OMORI - Nitro Rad

One thing I've always found really interesting  about dreams is how often I can link it to something that happened to me the day before or maybe something I was thinking about or, something that was troubling me It's like, why the hell was THAT happening? OH, it's probably because that happened yesterday, that sort of thing There's a lot you can learn about yourself by  examining your own dreams I mean like they are just a random construction of what's up here after all and... what's up there is YOU, right? I love games that explore that concept! I love this idea of like, trying to figure out what's going on with somebody just by looking at their dreams Yume Nikki is still easily my favorite example of this sort of thing but, no today we're talking about a different rpg maker horror game about dreams We're talking omori This is a game that was made  by omocat, she's this independent artist that has  a small clothing business online Featuring all sorts of badass original artwork. Her style is very surreal, yknow a lot of color and weird characters Definitely the sort of thing that feels very at home with the sorts of games that people in the RPGmaker community love to make and play This game's got some pretty humble beginnings. It originally began just as a series of drawings posted to tumblr Sketches of this hikikomori character with text showing whatever they were thinking at the time It was sort of set up like a blog from that character's perspective   we saw whatever they were thinking as they posted  from their comfy empty white void of nothingness   these blog posts eventually evolved into a  comic which ultimately became a video game   this was the medium of storytelling omocat  originally wanted to go with after all   at least according to the kickstarter OHHH and a successful kickstarter it was! Earning just over 10 times its goal! It was pretty obvious that trailer  left a pretty big impact it used intense imagery   and intense music to convey intense feelings and  with that a decent amount of hype began to follow the project Dude I was hearing about this thing  like way back when I first started this channel   I remember getting so many messages about it when  i was first covering rpg maker stuff like Lisa and Yume Nikki fan games and stuff and uh... God that feels like so long ago now... but yknow, I get it   It's an indie rpg and with limited resources things can  require a lot of patience to finish but even still   it kind of feels surreal to see it finally come  out! But the fact that it's out is probably the least surreal thing about this game! Omori promises to explore a bizarre dream world One filled with new friends, new mysteries, and new horrors All of which aren't exactly as new as we initially think   And well I guess that sure sounds like something  I'd like. You know, I love games about exploration   love games that are surreal and i love games  that are scary! But most of all, I love games that   journey the human mind. I mean it is literally the  single most complicated thing we as a species know about! The human brain. Us! People! There's so much  to explore in this big old meaty mass of neurons   which is why i always get like i don't know a  little disappointed when i see these geniuses   rolling into my comment sections with their 900  iq rolling their eyes going like oh great another   indie game about depression it's like come  on man it's a broader topic than you realize   i feel like in the same way that you can make a  thousand games about shoosting dudes or a thousand   games about platforming... No, I think you could  make a thousand games about the troubles up here too And with that said this game does tackle a lot  of things up here which is something the game does   make pretty clear right away. I will be exploring  these themes later on into the video so if these   topics are a source of anxiety for you, or are things  you generally don't like to hear about here's your   disclaimer though as always i will try my best to  discuss these things in as tasteful and respectful  a way as I can Though i won't be showing any of  those flashing lights so no worries there Oh RPGmaker... how I've missed you so, now THIS is how you play a video game! In a teeny tiny window that harnesses the game's native resolution in the center of your big screen! I'm also recording it with obs and taking notes so for me it looks like this but... hey you gotta do what you gotta do! Ah frickin NICE it's got dual shock support dude, there's a plus! Always nice when i let you use a controller cause like, I dunno, I just hate playing 2d games the keyboard.... Can't do it... AH, can't do it! The title screen greets us with this cold blank  stare. Omori our central character standing idly   there with a little bit of animation to give him a  coarse but fluid texture the gentle sound of piano   washes over us yet something seems wrong no it's  not just the emptiness surrounding omori it's not   just the unsettling lack of emotion on his face  either it's something in the sound accompanying   the piano is i don't know it's something there's  some unsettling sound behind it if you listen   close enough like something else is there or  maybe something's trying to be there i don't know we wake in white space this place of total  emptiness that we've been living in as long as   we can remember booting up our computer reveals  our diary which shows us a safe mundane life of   bouncing between living and nothing and hanging  out with friends we have a tissue box for wiping   away our tears a sketchbook full of the drawings  of a troubled child and our cat whose only purpose   is to ask us you waiting for something to happen  a black light bulb hangs from the ceiling if you   look inside you can't see anything and if you try  to leave your little spot these red hands will   come and bring it back to your cozy safe square  the only exit is a big white door so let's go   through well that's a lot better on the other side  is this vibrant dream world full of friends that   we know and love there's kell the lovable dumb kid  who doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut aubry   a spunky young girl with a hot temper and a killer  swing and hiro kel's older brother he's