Sifu, and how practice makes perfect. A very aged review

There's a funny story as to how I found Sifu. I first discovered this game when I saw some speed-runners play through it on YouTube. And because of the game's silky smooth combat, those speed-runners managed to turn the game into what can best be described as an interactive action movie. So naturally, I wanted to try the game for myself. It was more difficult than expected, but it's still a blast to play.

A quick content warning before we begin. Sifu is rated M for Mature by the ESRB. Because of violence and profanity. That's it. And it's mostly the profanity that gave the game this rating. All things considered, this is a rather tame example of an M rated video game, and it most likely could've gotten away with a T for Teen rating if the regular enemies didn't swear like sailors while fighting you. But either way, reader discretion is advised.

Official box art of Sifu, featuring an unnamed protagonist that I will refer to as the Student going forward. Image found on wikipedia.org

But what exactly is Sifu? It's an indie action game developed and published by Sloclap and H2 Interactive, released on February 8th, 2022 . Heavily inspired by martial arts action movies like Kill Bill, Karate Kid and The Matrix, Sifu is a game with a remarkably simple concept. You play as an unnamed but customizable Kung Fu student on a quest to avenge their Sifu (Chinese word for "teacher") by beating the snot out of a crime syndicate called the Dawn Group. That's it. That's the entire story. 

There's no plot twists or esoteric lore in this game. Don't get me wrong, what story this game does have is decent, but the dev team's main goal was to make the best Kung Fu game ever, and everything else was secondary to that goal. But I'll summarize what story there is anyway. Just a heads up, I'll be referring to this game's protagonist as the Student. The character does not have an official name, as previously mentioned.

Before the game begins properly, we get a prologue in which we play as Yang, the main villain of this story. Yang was a disgraced Kung Fu student who sought out forbidden techniques, and was exiled as punishment. But now, he has returned to his old dojo for revenge. Yang has the same move set as the Student, but he is completely invincible during the prologue and has every upgrade unlocked. 

This tutorial is doing a lot of cool things at once. Firstly, it shows the player how dangerous the main villain is by letting you control his rampage firsthand. Secondly, because Yang is an overpowered evil version of the Student, this opening doubles as a preview for the kind of power the player will eventually have at their disposal. Thirdly, it lets you know that the game will end with a confrontation between the Student and Yang, because how else is this story going to end?

The prologue ends with Yang murdering the Sifu, and ordering his gang to execute everyone else in the dojo. Not even the Student is spared from this purge. "But wait!" you cry. "If the Student dies during the prologue, how does the rest of the game happen?" You see, there was one thing Yang didn't consider during his quest for revenge. 

Right before Yang arrived at the dojo, the Student stole a magic talisman that can revive the dead. After getting crossed off the census by the Dawn Group, they were brought back to life by said talisman. That talisman's magic is the in-universe explanation for how the player is able to retry levels after getting a Game Over. 

The game does an 8 year time skip, as the Student finishes their training and becomes a self-taught martial artist. But despite 8 long years passing by, the Student still has only one thing on their mind: Vengeance.

The Student prepares to fight some thugs at a nightclub. Image found on Steam.

Sifu has five main levels to play through. Now I know that sounds like a short experience, but it's not. It took me about 20 hours to beat the game for the first time, plus an additional 15 hours to get the game's secret true ending. This is because of the game's main feature; Aging. You see, that talisman that protects the Student from death has some stipulations to its usage. 

Every time the Student revives, their body ages by one year. Every time the Student ages, the player's health bar gets a little bit smaller. While it is true that the Student's damage output rises as they age, the steadily shrinking health bar turns the benefit into a net negative, as your room for error gets smaller with each subsequent death. Additionally, the talisman's magic is finite, and the game will end if the Student dies while above the age of 75 years. At that point you have no choice but to restart the entire level from scratch.

Aging also affects the Student's appearance, for obvious reasons. While you can customize the Student to an extent, such as choosing their gender or their outfit, there are some things that cannot be changed. Their face and hair color are always set in stone in order to best illustrate the aging process. With each revival, the Student's skin starts wrinkling, and their hair gradually changes from black to white. 

The aging effect is admittedly more obvious on the male Student than it is on the female Student. In addition to the aforementioned changes, the male Student will start growing a beard that gets progressively longer as he ages. The female Student lacks a beard for obvious reasons. But the female Student makes funny Bruce Lee style battle cries while using her techniques, which I find to be oddly charming.

More importantly, whatever age the Student was at the end of the current level will be the age they start at for the next level. For example, if you finish the first level at 30 years old, you will start the second level at 30 years old. If you finish the second level at 40 years old, you will start the third level at 40 years old. And so on and so forth. Which means if you want to stand a chance against Yang, you need to stay as young as possible. And the easiest way to do that is to replay levels that you already cleared so you can break your record.

