as possible? Well let’s look at a bunch of other indie games right now as examples. Owlboy spent nine years in development, but what we got was brilliant. Outer Wilds spent seven years and the game’s engine and graphics had to get reworked a couple of times. Big budget Triple A games like Doom (2016) and Prey (2017) spent almost a decade baking in the oven because the directors are struggling to determine where to take their ideas. Making a video game is hard folks, and I think Miyamoto says it best when he described game development. "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." I like to remind myself of this quote frequently, because recent examples like Cyberpunk 2077 and how it was rushed for a release day shows the importance of making sure your game is both top quality and functions well.

OMOCAT hired a small team of programmers to work on this game, and she had some direction on where Omori would go. However, she cannot control how long the development process takes. She can only make sure what the developers are making is top notch and they get the mental treatment they need to make sure that development doesn’t turn into utter shambles. Somewhat like Supergiant Games and how they made sure their staff went home during the weekends and didn’t spend so much time working on Hades, so the staff wouldn’t go crazy or depressed.

Another controversy popped up during the development cycle and it mainly centered on OMOCAT and her previous work. Some of the shots she made to advertise her clothing were somewhat sexual, and her past comic series Pretty Boy was getting judged for how it was romanticizing an older teen and a younger boy. What’s the word for this scenario? Pedophillic? I don’t even know if that is a real word. Whatever the case, OMOCAT was ridiculed for such free expression and Omori faced some boycotting. Is it wrong for OMOCAT to be criticized for sexualizing things that shouldn’t be? Yes, of course it is. She did make a statement addressing these past pieces of work and advertisement, and explains that she no longer thinks the way she did. She said that sexualizing such things was wrong and who she is now and is way different from before. I think that’s what really matters. She self critiqued herself and forgave her fans. Yet, she was still ridiculed by some people. Why? Why is there still ridicule? We as human beings are born to make mistakes or make bad decisions. The only thing we can do is forgive ourselves and make decisions that better past mistakes. OMOCAT ignored the continuous ridicule after the public statement and eventually she released Omori. This is it. The game everyone was waiting for. The RPG that expresses what it feels like to live with regret, anxiety, doubt, suicidal thoughts, and of course depression.

Welcome To Headspace

Whelp. It’s time to move onto the main game itself and what it’s about. I’ll be mainly focusing on the story and what it’s about. Segments of the story will be split into individual parts and there will be a paragraph dedicated to talking about the gameplay. I do have to warn you again that there will be spoilers for Omori. This may be an entire explanation of the game, so if you haven’t played Omori just yet I recommend that you do so before moving on. Okay? Okay. Immediately when you start a new game we find ourselves standing within a white room. There isn’t much within this white room and this plain of existence is known as White Space. All we see is a little boy with the color pattern of black and white, and a few of his belongings. A laptop, a small cat that wonders what he is waiting for, a tissue box, a book containing some drawings, a black glowing lightbulb that luminates the room, and a small outlined box. The box possibly represents his safespace. That everything he needs is there and that nothing can come to terrorize him within the white little box. When he tries to wander outside the box he is chased by these red little hands which teleport him back into the box to make sure he is safe. Why are the hands red though and why do they move in a squiggly pattern? Maybe their safety measures within the mind to make sure he doesn’t explore areas or ideas that give him bad ideas. There is also a door that leads outside of White Space and it leads to some brilliant place. The boy finds a key that opens the door and he is led to a colorful room full of toys and three individuals.

Kel, a rambunctious lass who is full of energy and is somewhat of a dimwit. Aubrey, a kind hearted girl who deeply cares about how you and your friends are doing. And there is Hero, an extremely smart guy who has charming looks and is the oldest of the group. He is even Kel’s older brother. The three friends greet the little boy and call him by his one name, Omori. Hence the title of the game. They tell Omori that their other friends are waiting outside of the little playroom, and the four of them venture out into an area known as the Vast Forest. They head south and they find two other individuals sitting amongst a crowd of happy forest friends. Basil, an optimistic and cute flower boy who takes photos of his friends and grows flowers. Finally there is Mari, she makes sure the group is always feeling alright and she is Omori’s older sister.

