It’s been a long journey for Omori – OMOCAT’s first video game – on the way to the land of Nintendo. After a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014, the game was originally scheduled to release on the 3DS, although this was later canceled as development continued and Nintendo’s older handheld no longer popular. After many production issues – including a complete engine change and a complete styling overhaul – Omori is finally available on Switch, and we’re happy to announce that it’s well worth the wait.
The story of Omori is by far the biggest takeaway, but it’s also one that’s difficult to discuss too much without bringing up the important elements. You will play as Omori, a colorless boy who lives in an empty, endless hell called White Space. Sometimes there is a door in White Space, and if you go through this door, you can visit a strange, dreamlike world where you can play with and go on adventures with other people. his close friend.
Suffice it to say, this is a story defined by juxtaposition and contrast. The obvious inspiration from Nintendo EarthBound evident in the way Omori fits into its quirky quirks and quirky humor – such as an original mission where a space pirate named “Space Boyfriend” would forever stuck sleeping in bed unless someone played some mixtape on his jukebox.
You get caught up in all sorts of silly interactions like this, but it can also often turn into psychological horror without warning. Dark images and events can be as shocking as they happen suddenly and this makes you constantly anxious as you become more and more uncertain about what to expect. really going on here.
It takes 20 hours to get through an Omori turn, and the journey proves to be frankly tough in the best possible way after the credits roll. This is ultimately a story about mental illness and dealing with difficult feelings, and the deeper emotional beats kick in as things start to make more sense towards the end. Those of you who can’t get enough of the narrative here will be happy to know that there are multiple endings, depending on the decisions you make at key plot twists. Omori is an equally fun and frustrating experience, and it’s the kind of game that makes you think long after it’s done.
The gameplay itself is the weaker part of Omori, but this is only because it becomes rather dull as time goes on. Omori is a classic JRPG basically, so most of your time will be spent exploring a decent sized map that takes you to all sorts of weird dungeons and market cycles. standard town. The problem is that it seems like there are too many lengthy segments with not much to do because you are constantly buried in long chains of dialogue linked by blinking walking segments that take you to the wrong sequences. longer dialogue. The story is well worth it, but it feels like the pacing can be tight; repeatedly pressing ‘A’ to flip through the text will become stale when it doesn’t split enough.
When you finally reach the dungeon, you’re sure to come across all sorts of cute and weird enemies, and this is where turn-based combat begins. Each character has basic attack types and special skills that help in standard healing. , spells, powerful attacks, etc. Where things get decidedly more interesting is in the ’emotion’ system, which replaces the status effects commonly found in RPGs.
Here, a character can be neutral, happy, sad, or angry, and each emotion (except neutral) does more harm to one emotion while taking more from the other. Furthermore, each emotion carries with it changes both positive and negative, making them much more situational. For example, if a character or enemy is ‘Sad’, their defense is raised and part of any damage taken will be taken from their Juice (mana) gauge instead of their health. , but this comes at the expense of reduced speed.
We quite like the narrative connection this emotional system provides, as it emphasizes that no emotion is simply ‘better’ than others, but that there is a good time. suitable for any emotion. In terms of gameplay, it’s fun to get in at the right time for the cycling emotion, especially during boss fights. For example, making the boss angry will lower its defense allowing your ‘Happy’ characters to deal more damage to it, but these characters risk taking more due to stats Boss attack is increased.
The only real complaint we have here is that most of the game’s battles don’t require you to use this system much and so fighting can become more of a tagline for the sake of the enemy. They’re too weak to plan properly for multiple turns, but they’re also too sturdy to quickly maneuver them with basic attacks.
As a more specific representation of the friendship between your party members, there’s also a cool ‘Energy’ system that acts as a sort of limit break that any character can use . Taking damage fills a bar at the bottom of the screen, and you can choose to burn parts of it after any character action to perform some synergistic moves with your teammates. This can take the form of an emotional boost or a follow-up attack, and sometimes those extra actions are all you need to end an encounter or narrowly save. one team member becomes toast (literally). However, as mentioned earlier, this is also something that you don’t really need In a typical enemy encounter, this can have the effect of slowing down a great mechanic.
Omori employs a simple yet deeply responsive art style that combines multiple art forms into one cohesive experience. Most of your time will be spent viewing the brightly lit and crisply drawn pixel art world with lovable characters to match, but things go in a completely different direction for the characters. battle scene. Here, enemies and characters are portrayed through imperfect crayon drawings that seem to jump right off the page of Omori’s notebook-style images. Sometimes there are some weird ‘reality’ images included in the works, just for you to guess. Despite being a game originally developed in RPG MakerOmori proves to be anything but a cookie cutter in the way it manifests itself.
This also extends to music, which creates a unique and eerie identity in how often it oscillates between emotions. Much of the music is chipper, cute and so sweet, that it’s almost unsettling. Everything becomes clear than unsettling as the plot turns into a macabre stage, and all the fun music is flushed down the drain to create darker ambient sounds. Like the story, there’s no telling where this soundtrack might go next, and in this way it proves to be quite memorable.
Inference
Omori isn’t a game we mean for everyone, but it’s one that looks like it will. deep resonates with its intended audience. If you’re looking for a funny, sad, creepy and completely disorienting RPG adventure, Omori is something you won’t want to miss. The memorable story, unusual style, and high replayability make it easy to recommend this part, even if the plot pacing can feel sluggish and the combat doesn’t always reach its full potential. its. We think Omori is an experience worth your time; give it a try if you want to try something a little different.