One last thing about aging. How much the Student's body ages upon revival is determined by how many times they died in that specific level. The first death ages you by one year, the second death by two years, the third death by three years, and so on. Defeating powerful enemies (marked by a golden glow) will lower the death counter by one. Keep in mind that this part of the aging mechanic is only relevant on higher difficulty settings, as on Student Mode (equivalent to easy) all deaths age the Student by one year with no exceptions.

Sifu's main mechanic is that the Student ages slightly every time the player is defeated. Die enough times and the Student will become an elder, as shown here. Image found on Steam.

Combat in Sifu is grounded, yet stylish. Of course, there's your genre standard abilities like Light attacks, Heavy attacks and blocking. You can mix and match Light and Heavy attacks to perform different combos. More complex techniques can be performed by flicking the left analog stick (or your system's equivalent thereof) in specific directions while pressing one of the attack buttons. For example, flicking the left stick "up" then pressing Heavy attack makes the Student do a leaping kick forward.

Then there's Focus Attacks, which are powerful techniques that cannot be blocked or dodged by enemies. Think of Focus Attacks as your super moves. Unlike regular attacks, Focus Attacks need to be charged up using an energy called, well, Focus. The Focus meter fills up either upon attacking enemies or upon successfully dodging and parrying enemy attacks.

Dodging and Parrying are your main defensive tools. While blocking attacks normally will mitigate damage to your health bar, it will also fill up a meter called Structure. The Structure meter is very obviously inspired by the Posture meter from Sekiro. It's an orange meter at the bottom of the screen that will stun the player's character if allowed to fill up all the way. The idea is that this meter exists to punish an overreliance on regular blocking. 

And also like Sekiro, parrying an attack (performed by tapping the block button right before impact) will not break Structure, and will instead inflict Structure damage on your opponent. If you successfully break an enemy's Structure, the Student can perform a Takedown attack, which will instantly KO that enemy and heal the Student. This is the only way you can heal mid-battle.

Dodging restores your own Structure, but you need to make sure you dodge in the right direction to actually avoid the attack. All enemy attacks are divided into three categories, those being High Attacks, Low Attacks and Throws. High and Low attacks can be blocked and parried, but Throws must be dodged. High attacks consist of any technique that hits the Student from the waist up, while Low attacks are anything that hits from the waist down. In order to dodge properly, you need to hold the block button and then flick the control stick in the opposite direction of the attack (flick down for High attacks and Throws, flick up for Low attacks).

The Student can also grab enemies and throw them around. And throwing is arguably the best trick in the Student's arsenal. You can throw enemies into walls and furniture for extra damage. You can throw enemies off of ledges to take them out of the fight instantly. You can even throw enemies into each other to break up big groups and give yourself more breathing room. 

Throws are your friend, and the whole game becomes much more manageable once you understand how throws work. The only restriction on throws is that an enemy can only be thrown if it was stunned beforehand. The easiest way to stun an enemy is to dodge or parry one of their attacks and counter with an attack of your own.

In addition to using Kung Fu to fight, the Student can also pick up certain objects in the environment and use them as improvised weapons. These can include mundane items like broomsticks and glass bottles, or more dangerous tools like machetes and daggers. Attacking with a weapon will almost always deal more damage than attacking barehanded, but weapons will eventually break from overuse.

All of these abilities come together to make a combat system that makes the player feel powerful from start to finish. Outside of the talisman that revives the Student, there's no magic in this setting. So all those fancy Kung Fu techniques you can unlock can believably be done by a real life martial artist. That's what I mean when I say the combat is ground yet stylish. And when you practice enough with this combat system, you will feel like a true Kung Fu Master.

Sifu has five distinct enemy types, each with their own behaviors and attack patterns. Some basic enemies use simple 3-hit combos, others use weapons and alternate between High and Low attacks to confuse you. Others still try to Throw you around. On their own, these enemies can be defeated with some decent parries and combos. But they're rarely ever alone, so you got to get used to fighting multiple enemies at once.

Sifu does have a training mode where you can practice against any enemy or boss you have encountered before, in order to learn how to properly dodge and parry their attacks. It's a nice quality-of-life feature that lets you practice against a specific threat without replaying the entire level. 

The Student (right) can be customized with different outfits. You can also play as a female variant of the Student, if you want. Image found on Steam.

The Student can also be upgraded with EXP, rewarded every time the Student defeats an enemy. These upgrades can take the form of increased Structure, improved weapon durability or even new combos entirely. Keep in mind that most of these upgrades are temporary, and will reset if the Student dies before the level is complete.

