Basil

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Basil
BasilNeutral.png
age Headspace - 12
Real World - 16
birthday February 18
gender male
location Forest Playground
role Tritagonist


This article is about Basil as a character. For the enemy, see Basil (enemy).

Basil is a major supporting character in OMORI. He serves as one of the driving forces throughout the game as the party spends most of the game looking for him after his sudden disappearance.

Profile

Appearance

In Headspace, Basil is a medium height boy with pale skin, teal eyes, teal chin-length hair, wearing a purple, blue, and pink flower crown. He wears blue denim overalls with a large pocket on the chest and a green t-shirt under. He doesn't wear any shoes.

In the real world, he has blue eyes and blond hair with a single pink flower tucked into it. He wears a green knitted sweater vest over a white short-sleeved dress shirt, beige shorts, and black shoes, in an outfit closely paralleling that of Sunny.

Personality

Basil is shy and socially anxious but cares deeply about his friends. He enjoys taking pictures, caring for plants, art, and reading. It is said in the game that "He will never throw away anything, no matter how worthless it is."

Headspace

Basil's headspace counterpart is rather cheery, yet shy and humble. He is quick to forgive, as can be seen by his encounter with Boss after hide-and-seek, and he is very empathetic. He is friendly, and his shyness seems to stem from having low self-esteem and putting others' needs above his own.

He is incredibly sentimental, keeping memorabilia of his friends and happy memories through photos, and planting flowers that remind him of his friends, taking great care to plant flowers that he associates with his friends. His empathy stretches to his plants as well, showing a lot of worry when they're in danger of being hurt, and talking to them as he would his friends. It is noted that he avoids conflict. He doesn't learn to fight, even after his friends nag him to.

Real World

Compared to the headspace Basil, the real-world version of him is more anxious and sensitive. He is a target for bullying, typically by Aubrey and The Hooligans, but during the events of the game, if the player takes the Normal Route, usually Kel and Sunny defend him from harassment. The increased anxiety he shows is most likely due to his guilt over Mari's death.

Story

Background

Basil was born on February 18th to unnamed parents. He lived with his grandmother since he was a toddler because his parents were "too busy." As a child he was friends with Aubrey, would would later introduce him to Sunny, Hero, Aubrey, Mari and Kel. He enjoyed taking photos and kept a photo album.

After being introduced to the friend group Basil quickly grew close to Sunny in particular, likely due to his similarly quiet and reserved nature. The two would become best friends, frequently being shown together both in game as well as in official artwork. It is said that Basil would often vent his worries to Sunny, who would always be there to listen.

After witnessing Sunny accidentally push Mari down the stairs, Basil is unable to accept the reality of the situation believing that his friend is a good person who would not do such a thing .[1][2] In his denial Basil instead chooses to blame an imaginary 'something' behind Sunny,[3] and suggests framing the accident as a suicide. The two boys drag Mari's body outside, where they hang her body from a large tree in the back yard with a skipping rope. After looking back into the garden, the sight of the corpse's eye traumatizes them.

An unknown amount of time following Mari's death and the friend group's resulting separation, Aubrey approaches Basil asking him to hang out. He reluctantly accepts and she visits his house, where she discovers the defaced photo album. Wrongly believing it to be Basil's doing (something he does not refute) she proceeds to steal it from him.

Normal Route

Day 1

Basil first appears in the real world after visiting Hobbeez with Kel, to which he appears in the park begging Kim to help him. After a short scuffle with Aubrey, the two go to check on Basil. He awkwardly greets Sunny before remarking that he should head home, as his grandma hasn't been feeling well recently. Kel offers to walk him home, and the three make their way to his house together. Upon dropping him off, as Kel and Sunny go to leave Basil will suddenly stop them, saying he has a favor to ask of them. He reveals that Aubrey has stolen his photo album, to which Kel promises to get it back.

