#omori strategy

[buttercup-barf]

just curious if you do any art request or ideas I saw you pizzahead omori little crossover and sparked idea of either Noise or Pizzahead being a boss in omori

also loved the art and you did phenomenal capturing both styles

Thank you very much! I believe that a fake Noise boss fight was already done by @/kriscantspeakgerman, so here's the nefarious twink boss fight.

[kelbunny]

Basil from Omori's color palette reminded me of Roland's especially since my pfp is of Roland with a pink crabapple blossom haha, so woe, outfit swap that I drew a few days ago be upon ye.

[lilithsaga]

Now that we've seen Basil in the real world, the importance of finding him again grows stronger. Time to branch out to a new colony for clues. 🌱

You won't be-leaf what we find... 🍃

[mycomicbox]

You seem to be a huge fan of RPG’s what is your RPG favorite game and/or series?

Man, where do I even begin? You can't make me pick just one! I'm just going to go down the list of RPG series that I've played and enjoyed:

Pokémon: My bread-and-butter series since I was 9. My first game was X, but since then, I have played all of the mainline games from the Game Boy to the Switch (currently playing through Violet). I just love battling with those funky lil' creachers :3

Mario & Luigi (and by extension Super Mario RPG): A very charming Mario spin-off series with some unique twists on the RPG formula, mainly with using timed button presses to execute attacks. Unfortunately, the developer AlphaDream shut down a few years ago, so this series is probably dead...

Undertale and Deltarune: C'mon... do I even need to go into detail?

EarthBound/M🌏THER: I love medieval fantasy, but it's sometimes fun to avert tropes. Rather than playing as a knight or mage slaying dragons and goblins, you're a bunch of ragtag kids using PSI and baseball bats to fight animals, gang members, and animated objects. Plus, the series is full of great jokes and overall just OOZES charm. Also MOTHER 3 made me cry.

OMORI: The one that you were probably expecting. Lovely music and presentation, a heart-wrenching story, and beautifully displays mental illness without making a mockery of it.

Final Fantasy: I've only played a few of these (I, III, IV, V, and currently playing through IX), but I have enjoyed the ones that I have played. I've heard good things about VI, VII, X, and especially XIV (though XIV is an MMORPG and those intimidate me). I have to say that my favorite so far is V, simply because of the excellent job system. Speaking of job systems...

Bravely Default: A series that I've gotten into back in May of this year, and it recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. A sister series to Final Fantasy that's basically a love letter to the JRPGs of old, with an excellent job system and a unique twist on turn-based combat with the Brave and Default commands. The fandom is frustratingly small, however...

Now for some RPG series that I'm wanting to try:

Persona: When the Switch port of Persona 5 Royal dropped, my brother and I both pitched in money to buy it, so I do own it. I just haven't touched it yet because I have so many other unfinished games on my plate. I WILL get to it, though, and that's a promise. If I like it, I might pick up P3P and P4G once those release on the Switch.

Dragon Quest: I've only played the first one so far and when I finished it, I was like "yep, that certainly was an RPG from the NES". Even though it isn't necessary, I want to try to play the games in numerical order (skipping over X because I can't read Japanese), though like I said, I want to clear out my backlog first.

Octopath Traveler: Love the 2D-HD style, and I've heard that it does have a job system of some kind. Also there's apparently a sequel on its way.

Fire Emblem, Triangle Strategy, and Final Fantasy Tactics: I'm lumping these together for one reason. All of the games I've listed so far are your standard turn-based RPGs, with your units on one side and enemies on the other. However, I am open to trying more tactical/strategy games where positioning matters. I've head good things about FFT, and I did find TriStrat at Walmart for relatively cheap. In the case of FE, however... what game do I even start with?

[i-love-hyacinths]

You wanna play omori

You wanna play omori so bad

[ask-the-rpg-3]

[basils-plants-and-potions]

That’s fine. Risky, but fine. But I want to make sure you’ll be safe. What is your strategy?

- The Voice of Reason

"Kill anyone that's gonna get in my way. Protect those who won't."

[asha-mage]

My Top Ten Lists, and GOTY awards for 2022!

As typical I paid no attention to release date or year, only using the condition of 'did I finish this game this year', and judgeing games both as best I could both on how much I liked them, and how successful they where at being the game they where trying to be. I also didn't count any of my 'forever games' i.e games that I play more or less regularly year-to-year, such as FFXIV, and the Sims.

Also, blanket spoiler warning. (I don't get to deep into anything, but their are some references that might spoiler elements of some the plot heavier games).

10) Monster Prom

I played fewer games on average this year then I did in years past (only 12), which maybe explains the place of Monster Prom in the tenth spot. Not that it's a bad game: it's incredibly fun, queer, and wild ride, with a surprising amount to say about growing up, and that time in your life when your wild and unafraid and free.

That said though, it is a multiplayer game that I only ever played in single player, and it only hooked me long enough to get the Oz/Damon ending before I put it down and left it down for the remainder of the year. If I had managed to get one more in under the wire, before year's end, it would probably would have gone in this spot (unless said hyopthethical game was a real stinker, but I very rarely finish real stinkers).

