Quick Links
When you first start playing Omori, you're led to believe that the protagonist is a grayscale boy living in a multicolored world of dreams and adventures with his friends. However, upon finishing the game's first major arc, it's revealed our protagonist is actually the young Sunny, a shut-in living in a fairly ordinary suburban neighborhood.
What follows is a story that flips between the aforementioned brightly-colored adventures and the darkness that lurks beneath it all. While the truth of the matter is gradually revealed to you by the end of the game, the precise identity of Omori isn't immediately apparent, at least not without extensive digging into the game's deeper elements. The origin and motivations of this mysterious character are almost as distressing as those of his counterpart, Sunny, but let's delve deep into the lore and plot of Omori.
Fair warning, we will be getting into major spoilers for Omori here, so if you can, please experience this game first. More importantly, as with the game itself, we will be touching on some sensitive subjects here, including trauma and self-harm. If you find these subjects distressing, please consider not reading on.
Updated November 4, 2022 by Daniel Trock: Despite being out for a while, Omori tells a narrative that keeps us intrigued and wanting to revisit it. We've gone further into detail to explain some of the events, further clarifying Mari's fate in the game and changing formatting to highlight these moments from the story.
How Did Mari Die?
Sunny, his friends, and his older sister Mari lived fun, carefree days during their collective childhoods. While they had some occasional problems in their individual lives, they were happy when they were together. This changed on Sunny's 12th birthday when everyone pitched in to get him a violin.
He began practicing the instrument so he could play alongside Mari and her piano, but gradually found the pressure and expectations to be too great. On the night of Sunny and Mari's recital, Sunny pitched his violin down the stairs. When Mari confronted him, they got into a fight that culminated in Sunny, blind with anger, shoving Mari down the stairs, killing her.
Sunny's friend Basil, who had come early to prepare for the recital, saw the incident. Terrified of what would happen to Sunny, Basil convinced him to drag Mari's body to the large tree in the backyard and hang her from it to stage her death as a suicide. The sight of Mari's lifeless eye glaring at him through her hair scarred Sunny permanently, appearing behind him as a one-eyed Something.
Sunny Creates Omori And Headspace
Following his part in the death of his sister, Sunny retreated into himself, lacking the energy or motivation to do anything besides stay in his room and sleep. Within his lucid dreams, Sunny concocted a sterile safe zone known as White Space where he could sit quietly and not have to think about his guilt. This was not enough, however; Sunny's guilt was so all-consuming that he couldn't stand to even exist as himself. So, he didn't. It was at this moment that Omori came to be.
Omori was originally intended as a "dream avatar" of sorts, a hollow person that Sunny could embody within his dreams so he didn't have to be himself. Within the safety of Omori's guise, Sunny constructed Headspace and populated it with images of his friends and sister.
It was here that Sunny, as Omori, could be happy. After all, Omori still had friends. Omori's sister was alive. Omori was strong and went on adventures. Omori was everything Sunny was not. As Sunny spent time embodying Omori, Omori began to take on a life of his own, developing into something akin to a defense program, keeping Sunny safe from the pain of his memories.
Omori Tries To Protect Sunny's Peace
However, anyone can tell you that you can't bottle up your negative feelings forever. As time went on, Sunny's guilt and memories would still torment him, bubbling up within Headspace in the form of Black Space and Something. In order to ensure Sunny's safety, Omori would wipe Headspace entirely, submerging it in its entirety into Black Space and recreating it from scratch. This would keep Sunny placated for a period, though inevitably, Omori would have to do it several more times over the course of several years.
The presence of Dream Basil within Headspace proved particularly problematic for Omori due to Basil's own role in Mari's death, necessitating Omori to remove Dream Basil from Headspace directly on each reset, usually violently. As the years passed, more of Sunny's emotional processes were left to Omori, and he continued to develop into an independent entity.
Omori Takes Drastic Measures
After the second time Sunny wakes up during Omori's story, he starts leaving the house to hang out with Kel on his last few days in Faraway Town. During this time, he begins recalling his memories, subtly tainting the image of Headspace. Within his dreams, Omori begins to become more overtly hostile toward Sunny, trying to keep him from leaving Headspace and rediscovering his memories.
Omori still wants to protect Sunny from the pain of his memories, but years of forced repression have molded Omori into an avatar of self-loathing. Any action beyond never-ending days of quietly sleeping at home is potentially dangerous to his purpose, and he won't abide that.
After getting into a fight with Basil on the final day and ending up in the hospital, Sunny's consciousness is dragged into Black Space by Omori, now resolved to take drastic measures. In Omori's view, the only thing waiting for Sunny if he tries to confront his guilt is endless pain and suffering. As such, he concludes that the best course of action is to force Sunny to take his own life. Omori genuinely believes that the only way to protect Sunny from the pain of realization is to end it altogether.
Omori And Sunny's Potential Outcomes
Sunny and Omori fight, but Omori has amassed so much strength over the years, that he can not be defeated with brute force. Unlike the various monsters and villains Sunny encountered in Headspace as Omori, Omori can't be beaten into submission, as much like the guilt he represents, he'll always return. Unable to defeat Omori, Sunny is knocked out.
What happens next depends on Sunny's (and you, the player's) resolve. Should Sunny give up the fight against Omori, Omori will wipe Sunny's personality from his mind and assume direct control of his body. In one final act of denial, Omori hurls Sunny's body from the roof of the hospital.
If, however, Sunny can muster the courage to continue, he will play his violin with the memory of Mari, finally confronting his guilt and staying resolute in the memory of his friends. With no means of repression left, Omori admits defeat and disappears from Sunny's mind, his role rendered unnecessary, while Sunny goes to tell his friends about what really happened to Mari.
Omori is, essentially, a metaphor for the trauma of Mari's death at Sunny's hands and the severely self-detrimental lengths he went to in order to stay blissfully ignorant of his own pain. Omori was not a malevolent invader in Sunny's thoughts, but merely a process of self-defense gone out of control. This is why Sunny couldn't defeat him in a simple boss fight: depression and self-hatred aren't monsters you can kill with a knife. It's just something you have to confront and work through.