Omori (video game)

Omori (stylized OMORI) is a surrealistic psychological horror role-playing video game developed by OMOCAT and several others. In it, players follow a young teenage boy, Sunny, and his alter-ego, the titular Omori, as they go about and slowly unravel the mysteries surrounding an expansive dream world, as well as a traumatic past. It has been critically acclaimed both for its narrative, its handling of sensitive themes, and the soundtrack, which serve to reinforce the dual themes of the game, both by its fandom and the greater gaming community at hand.
It had a six-year development cycle, and amidst internal struggles and a notable lack of communication coming from the developers themselves, accrued a small fanbase that snowballed into a larger, albeit an understanding, one once the game was finally ready for release, spawning various fan content and theories on the way.
==Canon==
(As the entire story contains minor to major spoilers all throughout, one is recommended to play the game first.)
===Gameplay===
As the game was made using RPG Maker MV, usual conventions follow in the genre's context, with the exception of the battle section. While the majority of gameplay revolves around exploration, obtaining items and weapons, accomplishing quests, and levelling up, amongst other things, the battle system becomes notable by both employing human emotions (Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear) and the Rock-Paper-Scissors game into the formula, as follows:- Happy is strong against Angry, while being weak against Sad;
- Angry is strong against Sad, while being weak against Happy;
- Sad is strong against Happy, while being weak against Angry.Only in certain occassions and locations, such as encountering dark-toned, ghoulish entities referred to as Somethings, does the emotion of Fear manifest itself in battle.
===Story===
The entire storyline occurs within a local surburban area somewhere around the late 1990s (although its exact date and location have been extensively debated amongst various fandom circles to this day), in which a group of former childhood friends, named Sunny, Aubrey, Kel, Hero, and Basil, all have to contend with the former one leaving town in a matter of three days and the unfortunate tragedy that befell another of their friends, Mari (also Sunny's older sibling and sister) around four years ago. As such, it's up to the player themselves how the group, including the real-world protagonist himself, will cope with the situation at hand.
===Characters ===
Main
*Aubrey
*Basil
*Hero
*Kel
*Mari
*Sunny
Secondary
* Headspace/Dream World
**Sweetheart
** Capt. Spaceboy (Space Boyfriend)
** Pluto
** Mr. Jawsum
** Humphrey
* Real World
**Kim
** Vance
** Charlene
** Maverick (Mikhael)
** Daphne and Bowen
**Mincy
**Polly
** Cris
=== Soundtrack===
The majority of the tracks in the game were composed by Pedro Silva, followed by Jami Lynne, and lastly, three (or four) tracks by Calum Bowen (whose in-stage name is bo en). Aside from that, the real-world Jukebox tracks were submitted and composed by various musicians, including Toby Fox with his own Merry CD entry.
Overall, the soundtrack by itself has been universally well-recieved, especially with a few standout tracks that capture the game's whimsical-horrific dual theme; amongst them is a version of bo en's "My Time", specifically remixed by the artist himself for the game, although its first known appearance was in the original 2014 Kickstarter trailerThe original Kickstarter trailer for OMORI. (Published April 21, 2014; accessed November 14, 2023).. Due to its instrumentation and lyrics, both of which neatly fit into one of the game's endings, fans have regularly joked and memed about it being a theme for when someone falls from great heights, including staircases, and even at great lengths, with even a comment containing "Close" (the first word in said track's lyrics) under Omori-related videos instigating a further chain of comments spelling out the rest, word by word.
The soundtrack has been also recently subject to a particular audio meme activity known as ripping, pioneered by Youtube channels such as SiIvaGunner and TimmyTurnersGrandDad, of which the instrumentation and composition of almost all of its tracks were swapped or mashed up with those of different ones for the sake of humor; one notable example is the track "100 Sunny" by Pedro Silva, in which it became a minor crossover meme with the ripping community due to the simplicity and adaptability of said track's samples.
==Fandom==
Despite its already-dark themes covered throughout the game - most notably, depression, trauma, and suicide - the fandom that grew around OMORI mostly revolved around its characters, especially their dream world counterparts, as well as its surface-level whimsical and playful atmosphere, ever since in its original drawing and susequently, webcomic form around 2011-2012. On the same year it was first publicized, a subreddit with the same name was set up, fostering thread upon thread of discussion, fanworks, and theories about the then in-development game. Naturally, once the game had been fully released, the fandom exploded in popularity, as well as the amount of fanworks dedicated to the aforementioned game, much like Undertale's case.