The group have a lovely picnic, play hide and seek with their forest friends, and defend Basil from a massive bully who wanted to kidnap him since he was banned from the playground. It’s during this opening segment that we get to see how the combat works and how each character functions. We then venture to Basil’s house which is located on the far south side of the Vast Forest. Once we enter the house the group decides to look through Basil’s photo album and the many memories we have. It’s here that we see the difference between Omori and his friends. All his friends are happy, colorful, and they are having an absolute blast playing every day. Omori is dull, colorless, and expresses no emotions whatsoever. The game even shows how different Omori is by having a photo where the character’s line up their feet and ask if you can who is who. You can’t tell who Aubrey or Basil are, but you can tell who Sunny is as he is the only character without a proper color palette. Kel and Aubrey get into a fight which causes Basil to drop his photo album. One photo drops from the album and this is when we see Basil identify a photo he didn’t know he took. He says the word “Mari” and the game then fuzzes out cuts back to White Space. The door is gone and we have no way to leave the room. An object drops in and it turns out to be a knife, which is Omori’s main weapon during fights. There is still no way out and it’s when we open up the menu that we get a new option. "Stab". You then see Omori stab himself and leave White Space. We’ll touch more on what happens in between stabbing yourself...

Omori soon ends up back in Headspace and the door reappears. He then goes through the door and he finds himself back with his friends. They head back to the playground and Basil is gone. They ask Mari where he is and she explains that Basil disappeared without leaving a trace. They have a new goal for themselves and that goal is to venture outside the Vast Forest and find out where Basil is. They’ll encounter ferocious foes, explore unknown areas, and have crazy encounters along the way. It’s your typical fantasy dream world and it wants you to be as happy as possible. I love the interactions your friends have during your adventure and the stuff that side characters do. The game wants you to be invested in the wackiness and let your imagination go loose. Headspace is happy. Almost too happy. A key word I want you to remember is “dream”, because it ties into what happens outside of Headspace.

Wake Up Sunny

What happens outside of Headspace? What goes on outside of this dream landscape? We soon discover this when we stab ourselves and wake up within a small cramp bedroom. Turns out we are a young boy named Sunny and we are moving away within three days. The entire house is empty and each room is filled with cardboard boxes packed with goods. Our mother isn’t home as she is busy with work and planning out what to do for moving day. She tells us that our old childhood friend Kel wants to hang out with us since we’re moving away, and that we haven’t been outside for quite some time. Sunny is a shut in. Someone who stays inside most of the time and refuses to go out for reasons unexplained. What could these reasons be? Anxiety, a skin condition, or maybe you just play a crap ton of games and you're me who is typing this review within his bedroom? Whatever the case, Sunny has everything he needs within his room.

There is a reason why this game is titled Omori. It is derived from the word “Hikikomori”, which in Japanese means “pulling inward, being confined”. This word refers to the type of people who live within a small confined space and are comfortable with living within such conditions. These people are shut-ins themselves and confine their lives from the outside world. It’s not a healthy life to be honest with you and sometimes they live this way because of mental reasons. Sunny spends his time sitting within his room, eating the food his mother cooks for him, and sleeping so he can stay within his dream world. Headspac. His Headspace. The sace we dream of in our head.

Three days before he moves away, a knock is heard from his door. It’s Kel and he wants to spend time with Sunny before he moves away. You have two choices. Either ignore the knock and go back to Headspace, or answer the door and see what Kel looks like after several years. That’s right. Sunny hasn’t been outside of his house for several years. You decide to answer the door and we get to see Kel. The real Kel that isn’t from Headspace. He isn’t the rambunctious boy he was before or from your dreams. He grew a few feet, is more athletic, and is part of his high school basketball team. He is still somewhat of a dimwit and he is still full of hyperactive energy he always had. He greets Sunny with a big old hello and asks how you’ve been doing. He tries to think of something the two of you can do together and decides the both of you can look for a gift for Hero who is coming back from college. The two of you head towards a shop full of games, toys, and comic books and find a cookbook that Hero used to follow to make treats for their entire friend group. The two begin to venture back to their house, but they pass by their local park where they find Basil being bullied by a random kid.

Several kids actually and the leader of this gang of bullies turns out to be Aubrey herself. She is no longer the kind hearted girl Sunny knew when he was little. She grew taller, stronger, meaner, dyed her hair pink, and is no longer kind towards the people who once were her friends. She picks a fight between Sunny and Kel, and here we get to see the combat system we are used to being applied to the real world. Kel attacks Aubrey using a basketball he carries around. The same type of ball throw we see within Headspace. Sunny slashes using a knife…..let that sink in right now. Kel uses a blunt object made out of rubber, while Sunny uses a lethal weapon. He doesn’t even put any thought when swinging the knife. He goes in for the swing and doesn't think of realistic consequences. Aubrey’s friends freak out when she starts to bleed out, and Kel even snatches the knife away and asks what thoughts could prompt Sunny to do it.

