Part 16: What Makes a Hero?

Update 16: What Makes a Hero?







Something, Alone































Welcome back to White Space.





Good bye White Space.













This was a shock to me. I was doing the usual LP thing of trying to search through the cupboards for as much content as possible and... realized the stab menu was usable straight after arriving in White Space. There's... only a couple things to actually see though. Like the tentacles of darkness that greet us as we awake.







Something... is there. We saw something there in our nightmare world too. I wonder if there was something there previously?





Oh... guess I'm just imagining things like Sunny. Anyway, let's head back to White Space.





Here's how the hangman game is going so far. I don't think I figured it out until I had one more letter that we'll find somewhat soonish. Once we get that one, I think the answer becomes clear (though you still need to actually find the letters even if you know the answer. No sequence breaking!)





There's no new pictures in the notebook or anything of note new in White Space right now, so let's go see our friends again.









Omori! Welcome back!

See, Hero? I told you not to worry. Omori always shows up when we need him!

Is everything okay, Omori? We were worried about you...





Be patient, Kel! We have to make sure that Omori is okay first!

Or maybe... you and Hero can go yourselves.





Just the two of us!


Whoa, that's a bit of an escalation there. She didn't really come on that strong to Omori before.


Hey, you can't leave us out of this!

He's right Aubrey. We have to do this together as a team.

You never know when you'll need someone's help. We're stronger when we work together!

Hmph! Omori and I will be fine on our own.

You'll protect me, won't you, Omori?

Eww... gross... get a room.

Come on, Aubrey. It's time to get serious now. Let's go tell Mari that Omori is okay. You know how she's always worrying about him...

Okay, okay... fine... I was just trying to have a little fun...


Hmm... starting to wonder how much experiencing the outside has affected Omori/Sunny.





The snake gives us 750 clams, which almost doubles our current clam count so that's quite a bit of an allowance!





Now, we could head to the playground... but we haven't seen the west and north sides yet. First, let's check out the west side:







Isn't this place filled with bugs and stuff? Omori and Hero don't do well with spiders...

Ugh... Spiders...

Yo Hero, are you okay?

Huh? O-Oh, I'm just fine! Let's uh... let's go see what Mari has to say first.


Damn, Hero's got that arachnophobia bad, huh? I wonder if he also has imaginary battles with them on the stairs.

Now then, heading to the north side of the Forest...











We... see a quick glimpse of Something over the water. Fun fact, as soon as you leave the tree house in update 2 - you can come straight here! I just didn't show it off then so I could hide the lurking darkness for a bit. I wanted people to get comfortable first.







Here's a bit of cuteness to make up for the darkness. I love that Kel is so into Pluto.







BY YOUR SIDE





Omori!





Stop disappearing like that!

You know my heart can't take it.





Hmm... So there's still no sign of Basil? Where could he be?

We're not sure... We've been looking for him everywhere, and still... nothing.

Sigh... I hope Basil is okay... I miss him so much.

Yeah! I miss hearing him talk about all the stuff he's into... like all the flower stuff... and the photo stuff... and the art stuff... and the reading stuff...

My hair is so tangly. I miss when Basil used to brush my hair.

Omori, will you brush it for me?

Well, I miss when Basil used to remind me to wash my hands. Look! They're so dirty!

Eww! Kel!

Kel... You should probably wash your hands anyway.

Everyone... I know it's tough right now, but we have to stay positive! We should all try to be like Basil! Even when Basil is upset, he always manages to smile.

So... is there anywhere you haven't checked yet?





Well... There is a forest west of stump, but...

It's gross and full of spiders!





Ugh... Spiders...

Well you know what that means...

Once again, it's time to face your fears, little brother!

And that means you too, Hero!

Come on, big bro! You can't back out now. It's just like how it is with Omori. We're here to support you all the way!

Yeah, you're right... haha... I'm just being silly...

Don't worry, guys! If anyone or anything tries to hurt you, I'll smash it out of the way! You can count on it!

