…You know, I don’t really have a plan for these. Like, reasonably, I would read through everything, jot down a few major points, and then go back and write them all together all nice and organized. Essay-style, even.
Fuck that, though—I think in practice these are going to be something of a liveblog-liveblog (albeit skewed heavily towards, y’know, Actual Analysis and not incoherent keysmash-screaming), with me reading a chunk of the playthrough, pausing to annotate, rinse scroll repeat. If I ever do put together essay-style posts I think it’d be more sensible for them to be standalones, linking back to specfic examples as noticed through the liveblog, like some kind of upcyclced ouroboros of Omori obsession.
Oh, and there’s that ever-expanding dump of notes-to-self on the side, entirely separate from the liveblog. But uh, those didn’t start right away, I’ll get there when I get there.
Anyway!
we aren’t even through the damn playground
Discord message: a-flyleaf2023/01/12 4:08PMOh, btw, got myself Omori as a gift >:3c No spoilers, just finished the hide-and-seek bit at the start & will be heading out soon, but for the record: I don’t think any of these people are real lol, something is definitely up with Omori himself and I think he’s imagining all this. I don’t trust Basil and I think Kel’s gonna get murdered based on that one photo. Everything is way too bright and happy so far, barring the white starting zone (with a very conspicuous knife in the void, too); curious to see how this goes ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Thus it begins. Lol “something,” and Kel very much did not get murdered but I still think that’s a really conspicuous ketchup stain. It’s on the same side that Omori/Sunny stabs himself in, too, and I have net zero clue what to make of that.
Getting ahead of myself, though!
While I’ll resist the urge to copypaste like 90% of the Discord verbatim, here’s more initial thoughts, just because:
Discord message: Addendum, before I start playing again: I don’t think Omori’s friends are 100% made up, but I’m thinking it’s some kind of “he used to have real friends but lost them somehow and now he’s a depressed shut-in and pretends to have adventures with idealized versions of them” deal? I mean, classic edgelord game theory, but I do know this game deals with heavy topics (and depressed the shit out of one artist I follow on dA. He loved it)
Uhhh uh other things I know:
- “Space Boyfriend” is a character, I know literally nothing about him except that he exists
- Aubrey has pink hair and a baseball bat?? I don’t know if I trust her but I’m looking forward to that upgrade
- Emotions as a battle mechanic…? Haven’t done much with them yet but the portraits are cool, I like the OC redraws people do with ‘em
- Omori’s name is also Sunny?? Unsure if the other characters have alternate names/versions
[narrator voice] It Was Not An Upgrade.
Or like, I still think her later design is cool as hell. It just causes me immense psychological pain.
Also. also there is definitely something up with Basil, I said that earlier but like. he has the flower crown, he got kidnapped by the “Boss” (maybe all the pastel-verse characters are some kind of psychological projection??), he’s colorful and ~special~ in general
Also also. Why are these kids so fucking violent. Like everything is bright and cheery but also I think Kel(? the guy who’s not Hero) has kicked people, the hide-and-seek guy kicked him a few times at the end, everything just. carries on like that’s not a big deal. What The Fuck. some other little dialogue bits have already raised my eyebrow too (You are afraid of drowning. You are afraid of spiders. You are afraid of heights. and like, general comments about friendship and not being a good friend) and normally I’d think I’m reading into it all but also the impression I get from Omori-the-game is that everything is worth looking into, like, Undertale-level shit
Oh and Mari. If my semi-unfounded “these are psychological introjects” theory is leading anywhere, it is also very sus that she’s in the party early and then… Isn’t, to sit around at the healing zone? Is she like, Omori/Sunny’s mom. NGL I think I kept getting her confused with Aubrey in fanart IDK I’ll figure it out maybe
Goes without saying, but I was indeed confusing Mari for Aubrey at the beginning; I thought that Mari was in the party in the Neighbor’s Room, then stopped at the picnic. Listen, telling people apart (especially when they’re samefacey) is not my strong suit. (I’m not sure where I got the “fanart” part from, though, because I don’t remember seeing much; frankly I’m not even sure how I discerned Aubrey got pink hair.)
Anyway, RIP to Berly being read as “the guy” here. I’m still not sure why the kids are so fucking violent on the playground, tbh. Admittedly I grew up pretty sheltered, so maybe kids kicking around like this is/was perfectly normal, but other than Berly’s headbutt sidequest I don’t remember them being, uh, Like This elsewhere in Headspace. By the time you meet these kids in the real world, they’re already established “hooligans” (I don’t think that term is ever used as a proper noun in dialogue, much as it’s useful shorthand), plus there are deep-seated emotional wounds to work out and all that, so. Point is, it’s hard to get a read on whether they were like this in the real world, or if Sunny interpreted some playful roughhousing as harsher than it actually is, or what even.
Oh, and of course, the battle music used for the Boss character (and 2 of 3 Snaleys, and iirc aforementioned real-world fights, maybe others I’m forgetting) is called “Push & Shove”. The soundtrack title foreshadowing in this game is unreal.
I can’t believe Berly shoves Kel into a knife.
(Did I mention I might sprinkle some doodles into this? Have a doodle, maybe more where that came from; some stuff I might’ve wanted to draw at the time but didn’t, other silly things that occur to me, etc. …Also, y’know, drawing this did make me realize Kim has red glasses. Why? What does it mean, to see the world through red frames???? There’s only so much I can look into characters named after real people (maybe the real Kim Vance just has red glasses frames, and it feels weird to speculate about a real person anyway), but still. The trait stuck when it didn’t have to. I digress, though.)
Anyway, some smaller points of note before I finally progress the story again (and there will be many more “no plot only speculation” derailments where this comes from):
- The game’s art direction is excellent. Even better that it’s an early hint at Headspace being imagined by someone with a sketchbook in his room. Bonus points for the implication Sunny sees the world as an RPG because, y’know, he’s a fan of RPGs! The medium itself is characterization.
- This can only go so far, of course, seeing as a majority of assets are drawn even in the real world, and realistically strangers are not inviting you into their house to watch them fix a pipe (or making Koolaid-Man holes in the wall upon failing again). Sometimes a game just looks like a game because it’s, y’know, a game. Regardless, the mixed media makes for a hell of an aesthetic.
- Kind of a peculiar impression, in retrospect, this:
those bits where Omori can “play” with [his friends] (card game, make sand castles, have a picnic)? They feel so damn empty and for what. Everyone’s kinda just… off doing their own thing, there’s no cutscene there’s no dialogue they’re just chilling entirely separately. You could say this is a sort of “existing in the same room and having a good time” type of hangout but I Doubt
The wiki calls these sequences “breaktime” and I ended up finding them pretty endearing! It also becomes evident later that Sunny’s always been a passive kid (“Waiting for something to happen,” if you will), so it doesn’t feel too uncharacteristically lonely, in retrospect.
There’s also the idea that Headspace’s storyline roughly parallels the group bonding IRL. This is part headcanon-theory-extrapolation on my part (we start on a playground, a child’s paradise, and end in the Last Resort with jobs and a casino), but more objectively, the follow-up improvements are a thing! I’ll probably ramble about this concept later, but now’s as good a time as any to bring it up.
Anyway, though, let it also be known sometimes I am paranoid:
with that said I will actually resume playing but like, wrt everyone being violent/rude/mean for no reason:
this is so unnecessary. Did someone get shot in the head
No, past me. I think sometimes kids are just crude little shits.
