When The Moon Hits Your Eye Like A Big Pizza Pie, That's Omori.

[rionaleonhart]

I just finished Omori. By 'just' I mean I'm literally sitting on the 'thanks for playing' screen as I write this post introduction, unwilling to move on.

God. How do I talk about this game?

Okay, let's start with a basic overview. Omori is an interesting game! It's a retro pixel-art RPG that blends charm and horror, which naturally invites comparisons to Earthbound and Undertale, although Omori puts greater emphasis on the horror. But, while it clearly draws inspiration from Earthbound, Omori very much feels like its own thing, with its own style. I love the hand-drawn character portraits and battle visuals.

Beyond that, I'm going to get both spoilery and personal. This entry contains discussion of bereavement by suicide, both in fiction and in real life.



The emotion-based status effects are explained early on. You're told about three - HAPPY, SAD and ANGRY - and these three effects have a rock-paper-scissors relationship. So you naturally assume that those are the only three status effects characters experience in battle. I wasn't at all prepared the first time the game threw me into battle against something unknown and terrifying, and I saw that my character was AFRAID.

I don't want to go too deeply into personal matters here, but, as someone who's lost friends to suicide, some of the sentiments expressed by the characters felt painfully familiar. The confusion over why it happened, and just having to accept that you'll never fully understand it. The horror of feeling it might happen again and not knowing how to stop it, no matter how clearly you see it coming; that's a very specific thing I've experienced personally but haven't seen depicted in fiction before. The need to forgive the people you've lost, for them and for yourself. In some respects, it felt like this game was speaking directly to me.

Maybe it's not possible to speak about these things without getting too personal.

I can get a little touchy over the depiction of suicide in fiction, but I felt Omori was a game that really understood the subjects it wanted to tackle. It seemed to be approaching these topics with a genuine desire to explore them, rather than just looking for a convenient source of shock or drama or tragedy.

and I wrote all that before the twist, holy fucking shit

that doesn't negate anything I wrote, this game still resonates with me and feels like it's written with care

but holy FUCKING shit I was not expecting that

And the photo album was such a clever way to convey it, too! No dialogue; just the slow, creeping realisation that the photographs we're picking up don't seem to match up with the story we know. Honestly might be one of the most impactfully deployed twists I've ever seen in fiction.

'Just because you've done something bad... doesn't make you bad.' Oh, Sunny. This poor kid.

God, I've only just recognised the significance of the hand creatures that attack you in white space. I wonder if it was also an intentional thematic choice to make the indicator when you're choosing options a pointing hand, rather than, say, an arrow.

I got very emotional during the musical montage in the final battle.



Omori is a game about escapism, and about being unable to escape. It's often charming and funny; it is also disturbing and upsetting. It troubled my sleep at points. It's a game I found myself thinking about when I wasn't playing it: not in a fannish way, but in a haunted way.

At one point I felt physically ill when I realised I couldn't stall any longer; I was going to have to progress the plot, and I was terrified of what I might discover. In fact, there were multiple points where I wanted to do anything but advance.

I don't know if 'I loved it' or 'I enjoyed it' is the right phrase. At times, the best word for the experience is 'horrible'. I enjoyed it at times, and, at the times the experience was unpleasant, it was unpleasant for the right reasons. I really liked this game. I hated this game. I found it fascinating. I'd recommend it, but I don't know who I should recommend it to.

I suppose my recommendation would be 'take the content warnings seriously, but I recommend Omori if you enjoy a) retro-style pixel-art JRPGs that blend charm with a heavy dose of horror, and b) getting kicked in the gut'.

I'm glad I played Omori. Maybe that's all I can say. I think it's a very impactful, very well-made game, and it resonated with me in ways I wish it didn't.

I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while.

Comments

[sonofgodzilla]

As someone who's obsession with Higurashi has sort of blossomed over the last few years, Omori has been on my mind. I don't really know anything so forgive me for not reading your whole review, but I'm going to re-address this when the physical version comes out for Switch so if you see me talking about this in December or whatever, please remind me to come back and read this!

[rionaleonhart]

I hope you enjoy Omori, if 'enjoy' is the right word! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[pauraque]

I've actually never played a JRPG, but I do like getting kicked in the gut by video games, so I am adding this to my wishlist.

[rionaleonhart]

I hope you have a good/terrible time!

[i_wish_to_remain_nameless]

Oh hey, OMORI is one of the few games I've actually played through to the end. I hadn't really considered it, but it does seem like the sort of thing you'd be interested in.
I feel mixed on the pacing. It makes a lot of sense thematically for the headspace sections to be a bit padded and not as emotionally engaging as the real-world sections, but it still means some of the longer ones can drag a bit (mostly Sweetheart's Palace which I kept getting lost and stuck in). However the presentation is excellent, the game does a very good job characterizing Sunny despite him being a silent protagonist, and the twist recontextualizes a lot of things in an interesting way.

[rionaleonhart]

I actually ended up cutting a pacing complaint from this entry because I felt it didn't fit the tone:

I wasn't a huge fan of the sequences in the 'real world' where you're trotting around and doing a bunch of sidequests. The sidequests themselves were fine, and I can see the point of them: you're just spending the day with friends, doing nothing in particular, before you have to move away. I just don't like it when games throw a bunch of missable sidequests at you at once; because they're missable, I feel obliged to drop everything and do all of them immediately, which feels like it slows down plot progression. One or two sidequests at a time would be a pleasant distraction; ten sidequests at a time are a chore. This was also a problem I had with Final Fantasy XVI.

With Omori, there's the additional problem that you have to try to keep track of where you've already been and what you've already done in your head, which means I feel I have to get all the real-world side content done in one play session, rather than being able to spread it out.