=== Shipping===
Much of the game's fandom centered around the characters themselves, and the possible pairings they could make out of it, in any way; thus, the resulting dynamics revolve how the shipped pairs work out in terms of their personalities and hardships; while most fanworks involving these ships typically verge on the platonic angle, some verge onto the romantic.
As such, Sunny/Aubrey (referred to as Sunburn) is the most popular F/M ship, followed by Hero/Mari (HeroMari by canon).
In much the same way, Kel/Sunny (Suntan) and Basil/Sunny (Sunflower) are the most popular M/M ships.
In contrast, Kel/Aubrey is mostly seen as a polarizing het-type enemyslash pairing by the fandom, owing to the two characters' contrasting dynamics and their status as former childhood friends in the game's canon.
In a more general context, many fans regard pairings (both canon and fanmade) in Omori as "endearing", as put upon by this Twitter post below:
===Fanon Nicknames===
Some fannish nicknames for certain characters caught on, be it through intention or pure hilarity. Snuuy (for Sunny) is by far the most recognizable one, due to his naming convention being similar with "bnuuy", a alternate name for "bunny". Aside from its typical reference, it has also been used in most fandom circles to describe something with affection, or being enamored with cuteness. For the same reason, Auby has been used as an alternate name for Aubrey, itself a contraction of her fan-given real first name Aubergine.
===Memes===
Humor and memes connected to the game in some form or another are also massively prevalent within the fandom, even a few years after its release, with a majority of them referring to either Kel or the rest of the gang; a major example is "Kel being canon", which as it might suggest, refers to the aforementioned character being able to manifest himself into real life, and other related shenanigans, due to his hyper-positive and unwavering personality. This also extended towards the official release of the Omori Headspace plushie and vinyl figurine collections around January and June 2023, respectively, which also sparked even more humorous vigor regarding the Kel plushie itself"🏀". omocat_. (Published September 2, 2022; Accessed December 11, 2023). .
Oftentimes, the game itself would see a number of fan-induced memetic crossovers with other video game fandoms, including Pizza Tower (with the With Special Guest meme"Has anyone made this joke yet? #pizzatower #OMORI" VantaViolet_ (formerly VantaBlack). Twitter/X. (Published February 12, 2023; Accessed December 11, 2023).) and Rivals of Aether (through fanmade character ports).
=== Events ===
* Another Sunflower Week
* Another Suntan Week
* Suntan September
* Kelbrey Week
* Kimbrey Week
* Nightshade Week
* OMORI Rarepair Week
* OMOTOBER
* smiles2m's Sunflowotober
* Sunburn Week
* Sunflower Inktober
* Suntan Week
== Controversies and Drama==
As expected of recent larger fandoms, especially those surrounding video games with fleshed-out characters, bouts of drama and controversies, large or miniscule, tend to break out from time to time.
===Basil as a Complicated Character===
It's no secret to everyone within and (to a slightly lesser degree) outside the fandom that Basil is one of the most divisive characters ever encountered, not only due to his underlying personality, but also on his role in framing the sudden death of Mari, Sunny's older sibling and sister, as a suicide, prior to the events of the game itself. Some have also implied him as gay, owing to speculations inferred from his own dialogue and portraits within the game, which depicts him as a flower boy, both in his Headspace and real world counterparts, and of which hints at his connection with Omori/Sunny as his best friend. Thus, accusations of homophobia and the like abound within certain packets of the fandom, combined with the issues of character shipping, with the Sunflower (Sunny/Basil) fan relationship itself criticized for its implied problematic angles, most notably on the LGBTQ angle.