the oldest   so he keeps the kids in check when they get too  rowdy he also loves cooking and making his friends   cookies wait cookie cookie oh it's called a cookie  because you cook it i am an idiot i am a drooling   [ __ ] these kids all got their big colorful fun  clubhouse so they play cards and have fun i like   this guy that's a funny little guy actually that's  a funny big guy but there are a lot of funny   little guys in the game too like the space bunnies  and wormholes i especially love these dial-up   computers that use attacks to slow your party down  that's really clever before long we meet with our   other friends of the park there's mary the oldest  and most mature of the group with an affinity for   picnics and basil the shy kid who loves flowers  and taking pictures soon after we meet all these   characters we're already flipping through an album  of memories all the good times the fun friendships   every little moment but oh maury sticks out  like a sore thumb the way he lacks the color   of his friends the mute expression even this fun  picture asking us to guess whose feet is whose we   know exactly which one's amore right away while  all the others are indistinguishable we then head   on over to basil's house where he shows us all  the gardens that he tends to that's really sweet   everything seems great but then something bad  happens after looking through more photos basil   notices one that falls out and after he looks  at it things go wrong no no that can't be mary she ripped straight out of the troubling situation  we're brought right back to white space okay so   clearly this room is a self-defense mechanism  omori would rather feel absolutely nothing than   whatever the hell his dream was about to make him  remember after that happens bazel goes missing   and that becomes the central focus of the game's  story we go in a big wacky quest through tons of   different elaborate rpg scenarios as we try to  figure out what happened to him meeting tons of   characters and fighting dudes along the way it is  an rpg after all oh dude okay the battle system is   a really big step up from the simple systems you  usually see in older rpg maker games firstly i   love the look of it man all the characters that  they're represented with full sized artwork all of   which have some extra frames of vital animation  to make it a lot more visually interesting i   really love this scribbly look the game takes on i  think it does a really good job of embracing that   childlike wonder that we get to view the game's  story through there's a lot of really endearing   quirks of the battle system too like how you  become toast when a party member faints so of   course jam's got to be the revival item right and  i love how when there's a critical attack it hits   right in the heart like oh ah hit you right there  i like that a lot you've got your four party   members on the four corners of the screen and  this really cool watch the battle animations all   stem from each character's portrait uh you might  notice that sometimes they'll be in a different   mood too yeah this is actually a huge part of the  gameplay the emotion system so you guys know how   rpgs usually go with weaknesses and stuff you know  you got the rock paper scissors the water beats   fire fire beats ice blah blah blah blah blah this  system is a much more dynamic version of that sort   of idea because these elements are never static an  enemy will never be inherently weak to one thing   no it instead depends on what mood they're in so  there's three emotions you and your friends can   harness there's anger sadness and happiness each  of which will affect how your character performs   in battle in a different way happiness will  increase your crit rate but lower your accuracy   anger increases your strength but lowers your  defense and sadness that'll lower your attack   but increase your defense that's just so accurate  isn't it you know like when you're angry you lash   out but you leave yourself vulnerable when you're  sad you close on down to block everything out   and when you're happy you're giving it your  all you're super energetic and without a care   in the world which is interpreted here as lower  accuracy and things get even more interesting when   you consider which ones are strong against others  so again it's rock paper scissors happiness beats   anger anger beats sad and sad beats happy higher  defense and lower attack well being stronger will   fix that don't have to worry about your defense  either they got low attack they're not gonna do   [ __ ] happiness won't really [ __ ] through  that defense though giving sadness the edge   against happy but on the other hand happy's high  critical rate will destroy anger's low defense   each of these three emotions are able to be  harnessed or inflicted on an enemy by using the   skills your party members have omori's got skills  that can make him his friends or his foes sad   kel can annoy people to make them angry aubry can  encourage your friends to make them happy and hiro   mostly has like general support moves like debuffs  and healing but he does start with a massage move   that can remove an emotion from a friend or foe  some of these moves are exclusive to your party   but most of them can be used on your party and  enemies alike depending on what emotions your   enemies are feeling you'll want to get your party  into the right headspace so they can deal with the   situation you can cheese a lot of it by getting  amory to make them sad on the first turn and   making kel make aubry angry then using aubry's  strong attack but i kind of wish i didn't do   that for half the game because as effective as it  can be there are other more interesting strategies   enemies can also inflict emotions on you as well  so you won't always be able to do that anyway   you will have to react accordingly maybe removing  emotions or inflicting a counter emotion back   now this emotion system already feels like a  huge step above most rpg maker battle systems but   it ain't done there no we've also got these  follow-up attacks so every time a party member   takes damage you'll gradually fill up this meter  at the bottom and you can use those points to   perform extra moves that'll