OMORI is a painful masterpiece. A very emotional review

OMORI is a difficult game to review. Not because it's bad, mind you. Quite the opposite. It has a gripping narrative, a distinct art style, beautiful music and charming characters. But its story and subject matter is... a lot. It's a game where I can't really talk about what makes it so special without providing multiple spoiler warnings and at least one content warning. And let me tell you, avoiding spoilers for this game for six years was a challenge in and of itself. But I managed to do a (mostly) blind playthrough of this game, and now I'm going to tell you all about this very tragic, but very engrossing experience.

Official box art for OMORI, featuring the titular character. Image found on Wikipedia.

Before we begin the review properly, here's a quick content warning. OMORI is rated M for Mature by the ESRB, for violence and profanity. It is also a horror game, with a heavy focus on mental illness during its story campaign. As such, the game features themes like loneliness, depression, grief and self-harm, and how people respond to those problems. It cannot be stated enough that this one of the darkest video games I have ever covered in the history of this blog. Viewer discretion is advised.

But what exactly is OMORI? It's a psychological horror role playing game developed and published by OMOCAT. It was released on December 25th, 2020, just in time for Christmas. OMORI is inspired somewhat by Toby Fox's UNDERTALE, which was in turn inspired by 90's and 2000's era RPGs like Earthbound, Final Fantasy and OFF. The comparisons to UNDERTALE were what drew me to OMORI in the first place, as UNDERTALE is one of my favorite video games of all time. So anything that can seriously be considered equal to it is going to get my attention. 

OMORI developed a reputation for its dark, but incredibly well-written story. But fans of this game will tell you that the less you know going into the game, the better the experience will be. Because of this, it can be frustratingly difficult to discuss this game in detail. So just to be safe, I'll say that this review will contains spoilers for the entire game. I will be discussing the broad strokes of the story, the major boss battles and all the twists and turns that happen along the way. This will include plot twists and discussions of the game's multiple endings. 

If you want my spoiler free thoughts on the game, OMORI is a great game with good art, amazing music and an emotionally devastating storyline. Five stars out of five, if you can stomach something so grim, I can recommend it. I do not recommend it if anything in that content warning will seriously bother you. I'm serious, this game goes to some really messed up places. But most importantly, be kind to yourself and be kind to others. Mental health is important, especially in this day and age. 

With all that being said, let's begin the review properly.

You play as a 12-year-old child named Omori, who lives in a whimsical land called Headspace. Despite Headspace being an idealistic paradise where kids can do whatever they want, Omori is completely numb to it all. He has a look of pure apathy plastered on his face almost at all times. And the few times he does emote, his facial expressions look almost forced in comparison to the more natural expressions of the other children. Heck, even Omori's design sticks out like a sore thumb in Headspace. Headspace is almost sickeningly vibrant and colorful, but Omori himself is completely monochrome.

Above is the inventory menu, below is a lineup of the game's four main heroes (Omori, Aubrey, Kel and Hero). Image found on the OMORI Steam page.

But Omori's friends are just as vibrant and emotive as Headspace itself. Three of Omori's friends will join his journey and assist in battle against various monsters. First is Aubrey, a cheerful girl with a love for baseball. Second is Kel, a mischievous jokester with a short attention span but a strong sense of loyalty. And third is Hero, a charismatic but mild-mannered teenager who by virtue of being the oldest kid in the friend group, is the responsible peacekeeper of the group. These three kids, plus Omori himself, make up the main group that you'll be playing as.

There are two more kids in Headspace, the soft-spoken Basil and always supportive Mari. These two are not playable (at least under normal circumstances), but they are just as important to the story as Omori's main friend group. Mari is especially important, not only because she is Omori's older sister, but because she is how you save your progress. The only way to save your progress in this game is find Mari in any given level and join one of her picnics. I know that sounds bizarre, but it makes sense with context, I promise.

Our adventure begins in White Space, a blank and empty room in the middle of Headspace. Omori starts every day in this room. We also see a cinematic of two children, with one of them crying while the other assures the first kid that "everything will be okay." We don't know the context of this cinematic, but it will make sense later. Also, the phrase "everything will be okay" gets used like a mantra throughout the game. But Omori doesn't stay in White Space for long. 

Shortly after grabbing a knife (for "self defense" of course), Omori meets up with his friends. Basil invites all of the other kids to his house so they can look through a photo album together. This photo album is filled with all of the photos that Basil took of his friends over the years and as such, it's his most prized possession. Well, besides his garden. A fun bit of trivia is that each flower in Basil's garden represents one kid from Omori's friend group, and clicking on the flowers will have Basil explain the meaning of each flower.

On the way to Basil's house, you are taught the basics of combat by fighting off basic Headspace monsters. Battles are turn-based, with each kid being allowed to take one action each (for a total of four actions per turn). You can either attack with your weapons, use a snack to heal yourself, use a toy to weaken an enemy, or use powerful techniques called Skills. The four main kids learn new Skills as they level up and grow stronger.

Skills come in two main types, attack Skills that deal more damage than attacking normally, and utility effects like healing or changing a character's emotions (more on them below). Skills cost a resource called Juice, which can be restored by eating or drinking certain snacks. Think of Juice as the equivalent of stamina.

The game's combat revolves around changing and controlling emotions like joy, anger and sadness. As seen here, three out of four heroes are angry while Omori is sad. Image found on the OMORI Steam page. 

The main feature of OMORI is being able to manipulate emotions to enhance your abilities. Emotions work on a rock-paper-scissors style system, with Happiness beating Anger, Anger beating Sadness and Sadness beating Happiness. You can use Skills and toys to change a character's emotions at any time. And some Skills can apply additional effects, but only if the user is feeling a specific emotion. For example, Omori's signature Skill is "Stab," a melee attack that ignores all enemy defenses, but only if he is feeling sad. Aubrey gets a similar Skill called "Headbutt" which deals double damage, but only if she is feeling angry.

The game doesn't directly mention this (or if it did, I missed that information), but if you use an emotion-changing Skill on a character already feeling that emotion, it causes that character to feel an even stronger variant of that emotion. For example, using Aubrey's "Pep Talk" Skill makes the target feel happy. If the target is already happy, they become ecstatic. The other emotions have similarly extreme variants. This produces even stronger effects, but increases your weakness to whatever emotion beats your current one. 

Omori is unique in that only he can access "tier 3" emotions like Mania, Fury and Misery, which are the three strongest emotions in the game. The other kids can only use the more "moderate" emotions. Most enemies can't access tier 3 emotions either, and the only characters besides Omori who can do so are all bosses. Omori is also unique because of a special passive ability he has that lets him survive one lethal attack per battle.

In addition to the three main emotions, there's a secret fourth emotion known as fear. Unfortunately, fear is weak to all other emotions, and all Skills are disabled until the character in question is no longer afraid. The four main kids have no way of inflicting fear on enemies, but enemies can inflict fear on them if certain requirements are met. You never want someone to be afraid, so if one of the kids does gain this emotion, you have to switch them to a different emotion (if you have the ability to do so).

The last main combat mechanic is the energy counter. You start every battle with 3 energy points, and gain an additional point every time Omori or his friends take damage. You can spend three points to do a Follow Up Skill, in which a basic weapon attack gets upgraded to either hit again or change a character's emotions for free. But if you save up for 10 energy points, you can do the Ultimate Attack, which is the strongest damage-dealing ability in the game. Of course, most battles don't last nearly long enough for you to use the Ultimate Attack. In my experience, the Ultimate Attack only really gets used for boss battles.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by OMORI's combat systems. Mostly because nobody ever talks about the combat in the game. Almost all discussion of OMORI that I've seen, even after beating the game, revolves around its story and subject matter. But the emotion system is simple and easy to learn how to use effectively. And there's a good variety in Skills that let you try out all sorts of combos and strategies. Sure, the battles can grow repetitive after a while, but the combat itself is actually kind of fun.

Outside of combat, Omori and friends travel across a retro-inspired open world and can solve simple puzzles. Each kid has a unique skill that can be used outside of combat. Omori can cut through obstacles like vines or (eventually) spider webs, Aubrey can push blocks around and smash pottery with her baseball bat, Kel can throw rocks at otherwise out of reach buttons and switches and Hero can use his charming demeanor to convince certain Headspace creatures to assist him. These puzzles are not too difficult, and most of them boil down to "switch to the right character to do their thing."

Okay, back to the story. So Omori and friends reach Basil's house. The only friend that doesn't join is Mari, who politely declines Basil's offer to hang out. But as the kids look through the photo album, Basil finds a photograph he doesn't remember taking. Its contents freak him out and cause him to yell out Mari's name in panic. Before he can show the rest of the gang what this mystery photo is, Omori is whisked away back to White Space. You actually can see the mystery photo flash on screen, but it goes by so fast that unless you're recording the gameplay and slow the footage down, it's impossible to make out the photo's contents. 

