Omori

Title screen featuring the titular character.

***Omori*** (stylized as ***OMORI***) is a 2020 role-playing video game developed by Omocat LLC., using the RPG Maker MV program. The game drew elements of surrealism, adventure, and psychological horror genres and takes inspiration from role-playing video games with unique and surrealism elements, notably *Earthbound*, *Yume Nikki*, *Off*, *Undertale*, and other horror RPG Maker games.

## Gameplay

*Omori* drew inspirations on Japanese role-playing games, with features such elements but contains a very unique battle system, modified the use of "paper-and-scissors type" method. The player controls a party of four characters who travel through the game's colorful two-dimensional world with no accessible overworld map. Areas can "loop" into each other, making the two-dimensional universe feel uniquely three-dimensional.

## Premise

> *"The game tells the story of a hikikomori boy named Sunny and his dream world alter-ego Omori, exploring the real world and the surreal dream world to overcome his repressed fears and secrets. He is joined by a party of his close friends as they explore the overworld and engage in turn-based battles against fantastical enemies, with status effects based on the characters' emotions."*
>
>

## Endings

Suicide Ending
Sunny will spend his last night in Faraway Town at Basil's house with Kel, Aubrey, and Hero in tow. Sunny will have a dream that reveals the truth about what happened to his sister, Mari: during an argument, Sunny pushed Mari down the stairs, accidentally killing her. Basil, who witnessed the incident, came up with the idea to stage Mari's death as a suicide, and the two boys are irreparably damaged from their actions.
When Sunny wakes up from his dream, you have several choices. If you decide to head home or go back to sleep, you will be locked into one of the two neutral endings. In both of these endings, Basil will commit suicide; if you go back to sleep at Basil's house and wake up again, you'll be able to talk to your friends, who are stricken with grief at his death. You can examine his room as well, but after doing so the door will disappear, symbolizing Sunny's lost chance at redemption.

The only way to advance the game is to return to Sunny's house and go to sleep. If you pick up a knife in the kitchen before going upstairs, then you'll receive the ending: Sunny will awaken in White Space, and the only way to leave is to use the Stab command from the menu. You'll see Sunny stab himself in his dream; when the game cuts back to reality, you'll see that Sunny has stabbed himself in the real world as well, and the game fades to black.**NOTE**: According to the website, it is considered as a "most tragic and depressing" ending, with both Sunny and Basil losing their lives.
Abandoned Ending
It will access this ending similar to the first one. After waking up in Basil's house for the first time, you'll have to choose either to go back to sleep or to return to Sunny's house. Either way, Basil will die, and the door to his room will disappear.
But for this ending, you'll have to ignore the knife on the kitchen counter. Sunny will wake up in White Space and you can only exit by choosing the Stab command. But now Sunny will wake up on the day that he's set to move out of town. The only thing left to do is to walk out to Sunny's mother's car, which is idling by the curb. Get in and you'll drive away, leaving behind the tragedies in Faraway Town.

Bad Ending
You can't leave Basil's house or go back to sleep after waking up the first time. Instead, you'll have to go to Basil's room, confronting the boys' trauma head-on. Sunny and Basil will fight until they both pass out. While Sunny is unconscious, he'll remember the good times that he had with Mari. Then he'll confront the final boss: Omori, the personality that Sunny created to protect himself from his memories.
The battle slowly becomes more unsettling and distressing until, finally, you won't be able to heal yourself; from here, Omori will always strike a mortal blow, sending you to the Game Over screen. Choosing not to continue will lock you into the Bad Ending.
In this ending, Sunny bows his head in defeat. Omori embraces him, and Sunny is subsequently erased from existence, symbolizing that Omori has taken over for good. Then you'll wake up in White Space. Instead of using the Stab command to exit, you'll find a door to the Neighbor's Room, where you'll meet up with Aubrey, Kel, and Hero as you did during the previous segments of the game.
But when you go up the stairs to exit the room, you'll find yourself on the balcony of the hospital, surrounded by fog. The only thing you can interact with here is a gap in the railing. Walking up to it gives you the option to jump, and the only way to finish the game is to select "yes". The credits will play over an animation of Omori falling from the hospital as psychedelic backgrounds flash by and the game's unofficial theme song, "My Time" by Bo En, blares.