Upon retrieving Basil's photo album, the pair returns to his home where they meet his caretaker, Polly. She invites the pair inside, and together the three go through the photo album as she prepares dinner. After looking through the photo album together, Kel goes to help Polly with making dinner leaving Sunny to freely explore the house. In the living room Basil will turn to face Sunny, and will quickly become uncomfortable at Sunny's behavior when repeatedly interacted with. Sunny ends up looking inside Basil's grandmother's room, to which Basil follows him inside. He remarks on how his grandmother can't hear them, before going on to tell Sunny it's nice to see him again, even if only for a little while. Basil then gives Sunny his photo album, telling him he wants him to have it.

At this point, Polly calls Sunny and Basil for dinner, and the two go to join her and Kel at the table. There, Kel ends up mentioning how Sunny will be leaving in three days. Basil appears clearly uncomfortable at this, and excuses himself. Following Basil into the bathroom, Sunny will discover him muttering to himself in the dark before the mirror as Something surrounds him. He turns to face Sunny, asking him if he 'can see it too' before remarking that "Everything is okay now, isn't it?". At this point, there is nothing else that can be done to help and the player has no choice but to leave Basil behind. Upon leaving the bathroom, Basil will beg Sunny not to leave him before falling to his knees and breaking down into tears as the screen fades to black.

Day 2

Basil makes a brief appearance at the start of Day 2 in Faraway Park, where Kel and Sunny can talk to him about the events of the prior day.

Later in the day while visiting Kel's house, Polly will appear at the door to inform him and Sunny that Basil has gone missing. Kel begs his parents to let him help, to which the pair heads to Faraway Park where they hear screaming. Sunny and Kel make their way through the trees to their old hangout spot, where they find Aubrey and the hooligans surrounding Basil attempting to kick him out of the area as he screams out for help. Kel intervenes to which a brief battle with them ensues, after which the other hooligans leave aside from Aubrey who is left behind. Aubrey becomes enraged and pushes Basil into the lake, which due to his inability to swim causes him to begin drowning. Sunny dives in after him, but is quickly overcome by his fears and in the end both boys are rescued at the last moment by Hero. The three carry an unconscious Basil back home, where they place him in his bed to rest as Polly takes over.

Day 3

After Aubrey joins the party, the four go to Basil's house together to invite him to hang out. Upon arriving, they are met by Polly who informs them that he is currently in the hospital visiting his grandma, who had been rushed into intensive care just that morning.

Upon returning to Basil's house later in the day Polly answers the door yet again, this time telling the group that Basil has returned home, but that he has locked himself in his room and is refusing to answer. The four then go inside to check on him, with Hero reassuring him that they're all there for him and Aubrey apologizing for her treatment of him, all to no response. Worried for Basil the group decides to stay for the night, sleeping in the living room together.

Upon waking up the player can choose to either confront Basil or to go back to sleep, both resulting in unique endings.

Good Ending

Confronting Basil in his room he expresses his denial of the truth, reasoning that since Sunny is a 'good person' he could not have killed Mari and that it had to be 'something behind' him. Sunny, seemingly disturbed, attempts to leave only to find Something blocking the door. In his delusion, Basil reasons that Sunny wouldn't leave him and that it has to be 'something behind' him again. Something appears around Basil as tendrils from the corners of the room as he yells at it to stay away from Sunny, promising to protect him no matter what. In a seemingly delusional state Basil proceeds to attack Sunny with his garden shears, saying he'll "get rid of it once and for all." Although the player can try to stall for time, Sunny is unable to calm himself and is eventually forced to fight back as Basil begs him to stop. Basil stabs Sunny's right eye, leading him to pass out and eventually wake up later in the hospital.

If the player watered the flowers in Basil's garden in Headspace, an additional scene will play following the credits showing Basil waking up in the hospital to see Sunny standing in front of him, having just confessed the truth to their friends. The two smile at each other as their Somethings disappear behind them.

Neutral Ending

If the player instead chooses to go back to sleep, they will wake up to find that Basil has committed suicide. Kel, Aubrey, Hero, and Polly can all be found in the hallway, expressing their grief and regret over his death. Opening the door to his room allows Basil's dead body to be viewed, a dark hole in his abdomen with Something surrounding him in the shape of a blood stain. Attempting to interact with the door again after witnessing his corpse will cause Sunny to shake his head and for the door to disappear.

