This review contains spoilers
alright so this is going to be my review of omori. there are going to be spoilers, which is why I marked it with a spoiler warning. this is also going to be a stream of consciousness thing. I’m not going to edit this is reread it when I’m done. maybe I’ll clean up the formatting and fix spelling mistakes. maybe.
anyway, there's a lot going on in omori. I guess I’ll start with the most important thing, and that's how it all ends, and what that meant to me, because this is my review. your experiences and interpretations are going to be different, probably. I’m not here to convince you I’m right. this is just what I felt playing through omori, or I guess this is the end bit.
the ending got me, big time. I think I had stopped totally emphasizing with omori at that point though, and viewed him more as a character, which is fine, it worked. I mean I’ve never accidentally killed my sister then covered it up by making it look like a suicide. but I think we've all experienced the guilt that come with lying, and lying about something you're ashamed of. the inability to forgive yourself, to accept that you did something shitty, and to present the shitty thing you've done to people you care about. that's a universal experience. but rather that suppress the shame, the fear, the guilt, sunny embraces it. it's a part of him, and it always will be, and that's ok. you can do shitty things and still deserve to live. you deserve a chance at something better.
the actual through line of the story, I mean it worked. it got the job done. I think there was some sad baiting going on with the suicide fake out thing. I was thinking about how much it would suck if my sister committed suicide, about how hard it was on my friends with they lost siblings to mental illness. and then the story wasn't about that, which is like, ok. I was sort of on that roller coaster, but now it's a mystery thing going on, and now it's a personal story about sunny. which is fine, it worked, but it took me out at the end for a few moments. it made me realize there was a story going on. there wasn't going to be anything here for me personally, but I was on board to go with sunny on his journey.
I guess I should talk about basil. the game does a good job of making you care about him. all of sunny's friends, really, are well written. it speaks well to the games writing that I wanted sunny to live for them, because I didn't want them to suffer another loss.
which sort of leads me to the next thing, and it's hard for me to come to grips with this part. the real life stuff was stellar, really great, loved it, you know. but the dreamworld was rough. really rough. and I don't know if omori is the same game without it. it reminds me of the "filler" episodes of avatar the last airbender. they're not really filler, because you grow closer to the characters during those episodes, even if the "Main Story" doesn't go forward during those episodes.
oh also I just remembered I forgot to say, I’m probably going to contradict myself a lot during this, so like, get over it I guess. don't read this if that'll bother you.
anyway, nothing really happens in the dreamworld. or at least, that was my experience. I’ve heard that things may happen in the dreamworld if you do other things, but I didn't do that. but what did happen, was I started to care more about my companions, and that's super valuable for setting up the end of the game. and that's what's so hard for me. I want to say, "the dreamworld could've been cut down by 70% and the game would've been better for it". I really do want to say that, BUT.
and this but is huge, it's really big. I don't think the ending works as well if you don't spend all that time with your buddies in the dreamworld, and the narrative going on in the real world isn't as interesting on its own without having the dreamworld characters to compare the real ones too. like, yeah, of course dream aubrey wants to fuck omori, because sunny totally has the hots for aubrey.
sort of lost my train of thought there. I remember now. so the point I was coming to, is that doesn't necessarily mean that the dreamworld sections were the best way to get the character stuff across. I want to just say, "make the dreamworld stuff better", but that doesn't seem fair, so I guess I’ll have to break down my problems with the dreamworld. I don't know if I said this above or not, but like, the dreamworld is bad, ok? and I’m not saying I know how to fix it, but here are my issues. I had a better conclusion to this but I forgot it. maybe I’ll remember, I know it was something about how dreamworld bad and I’m not going to compare this game to undertale. it was really funny in my head.
so the first thing, right, it's gotta be the combat. hollly shit, it was so boring. I pressed a and waited for things to happen, most of the time. the boss fights were ok, but it felt like a pokemon game, where you're just trying to get the type advantage. it wasn't super deep, and mechanically there was nothing. what if there were like warioware mini games instead of turn based combat? someone should make a game like this with that instead. it'll sell a billion copies, like undertale did. like, the thing about undertale, and this might be controversial, is that it's fun to play. omori isn't.
the 2nd part, and this is totally subjective and not really worth discussing past just getting it out there, was I didn't think it was all that funny. omori's quirky, campy humor just doesn't do it for me. I think it got 2 or 3 laughs out of me the whole time. that's whatever, I don't really blame the game for that. I sort of knew what to expect coming in.
