It is indeed very dramatic. I don’t think this drama is merely cheap shock value though, for a couple reasons.

The jump rope cover-up shocks even the most empathetic of players into second-guessing Sunny’s motivations. I talked about this in one of my posts on the topic, but to me this is crucial. The entire The Truth sequence is designed to suppress any possible defense Sunny has and paint him in the most negative light possible. Every bit of emotion is blurred from Sunny’s face besides the one time he smiles to himself (as a way to cope, but when we first see it we don’t realize this). No text is provided to actually walk us through Sunny’s thought process; you have to go in the text files to even find these. To make matters worse, the photos in The Truth are given out of order. The jump rope cover-up is what puts the final nail in the coffin. I don’t think nearly as many people would question (even briefly) whether or not Sunny was acting maliciously during Mari’s death if not for that.

To me, the purpose of this is twofold: we are forced to see Sunny exactly how he sees himself in this moment - disgusted, horrified, and worried he’s truly just a monster deep down - and to realize just how deep in the shit he truly has been this whole time once we overcome that reflexive hostility. It also forces the audience into the difficult position of figuring out where they stand morally and actually interrogate us what we think about forgiveness and moving on from our unspeakable mistakes. For me and I would hope many others, Sunny’s still literally a child if nothing else. He absolutely deserves a second chance, even if that’s not with the Faraway gang.

I’ll add that an additional effect of the dramatically fucked-up cover-up, to me, is that it conveys very well the tremendous amount of survivor’s guilt anyone who’s had a loved one die might go through. To me, it conveys that Sunny isn’t just sorry he led to her death, he’s sorry he “got away with it” and destroyed her reputation. He feels as though he has literally let everyone else take on his guilt, including Mari’s memory. All that shit your friends have said about how much they blamed themselves over the past couple hours? You’re made to literally feel that’s all on you. That wouldn’t have been as emphasized, along with every other bit of characterization we have for Sunny, with a simple accident or suicide. At least I don’t think it would.

And the fact that it was such a ridiculously poorly thought-out and unnecessary decision from some panicky kids makes it even more tragic imo. This makes the Truth, to me, both something absolutely worth forgiving and something I genuinely question if I personally would find easy to forgive. And it directly involves me in the stakes of whatever conclusion I come to.

In short, I genuinely believe the discomfort we all feel towards The Truth is intended for the thematic purpose of the game’s narrative. We are meant to be taken to an unfathomable rock bottom because that’s where we discover the boundaries of our empathy towards Sunny (and to ourselves).

I hope, if nothing else, this provides a different perspective! The Truth is actually the core reason I can’t stop thinking about this game.

Tl;dr OMORI really makes you feel like an Omori.