Omori Review v2 [PDF]

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Game Narrative Review ====================



Game Title: OMORI Platform: PC/MAC Genre: RPG, Horror Release Date: December 25th, 2020 Developer: OMOCAT, LLC Publisher: OMOCAT, LLC, PLAYISM Game Writer/Creative Director/Narrative Designer: OMOCAT



Overview OMORI is an RPGMaker game set in the 90’s detailing the story of a self-struggle against anxiety, depression, coping, guilt, and overcoming loss and past mistakes. It begins in WHITE SPACE, a place where the player, known as Omori, has been spending their entire existence in. A door eventually appears in WHITE SPACE, one that leads to the world of HEADSPACE. Here, Omori is met with his friends: Kel, Hero, and Aubrey. Excited to adventure in the world of HEADSPACE, the team suddenly find themselves in a search for Omori’s best friend, Basil, as he goes missing. With the support of his team and his loving sister Mari watching along the way, they set out to find their lost friend. Things, however, begin to take a turn, as the player finds themselves awake in their bed. Not as Omori, but instead as Sunny: the true protagonist of the game. Sunny’s family (what’s left of it, that is) is planning to move away in three days. It’s been four years since Sunny has even left his own home, with only his mother to accompany him as he endlessly keeps himself deluded within HEADSPACE. On the main route of the game, Sunny is awoken to knocking at the door, only to find his old friend Kel inviting Sunny to hang out in Faraway Town just a little longer before he moves away. From here, the reality of everything begins to reveal itself. Mari had passed away. Kel, Hero, Aubrey and Basil are not the fun-loving, perfect friends they used to be. HEADSPACE is nothing more than a fantasy of what Sunny wants to hold onto, with his perfect friends and a world built off of his imagination. Thus, it’s up to Sunny to use these last three days not only make things right in the real world, but to entirely overcome his anxieties, explore HEADSPACE, and discover the truth of the memories he’s repressed all these years.



Characters ● SUNNY o The silent protagonist of the real world. A lithe, black-haired teenage male wearing a vest and collared shirt and shorts. Sunny is aloof, but very appreciative of and thankful for his friends. Sunny used to enjoy playing the violin as his sister Mari played piano but refused to acknowledge it 1



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after Mari’s passing. Sunny had become frustrated with her constant desire to practice their duet and in a fit of anger shoved her away, only for her to tumble down the stairs and die from her injuries. In a panic, he took Mari’s body and hung her in the tree, which had manifested itself into the SOMETHING that haunts Sunny (and Omori) to this day. In combat, Sunny is incredibly frail and is more of a burden than a contribution. OMORI o The silent protagonist of HEADSPACE, and foil of Sunny. Compared to the rest of the main characters and their portrayal within HEADSPACE, Omori is completely black and white, detailed as a younger version of Sunny wearing a black tank-top, striped shorts, and black socks. Sunny reflects his guilt of himself by portraying Omori as selfish and reserved, as seen both in gameplay and in story with his lack of interaction with other characters. In combat, Omori wields a knife and is extremely powerful, even able to withstand being defeated multiple times. Omori is also known as the DREAMER and is acknowledged for creating HEADSPACE as a way to distract Sunny from facing the reality of his world. BASIL o Sunny’s best friend. A soft-spoken, frail and shy kid whose passion is in growing plants and photography. Before Mari’s death, Basil would often photograph their whole friend group and keep it in an album, cherishing and immortalizing their time together. In HEADSPACE, Basil goes missing after Omori and his friends visit his home. In the real world, Basil witnessed Mari’s death and Sunny’s attempt to hide it all, the two becoming bound by their burden of knowledge. Haunted by his guilt as he tries to cope with Sunny leaving in just three days, he secretly plots to take his own life. SOMETHING o A recurring, non-speaking shadow creature. SOMETHING is simply a manifestation of Sunny and Basil’s troubles, each of their “SOMETHING” taking a different shape. Sunny’s is shaped in a figure that reminds him of Mari’s deceased body, while Basil’s are formed of several dark strands as if encasing him in vines. SOMETHING appears at random throughout the story but serves as a reminder of Sunny’s truth. MARI o Sunny’s loving, deceased older sister. Although never seen in the real world, Mari lives on as Omori’s guide and a place of safety with her several picnics placed throughout HEADSPACE. Identified by her long, dark hair and always smiling face, Mari is selfless, loving, dedicated, and a motherly figure for Sunny and his friends. After giving up softball due to a weak leg, she picked up the piano and watched over Sunny and his friends. She died on the day she and Sunny would perform a duet at a recital.