Why is Sunny carrying a knife in the first place? You think he would leave it in the kitchen, but he carries the knife regularly. Could this be a sign of self harm that Sunny does without anyone knowing? Could this be Sunny being used to spending his time within Headspace? Let’s be a little philosophical right now. We as human beings follow rules and schedules. Perform these tasks a specific amount of times and this becomes a routine. We get so used to this routine that it’s what we follow everyday. It’s normal, or it’s what we think is normal. The ability to determine right from wrong is in our nature, and sometimes what we think is right or normal can actually be what is wrong or inhumane. Sunny is so used to fighting with a knife and using Headspace logic, so when he applies it to real life it turns out to be crazy and a little more messed up than he thought it would. You could argue that Aubrey is carrying around a bat with nails in it, but theoretically what if the bat didn’t have nails in it? What if these nails were also part of Sunny’s imagination and he was using Headspace logic once more?

Kel resolves the conflict and you find that Basil’s photo album was stolen. Aubrey took it and when you confront her within a church you then locate her back to her wrecked home. She dumps the album within a trash can and Kel pulls it out. You take it back to Basil’s house and the three of you find photos have been taken by Aubrey. Basil is told that Sunny is moving away and he begins to have a panic attack. Why is Basil so scared of us moving away and how come he can see “something” that only we can see. We’ll pick more up on this in the next paragraph. We are introduced to what the real world is and how much of Sunny’s life has changed as he spent the last few years locked away within his house. “Change”. Another word to remember we are about to touch on.

Depression

Sunny. Omori. These two characters have the exact same character design and body structure, but somehow they are both two entirely different characters that live within separate worlds. One has to deal with reality and the other ventures through what seems to be a fantasy land with no consequences. When you actually think about it, Sunny is our main character. We spend a majority of the game exploring Headspace and finding the whereabouts of imaginary Basil, but the time we spend as Sunny is time where we learn more. More about why Headspace exists and why Sunny spends so much time exploring it rather than exploring the real world that surrounds him every single day. “Headspace”, what is quite literally imaginary space inside our head.

The most wonderful thing about the human mind is that we can create ideas. Ideas that can excite people, entertain them, make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, and much more. It doesn’t matter if the idea is safe or dangerous. What matters is that we created these ideas. We are so used to using our own mind that maybe we want to stay within that little brain world. Create a space that we are comfortable with. Surround ourselves with figures or past memories that bring us joy. That is what Headspace is. A place where Sunny goes to forget about the real world and ease himself with his own thoughts.

It is clear by now that Sunny suffers from depression. It’s not even suffering at this point, he is flat out used to it. He’s constantly frowning, never responds to his friends, and just kinda goes with whatever is going on. The way he has to stab himself just to exit Headspace shows that he inflicts harm onto himself and he uses it as a coping mechanism to deal with an “something” bad. “Something” that only he knows and nobody else does. There are specific areas within Headspace that you can’t traverse through, because of specific obstacles. This includes ladders that lead to high areas, bodies of water, and patches of webs with spiders. Everytime you interact with them one of three text sequences pops up. You are afraid of heights, spiders, or water. I know quite a few people that are afraid of these things, but why is Sunny afraid of them especially since he is no longer a child. “Something,” otherwise a disturbing event in his life, must have happened to make him traumatized afraid.

In the last paragraph I put quotation marks around the word “Change”. What is the reason for me doing such a thing? Well….it deals with depression as we’ve been talking about. Depression is pretty common especially with today’s climate. You’ll see some people be sad about things and it’s often for good reasons. Somebody might be sad because they aren’t as successful as they want themselves to be or can’t achieve what they work so hard to achieve. They might be sad because they lost a relative or are no longer surrounded by the friends they had and are now lonely. Sometimes they are sad because they don’t know what their point of existence is. Depression is very serious and it’s something that shouldn’t be taken so lightly. Sunny is depressed. He is depressed because of change. Seeing the world revolve around him, but not willing to be able to evolve as quickly as it. Seeing Kel grown up and being acclaimed by his basketball team. Watching Hero go away to college and plan out his future career. Witnessing Aubrey go from a kind hearted kid to a full on bully. There is also the fact that Sunny is moving away in three days and the life he is so used to is about to flip upside down. Sunny is afraid of change and he can’t tell his friends that he is afraid.

