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Omori (video game)

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Omori
The cover art Omori is shown. On the top there is a logo that shows the text "OMORI" in a filtered hand-written text, with a black lightbulb making up the counter in the middle "O", on bottom a young person in a hand drawn art style is depicted.
Developer(s)Omocat LLC
Publisher(s)Playism
Director(s)Omocat
Artist(s)
  • Omocat
  • Charlene Lu
  • Emily Shaw
Composer(s)
  • bo en
  • Jami Lynne
  • Pedro Silva
EngineRPG Maker
Platform(s)
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows, macOS
December 25, 2020
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
TBA
Genre(s)Role-playing, Psychological Horror
Mode(s)Single-player

Omori (stylized as OMORI) is a 2020 role-playing video game developed by indie studio Omocat.[a] Based on the director's Omori (ひきこもり, hikikomori) webcomic series, it was released in December 2020. Prominently featuring concepts such as anxiety and depression, the game has psychological horror elements. In the story, the player controls a hikikomori boy named Sunny and his dream world alter-ego Omori. They explore both the real world and the surreal dream world to overcome their fears and secrets. How they interact depends on choices made by the player, resulting in one of several endings. The game's turn-based battle system includes unconventional status effects based on the characters' emotions.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the game was delayed numerous times, and experienced several development difficulties. It was finally released for Microsoft Windows and macOS six years after its initial funding, and the developers also announced plans for a Japanese translation as well as ports to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Omori was acclaimed by critics, who lauded it for its graphics, narrative elements, soundtrack, and depiction of anxiety and depression, favorably comparing it to EarthBound and Yume Nikki. The game went on to be nominated for several awards, winning DreamHack's "Daringly Dramatic" category in 2021.

Gameplay

Emotion chart in Omori. Happy beats Angry, Angry beats Sad, and Sad beats Happy.
Omori utilizes a rock-paper-scissors type system during battles in which certain emotions are strong or weak against each other.

Omori's gameplay is inspired by traditional Japanese role-playing games.[1] The player controls a party of four characters: Omori, Aubrey, Kel, and Hero, each with their own skills in battle and the overworld.[2][1]

When exploring the overworld, the game is played from a top-down perspective.[3] It features side-quests and puzzles for the player to solve, which allow them to gain rewards and skills.[4][5][2] Weapons and items which benefit the party can be obtained throughout the game, including via purchasing them using the game's currency, Clams.[6][7][5] Outside of battle, the party can heal and save by encountering a picnic blanket, associated with Omori's older sister Mari.[7]

Battles are played out in a turn-based format, where each party member performs a move.[4] After attacking, party members can work together to perform "follow up" attacks.[7] Characters and enemies have heart,[6] which functions as health points; if damage is taken, it decreases, and if it reaches zero, the character is defeated and turns into toast.[5] The juice meter is used to perform skills, special abilities which aid in battle.[6]

Unlike most role-playing games, status effects are based on a three-pointed emotion system.[8] A party member or opponent's emotion can change throughout the course of a battle, usually due to moves by another party member or enemy.[5][2] Neutral is the baseline and has no effects, Angry increases attack but lowers defense, Sad increases defense but lowers speed, and Happy increases speed but lowers accuracy.[6] Emotions are either strong or weak against each other – Happy beats Angry, Angry beats Sad, and Sad beats Happy. Additionally, higher-intensity variants of each emotion also exist.[1]

Plot

The titular main character, Omori, awakens in the "White Space", a small white room he has lived in "for as long as [he] can remember." He opens a door and enters the vibrant world of "Headspace", where he meets his older sister Mari, and his friends Aubrey, Kel, Hero, and Basil. They look through shared memories in Basil's photo album and decide to head to his house. Along the way, the album is damaged when Kel and Aubrey scuffle. Upon seeing an unfamiliar photo fall from it, Basil panics, and Omori is suddenly teleported back to White Space alone. He stabs himself with his knife, revealing the previous events to be the dreams of a teenage boy, Sunny.

Waking up in bed, Sunny discovers he is moving out in three days, and goes downstairs for a midnight snack. Confronted by a nightmarish hallucination, he dispels it by calming down, and returns to bed with his steak knife. Awakening once again in White Space, Omori reunites with Aubrey, Kel and Hero, and the four learn that Basil has gone missing. Deciding to rescue him, they travel to various parts of Headspace to search for him, with Mari helping along the way. The group gradually gets distracted by various situations they encounter, and their memories of Basil and their goal of rescuing him slowly disappear.