Hikikomori Route

Basil is not seen at all in the real world in the Hikikomori route due to Sunny never leaving his house. However, one of the Hikikomori endings has been theorized to imply that Basil committed suicide, as when Sunny leaves the house with his mother, the sound of sirens can be heard.

Skills

Skills have a basic 20% variation in damage (Excepting those with a fixed amount and release Energy). DEF refers to Enemy's Defense unless stated otherwise.

BasilNeutral.png DESCRIPTION SOURCE
Cheer Heals Omori and Basil for 20% of their juice and increases one of their stats by 3 tiers based on their emotions. Costs 80 MP.png. Default
Herbal Remedy Heals a friend for 75% of their heart with 20% variance, effectively healing anywhere between 60-90% of their heart. Also restores 1 energy. Costs 35 MP.png. Default
Photograph Taunts all enemies and reduces their hit rate by 25% for the turn. Costs 50 MP.png. Default
Body Slam Deals 2 * ATK + (current energy * Basil's level) - DEF to an enemy. Costs 40 MP.png. Default
Tulip Deals [Omori's ATK + Omori's DEF + Omori's AGI + (Omori's LCK * 5)] - DEF to all enemies. Costs 50 MP.png. Tulip Hairstick
Gladiolus Deals ATK * 4 to a target with 10% variance. Always hits right in the heart. Costs 40 MP.png. Gladiolus Hairband
Cactus Deals Basil's DEF + Basil's current HP - DEF to a target with 10% variance. Costs 40 MP.png. Cactus Hairclip
Rose Acts first, healing Omori and Basil for 40% of their heart and reducing all foes' attack by 1 tier (firstly targets the first foe in the troop, then apply its attack debuff to the rest of the troop). Healing is not affected by emotions. Costs 50 MP.png. Rose Hairclip
Flower Crown Deals 2.5 x ATK - DEF four times to a target and has a different animation when used against Mari. Costs 75 MP.png. Flower Crown


Gallery

In-game

Faces

Headspace
Black Space
Real World

Battle Faces

Tags

Photo Album

Headspace
Real World

Boss

Artwork

Trivia

  • At one point in development, Basil's grandmother had a gun. Omocat tried to justify it by turning her into a hunter, but ultimately it was cut for "being too silly".[4]
  • Most of this can still be experienced in the 2019 build, where Basil commits suicide by gun, rather than his scissors.[5]
  • Omocat reveals that Basil has changed the most since his inception.[6]
  • At first he was a sweet and well put-together, like Mari. Later he became an very angsty boy named Rowan, who resembled Aubrey. In the end, Basil took from both iteration's personalities and became his own interesting character.
  • Basil was supposed to be playable at the end of the neutral route. This was cut due to time constraints but later reintroduced as console content.[7]
  • Basil appears to be somewhat based on the character of Basil Hallward from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, an artist whose infatuation and admiration of the main character displays numerous similarities to that of Basil's relationship with Sunny.
  • The main character of the book is directly named in game's 2018 demo, in which can be found "a book shelf filled from books by Dorian Gray."

References

  1. Basil: You're a good person, SUNNY. I know you're a good person! A good person wouldn't do something like that...
  2. OMOCAT, official walkthrough book: It evolved from BASIL blaming SUNNY to BASIL being unable to blame SUNNY. I think that was a lot more palpable. His dissonance of not being able to see SUNNY as a bad person as a lot more interesting.
  3. Basil: You... You couldn't have done it. It was something behind you... wasn't it?
  4. https://youtube.com/watch?v=9Wt_OXT2B0w&t=838s
  5. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yhTRKsQLgkKLZqAscm-_AoiMQZAky_M6FlPtrttSvbg/edit#heading=h.5x3duksu2a7o
  6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUmMu7yioO0?t=2024
  7. https://twitter.com/drawfest_pixiv/status/1668566208382394368?cxt=HHwWgIDT7YiI-KcuAAAA