Welcome to my review of Oninaki, a highly anticipated RPG that lands on Switch and other platforms but oh boy, it is amazing!
The new Action-RPG is also available on Playstation 4 and Steam, Oninaki tells the story of one Watcher on a journey to protect Life, after Death. Oninaki features exciting hack and slash style battles, with deep customization of your daemons and weapons. Experience unique action gameplay combined with a deep and satisfying story.
Reincarnation is the foundation of our way of life. We celebrate the lives we’ve been given, and offer up prayers for the next.
It is grief of death which shackles the living, and causes the dead to stray. Indeed, there is no greater affront to reincarnation.
So do we turn our grief to joy as we send off the dead.
But the souls of those who held back their tears in life still need salvation in death. A duty that falls to the Watchers.
Their task is to guide the wandering souls known as the Lost, and serve as keepers of the Living World and the Beyond.
The Watchers sever the bonds that tie the Lost to this world, and send them on to the next. They navigate the emotions of the living and the dead. They prize life above all else.
This is the story of one Watcher.
Oninaki has had a demo for a while and that demo was simply amazing. It introduced me to the world of Oninaki and I was instantly smitten with the entire atmosphere this game brought to the table! The story is quite intense and while the demo did a great job of introducing both gameplay and the general gist of the idea, it actually came close to nowhere near the actual experience that is Oninaki.
As I had finished the demo, upon my first load of Oninaki, I was given the option to start anew or just to continue from the demo. I picked the demo and after confirmation, I was on my way, at the very same spot that my demo play had finished. I love it when demos are available but I really love when they allow you to take over any and all progress. This is such an added bonus to any game!
The demo itself is basically the first part of the initial storyline to get you going. As a watcher, it is your duty to make sure those who need to cross over can do so and you are asked to investigate the rumors of a cult performing mass suicide. As a watcher, you are able to cross to either side and during your investigations, you run into a little boy. He tells you the truth about how the navigator was supposed to help their group cross over and how that same navigator betrayed them all.
Upon finding him, after a few nice battles and apprehending him finally, you see the mysterious girl again. A girl that has popped up before in your life as a watcher. You follow her in town, skipping the court case even. You track her down and before you know it, you are being attacked… This is where the demo ends and with this awesome cliffhanger, it is quite clear you want to continue playing right away.
So when I got the review code, I instantly dropped what I was doing and stopped watching FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Yes, it made me stop watching such an epic anime midway through because Oninaki is very impressive. With the story picking up where it left off, I found out the young girl is a daemon. I had suspected this from the start and I just anticipated her becoming a befriended daemon and having her at my command. Her name is Linne, from the Linnea flower on her necklace.
The scene takes you back to the court case, your presence is required in the case against the navigator. During the court case, things get interrupted by Lady Lobelia, asking what part of reincarnation is unclear to the navigator. She scolds the navigator, she questions his motives and then at the end of the case, he is not sentenced to death but to imprisonment for life. Kagachi is happy that he at least helped the boy.
This is about the two-hour point into this game. At this point, you have already had a rush of feelings and some heartfelt “feels” from Oninaki. It does not stop there, this entire story is quite strongly presented to us and it is really such a strong experience. It may be dark, but damn it is a strong story.
Action wise, this is a hack and slash Roleplaying Game and those are among my favorites as you yourself control the flow of things. I love games where I feel I am in total control and that would explain my love for this genre and the Musou genre alike. In Oninaki you basically have a vast amount of attacks at your disposal and daemons to assist you along the way, they perform the combination attacks. Like you slice and they dice.
Storywise, I will tell you a little anecdote. While playing the demo, I just randomly sent Lander a message saying the game was a WTF experience. So deep in the story but also so far out of the ballpark. I would not call it dark though the entire crossing over does feel denser than I’d like to admit at times.
Another silly thing I loved, the seemingly casual side quests like when you are in town and you suddenly see a ghost from the other side. So you cross over to talk to it, he just wants to hold a specific type of weapon, the one his two friends had. This entire encounter felt so random and still so endearing it made me wonder if I should start trying to find these two guys or not. While I did continue my way and the main story, I know where in which town this boy is and should I ever get what is needed, I am very sure of one thing, he is crossing over too.
Oninaki is a rush really, visually this game is mesmerizing and so darn gorgeous. The other side, seeing people on that side or ghosts on our side… Everything just fits perfectly and I could not think of a single thing to improve this game. Needless to say I am in love with this game and I would not hold it against myself if I end up importing the artbook and soundtrack in the future.
At this moment in time, having played so many hours of this game, there is still nothing I would change or improve, the entire atmosphere, the storyline, it all just clicks together like a magnificent puzzle.
In conclusion, I am in love with this game and Oninaki might currently be my top contender for Game of The Year.