And don't forget about me! I'll always be there to help too.


We truly have some great friends.

Or uh, dream-friends.


Yeah... Yeah! We can do this together!

L-Let's go to the forest west of the stump. Lead the way, Omori!


Yes, lead the way Omori!





Southwards!





...WHAT.





Have you ever put your hands in your face at how stupid something is and then just started slowly laughing until you started laughing manically? No? Just me, I mean yeah who would do that?





Hmm, the poster changed from being a wanted sign.





Sweetheart, huh? This play must be quite good, it got 6/5 stars from Sweetheart herself! I wonder if we'll get a chance to check it out.













SPROUT MOLE3: Oh my, oh my! I can hardly contain my excitement. This show is sure to be the most electrifying of them all!

SPROUT MOLE4: Oh dear, oh dear! We must hurry! Our four front row Show Tickets are right here! We are in for the time of our lives, and must not be late!




SPROUT MOLE1: Now... which way do we go again?





...Uh oh.







This is gonna end poorly...





For them





Let me see! Oh, they're front row tickets for some kind of show...

Featuring... Sweetheart?

Wasn't that Capt. Spaceboy's ex-girlfriend?

Yeah! It looks like some sort of contest or something!

If we happen to pass by, we should stop and watch! We do have front-row Show Tickets after all!

Well... alright. Maybe we can drop by if we happen to come across it.


Alright then, now we can continue...





Going southwards, as I intended. I'm assuming that going south can let you fast travel out of here and breaks some scripting so the devs just funnel you into the fight first. I've seen a stream of someone that went back to the junkyard immediately after the Space Ex-boyfriend fight and never saw the red foot prints that lead away so they spent like an hour being unsure of where to go. Always got to appreciate the effort devs will make to try and breadcrumb players to progress.





The first reason to head south is that the flowers are starting to die off. So we'll water them back to life for Basil. I'm sure he'd appreciate it.





You can also get an extra heart by doing this. Each character will gain a heart or two depending on the type of flower being watered (It's according to which flower reminds Basil of that person).





This picnic isn't available until after Omori gets over his fear of heights, so it's likely missed by most people (myself included).





Do you think Basil is okay? I feel like maybe we should be more worried...

Hmm... his disappearance is concerning... but it won't help anyone to get too worked up over it.

Basil is really trusting... He'll believe anything anyone says!

What if someone tricked him into something? Or maybe he's fallen into a trap!

Calm down, Aubrey... I'm sure we'll find him!

I know! Why don't you all water his flowers while he's away?

I'm sure he'll be super thankful once he's back.

Sniff... sniff...

Aww... Aubrey, come on! I don't like it when you cry!

Cheer up! On the outside, Basil may seem really soft, but he's actually pretty strong on the inside.

Basil can take care of himself! You should believe in him a little more!

Sniff... Well, when you put it that way...

Okay, I'll try to believe in Basil... Thanks, Kel. Hehe...

Ahh! Don't smile at me! It's creepy!

You're creepy!


This is the 2nd hint by the game that you should water Basil's flowers. And you really should do so, we'll find out the reason why in... 20 hours?







Basil's home, meanwhile has seen better days without Basil tending to it. It's somewhat eerie here now.





The inside, isn't any better. There's a hole in the middle now that looks like one of those gaps left behind by the hangman keys. If we try and inspect it though, all we get is "The floor is sinking." Creepy.





Now then, before we finish things up. We've got some things to go over, since we beat a section of the game. First up, our completed quests:














Mari's got a good positivity to her... I wonder if she was always like that or if Omori is only remembering the good about her.

Now then, since the last time we talked to Mari, we've unlocked the Tag ability! If you tag over to another party member, Mari will have something different to say for each person.









Neat little touches like this are always appreciated by me. Now then, let's get to the Foe Facts for Otherworld!





Also this tree, for some reason.





The destroyer of sinus cavities, the cause of runny noses. Look on my snot ye mighty, and despair.