There are times when Sunny confronts his fears. Darkness and cracks of despair will surround him and he will enter a plain that is made of nothing but nightmares. Monsters made of forever starring eyes and teeth will stand in Sunny’s path and he has no choice but to fight back. You press the attack button, but you can’t land a hit on these nightmarish monsters. The monsters can damage Sunny, but Sunny can’t damage them. You can’t fight back, but you have to in order to progress. You still have some skills to use though and these skills aren’t designed for fighting back. They are designed for Sunny to control his emotions and defeat the monsters without even landing a finger on them. The first skill you can perform is “Calm” which allows Sunny to control his panicking and maintain a neutral state. Makes sense for a game with an emotions system in it’s combat. You are having a panic attack and you need to “Calm” yourself to maintain a neutral state. Otherwise you lose control and begin to suffer more. The others include “Focus” and “Persist”, which also make sense. “Focus” to notice the issue and try to maintain it, and “Persist” to push past the issue and keep moving forward. All of these skills calm Sunny down in some way and if you stay long enough, which usually isn’t that long, you can get past these monsters.

Now these fights may seem a little pointless at first, because the real fights happen within Headspace. They are still important with the themes of the game and how Sunny has to cope with whatever is making him depressed. He has these random panic attacks of things that may traumatize him and he has to maintain his emotions to get through. Maintain his emotions and try to conquer his depression. Depression is something we have to conquer on our own and these segments show how we too can conquer fears with enough time. Now. Why does Sunny have depression? Well a lot of you may get angry at me for saying this, but there is another that coexists. They both work together to create a never ending cycle of despair and self hatred. “Repression”.

Repression

The common definition of repression is that it is the action of someone or something by force. In terms of psychology the definition of repression is that it is the unconscious blocking of unpleasant emotions, impulses, memories, and thoughts from your conscious mind. Repression connects back to depression, because by avoiding confronting the truth or finding a source to the problem it can instead be blocked out to maintain a state of depression. Some depressed folks are afraid that what may cure depression is what may instead make it worse, so they repress the thoughts that may harm the state they are in so they can maintain the new lives they are so used to.

Repress thoughts; maintain depression. I’m not typing this down to make myself sound smart. I’m typing this down because most of you will understand where I am coming from. Sunny represses so many thoughts, because he is used to the world he now created for himself. There are times when exploring Headspace that strange events will begin to occur. A ghostly one eyed creature will appear and vanish into thin air. A shadowy figure may leave bloody footsteps for you to follow and lure you to explore a dark plane. When you enter this plane you start to see structures and locations you are both familiar and unfamiliar with. Could these be memories that Sunny is trying to repress and get out of his head? These sequences usually end with us getting somewhere closer to the truth, learning more about what is really going on, and realizing that “something” isn’t right. It’s around the spider infested forest where a tall lanky man will start telling you the stories of the Dreamer and how Headspace came into existence. He tells you there was once a boy who witnessed an event so catastrophic and traumatizing that he blocked off the world he was part of. The boy then went into a dream world and created it in a way where it would comfort him. He adopted a new look and name, so that his real world counterpart would be unidentifiable. The man is referring to you and by now you should know it, because before you enter Headspace to venture through this spider infested forest and reach Sweetheart’s Castle you figured out this was a dream world created by Sunny.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that there is a side objective where Omori’s laptop will be missing it’s keys and the letters will be scattered throughout Headspace to collect. A small game of Hangman will appear in the player’s menu and by finding the right amount of keys or letters you can enter a mysterious plane. A plane that is out of reach of Headspace and White Space. We are given hints of this area through holes that may appear when collecting specific keys and the shadowy figure that lured us with bloody footsteps. We see more nightmares, truths that we don’t want to see, and more of “something”. It’s around the end of the Last Resort area where our explorers of Headspace begin to question who Basil is? They spent the entire game exploring each area, but they begin to forget what their main objective was from the first place.

By the time they get swallowed by Humphrey the Whale and explore a laboratory owned by sirens they begin to forget that Basil even existed. The versions of Kel, Aubrey, and Hero is Headspace are mere imaginations. In the real world they remember Basil. This could be Sunny trying to forget Basil and whatever he brought up about Mari near the opening section of the game wasn’t important. It’s not until the first day we enter the real world that we learn that Mari is dead, and by day two we learn that Mari commited suicide. It was a day before Sunny and Mari’s premier in front of a large audience and Mari decided to take her life. All of Sunny’s friends went on their own after that and Sunny began to repress his thoughts about the suicide.

