There aren’t many notable pieces of Western media featuring catgirls, and in all corners of the world, they’re often portrayed as submissive, tacky, lovey-dovey anime girls who happen to have ears and a tail.
A new challenger is making a Visual novel with catgirls: OmOneko from Talechaser games.
“A story about cat girls … with bite.”
Nekos are not “people with cat ears.”
These humanoid beings have evolved in the shadows of human society.
Beautiful. Mysterious. Chaotic. Dangerous.And now, three of them live with you.
Will you be able to get past the stigma and grow closer to them?A story of cat and mouse…
and rats.-Talechaser games
Plot (no spoilers)
In OmOneko, shenanigans ensue as our main character finds himself living by himself with three nekos, i.e. catgirls. Each of them seems fairly normal – as far as Nekos go – but who are they on the inside?
The story of OmO is a lot of things: mystery, intimacy, thriller. Pepper’s route will see the MC dealing with her rambunctious games and the aftermath of being separated from her owner, Goro, who happens to be a friend of ours. Shimi’s a feral neko who is like a fish out of water when living with the rest of society and thus has to adapt. Clawdia has lived with our protagonist since she was a kitten, and her route has lots of worldbuilding and reminiscing on fond memories. You’ll be hooked as each of the three routes reveals more and more about the world and characters.
There are many interesting elements about these characters. Nekos can’t speak as well as humans can, they are deemed to not be as smart as us but they aren’t the tacky, “Waow so grateful to master UwU” kind of catgirls you’re used to. The world of OmO is also crafted with this in mind; the main character’s acquaintances talk to him about neko-related things, you’ll learn about smaller details like how restaurants give out old food to stray nekos, and even get to read in-universe fiction inspired by the nekos that live in it.
This segues into the feature: the in-game comics.
Throughout your time with OmOneko, you’ll get to read comics during certain parts of the story. These range from self-aware adult-oriented manga with catgirls, to sci-fi, and most notably SinKitty, which spans several issues and is the most fleshed-out of the bunch.
You’ll need to play all routes to read all SinKitty issues, akin to how you’ll need to read all three routes to fully understand the setting. OmOneko truly is Chekov’s wall of firearms, with how the story is intertwined.
Gameplay
OmOneko has a very cinematic and unique presentation. There are a lot of moving parts and CGs are more or less created in-engine using the assets, rather than traditionally. OmO uses several hundred environmental and character images and over 200 backgrounds. Naturally, OmO sports all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a VN like a scene gallery, but there are neat things such as different variants for the music tracks, and a library feature to replay scenes and all comics you’ve read along the way.
Speaking of, the OST is quite amazing as well as the SFX/foley effects. It all contributes to the cinematic style to keep you invested.
Final thoughts + more
I think Talechaser has something quite special on its hands, only time will tell if it turns out to be the next big EVN to the likes of Doki Doki Literature Club. Though for most of the team, this is their first ever VN or project of this scale – not that you’d be able to tell. Katawa Shoujo fans will be happy to see names like Cpl Crud, TheHivemind, and Silentcook among the team members.
More info is available at omoneko.com
OmOneko is available NOW on Steam and Itch.io for free!
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