Oni

aka: Aoni
Moby ID: 3242
Windows Specs
Buy on PlayStation 2
$20.00 used, $299.99 new on eBay
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Description official descriptions

It's 2032. The planet is now ruled by the World Coalition Government which annexed 80% of the countries, with the remaining quickly dragged into the WCG. While their official goal was to solve humankind's problems, it was about money. Massive spending bankrupted poorer countries, and soon all traces of individual government disappeared. For those who were poor, the situation didn't improved one bit, and for the richer, maintaining the status was done at the expense of their privacy and personal freedoms. To make things worse, life outside the major cities, far from the atmosphere processors is nearly impossible, as the so-called "Wilderness Preserves" are poisoned, and those who venture into them risk a painful death.

Konoko, fresh out from TCTF (Technology Crimes Task Force, a secret police to take cyber drugs and weapons from the streets, as well as explore the induced technophobia to operate and investigate on a blank check permission) academy is placed under the command of Terrance Griffin and Dr. Kerr and linked to a SLD - an android - called Shinatama, who is neurally linked to her. However, Konoko knows next to nothing about her past, other that she was orphaned at the age of three and felt "different" to other people while was being brought up under the wing of TCTF. After many years in training, she has finally the chance to prove herself to Griffin and the TCTF, and so, heads for a warehouse rumoured to be under the control of the Syndicate, a criminal organization which grew exponentially after a young man called "Boss Muro" climbed to the top of the organization.

Inspired by the classic Anime series Ghost in the Shell by Shirow Masamune, gameplay is a mix between generic third-person shooter and a classic beat'em up. While Konoko has at her disposal several hand-to-hand acrobatic moves (with more unlocked as the player advances), she can also find weapons in the levels, and the decision to go armed or bare-fisted is only up to the player. Each weapon either draws from ballistic or energy cell clips, the number of rounds in each clip depending on the weapon: a Black Adder (a short, one-hand machine gun like an Uzi) can get 30 rounds from a ballistic clip, while a Mercury Bow (a sniper railgun sans scope) only two. Combined with the limited availability of clips, this adds a strategic element to the game, as the player can only carry a weapon at a time, so if a powerful weapons runs out of ammo, the player must choose between keeping the weapon and fight hand to hand with the enemies until Konoko finds fresh ammo clips, or discard it for a lesser gun that uses different ammo. However, if the player runs out of ammo completely when facing a tough challenge, Konoko can "overdose" on hypo sprays (used to heal damage) by using them over her natural health bar, which provides her with faster movement and tougher blows.

Spellings

  • Они - Russian spelling
  • 奥妮 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

171 People (122 developers, 49 thanks) · View all

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Original Concept Art
Additional Concept Art
Particle System Art
Character Animation
Cutscene Animation
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Object Modeling/Texturing
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 72% (based on 60 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 84 ratings with 8 reviews)

Great potential, complete flop.

The Good
Oni could've been great, awesome even. Combining three crucial elements (being great graphics, fight moves and a voluptuous female), Oni should have been one of 2001's greatest games, but ultimately, it failed.

Regardless, Oni deserves recognition for being the first mainstream anime-based game for the PC. There have been a few anime games in the past, but none of them are actually widely known.

Also, it warrants some merit on the grounds of its terrific "animesque" 3D engine, which while isn't actually fast, isn't slow either, and definitely looks GORGEOUS. The scenes are definitely believable for an anime game, and the fight moves are very well performed.

The music, rare as it is, is pretty good never-the-less.

The Bad
Oni has two major shortcomings, which are enough to render a potentially great game into a complete mess.

The first is a completely inadequate control system. I consider myself a very able person when it comes to getting the hang of control systems in games (I've never had any troubles with games ranging from Doom to Alice to Unreal Tournament), but Oni's control mechnasims managed to completely baffle me. Difficult to learn as they are, it's nothing compared to how difficult they are to use in a furious combat sequence. This might not have been too bad in itself, but combined with the second problem, the game becomes extremely frustrating.

The second problem is save points. sigh Shouldn't the lesson have been learned over the years, especially after Daitakana, which was particularly criticized for its "save crystals" mechanism? This is not a playstation game, and I think that's what the programmers failed to realize - miserably so. Combined with a really unintuitive control system, the lack of quicksave/quickload option in this game makes it completely unbearable to play. A stupid mistake, such as falling off a bridge in the middle of combat (or alternatively overhead-throwing an opponent and falling after him) can, and in fact will, make you go through entire sections over and over and over again.

