A dream with no end, a boy with no friends, and a kid trapped in his head. Omori is a psychological horror game that deals with the stages of grief and the mental illness loss can inflict on kids. It drags you in with false security and makes you stay for the intense story. The characters charm you into caring for them and bonding with them over time. Both its art and story are beautifully done and it deserves every bit of praise it gets. Omori is a means to an end, the start of recovery, and a story of loss.
Omocat had a tough time developing this game as they hadn’t had much experience before and RPG Maker sure didn’t make it easier with its updates and data wipes. Omori was originally a wedcomic made by Omocat to help them cope through a part of their life. They based a novel off of it but decided to release the story as a game instead as it helped them communicate the story and engage the audience in it better. A kickstarter for the game was started up in 2014 and it took the team six and a half years to release the game, still adding onto it later with content and patch updates.
You start with seeing an old timey film that displays two boys sitting over blacked out photographs. “Everything will be okay.” We’ll be hearing that a few times throughout the story. Even when it’s obvious everything will not be okay. Omori, a monochrome boy with a constant stoic expression, wakes up in White Space. A completely white room with nothing but a black lightbulb, a laptop, a tissue box, a notebook, your cat Mewo, and a door. The laptop tells you that Omori’s been here in White space a while, the notebook reveals disturbing drawings, the tissue box is for wiping your sorrows away, and Mewo just says, “Mew (Waiting for something to happen?)”
You go through the door after getting the shiny knife, and a purple messy room assaults your eyes due to the contrast from the complete emptiness that was White Space. Your friends greet you one by one after Aubrey accidentally destroys their card game. Aubrey is the youngest being a girl with slight anger issues and an obvious crush on Omori. Kel is the annoying boy that treats life like everyday is another adventure, he doesn’t get along with Aubrey well. Hero is the oldest and brother to Kel, being the most charming and responsible out of the group.
They go on adventures together around this dream-like world and meet their two other close friends. Mari, Omori’s older sister with a collected but goofy personality, has a bad knee and stays at picnic blankets scattered around the map that act as a full party heal and save spot. Then there’s Basil, he’s a shy boy with a passion for plants and photography and the only other one that’s not tinted blue. After visiting his house a photo falls out of his photo album and darkness crawls into the frame. He picks up the photo.
“Mari…SHES-”
The screen glitches, Omori is sent back to White Space. Everything is still, a heartbeat sounds in your ears, and the door is gone. There’s only one way out of here and you know it. Your knife glints in the light. You feel the pain as it digs into your gut. You wake up.
Omori is a spectacle of a game. Its art has inspired many to make their own works whether based off of Omocat’s style or not. It has broken the conventional styles for horror and RPG games at once. It has made people feel seen and represented for their mental issues, and has made so many more fall in love with its story. If you like turn-based RPGs, beautiful cutscenes, amazing story writing, and characters written with love and depth, Omori is for you.
