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Shonen_Bat posted...

The game Omori

Omori is a wonderful game that continues the fantastic new trend of indie psychological horror in the same vein as Doki Doki Literature Club, Inside, Inscryption, Fran Bow, Mad Father, or Ib. On paper, some of these games seemingly share very little qualities or even art styles, but what I think binds them is there attempts at utilizing horror not in a traditional sense but in ways that feel authentic to the human condition and also hugely relevant to the mental state of youths around the world. Omori is no different, exploring anxiety and depression through the lens of dreams, trauma, and colorful lies & illusions. Omori stars Sunny, a teen hikikomori (social shut-in) still reeling from the suicide of his sister Mari four years ago and the effects of that event on Sunny's friend group as well. Omori is full of clever gags and tricks, mixing and matching art styles from the whimsical to the grotesque, and you think it would make the game land less but no somehow everything feels even more heavy and present because of it, perfectly matching Sunny's emotional wellbeing at any giving point, personifying it a way any one person can relate to it easily, like the colorfully vibrant world of Headspace. In a way, Omori is a recontextualized Silent Hill both in the way it presents its worlds and how its story escalates and grows more horrific with each passing event as new details are revealed and unfolded. I see someone like Sunny as similar to James Sunderland, but where they differ is how they each choose to cope with their guilt and trauma while Sunny also has the added baggage of being a teenager which makes emotions even more volatile and ever-fluctuating.

Omori is scary because anyone can relate to it. Headspace is that colorful escapism we seek in our darkest moments, that laughter and joy we find or pretend to show just to try and feel happy again. The haunting monster, "Something", is all our fears, guilt, regrets, and flaws hanging over us every single day we look in the mirror or floating there regardless even if we look away. Sunny, Basil, and the rest of their friends are the people we push away or wish to get back but don't do enough. Even the game's combat system is our emotions battling for the spotlight, jostling each other around, wrecking our brain with a constant stream of thoughts that we can never quite get a grasp on. That Omori captures these elements so succinctly and so effortlessly is something to be applauded and lauded for years to come.