#it is so appealing to choose his illusions and imagination over the dreary real world of suburbia. it feels like a loss to reject Headspace

[mirror-to-the-past]

My biggest gripe with Omori, made all the more painful through replaying, has got to be the absolute *drudgery* that is the combat system in the Real World. The fun and interesting emotion system completely falls to the wayside, even though changes in emotion *are* technically present. It's just that they don't really influnce anything, so it's kind of pointless. No fun ability moves or anything, you're just spamming attack over and over again, whittling down enemies that have way too much health considering that they don't have any phases, special moves, or anything.

The only fights in the Real World in which this boring combat style works in the game's favor is with the first fight in the Real World with Aubrey in the park, and the second Aubrey fight in the church. Both cases are because of the thematic elements that are being subverted and explored, accordingly. In the first fight, it's wonderfully brilliant, because the player goes into the fight with the preconceived expectations of Sunny's imaginative dreamscape only to realize that, oh- Aubrey actually got cut from Sunny swinging his knife at her? Oh my god, this is an actual fight... with consequences. This is real. It walks you through Sunny's likely feelings of disorientation and dissociation. It doesn't overstay its welcome outside of the point it's trying to make- I quite like it.

And when it comes to the church fight, the atmosphere is great. The brutality of the normalcy, of Sunny and Kel just hitting and throwing shit at Aubrey while littered with nasty dialogue from the churchgoers- it stings, and it sucks how they're doing this boring, pointless fight-meets-public-humilation because why are we even fighting? We're supposed to be friends.

All of the other fights in the Real World, though? Ugh. There's no atmosphere, the repetition is a slog, and it's like. C'mon, guys. It feels unfinished. There were absolutely better ways to introduce, explore, and get aid from the Hooligans. I think doing mini side quests for each of the Hooligans in order to get information about Aubrey would have been WAY preferable than this. Then you could've had, you know, more meaningful environmental storytelling and dialogue to explore each of their personalities and stuff instead of just hitting them for a few minutes.

I'm also reminded of my other disatisfaction with the Hooligans in that, outside of Aubrey, they mainly feel *silly,* not really like any particular threat they are assumed to be. Like, we can assume they engage with and/or are complacent with Aubrey's bullying, and are otherwise the "bad news" that Kel considers them to be. However, with the way that most of them are OUTWARDLY PORTRAYED as just silly, quirky guys with the most heinous crimes involving shoplifting candy, I have a really hard time holding disdain for them at any point in the game- makes Kel just seem like the guy who hates the nerdy kids at school lmao.

In my fantasy universe, each of the Hooligans have their mini side quests that give little hints of their lives as troubled teens, make them a tad less cartoony, and maybe imply something about the atmosphere of Faraway as a whole.

Mikhael is from a strict, religious family where he's a black sheep that acts in outlandishly showy ways to express autonomy while also denying his authentic self. Kim and Vance are children of divorce, or at least have separated parents, with a father who doesn't seem to have his head screwed on all the way, while their mother is a super orderly neat-freak. Charlie is a super withdrawn youngest child of several siblings- her parents are aging and she aids her mother in some level of medical caretaking. I don't even know where Angel's parents are- he just lives with his older sister.

So like, see what I mean? There was groundwork laid- I can see stuff that might give these kids a chip on their shoulder that we could dive into more, but they just kind of act goofy and unbothered when they're not being dicks to Basil, and so it's difficult to fully subscribe to this idea that I ever saw them as an antagonistic force. Aubrey's really the only one wearing her 'misunderstood antagonist' hat loud and proud. Her back must hurt from carrying all that hardass energy for the rest of the Hooligans.