Part 5: It's a Really Vast Forest

Update 5: It's a Really Vast Forest













WHITE SPACE





We're back in White Space, it's somehow comforting to be here compared to... reality. Nothing's changed here... except for the laptop.









Welcome to the HANGMAN game. This is a very special game where you collect the letters of the alphabet within the game and right letters will be added to the bottom while incorrect ones add a line to the right. Getting this correct is a key way of getting the good ending. Good luck!


It's impossible to fail this on a normal playthrough.





I'm not sure how easy it is to add things like this in RPG maker, but it still impressed the hell out of me.







After a little exploration we find this just to the left of Omori's room.







This is the map of Headspace. Here's all the locations we will be visiting before the credits roll. You can access this with "W", another little thing that impressed me. With both menus unlocked, the door allows us to pass through it again.











Omori! Thank goodness you're here!

Have you seen Basil? We can't find him anywhere...

We should go tell Mari you're okay. She's been worried sick!





Huh, so Basil is missing? And our friends just appeared here when we teleported to whitespace? Interesting... let's head to the park and talk to Mari then.





...but not before getting 200 clams from the snake.





Ah! Our first hangman key. There's also some red footprints leading towards it... that's not creepy at all.





A





When you get a correct key, the game will let you know how many keys are left. As well, correct keys will leave a marking behind on the ground, like this one did.





Can you figure it out without any help based off of this alone? The letters also give hints as to where they are, but that's not super neccesary.







BY YOUR SIDE










Don't worry me like that.

Where's Basil? He's not with you, Omori?

No... I'm afraid not. The last thing I remember was sorting photos with Basil in his house... And next thing I know... I'm waking up in Neighbor's room with Aubrey and Kel.

At least we found you, Omori... but I hope Basil is okay. Who's going to protect him if we're not there?

Don't be such a downer, Aubrey! We'll find Basil for sure!

You're absolutely right, Kel. It's at times like these when we gotta stay positive!

Hmm... Why don't we go back to Basil's house? There might be something that we missed.

That's the spirit, Hero. And as always, I'll be here if you need me!




LET'S GET TOGETHER NOW





So some definite weirdness going on. We know this is a dream world, but it seems to be reacting to... whatever happened when Basil saw that picture. I've had some funky dreams, but that's kinda out there.

Before we head out, let's talk to Mari again.


Hey, Omori! How are you all doing?

Just the other day, Nose was telling me about a cute little leaf she met... but... when she tried to be its friend, all it wanted to talk about was how much it hated bunnies...

How could someone hate bunnies!? I just don't understand some people...


While I do not hate bunnies, we... may be helping out said leaf in the future. For the good of us all, you see. If we talk to Mari again...









She acts as a quest hint/waypoint system. A very good way to know what quests you have available, get a reminder of what to do or get a slight hint of where you need to go. She also gives a nice little closing remark on completed quests. I'll try to run through these at the end of sections too.





There's your first one, it's a freebie.





Something that also accompanies almost every Mari picnic spot is the ability to have a picnic with your friends! You'll get some unique dialogue for every single one.





Let's see... There's Daisy... then there's Neb... then Happy... Brows... Nose... Wait, no... That's Daisy...

Whatcha doin', Kel?

Nothin'... Just trying to remember everyone's names...

You still don't know everyone's names? How could you?

I'm sorry, okay? I just wanna have a good time... We're all having fun here, aren't we? Everyone's names are secondary!

It's alright, Aubrey... Hero never remembers anyone's name either. It's probably a family trait...

Hey, I've been working on that! For some it's natural, but for others it's a learned skill! We can't all have a memory like Omori's...


I've got an incredibly good memory, to the point that I can remember really specific details about certain events like the exact time or where things were placed in a room. But names? I forget a person's name the moment they tell me.





Only including this for Boss' peak behind the tree-sticker. I just love everything to do with this tree.





This wanted poster is so old that Pluto is still considered a planet. Also, what.





One last thing prevents us from leaving, Daisy has a quest for us. Let's see what's in store.





Simple enough. Find a flower puzzle, got it. If we talk to Mari, she says that someone used to have one but threw it away. So if we head to any junkyards in the future, we'll need to keep our eyes open.









There's quite a few of these scattered about, and we're going to find them all. Not because there's any achievement stacked to it, but because it makes me feel a little happier.




TREES...







Oh no, the flowers are dying!





Thankfully, we can just pour water back over them and bring them back to life. So far, only one of the sunflowers had died but if we don't come by every now and then the rest will begin to die too.





Well, his home seems okay. No portal to hell or empty void here.





...Oh.





Well... There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.


YUP, NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY HERE.


Do you think Basil just left somewhere without telling us?

I don't know... that doesn't sound like him. He's usually so considerate about these things.

