really bad amalgamation of the most shallow understandings someone can have of what makes yume nikki and earthbound good. this is tumblr-2013core being sold to a 2020+ audience. unfortunately, it seems everybody ate it up.
10 Comments
@softcoregamer
see, i get this question a lot, and unfortunately this is one of those cases where i would have to spoil the entire game. i'll try to explain it, but the full gist of it is really sadly hidden in end-game plot.
on the gameplay side, it's kind of broken. there is a surefire strategy you can do to win due to the game's weird gimmick mechanic of "emotions". BUT it's not the end all be all. certain bosses are exceptions, so it's fine with me.
the issue i have is with how the game presents itself.
this is one of those "lurking horror" games where the juxtaposition of two things is meant to be the crux of the experience. in omori's case, the 'dream world' is the main area you're going to be in for 90% of the game, and it's overly cutesy and childishly designed. there are no hints of horror except for 1 extremely random, optional, and extremely rare jumpscare. the only two other areas the game presents you with are 'nightmare' segments and 'real world' segments. (i would count these together as they both contain disturbing elements to them.)
my issue is that the juxtaposition is...it.
OMORI is an RPG with bounds of dialogue, a plentiful cast, and a backstory for the MC and another character that is genuinely disturbing. but it's never taken any further than concepts.
nightmares randomly occur, but they have no consequences or reasons for the main playthrough (or have anything to do with the plot). okay, so this is an artsy game, right?
uh...no. because there's a literal, grounded plot.
so what about those nightmares? what about these weird happenings in the dream world?
nothing is connected except by a thin layer of "it's creepy because it's happening in a pastel background, right?"
the plot they want you to care about is laughably juvenile. to not spoil you: children commit a genuine felony and the response of the game is to not genuinely consider the ramifications or consequences of this past "it made them sad :(". what could've been an interesting character study at how people cope with trauma turns into a "friendship beats everything" story...again, with a freakishly dark topic that i've frankly seen in much more adult, disturbing works. it's weird.
the characters are all anime trope cardboard cutouts.
in one 'real world' segment, we meet a character who has left a friend group for traumatic reasons. we are told she's joined a group of meaner kids, she's never gotten over the trauma, and she's been going to church to find any peace in her life every single day.
a character from said friend group comes home one day, tells her to be nicer, and all her sadness is healed in one scene. chime in "feelsy" dialogue and OST.
it's really just someone poorly understanding why they liked yume nikki and earthbound so much and then trying to put a literal, grounded story underneath.
TL;DR OMORI is for casual weebs.
see, i get this question a lot, and unfortunately this is one of those cases where i would have to spoil the entire game. i'll try to explain it, but the full gist of it is really sadly hidden in end-game plot.
on the gameplay side, it's kind of broken. there is a surefire strategy you can do to win due to the game's weird gimmick mechanic of "emotions". BUT it's not the end all be all. certain bosses are exceptions, so it's fine with me.
the issue i have is with how the game presents itself.
this is one of those "lurking horror" games where the juxtaposition of two things is meant to be the crux of the experience. in omori's case, the 'dream world' is the main area you're going to be in for 90% of the game, and it's overly cutesy and childishly designed. there are no hints of horror except for 1 extremely random, optional, and extremely rare jumpscare. the only two other areas the game presents you with are 'nightmare' segments and 'real world' segments. (i would count these together as they both contain disturbing elements to them.)
my issue is that the juxtaposition is...it.
OMORI is an RPG with bounds of dialogue, a plentiful cast, and a backstory for the MC and another character that is genuinely disturbing. but it's never taken any further than concepts.
nightmares randomly occur, but they have no consequences or reasons for the main playthrough (or have anything to do with the plot). okay, so this is an artsy game, right?
uh...no. because there's a literal, grounded plot.
so what about those nightmares? what about these weird happenings in the dream world?
nothing is connected except by a thin layer of "it's creepy because it's happening in a pastel background, right?"
the plot they want you to care about is laughably juvenile. to not spoil you: children commit a genuine felony and the response of the game is to not genuinely consider the ramifications or consequences of this past "it made them sad :(". what could've been an interesting character study at how people cope with trauma turns into a "friendship beats everything" story...again, with a freakishly dark topic that i've frankly seen in much more adult, disturbing works. it's weird.
the characters are all anime trope cardboard cutouts.
in one 'real world' segment, we meet a character who has left a friend group for traumatic reasons. we are told she's joined a group of meaner kids, she's never gotten over the trauma, and she's been going to church to find any peace in her life every single day.
a character from said friend group comes home one day, tells her to be nicer, and all her sadness is healed in one scene. chime in "feelsy" dialogue and OST.
it's really just someone poorly understanding why they liked yume nikki and earthbound so much and then trying to put a literal, grounded story underneath.
