ONINAKI

Review

The game starts with an intro remembering the day your parents died. An illness finally took them as the rain fell softly outside. You’re only young and are told by the other adults (who are at your home to pay their respects) not to grieve for your parents, but to wish them well in their next life. You leave your home for some fresh air and meet a mysterious young girl, who seems to know you and asks why you’re not whole? When your friend, Mayura, comes along, the young girl suddenly disappears, after which she asks her father, Kushi (a Watcher) to help you overcome your parents’ death.

Watchers can speak and interact with The Lost if they haven’t already passed on, helping The Lost who have wandered from the path to reincarnation, and maintaining order between the Living World and the Beyond. The Living World is a land of flesh and blood, a natural world brimming with life where all creatures rejoice being alive. The Beyond is the land of the dead, a world that exists in parallel with the Living World, only separated by a thin veil. As a Watcher you can move between these two worlds.

If you grieve for those who have died, then it fills them with regret. The deceased can’t be reincarnated if they are held back by grieving families and friends. If the deceased don’t move on, they are known as The Lost, spirits which have lost their way. Some will need help so that they can move on and be reborn; help may come in the form of taking them to visit somewhere that they loved, or to see a special person. Sometimes though, The Lost are so filled with regret and hate that they transmute into monsters, The Fallen. If this happens then the lost souls are lost forever, and they will never be reincarnated. The only thing you can do in this case is to set them free by killing the monster they’ve become.

You play as Kagachi and it’s been twenty years since your parents died; you have joined the Veil Watch as a Watcher, just like Mayura and her father Kushi. You and Mayura are looking for a young boy who remains in the Beyond and needs help to move on. This is where your adventure begins …

On your way there you will be given some information on how to switch between the Living World and the Beyond.  As you progress further in the game, you’ll uncover more information about how everything works. You can switch between the two worlds at any time, although sometimes when you switch to the Beyond, all around you is dark with silhouettes of monsters. This happens when you haven’t yet removed the Veil Blindness; to remove it you must defeat a Sight Stealer.  Sight Stealers are a rare form of Fallen, with a dark mist emanating around them, and you will find some nearby. Once you’ve defeated the Sight Stealer, a nexus will remain; selecting the nexus will then remove the Veil Blindness in this region. You will also gain a special effect known as Precepts, which are buffs against the Fallen.

You don’t want to be walking around the Beyond if you haven’t removed the Veil Blindness, as you are very vulnerable and can die extremely quickly (plus you can’t really see anything). Once a veil has been lifted, all that area will be revealed, showing everything around you. As well as more Fallen, you may find some chests, in which you can find various items, such as Health Potions, Weapons, Null Stones or Shadestones. These items can also be found after defeating fallen monsters.

While in battle you’ll have a basic attack, and you can also use additional attacks that are determined by the Daemon you’re currently using. Daemons are souls that cannot be reincarnated, damned or banished; they have no memory of their previous life, but they can bond with Watchers. They are a special type of the Lost. You can have up to four Daemons in your party at a time, although you only have one to start with, and others will become available as you progress through the game. Aisha has been Kagachi’s daemon ever since he became a Watcher. Aisha can move quickly, striking fast and hard with her swords and is a good all-round warrior. You’ll come across many other that will join your group, all with different fighting styles. You’re able to swap between daemons in your party at any time, whether just taking a stroll or in the middle of battle.

All daemons will start with one attack that can be used to enhance Kagachi’s skills and abilities. Your daemon will follow you around unless you’ve sheathed your weapon. However, once you hit your attack button, they’ll appear again and aid in your battles. A daemon can have up to four attacks at any one time; you can earn more by unlocking them in the Skill Tree. To unlock new Skills, you will need to collect soulstones, which will be found randomly from battles or chests. The type of stones to collect depends of the daemon; Aisha needs to collect Sword Stones, Rigan requires Twinblade stones and Lucika needs Fist stones. These are just a few of the soulstones required for applying new skills to daemons.

You can use the soulstones to unlock new attacks or to unlock long lost memories of your daemon companion. Each new skill will take a varying amount of stones to unlock, ranging from one to five stones. Once a new skill is unlocked you can then attach it to your daemon by selecting one of four button options on your keyboard or game pad. When in battle, selecting that button will then activate your new attack. As you unlock more skills you may want to swap older ones for newer ones, which can be done at any time. You can give these attacks extra buffs as you use them more and more. You can have a total of four buffs added to each of these skills. For example, Aisha can add Hasten, Restoration, Affinity and Criticality to her Gate Slash attack.

