Oninaki Reviews
Oninaki is my favorite Tokyo RPG Factory game to date, with its gorgeous art style and melodic music and its more appealing storyline. It may be far from perfect, but it is certainly worth a look if you fancy a slightly different take on a well-established genre.
All in all, Oninaki falls short of being a great action RPG, but it's not without its charms. An intriguing world and story keep things afloat, while an addictive character progression system distracts from repetitive dungeon crawling. This definitely isn't Tokyo RPG Factory's best game, but it is an interesting diversion. With a little more depth, a sequel would be a tempting proposition.
Oninaki is a heartfelt mess. Its unique world and challenging themes are more memorable and moving than anything Tokyo RPG Factory has done before, but it's hard to fully recommend the game given its humdrum action and strange design choices. Depending on how much frustration you're willing to put up with for a good story, Oninaki may be worth owning, or perhaps better left beyond the veil.
Oninaki is strange. At first you think you love him, then the feeling changes and in the end you almost can't stand it anymore. The truth is in the middle: it is a good game with some interesting mechanics and others much less well chosen.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Tokyo RPG Factory's Oninaki is a return to form for the relatively new studio, channeling the best parts of I Am Setsuna with some fresh JRPG form.
Oninaki takes dark themes and a child-like visual style and combines them with the potent themes of life and death wonderfully. Combat can be a little restrictive and the presentation takes a hit in cutscenes, but its successes make it more than worth your while. The game flows with darkness and hope, and Oninaki shines because of it.
ONINAKI is by no means the best in the genre but offers a strong foundation for Tokyo RPG Factory to build off of in the future.
Overall, I had a blast playing Oninaki and not only enjoyed the gameplay and story, but the art style and music in-game is also top-notch. I did find the story to be mostly predictable; however, there were also a few moments which surprised me. In fact, at one point I thought I had come to the end of the game but it turned out it was just the end of that section. The combat can be a bit challenging to get the hang of, even on the easier difficulties, but it's well worth the effort.
Death is never a comfortable topic. Oninaki, however, doesn't just address it but wholeheartedly runs with it. It doesn't always succeed but it does make you think about the meaning of mortality — perhaps a bit too much as people die left and right. The combat also could be a bit tighter and the story overstays its welcome a bit. Beautiful visuals compared with a haunting score, however, make the game a treat to behold. Here's hoping Tokyo RPG Factory further builds on this for their next new JRPG IP.
Oninaki feels hollow. It's dark but has no message. It's complex but has no need for that complexity. It builds an interesting world and never does much with it. It's a game filled with great ideas that just go nowhere. Unfortunately, that is par for the course for Tokyo RPG Factory games.
While the combat initially feels flawed it ends up growing with the player, and the variety of customization options stands out in the best way. All in all, ONINAKI is an interesting effort with a good lifespan that deserves a close look.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It’s story and lore have plenty to love about them, and when paired with the depth of the combat system, it makes for an engaging and entertaining experience fans of JRPGs will at least want to take a look at.
With Oninaki, Tokyo RPG Factory finally delivers a game with a true personnality in its art direction and its plot and atmosphere. Alas, the exploration seems dull and the structure of the game in general is too repetitive. Promising maybe, frustrating nonetheless.
Review in French | Read full review
Oninaki is a compelling game, the artstyle is the best from Tokyo RPG factory yet. Its story is dense, as the studio uses to, but it has its mishaps when delivering said story. The change of pace in the combat serves it well, but unfortunately the complex system renders useless once you get to the higher levels. It goes from a strategy based combat to a mindless button masher. But nevertheless, one you could enjoy.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
On the surface, Oninaki might seem like a rough-around-the-edges action RPG lacking depth to its combat alongside an anime-inspired melodramatic story. However, for those who are patient enough to explore its world, characters, and ability-based battle system, there’s a lot to like an dive into after all.
Meditative action role-playing game with a very successful, thoughtful story, but stumbling block in the flow of the game.
Review in German | Read full review
Oninaki has one foot in the grave while the other doing a pleasant tap dance. It has an interesting story held back by bland characters and filler, and its gameplay can feel great when you're not getting pounded in the face and stunned to death. Unless you can find it on sale, I'd skip this one.
I'm frustrated because I wanted to like Oninaki a lot more than I do. It's absolutely not a bad game; rather, it's yet another "serviceable" outing from Tokyo RPG Factory, who continue to try their hardest.
Oninaki does a lot of things right. It has a compelling story and solid gameplay but doesn't take either far enough to reach the level of greatness.
Tokyo RPG Factory's newest game has a lot of great ideas on paper, but never manages to fully realize them.