If you want to make an upgrade permanent, you will have to keep upgrading the same thing repeatedly. Practice makes perfect, after all. Also, the Student can only learn a combo as long as they stay within a certain age group. Some combos can only be learned if you're 40 years old or younger, for example. This restriction seems excessive at first, but it encourages you to get good enough to where you can stay below an age threshold long enough to permanently learn the combo in question. And half the fun of Sifu is getting good enough at the game to where you can unlock everything permanently and breeze through the levels.

Side note, the Student does get some dialogue choices in each level, but they don't change the story in any meaningful way. This is a linear action game, after all. Most of these dialogue options consist of telling enemies to get out of the way, telling enemies to get out of the way but politely this time, or some kind of one-liner. 

Funnily enough, there is nothing stopping the player from attacking instead of talking, so you can sucker punch an enemy mid-conversation to take them out of the fight instantly. I find the dialogue choices to be an odd inclusion, as this is clearly not a story-driven game nor is it an roleplaying game, but the ability to sucker punch enemies mid-conversation is always amusing.

At the end of every level is one of the five leaders of the Dawn Group, who serve as the game's bosses. The Dawn Group leaders all have more elaborate attack patterns than normal enemies, and most of them have unbreakable weapons that cannot be dropped at all. There are two stages to every boss, with the first stage being a normal martial arts duel. The second stage, however, activates an elemental artifact, giving the boss new abilities and even transforming the entire battlefield.

The hardest boss by far is the third one, Kuroki the Artist. Her attacks are fast, have long reach and are difficult to parry. And unlike the other bosses, who only gain one or two new attacks upon activating their elemental magic, Kuroki completely changes her weapons and fighting style. So instead of fighting one boss, it feels like fighting two bosses back to back. Even after beating the game, I never got good enough to beat Kuroki without dying at least once to her.

The Student using a bo staff to fight Sean the Fighter, one of the game's five bosses. Image found on Steam.

My favorite boss is actually the second one, Sean the Fighter. In fact, his level, the Club, is my favorite level in the entire game. The Club starts off as simple night club, but transforms into an ancient Chinese fortress with Kung Fu cultists waiting to ambush you around every corner. Sean hits hard, but almost all of his moves are High Attacks, so it isn't hard to parry or dodge his blows. Despite Sean being a fairly easy boss in a vacuum, the Club is by far the longest level in the game, easily taking over 40 minutes to complete. So the real challenge is reaching Sean with enough health and youth to survive in the first place, rather than anything Sean himself does.

Once you defeat the first four members of the Dawn Group, you will be allowed to challenge Yang. Like I said earlier, Yang has the exact same move set as the Student, just with every possible upgrade active at once. It is a grueling battle, but the Student can eventually put him down. 

But here there be spoilers. Admittedly, this is not a game that people play for the story, but what I'm about to say is still a spoiler. I consider Sifu to be a 4 star game. It's not for everyone, but those who enjoy martial arts media or fluid combat will love this game.

The Student realizes too little, too late that revenge wasn't worth it. They spent so much of their life laser focused on enacting their vengeance, that achieving victory over the source of their hatred feels hollow instead of relieving. The Talisman rewinds time and gives the Student a chance to forgive and forget. This leads to the path of the "True" ending.

So now you have to play through the whole game again, but this time, you have to spare the lives of first four bosses. This can be done by breaking each boss's Structure twice without using a Takedown, which shows that you could have killed them, but chose not to. This leaves the Dawn Group leaders humbled and perhaps humiliated, but it gives them all the wakeup call needed to atone for their sins and redeem themselves. 

You can also find documents and notes hidden throughout the levels that reveal the Dawn Group isn't as bad as the Student initially assumed. The entire reason Yang sought out forbidden techniques was because his wife and son died, and he wanted to use the talisman to revive them. The Sifu refused to help Yang at all when he was mourning, despite having the ability to revive his family. That's the reason why Yang murdered the Sifu in the first place. These notes don't excuse his actions, but it explains why he did what he did.

But you know that saying, "An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind?" By seeking out revenge against the Sifu, Yang set the Student down the path of vengeance as well. Only by sparing the Dawn Group leaders can the cycle of vengeance end.

An elderly Student sends a poor soul flying with a bo staff strike. Image found on Steam.

Unfortunately, this does make the Student looking somewhat hypocritical in a way that probably wasn't intended, as they continue to beat the snot out of regular enemies only to show mercy to the bosses. But the Student works on Batman logic, no matter how badly the Student beats someone up, that person can and will survive it. But if you apply real life logic to this game's fight scenes, then yeah, all those gangsters and security guards should be straight up dead.

