Omori - kickstarted jrpg that apes Earthbound (but looks good so it's cool)

[CryptRat]

The game's out.

 

[tet666]

Just bought it, still in prologue after 2 hours seems to be a long game. It's pretty great so far.

 

[prengle]

The game's out.

imagine a world where omocat released their kawaii emo earthbound/yume nikki clone before everyone else released their kawaii emo earthbound/yume nikki clone

it's still probably better than YIIK -_-

 

[lightbane]

Does it have bugs, or is it better than CP?

 

[Stefan Vujovic]

6h in, closest thing to undertale/earthbound, not a single bug so far, game is crammed with little details, loving it...

 

[thesecret1]

About 16 hours in. This thing is pretty much Undertale, but with a bigger budget and better writing.

 

[lightbane]

it's still probably better than YIIK -_-

REALLY low bar here, the writers behind that crap are hyper-pretentious hacks who unlike other indie devs, lack the network of other hacks to get away with blatant plagiarism, bad writing, and worse.

About 16 hours in. This thing is pretty much Undertale, but with a bigger budget and better writing.

Does it feature multiple endings that check your actions ingame? Is there any presence of homofaggot characters like Undertail, or you found nothing so far?

 

[thesecret1]

Finished it after 29 hours of playtime. I went in completely blind, never even heard about Omori before, just randomly saw the game and figured I'd give it a try, so I didn't have anything spoiled to be beforehand.

It was pretty good, I have to say. Good writing that clearly takes itself seriously, which sets the tone pretty well – it's a game that wants to get you sad, and will do just that. Luckily not by some shitty tear jerkers like most such games like to do, but by layering the themes and evets pretty well and getting you to actually like the charaters (I actually disliked some of the characters when the game started, but it managed to completely turn my opinion around in that regard, and I ended up liking every single one of them by the end, which is no mean feat), and thus care about what happens to them. Writing is clearly the games strongest suit, and I have to applaud it, whoever wrote this clearly knew what he was doing.

Combat is worse – on one hand, it is far better than the generic RPGmaker shit, on the other, you still have that JRPG combat where you gradually grind away at an enemy healthbar. Luckily, you can visually see the enemies on the map (no random encounters, huzzah!) so you can avoid the trashmobs. There's the emotion mechanics and the like to make things more interesting, but I never really enjoyed combat in this game, personally. At least the bossfights tended to be interesting.

The game obviously had a big budget (well, big for an RPGmaker game, at least) because everything is very polished and gorgeous. This game oozes style everywhere you look, pays attention to detail, has great spritework... it's just really pretty. It's also pretty loaded with content with lots of side quests, various nooks and crannies of exlore off the main path, tons of NPCs to talk to, and of course all the work that went into making the world try reflect the state of the story. Backtracking is heavily encouraged as you will find new content in old areas pretty often, even in fairly improbably places.

Now, what about C&C and the like? There's shitload of "extra" stuff that you can discover and have fun with, but does any of it actually affect the ending? Well... a bit, but not much. There are two main routes in the game that you can set yourself off on by certain in game decisions, and then there are the various endings for each of them. The decisions that determine the ending, however, all lie in the final chapter of the game. I've played through one of the routes, but I hear the other one differs quite significantly, so there's that.

Is there any presence of homofaggot characters like Undertail, or you found nothing so far?

I thought this game was gonna be pozzed because one of the main characters looks and acts like a trap... But no, there's actually no poz of any kind in the game. This game is completely fag-free and doesn't push any kind of politics, as far as I can tell.

 

[prengle]

it's still probably better than YIIK -_-

REALLY low bar here, the writers behind that crap are hyper-pretentious hacks who unlike other indie devs, lack the network of other hacks to get away with blatant plagiarism, bad writing, and worse.

About 16 hours in. This thing is pretty much Undertale, but with a bigger budget and better writing.

Does it feature multiple endings that check your actions ingame? Is there any presence of homofaggot characters like Undertail, or you found nothing so far?

yiik is apparently being actively updated by the dev so even if he's a fucking tool i guess i have to admire the hustle. also, undertale is based

 

[lightbane]

yiik is apparently being actively updated by the dev so even if he's a fucking tool i guess i have to admire the hustle. also, undertale is based

I know, that lp which covered it is taking the update into account.
https://www.lp.zone/t/yiikes-lets-dunk-on-yiik-a-plagiarism-rpg/3716
Spoilers: Nothing changed. Instead, many things have been made worse, and the golden alpaca boss is now even derpier and more try-hard than ever.