9) Crusader Kings 3: Royal Court/Fate of Iberia

Man does this expansion rule. Crusader Kings in general still rules, and I've played a truly sickening amount CK3 just in general. Normally I would count CK3 as one of my 'forever' games, that I play non stop, but I actually have found myself playing CK3 in fits and starts recently: huge bursts when new DLC drops, and when I get a history hankering, but otherwise not very often.

That said the time I do spend with it rocks. I have made so many attempts at unifying the Iberian Peninsula at this point, some successful, some far less so. And I love seeing my monarch in his court, projecting power and presiding over the realm. Both Royal Court and Fate of Iberia fit perfectly into my gameplay, and their exact kinda of DLC I love from Paradox: the kinda that once experienced I can't imagine the game without.

I also really want to give a huge shout out for the amount of customization regarding gender, sexuality, and historical accuracy the game added this year. It's a small thing, but it made my brain so incredibly happy to see my character with his husband seated beside him, together presiding over the realm. (Until said husband unexpectedly inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine and had to tragically leave my court, causing my king to succumb to whore mongering and lechery to soothe his broken heart, which was Very Sad and also exactly the kind of shit I live for in this game).

8) Marvel Snap (Best Multiplayer)

This one was a real surprise. I don't play card games, I don't play mobile card games, and I've been fairly sour on Marvel for a while now.

And yet.

Man is Marvel Snap good. Addiction good. Possibly going to be a forever game next year good. Barely spend money on it and yet still enjoy it a mind numbing amount good. Time will tell on this one, but given the sheer number of hours I've put into it, the sheer joy I get from it despite normally hating games like this and how excellently designed it is, it's very much earned this spot.

7) Cult of the Lamb

This one was also a surprise for me, but less so in that it was out of genre, and more that I didn't know this game existed until after it had dropped and everyone on various podcasts I follow was listening to it. Their is something so delightful about both it's creepy cute aesthetic, and it's game play which is a mix of rouge like action and Animal Crossing villager management which makes it unique, memorable, and fun.

My biggest problem is really the combat. The lack of ability to pick weapons ahead of crusades, the way action can get very finicky and jumpy even in boss fights attacks hitting that shouldn't, and not hitting that should, is what kept this from beating out Elden Ring. On the Cult management side, while I really enjoyed all the effort and thought put into what it would take to actually run and keep a cult following, and the way you could pick doctrines of faith....I ultimately don't know that their was enough 'flavor' to make each cult feel really unique and customizable, and that held it back, if only a little. I'll probably dip back in to the update next year, when I have more time.

6) Elden Ring

Put down those pitchforks this instant.

Look. I really liked Elden Ring. It's a great game! Well constructed from start to finish, with a killer aesthetic, and a story that's even for Fromsoftwear, marginally understandable. It's open world is good enough that I, who generally hate open world games, can appreciate both it's beauty, and it's scope. It's also one of the few games that really, truly made me feel like I was an adventuring mage, wandering about in search of ancient secrets of magic.

But.

It's still not a very good Soulslike. It's combat is arbitrary and unfair in a way Demon's Souls and Bloodborne's where not (hell that Fallen Order and SoP's where not!), only the legacy dungeons really have the murderous puzzle box feel, and many of the bosses break the mold of Souls bosses up to this point, and not in a good way.

Their is a version of this game on another timeline that is NOT an Open World and so is much higher on this list. But alas, we live in the Open World Timeline, where giant empty games lacking in structure and narrative are the dominant force in games, and where good games will be diminished by having open world forced into them when they don't need it. So in the back half of my list, Elden Ring will remain.

5) Potion Permit

Oh MAN was this game good.

Every loving detail in this game was delightful: from the way the entire town starts out hating your guts, to the actual effort that goes into collecting ingredients and mixing potions, to the way you slowly build up trust and affection not just by handing out gifts, but by showing you can do your job in all it's aspects: making your patients feel heard, their care feel personal, and the actual healing timely.

Also the carpenter man was cute, and dating him was amazing.

I hope this trend of Stardew Valley like games that explore non-farming elements continues. And I hope it is full of many kissable men.

4) Omori (Best Art Direction)

Omori is a game I've been meaning to play for basically forever, but that I kept waiting for the Switch version to enjoy. And I am very happy with that choice.

This game is SO incredibly good. The sad narrative of a boy who flees into a dreamworld called Headspace in order to escape his loneliness and trauma, it's full of poignant messages about repression, self hatred, isolation, and ultimately forgiveness.

The truly crazy part is that their are two games here. The wacky charming Headspace adventurers which have all the classic trappings of JRPG: leveling up, turn based combat, exploration around madcap world full of bizarre colorful characters and off beat humor. And then you have the softer more realistic adventure game, drenched in Americana, from the same-y suburbs to the quirky pizza place, to the sprawling mega mart, where most of your time is spent not fighting but solving puzzles, and talking to characters to learn their weird stuff.

And when the two intersect, real world crashing into fantasy? That's where you get the game's tripy, mind fuck psychological horror. Omori shines brightest in Dark Space, when it delves into the twisted flip side of escapism, and digs under the skin of it's protagonist to show off his messy fears and his hidden darkness.

This game hit home, and it hit home hard.

3) Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (Best Soundtrack)

As we get into my top three, we are entering the set of games that came out this year that seemed made for Me Specifically.

