Omori 2020 Review

Omori 2020

Availability: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS, Macintosh operating systems.

Genres: Role-playing Video Game, Adventure game, Strategy game, Indie game, Strategy Video Game, Adventure.

Omori is an indie psychological horror role playing video developed by Omocat and  is based on a series of web comics. The game tells the story of a Hikikomori boy who is named Sunny and his dream world.

Omori

Omori almost seems like a remnant of a bygone age, when the RPGmaker scene has waned over the years. While it’s like a blast from the past to see the blocky graphics of the game, this psychological RPG has all the right ingredients to become a new cult classic.

Games produced with RPGmaker have a curious reputation. The game engine is known for spawning a mix of classic RPGs’ simple clunky demakes and cult horror hits such as Yume Nikki, Lisa: The Excruciating, Mad Father, and The Witch’s House, titles that emerged on the outskirts of community forums and received overwhelmingly favourable Steam ratings unexpectedly.

This title explores the childhood shenanigans of a group of children who are on their summer holiday break, but instead of exploring the wonders of the natural world, the group enters a magical fantasy world conjured by the titular Omori, a sleeping boy.

The bulk of the game takes place in a dreamland where the party is looking for their lost friend, but there are still parts set in reality, actually in a peaceful suburban neighbourhood where all of the game’s children reside.

And while it does not exactly feel like a horror game the vivid dream world is empty of terrifying creatures and existential nightmares, and that is precisely the point.

Omori finds himself

When Omori finds himself unable to control or confront all these occurrences in the real world, he conjures up this fantastical emotional space as a safe haven.

The game begins innocently enough, providing you just enough details to make you think you know what it is all about. The game does an outstanding job with this throughout, as it totally alters perceptions of what the game is many times over. It’s all in here: social strain, fear, and a chaotic home existence. This title, Omori gives you tons and asks only from you that you observe it and give it some thought.

See also  Rogue Legacy 2: A Genealogical Roguelike Delight

The kids in this game are obviously in need of counselling. From a largely realistic portrayal of a peer community, these characters all reflect multiple viewpoints and complexities.

It is indeed accurate that connections fall down over time, that circumstances change before you could even tell your true feelings. The brilliant part of the game is that you deal with the circumstances of the game in your own personal way and your reactions and thoughts impact how the game effectively plays out.

At certain points in the plot, you will be surprised, horrified, or perplexed, and this is sure to affect many different people differently, which is the game’s intended goal.

Gameplay

Having said this, the story itself is a journey. Fight wise, this is a mixed box. The RPS approach to emotional coercion suits the themes, and children are a good carry-over to plot enhancement using toys and their personalities just as well as their weapons. There is a nice selection of encounters, bosses and fights to support.

Omori has typical turn-based fights used in many RPG Maker titles. You have three friends in the game, Kel, Aubrey, and Hero, all of whom have their respective talents, abilities  and characteristics that help you get around the region while also aiding in combat. The emotion system, which decides your enemies’ and party’s stats during battle, is a nice concept. You can use objects or attacks in the middle of battle to force feelings on your opponents and vice versa, adjusting your stats such as anger, which causes you to deal more damage but also take more damage, or sadness, which causes you to deal less damage but also take less.

See also  Trials Rising Review

Music And Art

With one hundred and seventy-nine tracks you will always hear brand new music as you go through the game and the music in Omori is truly awesome. The music varies from boss fighting music to tragic music that will pull at your heart that will get you psyched up throughout the fight.

You can also see the love that, with every region you visit and every battle you get into, has gone into all the artwork. Also every opponent, NPC, and region has a special and impressive appearance.

If you’ve been searching for a story-driven game like Earthbound, Lisa the Painful or even Yume Nikki, this will be the great title for you. Omori is a game that is subtle with its horror and you will get hours of fun with great gameplay, plot, music, and art.

Keep your eyes open for more articles on Club Penguin Hero and read more great game reviews here.

Keegan
Shares
|ShareTweet