Omori - Review

Introduction

Omori is a very unique kind of game and in some aspects, I don’t know how to fully describe it without spoiling things. This review will be spoiler-free and I recommend playing this 100% blind to get the best experience. It has a unique combat system with an emotion-based system tied into it that I found very interesting to utilize.

Pros and Cons

Pros

-An interesting story that goes through things like Depression, Anxiety, and Loneliness

-Bosses have character development to them in battle

-A unique combat system that has emotional status effects with characters interactions during battle

-Follow-up attacks that have their own uses to utilize in combat

-Each party member has a certain skill to use outside of combat

-The art style is full of color that makes the areas you explore shine

-Great soundtrack

Cons

-The emotion system is not used as much as I would have liked it to be

Story

Welcome to White Space, you play the character Omori who has been living there for as long as he can remember. There are no walls, all you see is white space and a black lightbulb hanging from the roof. The floor is always cold with your laptop and blankets keeping you warm. A box of tissues and a sketchbook lays nearby.

Characters

Omori has a few friends, Aubrey, Kel, and Hero who will be the central focus of the story. They are looking for their best friend Basil who has gone missing. Omori also has a sister name Mari who keeps the group supplied with food to fully heal the party when they need it.

You will be playing with emotions throughout your journey and interacting with the environment. The characters you play are young and don’t really know the world around them and this I found very unique as they are growing up in this world.

The story will tackle themes of depression, anxiety, and loneliness and what it feels like to live with these emotions. It does a great job showing how people deal with each and how to overcome these things when someone is feeling down. I liked how it was done, showing us the suffering that people have to go with their struggles.

I really loved how some of the bosses also had character development attached to them while you are in a battle. It adds more charm to the bosses and it fits with their corresponding theme of the areas they are in.

There is a lot I want to say about the story but I would just end up spoiling it. It’s really well done and I just loved every aspect of it. I should mention that the story does get dark at times, so when you are in a happy moment, I recommend you treasure them, as things will get serious, especially as you approach the end of the story.

Gameplay

Omori is a turned-based RPG where you will use a variety of skills in combat. There is a normal attack and skills to utilize in battle to help take out enemies. Skills require a certain amount of juice to be used, similar to mana in a traditional RPG. Skills have a variety of uses and some will inflict Emotion, I’ll explain a little more on this feature in a bit. At the end of every battle, you will get rewarded experience points and you will level up when you collect a certain amount.

You may learn a new move from leveling up which can help you as you progress through the story. They vary in terms of enjoyment, so it is best to experiment with them once you obtain new moves.

During the course of the battle, your party will build up energy, which can be used to perform follow-up attacks. These attacks will always cost at least three energy, however, if you get a max of ten energy, you can perform a special attack where the whole party will attack the enemy. This method is really good for taking out bosses as it will do a big chunk of damage to them and will probably save you in a pinch. Some follow-up attacks are not as useful, so it has a bit of strategy.

Party members also have abilities outside of battle that will help you access other parts of an area or to find items. Omori can use his knife to cut certain objects like cones, webs, or small trees. Aubrey can smash objects with her trusty bat. Kel can throw his ball to activate switches, and Hero can use his charm to talk to certain people to assist the party.

Emotions

Emotions can determine how characters are affected. There are a total of three emotions that you have access to in the game. Happy will make your character’s luck and speed increase, but your hit rate will decrease. Angry will make your attack go up, however, your defense will be lowered in the process. The last one is Sad, your defense will increase but your damage will decrease and damage to your juice meter will also be inflected as well. These emotions can also be further increased, such as the emotion Happy can turn into Excited and it can go further than that. The emotions work in a traditional combat triangle. Happy beats Angry, Angry beats Sad, and Sad beats Happy, so keep these emotions in mind while fighting.

This Emotion mechanic is a very interesting feature of the game. However, it’s not really used much and does not seem to matter for most fights. The only time it was really an issue was for one boss fight. If you have farmed enough levels, you could most likely defeat the boss with regular attacks negating any reasons to use the emotions present. This is disappointing as the Emotion mechanic was something I really enjoyed and would have loved to get more use out of.

Art Style, Performance, and Soundtrack

The art style is hand-drawn. It looks very nice to the eyes and I liked how each area was presented. Each area is crafted very well and the character models fit with the world and the themes. I tested the game with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. The game runs really well and can run on lower spec computers. The soundtrack is very good with each song fitting with the areas of the game. It is really nice to listen to justifying the optional DLC soundtrack.

Final Verdict

Omori is a really unique RPG. I liked how it tackled the themes and showed how people learn to cope with them. It displays moments of happiness and then moments of very serious situations where everything may seem ok but it’s not. I recommend Omori to anyone who wants to experience a unique RPG, as it’s just that, Omori is not just a game, it’s an experience that is worth remembering.

Steam Store Page

My Original Review