hikikomori5

• the junkyard music is so good and for What…
• “gold” watch is a charm that exists! …hm, I’ll have to see if dad wears one,^[1] it seems like a big deal the way it’s hidden in a little car/cone zigzag
• thanks for the can, Kel, we only need -checks inventory- 39… more…! (and other junk will add up too but idk how much)
• You might even call it… a roadblock… get it? ^^ Hero can be punny too, I forgot about that. bless
• so Aubrey’s the first person you help (the tutorial quest in Neighbor’s Room) and the first to get (usefully) tagged here. (you can head-hop, ofc, but you will use her ability first.) small details but the amount of spotlight she gets really continues to be eyebrow-raising
• today also on “hotkeys I totally forgot about,” ohh, that’s where people get those screenshots of the quick-tag thing. I always toggled it from the menu,,,,
• oh wait a sec that also means Aubrey references an irl-gameplay mechanic, pressing the A key. Huh
• maaan I don’t fuckin remember where Mari is in this area but I have never been more grateful for Bread… at least only fighting each enemy once means I don’t need to use it too much, but also, I ain’t grindin for more
• Glasses Ghost looks around aimlessly as if it is lost. alright they all have it confirmed

• so Life Jam Guy. same “animation is literally just the sprite but flipped” schtick as the cowboy with Ominous Dialogue (and who thus is entirely missable, rendered sand on day 3 (at least in the true route, in which I did in fact miss him entirely)) and the, uh, reverse mermaid. I don’t know what to make of any of this, honestly; Life Jam Guy and [cowboy] at least have Importance, whereas reverse mermaid is… fish with leg.
• you are apparently entirely capable of walking away from Life Jam Guy, but if you do talk to him and then say no to the demo too bad you’re getting a fight anyway. also huh, forgot he uses the same music as the Breaven encounters
• man why on earth is there A photo of someone familiar. in the Junkyard anyway… a memorial photo mind
• Mari: I cleared out the junk here and found a perfectly good roasted chicken. underrated humor moment
• god, throwback to reading Mari’s greetings for the rest of the gang for the first time. most delightful exchanges known to man
• Kel you better swipe as many cans as humanly possible, i do Not feel like killing another ~35 minutes u-turning outside the doghouse >:I
• There’s a weak point on its head! I can recognize one of those anywhere. Kel I have Questions
• this whole sequence is such a weird little non-encounter and doesn’t come back at any later point or anything… then again, same goes for Hero and Ems the hamster, and ofc the useless key count that for some reason did not get patched out. makes me think all these mini-mechanics were supposed to Go Somewhere, they didn’t, but they were too minor to bother swapping out…
• y’know I always say Kel and Aubrey took care of Headspace fights (mutually; strategy was basically just to make both pissed and then Curbstomp) but Kel’s pass to Hero was pretty useful too! although, fun fact, there’s a(nother never-patched, for some reason) bug/oversight where apparently this follow-up uses Aubrey’s attack stat. so uhh… well hers is way higher I ain’t complainin’
• the Mixtape attack animation looks vaaaguely like tentacles and/or scribbles, don’t know what to make of that
• seeing as I actually need stat boosts this round, and thus am using Different Weapons (in the first run I literally only changed them out to beat up the Dino Dig chicken, which turned out to be entirely unnecessary): Aubrey gets a Comet Hammer, Kel gets a literal meteor. beautiful.
• y’know it really struck me as curious that you can’t finish the hangman in the true route, you’d think you would be able to considering that’s when you learn The Truth. really curious to see how that plays out this round….
• didn’t even mean to use Omori’s tag ability on the cheese but it does prompt the following flavor text: You cut the cheese. this is a mature psychological horror game

• ignoring the part where Ems is a creator cameo, I guess this implies Hero had a pet all along too >:O thought it was only Kel (Hector, although brothers ofc) and Aubrey (Bun-Bun). hey Sunny why does Hero’s pet get talking privileges
  • ok rock-Hector does talk, and have a whole-ass family yet, but only if you complete that sidequest
• oh, forgot the hamster also has that… semi-faded effect for the zipping-around-cheese bit. uhhh. Huh
• Kel forgetting what they were looking for already, lmao. …his memory’s really kinda shit, isn’t it? between this and genuinely forgetting Major Events irl, and it’s clearly not even limited to Upsetting Things. bro?
• faster version of this theme (during the Rosa chase) isn’t on the OST I don’t think? it’s got those high-pitched wheezy noises that (according to YouTube comments) are apparently supposed to be like, “yea! woo!” sounds. unless the regular soundtrack has those too, just slower. idk. It Slaps
  • update: ayyyyy

404

• entire 404 area raises So Many Questions and i have answers for approximately none of them. like ok:
  • changing the channel ≈ changing the world, both via TV/Universal (respectively) Remote charms and that bit in the truth sequence with the TVs playing scenes through Headspace. being stuck in one’s head basically is like staring listlessly at a screen for hours on end. (uhh sticks a pin here for another tangent maybe: All-American Dad, Aubrey’s mom??). is Ultimate Escapism basically.
  • 404 Not Found, but it’s not a TV thing it’s the internet. the internet isn’t really a big thing in this game, although computers certainly are—Omori’s journal, based on Dad’s laptop; Sunny’s actual computer, and of course blackjack inspiring the whole Last Resort area.
  • ok! we have listed out the literal items. the fuck does it all mean together in the context of a random-ass exploding pop-up miniboss, though.
• all that and I also forgot Rosa just blanks the whole time she’s in the middle of—hm. sacrifice circle, of sorts?? oh and one of the Unviersal Remote areas is one of these TVs, though I forget which it leads to; the dark staticy Black Space area, maybe?
• god help you if you did not save at Mari’s picnic while you had the chance, once you enter here You Can Not Turn Back.
• god help me also, last time I was so grossly overleveled it… actually I forget if it either didn’t get to unleash The Big Attack or it just didn’t do enough damage to stick out to me lmao, but I’m leaning option one.^[2] I will almost definitely face it this time

• update, Sad and two Attack debuffs (Mock is wonderful) later the fuckign explosion OHKO’d Aubrey and obliterated everyone else’s HP down to like, under half, in one go. probably should’ve made everyone angry and not just Hero (figured he could take the Anger defense nuke better) good lord
  • I am not yelling about this like I did with Pluto because it was ~sorrrt of expected but *if it happens multiple times in a row god help me
• Hero does a surprisingly decent chunk of damage with that weapon upgrade and the emotional boost, ngl
• he also managed to heal up Omori and Kel before the next ’splosion, then went down—but at that point the window had nary a crumb of health left! hell yeah!! also sorry bro you did not die in vain!!!! (smh didn’t leave enough juice for Omori to at least get some bread out of it, oh well)
  
  
  (Kel needed the EXP boost too lbr)

anyway!

• How will we ever wake up Space Boyfriend now? The future of the once-great coalition of Space Pirates is depending on us… I’m telling you she is literally so dramatic
• Now scream, you ugly plant creature! Go bother someone else! Kel meanwhile lmao, right to the point
• wack that Rosa actually does get her revenge (the dungeon nonsense later). double wack is the implication that this ended in the kids getting tortured, in some previous iterations

anyway! that’s a wrap for today, and as a side note:

somehow through all the nonsense today (during which I don’t really remember anyone fainting that much??) the levels evened out again! Omori’s still well ahead and that gap won’t get smaller, but hey; Kel’s winning now too and he can thank the 404 for that.