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Pardon the dust! This page includes some jargon that hasn't been added to the site's glossary yet. I'll be around to fix this later, but sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime. |
Review: OMORI
At a Glance
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How to Save and Pause:You have your choice of several save slots, though there is no autosave. Instead, you must find one of Mari's picnic baskets in order to save your game. These are quite plentiful, so finding them is rarely an issue. This game doesn't advance without your input, so there's no need to pause it. The closest you can get is to open a menu, which is only possible outside of combat or a conversation. Time needed per session:Give yourself at least 30 minutes per session, longer if you're coming up on a boss fight. You'll need the time to explore and gather experience.
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Does this game pose issues for Christian players?
 | Some players may have concerns This game is remarkably upfront about the issues it talks about - issues that include blood, suicide, and clinical depression - and these all stem from the characters struggling to cope with a traumatic event in their past. Your actions determine if they start healing or not, and while the best ending is extremely cathartic, getting there isn't a pretty sight. |
Screenshots
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/omori_0.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/omori_1.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/omori_2.jpg)
Game Overview
OMORI is an RPG game featuring cute graphics and a very serious story. The jarring difference between the art style and its story is very intentional, as the central theme revolves around how different people come to terms with painful memories. To be more specific, this story is going to talk about loss, depression, and suicide - something that's made perfectly clear by the warnings the game shows before the title screen.
Players will likely have a better experience with this game if they don't know very many details before going in, so I'm going to try to keep spoilers to a minimum. However, in order to explain some of the darker content that needs to be covered in the Concerns and Issues section of this review, I'll need to give away the Big Secret that lies behind everything - don't expand the spoilered box if you want to stay in Wonderland.
With that warning out of the way, let's have a look at what the game's like. The narrative is split into two parts: reality and "Headspace", which refers to the imaginary world of OMORI's dreams. You'll start the game in Headspace, so I'll cover this first.
Headspace functions as the main setting for this game, where OMORI and his childhood friends play together in a colorful, ageless world. OMORI himself stands out from the crowd, as he's the only character who doesn't have a pastel color palette or show much emotion, yet he seems happy enough to join in with everybody else. Things take a sudden turn while everybody is taking a break and looking at Basil's photo album. An extra photo falls out that he doesn't remember taking, and before anybody can react a dark shadowy force suddenly envelops him and takes him away.
That's the funny part about dreams - there's always that small chance that they'll take a turn and become a nightmare.
Horrified by Basil's disappearance, OMORI and his remaining friends set out on a grand journey to rescue him. This is the RPG segment of the game; as the party explores Headspace, you'll fight monsters like Sprout Moles, Bunnies, 1980s technology, and other bizarre people and things. Along the way, OMORI and friends can help the people who call Headspace home, play minigames, and generally have a series of fun adventures.
Like most RPGs, combat is handled using a turn-based system. However, you're not going to be using the tired old interface you've seen a billion times. Instead of old standbys like hit points and manna, characters have "Heart" and "Juice". They'll also use "skills" rather than magic, and their skills are as unique as their users. As an example, Hero's skills are based around cooking, while Kel's skills are sports related. Functionally though, these corrispond with the standard RPG roles: Hero provides support, and Kel is your party's glass cannon.
A key feature of the new combat system is the emotional state of each combatant. Emotions take the place of status effects in this game, making it vitally important that you learn to take advantage of how everybody is feeling. Two skills from early in the game provide good examples of why: Audrey's Mood Breaker skill deals a lot of extra damage if she's attacking someone who is Happy, and OMORI starts with a skill that completely ignores his target's defenses if he's feeling Sad. Bosses usually take this a step further, having the ability to stack their emotions or force OMORI and friends to feel a certain way.
Another interesting feature of the combat system is the ability to use "follow up" attacks. In combat, the party has a shared Energy Meter that starts at 3 and increases every time someone gets hurt. If you have someone use a normal attack and there's more than 3 points of energy on the meter, you can have them perform a special extra move during their turn by tapping the appropriate direction key when their extra move options are displayed. Everybody's follow up moves are unique, so try them out in random encounters to learn who can do what. The most important thing to remember is that OMORI has the ability to gather the four friends together to perform their Ultimate Attack. This devastating move requires a full energy meter and all four friends to still be in the fight, but it's often worth it.
As much fun as exploring the dream world can be, dreams always come to an end. This leads into the other part of the game: the real world. OMORI's family is moving away in three days, and he has some chores to finish up. Alternatively, you can have him spend his remaining days with his old neighborhood friends. Don't worry too much about the chores; if you choose to say goodbye, your friends will help you take care of them.
Now, these real world segments are much shorter than the Headspace ones, but they are also more important. At the end of each day, OMORI will find himself having to confront something he's afraid of (like spiders), and learning to overcome these challenges in the real world allows him to overcome these fears later in his dreams. This in turn opens up new areas to explore and moves the story along.
