OMORI

About OMORI

OMORI is the first game by the artist OMOCAT. Funded on Kickstarter in 2014 and built in RPG Maker MV, it came out on Windows and Mac on 25 December 2020, then on Switch and Xbox on 17 June 2022 and on PlayStation 4 a week later, in ports made by MP2 Games. It is drawn in a pencil-sketch and pastel style, with music by Pedro Silva, Jami Lynne and Calum Bowen, and it took two Honorable Mentions at the 2021 Independent Games Festival.

You play OMORI, who lives in WHITE SPACE, a blank room with a laptop, a sketchbook, a tissue box and a sleeping cat. Through a door he steps into HEADSPACE, a playful world where he and his friends Aubrey, Kel and Hero have picnics, fight sprout moles and look for their missing friend Basil. In the real world, in Faraway Town, a reclusive boy named Sunny has a few days left before his family moves house.

Play is a classic RPG: exploration, puzzles, side quests and turn-based fights where emotions such as happy, sad and angry change how attacks land, and the party can pass the turn to each other for follow-up attacks. The horror comes in waves. The sweet world tilts without warning into dark rooms and stairways where a grinning shadow reaches out with long arms and hands, OMORI's face turns AFRAID, and a single bad memory keeps surfacing, each time more clearly.

It is a story-led game more than a frightening one most of the time, but its darker scenes are strong and its themes are heavy; the store page warns of depictions of depression, anxiety and suicide, and of bright flashing images. It is rated Mature 17+ by the ESRB for blood, strong language and violence. It suits players who liked Yume Nikki or Undertale and want a long, emotional story with real horror inside it.

How to play OMORI

1. Explore HEADSPACE with your friends, talking to characters and solving small puzzles.
2. Fight in turn-based battles, choosing skills for each party member and using snacks to heal.
3. Use emotions: happy, sad and angry each give strengths and weaknesses against others.
4. Return to WHITE SPACE and the real world when the story calls for it, and make the choices that shape your route.
5. Save often, and keep a few snacks for the harder fights.

Tips

• Use team follow-up attacks when the energy bar fills; they can turn a fight.
• Match emotions to enemies: happy beats angry, angry beats sad, sad beats happy.
• Talk to everyone in town; side quests give useful items and story.
• Read the content warnings before you start if the themes may be hard for you, and note the warning about bright flashing images.

Questions