Introduction

What is Oni?

Oni is a third-person action brawler/shooter published by Bungie, or rather, their spin-off Studio, Bungie West. It is a highly stylized game, made for the PC, Mac, and later for the PS2.

The story of Oni's development is something of a mess, and quite intriguing. It's something I will be covering as the LP progresses. For now, know that this game was in development at the same time as this title you may have heard of called Halo, and that this game was put on the back burner for it.

What is Oni, the Game?

Oni is, as said, a third person action brawler/shooter. You play as Konoko, a newly minted Technology Crimes Task Force (TCTF) Agent, assigned by their superior officer, Terrance Griffin, to battle the Syndicate, a criminal organization.

The plot is barely there, things don't make sense, decisions are made with information never presented to the player and it's something I'm going to be going into in more detail later.

However, for it's flaws, Oni as a very good game. The animation is top notch, still holding up 20 years later. The combat ranges from sublime to intense and is the real draw of the game. 3rd Person Brawlers are not a really well explored niche, so it's nice to see someone take it seriously.

LP Format

I will be doing subtitled videos for this LP. I need the practice after a few years doing post-commentary LPs. Also, it allows me to better convey what I want to say, when I want to say it. Each update will be accompanied by a small essay on themes and subjects that I don't cover during the LP itself. I tried to do everything in video, but it just didn't work out.

I will be playing Oni using the latest version of the Anniversary Edition. Oni, being 20 years old, can't really be played on modern systems, and my attempts to play it on my Virtual Machine running Win 95 didn't pan out either. Thankfully, the game has a small cadre of dedicated modders who created a launcher that allows the game to be run. It also smooths out some rough parts of the game, and enables some quality of life features, such as unlocking all of Konoko's moves from the start of the game.

Because of the age of the game, and the previous LP done by Stratafyre almost ten years ago, I will allow for Unrestricted Spoilers in Tags. Some people may not have heard of this game before, or played it, so talk about what you want as long as it's under black bars.

With that out of the way, let's begin.