There's just one other thing players should know about this game: as mentioned earlier, there's a Big Secret that gets revealed over time. All I'm going to say about it now is that it was a terrible event that happened several years ago, and everybody has been coping with the trauma it caused ever since. OMORI's solution was probably the most drastic, as he's withdrawn into his imaginary world where everything is just Fine and Dandy. But, since he's never dealt with his trauma, the memories of it keep slipping into his happy little world, leading to disasters like Basil's sudden disappearance.
How players choose to spend the real life segments will determine whether or not OMORI and his friends eventually overcome this traumatic experience. Just like how it works in real life, the only way to earn your happy ending is to confront your past openly and deal with it.
Ultimately, as dark as things can get in this game, the catharsis that comes from OMORI finally dealing with his pain is worth the time spent getting there. I'd definitely recommend playing through this title, especially if you're a fan of RPGs, deeper character pieces, or games like Undertale and Yume Nikki, both of which clearly inspired the developers of this game. The only catch is that you need to be mature enough to handle the subject matter - this game pulls no punches when it comes to its story.
Players will likely have a better experience with this game if they don't know very many details before going in, so I'm going to try to keep spoilers to a minimum. However, in order to explain some of the darker content that needs to be covered in the Concerns and Issues section of this review, I'll need to give away the Big Secret that lies behind everything - don't expand the spoilered box if you want to stay in Wonderland.
With that warning out of the way, let's have a look at what the game's like. The narrative is split into two parts: reality and "Headspace", which refers to the imaginary world of OMORI's dreams. You'll start the game in Headspace, so I'll cover this first.
Headspace functions as the main setting for this game, where OMORI and his childhood friends play together in a colorful, ageless world. OMORI himself stands out from the crowd, as he's the only character who doesn't have a pastel color palette or show much emotion, yet he seems happy enough to join in with everybody else. Things take a sudden turn while everybody is taking a break and looking at Basil's photo album. An extra photo falls out that he doesn't remember taking, and before anybody can react a dark shadowy force suddenly envelops him and takes him away.
That's the funny part about dreams - there's always that small chance that they'll take a turn and become a nightmare.
Horrified by Basil's disappearance, OMORI and his remaining friends set out on a grand journey to rescue him. This is the RPG segment of the game; as the party explores Headspace, you'll fight monsters like Sprout Moles, Bunnies, 1980s technology, and other bizarre people and things. Along the way, OMORI and friends can help the people who call Headspace home, play minigames, and generally have a series of fun adventures.
Like most RPGs, combat is handled using a turn-based system. However, you're not going to be using the tired old interface you've seen a billion times. Instead of old standbys like hit points and manna, characters have "Heart" and "Juice". They'll also use "skills" rather than magic, and their skills are as unique as their users. As an example, Hero's skills are based around cooking, while Kel's skills are sports related. Functionally though, these corrispond with the standard RPG roles: Hero provides support, and Kel is your party's glass cannon.
A key feature of the new combat system is the emotional state of each combatant. Emotions take the place of status effects in this game, making it vitally important that you learn to take advantage of how everybody is feeling. Two skills from early in the game provide good examples of why: Audrey's Mood Breaker skill deals a lot of extra damage if she's attacking someone who is Happy, and OMORI starts with a skill that completely ignores his target's defenses if he's feeling Sad. Bosses usually take this a step further, having the ability to stack their emotions or force OMORI and friends to feel a certain way.
Another interesting feature of the combat system is the ability to use "follow up" attacks. In combat, the party has a shared Energy Meter that starts at 3 and increases every time someone gets hurt. If you have someone use a normal attack and there's more than 3 points of energy on the meter, you can have them perform a special extra move during their turn by tapping the appropriate direction key when their extra move options are displayed. Everybody's follow up moves are unique, so try them out in random encounters to learn who can do what. The most important thing to remember is that OMORI has the ability to gather the four friends together to perform their Ultimate Attack. This devastating move requires a full energy meter and all four friends to still be in the fight, but it's often worth it.
As much fun as exploring the dream world can be, dreams always come to an end. This leads into the other part of the game: the real world. OMORI's family is moving away in three days, and he has some chores to finish up. Alternatively, you can have him spend his remaining days with his old neighborhood friends. Don't worry too much about the chores; if you choose to say goodbye, your friends will help you take care of them.
Now, these real world segments are much shorter than the Headspace ones, but they are also more important. At the end of each day, OMORI will find himself having to confront something he's afraid of (like spiders), and learning to overcome these challenges in the real world allows him to overcome these fears later in his dreams. This in turn opens up new areas to explore and moves the story along.
