Finally finished it (thanks to my wife and her steam library i love you sweetheart)
It was so beautiful both story wise and visually
The gameplay was also cool with the whole emotions system but damn man some segments of the story really got me thinkin bout some hard topics
I really don't think if I can rate this game
The game itself is fantastic don't get me wrong but i dunno i need time to rate this properly

I am biased to this title only because I played it with my best friend, so it holds a special place internally for me that I am very fond of. Critically, I believe its highs in its story lines and aesthetic are something unrivaled for indie titles. Its art direction is beautiful with its drawn backgrounds and pencil like scribble textures. Its character design can only be described as kawaii meets emo, which combined, makes for a great visual theme. Mix that with its lofi soundtrack and dreamcore sound design, and it leads to a great experience your first playthrough in. I will say, in contrast to its highs, its lows are abysmally low. Its battles get repititive, and its narrative, while great at its core, gets frustrating. It purposefully holds back the entire way through, as if its teasing you with its storyline at every narrative for the sake of padding and symbolic storytelling. It is show, not tell, at the max output. Ultimately, its a good game with a good message at its core, but I cannot rate it higher than this.

really loved the storyline and i think it had the perfect amount of scary elements for me. hated the battles though, it was the worst part to me. the animations for everything though were pure gold, everything had a reaction and so many different outcomes and easter eggs. you could really understand the groups dynamic. to me the game lowkey feels incompletable the way that there are so many things to do outside the main storyline. the map although was kinda exhausting, it was very easy to get lost in it, too much time spent in humphrey the whales insides or any part of sweethearts castle. didnt appreciate omori like i shouldve while i was playing until i had watched someone else play. it made me really emotional at times. it brings back a certain ambiance that feels like home. in my opinion gotta play during the fall months just to make the game a little extra special. didnt like how little save points there were because then you had to really finish the part you were at which felt like forever at the time since there are so many things to do just in one spot. also the merch on omocat for this game is so so cute. ost went crazy too. overall great game i love it not sure i would ever replay it myself but i would definitely watch someone else play.

Cara não vou mentir eu demorei pra caramba pra jogar depois que lançou mesmo sabendo que eu gostaria porque eu não vou com a cara da criadora mas ainda bem que estava no game pass e eu animei de jogar, não me arrependo nem um pouquinho !! eu sou extremamente apaixonado por essa estética toda que o headspace tem que me lembra Bee and Puppycat, e a soundtrack também !! pra jogar pela primeira vez o jogo pode ser meio cansativozinho por ter muuuita coisa pra fazer e você fica impaciente pra avançar na história, mas por outro lado isso é bom caso você goste de explorar tudo que tem pra aproveitar e jogar mais de uma vez, conteúdo não falta !! os personagens são muito bom feitinhos e apesar de não gostar muito de alguns eu consigo compreender o porquê deles agirem de tal forma, entende?? no geral eu amo a história, a maneira que ela é contada e como o jogo funciona, é meu jogo favorito sem dúvidas

Omori is a game which stands out a lot on many aspects, with a combat system turned around the emotions theme, and a story portraying anxiety, depression and so much more. It's a game which sadly, tries so hard to be psychological, deep, and horrific, it does lesser the impact of the narrative when it comes to plot twists or the ending. Similarly, Omori focuses so much on what makes it different, that it sometime forgets the essential and what makes it similar to great games.

A turn based RPG with an emotion system, sounds like a great premise, however it turns out to be more of a skin than anything else. The combat system features 3 main emotions namely : sad, happy and angry. Together, they form a classic weapon triangle, where each of them are effective against one and weak against the other one, those 3 emotions also boost or reduce statistics such as : luck, speed, defense and so on. I ought to mention, there is a 4th emotion outside this triangle called neutral which is self-explanatory.

Despite being able to further the intensity of one emotion by triggering it once more up to 3 levels (for instance the sad emotion becomes depressed and finally miserable), this system feels like an aggregate of systems most people have seen, and it's quite easy to notice, as the game's structure feels imbalanced at times, sometime throwing long sections of gameplay seemingly for nothing, just to extend the length of the game, giving players plenty time to do such analysis. In spite of the combat system being effective to some extent, I guess I expected more from it, passed the quick discovery of those familiar elements with different names that is, the gameplay loop became more of a repetitive chore, and the pacing problems amplified this sentiment.

Gameplay aside, the story left me with a bitter taste too. The narrative is constantly ominous, with a coexistence between wholesome and sinister elements, fueling a heavy and tensed atmosphere, by the time the story actually hits the player with a horrific plot twist, the player is overprepared and the impact the said plot twist has is limited. In other words, by using the same thing over and over again, it becomes less effective, and what should be something special in the narrative, ends up being less unique and more dull.

The game tackles head on dark emotions, and warn the player by all means possible beforehand, from its simplistic yet worrisome cover picture, to its warning when you actually launch the game. For the same purpose, and it is a shame, the story's threads are clearly visible and conventional for the most part, so much so any sort of dramatic event is predictable and no elements of surprise hit the mark.

Of course, the player should be informed of themes depicted in a game, however, Omori's warning message when the game is launched looks more like a spoiler than anything else. Without being perfect, the PEGI system or any similar rating systems, offer the possibility to warn players without giving too much information. Perhaps using a similar concept would have allowed Omori to find a better middle ground between warning and secrecy.

On top of a predictable story, there are multiple side quests, but I don't have any nice superlative that comes to my mind to describe them. Some side quests are repeatable and propose dreadful minigames, I let you imagine where and how a developer could decide to implement one or more achievements.

In conclusion, despite its great concepts and interesting themes, Omori's execution is mediocre for the most part, questionable for the rest. The gameplay is forgettable, it's just a combination of well known systems in disguise, changing names so they fit the theme of the game, is not enough to create something unique. The story is predictable, not necessarily bad, but definitly not great either. I think Omori is one these games that could have benefited being a visual novel instead of a traditional game, but that's just my opinion.