Oni (2001)

While I'm not deep into anime, i LOVED GitS. I went into this mostly blind other than seeing some cool wallpapers from the game that very much indeed did remind me of GisT. I remember the box art, that depicts Oni/Konoko armed to the teeth with a LMG and a revolver. (I like revolvers. they are reliable, six bullets is enough to get the job done!) haha How did I never play this?

My only expectation going into this is 'GitS the game' So if that's you, move on. You will most likely be like me and find out that this game was real dissapointing for a stack of reasons. I'm amazed it has a big fan community who even took it upon themselves to extensively mod this game, and mod it quite nicely with the anniversary edition. (Do play the AE if you play Oni, as it's a nice front end and solves some supposed bugs)

So here it is. First thing to mention, much of this game world just feels very empty...
It reminds me very much of some of the N64 games in which you explore a map with many unnecesarry 'empty rooms' that are just there,
seemingly to meet arbtirary architectural designs.

So, as you nav through a level, finding an enemy here, a computer to interact with there, much of it is empty expanse, and it just feels lame. If you played Hybrid Heaven on N64 its a lot like that, but slightly more maze-like (playing the game is a lot like that one actually)

This Vaporwave like emptiness of urban sprawl type complexes i could forgive (heck it would be nice if they made a social statement of sorts with it, but it's nothing like that) but many aspects of this game are just not to my liking. There are far too many 'gotchas' during gameplay that result in going back to the last save checkpoint, it's terribly annoying. The first boss battle is just awful.

The boss fight more or less becomes a rucurring theme in what 'i dont like about this game' MAny times you will get pinned down by SMG gunfire from a single enemy! Rather than what is touted as fluid and gunplay/melee mechanics, its often difficult to connect you blows and fatal mistakes of getting trapped in SMG stunlock fire which results in reloading the last save.... To make matters worse, the jumping in this is really difficult for several reasons. The part about connecting blows? connecting a 'jump' is to where you wish to land is even harder. You require some impeccable timing that I just can't quite get the hang of.

To make things worse with jumping, once you jump you cannot really stop your jump or change direction. (few games do this, and there is a good reason!) The few times you must go through a jumping puzzle you really cant screw it up because you will fall in toxic goo or otherwise die. This is made worse by the saving feature (or lack of one) which takes you back to a checkpoint, and its a loooong checkpoint really. Fortunately you do not have too many jumping puzzles, but there are simply too many difficult things in this, between gunfire stunlock, nasty boss battles, drones, laser traps (I truly hated the lasers far more than anything in the game) other 'gotchas' and more, it makes this game altogether not so fun to play. And real difficult and time consuming to get ahead. (I gave up at chapter 13/15)

There are computers that open doors that open some door with the symbol on the computer screen matching the physical door, or a sign next to the door. These are 'usable computers'

And there are 'usless computers' that contain various text logs and flavor/filler to tell the story...

but for the most part, i wouldnt bother to even look at them half way in. Because I just find this world not very interesting. IT feels bland and hollow more or less.

I feel like Oni is a cheap ride targeting everyone who bought Tomb Raider to stare at Lara's ass. This game is meant for YOU.

Fortunately It was short, and I must admit, while a cheap selling point, the character design of Oni's Konoko looks fantastic. She is sexy and the animations of your character are very fluid. The mouselook also has a nice 'whippy' fisheye type movement to it that not only looks very crisp and feels right but works very well in that it almost acts like a kind of peripherial vision in the sense you can dart back and forth quickly (though that isn't really enough, timing is everything in Oni) I have mixed feelings on the combat itself. On one hand it's fluid and feels a bit like a real fight, on the other hand its very difficult to actually 'play' this combat as agame. The odds are simply stacked against you when you have more than one opponent and it's a real ***** to go back to the last checkpoint when you fail. Being careful going at one by one, stealthing through only to get caught by a gotcha at the end? It feels like you are being punished for playing...

GiST was perhaps the most in depth and elaborately woven look at a cyberpunk future and had it's own signature art style by shirow, this doesnt have anything like that at all other than a decently looking protagonist with a nice ass. But hey, at least it is a nice ass to look at.