Of those Three Hopes was the biggest surprise. I never really imagine a....well whatever Three Hopes is to Three Houses (sequel? alternate universe story? retelling? spinoff? let's go with spinoff). Especially not a Musou style army shredder. And yet now I can't imagine playing either the fandom or the story itself without the added layer of context and story provided by Three Hopes.

Three Hopes adds so much content is the thing, you can actually feel the cuts from Three Houses that where re-worked here (Ferdinand and Ashe's extra scenes and supports in particular), and it adds so much depth too, to Byleth, to the world, to the dynamics between characters and factions. Their is an element of shinny wish fulfillment to it, and yet I can't fault the game for that. Afterall, they paid their dues to tragedy, and the costs and downsides of war in the first game. Here, things work out, and the headsman is escaped. The Lord of your choosing reshapes the world to their ideal, and everything works out, and the writing is so good that I don't really mind.

Also the OST slaps SO FUCKING HARD. They could have just repackaged the 3 Houses ost and I am SO GLAD that they did not. Still humming songs from this even months later.

2) Stranger of Paradise (Best Gameplay)

Stranger of Paradise was announced to loud mockery by basically everyone, and intense anticipation by me. I stood by the game's potential then, and I stand by it now.

This is such a smart game, and also such an earnest one. It knows exactly what it is and refuses to be ashamed of that. Instead it leans full body into it's buck wild story, it's over the top combat, and it's dark aesthetic. And the result is a weird alchemy that is incredibly fun to play, moment to moment.

If, like me, you have what amounts to a Master's Degree in obscure Final Fantasy lore, you will be delighted by both the subtle references peppered throughout the levels, and the deeper story, about the clash between the Lufenian's, god-like beings of near total power that they are, and the Strangers, defectors who have learned to love and see value in the world they where sent to control.

If you don't....then I recommend just sitting back and enjoying watching the monsters explode into bloody crystal. You will still have a rocking good time. Unless you think cringe in a real thing, then you might have less of a fun time.

1) Triangle Strategy (GOTY/Best Narrative)

Back near the beginning of the year, when I got Triangle Strategy's Golden Ending, after getting the other three, and clocking in more then a hundred and thirty hours in the game, I cried. The game's ending felt pitch perfect, the smooth flawless landing after seamless ride. I came out of the experience with a clear front runner for my personal GOTY, something that held up for most of the year even I played other really good games.

But as we closed on the tale end of the year I started to doubt my own impression, wondering if Triangle Strategy really had left that large of a mark on me, or if I had just been caught up in the hype cycle and recency bias.

And the trailer for the steam version came out and I started crying just from that so no. Not recency bias or hype.

Triangle Strategy is so incredibly good. Everything it attempts it scores a perfect ten on: it's characters are engaging and fun while still having depth and nuance, complexity and foibles. It's visual design is stunning and eye catching. It's combat and tatical elements are challenging puzzles, requiring careful planning and mastery of the game's systems.

But most of all it's story is flawless.

This game has so much to say about how our beliefs define us, and shape our world views. About the struggle for a future, and the difference been compromise and concession. About oppression, and faith, justice and law, the burden of leadership, and the power of conviction. It's exactly the story of high fantasy I love: mixing politics and magic, war and mythology, but keeping itself always centered on the human element of it's characters and their stories.

It is very, very close to a perfect game, and it makes me incredibly excited to see Octopath Traveler 2 next year.

[sunnysduet]

forgot how much people hate perfectheart 😭

[i-like-bagel]

a silly drawing based on my friend’s playthrough

he ran into that one tree that takes little to no damage, and I told him to run but he just said “no- no it challenged me.” so he actually formed a strategy and made everyone happy so he could make the tree mad, but the tree couldn’t be affected by emotions. he then made Omori depressed so he could stab the tree, doing 2 damage at a time. this went on for about 30 minutes until he slowly stabbed the tree to death and the whole time we were laughing about how miserable he was compared to everyone else, who was still happy. I made a joke about how he’s miserably sawing this random tree down and how Mari must be so confused in the distance, and he told me I should draw it. so here it is 🎉 (+Basil)

[ernestnott]

PLAYING SOME GAMES

Barty is a league of legends player and he is all in for the toxicity. When he looses he go bad shit crazy and blame every people near him. He mostly plays Draven Gladiator and Chako bcs he wants people to know he is here for wining. He also play snubby land a lot.

James and Sirius play animal crossing and they often visit each other island.

Remus has only play to one game in his life and it’s Outer wild bcs Peter had seen a review and wouldn’t shut up about it and how amazing it was and Remus got curious. He didn’t regret trying it.

Marlene and Lily play Fortnite together and are pretty good at it.

Pandora plays a lot of horror games like Madison and phasmophobia when Evan is ready for some spooky time. Barty and Mary likes to watch them play but they’re often kick out bcs they make too much noise (they are terrified lmao)

Dorcas likes to play aventures games like Syberia or strategy games like Civilization.

Mary don’t play but she likes to watch !

Peter loves Minecraft. He is the kind that built replica from fandom he likes (like the helm’s deep from lotr).

Regulus plays omori bcs he likes to suffer. He plays it in secret and when Evan and Barty asked him why he was crying in the middle of the night he told them it was allergy…

They organise Mario kart tournament Every so often.