Once we find a total of twenty keyboard keys that we get to explore this mysterious plane. A rip will open in Headspace Basil’s house which is now crumbling apart and completely forgotten thanks to Sunny trying to repress his memories of Basil. He enters the hole and is transported to an isolated area. A place that formed from his repression. Black Space. A place where his thoughts are not controlled and everything is completely distorted. The ground is all messed up, there are no living creatures inside this place besides the same shadow, and there are even distorted pixels scattered about. It’s here where we finally find Basil and he asks us to take him home back to Headspace. There are doors that will lead to scenarios and rooms, and the events that transpire in them are really twisted at times. From Omori cutting open his cat to watching Basil die in the most gruesome ways possible.

If you complete enough of these doors you will finally be able to locate where Basil properly is. He begs you to help and is being restrained by the red hand that protects Omori. Rather than helping Basil from being tugged apart, Omori instead pulls out a knife. Basil shouts for help, but then Omori guts his throat out. Omori ascends a staircase made of hands and sits amongst a dark red glaring throne. This is the result. This is apparently the result of Sunny’s repression. A place where Omori rules.

Confronting Your Fears

This is where I sum up the last few hours of the game and explain to you why the ending for me works so well. Aubrey stole several of the photos from Basil’s Album, and Sunny and Kel plan to get them all back. On the second day before Hero comes back home, Hero decides to look at the album and he notices a pattern. All the photos containing Mari were taken out, and Kel has been describing how Aubrey gets upset whenever they bring Mari up into a conversation. All three of them then head towards Aubrey’s house when her friend Kim tells them that she won’t come out after the events that transpired the day before. Basil was having his own little episode and Aubrey pushed him into a lake for no reason. Before our three brethren can enter the house, they ask each other if any one of them ever went into Aubrey’s house.

Compared to all the other houses in the neighborhood it is falling apart and trash litters the side of the house. The door isn’t locked from the outside and we find Aubrey’s mother sitting on a couch, absolutely drunk, and watching a TV that has nothing on but static. Trash litters every room and we soon head upstairs to Aubrey’s room. The only room in the house that is still clean. Aubrey has pinned pictures of Mari to the wall and claims that they are the only thing that she has left of her. All of her friends left her alone when Mari died, and when she went to Basil for help she found him scribbling out old photos of the group using a permanent ink black marker. She felt betrayed, like the world was collapsing around her. I like how Aubrey’s character was handled, because it shows how Sunny’s friends have to deal with Mari’s death and how they even have coping mechanisms that they can’t describe to each other.

Hero calms Aubrey down and the group decide to put the photos back in the album. Remembering all the good times they had together in the past. Afterwards they head over to Basil’s house to see if he is feeling okay, and they learn that his grandmother has been taken to the hospital for her final breath. They feel sorry for Basil and plan to come back later for one final night. They look around Sunny’s empty house one more time and take a gander at the old treehouse they used to spend several days in. One last missing photo is taped to the wall and when flipping it over we see a key taped to the back. A message is written and it states, “Do not forget to check what is inside the toy box”. The friends find out that Basil won’t come out of his room and plan to spend their final night together sleeping over at Basil’s house. All the friends fall asleep and here we get one final glimpse towards the truth. It’s time for Sunny to face his true fears. Several photos are laid out for Sunny to find and if you decide to find the toy box within his house you find a broken violin. If you remember, Sunny’s friends one time got jobs to save up enough money and buy him a fancy violin. A violin he cherished dearly and used to perform alongside his sister Mari who played the piano. Collect all the photos and we then see the truth. Mari threw Sunny’s violin the day before their live performance and the both were in a heated discussion about how well Sunny performed. Mari practices her parts day in and day out, while Sunny can’t understand and learn as fast. She scolds him for messing up so badly and not being prepared.

Basil is there to witness the argument, and he sees Sunny push Mario down the stairs. She is knocked out stone cold and Sunny drags her back to bed, hoping with enough rest she will wake back up. She doesn’t. Her neck must have broken or head cracked while falling down the stairs, and Sunny doesn’t know what to do now that his sister is dead. Basil and him plan to take a jump rope and hang her body out in the backyard. Call their friends and tell them Mari had committed suicide before her large performance. It’s at this point we know. We now know why Sunny represses so many memories and why he has remained shut in for all these years. We now know what this “something” really is. Sunny wakes up from the truth and tries to confront Basil as he has opened his bedroom door for him. Basil is panicking that Sunny is moving away and after all these years they can’t express what actually happened the day of Mari’s death.