There's just one other thing players should know about this game: as mentioned earlier, there's a Big Secret that gets revealed over time. All I'm going to say about it now is that it was a terrible event that happened several years ago, and everybody has been coping with the trauma it caused ever since. OMORI's solution was probably the most drastic, as he's withdrawn into his imaginary world where everything is just Fine and Dandy. But, since he's never dealt with his trauma, the memories of it keep slipping into his happy little world, leading to disasters like Basil's sudden disappearance.
How players choose to spend the real life segments will determine whether or not OMORI and his friends eventually overcome this traumatic experience. Just like how it works in real life, the only way to earn your happy ending is to confront your past openly and deal with it.
Ultimately, as dark as things can get in this game, the catharsis that comes from OMORI finally dealing with his pain is worth the time spent getting there. I'd definitely recommend playing through this title, especially if you're a fan of RPGs, deeper character pieces, or games like Undertale and Yume Nikki, both of which clearly inspired the developers of this game. The only catch is that you need to be mature enough to handle the subject matter - this game pulls no punches when it comes to its story.
Points of Interest
Multiple endings
There are at least three ways OMORI's story can end. Of those, only one resolves the problems the characters have been dealing with, and it's only available if the player takes the effort to earn it. This ending also features a hidden cutscene that appears after the credits. This cutscene technically needs to be unlocked by doing some things in Headspace, but I'd wager that most players will accomplish the required task just by playing normally.
Upbeat sense of humor
Headspace, by nature, is a lot like Neverland - a timeless place where OMORI and his friends can spend their time playing games, having picnics, and never grow older. It's a safe and silly place, and almost everything reflects this. Item descriptions, for example, talk about how one flavor of juice is inherently superior to all others, or how Kel's toy ball is "kid tested and approved".
Or at least, that's how it goes most of the time - as the player gets closer to revealing the Big Secret, things start breaking down and the dream world starts becoming more like a nightmare.
Or at least, that's how it goes most of the time - as the player gets closer to revealing the Big Secret, things start breaking down and the dream world starts becoming more like a nightmare.
Lots of Adventures
In his dreams, OMORI can visit a dozen places, many of which are completely optional. Along the way, you'll find a number of side quests to work on and minigames to play. There's also a large amount of bonus content that can be unlocked if you choose not to deal with the Big Secret. However, the trade off is that you'll be forced to choose between the bad endings, so I'd suggest only doing this after you've completed the game normally.
RPG gameplay is simplified
RPGs, as a genre, are notorious for having complex rules and patterns that players need to memorize and master. This turns away a lot of people, as they don't find spreadsheets and math all that entertaining. Thankfully, the emotion system is extremely straightforward and even easily abused, so you won't need any special strategies beyond "hit them again". Each friend is also pretty much locked into their specific combat roles, so you don't need to bother with trying to make the best build either.
The story also doesn't care who wins the fights that take place in the real world segments, so just do your best and things will work out anyway.
The story also doesn't care who wins the fights that take place in the real world segments, so just do your best and things will work out anyway.
Steam community features
There are 84 achievements for players to earn while they help everybody deal with their feelings. Only a few of these are earned by playing through the story, so be prepared to explore every location and try everything if you want to collect them all. Many are only available once per playthrough, so create a lot of extra saves and plan to take some notes if you're going achievement hunting.
Concerns and Issues
Moderate violence
Combat in Headspace is fairly standard RPG fare when it comes to violence: animations show the character's attacks, numbers appear, and defeated enemies drop from the screen. In a twist, OMORI and his friends don't "die" when defeated; instead, they become "toast", as in, "so and so is toast". Likewise, characters are revived by spreading Jam on them. If this isn't making sense, it will in context, so just roll with it for now.
But, while the RPG stuff is mild as usual, there's a lot of stuff that isn't. OMORI's preferred weapon - in his dreams and reality - is a steak knife. While it makes sense in a fantasy setting, using a knife in a real world fist fight results in some serious consequences.
Very late in the game, there are also several incidents where characters are tortured or brutally killed.
But, while the RPG stuff is mild as usual, there's a lot of stuff that isn't. OMORI's preferred weapon - in his dreams and reality - is a steak knife. While it makes sense in a fantasy setting, using a knife in a real world fist fight results in some serious consequences.
Very late in the game, there are also several incidents where characters are tortured or brutally killed.
Scary spiders
Throughout the game, OMORI needs to face his fears. One of these is arachnephobia, and it has resulted in an entire section of his dream world becoming devoted to spiders and other creepy crawlies. In fact, there are even a few points where characters are killed by insects. If you're also creeped out by stuff like this, you might not enjoy these parts of the adventure.
Self harm
This issue is actually kind of strange. In some cases, the only way for OMORI to leave a location in Headspace is for him to take out his knife and stab himself. No blood is shown, though he does curl up around the blade like he's in pain. It feels like a non-sequiter at first, but it probably has something to do with how he blames himself for the Big Secret.