 

[orcinator]

So yet another attempt at mimicking Earthbound without being aware that Earthbound's gameplay is garbage?
Either you go the Undertale route and rip off every semi obscure piece of asian media like you're Quentin Tarantino make the gameplay fun or the Barkley route where the gameplay is part of the joke.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Another hipster trap.

 

[HeyCheckOutHowHardICanPee]

I just finished this in 25 hours (although 4~6 hours of it was probably me just running around talking to a bunch of shit and looking for secrets), and after a good nights sleep after it, I've come to realize that it's a piece of shit and at the same time completely fantastic.

When the game actually gets into the heavier story and more serious themes, it is fantastic, and it is pretty much required that the game actually keeps stalling it from constantly bombarding you with it, but the filler inbetween just flat out blows ass.
The combat is only good for about two of the first bosses, and every other scenario of the combat is just really cookiecutter bland, despite having all these neat gimmicks and wacky visuals to carry it along. I had to specifically ignore most shitmob fights because levels really don't mean anything past the few first ones, as you are given the best combat moves early on, and bosses after the first two? are incredibly cheesable, bland and not a threat in any way of the sort.

I played through the "true main" route and considering I've heard the other route is 7+ hours of new "content" for extra small scraps of the good spooky parts, I can't see myself going back and replaying it for that, because for all the positive moments the game had, I felt like two thirds of the game was crawling through a fucking desert and getting a single drop of water every few hours from your subconscious/reality dropping small spooky hints or mirages, followed up by in the last few hours the game realizing that you're thirsty and throwing you into a waterfall and trying to convince yourself that you were so deeply engrossed and caught up with the filler that you forgot what really matters!!

tl;dr: not worth $20 dollars, barely worth your time as it is, only play it if you've got the stamina to wade through the 18+ hours of trash because the game scattered a bunch of the story in small hints and snippets alongside the road that is caked in tar.

 

[lightbane]

I tried playing this. Unfortunately, while I agree the artstyle is cool, it feels quite slow. Worse, nowadays I no longer have as much time anymore and save points are placed too far away IMO (and if your MC is killed in battle it's game over). I prefer it when I can save anywhere, or at least put save points close. Worse, the sprites are tiny, and you can't make the screen much bigger.

Thankfully there's this LP as an acceptable alternative: https://lparchive.org/Omori/

 

[Tyranicon]

I've wanted to buy this game several times, but was never sure if it's actually good, or it simply has the same cutesy art aesthetic with just decent enough writing for people to go apeshit.

An overwhelmingly positive JRPG with nearly 30k steam reviews and... only two pages on the codex.

Maybe I should just buy it and give it a fair shake.

 

[1451]

Do not buy it, there is a quest in it that requires from the player to find some letters.
At first it seems like optional but it isn't.
So I reached a point it would not let me progress because I was missing some letter.
Instead of returning and looking for it, I uninstalled the game and made sure to inform everyone about it stopping them from wasting their money and time on this horrible game.

 

[lightbane]

It turns out that the Master Race once again comes to the rescue! I found some fixes and mods that solve some of my issues with the game.
https://www.reddit.com/r/OMORI/comments/kl0y04/fullscreen_scaling/

Can someone try this if it works? I suppose pressing F8 ingame won't work as other RPGMaker games. If this works, it would fix the issue with the tiny sprites and screen size.
As for saving, I found mods that do fix this:
https://mods.one/mod/selfcheatguide
Let's you save anywhere, and more.

https://mods.one/mod/actualturnorder

This one is what I was looking for. There are more mods with stuff like better UI, a black-colored UI so that it doesn't blur with the battles' background, and many more.
Careful though, spoilers of this game are everywhere.

I've wanted to buy this game several times, but was never sure if it's actually good, or it simply has the same cutesy art aesthetic with just decent enough writing for people to go apeshit.

An overwhelmingly positive JRPG with nearly 30k steam reviews and... only two pages on the codex.

