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• 1 2023-12-08T18:22:50+00:00 Omori - Mental Health and Immersion 7 Brandon Semenec plain 2023-12-08T18:56:07+00:00 Psychology researcher Jimena Aguilar Rodriguez says that "Stories help us experience scenarios we otherwise would not be able to from a safe distance. The safe comfort of a story is what patients use to project their own problems and talk about them in guided therapy settings or as self-help" (Rodriguez 34). In Omori, the player is confronted with a problem where Omori is currently subjected to this barren landscape. This has the affect of removing this sense of comfort from the player as it becomes a very different landscape then the game perceives in the beginning. Especially due to the fact that the forest is very calm, green, and nostalgic for the player. The disconnect between the two landscapes are used to parallel the internal struggles that Omori has with himself over his sisters death. Murray makes the note that, “The possibility of a magical domain in which our dreams can come true also arouses our most anxious nightmares. The more present the enchanted world, the more we need to be reassured that it is only virtual and the more we need to see Harold's moon reminding us that there is a way back to the external world” (Murray 105).This game mechanic of switching between landscapes and settings subjects the player to a different sense of mental health. For example, some days may be comforting for individuals with mental health issues and others may be a dreadful landscape. Such that, going from a comforting landscape to a unrecognizable one can have the affect of discomfort to the player. This creates a continuous desire to immerse themselves within the landscapes due to the discomfort that they sense. This relationship between mental health and discomfort is what continues to drive players to immerse themselves within depression based games such as this.