TL;DR OMORI is for casual weebs.
that's pretty much exactly how i felt about Undertale when it came out lol, it didn't take its themes seriously at all despite the villain being a sabbatic goat who murders children.
i'll try to keep an open mind but will probably end up agreeing with you. on the other hand i feel like trauma has become a bit of a sacred cow in contemporary media so i'm not exactly opposed to lighter treatments of it. you do make its presentation sound very irritating though.
i'll try to keep an open mind but will probably end up agreeing with you. on the other hand i feel like trauma has become a bit of a sacred cow in contemporary media so i'm not exactly opposed to lighter treatments of it. you do make its presentation sound very irritating though.
spittin
having finished it i totally see where you're coming from, but since my expectations were so low my reaction was closer to "meh."
as a game about trauma it's a 1/10 (where Mother 2 is a 10) but as a game about guilt it's only middling (where Silent Hill 2 is a 10). my biggest gripe is like you said, it relied on the player caring way more about the "irl" stuff than the dreamworld stuff and i just didn't feel that way at all. sweetheart and slime sisters were more compelling to me than the protagonist and his friends.
it definitely shies away from being a serious meditation on violence which it has in common with Undertale (the latter not admitting that yes, it's ok to be violent sometimes when you're met with a child murderer), and i think a lot of that comes from Omocat not having genuine experiences to draw from in the same way as Itoi did.
as far as misapprehending Earthbound and Yume Nikki, i completely agree. it feels like a game spun from "lore speculation" about either of them, which removes everything interesting about them (Madotsuki isn't interesting because of her real life for instance, and Earthbound characters are literal normies who have to beat up a resentful fat kid).
all in all pretty mediocre.
as a game about trauma it's a 1/10 (where Mother 2 is a 10) but as a game about guilt it's only middling (where Silent Hill 2 is a 10). my biggest gripe is like you said, it relied on the player caring way more about the "irl" stuff than the dreamworld stuff and i just didn't feel that way at all. sweetheart and slime sisters were more compelling to me than the protagonist and his friends.
it definitely shies away from being a serious meditation on violence which it has in common with Undertale (the latter not admitting that yes, it's ok to be violent sometimes when you're met with a child murderer), and i think a lot of that comes from Omocat not having genuine experiences to draw from in the same way as Itoi did.
as far as misapprehending Earthbound and Yume Nikki, i completely agree. it feels like a game spun from "lore speculation" about either of them, which removes everything interesting about them (Madotsuki isn't interesting because of her real life for instance, and Earthbound characters are literal normies who have to beat up a resentful fat kid).
all in all pretty mediocre.
@denpaloli Thank you! that is exactly how I feel as well. I feel like I'm going insane with the amount of people calling this shit a masterpiece.
“What makes yume nikki and earthbound good” it’s not trying to be those games also your name is denpaloli lmao
^ this guy gets it!!!!!
uuuuuoooooooooooohhhh denpa lolis!!!!
uuuuuoooooooooooohhhh denpa lolis!!!!
maybe, just maybe, its tumblr-2013core because the artist was popular in the early 2010s on tumblr and the original omori story was a blog on tumblr in 2011... and the game started development in 2013...
even with all of that in mind; i disagree. i think its just typical dumb fun comedy
even with all of that in mind; i disagree. i think its just typical dumb fun comedy
^ sorry for any misunderstanding. i know when this game was created, i was there as a middle schooler rewatching the trailer almost everyday lol. i am implying that i truly thought this kind of shallow and manipulative kinds of works were long and dead.
the mental health boom that tumblr had a huge hand in contributing towards was genuinely good, i am happy that people got into mental health, discussing it, therapy, etc. but a huge con was the idea that anything that contains "exploration of mental illness", no matter how small or underdeveloped that concept is (or, in worse cases, works that feature incorrect information), should automatically be safe from criticism. i do not think omori brings anything helpful to the discussion of friendships being helpful towards self-improvement (this is a FANTASTIC thing irl btw!) or feelings of isolation/sadness, it only serves as a "oh, relatable" pedestal piece for pretty much anyone who has ever... felt isolated or sad. its plot/MC are both severely underdeveloped yet are sold as a complete package, and THAT specifically is why i really do not like it so much. it feels as empty and soulless as the white room. also i dont know what you mean by comedic, do you mean the game is comedic?
i'm sorry if nothing of it made sense, i'm not the best at expressing my thoughts... trying to get better lol...
the mental health boom that tumblr had a huge hand in contributing towards was genuinely good, i am happy that people got into mental health, discussing it, therapy, etc. but a huge con was the idea that anything that contains "exploration of mental illness", no matter how small or underdeveloped that concept is (or, in worse cases, works that feature incorrect information), should automatically be safe from criticism. i do not think omori brings anything helpful to the discussion of friendships being helpful towards self-improvement (this is a FANTASTIC thing irl btw!) or feelings of isolation/sadness, it only serves as a "oh, relatable" pedestal piece for pretty much anyone who has ever... felt isolated or sad. its plot/MC are both severely underdeveloped yet are sold as a complete package, and THAT specifically is why i really do not like it so much. it feels as empty and soulless as the white room. also i dont know what you mean by comedic, do you mean the game is comedic?
i'm sorry if nothing of it made sense, i'm not the best at expressing my thoughts... trying to get better lol...
softcoregamer
2 years ago