[basil-from-omori]

How to Beat Itemless Boss Rush in OMORI

a complete guide because something’s wrong with me

what I had equipped:

OMORI:

weapon: red knife • charm: cough mask • skills: vertigo, cripple, red hands, suffocate

AUBREY:

weapon: baseball bat • charm: pretty bow • skills: beatdown, wind-up throw, power hit, counter

KEL:

weapon: basketball • charm: headband • skills: megaphone (didn’t use outside of sir maximus i-iii), tickle, run ‘n gun, juice me (completely needed)

HERO:

weapon: ol’ reliable • charm: chef’s hat • skills: cook, tenderize, snack time, homemade jam

PREREQUISITES: I’d recommend finishing regular boss rush at least once. if you’re on switch this can be rough cuz you need to clear it with basil after your first clear. I can make a guide abt that upon request

PRIORITIES:

kel’s juice. Keep this to at least 100 at ALL TIMES if possible. If it goes too low, below 10, you’re doomed

hero’s HP. If he dies, you can’t heal at all until the next boss.

omori’s HP. this seems obvious but try to keep it at 2+, preserve your “omori did not succumb” in the fights like sweetheart, slime girls, humphrey, and jawsum.

1) ye old sprout

the first fight is ye old sprout. this can be completed in one turn, via:

omori: red hands

aubrey: beatdown

kel: tickle

hero: tenderize

If this doesn’t work, which it SHOULD, just use run ‘n gun to get through the rest.

2) download window

this should only take 2-3 turns :3

1) same routine as step 1. Repeat till it’s gone. The thing about itemless is GETTING THROUGH the boss, not prepping for next round.

3) capt spaceboy

The length of this fight depends. I suggest starting out with the previous routines of red hands, beatdown, tickle, and tenderize until omori’s juice is down to <175. if anyone’s HP drops to 3/4, wait till at least 1-2 others are hurt to use snack time

4) king crawler

initially, focus on getting a lot of hits in if you have good juice/heart. if you don’t, try to heal as much as you can. a good strategy for if you’re trying to make sure hero and kel don’t die yet because everyone’s low on juice is to have aubrey use counter. if you can, make hero cook for aubrey when she’s at half health or so.

target king crawler only!!! sprout moles don’t matter, 600 health added to it is nothing. don’t even worry

5) sir Maximus I/II/III

this fight is surprisingly easy. For this, you wanna focus emotions!!!! Make everyone on your team angry via megaphone, let the enemies wallow cuz they make themselves sad. if you get everyone on max emotions on both sides, you do significant damage and they can barely do any. take advantage of omori’s attacks that damage everyone, lowering stats is always very helpful.

try to maintain emotions as much as you can, while making sure kel doesn’t run out of juice and neither does hero. heal as needed, this fight is self explanatory for the most part.

6) life jam guy

A magical blessing of free time to heal. take the life jam, but you can’t use it because you’re on itemless. Again, heal as needed. nothing to say here

7) sweetheart

for many, this may be who wipes you out. but trust me, as long as you upkeep everything, you’re fine. FOCUS. ON. LOWERING. HER. STATS. Please. itll save you, especially since the only moves we have for emotion are for making you angry, which we DONT want. lower her speed, attack, and defense.

this marks the start of where you hafta be conscious of everyone’s stats/health/juice. pay close attention!!! Again, use Aubrey to take the punches via counter.

8) jawsum

70% chance of surviving this, tbh. I won’t lie, this is genuinely difficult. Kinda complicated, so LISTEN CLOSELY!!

1) omori use any attack, Aubrey use wind up throw, kel use tickle, hero use tenderize

2) hopefully, there’s one gator guy left. if not, repeat and heal as needed.

3) when there’s ONE gator left, do: red hands, beatdown, tickle, and tenderize. our goal here is to eliminate the gator guy, as he’s a shield for jawsum. jawsum is our target. So, we want to be able to eliminate the gator guy before our last ATTACKER— likely being hero with tenderize.

4) do step 3 repeatedly, healing as needed, hopefully it works out!!

9) pluto

Pluto is shockingly easy, don’t even worry

1) omori should use all his defense reducing stuff. make Aubrey use power hit, as it also lowers defense. run n’ gun with kel. tenderize with hero.

2) honestly just yeah worry about lowering stats and getting hits in. sometimes Pluto hits kinda strongly, but he shouldn’t if you lower his stats.

3) HEAL. HEAL PLEASE. HEALTH AND JUICE. DO IT. PLEASE. HEAL. MAINTAIN BOTH HEALTH AND JUICE TO AT LEAST 200 IF YOU CAN. this is in preparation for the next fight, one of the few times we NEED to worry about what’s next.

4) that should work— relatively easy afaik :3

10) slime girls

brace yourself— this is by far the most difficult. you may make it out, but don’t feel bad if you can’t!!

1) vertigo, beatdown, tickle, tenderize

2) Vertigo again, do it until you can’t lower attack more. But in the meantime, maintain juice with kel (JUICE IS A PRIORITY DUE TO THE MOVE WHERE THE SLIME GIRLS SWITCH HEALTH AND JUICE). Aubrey can do whatever, tbh, just do beatdown. Hero should prioritize healing.

3) HEAL AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE WHEN THEY START TO THROW EVERYTHING THEY CAN!!!! The next fight is easy, as long as omori lives by the end of the round, it’s good enough.