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o One of Sunny’s friends who also accompanies Omori in HEADSPACE. Identified mainly by her long hair and bowtie, Aubrey acts in a childish, yet physically strong, tomboyish, and independent manner. She’s constantly fighting with Kel, looking to Hero for advice, and holds romantic feelings for Omori (and therefore Sunny). In the real world, Aubrey is revealed to be living in a broken home and often looked up to Mari and Hero as the parental figures she never had. After Mari’s passing, her father left her, and her mother does nothing but stare endlessly at the TV. Dying her hair pink in a promise to Mari and wielding a bat riddled with nails, she chooses violence over feelings. She still has a soft spot for Sunny, even after all of the years that have passed. ● KEL o One of Sunny’s friends who also accompanies Omori in HEADSPACE, and Hero’s younger brother. A happy-go-lucky, sporty kid who wears a colorful checkered shirt in HEADSPACE and a basketball uniform in the real world. He often likes to show off and act cocky, teasing Aubrey and always letting his curiosity get the best of him. Kel might be a little dimwitted but always tries bringing happiness into any situation he can. After Mari’s passing, Kel subconsciously preoccupied himself with sports and athletics rather than help his closest friends cope with the incident. ● HERO o One of Sunny’s friends who also accompanies Omori in HEADSPACE, and Kel’s older brother. Hero’s mainly known for being much taller due to his age compared to the others, with short spiky hair and a charismatic demeanor. Hero often helped Mari watch over Sunny, Kel, and Aubrey while they played. Hero often acts as the voice of reason for the four and often provides support through his wits, maturity, and charm. Hero had a crush on Mari, and the two often flirted together. He was unable to get back onto his feet for weeks after her passing, but eventually moved on to study in medical school, dropping his passion for cooking.



Breakdown OMORI’s plot is split across two major worlds, the world of HEADSPACE and the world of Faraway Town, with Omori and Sunny being the respective protagonists. Each cycle between each world shows two versions of Sunny: the godlike and selfcentered deity (Omori) and the shy, aloof, and troubled teen. Each side adds to the overall narrative as Sunny struggles to face his fears and tries to reconnect with the real world, all the while Omori attempts to indirectly coerce Sunny into remaining in HEADSPACE forever. While Omori’s side is whimsical and playful, constantly jumping around different fantastical realms inspired from Sunny’s real-world memories, Sunny’s is much slower with very real and natural-feeling events. As Omori continues to travel deeper and deeper in HEADSPACE, the limitations of dreams begin to tear apart and lose cohesion, Omori’s “friends” even forget about their quest for Basil in order to retain their defining characters.



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What makes these stark contrasts even more interesting to delve into is because of how often the player is forced to switch between Sunny and Omori’s worlds. It shows how different Sunny and his friends are in the real world after all this time has passed, while still retaining some of those core traits that Omori still portrays inside of HEADSPACE. While a lot of these discoveries can be found within the main plot, there is an abundance of extra story told through side-quests and exploring around both HEADSPACE and Faraway Town. The RPG elements of Omori aren’t just a secondary piece to the story either, as combat within the game holds an extremely special feature: The follow-up system. The follow-up system upholds character traits and throughout the game becomes stronger, showing a strengthening bond between Omori’s team of friends. Even Omori, despite being an antagonistic foil to Sunny, begins to connect more with the friends he’s created and bonds better with them as their follow-ups support Omori. Overall, Omori’s narrative structure is linear and fed through dialogue, but allows the player to theory-craft and explore with an incredible amount of “show, don’t tell” methodology.



Strongest Element The strongest element of OMORI, with its two branching narratives that constantly meet back together, is how each branch interacts with one another. As Sunny becomes refamiliarized with the real world and his real friends, Omori loses hold of his own nature which eventually leads to the climax with the two standing off against one another. His razor-sharp knife begins to dull and become harder to use and his selfish and emotionless nature in follow-up attacks become more inclusive and friendly. While blatant, what it leads to is what gives the player a simple “Aha!” moment as their curiosity is piqued and they begin to put pieces together. Just creating a change that affects gameplay awakens the player to discover and explore more, which helps bring attention to all of the other well-crafted elements within the game’s story.



Unsuccessful Element The most unsuccessful narrative element is found in the game’s alternate route, known as the Hikkikomori route. The Hikkikomori route creates a different story where Sunny never answers the door for Kel on the first day, thus no longer triggering the events of the main story. While it provides a great amount of contrast and paints a different reality, its endings are incredibly underwhelming compared to the main story. In fact, the endings available in the Hikkikomori route are only the “neutral” ones that can also appear within the normal route. Had the game been given more time, I fully believe that OMOCAT could have put more depth into the extra characters and world that are only accessible through the Hikkikomori route while also providing more unique endings.