call out to one of  the three other party members you can do that   with a quick tab of the d-pad after somebody's  done a standard attack and that'll prompt one   extra action from the friend that you selected  what makes this so cool and so freaking clever   is that they're all based on the relationships  between these characters you know the ones that   you kind of have to get a feel for by observing  the way they talk to each other in the cutscenes   for example hiro's really supportive so he'll  heal his friends and kel's rambunctious so he   throws his ball at somebody else to deflect back  the enemy stuff like that unlike the other three   omori actually does not interact with his friends  for his follow-up attacks instead he can attack   again trip the enemy or launch an all-out super  attack if the meter is full and with that said   keep in mind that we're inside a dream world we're  living through a platter of brain matter this is   inside omori's head so this is likely how he views  his friend dynamic his friends all do things for   him they interact with him they hang out with him  but he doesn't do much back he's not uninterested   just unwilling and that has to stem from something  and being a game with elements of psychological   horror we will find what that something is as  we explore these colorful wacky dreams we'll   encounter this something a number of different  times it's depicted as this weird shadow that only   you can see making you afraid of something you  don't even know mechanically too there's a fourth   emotion fear and in amore fear is not something  that has pros and cons just cons it's something   you gotta battle with something you have to figure  out how the hell to deal with you usually only   encounter fear when something is present but what  is something is it walking down the stairs in the   middle of the night to grab something to eat  is it walking through a spider web in the dark   sometimes it does seem like it's that simple but  as you play on it becomes very evident that all of   these fears stem from something much more sinister  it'll taunt you the entire journey this is where   those elements of psychological horror often  come into play shattering through this idealized   fantasy of hanging with friends all those good  memories is that something and it'll follow you   and get worse and worse the more you try to escape  into this perfect false reality running just makes   it worse but every time you do face it head on  you will learn another way to cope you learn a new   skill each time not a debuff or a stronger attack  but how to calm down how to focus how to persist there's a stark contrast between the adventures  you have with your friends and that's something   that'll follow it's this big endearing adventure  a series of human moments fun scenarios and fond   memories like trying to search a galactic junkyard  for a mixtape that belongs to the space pirate   or the classic getting eaten by a whale and  sailing around his stomach looking for something   that he swallowed or being thrown into the dungeon  trapped in a castle overrun with these weird mole   sprout guys that worship this spoiled brat whose  ridiculous ego destroys everything around her some   of the enemies here are really funny like you  get to fight all these mole sprout knights that   continually avenge their fathers i love these guys  that are just not prepared at all they're just a   regular bull sprout with like a spear tape to  them this poor freaking guy dude he's trying his   best but it ain't very good omori is chalk full of  all those ridiculous plot lines and scenarios that   you'd expect from your favorite goofy rpgs each  one fleshing out these characters more and more   along the way you'll use the tag system to swap  out party members putting a different person out   front so they can use the unique ability on the  overworld omori can use his knife to cut through   obstacles aubry can use her bat to destroy  large objects a kel can throw stuff you know   like triggering mechanisms and whatever and hiro  can use his irresistible charm to sway the npcs   in your favor it's not really as interesting as  overworld abilities in some other rpg games like   paper mario definitely not as robust as that  but it is a good little change of pace every   now and then and i do like having an excuse to put  a different character in the lead for a little bit   oh and the photos that pop in every time you swap  there's a unique one for every character switching   to every character 12 images in total that is some  amazing detail and that's not the only detail dude   you're gonna find a lot of that in this game  there's tons of funny dialogue a small bone   big bone and stuff like that really gets me  uh there's a ton of optional side quests too   most of them kind of just boil down to fetching  something but the surrounding plots are usually   endearing enough to make them worth doing just to  see what the characters say i really like this one   where nobody shows up to this ghost party so you  have to send out invites to all the other ghosts   you found along the game what really gets me about  this screen is that the balloons don't say happy   birthday they say that's really good there's  even optional areas too like this one here i   didn't even see on my first playthrough i finished  the entire game without even knowing about it the   game's about 15 to 20 hours long normally but  you could easily get a lot more out of it if you   do all the side stuff and uh that's really as far  as we can go before getting into like spoiler-ish   territory i do want to talk more about this game  but uh these segments are definitely best enjoyed   blind so if what i've shown and said so far has  made you want to play this thing stop the video   now i have a link down below to where you can  get it and i'm serious i get a lot of comments   from people saying they wish they didn't watch  the spoilers and listen i care a lot more about   getting people to have cool experiences and i  care about the watch time on a damn youtube video   i'll get into the major spoilers later on i'll  have a timestamp to skip those ones but for now   we're going to tackle the minor twist since  it does lead into