I guess I should've saved that ^ bit for last since it's not that important. the bigger issue is that nothing in the dreamworld really matters that much. on a meta level, it makes sense. the dreamworld literally does not matter, it's made up in sunny's head, and thematically it's better if the story there goes nowhere and doesn't really matter. because the dreamworld is fake, and sunny needs to wake the fuck up and smell the roses, sweaty. the dreamworld isn't as good as the real world, and that's a good message. BUT. man there were so many times I was bored out of my god damn mind in the dreamworld. I realized pretty early on that the quest for basil was going nowhere, and that nothing in the dreamworld really mattered. the side quests at the start are essentially fetch quests that just give you shit you don't really need, and they didn't have interesting stories of their own, so I started to just not do them. the overarching stories of the dreamworld doesn't matter. I don't care about space ex boyfriend, or sweetheart. I really don't, and I’m given no reason to care about them. I want to find basil, because I know that'll tie into what's happening in the real world, and it'll be interesting. instead, I sat through lines and lines of dialogue that I just could not give a shit about. and I think the game really suffers for that, like it teaches you early on that like, none of this matters. the lesson from the first area is "mash a to get through the dialogue, don't think too hard about things". that's fucking rough, and the ending of the game deserves to be set up with something better than that.
what else do I have to say? I guess just some random thoughts. the hand drawn art was great, really unique style, nice to look at. I actually liked the enemies too. wormhole was great, fucking loved that dude. the overworld though? eeeehhhh. I also wasn't super huge on the music for most of the game. I liked the overworld song in sweetheart's castle, but that's the only one that really stands out to me. the battle music was good too. and of course, the music at the ending was great.
so yeah, I guess that's it. I probably have more to say about this game. like if someone prompted me, I could say more things I bet, but that's not what this post is.
do I think you should play omori? yeah, totally. the story gets there. it really does, and I think it earns it to, for the most part. but even outside of that, the game is fascinating. it's super flawed, and that makes it fun to think about and talk about - but that's ok, right? no one's perfect, after all.
anyway, there's a lot going on in omori. I guess I’ll start with the most important thing, and that's how it all ends, and what that meant to me, because this is my review. your experiences and interpretations are going to be different, probably. I’m not here to convince you I’m right. this is just what I felt playing through omori, or I guess this is the end bit.
the ending got me, big time. I think I had stopped totally emphasizing with omori at that point though, and viewed him more as a character, which is fine, it worked. I mean I’ve never accidentally killed my sister then covered it up by making it look like a suicide. but I think we've all experienced the guilt that come with lying, and lying about something you're ashamed of. the inability to forgive yourself, to accept that you did something shitty, and to present the shitty thing you've done to people you care about. that's a universal experience. but rather that suppress the shame, the fear, the guilt, sunny embraces it. it's a part of him, and it always will be, and that's ok. you can do shitty things and still deserve to live. you deserve a chance at something better.
the actual through line of the story, I mean it worked. it got the job done. I think there was some sad baiting going on with the suicide fake out thing. I was thinking about how much it would suck if my sister committed suicide, about how hard it was on my friends with they lost siblings to mental illness. and then the story wasn't about that, which is like, ok. I was sort of on that roller coaster, but now it's a mystery thing going on, and now it's a personal story about sunny. which is fine, it worked, but it took me out at the end for a few moments. it made me realize there was a story going on. there wasn't going to be anything here for me personally, but I was on board to go with sunny on his journey.