Highlight The absolute highlight of OMORI was its finale. On the final night, after Sunny, Kel, Aubrey, and Hero all reunite as friends and spend their last hours together, the team heads to Basil’s house to sleep over. Basil, too coy to even sleep with them in the living room, heads to bed while the other four stay together. In the middle of the night, Sunny awakens and hears noises from Basil’s room. Basil and Sunny, in a mad twist of their 4



relationship, deludedly begin to attack one another in an attempt to rid the other of the SOMETHING that lurks behind them. Throughout the game, Sunny learned skills to help cope with his fears: CALM DOWN, FOCUS, PERSEVERE, and OVERCOME. They were easy to use and instantly remedied the situation, but the moment that Sunny tries to use them in his struggle against Basil… none of them work. It leaves the player feeling truly hopeless and lost as Basil slashes Sunny’s eye with a pair of gardening shears. Everything goes black as Sunny blacks out. When he awakens, it’s no longer in WHITE SPACE this time as Omori. It’s Sunny this time on an empty highway. Here, Sunny begins to remember his past with all of his friends. It’s a brief respite in the chaos of everything, with the highway ending with a single door. Sunny finds himself backstage of an empty concert hall, and solemnly plays the violin that had been manifested to him. He collapses to the floor in tears with no partner to accompany him. Everything goes white as Sunny finds himself in WHITE SPACE, where it’s time to finally fight against Omori. Omori slashes at Sunny with his knife, berating him for being a useless human and twisted for killing Mari while Sunny elegantly swipes back with the bow of his violin. Sunny manages to hold on by savoring the wishes of his closest friends as Omori does not, then refuses to succumb. In the end, Sunny is bested, but with one last chance to hold on he picks up his violin and begins to play once again. Piano fills the air as Mari manifests herself one last time, being the missing link to his duet. The two play an elegant piece together as memories of the past, the people he finds so important to him reveal the wonderful life he’s lived. In the end, the two embrace each other, Omori drops his knife, and fades into nothingness. Sunny has finally learned to forgive himself, move beyond the need to forget, and accepts the reality of the world. He faces the door in WHITE SPACE, turns around and bows, only for him to then awaken in the hospital. It’s a beautiful climax that gives a bittersweet acceptance of the world and is a cinematic, tear-jerking scene to witness.



Critical Reception OMORI’s reception is extremely positive, with Steam reviews holding an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating out of its near 11,500 reviews. Online reviewers on reputable websites, while a little more critical, still hold the game in high regards in its story and narrative elements. Destructoid, giving it an 8.5/10, does state that the story does have some trouble with pacing and citing that the second of the three acts in the game “Can only be described as a slog”. As for PCGamer’s 8/10 review, they do recognize that the game’s tone becomes “A little grim and unnerving towards the end of the game”, which for some may be unappealing or something they might not want to continue playing. Most of the game’s critique comes from the gameplay more than the story, as the old RPGMaker engine is extremely primitive in our modern-day games market.



Lessons ● Even if a game is purely fiction, it’s important to make the characters feel as real and convincing as possible given their traits and environment. Had the real world of Faraway Town had characters that were just as cheery and confident as the



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ones in HEADSPACE, this game’s narrative would have been no more than a stereotypical children’s game with adult visual elements. ● If the player is a silent protagonist, it’s absolutely imperative that they be characterized through as many means as possible, be it through quick hints in dialogue, creating a foil, or both. ● Not everything about the game’s story needs to be tied to dialogue or the main storyline. Allowing the player to explore and discover some of the story itself is important. It’s a game, not a movie, so don’t treat the narrative as if the player will sit there and just accept it all.



Summation I was blown away by the amount of creativity, detail, and depth that the world of OMORI and its characters were given. While it starts itself as the stereotypical “cutesy game turned horror through subversion” and tying itself into another indie game that speaks out about mental health, OMORI did a brilliant job breaking past these stereotypes while simultaneously becoming an exemplar game in its genre. Every little bit of dialogue, every interaction between characters in the overworld and in combat, and how everything slowly pieces itself together into a bittersweet finale left me in tears. OMORI’s narrative is one that makes someone feel reminiscent of something they’ve never experienced and teaches an incredible lesson of the need to consider people and their emotions holistically rather than giving a singular approach, which is why it deserves every last ounce of praise it receives. Games like these, the horror and surrealist RPGMaker games such as OMORI, LISA, Hylics, OFF, Yume Nikki, and so on have been an online phenomenon for years. It’s an absolute blessing to see that OMORI gives yet another breath of life into these types of games, and it’s a sign of more creative masterpieces like this to come in the future.



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