another game best experienced blind
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omori as a game commits emotional terrorism on the player in areas that i didnt think a game could ever touch. from fear to anxiety to depression to even pure utter emptiness this game stabs you in the back with it all even when you’re most expecting it. the characters are full of life, the art style is wonderful and the rpg sections keep you occupied between story scenes. one of those games i wish i can play for the first time again

Wanted to leave a review for this game after giving it another playthrough (making that my 6th) but ya i'm just gonna drop some thoughts and leave it alone for good.

I'm also gonna leave three links to tweets that feature my amazing steam review as a way to confess to my sin of being cringe
This review haunts me
I dont agree with it anymore
I refunded and bought the game again just to 100% it

So to start, this is a pretty atrocious game overall, from its dev time to the not so important controversies surrounding the creator in both lack of development updates and liking young boys from afar, I mostly just wanna focus on what the game does poorly cause it really doesnt do a whole lot right. Starting off is the length of the game, which is too long for what Omori wants to be. If the game clocked in at lets say 10-12 hours, that would be much better than the ~25 hours bloated mess the game is. There are whole sections in this game that add nothing to either the story or overarching experience and are clearly there to waste time (im looking directly at that stupid whale).

Characters are up next, and they are inconsistent. More so Headspace characters, as I have no issue with the Real World characters, i thought they were written just right to keep me invested. On the other hand, the characters in Headspace are badly written and come off annoying more than anything else, which idk if is on purpose given what Headspace is but thats up to theory. Although, i will stand by my belief that Basil is a nothing character that is only there for false sympathy moments. I didnt care about them, but I see a whole lot of people who do and it sure as hell isnt for what they do in the game, its more so the silly, warm dialogue and friendly demeanour, so removing them from the game would serve 0 change so why have them included in the first place.

The "horror" aspects of the game I thought would be a highlight, as I love a good psychological horror as it was so generously given the tag of, but aside from "the big story moment" nothing is "psychological" or "horror" about this game. Now this is completely down to my perception for what is scary and not scary, fully aware, I've seen quite a lot of horror media so im more desensitized to the themes presented in this game, but I also feel like how the themes are presented in the game dont do enough, its all abstract or obscured, so the creepiness comes from that angle rather than the full picture.

Now for the single paragraph where i say nice things :). I vibe with a few of the songs on the OST and the art direction and environments are cool. The Real World is the part of the game I was the most invested in which is a shame that its used as the "break in the action". I would've loved to see more impactful moments displayed in the real world, rather then saving those moments for Headspace (big exception for the last hour of the game before the ending cutscene, that goes extremely hard)

I would have loved to sit down and praise this game as so many other people have, but I just cant see what they see. I think there are games that have done its horror better and its story better, it plays out like someone who was inspired by better games and mushed those best parts together without the prior impact those parts had, leaving something almost soulless in its place.

I also wish I was an uber cool smart individual to express my points better, this review doesn't come from a place of hatred or hostility, more of disappointment

This feels like the first great Yakuza game i've finished. The game looks great running on a new engine, so good it has my GPU work overtime to render the particles and reflections. The combat felt like it had a true facelift, making it easier to get in and out of fights, with less staggers and knockdowns, and with muscle soda the combat becomes trivial to the point I felt bad for ending boss fights in 5 seconds. Skill tree progression is kino i loved the list system they had, and how you can gain those points through basic things had me always progressing through it. The story was also a banger I loved the contained subject throughout the game, even if the beginning took a while to kick off and the ending left me baffled that middle section is phenomenal.

Hoooo boy. This game is going to be impossible to review.

Never before have I seen a sequel so simultaneously better and worse than its precursors. In every single aspect, RF5 changed from previous entries in bizarre ways.

RF5 introduced many new quality-of-life features like picking up items automatically. But only some of them? And other quality-of-life features were removed. In fact, RF5 is one of the clunkiest in the series, especially since you are juggling so many more different things.

A lot more effort was put into the dating mechanics and the unique dialogue with each marriageable candidate. Also, there are no restrictions on gender (hooray)! However, this additional effort only goes to reveal how generic most of the characters are. The most interesting characters are locked behind other story content. Dating is incredibly slow, tedious, and sometimes obtuse.

The jump to 3D graphics was a complete failure. The game looks utterly bland. There is barely even foliage to break up long stretches of ground. The town is weirdly huge and undetailed. For some reason, the later game areas look much better. Similarly, the main story is extremely confusing and poorly written at the beginning, but it picks up later. The ending villains are genuinely awesome. I would love to know what production shenanigans happened to cause the early game to be so shoddy.

Meanwhile, the combat and crafting are the best in the series! More mechanics, crafting ingredients, and enemies. There are obscure ways to make overpowered gear and post-game that requires it. NPCs are also genuinely useful in battle and you can take multiple with you at a time. Dungeons are mazelike, but there are plenty of them. The open-world segments are good. There's a lot to explore!

I stuck through RF5 all the way to the end, but I'm not totally sure if I'm glad for it. This entry has the most to offer, but it's marred by clunky controls, bad writing, and a pivot to 3D that was entirely unnecessary.