I'm a big fan of the blob design of the bunnies and cats in this game. It's gotta be real simple for the artists and makes the creatures look even cuter.





I never realized it was Unidentified Flying Orange until I read the foe facts... the more you know!





It was nice to meet Kel in the real world and find out that no, Omori is imagining Kel perfectly as a simple minded naive fool.





I don't either Aubrey.





My God Hero, I must have fought at least a dozen of those. How many of these things did you have??





I can't even hear the word "Dial-up" without instinctively going "Bee-dew Bee-dew" and making white noise sounds, and no those are not the same sounds as my posts!!!





It also got a DOOM port not too long ago.





I really really like the gills being the windows. It's such a cool design.





What the hell Kel? That thing is adorable, how could you think of doing that?







Kite Kid also talked to us about seeing a strange void in the distance... I'm sure nothing will come of that.





Kel you like his everything. He's your pet rock, you made a sand castle of him!





Hey, I'm in this picture!





[COMMENTARY NOT FOUND]





A split personality that only appears when broken up with affects... a lot of people actually. Less seriously, I love the bandages over his heart.

Now then, after beating Space Ex-Boyfriend, our follow-ups have improved! For some of these, they just get a boring "does more damage" buff. Hero's is still boring, healing for 25% of HP now instead of 15%, but he also heals 15% of juice. It's still using 3 energy, so good if youre grinding a lot I guess? But here's the differences for the ones that improved in interesting ways.

• Aubrey looking at Kel will now cause both party members to get angry and get an attack buff.
  
• Aubrey looking at Hero will still make Aubrey happy, but will now give her a defense boost, on top of recovering 25% of her HP.
  
• Kel can pass the ball to Omori now, who won't fumble it but will deal damage to a random foe and become happy.
  

That ends that short list. Aubrey looking at Omori still has her do another strong attack. That's been buffed, but there's also... another layer...











Still my favorite follow-up, if only for this interaction. As well, a minor note: when we started the game, Omori had a "sharp knife" equipped, and now he has a "knife" equipped. We can't change this, so it's... interesting.

Alright then, we are now finally good to go...







...To the train station! You may recall that Capt. Space Boy gave us a train ticket while trying to make Aubrey stop crying. While the game tries to get you to head towards the Spider Forest, it's actually a better idea to take the train first. We can also buy some lemonade if we want. It's a decent juice healing item that's pretty cheap.





TRAIN STATION JASH: Whoa... That's a Train Pass... You must be the last passengers! We've been waiting for you for a very long time. Well... That's an all-clear from me! Welcome aboard, patrons!


Wait, how long have you been waiting?? Capt. Space Boy said he hasn't ridden a train since he was a boy!





Hmm, maybe we are getting on the phantom train after all. Keep an eye out for martial artists.







A little spooky, what with the ghostly spirits... wait, did we actually get on the phantom train? What the fuck, let me off, that train scared me as a kid!









Well uh, we've established where home isn't at least. It's somewhere though, that's a positive step!





Why are you carrying Crystals, dude? Oh did you just leave the mines? I can forget to drop them off at my house before going to the farmhouse to get the animal products. I really need to leave a chest outside the barn to dump it all in.





Uh... so, why do you have this? Did... did you also come from the mines...?











...Uh oh.









That... that doesn't look friendly.







Something is on the Train




FADE







First off, what the fuck. Second of all, this is the first nightmare fight we've had inside the dreamworld. Interesting enough, every character except for Omori becomes afraid. Afraid limits that person only to attacking, they are unable to use any skills. That... could make things difficult.







We're actually gonna use one of those battle items I never use. Confetti makes the entire party one stage of happy. So if they're already happy, they'll become ecstatic. But since they're all afraid, they'll now be happy and can utilize skills again.





Despite being disjointed, it feels better to know they're smiling rather than cowering in fear. Also Omori's smile is... as hell.





I'm not sure anything in the dreamworld has referred to us directly as Sunny, as opposed to Omori. What is going on here...?