Omensight

Omensight is quite the unusual game, however I believe I can definitely say it's a unique genre blend.

Technically, Omensight is a hack n slash' fantasy action game with an extremely simple RPG upgrade system, however it's really a detective game at heart. The basic premise is this: The world of Urralia is on its literal final day as the eldritchian entity, Voden, is unleashed, and the only people capable of stopping it are distracted by the war between Urralia's two major nations, Pygmaria and Rodentia. You play as the Harbinger, an ancient warrior whose existence is said to either warn of the apocalypse or bring it, and your goal is to use time travel to rewind the final day and discover who caused the apocalypse, how, and how to stop it before Voden devours the World Tree which is the source of all life and what allows you to time travel in the first place.

To facillitate your investigation, The Harbinger can soul bond with certain people whose corpses you find in the past. This allows you to travel back to wherever they were at the beginning of the last day and follow them around in order to gather information on the events which precipitated Voden's release. Before your imagination goes wild, there are really only FOUR major players in these events with a hidden fifth for the true ending. However, whenever you come across a major revelation, The Harbinger will gain an Omensight which will allow you to show that revelation to the characters you're following and change the course of events for the day so you can learn more.

Bizarrely investigating isn't all you're doing as Urralia is in the middle of a major war, and you're allying with people of opposing factions throughout your investigation. This means that you will often have to take up your sword to defend yourself and your partner, and this is where I think the make or break of the game will be for a lot of people. The combat in this game is perfectly serviceable for what the game is, and you have a decent toolset and enemy variety to keep things mostly stimulating. However, depending on how you play the game, you might be doing a LOT of combat, and you might have to replay portions of days multiple times in order to progress which can make the combat of the game feel even more repetitive than it actually is. It doesn't really help that you can trivialize combat quite easily on lower difficulties by just exploring the levels and looking for as much upgrade currency as you can. The game tries to keep up by throwing a lot of shield enemies at you later on, but all that does is just make you spam heavy attack. Personally, I didn't have a problem with the combat, and I especially like the partner system with different area attacks depending on who you're paired with for the day (except Indrick cause he's a git), but Ithink it's going to turn off a lot of people with how shallow it is or those just looking for a detective game without a completely different gameplay style inserted to extend the length of the game rather than mechanics which better suit the genre.

This game is an acquired taste is what I'm trying to say. I was personally into it for the story and the characters, plus going through the levels and looking for hidden secrets like the breakable walls was fun for a time. I just think the runtime of the game is a tad too long and the action gameplay wears out its welcome as a result. Either more options needed to be introduced to the action gameplay later on to keep that side of the game stimulating, or the game could have been shortened toits benefit. Still, I would wholeheartedly recommend this game to people who are into narrative games and detective games as that side of the game is quite interesting, and I love the characters.

As a side note, True Detective Mode wasn't thought through. It allows you to investigate on your own without hints, but it also takes away the Investigation Orb which is little more than a way of keeping track of the information you've gathered throughout your playthough. Considering it's visual representation of your progress and if you need to replay certain sections of the game for more information, playing without it is a waste of time and could lead to frustration lateron in the game.

What if Majora's Mask was a hack-n-slash murder mystery? Omensight! If you loved Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, and other PS2-era classics, this game will feel like a blast from the past with an engrossing story and beautiful level and character art. Got it for Christmas and couldn't put it down until I'd sniffed out every secret!

I picked this up after playing and really enjoying Stories: The Path of Destinies.
This did not disappoint. It builds upon the foundation and formula of repeating scenarios with different choices to get alternate outcomes and more.
The graphics are a bit more refined too and the colors really pop in certain areas.

The story and characters are all wonderful and charming, I found my self enjoying all the main cast, a hard thing to do.
My only complaint s the combat can feel a bit unwieldy and clunky at times, due to the finisher animations when killing an enemy, something Stories had as well.
That and for some reason the game is kinda demanding to run. It a nice looking game, don't get me wrong but it feels like it's pushing my PC harder than it should.

Overall it's a great little that you can play in short bursts since it's not super long. Would recommend.
RIP Spearhead Games, I loved your narrative, animal people games.

Can be boiled down to a retake and expansion on the developer's previous game, Stories. It's bigger and has grander presentation as all the characters and cutscenes are fully-voiced instead of narrated.
For me, Stories became very mind-numbing once you get all the swords, but the gameplay of Omensight has more variety so it never gets as boring. It IS missing a bit of the punch that Stories had in its combat and it does feel a bit limp but it serves its purpose.
Omensight has a much bigger focus on story, calling itself an "Action Mystery" which is an interesting but I don't think it totally delivers. Getting to see different angles to the story and characters' reactions deciding the path is cool but it feels like there's some gaps in the characters' history with eachother that I would've liked explored.
Solving the mystery is cool, but it doesn't really FEEL like solving a mystery since you can only take so many paths.
I actually almost missed an interesting piece of characterization because I picked the right paths at random.
In fact, if you choose "True Detective" story difficulty, you can't review the information you've found from each path so you'll have to remember and there's no real benefit or accolade for this.
Lastly, I think the dialogue is a bit rough and the writing too expository in places but I did end up liking the characters in the end. The performances on Indrick and Draga are great, I think Ratika's dialogue and voice is too cutesy at times to the point she seems out of place.
Overall, an alright games, something you can knock out in a few hours. I personally feel a little unsatisfied with some of story's loose ends.