a large portion of the game the whole game doesn't take place in the dream  world some sections are played in real life   between chapters you'll find yourself waking  up in an empty house you're moving away in   three days everything's packed and ready to  go all right what can we do here uh we can go   in the bathroom and look in the mirror okay um  you know how in like undertale you look in the   mirror and it's like it's you and then later  in the game it has that really cute payoff   this this made me feel the polar opposite is  that me is that me oh maury looks way older and   still completely void of any emotion these are  the segments of the game where you'll find most   of that psychological horror here's where you'll  usually encounter something i first introduced   when amore wakes up in the middle of the night  just to get some food even just going down the   stairs to the kitchen requires an intense battle  with it that's how bad of a place he's in right   now in order to escape the dream world you have  to get omori to stab himself awake there's several   references to this knife and it is omori's weapon  of choice in the dream world and based on other   imagery it's sort of implied that omori engages in  self-harm which is troubling you know i know that   can stem from guilt maybe that's what something is  guilt this game is going to keep you guessing what   something is the whole ride one thing this game  does that i think is kind of cool is how you're   always posed with yes or no questions giving us a  say in whether or not omori has the courage to do   every minor thing for example mustering  up the courage to open the front door when   somebody knocks it's kel oh my god it's kell  he's he's so much older he's so different he's   oh yeah i guess we're moving away in three days  he came to visit us and he's surprised we even   opened the door at all so yeah it turns out omori  is a kid named sunny he's been a shut-in for a   number of years after something happened and for  the first time in years he's outdoors having fun   with kell just like old times but what about the  others these are my favorite parts of the game   when you leave the dream world and see sunny's  actual reality you see everything and everyone   that inspired the characters and locations of his  dreams and by extension despite being a silent   protagonist we get a really good idea of how sonny  feels about every witch thing for example that   awful spoiled brat from the castle she was clearly  inspired by this obnoxious lady that runs this   candy store clearly sunny never liked being around  her as a kid no i was really thrown off when i saw   aubry dude she barely even looks the same at all  now a cynical husk of her former joyful self that   squabbling between her and kel it evolved into  straight up hatred for one another she now hangs   out with a bit of a bad crowd bullying people  that she used to consider friends even fighter   to try and defend bazel who's now this horrible  anxious wreck of a teenager god i know you play   as little kids fighting stuff all the time in  games but here's something about it doesn't feel   good man you're not on this big fantasy adventure  fighting off cartoon characters anymore no like   these are troubled kids hurting each other and  when you click that attack button on aubrey and   you land your first hit that's when you remember  sonny has a knife just like that this game   ripped me straight out of a fantasy and grounded  me back in reality this video game rpg fight this   was no longer a boss battle i just assaulted  somebody i used to care about with a knife   and she reacts as if somebody just assaulted her  with a knife you do eventually figure out what   it was that made everything fall apart the game  takes its time giving you that info and little   tiny pieces that let you keep guessing but it also  lets you see how everything's been affected long   before you know the cause of it and i think that  was a really smart choice because you spend the   first chunk of this portion really hating aubry  you don't know why she's acting like this so   she just seems awful she bullies these kids with  intense trauma she takes bazel's photo album all   of his memories of friends he can't see anymore  she steals that from him but the fight with her   in the church oh my god she stands before you with  this intense burning rage you know feelings that a   teenager who knows real trauma could never figure  out how to deal with and you just have to hear   everybody in the church berate her as the fight  goes on and questioning how her parents raised her   criticizing the way she dresses who she hangs  out with as you watch her emotionally crumble   before you when you get the album back from aubry  and you look through all those pictures again and   they just take on this completely new meaning now  that you really know who all these characters are   i hit you right there man they feel so much  more lively those those fuzzy blue memories   fully realize with the cozy warmth of their  favorite summer now with more flavor text   fully explaining what was happening in each moment  instead of it being a faint memory sunny no longer   looks so out of place here he's not gloomily  rubbing up against the faint memory of being happy   no here he's actually happy he's still kind of  shy and aloof but yeah he's happy but as much   as things seem to go back to normal there's still  that something that persists and we can't exactly   talk about something without getting into the  major spoilers so hey if you made it this far   into the video and the minor spoilers got you  wanted to give it a shot you still got a chance to   bail before i get into the really big spoilers i'd  recommend finishing the game before watching this   part of the video so as usual here's a time stamp  to skip the spoilers okay so that's something it's   merry when everybody was really young uh she  took her own life and that affected everybody   obviously you know a hero was closest to her  being the only one who was the same age as her and   there was even possible romantic feelings between  the two as well there's a really sad moment where   you're visiting mary's grave with kell and he  explains how hiro