Omori is a game which stands out a lot on many aspects, with a combat system turned around the emotions theme, and a story portraying anxiety, depression and so much more. It's a game which sadly, tries so hard to be psychological, deep, and horrific, it does lesser the impact of the narrative when it comes to plot twists or the ending. Similarly, Omori focuses so much on what makes it different, that it sometime forgets the essential and what makes it similar to great games.

A turn based RPG with an emotion system, sounds like a great premise, however it turns out to be more of a skin than anything else. The combat system features 3 main emotions namely : sad, happy and angry. Together, they form a classic weapon triangle, where each of them are effective against one and weak against the other one, those 3 emotions also boost or reduce statistics such as : luck, speed, defense and so on. I ought to mention, there is a 4th emotion outside this triangle called neutral which is self-explanatory.

Despite being able to further the intensity of one emotion by triggering it once more up to 3 levels (for instance the sad emotion becomes depressed and finally miserable), this system feels like an aggregate of systems most people have seen, and it's quite easy to notice, as the game's structure feels imbalanced at times, sometime throwing long sections of gameplay seemingly for nothing, just to extend the length of the game, giving players plenty time to do such analysis. In spite of the combat system being effective to some extent, I guess I expected more from it, passed the quick discovery of those familiar elements with different names that is, the gameplay loop became more of a repetitive chore, and the pacing problems amplified this sentiment.

Gameplay aside, the story left me with a bitter taste too. The narrative is constantly ominous, with a coexistence between wholesome and sinister elements, fueling a heavy and tensed atmosphere, by the time the story actually hits the player with a horrific plot twist, the player is overprepared and the impact the said plot twist has is limited. In other words, by using the same thing over and over again, it becomes less effective, and what should be something special in the narrative, ends up being less unique and more dull.

The game tackles head on dark emotions, and warn the player by all means possible beforehand, from its simplistic yet worrisome cover picture, to its warning when you actually launch the game. For the same purpose, and it is a shame, the story's threads are clearly visible and conventional for the most part, so much so any sort of dramatic event is predictable and no elements of surprise hit the mark.

Of course, the player should be informed of themes depicted in a game, however, Omori's warning message when the game is launched looks more like a spoiler than anything else. Without being perfect, the PEGI system or any similar rating systems, offer the possibility to warn players without giving too much information. Perhaps using a similar concept would have allowed Omori to find a better middle ground between warning and secrecy.

On top of a predictable story, there are multiple side quests, but I don't have any nice superlative that comes to my mind to describe them. Some side quests are repeatable and propose dreadful minigames, I let you imagine where and how a developer could decide to implement one or more achievements.

In conclusion, despite its great concepts and interesting themes, Omori's execution is mediocre for the most part, questionable for the rest. The gameplay is forgettable, it's just a combination of well known systems in disguise, changing names so they fit the theme of the game, is not enough to create something unique. The story is predictable, not necessarily bad, but definitly not great either. I think Omori is one these games that could have benefited being a visual novel instead of a traditional game, but that's just my opinion.

I am writing this review out of emotion, on the one hand, the game is very similar to a standard role-playing turn-based game about a seemingly standard adventure of children in a fantasy world, but after a certain time, you are trampled into the dirt along with the reality of what is happening inside and outside the world of the main character. The game honestly made me cry for 20 minutes at the very end, I don’t want to experience this anymore, but I’m very glad that I came out with a good ending, I probably didn’t survive another one.

Пишу эту рецензию на эмоциях, с одной стороны игра очень быть похожа на стандартную ролевую пошаговую игру о вроде стандартном приключении детей в мире фантазии, но после определенного времени, тебя втаптывают в грязь вместе с реальностью происходящего внутри и вне мира главного героя. Игра честно заставила меня рыдать 20 минут в самом конце, не хочу больше такого переживать, но очень рад что вышел на хорошую концову, другую я наверно не пережил.

I first heard discourse around this game around people who are generally terminally online, who praised this as the second coming of Undertale. so much so that there were people in my college classes who were inspired by this! and as a terminally online zoomer, i was instantly captivated! I actively avoided anything regarding this game as to not get spoiled, and put off playing it for a while until i had a good enough excuse to try, and i finally did!

Needless to say, it didn't quite live up to the expectations i originally had. If i had to describe this game, i would call it "Girl-Core", as the only people i know who like this game are all women.

I clearly didn't get the appeal, i don't think this game is for me. Maybe i'll come back to this at a later date and finish it to see what it's all about, but for now i'll leave it on the shelf.

This counts for the switch version too.

Those who forget history...

So much though put into it. The levels, the characters, the story, the music. In my 200+ hours of enjoying every tiny detail of the world I could feel the love... But I'll leave it at that. Even tho I enjoyed it so much I had a lot of doubts about posting a review given the past and recent E V E N T S (pretend I used wavy text) with the dev team.

But if we just talk about the game: It is very good.

... are doomed to repeat it.