#omlb

[marens-liveblog]

I'd like everyone to know I'm losing my mind over how cute the tagging pictures are

[santonali]

gabi!!!!!!!!! the whole evening was worth it to see that smile on his face!!!!!!

[marens-liveblog]

Oh man I never really condensed my thoughts on omori huh? It's been a hot minute since I played it so I'm not sure how I depth I'll get but here we go

So first thing, the battle system: i really enjoyed it. The emotions were pretty simple, sure, but they were really fun to try and coordinate to defeat enemies. The team moves were really cool to, I had a blast learning which moves did what and how they effected the other characters. Honestly, all the dream world fights were so *fun* and I really appreciate that. I hate playing games and having them feel like a chore, but with this I just kept finding myself wanting more and more. The fights in the real world though, those weren't so fun. They were underhanded and desperate and so much more realistic, which I find to be really really neat since that's really how fights are in real life. You do what it takes to come out on top, even if that means using pepper spray, or stabbing someone with your knife (let me tell you when that downed Aubrey immediately I was *shook*). So yeah, playing the game? Fricken rocks I had so much fun.

As for the story, where do you even begin? The mystery aspect was super intriguing. The slow reveal of what exactly happened to Mari, as you start of just having a fun adventure in Sunny's head to slowly realizing that world isn't real, to learning everyone's older now, to learning Mari died, to learning the circumstances of her death, and then finally learning The Truth. Augh it's just brutal and incredibly enrapturing. I found myself wanting to play the game not just for the fights, but so I could know what happened too. Every moment I wasn't playing the game I was thinking about it and theorizing what happened and how. At some point I even found myself speeding through the dream world sectiosn just so I could get more story in the real world. And let me tell you, when sunny had the final battle against omori I straight up cried. The final duet had me in tears. After I finished the game I just laid there feeling numb after having been scrubbed emotionally raw. It was just so powerful.

As for the horror elements, man oh man were they cool. The color contrast, the knife and death imagery, the enemies sunny fights in the real world that are only fought in his mind as he battles fear and guilt, everything is so well done. The art style serves it perfectly, the messy looking hatching in blocks of color is a really neat effect.

Onto the characters! While omorid mystery and plot is very nice, none of it would work if the characters weren't as compelling as they are. Kel's want to help and put on a brave face for others as he hides his own pain, I love him, he is so good aaaaa. And then Hero, the love of my life, he's so well done I adore how he's able to do effectively solve the conflicts that have been growing between the once childhood friends the minute he arrives back in town. Aubrey is incredible, her feeling alone bc no one reached out to her after the tragedy and then turning to rage to vent her frustrations as she became a delinquent. And that fight with her in the church, let me tell you it was brutal I was so sad for her. Poor basil, constantly crippled by his anxiety and guilt. How he just wanted to help sunny so much but he ended up making things worse for them as they lived a lie for four years. And then there's sunny. Despite never really talking, he's given plenty of character. After all, we get to go on a deep dive through his psyche the whole time. But beyond his cripplingly bad mental health and incredible amount of guilt, he still feels so distinct. his head shakes as he refused to go where you ask, his insight on his surroundings you get when inspecting stuff, his demeanor in the tag polaroids, all of them serve to make sunny feel real and alive. And when the narration changed from second person to first in Sunny's memory during the finale as he looks through his house makes me so emotional I can't even.

I should probably note that I got this game for free as a gift from a friend, but I would 100 percent pay the 20 dollars for it for how much I loved it. If I had any complaints it would probably be how hard it is to write and find go fanfiction for? I mean it doesn't really matter and the fandom doesn't take away from how good a piece of fiction is, but, well, that's how I engage with the things I love and thing like omori don't tend to have a lot of fanfiction with plot, and I like fanfictions with plot above character studies but alas. The fandom has some wicked cool art though, which makes sense since the games art is so good as well.

But yeah, that's mostly my thoughts on omori. An amazing game with incredible characters, plot, and gameplay. I would wholeheartedly recommend (with the caveat of that it deals with a lot of intense mental struggles and it can get *dark* so its really not for the faint of mind. Take it's warnings seriously)

[marens-liveblog]

Hnghsnfhhffbshd

Also can I just say I appreciate hero so much he's so good

[marens-liveblog]

POLLY YOU GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK OH MY GOSH

[marens-liveblog]

Oh ok he's just a normal boy!

[marens-liveblog]

Me thinks that steak didn't reach and maintain 165 degrees for 2 minutes

[marens-liveblog]

OH. OH NO