took it really bad he stopped   caring about everything he wouldn't eat or take  care of himself or anything for that matter he was   he was like that for almost a year straight but  man when you see hiro iral for the first time on   the final day and he still this headstrong  dude who can make the best of everything   there's a sense of comfort when you see somebody  who's gotten through something you're all still   struggling with and when you see him now and  he's still just like you remember him even   though there is a long period where he very much  wasn't kel's the youngest so he kind of had the   most trouble figuring out how the hell to react to  the whole thing he didn't know how to be there for   his friends so he just distracted himself with  sports trying to move on it might seem like he   doesn't really care sometimes but like he does he  just doesn't know how to show it and that really   affected aubry she looked up to mary like a sister  they were even gonna dye their hair together which   is why aubry dies it pink in her memory after  mary's passing all of aubrey's friends seemingly   vanished which she kind of took as everybody  abandoning her but you know they weren't really   abandoning her they're all just trying to cope  with it in their own confused way but to aubrey   it's like why are none of you here for me i hate  all of you i hate all of you i hate all of you   and sonny well mary was sonny's older sister she's  family and that hurts so bad he became a shut-in   he stopped coming to school and eventually stopped  leaving the house all together at one point we   journey deep enough in a sunny's mind that we  find black space if white space is a comforting   nothingness then black space is everything at  once no order just random memories and thoughts   and feelings cluttering a dark looping void of  unorganized madness as the music begins to make   less and less sense this is where the game goes  full on yume nikki and for the exact same reason   that makes yuma nikki so cool this is one of the  most interesting parts of the game to interpret   because it's just raw random thoughts we are  inside sonny's brain and we see all of this random   stuff we could probably point out a lot of these  things and make sense of it all everybody was   dealt different emotions to try and cope with it  for hero with sadness aubrey was anger kell tried   to find happiness sunny chose total emptiness and  basil oh basil for basil it's an intense consuming   fear basil is clearly one of the most currently  troubled by this uh every interaction with him   in the real world he's always full of anxiety as  if he's barely teetering on the edge of having a   full on psychotic break so on the final day after  everybody opens up to each other and they come to   an understanding we realize that we do have to  save basil not this fake made-up version of them   in her head but the real basil the one suffering  from real problems shutting himself in just like   sunny did so the four of you decide to sleep over  in his living room to be there in case something   happens this is where you have one final dream  a nightmare from hell that has sunny reliving   all of his trauma along the way you discover more  photos photos that piece by piece tell the story   of the night something happened sonny used to love  listening to mary play this one song and piano she   was a big perfectionist so she would just practice  over and over playing it again and again and uh   one day they got sonny a violin so he could play  along with her and yeah that kind of became their   thing together as brother and sister playing that  song and mary was always better at it you know   sonny would fall behind but you know you try his  best and the two were practicing for a big recital   they were going to do together but before they  could get there they had some sort of disagreement   which prompted sonny to shut her down the stairs  and we never know exactly why he chuffs her you   know maybe they got in a fight maybe part of him  hated her for pushing him so hard maybe it was the   frustration of not being good enough not being  able to keep up she falls down the stairs and   lanes on the ground sonny brings her all the way  back up and puts her in bed hoping she'll wake up   she doesn't wake up basil being sonny's best  friend offers some help you know somebody's dead   and these kids are 11. like what the [ __ ] do we  do i don't know what do we do like what what do   we [ __ ] do they bring mary's body out into the  woods and use a jump rope to stage it as a suicide   everybody else would think mary took her own life  while sunny and basil they would live on with the   guilt of what really happened they were just  confused children trying to stay out of trouble   but they made it so so much worse this is why  sonny's afraid of stairs spiders drowning this   window this piano it's not because he's afraid  of these things and what they can do to him   it's because he so strongly associates them  with mary that's what something is that's what   something is the guilt of killing somebody that  meant the entire world to him and his friends   and covering it up and running away instead  of facing it the broken violin would become   a symbol of the disrepair sunny did to  himself and others it was the central   thing i linked him to mary and the frustration  surrounding it is where this event stemmed from   it was so stressful picking up all those photos  dude you get them out of order getting this   fuzzy idea of what's happening and then the  game makes you put them in order organizing   your memories and learning the truth oh my god  dude like this whole sequence man absolutely   brilliant there's a number of different ways the  ending can unfold depending on your actions during   the final part of the game or you wake up in the  middle of the night here you can take a look at   all your friends all having a sleepover for the  final time you will really miss them oh the game   can end prematurely if you decide to run away  from basil's house and going home to sleep in   your own bed as you wake in up to sirens a block  away your mom comes to pick you up and drives you   to your new home as you have to think about how  those