I was talking about Faraway Town, but, thinking about it, you're right; some of the headspace sections also felt like they dragged on a bit. I found those less frustrating because at least the more linear structure in the headspace meant I always felt like I was moving forward, and I could more easily take breaks without worrying about forgetting where I was. When I hit a Faraway Town section, I'd go 'okay, better set aside a solid couple of hours so I can make sure I get everything done' and then not touch the game for months; I find 'you can't take breaks from this play session' such a daunting concept!

I was also impressed by Sunny's characterisation! It's relatively rare for silent protagonists to interest me, but I definitely ended up connecting with Sunny. Maybe I should write a post at some point about silent protagonists who work for me and ones who don't.

[i_wish_to_remain_nameless]

The side quests in the Faraway Town segments didn't bother me that much when I played because I didn't really go out of my way to do all of them but I do think that they could have benefitted from a quest log like you get for the dream world side quests or some other way to more easily track your progress on them. I honestly don't feel like I missed out that much by not doing most of them except for the recyclepath dungeon because what I've seen of that one looks kind of funny.
I do think that some of the missable content could be better signposted (I completely skipped Orange Oasis on my first playthrough because I never went back to the train station and saw that I could take the train now) and I think that the scene you can get with Kel and Sunny in the graveyard after the Aubrey fight does so much to flesh out both Kel and Hero's characters that it's kind of weird how easy it is to just miss completely because you don't even know that you can go there at that point in the game.
Sunny's characterization is interesting because you get a lot of his opinions on things through stuff like how the Headspace versions of the gang differ from their real world counterparts aside from being way less traumatized (especially notable with Basil), what some of the items do (for example I think the present making the user angry because it's not what they wanted suggests that he wasn't a huge fan of the violin gift) as well as more conventional avenues like the flavor text for inspecting different objects (like his bed ratings) and the Foe Facts entries.

[halfcactus]

Oof I've had Omori in my to-play list for forever but I'm so sensitive to horror and unpleasant feelings, so I guess I'll tread with caution if I do play it. Thanks so much for this write-up!

[rionaleonhart]

It's definitely a game to approach with caution! The 2D graphics made it easier for me, though; I've had to stop playing cinematic horror games like the Dark Pictures Anthology because I find them so stressful, but I could handle Omori, even if there were still aspects I found rough.

[scytale]

I think I have to check this out now!

[rionaleonhart]

It's interesting to see who takes this post as a warning and who takes it as a recommendation! I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts if you do.

[sushiflop]

This post made me add it to my Steam wishlist! I love a gut-punch.

[rionaleonhart]

I hope you enjoy this agonising thing, if you do get to play it!

[lokifan]

Oh wow. Hmm.

Adding to my list, if cautiously!

[rionaleonhart]

It's hilarious to me that four different people read my 'this was a horrible experience' post and went 'I should play this'. I hope you enjoy(?) it; I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[zarla]

THIS MADE ME PLAY OMORI BTW
maybe i'll make a post about it

[rionaleonhart]

I saw this comment and immediately shot to your Tumblr to see if you'd posted about it, and was richly rewarded with Basil and Omori in flower crowns. Delightful! I love the colouring and the delicate little details.

Your Livejournal posts about playing Undertale were the reason I picked the game up back in 2015, so it feels strangely fitting that my Dreamwidth got you to play a different horror-tinged Earthbound-inspired RPG all these years later. The circle of life! I am almost certain that's how the circle of life works.

I enthusiastically encourage you to make a post about it; I'd love to hear all your thoughts!

[zarla]

haha THEN IT'S COME FULL CIRCLE...

There's so much in it to dig into! I got a bunch of the endings and now I'm doing the alternate route, although I haven't had the spare time really to check it out lately... when I get the chance I want to see it through! I want the WHOLE PICTURE

[lavendre]

Oh gosh, your review definitely makes me want to play this! I've had Omori on my steam wishlist for forever at this point. Will definitely be approaching it with caution when I get to it now too, but I always enjoy a clever and thoughtful narrative with difficult subjects.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

[rionaleonhart]

I love that we've both opted to use Utena icons when talking about this game. On the surface, they're very different things, but Omori and Utena do share that blend of 'playful, colourful and surreal' with 'dark, horrifying and surreal'. I'd love to hear your thoughts if/when you play it!

Spoilers!

[abyssal_sylph]

I didn't play OMORI, I watched a therapist / counselor play it & made it confusing for myself because I read some fanfiction that didn't spoil the game but also kind of did (but like, in an incomplete way).

I did enjoy the story & characters, one random thing I really like about it (though I might be overthinking it), is that Aubrey pushing Basil in the lake is a weird parallel to Sunny pushing Mari. I much prefer the Good Ending for obvious reasons, but sometimes the Knife Ending haunts me & makes me wanna cry.

Re: Spoilers!

[rionaleonhart]

I watched a therapist / counselor play it

For a moment, I thought you meant you watched your therapist play it, and I went 'wow, that's an unusual style of therapy' before realising it was probably a Let's Player who happened to be a therapist.

Aubrey pushing Basil in the lake is a weird parallel to Sunny pushing Mari.

I don't think you're overthinking it! I wonder whether, when Sunny confesses the truth, it hits Aubrey that she could have been in a similar position if they hadn't managed to rescue Basil.

Re: Spoilers!

[abyssal_sylph]

TBH if I could have a therapist who plays OMORI with me I would. But yea it was simply a let's player who used her degree to think about the game (she played the game blind & thought some of her thoughts were pretty interesting).

I know right! I do think Aubrey would still need time & space to process the truth obviously. But I think she might actually be the first of the group to forgive them; since she would be painfully familiar with the situation (& as one fic put it "at least Sunny didn't chase Mari to the stairs").