OMORI Review by Bigby's Gaming Hand
Close your eyes and you'll leave this dream. Go to sleep, but I know that its hard to do.
This game is a painful journey of kids surviving a trauma. You will cry to this game. Not the starry-eyed beautiful tears. No, this is the clench-your-heart-in-pain grit-your-teeth screen-is-getting-blurry ugly cry. So be ready.
Achievements: There are 84 Achievements. You will need to do at least 2 playthroughs of this game to get all achievements. And I suggest consulting a non-spoiler guide. There are "perfect run" based achievements where you're supposed to follow a specific set of things to get the most difficult achievements.
Missable Achievements: Yes.
Multiplayer-Only Achievements: No multiplayer.
Time-based Achievements: None
High-Skill Achievements: Yes. There is a boss rush in this game. And if that's not enough, there is a superboss in this game. An achievement requires you to beat this superboss.
Gameplay:
Camera: This is a game on RPG Maker, so its the old school camera view that JRPGs like Final Fantasy had.
Movement: Your character can run and walk, but only in the 4 cardinal directions, no diagonal movement. Movement isn't exactly a focus on this game.
Combat: The game uses a turn-based combat, commonly featured in RPG Maker where you decide the party's actions on your turn, and after selecting the actions, the game will resolve the order of the actions. One of the things about this game is the Emotion System, learning and taking advantage of the emotion system is the main thing that would make or break fights. Your characters can get EXP and level up. This increases stats and at certain points would unlock more skills for your character to use. Unfortunately, your character can only bring 4 skills in combat, so choose your loadout wisely. Everyone has the ability to change weapons and charms, with the exception of Omori because Omori could not change weapons. Weapons are classified into one character. Weapon would mostly increase battle stats, but charm provide a wider range of advantages. Characters with Zero HP at the end of the battle cannot gain EXP but will regain 1HP.
Grind: The game has two things to grind. EXP and Clams. EXP is gained when leveling up. Clam serves as the currency. EXP can only be gained through battle. Clams can be gained thru battle and the overworld. Both EXP and Clams scale as enemies become more difficult, but bosses will provide a lot of these.
UI: UI is as expected from a JRPG. There are generally two scenes to switch from, the overworld scene that you navigate in, and the combat scene, where you fight everything in. Combat is UI-dependent since you need to navigate through a menu to perform actions. Overworld UI doesn't have as much UI, although items of interest will be clearly shown in the environment.
Saves: 6 saves slots. Overwriting over save is easy, and can happen accidentally.
Minigames: Yes. Some of them are required to be played to advance the game.
Bugs: No bugs encountered, but certain combos can be exploited to make the game easier.
Story:
Voice Acting: No voice acting.
Multiple Endings: Yes. 5 Endings. Non-Linear Progression with Two Routes. I highly recommend going for the bad end first for maximum pain.
Narrative: Game contains multiple arcs told in the different routes. The Pixel Art adds to the experience allowing you to fill in blanks yourself with its colorful and unearthly representation of its world, but also doesn't reveal enough information which makes it mysterious. The worldbuilding in the game is excellent, to the point that everything feels justified the way it is.
Tone, Mood, and Atmosphere: Game is known for its sad themes, and it is likely that you'll be shocked to be greeted by a colorful setting. The mood and atmosphere of the game shifts around from melancholy to cheery comedic scenes to horror suspense. These are executed excellently and naturally as you traverse the imaginative worlds in Omori.
Lifespan:
Chapter Select/New Game+ : No Chapter Select. No New Game+. You will be starting from scratch if you don't plan the saves ahead.
DLCs: No DLCs.
Duration: HowToLongBeat lists this as 21 hours. I beat it after 30 hours.
Music: After you finish this game, you will cry. When you listen to this game's OST after finishing it, you will cry again.
Composer: There are 3 composers listed. Pedro Silva, bo en, and Jami Lynne.
Number of Tracks: 179 tracks are listed on Spotify
OST in Spotify: Yes
Graphics:
Textures: 2D Pixel. But an extensive amount of art is shown during interactions and when progressing through the story.
Graphic Settings: x1 and x2 with Integer Upscaling for fullscreen. No Borderless Window. Losing focus on the window mutes the audio.
Optimizations: Since this is a 2D pixel game with very little dynamic things happening on screen, the game does not feel buggy at all. There will be times that the game looks buggy, but that is intentional.
Accessibility:
Varying Difficulty: None.
Controller Support: Yes.
In-game Button Remapping: Yes.
Subtitles: Fully text-based game, but no closed captions for SFX and music.
Pause in Cutscenes: No dedicated pause for cutscenes, but progression are based on user input.
Skip in Cutscenes: None. But there is a toggleable skip behaviour for dialogue.
Sound Cue has Visual Cue: None.
Requires Button Mashing: Certain minigames have button mashing, which are optional to story progression but required for achievement hunting.
Tutorials: Yes. But, a huge portion of the game mechanics is given through a tutorial book that you'll have to painstakingly navigate through.
Overall, Omori deserves its standing and being one of those games that you have to play. It touches upon a lot of mature topics, despite its lighthearted design and cutesy art.
Lastly, you'll have to get a support circle after the game, or consult guides on how to not be big sad. Joking aside, this game sticks with you. It'll always be a story at the back of your mind. If you find yourself at a point where the story of this game affects your mental health, please don't hesistate to seek help.