sirens are likely headed to bazel's house   you can also get an ending where sunny takes his  own life if you go to sleep after grabbing a knife   from the kitchen the possibility of this ending  gives that line of dialogue a very chilling double   meaning if you go right back to sleep in basil's  living room instead of going home you get an even   worse ending you see firsthand that basil did in  fact take his own life now the true ending occurs   that the player decides to confront bazel in  the middle of the night by now it's pretty clear   that bazel is terrified of losing the things he  loves he lost mary he lost his best friend after   he stopped going outdoors he recently just lost  his grandmother and now that he can finally see   his best friend again after all these years you're  about to move away he's lost everything his entire   life and he can't handle losing anything else  and the boss fight that ensues is a tough one   the fight isn't difficult i mean it's difficult  to watch two kids that both did something horrible   together with no idea how to deal with what  that did to them so they lash out at each other   confused afraid violent but we can get through  this this is where all those skills you learned   each time you confronted something come into play  finally after facing each manifestation of it and   learning step by step how to handle this  we finally put those skills to the test and they don't work for the first time  in the entire game we see sonny's fear   get even worse yeah it's almost like  it's not that simple or something right   i was so ready for this game just hit me with  the most formulaic oh you learned the rpg moves   to deal with your depression and you just  do them at the end everything's okay but no   omori understands that it's a lot more  complicated than that so we tumble into we wake up somewhere warmer what is this oh  are we remembering the good times not this fake   perfect version of what we think these good times  were but the real memories the ones we could no   longer feel because we chose to feel nothing all  of those pictures from the album after we're done   reliving our trauma the game makes us relive  those moments too the bad memories came back   but so did the good ones after we realized just  what it is we've forgotten it strengthens us   we want that back and we are going to face what  we have to to get it even though it will be the   hardest thing sunny ever does one final showdown  not with a goofy boss but with us omori the part   of us that hates herself the part of us that isn't  really us the part of us that hurts herself the   part of us that looks back in the mirror this is  the ultimate battle because we're fighting to get   ourself back and you know it's probably here where  you start to realize that depression doesn't just   latch onto one thing it latches on the [ __ ]  everything man and it uses it all against you   sunny being the less sociable one of the group he  sticks out a little bit his friends are usually   the ones to reach out to him he had trouble being  the one to start stuff but that's fine you know   these are things his friends get they understand  they help him with that there's nothing wrong with   being that way some people just need a little  push but the sunny these are unwanted feelings   of selfishness well at least his brain's gonna  try and convince him of that any justification   as to why you're a horrible human that you want  to be erased it will look for anything there's   also nothing wrong with desiring self-betterment  but in some minds it can just manifest in the most   self-destructive way possible in a brilliant  sequence of events we balance those skills but   we don't just use them when the game tells  us to no now they have mechanical functions   we have to desperately figure out on the fly  how to effectively use these things to survive   these skills aren't a magic solution but  they are part of the fight with each passing   turn omori lowers all of your stats making the  fight harder and harder the longer it drags on   that's pretty accurate isn't it it's not even  possible to beat this thing without losing first   and choosing to continue it's a pretty clever  depiction of a battle with mental health because   here it's understood that these battles are long  complicated and filled with uncertainty in fact   you can choose to give up during that game over  screen giving you an ending where sunny gives up   and embraces omori falling back into his desperate  escapism before waking up in a hospital and   hurtling himself off the balcony winning the  fight instead has us walking over to basil's room   finally with the strength to do the hardest  thing he's ever done sunny speaks the first   words we hear from him all game i have to tell  you something after the credits the title screen   changes amore is now sunny again which means  he's probably no longer running away and that   hollow strange sound that accompanied the piano  is replaced with the sounds of the morning air   you'd think the violin would be there now but i  think the absence of it despite the positive tone   shift kind of feels like acceptance you know like  something that was pushed so hard on him didn't   end the way he wanted but that's okay we can  still remember what was even if we can't remember   a version of the song that could have existed  if things were better we can still remember the   version that we did love listening to the version  mary would play that memory is alive once more   and now it doesn't have to be scary this  ending left me with a lot of emotions man like   oh it's terrifying doing something you've been  afraid of your whole life even if you know like   you have to do it for things to change for the  better but the thing is like with enough patience   and support and persistence it's not impossible  you can get there even if it never truly gets   all the way better you know getting here feels  earned because of the choices we helped sonny   find the courage to make when you're in that  dark a place even saying yes to something as   small as a high five can be difficult that's a  human interaction one we haven't had in years   it might seem silly to some people but hey that  is a step it's