... Guys, I'm really worried. Is there nothing we can do?

What if we can't find him? What if he's in danger?

Stay calm, Aubrey... I'm worried too, but that won't solve anything. Let's go look around the forest. Maybe he wandered off and got lost.

Yeah! Cheer up, Aubrey! We'll find Basil!

Sniff... you guys are right...

Okay! We gotta keep our hopes up! Let's go look for Basil in the Vast Forest.





There's nothing else to investigate in Basil's home. There is that little hole in the ground in the middle of the house... but we can't investigate it or even acknowledge it. So I guess it's back into the forest we go.





We're going to head to the right to go deeper into the forest.





Leaving this here for future reference. It's a fast travel point! We'll be using this later. Now to head a bit more to the right...













BAAAAASIIIILLLLLL!!

BASIL, WHERE ARE YOU?

I know! I bet my pet rock will know what to do!

Hector, be a good boy. Go find Basil!










This is no time to fool around, Kel!

Hey! Why you... Hector was just trying to help!

Let it go, you two... We need to keep ourselves focused.





Welcome to the first true gameplay part of the game! You can see that little bunny on the right side, that's a random encounter! This sections will mostly be brief and just have highlights, since I assume the reason people are following an LP of a game like this would be to skip the boring combat sections. So let me waste that time instead since I'm afflicted with a terminal disease that makes me enjoy JRPG combat.





Thankfully Mr. Parrot is here to let us know where to go.





Just like with those red hands in White Space, when enemies spot you, they get a "!" over their head and being marching towards you. They can be avoided easily in open space, but enemies won't always be in open spots.





First battle! Here's the only two enemies of the forest: the bunny, and the lost mole. Like in the tutorial fights, some monsters start battles with emotions already. Making bunnies sad is a good move because they are a lot less likely to attack, though they gain an ability to look sad at people inflicting sadness on them. You can't withstand the power of a sad bunny.

Both are pretty easily downed, as will be the next 20 battles I have with them.





I will, however, quickly go over all follow-up attacks so we're familiar with them.


Omori

• Attack Again - Omori bakes the enemy a cake and then plunges the knife into the enemies chest a 2nd time
  
• Trip - Omori becomes so indescribably sad that he curls into the fetal position and the enemy trips over him, doing small damage and reducing their speed.
  
• Release Energy - THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP
  

Kel

• Pass to Hero - Kel passes the ball to Hero who gives a soliloquy about the nature of man, causing damage to all enemies
  
• Pass to Aubrey - Kel passes the ball to Aubrey who plays any-minie-miney-moe and attacks the enemy who gets moe'd
  
• Pass to Omori - Kel passes the ball to Omori, but due to Omori being clumsy, fumbles the ball causing damage from embarassment and he gets sad (this one isn't a joke)
  

Aubrey

• Look at Hero - Aubrey looks at Hero who encourages her and makes her feel happy
  
• Look at Kel - Aubrey looks at Kel and gets angry from the sight of him
  
• Look at Omori -
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

The game did a much funnier explanation than I ever could.


Hero

• He looks at one of the three party members, who attacks again and heals 15% of Heart.
  

These are the basic forms of follow-ups and will either improve in quality or get better forms. For instance, at the next follow-up - Hero's follow-ups will heal 25% Heart and 15% juice. Meanwhile, Kel's pass to Omori will actually work and Omori will get to perform an attack like Aubrey but become happy instead of sad because he didn't fumble.


Beating major sections of the game is what causes improvements, and the game lets you know as well. They're quite good even in random battles, since they can speed things up quite a bit.





Green Watermelons contain items, like healing items or battle toys. Blue Watermelons will contain equipment or special items. This one contained apple juice. I'll mention when we get equipment, but unless people really want to know, I won't detail what regular items we have until pre-boss plannings.





Over in this clearing we hav-











I'm not a fan of whatever that is, and I'd like it to go away.





Following the red footprints leads us over here. The tree roots can be cut by Omori to clear the way.





Eh... It's pretty tall... but not as tall as the one east of the stump! That one goes all the way up to space!

You're really afraid of heights, aren't you Omori? It's okay... We don't have to look up there.


Our progress is stopped here, since Omori is afraid of heights. I'm not giving the boy shit either, I'm also afraid of heights. I live on the third story and I can't really look down the stairs towards the ground floor, I have to maintain my sight with the steps because I might get a bit dizzy. It sucks.





Hmm? What's over here...





Aww, a doggy home. Where's the doggy though?


For some reason, if you leave and then immediately come back...





We've got ourselves a ghost dog!





YES





LP OVER. IT WON'T GET BETTER THAN THIS.