This scene is the first real showcase of horror elements, as before this point, OMORI's world had been suspiciously saccharine. But now Omori is now trapped inside White Space with no clear exit. But you remember that knife he picked up earlier? …It wasn't for self defense, after all. Yeah, the only way to proceed is for Omori to stab himself with the knife. Hence the self-harm warning.

Upon doing so, we switch perspectives to a new kid, one who is almost identical to Omori. The only difference is that this new kid has a fully colored sprite as opposed to Omori's monochrome aesthetic. You can name this kid whatever you want, as long as it's eight letters or shorter. But for the sake of consistency, this kid will be referred to as Sunny, as that is the default name. However, if you feel like getting completely immersed in the story that OMORI is trying to tell, go ahead and name the kid after yourself. What could possibly go wrong?

Sunny is a young boy living by himself at the moment, as his mother is out of town and his father left the family a long time ago. Sunny's family was supposed to be moving to the big city, and the only reason he's still in the old house is to finish packing everything up. While Mari is (at least initially) nowhere to be seen in the real world, you can still save your progress by interacting with empty picnic baskets.

In case it wasn't obvious, Headspace is nothing more than Sunny's dreams, based loosely off of half-remembered adventures with his real life friends. But in the real world, Sunny is just as depressed and apathetic as Omori. In fact, Sunny's mental health has gotten so bad that he experiences frequent hallucinations of a monster called Something haunting him. Yes, the main monster in this horror game is literally called Something.

The fifth hero, Sunny, fights a monster called Something by himself. This is the part of the game where the horror elements kick in. Image found on the OMORI Steam Page.

The major "highlight" of Sunny's night, for lack of a better term, is hearing a knock at the door supposedly from Mari. But when Sunny answers the door, all he finds is a jump scare from a ghostly being that only vaguely resembles her. Sunny sleeps off these literal night terrors, only to find another knock on his door the next morning.

This second knock is vitally important to the story, as choosing whether or not to answer it will cause the game to split into two routes. If you answer it, you will start the Sunny Route. If you don't answer, you will start the Omori Route. The Sunny Route focuses more on the real world and on what happened to Sunny's friend group, and it will eventually reveal the source of Sunny/Omori's depression and apathy. 

The Omori Route, meanwhile, takes you back to Headspace so you can do more wacky RPG adventures. But you will never learn the truth behind Sunny/Omori's despair if you go down the Omori Route, as this route skips over a lot of important information. The only positive of the Omori Route is that it unlocks Basil as a playable character, in case you wanted to experiment with the combat system even more.

I will say that it's really clever to have a jump scare play the first time you interact with the front door in Sunny's house, but not the second time. Having the jump scare happen first makes the player feel just as reluctant to interact with the outside world as Sunny himself is (because the game "taught" you to associate that door with danger), which makes the decision to answer it again even more impactful. 

Answering the door again reveals the real life version of Kel, who happens to be Sunny's next-door neighbor. As it turns out, Kel has spent the last few months trying to get in contact with him, in an attempt to reconnect with his old friend. Now that Sunny has managed to actually leave his house, the two decide to spend the next three days hanging out together. 

Why three days, specifically? Because that's when Sunny's mother comes back to town and takes him away to their new house in the big city. Once those three days are over, it's going to be much harder for Sunny and Kel to stay together. And the game's entire story structure from here on out is built around getting as much stuff done as possible within those three days. The game doesn't have a real time limit, thankfully, as time only moves forward if certain story events are triggered (i.e. boss battles). The "three days" thing is just for storytelling purposes.

This brings us to my favorite part of OMORI's story, Faraway Town. This town encompasses the "real world" sections of the game, and it provides crucial context for understanding Headspace. Something you must understand is that everything in Headspace is meant to symbolic of something in Sunny's life. For example, all of the creatures seen in Headspace are either exaggerated versions of people that Sunny has encountered in the real world before, or they're abstract concepts that represent something about Sunny himself. 

From this point onwards, you will alternate between playing as Omori and Sunny, with the former being in the Headspace sections and the latter being in Faraway Town. Headspace is more lighthearted and goofy than Faraway Town, and it can be tempting to stay there as long as possible to avoid dealing with all the horror stuff (which mostly happens in Faraway Town). But that's the point. OMORI is a game about how ignoring your problems and escaping to a fantasy land is not a healthy way to live, and that the only way to move on with your life is to head back out into that big, scary real world.

Another quirk of Headspace is that some areas are not accessible because of Sunny's real life fears and phobias. Specifically, he has a fear of heights, a fear of spiders and a fear of drowning. As such, Omori cannot climb ladders, cut through spider webs or swim until his real life counterpart, Sunny, overcomes these fears. Sunny can accomplish this by fighting Something and defeating it each time it appears.

While hanging out at the park in Faraway Town, Sunny and Kel meet up with the real world version of Basil, who is being bullied by the real world version of Aubrey. While most of the kids are more or less the same as their Headspace counterparts, this is not true for Aubrey. Headspace Aubrey is a cheerful girly gal that likes baseball. Real world Aubrey is a bitter street punk that uses a baseball bat as a weapon. She's also the leader of a gang of high-school delinquents called the Scooter Gang, who are just as abrasive as Aubrey herself.

But Aubrey wasn't always like this. The Headspace kids are all based on how Sunny remembered his friend group last time they were all together, which was four years prior to the start of the game. Because of this, the Headspace kids are four years younger than their real-life counterparts, both physically and mentally. So something happened to Aubrey since those four years that caused her to become so bitter. 

So Aubrey steals Basil's photo album and runs off. At Basil's request, Sunny and Kel go on a quest to get it back. This results in our dynamic duo tracking down and fighting each member of the Scooter Gang just to get a clue as to where Aubrey went off to. Battles in Faraway Town are heavily simplified, because Sunny and Kel are weaker than their Headspace counterparts.

Eventually Sunny and Kel track Aubrey down to the local church, where they confront her over her theft of Basil's photo album. This results in an explosive argument between Kel and Aubrey, in which the latter reveals the reason why she's so bitter. 

Mari, Omori/Sunny's sister and the glue that held the friend group together, is dead. And she's been dead for four years. 

A lot of things suddenly make more sense with this absolute bombshell of a revelation. Mari's death was what led to the friend group going their separate ways. It led Sunny to become a depressed shut-in that stays home all day. And Aubrey's rage and bitterness is a result of her unresolved grief from losing her best friend. The reason she still goes to church despite her punkish attitude is because it's the only thing that brings her peace of mind. At least it did, until this argument ruined the experience for her.

This leads to a boss fight against Aubrey in the church. It doesn't matter if you win or lose, as Aubrey storms off and throws away the photo album regardless. In fact, it's pretty difficult to actually win this fight due to limited healing items and a lack of healing Skills. The whole time this fight is happening, Aubrey is being ostracized and mocked by the elders in the church, who are completely apathetic to her sorrow. And this only makes her even angrier.

Regardless of how the boss fight went, Sunny and Kel manage to get the photo album back, but a few of the photos are suspiciously missing. Basil decides it's best for Sunny to hold onto the photo album, both so he can cherish the memories of their friendship, and so he can (eventually) retrieve all the missing photos. But Kel accidentally reveals that Sunny is moving away, which causes Basil to start acting... Strange. Erratic, even.

Sunny follows Basil into the bathroom due to the latter's suspicious behavior, but he quickly learns that Basil can see Something. You know, that hallucinatory monster that's been haunting Sunny this whole time? Yeah, not only can Basil see it, he has Something of his own that's been tormenting him all day. And Sunny's response to this revelation is to just leave and go home, even while Basil is having a Something-induced panic attack.

Not going to lie, I don't really like that the only way to progress on this Route is to not only leave Basil behind while he's in the middle of a panic attack, but then say absolutely nothing about what Sunny just witnessed. Obviously, trying to explain Something to "normal" people is going to sound insane, but like, we could at least have been given the option to bring up Basil's panic attack with Kel. He, of all people, would definitely be supportive of a friend at their lowest point. Maybe Sunny's inaction is supposed to show that he's too broken by his own problems to help anyone dealing with a similar crisis. But eh, whatever.

Side note, Kel is just a really good and supportive friend in general. Without Kel's intervention, most of the game's story simply wouldn't happen. We could all use a friend like Kel. The world would be so much better if there more people like Kel in it.

Omori and Friends talk to a gator guy while in Headspace. Image found on the OMORI Steam Page

So we return to Headspace and take control of Omori again. All of the Headspace kids are back except for Basil. So the gang decides to go explore this whimsical realm and rescue Basil from whatever fate had befallen him. But while looking for Basil, the gang gets distracted by a space pirate crew whose leader just went through a nasty break-up. Omori and friends agree to help the space pirates comfort their captain, which leads to the first major boss fight outside of the tutorial. 

