Good vs Bad Endings

[Etzarah]

So, do you guys prefer the good ending or the bad ending? Honestly, I think the bad ending is a more realistic conclusion to the story. Every part of the story, every dream sequence, and especially the ending cutscenes and final duet reinforce the strength of the bond Sunny and Mari had. It's just not something I see a kid, especially one as reserved as Sunny, ever overcoming. And as much as I sympathize with him every step of the way in struggling with his guilt, I feel like I wouldn't have been able to live with myself in the end, through all the intense guilt and sorrow he felt.

As much as I think the bad ending is a more realistic end for Sunny though, It creates so much more pain for the rest of the cast as well as Sunny and Mari's mom, it tears me up just thinking about it. What a masterpiece this game is.

[bridgeofblues]

So I went into the game completely blind. Deny look up a walkthrough once and maybe because of old school gamer. But I discovered a decent amount of the secrets and I got the best ending with The Secret post credit. Sort of confused by is why would you give up on end why would you abandon Basil in the main route because game is set up by that point to try to heal your relationships. Seems super bizarre to up and leave him. Even with the big reveal I remember when the character is 12 and everything in the game tells us that we care for these people we made a bad choice so again it was really confusing that you even have the options leave. All through the bad and ng feel 4th because it's something you get for simply not giving up the fight. Not give up seem like the most logical choice by that point.

[DR. DEADHEAD]

I suppose that's partly why the bad ending is so gut-wrenching: due to it's realistic nature in regards to how someone with severe depression would act. It's not easy to do what's right when you're in that state of mind, making the good ending all the more satisfying, imo.

[Omertoso]

The bad endings are realistic, yeah, but not more so than the good ending, in my opinion. They are equal in that sense; it really depends on the person how they would react in the given situation. Maybe someone would, for one reason or another, grow up to be less trustful of their friends, which leads to more loneliness, which leads to less self-confidence, which leads to less desire to overcome their trauma, and so on and so forth until the bad ending. Someone else would not have supportive people around them to begin with, which could lead to a similar conclusion. There are many people like this in real life who are only one small accident away from... well.

At the same time, here's Sunny, who had supportive friends. Even if they split apart, even if they weren't around for four years, in the end they came back together, had fun, talked about their traumas... Even if Sunny's trauma was entirely different from Kel, Aubrey and Hero, it was still extremely important to meet them and hang out with them again. Someone who has good people around them will always have more strength than someone who is alone in their head.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if I have people like that in my own life... Some gruesome homework that the game made me think about. At least nowadays I'm working towards being more appreciative of people, both those who are already around me and random people I meet wherever.

And even if there are no people around, there's still hope. People around the world are becoming more and more aware of the importance of mental health issues, and getting help for them is becoming easier and easier. Sure, "I went to therapy" is a far more boring story than what OMORI told, but it'd be better if we could grow up as people without experiencing extremely traumatic events, right?

But that's in real life. bridgeofblues said it well: The game is designed to make you want to go for the good ending. Isn't that the game developers saying that this is how it should be? Then again, that also begs the question: What purpose do the bad endings have? I genuinely don't understand. The first ending the player experiences always has the advantage for being imprinted into the player's memory harder; wouldn't it be bad for people to remember OMORI as a story only about suffering without salvation when you merely don't open the door for Kel?

[Etzarah]

Publicado originalmente por bridgeofblues:

So I went into the game completely blind. Deny look up a walkthrough once and maybe because of old school gamer. But I discovered a decent amount of the secrets and I got the best ending with The Secret post credit. Sort of confused by is why would you give up on end why would you abandon Basil in the main route because game is set up by that point to try to heal your relationships. Seems super bizarre to up and leave him. Even with the big reveal I remember when the character is 12 and everything in the game tells us that we care for these people we made a bad choice so again it was really confusing that you even have the options leave. All through the bad and ng feel 4th because it's something you get for simply not giving up the fight. Not give up seem like the most logical choice by that point.

I suppose you're right, but don't forget that Sunny was so distraught by Basil's role in the tragedy that he killed him over and over again in his mind to try to erase him from Dreamspace. With that in mind, if Sunny succumbed to Omori I think it's pretty believable that he would abandon Basil.

[Etzarah]

Publicado originalmente por Foreigner:

The bad endings are realistic, yeah, but not more so than the good ending, in my opinion. They are equal in that sense; it really depends on the person how they would react in the given situation. Maybe someone would, for one reason or another, grow up to be less trustful of their friends, which leads to more loneliness, which leads to less self-confidence, which leads to less desire to overcome their trauma, and so on and so forth until the bad ending. Someone else would not have supportive people around them to begin with, which could lead to a similar conclusion. There are many people like this in real life who are only one small accident away from... well.

At the same time, here's Sunny, who had supportive friends. Even if they split apart, even if they weren't around for four years, in the end they came back together, had fun, talked about their traumas... Even if Sunny's trauma was entirely different from Kel, Aubrey and Hero, it was still extremely important to meet them and hang out with them again. Someone who has good people around them will always have more strength than someone who is alone in their head.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if I have people like that in my own life... Some gruesome homework that the game made me think about. At least nowadays I'm working towards being more appreciative of people, both those who are already around me and random people I meet wherever.