He tries to convince himself that Sunny would never do this. He isn’t a bad person. He would never go and kill his sisters even if it was by accident. The two get into a fight and Sunny begins to stress out while fighting. He tries to calm himself, but nothing works. He has no choice but to fight Basil. The two boys were heavily injured during the fight and rushed to the hospital the next day. Sunny enters the dream world again, but this time it is different. He remembers his sister’s words and that she would always love him even if he made mistakes. She forgives him for what he did and that he had to let go of the sinshe made in the past. These loving messages were even told to Sunny while exploring Headspace. One scene shows Mari transforming into a white gown and flying through a sunlit window. In the heavens above. A dream version of the real world Basil appears and tells Sunny that he wants him to keep the photo album. That the pictures are memories, and these memories will remind him of the friends he cherishes most. Sunny takes a trip down memory and remembers all the fun real world adventures his friends had while Mari was still around.

A stage is open for him and visions of his real world friends appear. Saying that even though he did a bad thing doesn't entirely make him a bad person. Sunny goes on stage and confronts his inner self. The ruler of the dream world, Omori. Sunny fights back with all he has, but ultimately he fails. He remembers his friend's words and gets up to fight again. This time with a violin he repaired while traveling down memory lane. He plays a song which in the game’s soundtrack is titled “Final Duet”. It’s not only my favorite song in the game, but it is also the song Sunny and Mari planned to perform during their first live audition. We see pictures of Mari and Sunny growing up together and how they were always there for each other. Sunny forgives himself for who he is and Omori finally disappears. For another identity is no longer needed to protect Sunny.

Sunny wakes up from the hospital and for the first time we find him expressing some emotions. He is crying. Crying that his regrets are now long gone. The ending can play out in many ways. If Sunny decides to give up against Omori or take a different door then he will commit suicide by jumping off the tall hospital’s roof. There are even alternative ending like committing suicide with a knife, or refusing to go outside as the game tries to motivate the player to and doing nothing but explore Headspace. These endings are the more depressing ones as they show Sunny didn’t confront his fears. That “something” still reminds him of what he did. The good ending is beautiful as Sunny walks into Basil’s hospital room where all his friends are waiting. The text, “I have something to say”, appears and we cut to Sunny watching the sky above while moving away. What did he say to his friends? It must have been about how he finally forgiven himself, or maybe what actually happened. It’s mind provoking and I just found the build up to this final moment to be perfect. It’s a fantastic way to end a tale like Omori.

Sometimes Simplicity Is Good

Let's talk about the gameplay before we move onto the final paragraph, because it’s been the aspect I’ve been avoiding up until now. Normally for my reviews or essays I try to move onto the gameplay as soon as I can. As it is the aspect most people care about and there is a lot to talk about when it comes to how a game functions. Does every mechanic work together, and how do we take those mechanics and forge challenges for the player to conquer? Otherwise, did we get an actual “video game” to play? I love storytelling in video games. Some of my most favorite narratives out there are told through the means of a video game. Hades, Bloodborne, Persona 5, Nier: Automata, Disco Elysium, God of War, and many others. However, some games struggle to maintain a balance between gameplay and storytelling. Should we make a game with a compelling story, but struggle to get the player involved as we constantly remove control from their hands, or should we make a game entirely centered around strong gameplay loops and design mechanisms but not give the player any good reasons or context to do what they are doing?

Omori is in the middle of the two zones, but personally I think that's pretty good. Let me clear right now. Omori isn’t the most innovative RPG out there and isn’t the most complex. There are certainly other RPGs with better combat systems, build variety, choice, and interconnected worlds. Omori goes for the simplistic design of classic JRPGs. Some people don’t really like JRPGs and would rather go for the nonstop combat of an action game like Bloodborne or Nier: Automata, rather than the slow and methodical fights of a turned based game like Octopath Traveler or Persona 5. I completely understand those people as they may not have the patience to go through fights that lag on longer than they should. Especially boss fights with multiple phases, lasting more than thirty minutes, and if you die once then you have to start all over. Yet, there's this factor about finally getting through a turn based fight that feels satisfactory. Knowing that by planning out each move and using abilities that stack up to make powerful attacks is what carried you through to victory. It’s strategy, skill, laying out an idea to execute in your head, and knowledge is what makes a turn-based RPG fun.

Omori is a really simple RPG to play. You and your allies select the moves you want to perform, and the enemies then perform one of several randomized attacks they have to perform. Omori is the all rounded character and he mainly focuses on attack and support. Aubrey has the most strength and her playstyle mostly focuses on dealing damage and critical blows. Kel is more about inflicting ailments and buffing the team. Finally Hero is the healer and focuses on removing ailments from allies. Each character has different stats and skills, and the more you level up the higher these stats go and the more skills you have to use. You can only have four skills at a time, so in between battles you can exchange one skill for another. You don’t get to choose what stats level up the most, but new weapons and charms can increase certain aspects.