This boss, a character literally called Space Ex-Boyfriend, serves as a wakeup call. If you don't take advantage of the emotion system, you're going to get absolutely bodied. All of the bosses possess either strong emotions or the ability to change the emotions of others. Spamming basic attacks is not going to cut it anymore.

The whole B-plot with the space pirates is supposed to "subtly" set up how all of the Headspace sections will work going forward. Omori and friends go to a place to look for Basil, get distracted by a wacky side quest, and fight a boss armed with strong emotions. Every time the gang actually makes progress towards finding Basil, they get warped back to White Space, and the only way to leave is through more self-inflicted violence.

Time passes to the next day, and we take control of Sunny again. Kel wants to hang out, just like before. If you declined to answer the door back on the first day, Sunny will automatically refuse to answer it again, thus locking you into the Omori Route. If you answer the door on the first day but refuse on the second, you get the Mixed Route, which is just a milder version of the Omori Route with none of the Route-exclusive content. The rest of the story summary describes the Sunny Route, as it definitely feels like the "intended" game path.

So Kel takes Sunny with him while running errands on his mother's behalf. Kel's older brother, the real world version of Hero, is coming home from college later that same day. So Kel's parents want to surprise him with an elaborate dinner.

The only problem encountered on the second day is that Basil has mysteriously disappeared, not just in Headspace, but in the real world as well. And his family is getting worried, enough to ask Sunny and Kel to go look for him. So now Sunny and Kel have to look all over town to find the real Basil, which was nowhere near as difficult as finding him in Headspace. It turns out that he went to a hidden lake that Sunny's friend group used to hang out at during the summer. But unfortunately, Aubrey's gang is there as well.

This leads to a boss fight against all six members of the Scooter Gang, a fight that is scripted so you don't really have a chance to win. As it turns out, a six-vs-two battle isn't exactly fair, especially when one side is armed with baseball bats and the other has no real weapons to speak of.

Anyway, Aubrey crashes out over how quickly everyone else "got over" Mari's death while she's still grieving all these years after the fact. This culminates in Aubrey accidentally pushing Basil into the lake. But Basil can't swim, so Sunny has no choice but to jump in the water and save Basil from drowning. At the same time this happens, Sunny gets attacked by Something and has to overcome the fear of drowning on the spot.

While Sunny does defeat Something, he starts losing consciousness after being underwater for so long. The only reason he and Basil don't drown is because Hero managed to show up just in time to save both of them. Despite Kel claiming that Aubrey has become too aggressive to be reasoned with, Hero still wants to reach out to her because he still remembers the cheerful girly gal Aubrey used to be and believes that the "old" Aubrey is still in there.

Unfortunately, the day is almost over by now, so the gang heads home. Sunny winds up hosting a sleepover event at his house, during which he and Hero talk about Mari. There was one room in the house that Sunny refused to enter before now, which was the piano room. And this piano was important, because the same day that Mari died was the day she and Sunny (who was an aspiring violinist prior to becoming a depressed shut-in) were supposed to perform a duet at their school together. That duet never happened, for obvious reasons.

Sunny and friends go to sleep, and we return to Headspace. Every time we enter Headspace, we get sent on increasingly nonsensical detours to distract Omori and friends from finding Basil. First it was the space pirates. Then they had to pass through an obnoxiously sweet candy kingdom ruled by a minor antagonist named Sweetheart. After that they had to deal with a hotel called the Last Resort that is owned by a literal loan shark. And finally, they have to explore the vast belly of a talking whale. All of these are the major bosses in their respective regions of Headspace. And with each adventure, the gang's memories of Basil fade away.

Truth be told, the Headspace sections are probably the weakest part of OMORI's story. The pacing here is unfortunately rather slow, and battles against regular enemies can become repetitive. They do add some levity to what is otherwise an extremely grim and dour game, but depending on who you ask, these sections outstay their welcome. But then again, the slow pace may have been deliberate.

Now what I'm about to say is going to sound strange, but hear me out. There is a sentient coral branch encountered on the way to the talking whale that will clarify the lore in case you're unclear about how Headspace works. For such a minor character, the coral branch gives a lot of important information. 

First of all, the coral branch states clearly that Headspace is a dream, just in case there was any doubt about that. The second thing it says is that White Space represents the idea of pure nothingness, as Omori (not Sunny, the coral branch makes a clear distinction between the two) finds it better to feel nothing than it is to feel sad. The third and most important thing that the coral branch says is that Basil is not in Headspace, but instead is trapped in a darker part of Sunny's mind called Black Space. 

Above is the vibrant and whimsical Headspace, below is the dark and foreboding Black Space. Image found on Wikipedia.

In order to get to Black Space, we must first solve a Hangman puzzle. Starting from your second visit to Headspace (the one with the space pirates), you can find special letters hidden all over Headspace. If you collect enough letters to spell out the solution to the Hangman puzzle, you can enter Black Space. Funnily enough, it's actually impossible to fail the Hangman puzzle on the Sunny Route, as most of the wrong letters are only found in places exclusive to the Omori Route.

Black Space is a bizarre location, even by this game's standards. You are treated to a maze of strange, violent and unsettling imagery. At the end of this maze is the Headspace version of Basil, held in place by blood-red hands. But Omori does something incredibly shocking, regardless of the player's input. He stabs Basil with a knife and resets the entirety of Headspace. What's worse is that this is not the first time this has happened. 

Omori is revealed to be a sentient coping mechanism tryin to protect Sunny from Something, and he has been deliberately creating these outlandish scenarios to keep Sunny's mind entertained and distracted. So the slow pace of Headspace might've been a deliberate choice on the developer's part, possibly representing how the Headspace sections are supposed to be nothing but silly distractions created by Omori for the express purpose of wasting Sunny's time. 

More importantly, every time Sunny (or the other Headspace kids) get close to learning the truth of what Something is, Omori destroys them and resets Headspace. Basil seeing that mystery photo at the start of the game allowed him to learn the truth, whatever it may be, which was why Omori struck him down. 

But each scenario is getting messier and messier, as if Omori is running out of ideas for new adventures. Because Omori is not a healthy coping mechanism. He is denial made manifest. And he has killed the Headspace versions of his friends hundreds of times before, just to keep the fantasy going just a little bit longer. But no matter how many times Omori resets Headspace, one of his friends will always discover the truth of what Something really is. This whole cycle of Omori killing his friends and resetting Headspace has been going on ever since the day Mari died in the real world.

Omori being in full control of Headspace is also the reason why Mari never joins a battle officially. Omori is so scared of Mari getting hurt in any capacity, even in a fictional scenario like Headspace, that he keeps her trapped at the various picnic sites seen throughout the game. The only time Mari leaves the "safety" of a picnic blanket is when showing Omori/Sunny the way to the Last Resort, which "coincidentally" prevents enemies from appearing until she returns to a picnic site.

Thanks to Sunny reaching out to Kel on the first day, he no longer needs Omori to heal from the grief of losing Mari. So Omori takes the role of the main villain from this point on. At least, if you're on the Sunny Route. None of what I just described happens in the Omori Route, as you just sink deeper and deeper into the fantasies of Headspace until the line between reality and fiction becomes indistinguishable.

So the final day comes, I'm going to put another spoiler warning. The final day is literally the grand finale. So this is your last chance to go play the game, if anything I said before has caught your interest. 

So the gang confronts Aubrey one last time in an attempt to reconnect with her. Aubrey reluctantly gives the remaining photos back to Sunny, and as it turned out. all of the missing photos were of Mari. The entire reason she stole the photo album in the first place was because she wanted something to remember Mari by, and Basil wouldn't give the photos away willingly.

The four main heroes do a group hug after some spoiler-filled trauma bonding. Image found on RPGFan.com

The gang reconciles their differences and goes to visit Basil. But just like the day before, he isn't home. This time he's visiting his grandmother in the hospital. So the gang passes the time by doing side quests in Faraway Town. After plenty of side questing, we get a scene where the gang visits Sunny's house, in which they pass by a tree stump. And it's here that we learn how Mari died, exactly. And uh... There's no nice way of putting it. According to Hero, Kel and Aubrey, Mari took her own life using a noose. Which makes her passing feel even worse. The stump is what's left of the tree that Mari "self-destructed" on.

I'm going to be so real with you, seeing Sunny's friends mourn Mari's death got me teary eyed. Reading their dialogue hurt on a spiritual level. I never experienced clinical depression in my life, nor have I ever experienced a relative dying in such a tragic manner. But this game does a really good job at getting you to sympathize with its characters. The gang tries to cheer themselves up by focusing on the positive memories they have of Mari, like the time they built a treehouse together.

After doing everything I just described, the gang heads back to Basil's house. But Basil won't leave his room or respond to anyone. He has blocked himself off from everyone else, just as Sunny did for over four years. But this time, Sunny and friends won't leave Basil behind. The gang spends the night at Basil's place specifically so that he wouldn't feel lonely. When Sunny falls asleep, we are brought to Headspace one more time.