4) Pray

11) Humphrey

Humphrey isn’t too bad, surprisingly. use stat reducing moves, then big hits with tickle as well (meaning: do red hands, tickle, beatdown, then tenderize). There’s a good chance you’re low in health, which is understandable.

In humphreys stomach, do heavy hits, stat reducing moves, and every turn use snack time. kel can do whatever, as long as he maintains everyone’s juice. Listen, if you managed to successfully lower their defense and attack, they should do very very little damage to your team— I’m talking like… 0-20 damage each.

please tell me if this works for you, and ask me literally anything. if this ends up not working, PLEASE let me know where you died!!!!! thx for reading, I was supposed to write this a couple months ago

[prodigal-explorer]

so as someone who is only on chapter one of omori and is obsessed with it here are my thoughts as a new member of the fandom

bear in mind that i haven’t finished the game. i only just got to that one creepy forest place? like the one after the spiders? please don’t spoil!!

but spoilers for everything before that below

1) I HATE BASIL. he’s such a stupid little punk. “uwu im so smol and helpless and i always get bullied and i’m so sweet and innocent” I JUST KNOW THAT FUCKER IS HIDING SOMETHING. everytime i end back in that stupid white room it’s because HES DOING SOME SUSSY SHIT. i also just hate him and everything about him and i know for a damn fact that he’s hiding something horrible behind that sweet little smile and he thinks he’s tricking me but he’s NOT I KNOW HIS GAME.

anyway.

2) i literally cannot decide on a favorite character. i have a least favorite, that’s pretty obvious, but when it comes to a favorite im torn. i LOVE omori, aubrey, kel, and hero all the same! i love mari too but i’m a little salty against her because all her hints for the quests are severely unhelpful 😭 but i still love her tho. i just love the main four so so much and i physically cant choose who i like better. poor little aubrey seems so scared and alone when she has the pink hair and she’s so kind in the little space world thing. hero is a sweetheart and i can’t wait to meet him in the colorful world where i’m moving or whatever. and kel is literally so me 😂 it’s not even funny he just does whatever the fuck he wants and that deserves some respect on his name. and omori is a kickass main character who has a cool thing going for him. but these four characters are sooo well crafted and i love how they work together! it’s a great dynamic balance!

3) i’m either a really bad gamer or the game is super long. i finished the prologue in like seven hours. it took SO LONG. i’m not used to indie games taking that long to play considering that i got through all of undertale in like 10-12 hours my first time. it’s awesome! i love finding all the secrets and talking to all the npcs but DAMNNN.

4) this game has so. much. detail. it’s insane. like the sheer amount of mini games and tiny pockets of lore. it’s like higher than undertale level and i don’t mean to keep going back to undertale but i see a lot of similarities in the game style. i also totally got sucked into playing like 30 rounds of blackjack on omoris computer. it was cool af.

5) the fighting mechanics are super hard. maybe i just suck at strategy but i am so bad at the fights that i just run away whenever i have the opportunity 😭 it’s a problem. i also have no clue how the happy sad angry shit works, i just make omori sad so stab has an attack boost and make aubrey angry so headbutt has an attack boost but other than that i don’t really use it at all and i don’t understand it. maybe that’s why it took me literally 10 tries to get past space ex boyfriend? it’s really fun i just think it’s supposed to be easier than it is and i just missed a memo on strategy.

6) i really love the message so far. the way that mental health is portrayed as something that’s a never ending journey. omori doesn’t just breathe and then everything’s okay, the game highlights realistic coping strategies and makes things like depression, anxiety, and phobias to understandable for any audience through a very creative medium: an indie video game. it’s genius. and i just love how it’s been approached so far, it’s very inspiring!

7) i’m terrified that this fandom is gonna make me mad, i swear to god if i just walk in and see a bunch of basil stan’s i’m turning and walking back out 💀 i mean okay maybe i’ll like basil better later but chances for that seem very low right now. my sister told me that apparently he went through some trauma thing? womp womp don’t care he’s an annoying mf who keeps taking me back to that boring white room where i stab myself, he’s a party pooper and i want a tornado to blow his dumb little flower house down.

[humornaut]

My Journey with Omori

Hey everyone. Rather than my usual analysis-type posts, this is going to go into my own personal experience with Omori. I've kind of wanted to do this for awhile, because I feel like I have a lot that I want to say about this game. This post is going to have major Omori spoilers. I will also be going into some criticisms of the game (though not particularly heavily). This one will be a long one.

My Background

This might not be something that people care about, but I feel it is important to start with my life situation at the time I discovered the game.

In 2020, I graduated from college with a degree in game design. If you remember 2020, you can probably guess where I'm going with this. Everyone left for spring break, and the day before we were supposed to come back, they extended break by a week. Then, at the end of that additional week, classes had gone fully remote. My three roommates at the time never really came back to campus, and I finished out the lease alone. I never got to do any kind of internship, and I didn't get a graduation ceremony. I really didn't know what I was doing with my life, and finding a job in the games industry seemed impossible. So, I made a decision to move in with my aunt and work at an insurance agency. I was states away from anyone I ever knew, working in an industry wholly unrelated to what I had just dedicated years of my life to studying, but it was a job.

