| This article is about BETA CHARACTERS. You may be looking for TAKO, UNI or MEIDO. |
まだまだ  |
| — ? girl hidden in one of the OMORIBOY blog posts |
BETA CHARACTERS are a trio of mysterious characters and NPCs in OMORI, consisting of TAKO, UNI, and MEIDO. They only appear within BLACK SPACE on ONE DAY LEFT of the OMORI ROUTE.
PROFILE[]
The BETA CHARACTERS were previously slated to be in the game, but were removed for one reason or another. Despite this, they still exist in the game files and even make an appearance through incredibly obscure secrets to access BLACK SPACE in different ways. Their existence is most likely a nod to early stages of the game's development or something more sinister than intended.
Some also remain in the game but are somewhat different from their initial incarnation, such as TAKO sporting pigtails (instead of a bob-cut like her appearance in the OMORIBOY blog posts). Most notably, the BETA CHARACTERS were frequently found in some comic concept arts shared with backers throughout production.
STORY[]
In-game, they will only appear after the player manages to rescue BASIL from the CHURCH OF SOMETHING on the OMORI ROUTE. Each of them will appear in one of the original BLACK SPACE areas, which can only be accessed through a secret entrance in some of the HEADSPACE locations. Regardless of that, the locations of each character are shown down below:
- TAKO: PINK BEACH (Near the beach ball south of the starting point)
- UNI: NIGHTTIME TREEHOUSE (Inside the distorted treehouse)
- MEIDO: THE NEIGHBORHOOD (Bottom left corner near the dark-colored pond)
GALLERY[]
.png "Tako blog (Omoriboy 29).png (64 KB)")
_Beta_Screenshot.png "Omori (2014) Beta Screenshot.png (93 KB)")
.png "Headspace Concept Art (Full).png (684 KB)")
TRIVIA[]
- It's possible that the PET ROCK named OCOTACO, who also has two black and white tentacle pigtails, might have been inspired by TAKO's design (or, in the case of SUNNY's imagination, TAKO's appearance might have been inspired by OCOTACO in the REAL WORLD). The "OCO" part of its name is a reference to it being an octopus, the TACO is likely a pun on the Japanese word for octopus "Tako".
- UNI was originally named as EMPTY FRIEND and was intended to be a fightable enemy.
- In addition, according to some early screenshots, he was planned to appear in the OTHERWORLD CAMPSITE.
- UNI was also originally intended to be a variant of SOMETHING during the game's early stages.
- MEIDO's design appears to resemble SWEETHEART, possibly serving as an early version of the character.
- An interesting observation to note is that each of the BETA CHARACTERS seem to be linked to one of the "three great creatures" BRANCH CORAL speaks of. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown.
- TAKO is tentacled like ABBI and may have been the inspiration for the latter. She also appears in PINK BEACH when it is full of DEEPER WELL creatures who were killed presumably for speaking words of wisdom, similar to ABBI's situation.
- UNI's head resembles the clock found in NEIGHBOR'S ROOM near the BIG YELLOW CAT. UNI is also found within NIGHTTIME TREEHOUSE, which has a calendar resembling the cat.
- MEIDO resembles SWEEPHEART, the form SWEETHEART takes on after being consumed by HUMPHREY.
- In the original pixel drafts for the main cast, the BETA CHARACTERS, along with some of the main characters, change appearance depending on what would've been the player's chosen gender for OMORI/SUNNY.
- TAKO and UNI's genders would match the player character's. TAKO's masculine design lacks pigtails, while UNI's feminine design gains them.
- MEIDO would always be the opposite gender of the player character; her masculine design lacked pigtails.
- In the original pixel drafts for the main cast, there is a fourth BETA CHARACTER who is never seen outside the image. This character appeared to change gender along with the player character, always being the opposite of SUNNY/OMORI's gender. While it is unknown who exactly this character is, they are usually presumed to be an early version of MARI (likely known as MARY at the time) due to her being absent from the main cast as well as the character's similar appearance to MARI's spirit form.