There are a few mechanics that make Omori somewhat interesting. One of these aspects is the emotion system. Allies and enemies can apply certain emotions to each other and these emotions can apply certain buffs or effects. The emotion system is also a game of rock, papers, scissors. As by using the right emotion you may have an easier chance against an enemy with one of three emotions. Someone who is “Happy” has a higher chance of their next attack being a critical hit, but their accuracy is lowered. Someone who is “Angry” has higher attack power, but risks lowering their defense. Some who are “Sad” increase their defense, but lose their Juice whenever hit and Juice is needed perform skills and powerful attacks. I think the emotion system made sense both from a mechanical and metaphorical perspective.

Another system is the energy which builds up as you and your teammates get hit. The way this works is when you and your friends perform a basic attack, you can then spend some of your available energy to perform a follow up or team up combos. For example Kel and Hero can team up to throw a powerful ball that deals damage to all enemies, or Aubrey can look at Omori who gives her a thumbs up which gives her the “Happy” emotion and possibly do massive damage to an enemy. If your team can build up a total of ten energy points then Omori can perform an attack known as “Release Energy”. All your friends unleash a flurry of blows which deal massive amounts of damage. I really like the energy system, because it works as counter measurement and there were times when it saved my life. Enemy damages you and you have the chance to punish them back for doing so. Getting hit is not always a downside.

Finally there is the minor mechanic of how Omori may not succumb to instant death. All your friends will transform into toast when defeated during combat and they can be revived using Life Jam which is the game’s revive item. When Omori is hit with an attack that should kill him then he will not succumb. This gives you the chance to quickly heal him and continue the fight. Otherwise once Omori dies it’s game over. Omori not succumbing to death also ties into the story, and how nothing can remove him from Sunny’s current state of existence. These are the only mechanics that make the game’s combat unique. Otherwise this is a really basic RPG. Wander around a big world, open pathways, encounter goofy moments, and continue with the story.

It’s a little too simplistic, but is this a bad thing? Is it bad that Omori is too simplistic and that it focuses more on telling the story? I don’t think so. I’ve always been in favor of complexity over simplicity, because you need engaging systems and scaling difficulty to keep a player engaged with your game. If not then the game may get repetitive and the player may end up dropping the game. This is a proven fact and I learned during a class once. My friend and I were seeing the rise in popularity of a very particular simplistic multiplayer game last year, Fall Guys, and I told him it’s nice to see a small indie studio get this much attention. He then told me the statement I just made and how you need systems to keep the player engaged and playing, or else the player numbers will die out faster than a poorly marketed single player experience.

Omori is simplistic, but it isn’t a bad thing. If the gameplay is simplistic then it’s easier to have a fun time. To be distracted by what is letting us have fun. To forget about reality. To forget about the truth and the consequences Sunny has to face. That’s when it hit me. The game isn’t cheerful and simple just so the player can have fun. It’s like that because it wants the player to either forget or notice the horrifying truth when it finally smacks them in the face. I love it when games make you self aware of what is going on, because some games seem to struggle between making the player a hero and asking them if what they are doing is right. Omori is a delight to play and it’s delightful for a reason it shouldn’t be. God this was a genius manuever.

Conclusion

I wanted to make this essay as meaningful as possible. It’s been all over the place and by now it is a story breakdown. Other folks have given a crack at analyzing Omori and to be honest I think they did a better job than me. NitroRad, otherwise James, has a real video talking about Omori and he was the person that I decided to take the recommendation from. His channel is also very underrated and he’s a really nice guy, so I suggest you check him. Omori is one of those games that doesn’t look special at first, but once you sit down and play until the last section of the game it is all worth it. Every idea and plot point clicks together all so perfectly. If I were to give Omori a review score right now it would be a 10/10, because it deserves it for how well executed each idea is.

Now just because I give a game a 10/10 score doesn’t mean it’s pure perfection. It is a masterpiece and I highly recommend it, but it does have a few problems. God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds, Nier: Automata, Prey (2017), and much more. These are all games I gave 10/10 scores to and praise for what they set out to achieve, but I wouldn’t claim they are perfect games. God of War has a few annoying enemy types. Prey (2017) has gravity sections with very wonky controls. Disco Elysium aims for immersion within a deprssing setting inspired by what could happen in real life, but loses certain immersive aspects with some elements that drag it down to fantasy video game land. Outer Wilds suffer from a lack of replay value.

