#game-review/rpg-maker #jrpg #finishedgame2022 # Omori  [Console:: PC] [Status:: Beaten] [Approximate Start Date:: 2022-06-27] [Finish Date:: 2022-10-10] [Clear Time:: 34h 28m 53s] [Total Play Time:: 34h 28m 53s] [nReplays:: 0] ## [Rating:: 78] I think Omori is a pretty good game with aspects that one can justifiably criticize. For example, with the ideas of Omori being a "Horror" game, I was most scared playing Omori when it didn't know what to expect and when I reached Black Space I kind of could figure that scary stuff was going to happen, and I could therefore prepare mentally for it. # Playthrough Notes Streamed the game, providing voices to lines where possible. This is especially fun since there's a *very* colorful cast of characters. I also tended to fight most enemy encounters I happened upon, which was easy to do given the nature of streaming. As a reminder to myself: - Happy beats Angry - Angry beats Sad - Sad beats Happy # My Thoughts - [[The Real World and the mundanity of the space in Omori is diegetic]] ## Mood Whiplash This game's saccharine parts are so amusing. They're lighthearted, funny and just enough to make me lower my guard so that when there *are* jumpscares or other unsettling moments, they hit **that much harder**. The energy that this game carries and conveys is fun when it wants to be, and I applaud it for that. You know, you'd think I'd learn to not look in mirrors at night time, but here we are, always doing just that. Many times, and getting scared every time. The issue I then have with the dreamworld is that a lot of the game, especially the early parts feel very "lol random xD" and quirky without being of much substance. I understand why the game does this approach, making the dream world saccharine, and the real world fairly boring, (to make the dark parts way darker in contrast), but I know that if someone were to pick the game up and not know what they were in for, they would be a little put off by the sugar-sweet 2008 internet humor kind of quirkiness. ## Church fight I really liked the church fight from a thematic perspective. No one in the fight actually wants to be fighting in that spot. Kel and Sunny are there because supposedly Aubrey stole Basil's photo album, while Aubrey is there because for her, the church is a place of peace where she can mourn. Neither of them want to be fighting each other and yet, they're brought to conflict because neither of them is necessarily in the right. And the music that plays throughout is a song that just feels off-putting. It feels not quite right. It doesn't get your blood pumping and make you excited for the fight. It feels remorseful. In the disdain of the whole scene, I realized that I loved it. Honestly one of my favorite parts of a game in a while. ## Sweetheart Sweetheart is such a hateable villain, and I really enjoy how the game makes her excessively obnoxious. Her boss fight is especially cool where she makes everyone angry, and then makes herself happy, thus giving her the emotional advantage. Ultimately when she goes manic, she looks all deep-fried and funny, and I think it captures the intense energy of the whole fight. Really fun boss fight, especially with Worlds End Valentine playing. I'm kind of underwhelmed with her death at the hands of being eaten by Humphrey, but I guess that's just how it goes. ### Decoding the Roboheart Message > V2hhdCBpcyB0aGlzIGZlZWxpbmcgSSBoYXZlIG5ldmVyIGZlbHQg YmVmb3JlPyBJIGZlZWwgYWxsIHdhcm0gYW5kIGZ1enp5IGluc2 lkZSEgSSB3YW50IGEgaHVnISBQbGVhc2UgaHVnIG1lISBJIGFtI GluIG5lZWQgb2YgYWZmZWN0aW9uIGFuZCBsb3ZlISA= from Base 64 gives: > What is this feeling I have never felt before? I feel all warm and fuzzy inside! I want a hug! Please hug me! I am in need of affection and love! ## Deep Well A funky zone where after walking along the comfy lo-fi highway from the Last Resort, this space feels like where the game is finally saying "ok, you've had enough fun, stop dissociating", and then the game dumps some lore about the Headspace. During the lore dump I got the immediate feeling that we're not going to be having much more "fun" here. And then we meet Humphrey. The tracks "Aquifer", "Numbers", and "Sinking", are all incredibly ethereal and progressive get more and more hypnotic the deeper the player goes into the Deep Well. ## One Day Left I love the dark stuff for the sake of being dark, I mean, I dunno, it's just very dark but fittingly so. ## Tracing Themes ### Anxiety as a Physical Manifestation The player experiences Sunny's anxiety to physical manifestations over the course of the game. These are eventually overcome to advance through zones in the headspace. These events all seem to take place on the stairs inside of Sunny's house, with the ghost (Mari?) at the top. - Dark Hands - First seen when Sunny is hungry at night and you have to descend the dark stairs into the living room, and hands slowly start surrounding Sunny during the descent. Photorealistic hand appears halfway through. - When approaching the very tall ladder, but disappear when OMORI is surrounded by his friends. - Seems to appear around spots associated with a fear of heights. - Dark Tendrils (spider legs) - What kidnaps Basil at the start of the game - "You are afraid of spiders" followed by the screen darkening and tendrils of darkness like a web are initially seen. - Dark Hair (?) - When jumping in the water to save Basil, Sunny has Thalassaphobia - It's clear that it's meant to look like someone drowning but also seaweed. - Top of the stairs - It makes sense that all of these events take place at the top of the stairs as Sunny walks down them as he pushed Mari down them which ultimately killed her. ## Mari's Theme <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7GIWV__qx4M" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Tracing Mari's main theme in the game is that as far as I can tell, it doesn't change. and yet, as I have started through the game, it has changed over time. when I first heard it, the song was nice and simple, a little cute, peaceful. But as I have played through the game (as of 8/13/22), the theme seems a lot more melancholic and wistful, longing for days when my sister was still alive, for example. Happy, but sad because you know that the happy times this song applies to have long passed. ## Black Space It was hyped up as something really disturbing and concerning, but I found it to be about the same as some of the things I saw in [[Yume Nikki]]. It's clear that the inspiration for Black Space 100% comes from [[Yume Nikki]] and the nexus and it's branching worlds. I still dig it though, it's a way for the player to see how OMORI really feels about Basil (he hates Basil). this whole stretch just becomes the "let's abuse Basil!" stretch of the game, I think it's because Basil knows OMORI's secret to some extent, and if Basil can be bullied into submission, the secret can be kept safe. Apparently there's a LOT more of Black space to discover should I want to. # Favorite Moments / Memories - The Computer Virus boss in the junkyard is especially amusing with its "99% complete" attack. - The Aubrey fight in the church. I didn't want to fight her, and she probably didn't want to fight us. So in the end, is it really anyone's fault that they're not friends anymore? - It's so easy to hate Sweetheart, I love it. (Compounded after her boss fight) - Just the vibe of transitioning from Last Resort to Deeper Well being generally ethereally unnerving. ## Music - By Your Side - Wandering Rose - World's End Valentine - Bready Steady Go - Gator Gambol - Clams Clams Clams - Last Resort - Underwater Prom Queens ## Mirror Jumpscares: 1. "Yep I'm staying inside" at 57:42 2. https://clips.twitch.tv/AffluentPiliableEggRuleFive-ZAw-0_zqeWQT3yhN 3. https://clips.twitch.tv/TiredPowerfulPlumageCurseLit-aZH0wacRJV0j2QbI 4. In Humphrey 5. Two after the Black Space adventure # What were you doing when not playing this? - Summer 2022 into the start of my second year of my PhD # Relevant Links