The more your daemon progresses and the more memories you unlock, the more your daemon will level up. This will enhance their abilities when possessed. While attacking in battle, the more hits you make, the more you’ll increase your Affinity. When your affinity reaches one hundred percent you can become possessed, increasing your attacks and abilities for a while. You can increase your affinity to two hundred plus percent, which can come in really handy against your opponents. Recovering a daemon’s memory will allow you to learn something of their past life as well as strengthen the bond between you both.

You’ll find new weapons both in chests and after defeating any of the Fallen. There are several types of weapon, such as axes, swords, spears and crossbows etcetera, and there are multiple variations of these types of weapons. You can check a weapon’s information from within your inventory. Information about a weapon will tell you a little about the type of weapon it is, the power of the weapon, whether it’s a common, uncommon or rare weapon. It also shows you whether or not it’s been upgraded, and if it has any slots for Shadestones. You can equip any weapon from the daemons page on the menu screen, and while you’re there you can also select the Skills Tree and Skills.

You won’t be able to upgrade or attach any shadestones to a weapon until you unlock the Alchemist at the market in Deto. Once you do unlock him you can then upgrade a weapon; to do this you will need to use any unwanted weapons as materials (it doesn’t have to be the same type of weapon that is being upgraded). The alchemist can also use Transmute

Shadestones can also be added to a weapon, although not all weapons have slots for them to be attached. There is also a chance of having shadestones already attached to any new weapon you find. Shadestones can give your weapons extra stats and buffs; Basic Attack, Manifest Attack, Debuff Attack, Poison, Paralyze and Stun Resistance are just a few of the shadestones you can come across.

As you move from one place to another you will come across Waypoints. Standing by a waypoint and selecting it will open the waypoint's options. These options consist of Party (here you can select any of the daemons you currently have, to a total of four), Daemon Lore (where you’ll find a video of any new memories you may have unlocked for your daemon), Fast Travel (you can fast travel to any waypoint you have currently found in an area), Difficulty (you can change the game’s difficulty here), and Save (here you have ten save slots to save your game’s progress).

On the menu screen you’ll find Stats (Kagachi’s Health Points, Attack and Defense, Speed and Inertia, as well as his current Experience Points and Level, and the daemons in his party), Daemons (here you can apply new skills), Map (Current position), Items (all Weapons and Shadestones you currently own), Memories (here you can find information on the Story, Characters, Locations, Glossary, Fallen and Lost Souls).

Settings can also be found on the menu screen where you can set options for the Graphics, Frame Rate (30 or 60 fps), V-Sync (On/Off), Windowed Mode (Windowed or Full Screen), Shadow Quality (Normal or High), Anti-Aliasing (Low, Normal or High) and Resolution.

Settings for Text, Language (English, Chinese, French and German), Message Speed (Slow, Medium, Fast and Max), Auto Scroll (On/Off) and Log Order (New to Old or Old to New), Sound options (Music, Sound and Voice volume sliders).  

Battle settings consist of Camera Distance (Close, Medium or Far), Show map (On/Off), Show Skills/Daemons (Full, Basic or None), HP/Level Information (On/Off), Control Tips (On/Off), Battle Log (On/Off), Damage (On/Off). You can also find Keyboard and Controller key and button binds.

There are three game difficulties to choose from: Casual (an easier difficulty for those who want to enjoy the story), Normal (offers a more challenging gameplay and tactical fighting) and Maniac (offers intense battles with higher item drop rates). No matter which difficulty you choose to play, it won’t affect the story.

I’ve really enjoyed the game so far.  The story has been good and with a twist I didn’t expect, and I like the graphics, music and sounds. The gameplay I thought was also good, with various characters to switch between, giving you multiple gameplay styles. There is a demo should you wish to try the game before deciding whether to buy or not. If you think it’s a bit too expensive then I would suggest waiting for a sale and grabbing it then. For me though, it’s a Big Thumbs Up!!! Really enjoyed playing Oninaki.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!