Blood and gore
In Headspace, some enemies have blood (or possibly watermelon juice) drawn on their sprites. There's also at least one battle that shows human skeletons scattered around the background. Neither are terribly graphic, but it's worth mentioning.
The real issues with blood and gore start coming out of the woodwork towards the end of the game, as players explore a section of OMORI's mind where he's been shoving all of his anger, guilt, and other negative feelings for the past several years. If you've ever seen articles about the disturbing stuff troubled kids draw, then you have a pretty good idea of what you'll be seeing in this part of the game.
The real issues with blood and gore start coming out of the woodwork towards the end of the game, as players explore a section of OMORI's mind where he's been shoving all of his anger, guilt, and other negative feelings for the past several years. If you've ever seen articles about the disturbing stuff troubled kids draw, then you have a pretty good idea of what you'll be seeing in this part of the game.
Suicide
The Big Secret has been weighing rather heavily on the minds of OMORI and his friends. Each of them has tried to cope with it in different ways, but as players will discover, they haven't been that successful. Many of the bad endings involve someone giving up and committing suicide; some just hint at it by playing sirens in the distance, while others actually show OMORI killing himself.
The Big Secret
Put bluntly, the Big Secret that ties together everything is that OMORI's sister Mari has been dead for several years. As far as most of the children know, she committed suicide one night by hanging herself from the tree in her backyard. This is not really what happened, as OMORI and Basil could tell you. The reality is that OMORI and his sister ended up getting into a fight one night, and like many other angry young children, OMORI shoved his sister. Unfortunately, they happened to be at the top of the stairs at the time, so instead of just being pushed back a little, Mari tumbled down the stairs to her death.
To make things worse, their friend Basil witnessed the commotion. Being panicked little kids, they decided to make it look like Mari killed herself. Exactly why they decided to do that is not entirely clear, but one thing is very certain: they've been fighting with their guilt ever since. It's been gnawing at them for so long that it's start to manifest itself as a stange ghostly Something that follows them around.
If the player has OMORI leave his house and reunite his friends, you'll be starting a chain of events that will eventually force the OMORI and Basil to confront their actions and let go of their guilt. While you won't see how the other three friends react to the truth coming out, the good ending does show us that both of these boys will finally start healing.
To make things worse, their friend Basil witnessed the commotion. Being panicked little kids, they decided to make it look like Mari killed herself. Exactly why they decided to do that is not entirely clear, but one thing is very certain: they've been fighting with their guilt ever since. It's been gnawing at them for so long that it's start to manifest itself as a stange ghostly Something that follows them around.
If the player has OMORI leave his house and reunite his friends, you'll be starting a chain of events that will eventually force the OMORI and Basil to confront their actions and let go of their guilt. While you won't see how the other three friends react to the truth coming out, the good ending does show us that both of these boys will finally start healing.
A broken mind
While everyone tried to cope with Mari's death in their own way, OMORI took a more extreme approach by losing himself in an imaginary dream world where everything is "perfect", Mari is still alive, and everyone still hangs out together as if nothing happened. But, since he knows the truth, he can't hide it from himself forever. Every so often, either Mari or Basil gets too close to revealing it, and eventually things reach a point where OMORI is forced to remake the dream world over again to keep it "pure".
In the meantime, there's a hidden part of his mind where he dumps the old copies of his friends when they've started to learn too much. During the final parts of the story, the player will need to explore this area, and you'll also see that OMORI has a habit of taking out some of his built up anger by making Basil die over and over again in gruesome ways.
In the meantime, there's a hidden part of his mind where he dumps the old copies of his friends when they've started to learn too much. During the final parts of the story, the player will need to explore this area, and you'll also see that OMORI has a habit of taking out some of his built up anger by making Basil die over and over again in gruesome ways.
Animal abuse
In the final segment mentioned above, there's a room where the player will discover OMORI's pet cat strapped to a table. During this part of the story, you've been visiting different areas to collect the keys that unlock the way forward, and since you can't exit this room, you'll be led to believe that there's a key here. If you talk to the only other person in the room, he'll explain that the kitty has been "very bad", and must be punished. This may lead players into thinking that the cat has the key, and you are given the option to dissect it.
The fact is, this room is a trap for the player: the solution to its puzzle has NOTHING to do with his cat at all, so you're tricked into hurting it just to make you feel terrible.
Worse, there really is a key in this room - it's inside OMORI, which is troubling in its own way.
The fact is, this room is a trap for the player: the solution to its puzzle has NOTHING to do with his cat at all, so you're tricked into hurting it just to make you feel terrible.
Worse, there really is a key in this room - it's inside OMORI, which is troubling in its own way.