Except this time, we're still playing as Sunny. Omori is now separate from Sunny, unresponsive to our commands but still observing with an apathetic stare. Sunny decides he is ready to face the truth of what Something is and enters the darkest corners of his mind to do so. After a nightmarish sequence of Black Space-esque imagery, we find a collection of photos taken from Basil's POV. Photos depicting the night of Mari's passing and revealing Sunny's darkest secret. And one of these photos happened to be the mystery photo that Headspace Basil looked at back at the beginning of the game.

You know how everyone just said earlier that day that Mari took her own life? That was actually a lie. Mari never hurt herself, nor was she ever hanged. What really happened was that she and Sunny got into an argument and the confrontation got physical. It's not stated what they were arguing about and to be honest, the argument itself doesn't matter, as the result is always the same. There is an unused transcript revealing what they were arguing about, but that can't be encountered in the game by normal means, so take it with a grain of salt.

Sunny pushed Mari away from him, but he used more force than he intended, and Mari fell backwards down a long flight of stairs. Mari died on those stairs, and Basil (who was spending the night at Sunny's house) saw everything. What's worse is that some optional dialogue in Headspace has Mari mention that she "always had bad knees." A minor detail made worse with hindsight.

Only Basil and Sunny know how Mari really died. In fact, it was Basil's idea to make it look like a suicide in the first place. For whatever reason, Basil was terrified of the truth becoming public knowledge, and he was especially afraid that Sunny would be taken to prison for manslaughter. Basil is completely and utterly dependent on Sunny, in a way that comes across as a toxic obsession. 

Were Sunny and Basil right to do what they did? No. But we're talking about a pair of (at the time) 12-year-olds who just saw someone close to them die before their very eyes. They were not thinking clearly when they did what they did. And you remember those two kids from the intro? Those two were Sunny and Basil, on the night they hanged Mari's body. And it was Basil telling Sunny that "everything will be okay." Because, you know, Sunny's sister literally just died.

And that is what Something is. Something is the regret of having been directly responsible for Mari's death, and the guilt of having desecrated her corpse. Something is the fear and paranoia that came from keeping this secret for so long. Something is the shame that prevents Sunny and Basil from coming clean about what they did. And until Sunny and Basil reveal the truth of what they did, they will tormented by Something for the rest of their lives.

And here I'm going to have to put a side note. You know how I said this was a "mostly" blind playthrough of OMORI? This was the one thing that was spoiled for me. Sort of. I knew that a major character died from a staircase-related injury, but I didn't know that it was Mari specifically or that it was caused by the main character himself. One of the few things I knew about OMORI prior to playing it was that the fandom made a ton of darkly humorous memes about all the staircase-related injuries that happen in this game.

Anyway, the guilt of what he did to Mari's body is driving Basil mad. Unlike Sunny, who coped by wrapping his memories in several layers of denial, Basil never stopped thinking about the night Mari died. All throughout the game, Basil's behavior in the real world had been increasingly erratic and anxious. Now we know why. He has spent the last four years living in fear of someone figuring out how Mari really died and tracing it back to him and Sunny.

After learning the truth, Sunny wakes up from Headspace in the middle of the night, and the player is faced with a choice. Either confront Basil now, or wait until morning to do so. The latter choice leads to the first of many bad endings, in which Basil takes his own life because he can't handle the guilt anymore. The rest of the gang mourns him, as they had mourned Mari beforehand. Sunny does not reveal the truth in this ending, because it would be a really bad time to do so.

Choosing to confront Basil as soon as Sunny wakes up will result in a boss battle against Basil himself. Or rather, the Something that's been tormenting him. At this point, Basil's Something has grown out of control. In order to save Basil from Something, you will have to fight them both. Unfortunately, both Sunny and Basil are inflicted with fear, so neither of them can use Skills. The result is a straightforward slugfest where you hope you can do more damage to Basil than he can to you. The fight ends in a draw, as Basil is knocked out, but Sunny is stabbed in the eye with garden shears.

As the two are rushed to the hospital by Aubrey, Kel and Hero, Sunny is pulled into Headspace one last time. Sunny remembers all the positive memories he has of Mari, which allows him to finally heal from the guilt. Within these memories, Sunny finds a violin, which was the same one that Mari gave him as a Christmas present. This violin becomes Sunny's weapon of choice, completely replacing the knives associated with Omori. This leads to a showdown with Omori himself. 

This is the final boss battle, a one-on-one duel against the embodiment of depression and denial. It is impossible to defeat Omori permanently. Every time his health bar hits zero, Omori gets back up again with a new health bar. Because depression and grief can't be beaten down so easily. And throughout the whole fight, Omori taunts Sunny by rubbing Mari's death in his face with lines like "She loved you, and you killed her" and "Your friends will hate you once they learn the truth." This is the only time Omori speaks, as he was a silent protagonist/antagonist prior to this point.

This battle will continue until Sunny is defeated, at which point the player gets to make another choice. Either retry the Omori boss fight, or give up. Giving up here leads to another bad ending, in which Omori takes control of Sunny's body, even in the real world. Omori then makes Sunny walk off the edge of the hospital rooftop, killing them both. How did Omori get to the rooftop with no hospital staff to stop them? I dunno, but it makes for a thematically fitting bad ending. 

But choosing to keep on fighting leads to OMORI's best possible ending, and the only ending that can be considered even remotely "good." Sunny stands back up for a rematch, and uses his violin to play a song. And Mari's angelic spirit joins the song with some hauntingly beautiful piano playing. Even in death, Mari still loved her little brother.

The song that the siblings play together is simply called Duet, and it is *the* signature song in the OMORI soundtrack.  I'm going to be honest, if you *don't* get moved to tears by the Duet scene, you have no soul. I'm being serious. The song and the animation here is that good. In fact, I argue that the Duet scene is so emotionally powerful that it is worth buying and playing this game just to see it for yourself.

Anyway, Omori is defeated and Sunny gains complete control of his mind and body. He wakes up in the hospital, with an eye patch over his damaged eye. The Headspace versions of his friends fade away, as he no longer needs the fantasy to live. He makes his way to where Basil, Aubrey, Kel and Hero are. And Sunny tells them all the truth of what happened to Mari all those years ago. The game ends abruptly here. 

We do not get to see Sunny's friends react to the news that Mari never hanged herself, or that her death was in actuality an accident caused by Sunny. How they might've reacted is a hotly debated subject among fans. Some people in the fandom say that they would forgive Sunny, others say that they (mostly Aubrey) would be furious and want nothing to do with Sunny ever again.

Frankly, it doesn't matter if they forgive him or not. This is still the same day that Sunny's family is supposed to move out of town and go to the big city. If they forgive Sunny, they'll keep in contact with him. If they don't, well, at least he won't be coming back to Faraway Town any time soon. It's as simple as that. The only thing Sunny has to worry about is explaining what happened to his eye to his mother. I actually kind of like that the ending is ambiguous. I don't know, 

There is a secret variant of the good ending, acquired by watering Basil's flower garden every single (in-game) day. Which I didn't do, because I legitimately forgot about it. But if you do this, the good ending gets an additional scene where Sunny actually smiles for the first time in the game. A real, genuine smile. Something fades away, symbolizing that the burden of that dark secret is no longer haunting Basil and Sunny. So even if Aubrey, Kel and Hero didn't forgive them, at least Basil and Sunny can forgive themselves.

The last two endings are exclusive to the Omori Route. In this alternate storyline, Sunny refuses to answer the door to Kel and spends the rest of the game inside his home. There, he regresses further into the fantasy of Headspace. This route unlocks some new areas and bosses, including a boss rush against stronger versions of all the previous bosses. There's also a new layer of Black Space with even more deranged imagery than before, known as Black Space 2.

Because Sunny never went outside in the Omori Route, a ton of things that are supposed to happen simply don't. Aubrey never moves on from her bitterness. Kel and Hero never get a chance to reunite with the other kids. And Basil dies offscreen, and nobody realizes that he's gone until it's too late. Both of the Omori Route endings are unmistakably bad endings.

The first Omori Route exclusive ending is called Abandonment, and in it, Sunny's mother comes home and takes him away. Sunny's old friends are left with unanswered questions and Something is still haunting Sunny. And it will continue to haunt him until the end of his days. The second ending is simply called Knife. It's exactly what you think it is. Sunny stabs himself with a knife, but because he's not in Headspace, he dies for real this time.

These two endings are anticlimactic at best, and lead to a narratively dissatisfying experience. But that's the point. Despite being the game's namesake, the Omori Route is antithetical to the themes and lessons this game is trying to teach. OMORI is a game about how escaping to a fantasy land and cutting yourself off from the rest of the world is not a good way to deal with your problems. To do the Omori Route, you have to ignore this lesson and sink even deeper into the fantasy.

