feel like i rate every game a four. huh.
OMORI is the pinnacle of its genre. it's genre not being JRPGs of course (that would go to mother 3, or maybe DQV, or something I've yet to play...) but being independent japanese/american suburban horror RPG maker games. this specific niche was one my friend chaeli and i got into when we were approximately the age of the protagonists of OMORI. these spawns of the Giygas fight spanned the spectrum from almost unintelligible (yume nikki), to more straightforward gameplay (ib), and to be honest i can't really remember more than those two :p
anyways we ate that shit up, and though we mostly played them for the atmosphere, i was always surprised that most of these games rarely utilized the JRPG turn based combat that was present in Earthbound, the seed of this genre, and i presume also present in the RPGmaker toolkit. i think it was that that kept these indie games VERY ""indie"". as opposed to the other indie games i was playing at the time-- hotline miami, binding of isaac-- these were very out there.
SO when chaeli and I saw that OMOCAT was making a video game, and that it was going to be a Real RPG we bought that goddamn kickstarter and said "can't wait for next year :)". OMOCAT's work was already in our lives, since us and all our friends were on tumblr ... a lot, and even one of our more macho friends had purchased one of her sweatshirts. we were stoked!
eventually i just forgot about it, which is better than what other people on the internet did about the wait, probably. until it showed up in my email inbox in 2020, age 21.
me and my sister decided to play it together. we played through earthbound together when i went through that phase and it just felt right to do this. and with all that nostalgic backdrop i believe allowed this nostalgic game to hit me so hard!
and FINALLY, i'm going to tell you, it's a good game. i'm saying it's the pinnacle of its genre due to the way it tells its story, which is at once juvenile and haunting, and the way in which it's gameplay is executed.
the story concerns a 15 year old boy who has distanced himself from almost everyone in his life following a tragedy three years prior, who spends most of his time in this dream world in his head. the boy is about to move towns and winds up reconnecting with his old friends who show him in sobering ways how his world has moved on, and how it has not. it gets darker as your journey to the center of his trauma progresses, and seeks to explore both the sweet and the bitter of early teendom
the battles are lots of fun if you like turn based combat! there is an "emotion" system where you can change your characters and your enemies emotions to varying degrees of HAPPY, SAD, or ANGRY, which results in a tiny pokémon-like type system, as well as some special attacks benefitting from one emotion or another. it's nothing revolutionary, (and to be quite honest nothing in this game really is) but it is really enjoyable.
and while this game doesn't innovate, it is the best american-mother-fan-makes-a-mother-game there has ever been. the audio and visuals pop with bright colors and bouncy, well composed tracks, all of the menus feels right, the vibes of every location are fun and immersive (although strangely the real life ones more so than the fantasy ones). the only real complaint i have is with the dream levels of this game
most of the game is spent in the player character's headspace, where he is hanging out with younger versions of his old friends. the place is sugary sweet, like it's from a children's book. lots of the characters and objects in the world are fantastical versions of things from the character's childhood, all mashed together in a dreamlike fashion. sadly, all of the big dungeons of the game are in this place, and a lot of them are just boring. whereas in dragon quest, you're always searching for the next town, to explore the world set out for you, to see what kind of people live in what kind of terrain in whichever directions, in this game you've essentially got someone telling you to go to this or that area. and to the player all these dreams areas are essentially the same-- they're some place with weird creatures that don't look like anything everywhere and there's strange objects scattered across the floor. none of the characters the player meets (spaceboy, sweetheart, the mole sprouts, the casino dudes) are particularly interesting (to me) and they're absolutely not what i'm interested in hearing about after the game hunting it's horror underbelly. traversing these areas is also typically just kind of boring, up until their boss fights, which are good!
sooo if you like these sorts of games, this is definitely worth your time. ✌️
OMORI is the pinnacle of its genre. it's genre not being JRPGs of course (that would go to mother 3, or maybe DQV, or something I've yet to play...) but being independent japanese/american suburban horror RPG maker games. this specific niche was one my friend chaeli and i got into when we were approximately the age of the protagonists of OMORI. these spawns of the Giygas fight spanned the spectrum from almost unintelligible (yume nikki), to more straightforward gameplay (ib), and to be honest i can't really remember more than those two :p
anyways we ate that shit up, and though we mostly played them for the atmosphere, i was always surprised that most of these games rarely utilized the JRPG turn based combat that was present in Earthbound, the seed of this genre, and i presume also present in the RPGmaker toolkit. i think it was that that kept these indie games VERY ""indie"". as opposed to the other indie games i was playing at the time-- hotline miami, binding of isaac-- these were very out there.
SO when chaeli and I saw that OMOCAT was making a video game, and that it was going to be a Real RPG we bought that goddamn kickstarter and said "can't wait for next year :)". OMOCAT's work was already in our lives, since us and all our friends were on tumblr ... a lot, and even one of our more macho friends had purchased one of her sweatshirts. we were stoked!
eventually i just forgot about it, which is better than what other people on the internet did about the wait, probably. until it showed up in my email inbox in 2020, age 21.
me and my sister decided to play it together. we played through earthbound together when i went through that phase and it just felt right to do this. and with all that nostalgic backdrop i believe allowed this nostalgic game to hit me so hard!
and FINALLY, i'm going to tell you, it's a good game. i'm saying it's the pinnacle of its genre due to the way it tells its story, which is at once juvenile and haunting, and the way in which it's gameplay is executed.
the story concerns a 15 year old boy who has distanced himself from almost everyone in his life following a tragedy three years prior, who spends most of his time in this dream world in his head. the boy is about to move towns and winds up reconnecting with his old friends who show him in sobering ways how his world has moved on, and how it has not. it gets darker as your journey to the center of his trauma progresses, and seeks to explore both the sweet and the bitter of early teendom
the battles are lots of fun if you like turn based combat! there is an "emotion" system where you can change your characters and your enemies emotions to varying degrees of HAPPY, SAD, or ANGRY, which results in a tiny pokémon-like type system, as well as some special attacks benefitting from one emotion or another. it's nothing revolutionary, (and to be quite honest nothing in this game really is) but it is really enjoyable.
and while this game doesn't innovate, it is the best american-mother-fan-makes-a-mother-game there has ever been. the audio and visuals pop with bright colors and bouncy, well composed tracks, all of the menus feels right, the vibes of every location are fun and immersive (although strangely the real life ones more so than the fantasy ones). the only real complaint i have is with the dream levels of this game
most of the game is spent in the player character's headspace, where he is hanging out with younger versions of his old friends. the place is sugary sweet, like it's from a children's book. lots of the characters and objects in the world are fantastical versions of things from the character's childhood, all mashed together in a dreamlike fashion. sadly, all of the big dungeons of the game are in this place, and a lot of them are just boring. whereas in dragon quest, you're always searching for the next town, to explore the world set out for you, to see what kind of people live in what kind of terrain in whichever directions, in this game you've essentially got someone telling you to go to this or that area. and to the player all these dreams areas are essentially the same-- they're some place with weird creatures that don't look like anything everywhere and there's strange objects scattered across the floor. none of the characters the player meets (spaceboy, sweetheart, the mole sprouts, the casino dudes) are particularly interesting (to me) and they're absolutely not what i'm interested in hearing about after the game hunting it's horror underbelly. traversing these areas is also typically just kind of boring, up until their boss fights, which are good!
sooo if you like these sorts of games, this is definitely worth your time. ✌️
judgerussell
3 years ago