I guess I should talk about basil. the game does a good job of making you care about him. all of sunny's friends, really, are well written. it speaks well to the games writing that I wanted sunny to live for them, because I didn't want them to suffer another loss.
which sort of leads me to the next thing, and it's hard for me to come to grips with this part. the real life stuff was stellar, really great, loved it, you know. but the dreamworld was rough. really rough. and I don't know if omori is the same game without it. it reminds me of the "filler" episodes of avatar the last airbender. they're not really filler, because you grow closer to the characters during those episodes, even if the "Main Story" doesn't go forward during those episodes.
oh also I just remembered I forgot to say, I’m probably going to contradict myself a lot during this, so like, get over it I guess. don't read this if that'll bother you.
anyway, nothing really happens in the dreamworld. or at least, that was my experience. I’ve heard that things may happen in the dreamworld if you do other things, but I didn't do that. but what did happen, was I started to care more about my companions, and that's super valuable for setting up the end of the game. and that's what's so hard for me. I want to say, "the dreamworld could've been cut down by 70% and the game would've been better for it". I really do want to say that, BUT.
and this but is huge, it's really big. I don't think the ending works as well if you don't spend all that time with your buddies in the dreamworld, and the narrative going on in the real world isn't as interesting on its own without having the dreamworld characters to compare the real ones too. like, yeah, of course dream aubrey wants to fuck omori, because sunny totally has the hots for aubrey.
sort of lost my train of thought there. I remember now. so the point I was coming to, is that doesn't necessarily mean that the dreamworld sections were the best way to get the character stuff across. I want to just say, "make the dreamworld stuff better", but that doesn't seem fair, so I guess I’ll have to break down my problems with the dreamworld. I don't know if I said this above or not, but like, the dreamworld is bad, ok? and I’m not saying I know how to fix it, but here are my issues. I had a better conclusion to this but I forgot it. maybe I’ll remember, I know it was something about how dreamworld bad and I’m not going to compare this game to undertale. it was really funny in my head.
so the first thing, right, it's gotta be the combat. hollly shit, it was so boring. I pressed a and waited for things to happen, most of the time. the boss fights were ok, but it felt like a pokemon game, where you're just trying to get the type advantage. it wasn't super deep, and mechanically there was nothing. what if there were like warioware mini games instead of turn based combat? someone should make a game like this with that instead. it'll sell a billion copies, like undertale did. like, the thing about undertale, and this might be controversial, is that it's fun to play. omori isn't.
the 2nd part, and this is totally subjective and not really worth discussing past just getting it out there, was I didn't think it was all that funny. omori's quirky, campy humor just doesn't do it for me. I think it got 2 or 3 laughs out of me the whole time. that's whatever, I don't really blame the game for that. I sort of knew what to expect coming in.
I guess I should've saved that ^ bit for last since it's not that important. the bigger issue is that nothing in the dreamworld really matters that much. on a meta level, it makes sense. the dreamworld literally does not matter, it's made up in sunny's head, and thematically it's better if the story there goes nowhere and doesn't really matter. because the dreamworld is fake, and sunny needs to wake the fuck up and smell the roses, sweaty. the dreamworld isn't as good as the real world, and that's a good message. BUT. man there were so many times I was bored out of my god damn mind in the dreamworld. I realized pretty early on that the quest for basil was going nowhere, and that nothing in the dreamworld really mattered. the side quests at the start are essentially fetch quests that just give you shit you don't really need, and they didn't have interesting stories of their own, so I started to just not do them. the overarching stories of the dreamworld doesn't matter. I don't care about space ex boyfriend, or sweetheart. I really don't, and I’m given no reason to care about them. I want to find basil, because I know that'll tie into what's happening in the real world, and it'll be interesting. instead, I sat through lines and lines of dialogue that I just could not give a shit about. and I think the game really suffers for that, like it teaches you early on that like, none of this matters. the lesson from the first area is "mash a to get through the dialogue, don't think too hard about things". that's fucking rough, and the ending of the game deserves to be set up with something better than that.
what else do I have to say? I guess just some random thoughts. the hand drawn art was great, really unique style, nice to look at. I actually liked the enemies too. wormhole was great, fucking loved that dude. the overworld though? eeeehhhh. I also wasn't super huge on the music for most of the game. I liked the overworld song in sweetheart's castle, but that's the only one that really stands out to me. the battle music was good too. and of course, the music at the ending was great.
so yeah, I guess that's it. I probably have more to say about this game. like if someone prompted me, I could say more things I bet, but that's not what this post is.
do I think you should play omori? yeah, totally. the story gets there. it really does, and I think it earns it to, for the most part. but even outside of that, the game is fascinating. it's super flawed, and that makes it fun to think about and talk about - but that's ok, right? no one's perfect, after all.