On a topical level, Developer Tokyo RPG Factory’s newest release Oninaki’s dark take on the afterlife and reincarnation is immediately captivating. With moral quandaries abounding and an in-game world actualized on-screen beautifully, Oninaki had the basis to become a classics JRPG. However, interacting with the game in a more meaningful manner than just viewing its lush environments and abstractly considering its overarching themes can leave players disappointed. For a game that takes as a given that life exists after death, Oninaki itself feels ironically bereft of soul.
The inhabitants of Oninaki’s world possess a unique relationship with death. The game posits that the soul persists after departing from the world of the living, drifting into a shadow world before being reincarnated and restarting its life cycle. But should anyone be grieving for the newly deceased, that person’s soul stays tethered to the shadow world and is unable to reincarnate. Left for too long in this state of purgatory, souls transform into demons with sole intent of devouring their uncorrupted brethren.
To ensure that the reincarnation process runs smoothly, a group known as the Watchers look over matters pertaining to recent deaths. Players learn very quickly that the Watchers’ mission is very radical; in this world that places such importance on death, it behooves the Watchers to kill people mourning a lost love one to ensure that all of their souls remain pure.
While progressing through Oninaki, players control a Watcher named Kagachi. Kagachi, like all Watchers, can access the shadow world in addition to that of the living. In fact, players will need to transport between the two realms to progress through the game’s linear maps while Kagachi goes out on various missions. Kagachi will get stuck if he stays in one world for too long into a map, forcing players to switch. Despite the idea being rife with potential, the interplay between the two realms is largely underdeveloped; no true puzzles present themselves in what seemed like a natural avenue for them.
Populating these two realms are different enemies that players will need to defeat in order to advance in Oninaki. In terms of combat, players take advantage of Kagachi’s ability to interact with select souls, or daemons., which bequeath him with different fighting style. Selecting a daemon controls combat; for instance, equipping one certain daemon means that Kagachi will fight with guns, while picking another means that Kagachi can deal damage with close-range swords.
However, while players are able to switch between four daemons at a time, they may never deem it necessary to actually switch daemons once they’ve become comfortable with one. Even when accounting for boss battles, combat is in Oninaki is extremely repetitive and situations calling for a specific skillset are few and far in between. Just like concept of Kagachi being able to jump between two disparate realms, the idea behind a combat system centering around daemons is not implemented well.
The 20-25 hours that it takes to wend through Oninaki’s expansive plot could definitely be spent on more worthy JRPGs. Wonderful graphics and fascinating philosophies do not make up for poor implementation of the combat system, dearth of nuanced interplay between the living and shadow worlds, and lack of voice actors for characters. Oninaki possesses the underlying structure of a great game, but it wants the polish necessary to truly shine.
Rating: 6/10
Check Out the Oninaki Launch Trailer:
ONINAKI is available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 system, and Steam. A free playable demo for ONINAKI is also available for download for all three platforms. For more information, visit: www.oninaki.com.
PlayStation 4 Review
I'm a recent graduate of Columbia University. Gaming has been a passion of mine my entire life; I enjoy everything from RPGs and FPSs to stealth and narrative-driven games. I love the deeply immersive quality that good video games inherently possess, and am looking forward to highlighting games worthy of acclaim. When I'm not studying or reading, you can catch me playing games like Uncharted, Dishonored, The Witcher 3, and Far Cry.
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