And even if there are no people around, there's still hope. People around the world are becoming more and more aware of the importance of mental health issues, and getting help for them is becoming easier and easier. Sure, "I went to therapy" is a far more boring story than what OMORI told, but it'd be better if we could grow up as people without experiencing extremely traumatic events, right?

But that's in real life. bridgeofblues said it well: The game is designed to make you want to go for the good ending. Isn't that the game developers saying that this is how it should be? Then again, that also begs the question: What purpose do the bad endings have? I genuinely don't understand. The first ending the player experiences always has the advantage for being imprinted into the player's memory harder; wouldn't it be bad for people to remember OMORI as a story only about suffering without salvation when you merely don't open the door for Kel?

I like that you posed the question of why the bad endings exist in the first place, if the good ending is ultimately to be desired. I do feel like the good ending is the best ending to Omori, however I can't shake how realistic the bad endings feel as conclusions. Is their purpose to demonstrate how a lack of companionship can exacerbate depression? To display the strong healing power that Sunny's old friends have on him? If the emphasis is on his friends though, who's to say that all will truly be well once he confesses to them? While it was the right thing to do, and thus is a part of the good ending, there's no guarantee it went well. Maybe the bad endings are there to emphasize the cruel truth, that while Sunny can move on, and while he should move on, he will never really be alright.

[Omertoso]

Yeah, that's the thing with trauma, depression and all that. Even in real life, no one who experiences those things will truly "get over them" in the sense that they can say they've "been cured" of whatever was afflicting them as if it was a flu. It's a constant fight, but they still accumulate experience for it, and learn how to handle it better.

It's like playing a roguelike: They're very rough at the beginning when you know very little of the mechanics still, but when you beat the game for the first time, each following run is more likely to result in an another win. Sometimes you just get unlucky, as in other crap happens irl that makes you relapse, but even those give you insight on how to handle your situation even better.

As for what constitutes for a "win" for Sunny... I like to think the first one was when he opened the door for Kel, although he could still end up offing himself. The good ending is a win, of course, because he finally gets to say the truth out loud. Which, considering the hellish 4 years everyone involved has spent, is a feat that... jesus ♥♥♥♥ the amount of courage to do that ♥♥♥♥ is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unreal ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

With that said, it would've been super nice to see everyone react to Sunny's confession exactly due to how unreal the whole ordeal was. Oh god, I want to know for sure if they did forgive him and Basil even if I want to believe that they did! It's probably not shown for a reason, but STILL

There is one scene that can give some direction: The one where Aubrey confesses to bullying Basil. Kel and Hero are quick to sympathize. (Of course, Aubrey's situation is different to Sunny's... And while I dislike comparing people's suffering, I'd say killing your own sister is a biiiiit more traumatic). Considering how each of the trio have been facing their traumas and being open with sharing their experiences while Sunny has been dealing with his own, I'd like to think they'd at the very least give some sympathy for Sunny and Basil's side instead of just flat-out burn bridges.

But it'll be a long healing process, that's for sure.

[Etzarah]

Publicado originalmente por Foreigner:

Yeah, that's the thing with trauma, depression and all that. Even in real life, no one who experiences those things will truly "get over them" in the sense that they can say they've "been cured" of whatever was afflicting them as if it was a flu. It's a constant fight, but they still accumulate experience for it, and learn how to handle it better.

It's like playing a roguelike: They're very rough at the beginning when you know very little of the mechanics still, but when you beat the game for the first time, each following run is more likely to result in an another win. Sometimes you just get unlucky, as in other crap happens irl that makes you relapse, but even those give you insight on how to handle your situation even better.

As for what constitutes for a "win" for Sunny... I like to think the first one was when he opened the door for Kel, although he could still end up offing himself. The good ending is a win, of course, because he finally gets to say the truth out loud. Which, considering the hellish 4 years everyone involved has spent, is a feat that... jesus ♥♥♥♥ the amount of courage to do that ♥♥♥♥ is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unreal ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

With that said, it would've been super nice to see everyone react to Sunny's confession exactly due to how unreal the whole ordeal was. Oh god, I want to know for sure if they did forgive him and Basil even if I want to believe that they did! It's probably not shown for a reason, but STILL

There is one scene that can give some direction: The one where Aubrey confesses to bullying Basil. Kel and Hero are quick to sympathize. (Of course, Aubrey's situation is different to Sunny's... And while I dislike comparing people's suffering, I'd say killing your own sister is a biiiiit more traumatic). Considering how each of the trio have been facing their traumas and being open with sharing their experiences while Sunny has been dealing with his own, I'd like to think they'd at the very least give some sympathy for Sunny and Basil's side instead of just flat-out burn bridges.

But it'll be a long healing process, that's for sure.

Absolutely, and I think that's why so many people, myself included, cannot stop thinking about the game for days or weeks after playing it. It's so good at making you understand the process of dissociation and mental anguish Sunny went through for so long, all while enticing you to fall in love with the characters. At the end you can't help but feel empathy for them. I think they probably made the right decision in keeping the group's reaction at the end ambiguous, but I think they would probably be understanding, if after a little while.

[Rockaedward]

I prefer the good ending cuz its much more happy. The bad ending is more realistic tho, we'll just have to wait and see if Omocat eventually confirms which ending is the true one. (I think its the secret good ending)