More o’ Omori?

CHENNAI: Omori is a “psych horror” RPG game. You might not realise it at first; it lacks the traditional elements that becomes a horror game. It has cute music, kids in a playground, vivid colours, and a lack of jump scares. The horror strikes you very slowly. The game is like a patiently blooming flower. But as the bud slowly unfurls, you see an ugly, huge, hairy black spider sitting at the centre of the flower. And before you react, it jumps at your face. Let me break this down.

Strange: The game does not waste time in setting the scene. We find Omori, a young boy stuck in a ‘white-space’, a metaphor for his own thoughts. He steps out to encounter a recurring series of adventures with his friends. We soon realise that the world of adventures is significantly different from reality. There are several surreal elements: a house shaped like a shoe, a space world, and made-up creatures. The bizarreness of the world was insufficient to make me realise that it was made-up, and my dense brain was able to comprehend this only when the in-game Pluto introduced himself as an actual planet. Plants could talk, but nobody can convince me that Pluto is a planet!

Sad: The imagined world is silly and playful, but constantly references a darkness. It lurks, like me on Reddit. However, unlike me on Reddit, the darkness is bound to rear its head at the end of this prolonged façade. The conquests with bunnies and space pirates are interjected by hidden phantoms that reveal only little information at any time. Even the turn-based combat system in the game places importance on emotions and reactions. Inflicting attack points also depend on ‘follow-up’ combos with friends.

Slow: No surprise, but as an RPG game, it contains a commiserate amount of dialogue. Be prepared to spam the ‘z’ key, if you are playing it on a PC. Despite it’s length, which might be considered unnecessary, the pace of the game plays a huge role in empathising with the characters. Instead of forcing emotionally heavy conversations on us, the game allows us to explore it through the protagonist’s experiences. Interactions cause multiple new paths to emerge, and completing any of these paths provide new revelations on the forgotten story. 

Twenty hours in, the gameplay still has more to offer beyond the campaign, but I’ve had my fill. The conversations start to get quite draggy, and I cannot continue romanticising the quirky dialogues beyond a point. But, I rate the game with 9 health out of 10 juice for the direct attacc on my soul.

Anusha Ganapathi

@quaffle_waffle

(This economics graduate spends her leisure time preparing for the zombie apocalypse)