Omori and friends look at their reflection in the mirror. Image found on RPGFan.com

And that's the story of OMORI. This game, while fantastically well made, can be emotionally challenging to play through. It's reputation as one of the most tragic horror games ever made is well-earned. And that's what makes the game so difficult to review. There was a saying I heard once, that "Art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed." OMORI is that kind of art. It is not a game I would play for the fun of it, but for the *experience* of it. I don't think I'll play through the game again, at least for a long while. But to say this game is "bad" would be a lie on my part.

In terms of presentation, OMORI is a nice looking horror game with a distinct and recognizable art style. Or rather, art styles. The game uses a mixture of retro-inspired pixel art, hand drawn anime-style cut ins and distorted photorealistic images to get its point across. It sounds like a chaotic mess of clashing styles (and in some ways it is), but the game somehow manages to make it work. The only thing I can truly criticize here is that some character faces (mostly Kel and Hero) can look a little bit too similar to each other. But even that is a nitpick at worst.

The sound design is also good. The sound effects are crisp and clear, even if they are a little on the simple side. The music is amazing and arguably just as good as UNDERTALE's soundtrack, which is very high praise. Of course, this being a horror game, a lot of music in the soundtrack tends to be spooky ambience rather than conventional music. But the conventional songs that *are* in the soundtrack are all fantastic. 

I already mentioned Duet, but there are other great songs in OMORI's soundtrack as well. World's End Valentine is a spectacular theme for the boss fight against Sweetheart (that minor Headspace villain), managing to sound oh so regal and pompous. And even though it only plays in the game's worst possible ending, bo en's My Time works perfectly as both the only licensed song in the game and the only song with lyrics. My Time is by far the most chaotic and deranged song I have ever heard (not just in video games, but in general), and I mean that as a compliment. Like an out-of-control carnival ride.

Overall, OMORI is exactly what I said it was in the title of this post: A painful masterpiece. This game will not be for everyone, but it is the kind of game that could change someone's life. I have no choice but to give it 5 stars out of 5, because the game clearly did something right to garner such a reaction out of me. Is it as good as UNDERTALE? Kind of. The two games are going for wildly different vibes despite the similar concepts. UNDERTALE is a goofy game that occasionally delves into darker themes. OMORI is a dark game that has occasional moments of levity.

OMORI is the property of OMOCAT. None of the images featured here were created by me. Please support the original creators.

Let's review Hollow Knight: Silksong, for real this time

 So here's a funny story about today's review. Hollow Knight: Silksong was a game that I and many other nerds on the Internet had waited almost 7 years for. This game's lengthy development cycle and infamous lack of marketing made this game borderline mythical in the eyes of the video game industry. I literally made an April Fool's post where I pretended the game was already out and was so good it brought world peace and solved all problems with society. When I wrote it, I basically gave up hope of seeing Silksong being released before 2030, if at all.

Official box art for Hollow Knight: Silksong, featuring main heroine Hornet front and center. Image found on wikipedia.org

But you'll never guess what got a surprise release on September 4th, 2025! That's right. Silksong is real. I am not joking this time. You CAN play it, on almost any modern system. And for just $20 USD. Which is a very generous price considering that this game can easily take 90-100 hours to complete. What's especially impressive is that the game went from having no marketing at all, to a surprise trailer suddenly announcing the game would be released officially by the end of the week.

 And let me tell you, the indie game industry collectively lost their minds at the surprise release date of Silksong. Some dev teams even delayed their own projects specifically so they wouldn't have to compete with Silksong. And when the game did release, there were so many people trying to buy the game at once that several digital game store websites (such as Steam and Playstation Store) crashed from the initial demand overload. It was a wild time.

For those unfamiliar with this blog or with Hollow Knight, you might wonder why this game was such a big deal. So to recap, Hollow Knight was an extremely popular Souls Like/Metroidvania platformer developed and published by Team Cherry. It took place in a dark fantasy world populated by anthropomorphic bugs who write poetry and fight horrifying monsters. Think A Bug's Life meets Dark Souls and you got the vibe that Hollow Knight for. Thanks to its hauntingly beautiful art and music, challenging boss battles and tragic but intriguing lore, this game is considered a modern classic by anyone with good taste. If you like platformers or Souls Likes, you owe it to yourself to play Hollow Knight. 

Silksong is the long awaited sequel to Hollow Knight, also developed and published by Team Cherry. This game focuses on the adventures of Hornet, a fan-favorite boss who served as a rival to the Knight, who was the protagonist from the first game. I had spent two months playing this game, because of course I would. In fact,  the reason why I didn't do another Halloween horror game review this year was because this game ate up all my free time. And the reason I didn't publish any reviews in November was entirely because of computer problems on my part. So consider this review a sort of late Christmas present.

But do you need to play Hollow Knight to understand Silksong's story? Well, not really, but I would recommend that you play Hollow Knight first anyway. While Silksong is more or less a standalone adventure (save for the occasional callback), its challenging difficulty makes it clear that this game was made for people who already completed Hollow Knight. Thus, the first game helps you build up the skill level necessary for the second game. Also, just as a heads up, I will be comparing Silksong to its predecessor when applicable. It's rather difficult not to compare a sequel to what came before, after all.

To summarize Hollow Knight lore briefly is to do it a disservice. But like I said earlier, Silksong is mostly self-contained with only the occasional callback to the first game. All you really need to know going into this game is that every character you meet is some kind of bug, and that despite her name, Hornet is a spider. She's also the former princess of a kingdom called Hallownest, which was wiped out by a supernatural plague. The reason she's out adventuring is because her homeland is now an inhospitable wasteland.

Silksong begins with a poem, just like the original Hollow Knight. Unlike the first game's poem, which described a great king that built a utopian paradise for his people, this game's poem describes a beautiful yet cruel tyrant who hides their true nature behind a veil of civility. This poem is very obviously describing the main villain of this game, but at this point we do not know who said villain even is.

After the poem, we get a beautifully animated cinematic of Hornet being kidnapped by a mysterious group of veiled bugs. Hornet manages to escape her captors with the help of a mysterious pale butterfly. Unfortunately, she was left in a weakened state by her time in captivity, which means that most of her abilities are initially disabled. This is the in-universe explanation for why Hornet doesn't use any of the fancy weapons or spells she used in her boss fight back in the first game, though she can eventually regain her old abilities as well as several new ones.

Once that intro sequence is over, our journey into Silksong begins. Like the first game, the tutorial is fairly minimalistic, as Hornet's move set is self-explanatory. She can run and jump. She has a blade called the Needle that she can swing either vertically or horizontally. She has a midair dive attack that allows her to bounce off of any enemies or objects hit by said dive. And she can cast magic spells using Silk, which can be gained by hitting enemies with the Needle. Starting out, the only spell Hornet can cast is Bind, which is a simple healing ability. She can learn other spells as the game progresses, but all spells draw power from Silk. A big part of Silksong's combat is figuring out when to use Silk for an extra strong attack and when to use Silk to heal.

Just like literally every single Souls Like in existence, Silksong has a universal currency acquired by slaying regular enemies. This currency, called Rosaries in this game, is dropped if Hornet dies. But you can recollect any lost Rosaries by trekking back to where you died and smashing open a cocoon that marks the place of Hornet's most recent death. Rosaries are used to buy items from various merchants and to unlock benches (which serve as this game's checkpoint system). However, Rosaries are surprisingly rare, as only certain enemy types will drop them. For lore reasons that will make sense later, not all enemies will drop Rosaries when defeated. Only "pious" enemy types will drop Rosaries. 

Non-pious enemies drop a less valuable resource called Shell Shards, which don't seem to serve a purpose at first. However, Hornet will eventually unlock additional weapons called Tools, which consist mostly of projectiles and traps such as boomerangs and caltrops. Tools have limited ammunition, but Hornet can use Shell Shards to craft more ammo as long as she is resting at a bench.

After climbing and fighting her way out of the starting area, Hornet meets a group of peaceful bugs called the Pilgrims. One of the elder Pilgrims, the Chapel Maiden, explains to Hornet that she has been brought to the kingdom of Pharloom. This land is a mountain with a heavenly Citadel crowned upon its peak, and the Pilgrims are all on a spiritual journey to prove their faith by climbing up the mountain. The Pilgrims are the reason why Rosaries (a kind of prayer bead) are the main currency, as they literally "trade in faith." This setting's economy does carry the sinister implication that "rich" Pilgrims are measurably more faithful and "pure" than their poorer counterparts, but I'm *totally* sure that this doesn't foreshadow the Pilgrims' religion being more malicious than it first appears.