Combine that with a very base story and construement that feels rather lacking in much imagination and it just makes Oni a foul representation, and just feels sleazy to me. It feels like a rip off some of Shirow's ideas and rolled it up to sell the public some ass. took out the intricate politics and interesting world of GiST and threw in a very vaporwave like N64 rendered map of many empty rooms posing as 'corporation Z'

For me that alone is the dealbreaker. For it's time this might have been a fantastic entry into a new kind of fighting game (i'm not sure) in the way that the enemies logic is scripted and it is indeed very difficult and seems random what kind of moves they will throw against you. It's actually pretty intense fighting but there are too many things that make it simply not fun for me.

It is unfortunately in my opinion RUIINED by the guns as a stunlock from SMG will simply end your quest (unless you cheat) I cannot even reccomend the game to Dark Souls fans who like the kind of very difficult and involved fighting because there is no pattern finding, its just randomly hard and while it is interesting to explore the diffent kind of attacks and combos you can do. it seems the crux of this game is to stunlock enemies and land a throw and manage them that way before they can stunlock you with a gun, oh they have infinite ammo too, so you cant trick them or use any kind of tactics involving them depleting their mag (althoug hthey do reload but it takes like a second, which is generally not nearly enough time to make a move toward them)

The music in this was also not to my liking. eahc 'track' is in essence a 200-300 kb loop file that plays rather tiresome music. Fortunately it only happens when you are fighting and not as you are exploring a mostly emtpy level to find that switch on a computer you missed... The pounding techno thump thump works ok in the game but doesnt leave an impression. However, at times it will switch from one track to another as you progress through certain 'point' in the map in a very jarring and unchoreographed way. Not even the animation videos (the intro and end) are good! This is a game about anime so surely they could have delivered something good there at least??? Nope, not even the fan community really appreciates these videos and the only fan site on the net describes it as 'annoying' and gave a suggestion on how to remove it. Delete the file... Well gee. Someone recommended me this game, and I'm bewildered as to what it has in it that hits things right.

So just to give you a taste of how lame this world is. In this cybperpunk future. All devices use ONE BATTERY. Apparently its the omnicorp mubishibija MonoCell. While that isn't a bad idea. It's just the kind of goofy stuff that makes a world seem dull and uninteresting.

The one thing I did like about this game was the engine and console. It's pretty powerful and the fan community did some cool stuff with the Anniversary Edition. A loader that connects to a database to DL and install mods (similiar to what NExus Sites did around the release of Fallout 3!) that's rather industrious and impressive, though i did not run any mods other than a high def of konoko's model. The other thing that is nice is the particle effects. Both the glowing supercharge effects, the shields, smoke, fire, invisible 'thermoptic camo' and other elements all do indeed look very fluid and super nice in this game. And yet, while the eye candy is nice. sparkles and a cute ass that just doesn't make oni fun. The intense fighting doesn't quite hit it right. The guns on the cover, are somewhat misleading (the game would have been much better, at least more possible to play with NO guns) you most definitely are not wielding a sniper rifle in one hand and a mac10 in the other. You can only carry one gun at a time and the ammo is quite hard to come by. Guns also have serious disadvantage, like you shooting someone shooting you isnt as efficient as sneaking up on them or jumping out at them from behind cover to tackle them so you dont get shot. So Guns are just no bueno in Oni. This isn't ghost in the shell 'the game' by a long shot. It doesn't even have a nice 'retro' feel.

For it's time it might have been pretty cool. Kind of like a third person Double Dragon type beat em up, with combo's based on your timing. There probably aren't too many games quite like it.... But there are too many things that are just sour.... The open world element isn't present and the world feels cheap and empty. The guns do not add to the gameplay. The combat is a bit finnicky and hard to play. There's no pattern finding (like dark souls) so I just can't speak of any strengths that the game has, and really excels in. The Hud is confusing (but at least there is a radar to tell you where to go... sort of)

There's a few people that might enjoy this game.
1. People who love Lara's ass. (2/3 of the game imo)
2. People who really love fighting games like Dark Souls, or Hybrid Heaven and wish to play every fighting game anything remotely like it where you time moves and combos. (Perhaps you will have better finesse than I in regards to timing moves and connecting blows and result in a better experience)
3. People who like Infiltration games like Metal Gear Solid (it's not possible to engage mutliles at once, when they are armed. You will have to sneak a bit)
4. Ravers. (particle effects)
5. people who don't know what Ghost in the Shell is (and don't care)

Going to guess you mostl ikely you need three out of five. Tough to recommend it.