What are the problems I have with Omori? The bosses are all very cool and it’s nice to see how some aspects of Omori’s Headspace are fictional characters that surround Sunny in the real world. For example, Space Boyfriend who is a space pirate who rides freely across Headspace is actually a video game character in the real world. Sweetheart, a luscious ruler of a castle full of Sprout Moles and servants is a cartoon movie star in the real world and she is used to advertise candy which makes sense. The way they challenge the player isn’t through strategizing though. It’s more on what move they decide to pull off and how much damage said move will do, because some of these attacks have the ability to knock more than seventy five percent of an ally’s health off or instantly kill them. I wish you could move diagonally while traversing Headspace and the real world, but this is a limitation that comes from using RPG Maker. Some segments feel like they are dragged on longer than they should be, and you won’t use most of the charms given to you as they have minimal effects.

Some players of Omori are complaining that twenty hours is quite some time with the game, and that once they reveal how the real world is then you don’t want to go back to Headspace. Yet, you have to go through Headspace to progress with the story. Now this is where I defend the game’s runtime and how the time in Headspace is good. Twenty hours. That’s a really good run time for an indie game like this. A majority of the indie games I play usually last ten or maybe even five hours, but twenty? Man, that is an achievement. The only indie games I know that achieves a runtime that long is probably Disco Elysium, Spiritfarer, and aiming for the true ending in Hades. The reason why they are this long is because they need that time to establish their world and ideas. Omori takes its time and makes every moment worth it. It’s true that once you get to the real world you want to go back immediately, but the time in Headspace is well spent. You get to encounter funny and well written scenarios before being thrown at with the hard truth. It’s mesmerizing and when it wants to horrify you it works.

Omori is a game I found to be very special, but what does it mean to me. It had a personal effect on everyone else who played it, but how does it connect to me of all the random blokes out there? I don’t really know. My life is pretty good. I go to a lovely school, am surrounded by friends that I cherish dearly, have a family who works their heads off to provide and guide me towards the right future, and have all these games to review. Life is pretty good. Am I happy though? Well, yeah of course I am. I try to stay optimistic as possible and keep my friends enlightened all the time, but there are times when I’m usually sad. When am I sad? Knowing my lungs are terrible and I can’t be as athletic like a majority of the kids I see at school. Knowing I’m not as smart as other people and that it takes me a really long time before I fully understand a topic. Knowing my friends got their own lives and that they have their future planned ahead of them while I don’t. Me having to worry about the future that lives for me Not knowing who I am and what I want to be. Fearing that I may not be as successful as my parents want me to be. Panicking whenever I begin to mess up a goal set before me. Knowing that all my closest friends will forget me. Thinking people hate me for how annyoing I am and how I spend a majority of my free time talking about stupid stuff. Telling myself that even if I get a good career which will provide, will it be a job I enjoy? Do people hate me? Why do they hate me? They must have good reasons to hate me. Now that I think about it all I ever try to do is say smart and compelling things. What happens instead is me saying what I didn’t intent and looking really stupid.

My mind begins to rush as I try to think of something else to say. I’m starting to look even stupider. My mind rushes to the red zone and I say that is mean and outrageous. I look terrible. Like an absolute piece of sh*t that doesn’t deserve to live. People hate me. I see why people hate me. I want to forget. I want to forget that wan’t me and move on. That’s me though. I’ll have to live with the stupid decisons I make in my life and that I can’t keep up what makes me happy forever. There are hundreds of voices rushing through my mind giving me hundreds of thoughts. It gets a little stressful at times, but you get used to it. Omori was a game I found to be very compelling and was one of the best narratives I’ve experienced recently. I can find a lot of people sympathizing with this game and appreciating what it represents. It is a wonderful story and the writers had good intentions. OMOCAT and her team spent several months slaving away at this game, and even though there were the minor controversies I’d say the final product was worth it. Omori is more than just another RPG Maker, it is a work of art and a masterpiece. That’s why I gave it such a high review score, because it deserves it for all the hard work. Thank you all for listening to why I thought this game was important. If someone who worked on this game is reading this review then I would like to thank them for helping Omori come into existence. I wish OMOCAT the best of luck for any plans she has for the future and wish her to have a lovely day. I also like to wish my friends to have a lovely day, because they are the ones I look up to the most when I am feeling down. Have a wonderful future everyone.