Teh bucket of d00m.

A little disappointed with Ultra Deluxe on the whole. I was The Stanley Parable's biggest fan in 2011 - for being a free mod it was surprisingly cogent as an exploration of the metatext in being a player character in a perceivably linear world. The remake was a nice thing too, brushing up the concepts the mod introduced with some greater production values and more keen attention to detail, rounding off the branching paths it also expanded upon. While I'm nowhere near blown away by its observations (especially now that it's 2022 and the subject matter is rather rote by now), nor does its all-too-smug humour really tickle me in any way... it's undeniably satisfying to play a game that knows what to say and when. All bases covered, all nooks and crannies accounted for, everything you can do and everywhere you go triggers an event flag somewhere in the backrooms for the narrator to guffaw about. There's a toy-like quality to it idk, I'm really just like Stanley hitting buttons and listening to their accompanying sound effects.

Ultra Deluxe is... a few more things, all pretty scant. This almost Invader Zim-grade object comedy fixation on a funny bucket item you carry into old ending routes to modify them in minor ways, and the majority of the dialogue is still "press button to make narrator change subject". No guides or whatever are available at the time of me saying all this, who knows, maybe I've neglected to walk down a specific sequence of doors and missed a new skill tree system. They shifted the engine from Source to Unity, I'm sure it's a console porting decision and it certainly all looks better, but no longer getting banished to The Serious Room for setting sv_cheats to 1 removes the best rugpull from the game!!!!

Looking back, while I don't agree fully with everything I said in this review anymore, my overall thoughts and feelings presented in this text towards the game remain unchanged. I’ll rewrite it at some point.

~~~

I once heard someone say that the only thing keeping video games from being considered art, are the people who play them, and I cannot imagine a better example of this than what the overall perception of OMORI seems to be.

Something I feel has become a bit of a problem in video game culture, especially in the last couple of years with the rising popularity of indie games, is people buying, and then playing games they do not think they're going to like.

Video games are unique, in that every aspect of every game usually differs from others.
One game could be 2 hours long, while another is 500.
One game could look incredibly realistic, while another uses 8-bit sprites for everything.

One game could be very plot-heavy and character driven, while another mostly focuses on gameplay and/or just making the player have fun. That one is pretty important when talking about games like OMORI.

First and foremost, I want to clarify that yes, it is essential to try out new games, new genres, etc if you want to develop a good sense of quality and/or taste, however, some people seem to have this mindset that every game they buy is, and should be, made for everyone to enjoy, and if that individual does not enjoy the game, that must mean it is an objectively bad video game.

I'm not exaggerating, I have genuinely seen people online give OMORI 1/10, while giving a game like Bioshock Infinite a pure and perfect 10.
Am I saying Bioshock Infinite is objectively a worse video game than OMORI? No, of course not. They're two wildly different experiences that have absolutely no business being put up against each other.
However, if you enjoyed a game like Bioshock Infinite to the point of it being a 10/10 in your eyes, you are probably going to have a bad time with these types of games, and despite what some people might have you believe, that is perfectly fine.
It is fine to just enjoy video games that are fun. It is fine to mindlessly shoot NPCs, and it is fine to exclusively play games for fun. OMORI just isn't the type of video game you find interesting, and that's fine.

OMORI is a game that at times is tedious, time consuming and bland. It is fine to dislike OMORI, despite being a fan of games that closely resemble it, because at times, it is a bad video game. It is a game that does have some fun gameplay, and a really good OST, however unless you are interested in the central plot, it probably won't keep you playing. This is is a plot-heavy game, it relies on your interest in it's story, and it's easy to dislike the way it's presented. It can take you up to 25 hours to get through it if you take your time, and that's a big ask for a game like this.


At the end of the day, however, these are, in relation to everything else, minor things. At least to me. When looked at as a whole, OMORI is truly, truly something special.

It is a video game that wholly understands the medium of video games, making use of it to its absolute fullest, with gameplay segments, story beats and music tracks that seem so magically woven together, you'd think magic was literally involved in the creation of it.

It is a game that, more-so than any other I've ever been in contact with, knows how video games differ from movies or books, and how you can use that difference to create truly incredible experiences.

OMORI is truly great. Not every part of it, of course, but it is truly, truly, great.

The quirky Earthbound-inspired RPG that's actually about depression, but also about finding forgiveness and self-value.

This game has by far the best narrative I've ever experienced, I can't possibly put into words how hard this game hit me, one moment I was laughing at the silly moments, and in the other, I was feeling genuinely heartbroken and sad, this game is beautiful, funny, sad, and creepy, and touches on some pretty heavy themes that can hit to close to home for a lot of people, but if you get past the Content Warnings at the beginning, you'll find yourself with one the best video games stories ever told.