I wonder a lot if this was the right call. At the time, it seemed like an obvious decision, but now, I'm even more unsure of my skills when it comes to breaking into the games industry, and working 40+ hours a week can really sap your motivation when it comes to personal projects.

As the world opened back up, I started hearing from all my friends less and less, and life really started getting monotonous. Living alone is expensive, and I'm not good at opening up to new people.

Last November, by chance, a comic by twitter user Shrimperini appeared on my feed (it's still the pinned tweet on her account if you want to see!). One thing led to another, I saw some more positive reviews of the game, and I ended up picking the game up on Switch when I saw at on sale at a Best Buy.

Now, anyone that knows me could tell you, this isn't the type of game I usually play. I've always gravitated towards things like strategy games or rogue-likes. I only really stray from that in a few cases, whether it's to play a game with my friends, or just a game that I've had a long-standing connection with, like Pokémon. I did play Undertale and Deltarune (and loved them!), but overall, this type of game was not one that I typically went out of my way to play.

Also important: I've never interacted with any fandom in the way that I do with Omori. You can trawl through my Twitter, you won't find much of me talking about ships or obsessing over details until I started talking about Omori. All this is to say: Omori was a bit of a first for me on a few different levels. So, let's get into my actual journey with the game.

The First Playthrough: The Sunny Route

I unfortunately already knew a few details about the game going into things, but nothing that was too big of a spoiler. Something that I think gets overlooked is how great Omori's prologue is. In my opinion, the first night in Headspace is the best night in Headspace, bar none. It perfectly sets you up for what the game's going to be about, and I want to talk more about that later, because I feel that it really shines on later playthroughs.

Based on what I said about my background, you can probably guess what I'm going to say. Sunny's story and personality resonated heavily with me. At school, I was always the quiet one, just kind of following what my friends wanted to do until I started coming out of my shell a bit later on. Faraway is very similar to the town and suburb that I grew up in, and I know that many people feel the same way. Walking around Faraway felt like walking around my own home town today, years after almost everyone I knew back then has moved out and started their own lives. I mean this literally, as well, since I started playing this game right around American Thanksgiving, so I actually was back in my home town. It's nostalgic in a way, and I think that that is a major strength of the game.

I also do want to say, that while a Kel/Sunny comic is what introduced me to the game, I mostly assumed that it wasn't actually a canon ship. What I didn't expect was for the game to actually depict a close male relationship that does border on romantic in its presentation, which made those opening transition scenes of Sunny and Basil so interesting (as well as Basil indirectly calling Omori cute during the flower meaning segment), though I do want to talk a little bit more about that later.

From there, I feel that my experience was a lot like most people's first time with the game. I got to experience Faraway, then tried to rush through Night 2 of Headspace without paying much attention, so that I could get back to the real world plot. I didn't pay much attention during Sweetheart's Castle, and it's already-commented-on gameplay drag issues felt exacerbated by the fact that I just wanted to get on with it.

Real world day 2 happens, I got to meet Hero in the real world, Basil gets pushed into the lake, etc, etc. The shroud has started to lift on what's actually going on here. The North Lake segment got me ready to figure out what was actually going on, but first: Last Resort and Humphrey.

It was around this time that I began wondering if there actually was any kind of gay subtext actually going on. Of course, I had seen the Lost Library entry for the ride home from the beach, but as I descended into Sunny's subconscious, the way that the game started talking about Basil took on a much different tone. I got to the Branch Coral, and listened to it talk about how Sunny and Basil are connected by a "string of fate". This immediately set off some alarm bells in my head. A lot of debate has been had about this line, but for me personally, even if a string of fate isn't always romantic imagery, it certainly is most of the time. Seeing it written in the game (as something that Sunny's subconscious is saying, no less) completely had me reconsidering if there was a connection, which I hadn't really thought about since Basil's disappearance. I thought about the photo album, and how well Basil is treated in Headspace, and it just had me thinking.

I got through Humphrey, finished up the side quests that I still had, and it was time to start Black Space. Prior to that, however, Stranger lead me through Basil's garden once again, going over the flower meanings. I took note about how the meaning of sunflowers, as it was the first time I made the connection about Sunny's name and Basil's meaning for them (plus him literally always facing Sunny in several scenes lol). And then there was what Basil said about white tulips.

Being honest, it was difficult for me to interpret Basil as not being in love with Sunny after that, and Stranger's dialogue in some of the Black Space rooms really cemented that for me.

Black Space as a whole left me extremely intrigued as to what the plan was. The way it ended really left me in suspense for what was really going on. How did it all relate to what happened to Mari? I had already assumed at this point that she had taken her own life, due to some of the imagery. But what else was going on here? I didn't exactly think the game was going to veer back from being a horror title to turn into some kind of dating sim, but it was clear to me that Basil was involved with some other secret.

In a reversal of what I had expected of the game up until this point, I found it difficult to care about the real world plot of the game during day 3. It didn't help that it felt like a rushed resolution of the Aubrey plot, and I felt like I was simply going through the motions. I still have no idea how I'm supposed to interpret the key in the treehouse and how it got there, and it felt a little aggravating that plans were being made between Aubrey and Hero to include the hooligans next time, while Basil himself was still locked in his room.