Meanwhile, in the waking world, Mari committed suicide four years ago, which led to the friend group diverging. Although Kel and Hero managed to recover somewhat emotionally, Sunny became a shut-in estranged from his old friends, Aubrey left after feeling betrayed by the group's apparent indifference to Mari's death, and Basil became neurotic and paranoid. Kel knocks on Sunny's door in an attempt to reconnect one last time. The player can either ignore Kel or answer the door; if they choose the former, Sunny stays inside for the remaining three days, doing chores and focusing on his dreams instead of reconciling.

If the latter option is chosen, Sunny and Kel discover Aubrey attacking Basil. They discover that she stole Basil's real-life photo album, ostensibly to stop him from vandalizing it. After fighting Aubrey again and retrieving the album, they return it to Basil with some photos missing, but he lets Sunny keep it. While eating dinner together, Basil is suddenly mortified to learn of Sunny's impending departure, revealing that he has similar hallucinations. In another fight the next day, Aubrey accidentally pushes Basil into a lake. Sunny tries to rescue him, and both are saved from drowning by the arrival of Hero. In the dream world, Omori and his friends return to Basil's now-dilapidated house, and he is transported to the more disturbing "Black Space". Basil appears many times within it, repeatedly attempting to talk to him about something before dying gruesomely. In the final room, Omori kills Basil, placing himself atop a throne of massive hands.

On the last day before Sunny's departure, the others reconcile with Aubrey and find the missing photos. Coming to terms with Mari's death, they decide to spend their final night together in Basil's house, even though he refuses to exit his room. That night, Sunny confronts the truth in his dreams: during an argument, he killed Mari by accidentally pushing her down the stairs. In denial that Sunny did it, Basil helped frame Mari's death as a suicide by hanging her corpse. Afterwards, they looked back and saw an open eye staring back at them, shaping their subsequent hallucinations. While Basil was consumed by guilt and self-loathing, Sunny's suicidal depression made him create Headspace and his dream persona Omori to mask his trauma. To hide the truth, Omori reset Headspace every time their memories escaped from Black Space. Sunny wakes up in the middle of the night; the player can either choose to enter Basil's room to confront him about Mari's death or head back to sleep.

Endings

If the player answers Kel, then confronts Basil on the final day, Sunny and a mentally unstable Basil attack each other and eventually pass out. While unconscious, Sunny recalls his memories with Mari and his friends and faces Omori. Refusing to die, Omori defeats him and the player encounters the standard game over screen.

  • If the player opts to try again, Sunny gets up and overcomes his guilt, eliminating Omori from his mind. In the real world, he wakes up in the hospital that he and Basil were sent to, and heads to the latter's bed. While surrounded by their friends, it is implied that Sunny tells them about Mari's death. Additionally, if the player watered Basil's garden daily in Headspace, an after-credits scene will show Basil waking up in the hospital. Him and Sunny smile at each other, and the hallucinations disappear from both boys, representing their newfound willingness to move on with their lives.
  • Should the player choose not to continue, Sunny lets Omori overtake him. Waking up in the hospital, he commits suicide by jumping off the balcony.

Alternatively, if the player ignores Basil on the final day, Sunny and his friends will wake up to discover that Basil has committed suicide. Depending on the player's choice, Sunny can then either kill himself with his knife or move away with his guilt still unabated. If the player initially chooses to remain inside and avoid Kel, only a variant of this ending is available, with Sunny hearing an ambulance siren implying Basil's death.

Development

Omori was developed over the course of six and a half years, directed by pseudonymous artist Omocat.[9][a] It is based on Omori (ひきこもり, hikikomori) , a webcomic Tumblr blog Omocat created to "help [her] cope with [her] problems during a confusing part of [her] life." Initially planned as a graphic novel, she switched its medium to a video game to enable the audience to make choices in the story. For the game engine, she chose RPG Maker, as she deemed it important to support an accessible platform and community.[10][11]

A Kickstarter campaign was launched in 2014, and was successfully funded within one day,[12][8] with an initial projected release date of May 2015. A Nintendo 3DS port was promised as a stretch goal, but ultimately never came to fruition due to the discontinuation of the console; backers were instead offered a Nintendo Switch port.[13] To aid the game's creation, Omocat hired several additional team members, including an RPG Maker expert, but still had a goal of keeping the team size small. Initially, she enlisted her musician friends Space Boyfriend and Slime Girls to help with the soundtrack; after being inspired by bo en's "My Time" and coming up with the idea of hidden music tracks, she contacted him as well.[10]

As development continued, the team had to change their version of the RPG Maker engine, using this opportunity to refine the game's visual style, story, and gameplay.[14] After crowdfunding money was exhausted, they relied on merchandise sales to continue development.[3] The game would be delayed into 2019 and early 2020, but would again miss both targets.[15][16]

Later in 2020, Omori received its final release date of December 25.[16] It was initially released on Microsoft Windows and macOS,[17] but the developers have promised ports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.[16]