The veiled bugs from earlier are also confirmed by the Chapel Maiden to be holy servants from the Citadel. So Hornet decides to climb up Pharloom herself, both because she wants to know why the Citadel bugs kidnapped her in the first place, and because she wants to beat the snot out of whoever is in charge. But standing between her and this goal is a horde of monsters possessed by haunted Silk. From here, Hornet is free to explore Pharloom while gradually making her way to the Citadel itself.

One thing that Silksong does better than Hollow Knight is that it gives you an objective to work towards right away. The early game of Hollow Knight is mostly aimless wandering while you piece together whatever tragedy befell Hallownest prior to your arrival. But Silksong says, "Here's a tall, mountainous kingdom. Climb to the top and kill anything that stands in your way. Have Fun!" 

The biggest difference between the Knight and Hornet is that the latter has an actual personality. I know that sounds like an insult towards the Knight, but its whole deal is that it is both incapable of speech and devoid of any emotion. It was literally designed by the Pale King (Hornet's father and former ruler of Hallownest) to be a silent and emotionless warrior, as the Knight being Hollow (term for emotionless beings) was vital for its mission. Meanwhile, Hornet does have emotions and speaks somewhat frequently, because she is not Hollow. I was initially taken aback by Hornet actually talking to the various bugs she meets on her travels, because I was so used to the Knight's perpetual silence.

Hornet explores a rainy region called Greymoor. Image found on Silksong's Steam page. 

Speaking of her, Hornet is a highly enjoyable protagonist. Her dialogue manages to sound both diplomatic and assertive. You can tell she was raised by royalty just from the way she speaks. She calls everyone she meets "good sir/madam" and she acts respectful until you give her a reason to stop respecting you, at which point she becomes blunt and brutally honest. Despite her stoic demeanor, she also has a soft side, as she grows to genuinely care about Pharloom and its people as her adventure progresses.

The best look into Hornet's personality is in the Hunter's Journal, a bestiary documenting every enemy type and boss that Hornet encounters. In addition to a "professional" description detailing the enemy's behavior, she often adds her personal thoughts on the enemy in question. Most of the game's levity comes from seeing this stoic warrior princess privately confess to wanting to pet all the "fluffy" enemies she encounters, as well as bemoaning the fact that she can't fly like other bug species due to a lack of wings. One of the Journal entries even reveals that Hornet had multiple lovers throughout her life, though she sadly outlived all of her previous partners. As it turns out, being a child of the Pale King (who is literally a god) gave Hornet an extended lifespan, causing her to live much longer than a normal spider should. And that information is just casually put into the Journal. Hornet never mentions her previous lovers or her heritage in conversation, both because she doesn't need to and because that is "private" information.

Hornet is not the only bug travelling through Pharloom, as she can meet new friends and foes who have all come to Pharloom for their own reasons. Such as Sherma, a sweet and idealistic Pilgrim boy who just wants to play music and reach the Citadel. There's also Shakra, a warrior-scout from a foreign tribe who is on a quest to track down her missing mentor. Shakra will also sell maps of recently discovered areas, which makes said areas easier to navigate. Then there's the Flea Caravan, a group of traveling fleas who will reward Hornet if she can rescue any lost fleas hidden throughout the world. And of course, there's Lace, a childish yet maniacal fencer who serves as a rival to Hornet. Which is somewhat ironic, as Hornet herself was meant to be a rival to the Knight.

I really like the new supporting characters. I'm not sure if I like them more than their counterparts from the first game, but I'd say they are about equal in terms of writing quality and character designs. My favorite new character is Shakra, both because her design is really cool, and because the sound of her singing is enchanting. And her singing is important, as it's an indicator that she set up shop somewhere nearby. 

I also like Sherma for his wholesome vibes, even if I spent most of my playthrough worried he was going to get killed off. Not only is he similar in mannerisms to Myla (a character from the first game infamous for her tragic death), but this is a dark fantasy game, and this genre usually isn't kind to wide-eyed idealists. But not only does Sherma survive the journey to the Citadel in one piece, he even survives all the spoiler-filled nonsense that happens in the game's final Act.

A new feature in Silksong are Wishes, which are literally just side quests in all but name. Sometimes you might meet a friendly bug who will give you a rare item in exchange for completing a specific task. These tasks can range from fighting a secret boss, to collecting a certain number of items, or donating Rosaries to one of the three towns in Pharloom (Bone Bottom, Bellhart and Songclave). In case you can't meet the quest-giver in person, each town has a Wish-board where everyone puts their Wish on display publicly. 

Generally speaking, I like the Wishes. They're easy to keep track of and provide clear instructions on what you need to do to complete them. There are some that can be rather obnoxious because of a difficulty spike, but I never found myself having to look up a guide for any Wish. Well, aside from the Courier's Rasher Wish. This Wish is infamously difficult, as it requires you to carry a delicate food item from Bellhart all the way to a diner in the Citadel within five minutes or less. You cannot use elevators or Hornet's Bell Beast companion to fast travel there, by the way. You have to make the journey on foot. And every time Hornet takes damage, the timer speeds up. It can be done, but just barely. 

Speaking of difficulty, let's address the elephant in the room here. Silksong is a really hard game. I'd say that it's harder on average than Hollow Knight ever was. While it is true that there are specific things in Hollow Knight that are clearly more difficult than anything Silksong has to offer, such as the Path of Pain and the Pantheon battles, those are rather extreme outliers. If we're talking just the average, moment to moment gameplay, Silksong is harder. Like, the average Silksong enemy will take more effort to defeat than the average Hollow Knight enemy. And that is going to either make or break the game for you. You will either bounce off the game because of its high difficulty or tolerate its difficulty as you work your way to the "fun" parts of the game. 

Hornet prepares to fight a giant robot called the Fourth Chorus. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

To give you an example of how janky the difficulty can be, look no further than the boss and enemy design. Enemies in Silksong come in two types, duelists that are similar in size to Hornet herself and giants. Giant-sized enemies deal twice as much damage as "normal" sized enemies. And most of the game's bosses count as giants. And on top of the increased damage, all bosses have contact damage, where simply walking into them will hurt Hornet. Which, when combined with the double damage, means there's some nonsense in the early game that definitely feels unfair. 

The worst example of the boss design is the Savage Beastfly, an optional boss that is without a shadow of a doubt the most annoying boss fight in the entire game. Or rather, the rematch against Savage Beastfly. You see, you can fight this boss twice. The first fight is simple enough, as the boss only has two attacks (a vertical slam and a horizontal charge). The only hard part is that regular enemies will join in to assist the Beastfly, but it can be tricked into squishing its own allies with some clever maneuvering. 

The second Beastfly fight, however, doesn't really let you do that anymore as the minions now fly *just* out of reach. Also, the second fight happens directly above a lava lake, and the minions that the Beastfly summons can spit out a lingering fire that temporarily removes one of the few platforms that Hornet can safely stand on. This rematch, despite its seeming simplicity, was by far the most difficult boss in the game. Not even the final boss took as much effort as the Savage Beastfly rematch. Was it a fun boss to fight? No. Not at all. I found the whole fight frustrating and obnoxious. And the worst part of all this is the fact that the Savage Beastfly is just a bigger version of a regular enemy from the starting area. So it's not even a cool looking or lore-significant boss. 

What's especially crazy is despite being one of the most annoying boss fights in recent memory, Savage Beastfly exists in the same game as the First Sinner, who is by far the best boss not just in this game, but in the entire series. The First Sinner has fast but reasonable attack patterns, as she uses her own version of Silk magic to fight. She can heal herself using her own version of Bind, but she can't attack and heal at the same time, so Hornet is free to strike the First Sinner whenever she tries to heal. And the best part of the First Sinner is that even though she is initially hidden behind a secret room in an already secret area, it takes only a few seconds to challenge her to a rematch because of how close the nearby bench is.

Other bosses I liked include Skarrsinger Karmelita, Shrine Guardian Seth, the Cogwork Dancers and Phantom. I don't like them as much as I like First Sinner, but all of them are fun duelist style bosses with cool designs and intriguing lore.

Believe it or not, I found myself liking the platforming and exploration parts of the game more than the boss battles. Which feels bizarre, as I generally enjoy the boss battles most in games like this. But where Silksong truly shines is in its world. The kingdom of Pharloom is not only beautiful to behold, but is filled to the brim with secret collectibles and a rich history. And Hornet is just really fun to play as. She's graceful and acrobatic, especially once you unlock the Dash and Wall Jump abilities.

Hornet is also a lot more customizable than expected, thanks to the Crest system. Crests are essentially alternative fighting styles that Hornet can learn throughout her adventure. They change the shape and size of her Needle swings, and some Crests can even alter Bind, either by giving it additional effects or by replacing it with an alternative healing method. Crests also determine how many Tools Hornet can bring into battle, if any.