Bad controls + no quicksave = big no-no.

The Bottom Line
A real flop, a game which could've been made great but fails where it's most important: gameplay.

Windows · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2001

An excellent game w/ a couple of faults

The Good
Awesome gameplay. The Martial Arts action is to die for. The game is pretty much a beatem up, and while there are weapons you won't want to use them that much. It never gets boring beating the living mess out of thugs. The moves are excellent and the controls are great. You won't have much trouble learning the controls after going through the training mission. The game has a very cool anime feel. The story is also one of the best around.

The Bad
The biggest fault is the lack of a save at will feature. While I only got frustrated twice because of it, it still should be a feature in the game. This is the biggest and most deadly turnoff of the game. Secondly, the graphics are blah and very bland, there is pretty much no detail at all in the worlds. But the architecture of the buildings can be pretty cool sometimes. Lastly the game begs and pleads for a multiplayer mode. Hopefully all these things will be addressed in a sequel, which I hope they are making.

The Bottom Line
A very good combat game with great moves and controls, served with a great story. Lackluster graphics and an awful save game system do detract from the game, but do not keep it from being a great game. Highly recommended as one of my favorite games and it is now my guilty pleasure. I bought it for $9.99 and I know I got a steal. Overall Just plain FUN!!!!

Windows · by JMoore (6) · 2002

A very engaging game that blends hand to hand combat with gunfighting.

The Good
The best part of the game is the plot line of a futuristic science fiction bordering on cyberpunk. The plot is carefully crafted and all the elements like consoles, news etc. supplement the plot line perfectly. The game also features a great sound track and imaginative weapons for gun fights.It has a great hand to hand game-play and the levels give a sense of a large real size of buildings. It gives every bit a sense of being part of a good Japanese anime. The entire game is played in third person camera.

If the cheats are enabled in the game and one can switch characters and also switch fighting styles correspondingly. One can experiment with ninjas, henchmen or the antagonist himself.

The Bad
The ending was abrupt. It left me wanting a cut scene at least. After an engaging adventure the game story ends without any closure.

I also found two combat moves with similar key mappings. This created some problems during game-play.

One cannot save games at will. The game auto saves at predetermined checkpoints.

Once a game is started, the options menu disappears form the main menu.

The Bottom Line
The game has a very nice story to it with the protagonist discovering more about her dark past as the game proceeds. The first thing one realizes is the sense of space in the levels. The levels are huge and adds to the realism of the adventures. There is a interesting blend of hand to hand combat and futuristic weapons. The sound effects and game music blend well with the levels and situation.

Windows · by DS___ (7) · 2014

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Trivia

Comics

A three-part comic miniseries based on Oni was published by Dark Horse Comics in early 2001. A special #0 preview issue was included with the March issues of GamePro and Gamer's Republic magazines.

Development

Oni was originally intended to be multiplayer, but the designers dropped this when they couldn't get the game engine to perform fast enough over a net connection. There are remnants of the lost multiplayer option in the finished version. The manual still describes the other characters' various strengths and special moves, and once the player has beaten the game (or hacked a certain file), they can play as characters other than Konoko.

Gathering of Goodness

In the American edition of Oni, mailing back the registration card entitled the player to receive a Gathering of Goodness CD that contained patches, demos and movies of upcoming Gathering of Developers games plus a bunch of special god games content.

Title

"Oni" is Japanese for ghost or demon.

Information also contributed by Roger Wilco, Terok Nor and Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe.

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Related Sites +

  • Official Webpage (Mac)
    The official product page for the Mac version of Oni on the publisher's website, which provides a trailer, a profile of the game, a demo, and purchasing information, among other such such particulars.
  • Oni
    Official game website
  • Oni Central
    The bungie.org Oni site.
  • Oni Online
    Comprehensive site about Oni.
  • Wikipedia: Oni
    Information about Oni at Wikipedia
  • ZDNet GameSpot
    Game review.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 3242
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

PlayStation 2 added by Jonathon Howard. Macintosh added by Ace of Sevens.

Additional contributors: Tomer Gabel, nullnullnull, Terok Nor, Kic'N, Unicorn Lynx, Apogee IV, Antti Salminen, Zeppin, Klaster_1, DreinIX, Cantillon.

Game added January 31, 2001. Last modified March 23, 2024.