So then, the truth sequence. It completely blew away my expectations for what the game was saying, and recontextualized so much of what came before it. Sunny had done something awful by accident, and Basil had done something awful to protect him. That last "Do you want to save Basil?" really hit me hard. I hadn't felt so part of the game until this moment. It was like I was Sunny, and I was mulling over whether or not I forgive Basil for the horrible situation his actions put us both in. The stakes are high, because it's clear that something bad will happen to Basil if I don't. I didn't actually know it at the time, but this is the first time you can actually choose not to save Basil. It's emotional.

And the fight. The way the game creates confusion as to what is actually going on between Sunny and Basil during it by using vague wording and hallucinations. Basil's desperation and the way his desire to protect Sunny as his "perfect" best friend come together, leading to the fight.

Memory Lane happens, and I honestly didn't think much of it at the time. It was cool to see some of the memories in better detail, but it wasn't as emotional to me as what came before or what will come after.

I would be remiss to not include that we learn that it was actually Sunny that had a crush on Aubrey, and not the other way around. I had already suspected this, based on Aubrey not being close to him in the photo album, along with the Lost Library memory, but I remember thinking it was an interesting choice to have Basil be the one to call it out.

I finished up the game, and it impacted me a whole lot. I wasn't planning on playing the other route at first, as I heard that it was just Headspace and mostly unchanged, and I felt satisfied with the story that I got. I walked away with the understanding that pre-canon, Basil had feelings for Sunny that he likely didn't understand, while Sunny had a crush on Aubrey that he was never bold enough to pursue. How they felt at the time the game actually took place is irrelevant to the story being told, outside of us understanding that these are relatable individuals, and I walked away alright with that.

Of course, after that initial wave of emotions from the ending subsided, I did have some criticisms. Sunny's actual friendship with Aubrey felt underdeveloped, as her behavior both in Headspace and the real world differ so heavily from how she behaves in the glimpses we see of the past. Unlike Sunny's relationships with the others, there's no real unique identifiers other than Sunny's crush. While I would not have wanted the only living female character in the main cast to have been treated as a love interest in both the real world and dream world, it would have been nice if the game gave us a little more than just the swing set conversations, like how we get Kel talking about their late night trips to Hobbeez. In addition, while I understood on a base level that whether or not Basil and Sunny are forgiven didn't really matter to the story being told, not seeing it happen left me feeling a tad empty.

Finally, I felt extremely dissatisfied with Headspace. On a superficial level, I could see that many of the things in Headspace were based on things from the real world, it didn't really feel like it had all that much significance, and the knowledge that it would be more of the same in the other route kept me from playing it. I occasionally visited the subreddit, read a few post-canon fics (Bask in the Sun by Lemari and They say Flowers are Meant to be Sunkissed by Witherdahlia being highlights with very similar concepts), and slowly immersed myself in the Twitter community.

Of course, as time went by, I started making my own interpretations about the game. I got very attached to Sunflower, as I felt the fics were the most interesting to read, and I already held the interpretation that Basil had those feelings for Sunny, even if I didn't think it even mattered if Sunny reciprocated (though I did like talking about their dynamic a lot). In February, Sunflower week happened, and I randomly happened across a tweet that pointed out how Sunny knows the recipe for a strawberry cake in Headspace, with that being relevant due to Basil's birthday being one in which a strawberry cake appears. This blew my mind a little bit, and I made the decision to go back and play the Hikikomori route.

The Second Playthrough: The Hikikomori Route

What I had previously assumed would be a slog through things that I had already done before turned out to be far more interesting. Without the desire to get back to the real world plot hanging over me, I found myself paying a lot more attention to the things that were happening in Headspace. Playing the prologue again was amazing, because I was taken aback by how it practically parallels the entirety of the Sunny route, right down to having to retrieve a stolen item and receiving an eyepatch after the boss fight. Some day, I might break that down further, because it's so interesting. But not today.

Pyrefly Forest and Sweetheart's Castle were much more bearable this time around, because I was paying attention to the little references to Basil and Sunny's friendship in Pyrefly, and the ways Sweetheart's Castle represented a candied-up version of the way that Sunny interprets the concept of "home". This time through Headspace, I saw the very subtle ways that Basil's thoughts "follow Sunny into his dreams". And then, rather than Mari leading you through North Lake, it's Kel. Stranger no longer tells us what Basil thought about white tulips and Sunny, but this time in Black Space, I noticed the implications that Sunny would open up to Basil about his trauma coming from the Lake Incident. It ends with Omori catching Basil in a bridal carry before returning his flower crown.

Whereas the Sunny route was this heart wrenching tale about forgiveness and guilt, and overcoming your fears for others, and how ignorance hurts those you care about the most, the Hikikomori route functioned almost as this deep dive into Sunny's subconscious. The fact that I was playing through pretty much the exact same stuff again but with a completely different perspective kind of blew my mind, and I wonder if this was intentional.

This is all to say that it was around this time that I was once again asking myself the question of if Sunny's feelings for Basil (at least pre-canon) were entirely platonic. Especially as I played the Basil Rush, with its new Tag Photos and Release Energy, I wondered if the game was actually trying to imply a romantic connection. And if it was, why? What purpose would it serve in the narrative for these feelings to exist? How does it relate to Sunny's crush on Aubrey, which surely must've existed in the story for a reason? And how does it all relate to the litany of things Sunny things about in regards to romance?