Hornet starts with the Hunter Crest, which is her default move set. It's a generalist style that doesn't specialize in one specific strategy, which makes it good for beginners. There's also the Reaper Crest, which has slow, wide slashes for a more patient fighter. The Wanderer Crest is the Reaper's total opposite, shortened range in exchange for quick stabs. The Beast Crest replaces Bind with a Fury Mode that allows Hornet to steal health with claw swipes. The Witch Crest turns the Needle into a bladed whip, and it replaces Bind with a life-stealing tentacle attack. And the Shaman Crest is greatly improves your Silk spells, and lets Hornet shoot waves of magical energy with each swing of the Needle. 

My favorite Crest is the Architect, which turns the Needle into a drill and allows Hornet to instantly craft ammo for her Tools anywhere at any time. This Crest is so good that it gets its own section in the review. It is laughably strong. Not only do the drill attacks hit multiple times (thus racking up damage and Silk quickly), but the fact that you can craft extra ammo for your Tools mid-battle means you can be a lot more reckless with your Tool usage. In fact, I was able to beat the final boss simply by using the Architect Crest to spam Tools with careless abandon. I tried to do the final boss fight with other Crests, but none were as effective. The only downside of the Architect Crest is that it still needs Shell Shards to craft ammo, so prolonged use of it can get expensive very quickly. That, and the only Silk spell you can use is Bind. The Architect is meant to be an "anti-magic" fighting style.

Hornet fights the warrior bugs of the Citadel. Image found on Silksong's Steam page

So now I want to talk about the lore and story of Silksong. Keep in mind that just like Hollow Knight (and Souls Likes in general), parts of the lore are left vague and up to interpretation. So while there are some objective truths, there are also parts of the story that I will not be able to describe perfectly. Also, spoilers abound from this point on. If you must know my thoughts on the game, I'd give it either a 4 star rating or a 5 star rating, depending on your tolerance for difficult games. The only thing I can say bad about Silksong is that the difficulty can feel borderline sadistic in some parts of the game. But aside from that, this is easily Game of the Year material that was well worth the wait. But without further adieu, let's talk about the lore. 

You know those friendly Pilgrims I mentioned? The ones climbing up Pharloom so they can prove their faith and be allowed to join the heavenly Citadel? Turns out their religion is built upon a lie. Most Pilgrims die long before they reach the Citadel's gates, either killed by beasts or possessed by haunted silk. And the lucky few that survive are immediately enslaved and cast down into the Underworks, a mechanical region that serves both as a prison and as a factory. This facility was designed to keep the Citadel above running for eternity, by any means necessary. In case you haven't realized it, the beautiful yet cruel tyrant that the poem warned us about at the start of the game was referring to the Citadel itself.

In addition to all the usual dangers you might expect, like powerful enemies and tricky platforming, the Underworks does something rather unique. Everything in the Underworks is designed to scam you out of your hard-won Rosaries. The benches and beds are pay-per-use and retract into the walls and floor if you don't have enough money. There is a confession booth where you get to pay for the "privilege" of confessing your sins. And the confession booth only responds with a pre-recorded message that tells you that your only chance for "redemption" is to work an additional 24 hours without resting or eating. And because the Citadel's religiously charged propaganda is so effective, the Pilgrims are too indoctrinated to realize that they're being exploited. And on top of all that, the enemies here only drop 3-4 Rosaries each on death, while every other Citadel enemy drops 30 or more. The implication being that they don't get paid well for their efforts, if at all.

The Underworks is genuinely my favorite area in the game, because the environmental storytelling is immaculate. Everything about the Underworks, from the scarcity of Rosaries to the overpriced pay-per-use services, is meant to force you to see the harsh reality of the Citadel's tyranny. It's not my favorite aesthetically, as I feel that there are other areas that look "prettier" like Greymoor and Shellwood, but the Underworks is the area I enjoy from a narrative perspective the most.

But who exactly rules over the Citadel? The answer is a little complicated, but bear with me. The Kingdom of Pharloom in its current form was established by a spider goddess known as Grand Mother Silk, who is the progenitor of all spiders. Even Hornet is related to her, albeit distantly. Grand Mother Silk (who I will call GMS for short) was a tyrant who destroyed any nation that refused to join Pharloom, and she created the haunted silk that's been possessing all the enemies specifically to make her subjects easier to control. After untold centuries of conquest and warfare, Grand Mother Silk was eventually betrayed by her daughters, the Weavers.

The Weavers created the Citadel to produce a magic song (one might call it a "Silksong"), which would keep Grand Mother Silk asleep for eternity. But after the Weavers left Pharloom and migrated to Hallownest, the remaining Citadel bugs started a cult dedicated to keeping the Citadel running for eternity. That haunted silk I mentioned earlier is the result of GMS's influence slowly leaking out of the Citadel and spreading to the rest of the world. So the Citadel isn't exactly doing a good job containing her. Thus, Hornet decides that the best thing to do is to slay GMS herself, which would destroy the haunted silk and shut down the Citadel for good.

Grand Mother Silk is the final boss of this game's second Act. She's actually a pretty fun boss to fight. She doesn't feel outrageously hard, but she's certainly no push over. She uses similar attack patterns to the Radiance, the final boss of Hollow Knight, with her throwing floating blades around and conjuring spikes from the ground. But this time you have a character with a lot more mobility and combat options, so GMS feels "easier" to fight than the Radiance did. 

But like I said earlier, Act 3 is completely optional and it is entirely possible to beat the game without ever seeing it. And just like Hollow Knight, there are multiple endings based on what preparations you made prior to defeating the final boss. At the time of writing, I've done three out of four of the game's main endings. However, one of those "endings" is just the intro to Act 3, so it feels weird to call it an ending.

The first ending, called Weaver Queen, is what happens if you fight Grand Mother Silk without making any additional preparations. Hornet kills GMS and absorbs her power. This causes Hornet to transform into a goddess herself, but the implication is that she is doomed to be repeat GMS's mistakes and become just as tyrannical as the goddess she just overthrew. Especially since earlier in the game, Hornet herself said that her heritage gives her an instinctual desire to rule over civilizations, even at the expense of others. 

The second ending is called Twisted Child and this is the only one I have not done. Nor do I expect to do it any time soon, as the requirements are a little... extreme. Additionally, this is generally agreed to be the game's "bad" ending, so outside of 100% completion there's not much reason to go for it. So back in Act 1 Hornet can meet a witch named Greyroot, who says some cryptic nonsense about the "time of rebirth." If you give her an item called the Twisted Bud, Greyroot will forcibly infect Hornet with a parasite which prevents her from being able to use Silk spells (including Bind!). 

Normally, this side story would end with Hornet visiting a surgeon named Yarnaby, who would remove the parasite and give Hornet the Witch Crest for her trouble. But if you carry the parasite with you all the way to the final boss, you get the Twisted Child ending. In this ending, the parasite within Hornet is "birthed" into an eldritch tree monster that absorbs both Hornet and Grand Mother Silk into itself. This tree monster is a newborn god, but given how shady Greyroot is and how violent its creation was, the chances of the newborn god being nice are pretty slim.

Then there is the Snared Silk ending, which is the aforementioned Act 3 intro. To get this ending, Hornet needs to grant at least 17 Wishes and rescue enough Fleas to get the Flea Caravan to move from the starting area all the way to the Citadel. Because she's helped so many bugs this time, she has grown to care about the citizens of Pharloom and can resist her instinctual desire to become a goddess. This leads to Hornet researching alternative methods to defeat Grand Mother Silk. And conveniently enough, a family of magicians called the Snail Shamans claim to know of a ritual that can banish the gods from Pharloom. One of the Snail Shamans is actually the Chapel Maiden from the start of the game. The ritual would in theory defeat GMS, shut down the Citadel and allow Hornet to continue life as a "regular" spider. So it's a win-win for everyone. At least it would be, except that the Snail Shamans neglected to mention where exactly GMS would be banished to.

Hornet uses her dive attack during a duel with Lace, her main rival. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

As it turns out, the banishment ritual sent Grand Mother Silk to the Void, a realm of darkness that consumes the souls any bug exposed to it. GMS tried to drag Hornet down with her, but the latter is saved by Lace. Not because Lace likes Hornet or anything, but because she she hates GMS and is acting entirely out of petty spite. Why does Lace hate GMS? To make a long story short, Lace is GMS's magnum opus; an artificial bug made of enchanted silk. Lace resents her creator, for her body is flawed and fragile, and has decided to interfere with GMS's plans for no other reason than petty revenge. In fact, that pale butterfly from the intro is implied to have been sent by Lace. But GMS still has access to her haunted silk, which is made with the souls of her enslaved subjects. And the ritual opened a portal to realm that literally eats souls. So it doesn't turn out well. 

Act 3 begins with the haunted silk combining with the Void, which transforms the entire game world. Shortcuts get blocked off and have to be reopened, enemies get replaced with Void-Touched variants that are twice as strong as before, and multiple friendly bugs get either killed off or corrupted by the Void. No one is having a good time now. 