Good Ending
You'll have to fight Basil after waking up in his house for the first time, proceed through Sunny's memories to the final boss with Omori, and then die to reach the Game Over screen. If you choose to continue, then you'll be able to see the Good Ending.
In this ending, Sunny picks up his violin and plays the duet he and Mari were going to play at her piano recital as Sunny's memories, good and bad, flash by on the screen. Sunny and Omori embrace, and Omori disappears, symbolizing that Sunny has finally accepted the truth of what happened. Sunny then wakes up in his hospital bed covered in bandages and cries over Mari's death.

Finally, Sunny will visit Basil's hospital room, where Kel, Aubrey, and Hero are waiting. A short cutscene will play where Sunny says, "I have to tell you something." And then the credits roll, showing Sunny's view from the backseat of his mom's car while an upbeat song plays.**NOTE:** Omori is ambiguous about whether the group will stay in touch after Sunny moves. But this ending allows Sunny to move on, free from the burden of keeping such a terrible secret.
Secret Ending
In Headspace, Basil keeps a garden where he grows flowers symbolizing each character. You'll have to water the flowers every day, keeping the garden vibrant and beautiful, in order to receive this ending.
If you water the flowers and then proceed through the steps for the good ending, you'll receive a secret post-credits cutscene in which Basil wakes up in his hospital bed to see Sunny watching over him. The two smiles at each other, and the ghostly apparitions that have been haunting them throughout the game disappear, symbolizing that both of them have found peace and are able to be friends again. After the torture that both Basil and Sunny have gone through over the course of the game, it confirms that the boys can finally let go of their pain.

## Development

It has been planned after commissioning multiple Omocat's projects including a sketchbook and an unfinished graphic novel since 2012. It is based on a Tumblr webcomic *omori ひきこもり* [*hikikomori*], by OMOCAT; according to *"help [her] cope with [her] problems during a confusing part of [her] life"*. Later, the project has switched their medium to a video game for the story-driven elements in order to enable the audience to make choices in the story by using a RPG Maker VX Ace program in 2013, following the Kickstarter campaign launched on April 21, 2014, with $22,000 goal; it was successfully funded on June 5, 2014, with $203,300 donated. Again, they switch to RPG Maker MV in order to improving more graphics, features and accessibility.

*Omori* was put in development course for nearly seven years, with larger open-world and characters produced throughout into the game. It was first announced in 2014 with a first concept trailer released through the YouTube platform. In 2017, another trailer more objective was published in the same way, and a third and final trailer, announced in late 2020, followed the pattern update Triennial and put an end to the three-year pattern; finally received its final release date of December 25.

## Trivia

* *Omori* compared or drew inspirations on such video games as *Earthbound*, *Yume Nikki*, and *Undertale*.
	+ Like *Earthbound*, both have a unique battle system, emotional states, colorful characters, and backgrounds.
	+ Like *Yume Nikki* and *Undertale*, all three protagonists (consists of Madotsuki, Frisk, and Sunny/Omori) are silent and neutral personalities in a way of interacting various characters and objects; also compared to the latter, Frisk and Sunny/Omori were committed murderous acts when they were in a psychological or genocidal state.
* *Omori* was initially intended to port with Nintendo 3DS, one of the stretch goals from Kickstarter; later passed on another nintendo-related console Nintendo Switch.

## References

1. ↑ Omori PC review | Rock Paper Shotgun
2. ↑ Omocat's 'Omori' Is the Horror RPG of Your Dreams (or Nightmares) | WIRED
3. ↑ Omori: Every Ending, Ranked | TheGamer
4. ↑ OMOCAT · from illustration to video game OMORI KICKSTARTER... (archive.org)
5. ↑ Offbeat RPG Omori Finally Receives Release Date - Hardcore Gamer
6. ↑ Omori Release Date Will Fall on Christmas - Siliconera