Maybe I should just buy it and give it a fair shake.

It seems like most of the JRPG players of the Codex are asping on the Legends of Steel or whatever that hundreds-of-hours long game series is called. LISA's thread needs more love and then there's Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass, allegedly better than Omori, but that it doesn't even have its own thread yet.

o not buy it, there is a quest in it that requires from the player to find some letters.
At first it seems like optional but it isn't.

Supposedly you will find all of the necessary letters no matter what. You can find others in the bonus route.
Yes, this game has some choices and consequences to some degree.

 

[lightbane]

I tried the mods. They work! Mostly. The Shin Omori one is incompatible with many, including the one that lets you save anywhere, so fuck it. The UI fixes make the combat portraits disappear for some reason as well, so it has to go.
The save anywhere "cheat" does work though, which makes the game much better by reducing backtracking.
Unfortunately the tricks I read to make the screen bigger do not work well, which is a bloody shame. Hopefully once it is released for the Switch, the devs increase the scaling.

 

[j2alg]

I have really mixed feelings on this. The mechanics are solid enough, great style and music, and the story about Sunny in the real world really draws you in - but then it's time to return to the dream world, which I think fucking sucks. So much time and potential wasted there. Also I hate the attempts at humor
To add insult to injury, this is by far one of the most expensive RPGmaker games I've seen - to contrast, entertaining and well-paced games like End Roll, AN EARTH, the Dogma series are FREE

 

[lightbane]

and the story about Sunny in the real world really draws you in - but then it's time to return to the dream world, which I think fucking sucks. So much time and potential wasted there. Also I hate the attempts at humor

That seems to be an opinion I've seen repeated, and I'm starting to agree with, as there's blatant padding and THOU MUST! scenes.
https://mods.one/mod/nullspace
https://mods.one/mod/selfcheatguide

The first mod gets rid of the dream world sequences, and the second one lets you save anywhere, perhaps these are of your interest. I plan to try the first one at some point after I finish the game.

To add insult to injury, this is by far one of the most expensive RPGmaker games I've seen - to contrast, entertaining and well-paced games like End Roll, AN EARTH, the Dogma series are FREE

It's 15$ barely, not that expensive but I get you. Can you provide links for the An Earth and Dogma ones? I found End Roll, but I'm not sure if what I found while looking for the last two games are what you had in mind. There are tons of RPGMaker games.

 

[j2alg]

about that, they're Japanese only series - download links available here
https://w.atwiki.jp/vip_rpg/sp/pages/631.html
https://www.freem.ne.jp/brand/6916

 

[lightbane]

Alright, finished this, in the end I used LPs and such because I loathed the tiny sprites and shit pacing. Seriously, the game should have been set in 7 or even 5 days instead of 3, as that way things don't feel so compressed during daytime events, only for the final day to go at neck-breaking speed.

Comments and spoilers below.

The game reminds me of Ni No Kuni The Wrath of the White Witch. Excellent production values, subpar gameplay. Not only combat is slow, the dream sections are a deliberate waste of time (in more ways than one). The game justifies it, but it's still boring to play compared to Sunny's daily life. Writing is much better during the day sections too.

Story is good and characters are usually fun. I found it disturbing how shit Aubrey's home situation is, unrelated to the plot ongoing and how you cannot do anything to help her, unlike all other random strangers you (optionally) help along the day just because. Speaking of, while the game has tons of little touches, it also has issues such as save points being placed inconsistently, or easily missable events that you have no way of knowing about unless you had a guide or blindly stumbled upon them.

The dreamworld is also ridiculously big, with tons of areas, secret areas hidden within secret areas, and so on. Shame that as mentioned above, it's not particularly interesting. Worse, all of the side-quests are not worth much, because once you get into Blackspace, your party members and your dream-world gear no longer matter. The Blackspace section is quite cool to explore and disturbing, but then you realize it has no fights, no damage tiles, no puzzles, no bosses, no enemies that can trap you like Yumme Nikki, nada. It's purely for atmosphere.
Then the final day starts, and things move a bit too fast, with Sunny facing his Shadow fears AND remembering the Truth (TM) all at once. Speaking of:

The plot-twist is quite edgy and hard to take seriously. I would be okay if it was an accident, OR Mari hanged herself, but both at once? It seemed over-the-top. IMO it happens that way only so that Sunny can see Mari's open eye, realizing she was still alive and he killed her, just to set up a black comedy moment taken from LISA.
Basil has some "interesting" ways to help people, or he's from a mob family. There's ingame text about the truth section but it only makes the whole thing look edgier. Perhaps that's why the photos are left to interpretation.
Next, Basil and Sunny go nuts as the former undergoes a psycho breakdown, culminating into a stabbing contest, all while your friends are sleeping next door, heh.
Finally, Sunny faces his final foe, which following Mother games' tradition, it's an unusual final boss encounter with appropriate cool music. Then the Final Duet happens and you'll probably bawl your eyes out.
The good ending is bittersweet, but it felt fine... There are more endings though, every one worse than the previous ones.

Meanwhile, the alternate route seems like an afterthought, with some cool scenes and situations, but not worth trudging through 30 hours of gameplay again. The BlackSpace 2 section though makes you wonder about Omocat's sanity, for good and bad.

Some details I liked is how Shinji Sunny starts his "serious" fights afraid, until he gathers his courage and starts the final ones in a neutral emotional state. Moreover, Sunny seems to like running away from his problems, seeing how you cannot help Basil the first time he's in trouble, how the game flips the punctuation signs during important battles to empathize the "RUN!" button and so on.

It's a shame there's no final dungeon right before the endboss, if only so that whatever time you spent to get your party members' endgear wasn't a waste.

True, the point is that the dreamworld is an intentional waste of time, but I think the game sabotages itself by making it too much of a good point. That wouldn't be an issue had the game been set in a more reasonable timeframe, allowing smoother transitions. Another missed opportunity that ties into this is that Sunny doesn't suffer from agoraphobia or anything. Instead, he can run around and talk to people normally the moment you answer to Kel, despite having been a shut-in for years. But then again that comes back to the 3 days time-limit, which required drastic action in order to cram the content in such short time.

Long story short, it's okay. It could have been better with some polishing touches, and I bet there was some MASSIVE mismanagement in the dev team to take so long to produce (ie: the "final duet" thing wasn't finished right before the game was released, and I believe I read somewhere Omocat wasn't sure how to end the story). It's not as good as LISA or the OG Mother titles, but it certainly has better writing than Undertale. For one, while "they" is unfortunately used as a neutral pronoun, boys and girls are referred by the right pronouns, as it should be. The MC is also hetero for sure, despite what the game trailers can make you believe.

In a whim, I snooped around to read about Omocat's personal life. Reading between lines, her life is much more depressing than this game's story. That explains why most ingame parents are always faulty to some degree. Also, the dev is a NO FUN ALLOWED ass and you cannot rename the MC using rude words or stuff like that, despite this being a single player game.

Now, the only Earthbound clone remaining to play is the Jimmy one, but that will be for later, once I'm not fed up with JRPG gameplay.

 

[Ivan]

Put a few hours in, 2 or 3, the combat boors me and puts me to sleep. Even with sprint always on, I couldn't put up with the game horrible pacing.

 

[Ivan]

tl;dr: not worth $20 dollars, barely worth your time as it is, only play it if you've got the stamina to wade through the 18+ hours of trash because the game scattered a bunch of the story in small hints and snippets alongside the road that is caked in tar.

taking this advice and fucking off to other shit

 

[cruel]

So, I like using this to find games to play:

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/genre/userscore/role-playing/pc?view=condensed

And it is, normally, pretty good reflection of game quality - we have:

Planescape: Torment 9.3
Baldur's Gate 2 9.1
Fallout 2 9.1
Gothic II 9.1
New Vegas 8.9
Bloodlines 8.9
Persona 4G 8.9

All good, only user scores, no crap from reviewers. Now I see this:

Omori 9.2

And need to ask: WTF? I played it, and it's nice little game with an interesting plot twist at the end, but seriously 9.2, masterpiece level? Outside of good story and writing, the game is basically a pretty average jRPG for 90% of the time. I just don't get. And I know, I know, don't trust the user reviews etc., but still, it just amazes me. I think I was expecting more of it.