Reception

Omori received generally favorable reviews, with the PC version earning an aggregated score of 87 out of 100 on Metacritic.[18] PC Gamer reviewer Rachel Watts praised both its combat and gameplay, saying the game had "all the makings of being a modern cult classic".[5] Patrick Hancock of Destructoid stated that he didn't "know the last game that really hit me so emotionally like [it] did", but criticised many gameplay elements, stating that they could ruin the experience for some players.[4]

Multiple publications positively reviewed the game's depiction of anxiety and depression, with Rock Paper Shotgun reviewer Kat Bailey comparing it to her real-life experiences.[1] According to her, the game managed to take overused themes regarding the subject and create a "memorable darkness". Watts stated that the game "captures this sentiment [of overcoming anxiety] masterfully", but criticised some parts of the game for being too dark.[5]

A majority of reviewers praised the game's writing and tone, comparing it to games such as EarthBound, Undertale, and Yume Nikki'.[1][5][7] Writing for Wired magazine, reviewer Julie Fukunaga commended the depth and psychological themes of the narrative, stating that "it is in this medium that Omori thrives".[7] Hancock praised the "juxtaposition" of serious and discomfiting themes with whimsical moments, stating he sometimes thought of the game's jokes "on a weekly basis".[4]

Reviewers' opinion of the game's combat varied. Hancock criticised the lack of strategical depth, stating that he "found a strategy that worked and basically just repeated it ad nauseam",[4] and claiming that the combat was "hardly necessary". Opposingly, Bailey praised the game's "well-executed" combat and "difficult" bosses, stating that they helped break up some of the dungeons.[1] In her review, Rachel Watts complimented the way the game's abilities made the party feel like a cohesive unit.[5]

The art direction also received positive reactions. Watts praised the art direction of the monsters, stating the mix of different art styles "really heightens the horror".[5] The "anime-style cut-ins" were praised by Bailey, who called them "surprisingly well-animated".[1] Despite his criticism of the game's battles, Hancock stated he often anticipated them due to the artstyle, calling it "nothing short of phenomenal".[4]

Awards

Omori received two Honorable Mentions at the 2021 Independent Games Festival.[19] It was also nominated for three categories in DreamHack's 2021 "Dreamies" awards, winning the "Daringly Dramatic" prize.[20]

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Omocat" was initially solely the moniker of the original developer, but was later expanded to refer to the whole development studio.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Omori review". Rock Paper Shotgun. February 10, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Russo, Lee (February 5, 2021). "Omori: The Most Beautiful Game of 2021 Is Already Here". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Smith, Graham (January 7, 2021). "Omori is out and looks destined for mega fandom". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Hancock, Patrick (March 14, 2021). "Review: Omori". Destructoid. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Watts, Rachel (January 14, 2021). "Omori review". PC Gamer. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d Jones, Rebecca (May 28, 2021). "Omori Emotions Chart | How to inflict emotions and which to use". VG247. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e Fukunaga, Julie (January 12, 2021). "Omori Is the Horror RPG of Your Dreams (or Nightmares)". Wired. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  8. ^ a b Suszek, Mike (April 23, 2014). "Artist Omocat's surreal RPG Omori channels its inner Earthbound". Engadget. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  9. ^ LeClair, Kyle (December 3, 2020). "Offbeat RPG Omori Finally Receives Release Date". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  10. ^ a b OMOCAT (May 11, 2014). "from illustration to video game". OMOCAT Blog. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  11. ^ Archived copy of omori ひきこもり Tumblr blog. Retrieved February 15, 2021
  12. ^ Budgor, Astrid (April 23, 2014). "OMORI IS EQUAL PARTS FINAL FANTASY AND ERASERHEAD". Kill Screen. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  13. ^ McFerran, Damien (December 4, 2020). "EarthBound-Style Horror RPG OMORI Is Finally Coming To Switch After Skipping The 3DS". Nintendo Life. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
  14. ^ Devore, Jordan (January 2, 2017). "Psychological horror RPG Omori is alive and well". Destructoid. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  15. ^ Lada, Jenni (September 11, 2019). "OMOCAT's Omori Coming Out In English In 2019, Japanese In 2020". Siliconera. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  16. ^ a b c Lada, Jenni (November 30, 2020). "Omori Release Date Will Fall on Christmas". Siliconera. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  17. ^ OMORI on Steam. Retrieved February 15, 2021
  18. ^ a b "Omori for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  19. ^ Smith, Graham (May 8, 2021). "IGF's 2021 nominees announced, mostly correct". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  20. ^ Haring, Bruce (April 30, 2021). "The Dreamies Gaming Awards Honor 'Hades' As 'Mind-Melting' Winner". Deadline. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
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