Sights & Sounds
Low texture, high color
At this point, simplified polygons and textures are a bit old-hat when it comes to 3D artstyles for games. Although the style is now mostly found in indie games, the title that jumps to the front of my mind is Wind Waker. Like that game, Omensight features similar (kinda) plastic modeled, (sorta) cel-shaded environments and characters
It also features a robust color palette like Wind Waker. Oftentimes with indies that employ this artstyle, you're greeted with 1 of 2 flavors palette-wise: high contrast or pastel. Props to Omensight for choosing a great set of muted reds, oranges, greens, and blues instead
The environmental visuals are great as well. While much of the action takes place from an isometric perspective (forcing you to look at the ground, mostly), the camera will sometimes lower to an almost over-the-shoulder perspective to provide you with a greater sense of dimension. Those were my favorite parts; you get to see more of the nicely designed architecture and natural scenery
It's not all roses, unfortunately; that fun camera trick can lead to gameplay frustration at times. Some rooms have quite a bit of depth from the viewer's perspective, and the action sometimes leads you to the back of them. It can get really hard to tell what you're doing as your character model gets smaller and smaller
No qualms with the soundtrack, though. It's largely excellent. Most of what you'll be hearing is classic guitar, piano, and voice fronting some pretty nice orchestral compositions
The voice acting is quite good, with competent performances all around. I honestly wasn't expecting any voice work in this game, so the final product not only having it in such high quality was a nice surprise
Story & Vibes
'Round she goes
Well, unfortunately, I was unaware that Omensight was a spiritual successor to another title until actually sitting down to write this review. The most embarrassing part is that I actually already own Stories: The Path of Destinies and haven't tried it yet. So if there exists any connection between the two games beyond the world they take place in, I won't be able to speak to them
But overlooking that error, Omensight takes place in the world of Urralia, a magical, high fantasy place inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Seems like a nice place, but unfortunately, the world's just ended
That kinda sucks because you, the player, assume the role of Urralia's Harbinger, a mythical entity whose sole job is supposed to be preventing this sort of thing. Luckily, you're pulled out of the apocalypse into a magical dimension by a witch who can manipulate time
With this twist, it's your job to connect with the key movers in the catastrophe. You'll enter mystical portals that transport you near one of four major characters the morning of the apocalypse. It's up to you to figure out what role you can play during that day in each characters lives in order to thwart the inevitable
Your actions in one character's day can have impacts on the others, so you'll have to figure out the right order to visit each character. Don't worry; the witch who helps you time travel can provide some very unambiguous hints, so the chances of you wasting a run aren't all that high
All told, the narrative itself isn't all that unique. There are plenty of games out there that have this Groundhog Day mechanic. However, I did find the ability to relive the day with different characters and influence their stories to be a satisfying modification. Otherwise, it's just your run-of-the-mill "cancel the apocalypse" plot
As you'd probably expect, vibes get pretty dicey when the world is ending. Tempers flare and desperation makes people do dumb, rash things when they think everyone is going to die. Fortunately, there's an occasional joke or two crack the tension
Playability & Replayability
Hack-and-slash the day away
The gameplay is largely button-mashy, hack-and-slash ARPG faire. You've got your light and heavy attack that you can mix up for a few combos, some specials to whip out against tanks/bosses/crowds, and, of course, a slightly overpowered dash that can get you out of basically any situation
I think the dash being toned down just a touch (some combination of fewer iframes, shorter distance, or longer delay) would vastly improve the balance of combat. As it stands, it's just too easy to avoid damage. This is especially true once you figure out that you can dodge cancel almost any animation
In fact, I've forgotten what the healing mechanic is in this game. I needed it so rarely that didn't have a chance to sink in
The other mechanic chipping away at the difficulty balance is that you actually have competent CPU companions throughout most of the game. As I mentioned in the story portion of the review, each run starts with you choosing one of the for major characters' portals and working with them. What I didn't mention is that they accompany you to help you cut your way through the enemy hordes
I know, I know. It's a weird complaint to have. Most CPU companions in games are worthless. Here, though, they're so good at drawing aggro that you can mostly just kite enemies toward them then circle around to backstab
As far as replaying the game goes, I don't see that happening anytime soon. The introduction of the time travel mechanics was the big hook, and you can really only experience that once. The combat, while satisfying, isn't challenging enough to draw me back in. Upping the difficulty and replaying isn't appealing either due to how easy it is to dodge.
Overall Impressions & Performance
New plot devices, please
Every now and then, I get to this section of the review, reread what I've written, and realize that I maybe came off as a little more negative than I intended. Omensight is quite a competent game. Its great audiovisuals are quite the draw, and the relatively low difficulty of the combat makes it more accessible to wider range of players
Still, though, the combat does get stale and the story is a bit hackneyed. Why does it always have to be the apocalypse in time loop games? Why can't it be something else? Why not going back in time to prevent a murder? Or to stop a war? Maybe time loop in order to make something good happen? There's so much more to the world than its end. I'd rather play a game with a unique narrative hook than one that thinks that dramatic tension can only arise from the apocalypse
But hey, it's a great play on the Steam Deck, goes on sale often, and won't waste your time with its 6-10 hour length. If you just want to see some nice colors and mash buttons, Omensight is practically guaranteed to satisfy
Final Verdict
6.5/10. Omensight is worth your time and dime if you go in knowing what you're getting: a pretty game with simple combat and some occasionally nifty time travel mechanics. Just don't expect too much mechanically or narratively

At first, I was hesitant to play this game since it involves repeating the same day over and over until the case is solved. However, the way they introduce the twisted story to the player has charmed me. The game has its ups and downs, but overall, it's another well-made indie game that deserves more recognition, in my opinion.

I've played 2 games by Spearhead Games. Stories and this, both are absolutely excellent with a fantastic, semi-time loop game mechanic. This is a more mature story, but still fun and utterly enthralling.

This is a must-buy for fans of interesting narrative games.