“You’ve Been Living Here For as Long as You Can Remember”: Trauma in OMORI's Environmental Design

Aya Younis*, Jana Fedtke

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Developed by Omocat and released in December 2020, OMORI is a surreal psychological horror role-playing game. The game follows the titular protagonist Omori as it examines such sensitive topics as suicide, grief, death, and depression. Such traumatic events are triggered in several planes of existence—White Space, Headspace, and Black Space—leading to anxiety, regression, and resurfacing trauma. In our article, we examine such representations of trauma with particular attention to the role of environmental design. The planes represent different approaches to memory, trauma, and repression, which Omori and the player navigate in non-linear, recursive paths. We analyze how each space seeks to illuminate and explore aspects of trauma in its respective atmosphere. Through environmental design, OMORI provides players with three distinct experiences with escapism and trauma that are representative of the experiences of trauma victims, ultimately elucidating the psychological phenomenon on a larger scale to de-stigmatize trauma.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)309-336
Number of pages28
JournalGames and Culture
Volume19
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2024

Keywords

  • OMORI
  • environmental design
  • escapism
  • trauma
  • video games

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Communication
  • Anthropology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Applied Psychology
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '“You’ve Been Living Here For as Long as You Can Remember”: Trauma in OMORI's Environmental Design'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this