===NSFW Fanworks ===
Another aspect denoted as a negative within the fandom was the prevalence of NSFW fanworks, especially fan art, ever since the game's eventual release, of which a number of them depict some of the characters as performing non-consensual sexual acts or posing in certain suggestive positions. With the fact that the main cast (barring certain older characters, such as Sunny's mother and Polly, Basil's caretaker) are primarily teenagers, and that the majority of the fandom's audience are around the same age range, pedophilia and incest became one of the pressing primary concerns, alongside rather limited guidance and advice regarding content warnings on such fanworks online, especially on Twitter/X. Some fans also took their perspectives on the matter, with one musing about these fanworks' legal implications, pointing to countries and cities with strong child protection laws, on a Youtube video titled, "The Omori Fandom has a MASSIVE Problem...", in which they state the following:
==Example Fanworks==
===Fan Fiction ===
*Endless Dreaming - by otomerson; a post-Good Ending OMORI canon diversion fanfic about Sunny promptly still finding Omori inside White Space (2023)
*"It Really Works!" - by Wrongful; an OMORI crack fanfic in which Kel accidentally splatters some strawberry jam onto Mari's grave, reviving her in the most hilarious way possible (2021)
*Noli Mei Oblivsci[AO3 port]Was later ported into AO3, and then rendered fully complete as opposed to the original FanFiction version, by Rhymeus. - by delicatetomb, a post-Good Ending fanfic which posits the following question and beyond: What if Sunny's Headspace, as well as Omori and gang, somehow made it to the real world instead of just fading upon the former telling the entire truth?
*The Dreamer - by stormoftara; a canon divergence fanfic in which Mari's tragedy never occured and Sunny confesses the truth to her (2021)
=== Fan Games ===
*Autumn Break - an OMORI mod that explores the events that have transpired days before Mari's untimely tragedy
*DOOMORI - an FPS fangame which humorously combines elements of DOOM (1993) and OMORI together, altering the latter's storyline by a fair amount; it has a more expanded, more bizarre sequel titled DOOMORI ETERNAL
*DAY 224 - by Phamility; an OMORI fangame about Hero's eventual overcoming of his grief, situated within a single dark room in his and Kel's house
*Reverie - a post-Good Ending OMORI mod which attempts to solve unanswered questions regarding Sunny's dream world, as well as the fates of characters Doughie, Biscuit, Sweetheart, and Captain Spaceboy
===Fan Vids===
*Jekyll and Hyde Confrontation - by Grey-Spark; an OMORI animatic which superimposes the final boss battle between Sunny and Omori to the tune of the musical's aforementioned song.
*Pale Machine || COMPLETE OMORI MAP - organized by Melono Melon; an OMORI multi animator project to bo en's Pale Machine.
=== Meta ===
* OMORI and Dissociative Amnesia - by Daryl Talks Games; an OMORI analysis discussing Sunny's response to trauma, dissociative amnesia, and suicidal ideation.
=== Music===
*Stumbling Down the Hidden Secrets of Four Years - by carrot113 feat. Eleanor Forte (2021)
* Endless - by OR3O feat. Kuraiinu (2021)
*I remixed OMORI's music into an anime opening (Full Version) - by Thai McGrath (2022)
*HEADSPACE - by chai (2023)
*OMORI: A SONG COVER MUSICAL (2023) - organized by Grey-Spark; a musical-style fan cover/arrangement project of some notable soundtrack songs
*My R (English Cover)「OMORI MV」【Will Stetson x carrot113 】 - an Aubrey-focused fan translation cover of My R by Will Stetson with art by carrot113 (2023)
===Fan Zines ===
* MEMORIES (2021)
*REVERIE (2021)
*REQUIEM (2022)
*Omori's Oven (2022-2023)
*Welcome Again. (2023)
==Archives and Fannish Links==
===Fanfiction===
*Omori (video game) tag on Archive of our Own
*Omori category on Fanfiction.net
* Omori tag on Wattpad
===Social Media===
*Omori tag on Kbin (and Mastodon)
*Omori tag on Newgrounds
*Omori tag on Tumblr
*Omori tags on Xitter
*/r/OMORI on Reddit
===Wikis===
*Omori Wiki (Fandom/Wikia)
*Omori Wiki (MediaWiki)
*Omori (video game) on TVTropes
===Other===
*mods.one (fan-run website for custom Omori mods)
==Meta/Further Reading==
*The OMORI Community: A Deep Dive into the Insanity - an overview fan vid of the aforementioned fandom by Serial Introvert, which discusses many of the prevalent activities, fanworks and controversies prevalent within it
==References==
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Category:2020 Communities
Category:Pages that need more fandom content
Category:Pages that need more points of view
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