4.5/5 ★ – kimchia's review of OMORI.

SPOILERS Okay. I’m just gonna get this out of the way. This game is far from perfect. The combat starts out interesting but quickly becomes ridiculously shallow - a few hours in I found a routine which I mindlessly stuck to for the rest of the game, a real shame considering the great animations for some of the more unique special moves. The pacing is a liiiiiitle bit jank - I spent a LOT of time in headspace just wishing I could get to the next story-based section, and then in the real world sections I wanted (to a lesser extent) to get to real gameplay. My biggest complaint is the story. I cannot for the life of me understand why this game would set up a three-dimensional character for Mari, making it seem like she had a lot of pain under her bubbly exterior and that she had a complex personality, only for the game to throw a ridiculous twist at the end. Why? There was no problem! Plenty of people feel intense guilt after suicides, everything would have fit!! The twist came off as a bit tasteless. Don’t get me wrong, I had that same “holy shit” moment while looking through the photo album that I’m sure everyone else had, but after the excitement cooled off it just felt kinda off. This is easily a 4.5 star game. The final duet was so incredibly beautiful that it managed to make this game fantastic in spite of (NOT because of) the wack twist. But this could have easily been five stars, I reallllly wish it was five stars, because clearly this game is something truly special. The art style is amazing and the characters are fantastic (punk Aubrey ily so much girl). But hey. I sobbed during the ending. That’s almost more than I could ask for.