The dog hands over some Life Jam, a very good item that brings characters back from TOAST. It's quite expensive usually, so a very good boy/girl giving us some for free is a very good reward for doing one of life's little pleasures.





After reaching the end of this part of the forest, we head over to what Mr. Parrot called the "Foggy Bridge". It appears there's more red footprints to follow here.




A Place by A Lake





A new area is before us, with even calmer music somehow. There's also a B here as well.


Hmmm... I don't know, guys... I don't think Basil is in this forest.

But we haven't even searched the whole forest yet! We can't stop now!

Cheer up, Aubrey. We'll keep searching until we find him.

If we don't find Basil soon, maybe we should meet up with Mari at the playground and figure out what to do from there.


First things first, let's grab that B





B





This was another correct key. We're doing good for having only found 2 keys.





Continuing down the bridge for a while (maybe 30 seconds) we finally come to a crossroads. Heading to the right will loop us back to the forest, but we want to go up to see something.









...Basil?





And then he fades away. Something weird is definitely going on with that kid... not like we aren't weird too, granted.





If we head back to the crossroads and towards the right, we loop around to the other side of the forest. We have some roots blocking us but is nothing compared to the power of KNIFE.





The path forward is to the right, as that will let us see the last bit of the forest. The path upwards though...







This advice is kinda expensive, but let's try some out.


WISE ROCK: Anything is okay as long as you don't get caught! I hope this helps!


Now the fun part is to figure out which category of advice this is from.







Above leads to a train station, where suplexing has been deemed illegal since the phantom train incident. There's a clearing down below as well, but lets check out the train station first.







Forest Chillin'





Why yes, that is the back of the line. This truly is a train station.







Every. Single. Character. Requires a button push here. I hate this bee, I hate it so much.





SPROUT MOLE: Excuse you! I am no ugly plant creature! I'm a Sprout Mole, a very high-functioning and intelligent creature. What you are referring to is a Lost Sprout mole. When Sprout Moles become lost, they can often become hostile and attack without warning!





SPROUT MOLE: Hmm... actually... Where am I? Could it be that I'm... lost? Urgg... Suddenly, I don't feel so good.









I always love a good gag involving changing the nameplate, even more so when it leads to a battle.





Ah, so the train line hasn't moved because there is a man with a lemonade stand set up in the middle of the line. I'd say that'd do it, but uh how many times has that ever happened before?

Anyway, the train is inaccessible to us right now, so we will need to head back into the forest. Let's talk to a couple people here first, specifically that leaf with a quest marker over its head.





Welp, I think we found that leaf Mari was talking about.


LEAFIE: I just hate them so much. If I had one wish in the world, I would destroy all of the world's bunnies. Hey, you look like you've defeated a few bunnies! Yeah, that's right. I can tell how many bunnies you've defeated just by looking at you. That's how much I hate bunnies. Say, tell you what. Let's make a deal. If you defeat at least 5 bunnies, come back and report to me... I'll give you something nice.


We've actually already defeated 5 bunnies at this point, so we get the cotton ball he offers. The cotton ball gives +1 def and 3 spd and goes on Omori to help give him a little bit more protection and let him act first every turn. The next accessory unlocks at 25 and is amazing. I will be coming back to get that later because we're going to have it equipped for maybe half the game.

Only one last person to talk to here of importance. There's a lot of decent one-off characters here in the station with some cute/funny lines, but one towers above them all - figuratively and literally.









G'Wood





*sniff* beautiful. We've explored the entire forest and come up short on Basil... except for that ghost Basil thing on Foggy Bridge, but no one else seemed to acknowledge it. We'll check in with Mari and see where she suggests to go next.





Hey, Mari... No luck so far, I'm afraid.

Oh... I'm sorry, guys. I wish there was a way I could help more.

We're all doing our best... Maybe we should start looking outside this forest.





I know! Why don't we try climbing that really long ladder? The one east of the stump!

We can't do that! Omori is afraid of heights!

But what if Basil is somewhere up there? We gotta take our chances!

I know... but...

Omori! You're growing stronger and stronger every day. You can handle climbing a ladder, can't you? Come on, little brother. Face your fears!

It's natural to be nervous at first, but you should know that we all believe in you.

Come on, Omori! It's just one measly little ladder... What's the worst that can happen?


He falls and dies? That's a pretty awful worst case scenario Kel!


I don't know about this... Do you think you're going to be okay, Omori?


Well... he should be! I believe in the kid too!


Okay! If you're okay with it, then I'm okay with it too! But if you get scared... you can always count on me to back you up.

Thanks, Omori. You've got some real courage.





Let's go! Let's go! To the ladder east of the stump!

We'll see you later, Mari!

Bye now! Stay safe! Remember, Omori! You're stronger than you think!


D'aww, we have just the best friends!