those sorts of little victories   that amore allows us to win along the way and  i feel like that's also an important part of   depicting mental health there's a lot in this game  that point towards sunny detesting himself for   letting others do everything for him for having  no desire to take any sort of action himself and   that is a real feeling right there you  know you have to do something you know that   you're a component in this too but you just  can't find a way to push yourself finding that   push step by step little by little giving yourself  permission to be the one to walk forward and sonny   choosing to go to his friends at the end instead  of waiting for them to come to him that's how we   know he's finally working on that there's a lot  to learn about what's going on in sunny's head   and interestingly enough the game lets us see what  happens if we don't allow ourselves those little   victories if we never take that long patient  journey to find that push it sends us down a   much darker path you can regress back into that  fantasy and beat the entire game without ever   leaving the house this my friends is how we go  down the hikikomori route you know like when a   game's got an ending that's so bad you gotta do a  fresh playthrough and make certain choices for it   in this route you never have the courage to open  that door you never experience any of the outdoor   segments here you do save bazel in the dream  world but as we know from the main ending basil   needed saving in the real world this made-up  version of him doesn't actually matter at all   oh there he is yay at the picnic with mary again  oh what a look through the album again sure yeah   it's a great memories everything's all good again  god it is so depressing doing this after getting   the true ending sunny decides to leave everything  blocked out he sticks with these fainter fake   memories and never gets to reunite with the real  ones ending the game on this route just gives you   one of the bad endings you could get anyway but  what makes this route so interesting is all of   the extra content it has yeah like there's whole  ass boss fights and even entire sections unique   to this playthrough those feelings of guilt they  start to manifest something will follow you more   and more closely and the optional super bosses you  unlock they represent sony's suppressed feelings   starting to bleed through the flimsy bandage that  is this dream world some of the freakiest stuff   happens on this route again the ending's not much  different which is a bit disappointing but it's   still worth doing a second playthrough for if you  want to explore more of the game's horror side   you also get a lot more hints and context  for some of the things we've seen sunny do   and of course there's a lot more content to get  here too there's a buttload of game here dude   it's not a short one the main quest took me about  20 hours to get through alternate route will bring   that up to 30 uh depending on how fat you fly  through it i guess but you could probably even   double that if you want to do all the side stuff  too this is a meaty game for something made in rpg   maker no wonder it took so long to make i'd say  it was well worth the wait it's easy to tell that   a lot of care went into this thing the artwork  is fantastic the animation is great the writing   is believable and hard hitting and the characters  are an absolute delight the battle system is like   actually really interesting for rpg maker 2 and  the worlds are as bubbly and cute as they are   mysterious and haunting the only real gripes  i have of the game the big one is the before   mentioned lack of a more unique ending for the  alternate route i feel like there could have been   something there i also feel like the dialogue  can be skipped a little faster going through   the game again takes a bit long because of that  and the fast travel system is a little bulky too   having it available from the pause menu instead  would have saved me a lot of time i've seen some   people express minor disappointment and not really  getting all of the pieces of the backstory but   i don't know i kind of like that actually i  think hinting at a backstory with a subtler   thing to take from the dream world and making the  finer details more open to interpretation that can   be a lot more fun than if the game flat out told  us i had a good time debating with a friend what   certain characters and events in the dream world  could represent and i think people are gonna have   a lot of fun discussing the game online because  of that omori is a beautiful video game dude like   this is something that's gonna hit really hard  for people that have struggled with uh similar   feelings and you know even if you're not it  explores psychological horror in really clever   ways like if you like man versus self plots  that internal struggle you know unwrapping   a character's guilt through the lens of subtle  horror omori is a really grounded and childlike   take on that sort of thing you know the big  goofy wacky rpg adventure with all your friends   before you find out the big adventure is just  a tiny bandage on a gaping wound you're gonna   see the pain spill through the cracks the game  is 20 bones on steam but there's also a switch   port down the way too i remember this thing was  originally headed to 3ds and vita but i totally   understand those getting shelved at this point uh  yeah i'd absolutely recommend it whether you're   into games that explore psychological horror or  games that do a really good job of tackling the   subject of mental health or simply a well-written  story with fantastic characters whatever reason   you play the game for i can at least guarantee you  one thing though it's gonna hit you right there   yo what's good welcome to the end of the video  i'm glad you watched it hope you liked it uh   it was kind of cool talking about mental health  for once even if i do feel pretty underqualified   to talk about it i only really have very  limited experiences with anxiety you know   nothing like this uh i've only got secondhand  experiences to go off of in that regard so i   hope all that made sense and i hope i handled  it well now we playing jimmy neutron baby