Anyway, if you spare the Dawn Group leaders and fight Yang again, you get an extra stage to his boss fight. During this new stage, Yang steals the talisman that the Student has been using to revive themselves, so now it's a "fair" fight. And to add insult to injury, Yang then hits the Student with the exact same technique he used to kill the Sifu. The Student just barely survives it, and despite their injuries, they manage to defeat Yang again. The Student spares Yang's life, but dies of their injuries shortly afterward. 

But that's okay, as showing mercy to the Dawn Group allowed the Student to achieve a form of spiritual enlightenment called Wude. The last scene of the game is the Student becoming a Sifu and opening up their own dojo, thus passing their knowledge and wisdom onto the next generation. The implication being that Yang revived the Student with the talisman after feeling moved by their display of strength and mercy in equal measure.

Overall, the story is serviceable. But as mentioned before, it's completely overshadowed by the fun combat. Like I said, the devs were trying to make the best Kung Fu game ever, and the story was mostly an excuse to justify all the fighting. But in my personal opinion, having good gameplay is more important than a good story, because the gameplay is your main method of interacting with a video game. This isn't to say that video games shouldn't have good narratives, obviously, but it's easier to sit through a fun game with a lackluster story than it is to experience a good story held back by mediocre game mechanics.

After beating the game for the first time, you unlock the Challenges, optional post-game battles with some fun gimmicks. Some of these challenges are direct homages to the very same action movies that inspired Sifu. But most of them are brutally challenging, far more difficult than anything in the five main levels. Some Challenges are timed battles, others reduce your health bar so much that any attack will end you. Others still force you to fight enemies with infinite health that can only be defeated by throwing them off ledges. One challenge requires you to fight all five Dawn Group leaders in a row with no chance to heal. Your rewards for completing the Challenges are new outfits to customize the Student with.

In terms of presentation, Sifu has a distinct, cel-shaded art style. If I had to compare it to something, I'd say the art style reminds me most of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, just with less exaggerated body proportions. The main highlight of the visuals however is the choreography. All of the Student's animations are based on real Kung Fu techniques, and in fact, Sloclap even enlisted several real life Kung Fu masters to provide the motion capture used in this game's animations. And the Student flows from one attack animation to another smoothly and seamlessly, with no wasted movements.

The result is that when you get good enough to clear out entire rooms of enemies, you will feel like an Kung Fu master yourself. And what's especially impressive is that no matter how many enemies you face or where in the level you're fighting in, the action is always clean, coherent and legible. Heck, the combat is so good that even watching someone else play it is fun, as this game is basically an interactive martial arts action movie.

The Student slides across a table while avoiding a bat swing from an enemy. Image found on Steam.

The levels themselves are distinct and easily recognizable at a glance. Heck, even the lighting in all the levels is color coded. The Squats use a lot of earthy tones like green and brown. The Club uses neon purple lights that gradually give way to fiery reds. The Museum is home to calming blue artwork that hints at the boss's backstory. The Tower uses metallic colors like silver and gold. And the Sanctuary is a peaceful dojo with off-white coloring.

One fun detail I like is that the clothing worn by enemies changes to match the setting of the level. The Squats are populated by filthy gangsters with torn-up clothes. The Club enemies are all partygoers dressed to have a good time. The Museum and Tower enemies are all sharply dressed security guards. And the Sanctuary enemies consist of Yang's own students, clad in snow white robes.

In terms of sound design, it's also distinct and memorable. Every sound effect is clean, crisp and accentuates every punch, kick and weapon strike. The music is a mix of traditional Chinese instruments and modern techno, depending on the level. It speeds up and slows down in accordance to the action on screen, which is a neat attention to detail.

The voice acting is fine, but nothing mind-blowing. Most of this game's dialogue consists of standard enemies taunting the Student and panicking once the Student starts throwing hands. But every Dawn Group leader does get to say to a pre-battle one-liner during their boss fight. The Student surprisingly has dialogue. Not a lot of it, mind you, but they aren't a silent protagonist.

This is mostly referring to the English voice acting. You can switch to one of two different Chinese languages in the settings, either Mandarin or Cantonese. I never played with either of these languages enabled, but the option is there if you want it.

Overall, Sifu is an excellent action game. Is it perfect? No. Like I said, the story is merely "okay" and the voice acting is just "fine." But the combat and levels are so fun that it elevates the whole experience, not to mention the spectacular art style. If you love martial arts, this is an easy game to recommend. I give Sifu four stars out of five.

Sifu is the property of Sloclap and Kepler Interactive. None of the images used in this review were created by me. Please support the original creators.

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.