From a narrative perspective, I could reason that Sunny and Basil having feelings for each other that they could never healthily explore injects further tragedy into the day of the incident and Sunny locking himself away. It provides a context for Sunny's focus on "saving" Basil, both in Headspace and the real world. Basil is undeniably linked to photos and flowers, which are two huge symbols that appear throughout Sunny's mind.

Everything else is stuff I've already spoken about before. The way Sunny treated Aubrey parallels how he treated Basil, and via both things like his fear of spiders, and the way all the foods Sunny appears to know information on how to prepare being associated with Basil, his dynamic with Basil mirrors the way Sunny thinks of Hero and Mari's relationship during Memory Lane.

Playing through the Hikikomori route completely changed the way that I thought about Omori. It was no longer just the story of Sunny accepting his role in his sister's death, I was also now considering the possibility that the game did have a romantic subtext between its two deuteragonists, and thinking about the repercussions of such an idea.

As I completed everything that there was to do in the Hikikomori route, I was immediately taken in with the idea of replaying the Sunny route, with all the knowledge I now had from my previous experiences. First, let me say: Everything that I assumed about playing through Headspace a second time and was luckily wrong about, actually applied on my third run. I did not enjoy playing through Headspace on my third run through, and it will likely be awhile before I do so again.

However, I did start to get an appreciation for details that I missed in my first run in Faraway. Basil's little mannerisms during cutscenes, such as looking to Sunny before responding to Kel's insistence that they were all still friends, as well as the repetition of Sunny backing away from his friends' pain due to his subconscious guilt and fear of facing it, before the final payoff of Sunny choosing to walk back into the center of the room on his own accord during the confrontation with Basil. During Memory Lane, I took note that in the Treehouse Memory, Sunny asked to see one of Basil's pictures that had nothing to do with Aubrey, when previously he only asked to look at pictures of her. There are three different instances in which the player is reminded that Hero and Mari's relationship specifically is one in which they cook for each other specifically, and this information was now recontextualized with the knowledge that Sunny knows the recipe for a strawberry cake, owns a book about tofu (which he hates), and that's not even getting into all the stuff about smoothies in Headspace. Where Aubrey saying that Sunny "would listen to her talk to hours" was once a confirmation that Aubrey and Sunny did have any kind of dynamic at all, I now saw it as a recontextualization of how we were told Sunny interacted with Basil. (also, the "truth" being hidden in the toy chest, which is itself hidden in the closet was certainly a choice /j)

What was the point of all this?

Frankly, it's starting to feel like I'm running out of things to say about Omori. With every post I've made on here and Twitter, there's less things for me to extrapolate from Omori's storytelling, and it's unlikely that we will ever get any more added on to canon. I've grown to love this community, and I think it's so interesting when I look back at how I interpreted the game back in November when I first discovered it, and today. I hope that that will become evident with the mod that I am working on, Senesce.

Obviously, everyone has their own ideas when it comes to what Omori is trying to imply with its characters. Accepting Sunflower as "canon" (in the sense that those feelings do exist in some form) has deepened my love of the game and characters, and I love that other people can have entirely different interpretations and still be just as satisfied with the game! Even if it was all unintentional, I cannot deny that it has lit a fire under me when it comes to game writing.

I desperately want to create a game that has someone at home obsessing over the smallest details to extract meaning in the way I have for Omori. Flawed as it may be, it's special to me, and I'm glad I played it. Thanks for listening to me ramble about it!

[faraway-monsters]

I heard a strategy to make people get along!

If they argue, they have to share a scarf for 10 Minutes.

- Mari (Omori)

This.

Mari has a collection of scarves for this reason.

They got in an argument over some stupid shit again. Probably checkers.

[demiklo]

Oh... you found my Burrow?

👋🏿 ≧◉ᴥ◉≦ Hi there my name is Demi Klo or DK (they/she) and I'm a your friendly tech support honey badger! I like creating game reviews on YouTube and stream Indie Games on Twitch! 🇭🇹

FYI - I have social anxiety and ADHD so sorry if i’m slow to reply!

(ﾉ●ᗢ●) ノ○  Games I stream often ...

*Indie Games - This is my main niche! Typically games you probably never heard of that give off vibes like Omori, Portal, and more!

Strategy/Tatics Games (ex. Fire Emblem, Digimon Survive)

Multiplayer - I play with viewers on stream!

Overwatch

Apex Legends

Fortnite

Splatoon 3

Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel

Cardfight!! Vanuguard Dear Days

(╭ರ_•́) Special Interests & Fandoms

Interests

Indie Games

Technology (specifically Productivity and Vtuber software)

Punk Rock

Fandoms

The Owl House

Fire Emblem

Kamen Rider

Percy Jackson

Digimon

Star Trek

Chainsaw Man

Blue Lock

Fairy Tail

🍯Find Demi Klo🍯 Here are other places you can find me at!

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/Demi_Klo Discord: https://discord.com/invite/N9BCs3E7YZ Twitter: https://twitter.com/demi_klo Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@demi_klo Throne: https://throne.me/u/demiklo

Want to make art of me? Feel free to tag me so I can reblog your work!

(>‿◠)✌ Well, that's all I have for now! If you ever have a tech question I'm your honey badger! 🫰🏿