I think for some background context, I've known this game since around the time of its release before it really blew up online. while that's still late to the party when considering those who followed this game's development for the several years before release, I have known this game for about a year and a half now and from the moment I saw gameplay screenshots from someone in Discord and then watching the trailer on its steam page, I knew this would be a game to really grab me the moment I saw it. I never got to play this game for the aforementioned year and a half, primarily because I had no way to during most of that time, however during it I made sure to not look up ANYTHING related to the game until I played it myself, and eagerly awaited for when I would have a chance to play this.

Thankfully, my effort paid off and I managed to go just about entirely blind for this game. And as you have probably already noticed by my rating, my initial intuition was correct and I absolutely adored this game just about start to finish. This is basically my first review on the site ignoring the random Pokemon review I did ages ago, but I am someone to very, very sparsely give out perfect scores.

So where do I begin with this game? Well, the first thing to truly pull me towards this game when I first saw it was its art style. I'm someone who can be very easily attracted to media if its art style appeals to me, and that's been my main motivation to view multiple pieces of media, game or not. I love semi simplistic art styles and the sketch book-like style this game has is incredibly charming to me. Even when it comes to the sprite work and other overworld assets, this game is great and its environments are excellent, from the pastel, vibrant colors of Headspace, to the more uncanny, off putting visuals when things get darker.

To then go into gameplay, while not my main highlight of this game, I enjoyed quite a bit. Emotions are a fun system to play around with, and help a lot to add further character and personality to everything. This is further emphasized by the chain attack system, which with each interaction a party member has, helps reinforce the idea of this being a close friend group, especially with how each attack changes as the group's bond gets closer. My favorite detail with this is Omori at the start of the game getting hit by Kel trying to pass his ball, and becoming sad, vs near the end of the game, where he successfully reacts and hits the ball at the enemy, and growing ecstatic. If there is some nitpicks I can have about the combat, the main one is that between the emotion triangle, being sad never felt useful in nearly any situation, unless it was forced on the party or the enemy, since from the enemy's side, being sad tends to draw out fights and make the enemy take longer to die, while on the party's side, the fact that it saps away your juice after every hit makes pulling off strategies more inconvenient, as well as just drawing out fights since raw power is significantly more helpful than to prolong a fight by tanking damage, especially since there's multiple options to heal the party anyways.

As for the soundtrack, I don't usually factor them too heavily when evaluating a game, simply because I have very open tastes and more often than not I like a game's soundtrack, even if the rest of the game blows. Not to discredit the soundtrack of this game however with the above disclaimer, because it has some amazing tracks to it. "World's End Valentine" and "BREADY STEADY GO" were two songs I spoiled for myself before I played the game and are easily my favorite boss themes in the game. "Finding Shapes in the Clouds" is an excellent track for conveying the nostalgic small town feel of Faraway Town. "WHITE SPACE" does perfectly to convey the eerie, isolated, yet comforting feeling of White Space. "By Your Side", "DUET", "Good Morning", and "My Time" are all tracks that, while I am likely biased by their narrative connections, especially stick out for the emotional feelings they convey to me.

Finally, the story. Although I saved this for last, I don't want to discuss specific details of what happens, as I believe experiencing this game without knowing is truly special. This is a story that got me to cry by the end, which is an incredibly rare reaction for me. It's not uncommon to be sad, but to cry is something else. This is indeed a sad game, but that sadness would be hollow if it wasn't for how real the characters feel. Aubrey doesn't feel like a character, she feels like a real person who's gone through plausible life experiences and reactions, and this is something I can echo for the other characters like Kel and Hero. Sunny is obviously the main focus, and while I can't imagine (and hope) many people can relate exactly to what he goes through, nothing about him feels exaggerated. The trauma and depression expressed through him is something many have likely felt before regardless of exact circumstances. It's this pure reality to everything in the story that really makes it hit home.

This review went on for way longer than I meant to, but I ramble easily. I'll try to tone it down for future reviews, but I usually can't help myself, especially for games I really like. Please play Omori, if you've ever written it off from the memes of it being yet another Earthbound inspired indie RPG, you've done it a massive disservice. And it's there where I would say that even if you end up not liking it nearly as much as I did, i'd like if you simply gave it a chance, don't write it off, don't go with what the internet wants to echo at that time, give the game a chance for yourself.

Probably the best mainline Pokemon game, debatably only beaten by its sequel. Not top tier RPG writing, but pretty great especially for Pokemon standards, a lot of the characters are memorable and N is a big highlight on his own.

Gameplay wise it's overall the usual Pokemon affairs, with the big thing being the lack of returning Pokemon until the post game, which really helps make these games further stand out among the rest of the series.

If I were to say some complaints, it'd be that some characters do end up feeling pointless such as all of the seven sages excluding Ghetsis not doing much of anything throughout the entire game (you don't even fight any of them besides Ghetsis). The game can also feel a bit padded out, such as early on there being an absurd amount of rival fights almost back to back, and almost every gym leader making you do something before you can challenge them. The Unova dex as well while making the game stand out more and feel more unique to replay than other entries creates an issue where so many trainers feel incredibly similar, or essentially are (I feel like I fought over a dozen trainers that use Pansage, Pansear and Panpour or their evolutions as a team).

Complaints aside, this game is very good and is the peak of the mainline games.