lol I just realized you don't need a play-by-play of every stage direction, because you've played it. They are kind of fun to write but probably not to read. Also they are limiting. Like, I noticed a lot of drawings of steaks. That doesn't fit with the overall tone so I left it out. Turns out those are important!
That sketchbook raises lots of other questions too. I'm wondering if the pyramids are important or the 1235 is important or the blood on the playground slide is important. There is a black cat raining blood on a bunch of white cats, also the black cat is the sun. Why? What's with the cake and the eyeballs? Kudos to whoever drew that sketchbook. It really recontextualizes the events that just happened.
I just ate the well-done steak. It sure was well done! I followed the floating arms in the sky (kind of sucks that houses get floating arms in them at night, but they're useful sometimes). Turns out it's SUNNY's favorite food. Isn't it interesting that KEL is friends with 2 STEAK-loving scaredy-cats who can't dequip their STEAK KNIVEs? I'm sure that doesn't mean anything.
I'm pretty sure I know exactly where this is going, it's actually kind of a genre unto itself. I wouldn't be surprised if it has a name. It's a great way to get a story with horror and tragedy and you can do it a million different ways. So don't hover unless you want to read exactly where I think this is going.
The overall "Earthboundness" is because the game takes place inside the consciousness of a dying child, who is an unreliable narrator.
In the real world, Sunny is an elementary-school aged child who's about to move to a new city. He's been shutting himself away in his room recently and his friend Kel has been calling him to hang out for months.
Sunny microwaved a raw steak for 30 seconds, saw it was brown on the outside, ate it, and died. He was a very young child with a very active imagination, which explains the magically shrinking staircase, and the fact that calming down heals your injuries. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually saw the floating arms you follow to cook the steak. I also wouldn't be surprised if you could put the steak in the oven to avoid death. But he's going to be haunted by his mommy's warnings that he'll regret it if he doesn't make more memories with Kel while he can. But tragically he had already missed his last opportunity.
Earthboundville represents what's happening inside Sunny's body as he's dying, and Omori represents Sunny's concept of himself. He's in really really bad shape, which is why he's all monochromatic and everything else is all colorful. It actually makes sense that 2 people would fight to be the first to see the photo, because what if you're too late? I don't know what the Sprout Moles are but I'm pretty sure killing the big one (which likely represents some body part) was a huge mistake. I'm pretty sure the party members are different physiological processes, which is why they specialize in different emotions (but also Kel can make Omori sad and that's beautiful). I think Basil is supposed to be keeping Sunny alive at all costs. He defuses tense situations and keeps plants alive so he's good at, uh, fine motor skills
The game seems to suggest that Sunny has some kind of link between steak knives and violence, and his mind voluntarily turned itself off once it couldn't access its memories anymore.
But yeah I got sick and threw up and went to bed. Someone was knocking and I didn't answer. I hope that's not a problem!