Channel: Nitro Rad

Views: 601,791

Keywords: nitro rad, review, omori, omocat, rpgmaker, horror, pixel horror, psychological horror, yume nikki, earthbound, undertale, indie game, indie horror, hand drawn, animation, depression, anxiety, mental health, emotions, kel, aubrey, hero, dreams, dream world, kickstarted, kickstarter, a spooky video game with funny lil guys in it

Id: 3aJRzf6YTYQ

Length: 38min 0sec (2280 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/nicksenuso]

Don't know if anyone said it but this game has the prettiest battle screens i've seen in a long time, the hand drawn art style can look terrible if not done right but here is perfect

[u/HandSonicVI]

I was lucky enough to hear about this game only a week ago so I didn't have to wait around like some others did for years. Personally, I loved this game. Like others have said, the game can kind of drag in the dream world at times but the last act is worth it. The fights and battle mechanics were neat but I did find myself dodging more enemies towards the later half of the game. I'm curious to see if this game will explode in popularity here in a few months once the bigger youtubers get their hands on it.

[u/GorillaLibrarianship]

I really loved Omori. I'm very happy it escaped Kickstarter development purgatory.

We probably need a name for this subgenre of Earthbound-style quirky RPGs.

It's got great writing and lovable characters (Undertale style), great art and a better combat system than I was expecting. The Yume Nikki style horror is light enough for non-horror fans to stomach.

I really recommend checking it out!

[u/enricojr]

Everyone's calling this an RPG Maker game, but didn't they port it to Game Maker Studio 2 at some point?

edit: I was mistaken - it went from RPG Maker VX Ace to MV, according to the old updates on the game's site.

[u/grenadier42]

The latter part of this game from Black Space and on is really, really good, but the first two-thirds is absolutely padded to shit. It's a shame