Hornet manages to fight her way out of the Citadel and back down to Bone Bottom, the town at the start of the game. There, she confronts the Snail Shamans for lying about their usage of Void magic. This scene is one of the few times where Hornet loses her temper, which should give you an idea of how dire the situation is. The Snail Shamans make up for their blunder by revealing the existence of a special flower that can counter the Void; the Everbloom. But there are no such flowers in Pharloom, as it only grew in Hallownest, which is currently a dead kingdom with no life in it at all. 

All hope to save Pharloom seems lost. But the Snail Shamans have one last ritual they can try, one that does not draw power from the Void. This second ritual could send someone into the memories of the past, and pull a physical object out of that memory and into the real world. It's not quite time travel (as the past is always set in stone), as it's more like a magical copy-paste feature. Anyway, the Snail Shamans teach Hornet a song that can be played to enter the memories of other bugs, which Hornet must use to collect the hearts of three monarchs. 

You see, Grand Mother Silk was not the first ruler of Pharloom, she was just the most recent one. There were four monarchs before her, those being Crust King Khann, Nyleth, Skarrsinger Karmelita and the Green Prince. Hornet only needs to collect three out of four hearts, so you could choose to skip one of these monarchs for your playthrough. None of the monarchs will give up their hearts willingly, so Hornet has to fight them in extra tough boss battles. 

Side note, but Crust King Khann is my second least favorite boss in the game. The first is the Savage Beastfly, for reasons I already explained. But the reason I dislike Khann is not because he's hard or annoying to fight. The reason I don't like him is because you have to fight through the longest gauntlet of regular enemies in the entire game. It's an arduous and tiresome process that involves fighting through 30 waves of enemies, with each wave consisting of 2-4 enemies each. On top of that, coral starts growing out of the walls and floor to restrict Hornet's movement. If you die at any point during the gauntlet, you have to do the whole thing all over again. So if you're going to skip one of the monarchs, let it be Crust King Khann. The other monarchs are much more fun to fight because you don't have to go through a small army every time you want to fight the boss. 

Funnily enough, Skarrsinger Karmelita also has a gauntlet battle beforehand, but it's nowhere near as long as the Khann gauntlet, so it doesn't feel as bad to fight through. Karmelita is my favorite of the four Monarchs, both because I enjoy her character concept and I enjoy her boss fight. She's an ant queen salsa dancer with boomerangs, and that right there is peak Hollow Knight character design.

Once Hornet has enough hearts, the Snail Shamans can perform the ritual to send Hornet into her own memories and retrieve the Everbloom flower. And this is the best look at Hornet's backstory we get, at least for anyone who hasn't played the first game. It's kind of weird that almost all of the references to Hollow Knight are in Act 3, which is the tail end of the adventure, but here we are. That being said, I do like this scene. The music and artwork here is hauntingly nostalgic, and seeing all the old Hallownest rulers again did make me smile. 

Anyway, Hornet gets the Everbloom and dives into the Void to confront Lace and Grand Mother Silk one last time. The only way to stop the Void from devouring all of Pharloom is to dive into its core and beat it into submission. And Hornet is absolutely determined to save Pharloom by this point. Her homeland is a dead kingdom, and she cannot live with the guilt of seeing another civilization fall to ruin. So we get the true final boss of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Lost Lace. 

While I like the idea of Lost Lace's concept, as its a Void-touched rematch against Hornet's main rival, I didn't really care that strongly for the battle itself. You see, the main problem with Lost Lace is not that she's hard (though she is), the problem is that it's difficult to see what's going on because of the coloring of this area. Lost Lace's body is oily black, the background is oily black, and her Void magic spells are oily black. This fight would be so much better if it was easier to see what Lost Lace is doing.

Upon defeating Lost Lace, we get Silksong's best possible ending, Sister of the Void. In this ending, Hornet literally beats the Void corruption out of Lace and saves her life. Grand Mother Silk bestows the last of her power to give Hornet enough strength to literally super jump out of the Void with Lace in tow. Does this redeem GMS? Not really. But I understand why she did this. Because Lace is still her magnum opus, her perfect "daughter." Ensuring that Lace survives means that GMS's legacy is secure. Unfortunately, the Everbloom flower's protection wears off mid-jump, leaving Hornet and Lace vulnerable to the Void. 

But before they can be consumed by the Void, Hornet and Lace are saved by a surprise appearance from the Knight. Yes, the same Knight from the original Hollow Knight. Since the events of the first game, the Knight has become a god of the Void itself, but it couldn't interfere with Hornet's adventure because the haunted silk prevented it from entering Pharloom. And with no more haunted silk holding it back, the Knight is able to carry Hornet and Lace back to the living world. Despite supposedly being a Hollow being, the Knight does care to some extent about Hornet. After all, the Knight is technically a child of the Pale King, which would make Hornet its sister. In fact, that's why this ending is called "Sister" of the Void. The game ends there, with Hornet and Lace thankful to be alive and with the promise to rebuild Pharloom into a better nation.

For obvious reasons, the Sister of the Void ending is my favorite of the bunch. It's the ending that is most narratively satisfying, and getting to see the Knight again is absolute cinema. I can see this ending being confusing for anyone who hasn't played the original Hollow Knight, as the game introduces a new character seemingly out of nowhere specifically to save Hornet from the Void. But despite that, this ending is still beautiful.

After getting any of the endings I just described, you unlock Steel Soul Mode, which is this game's equivalent to hard mode. Yeah, a game already infamous for its high difficulty has a secret hard mode that is unlocked after beating it for the first time. But the only change between regular mode and Steel Soul is that in the latter mode, your save file is deleted upon death. Which means that you have to beat the entire game in one try. I already know that I do not have the skill level necessary to attempt this, but I have nothing but respect for anyone brave enough to try this challenge. Hollow Knight also had a Steel Soul Mode. 

Hornet fights three enemies at once in the Coral Tower. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

Okay. We're done talking about the lore. Now let's talk presentation. Silksong is, much like Hollow Knight, an absolutely gorgeous game. I mean, have you seen the screenshots on this very review? It's literal art. This game's aesthetic has quite a lot going on, but simply put, it's using cel-shaded art on three separate layers (the foreground, the background, and the actual levels). Silksong moves away somewhat from the medieval gothic vibes of the original game for something more akin to a fusion of steampunk and vaguely Catholic imagery, especially once you reach the Citadel. And once again, all the characters are supposed to be different kinds of bugs, but the game heavily anthropomorphizes its insects to make them "cuter" and more aesthetically pleasing.

The music and sound design is also just as incredible as the original. Silksong does not have traditional voice acting, as all the voice actors speak in a fictional nonsense language. The text boxes are supposed to be an in-universe "translation" of what the characters are actually saying. I personally like the made up nonsense language, as I consider it a part of the Hollow Knight charm. But if you want full voice acting for every line of dialogue, you will not find it here. 

The official soundtrack (composed once again by Christopher Larkin) is so good that it sounds like a gift from the Heavens. One of my favorite songs from this game is Red Maiden, which is a triumphant reprise of Hornet's theme from the first game. It only plays once in the entire game, which is during a completely optional side-story in which Hornet is kidnapped and stripped "naked" of all her gear, and must sneak around a prison called the Slab to get her stuff back. Once she has done so, she massacres the prison guards while Red Maiden blares heroically in the background. The whole scene is a great sequence, but it can be missed entirely if you don't die to a specific enemy encountered once in the entire game. 

Other standout songs include Skarrsinger Karmelita's theme, which has an almost angelic vocal performance that in-universe is performed by Karmelita herself. The First Sinner and Widow share a boss theme, and the little violin strings during the second phase make the battle sound like an intense, life-or-death struggle. 

And of course, there's Shrine Guardian Seth's theme. It's oddly sad and melancholic for an otherwise fast-paced duel, but it makes sense when you learn the real life story of why this particular boss was created. To make a long story short, Shrine Guardian Seth was originally a fan-made boss created by Seth Goldman, a fairly prominent Hollow Knight fan who contracted a terminal illness. As a last request, he was allowed to visit Team Cherry's headquarters and design one boss, which he chose to name after himself. Goldman passed away before Silksong released, but now his legacy is forever immortalized as the Shrine Guardian Seth.

Hornet rests on a bench while visiting Bellhart, one of the three towns in the game. She is surrounded by various peaceful villagers. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

Overall, Hollow Knight: Silksong is a fantastic, but intimidatingly difficult game. I personally consider it my Game of the Year, mostly because I haven't played the other Game of the Year candidates enough to form a definitive opinion on them. And despite loving deltarune's new Chapters (which came out this year as well), it feels wrong to give what is essentially an unfinished game any kind of award. Like I said earlier, depending on your tolerance for difficulty, this is either a 4 star game or a 5 star game. If you liked Hollow Knight, you'll probably like Silksong.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the property of Team Cherry. None of the images used were created by me. Please support the original creators.