E3 2019 Ominous Action RPG Oninaki Releases on PS4 in August. Oninaki, the realm-hopping action role-playing title from Tokyo RPG Factory, now has a confirmed PlayStation 4 release date. Oninaki is the third game of 'Tokyo RPG Factory', a studio at Square Enix developed specifically to bring back the RPG's from the '90's' that many of us grew up with.

With the success of and in the book, hopes to continue the trend with. It features a simplistic visual style with a promise of dark themes. It has a lot to live up to when compared to the previous games. Does it do enough to stand among the company’s previous works? Oninaki, Life, and DeathYou play as Kagachi; a Watcher helping to aid the spirits of the dead on their way to the Afterlife. His intentions are fairly good-hearted, but he often contradicts himself with his nonchalant attitude toward things.

He feels like he’s just doing his job while the rest of the world stresses over death and the Afterlife. However, as we see his story play out, we see him more and more come to realize the importance of the world around him. What makes the narrative so strong is its themes, which all revolve around death in some way. This land reveres the Afterlife, but everyone has his or her own way of perceiving that importance. Some wish to throw away their life to get to the next step, and some are afraid that the Afterlife is just a hypothetical. Kagachi seeks out lost souls and helps them find their way to peace and the Afterlife.What Oninaki does especially well is that it allows you to see why people make particular choices.

In giving these explanations, you begin to understand that they come from a place of real emotion and intent. At the same time, you still see the ultimate consequences of them.

You see the motivation behind the characters in the game and the reasons for the decisions they make.While there is an overarching narrative, a majority of the story comes through these individual tales of people you meet along the way. Some contribute to the overall storyline more than others, but all of them help to create a series of collective thoughts revolving around the process of death. With this in mind, the game’s overall presentation works wonders mimicking what made Valkyrie Profile so special, and it works quite well. Those themes and stories are bolstered by a soothing orchestral soundtrack. Many of the tracks feature a cello melody, and that instrument just fits with the tone of the game.

The soundtrack adds thoughtful ambience to the events the transpire in Oninaki, delivering strong performances without taking the spotlight away from the themes and the characters. It really is a beautiful, somber score.

The Good Comes With The BadThe presentation also plays a part in this melancholic tone as well. The story delivers darker themes, but the art style is very simple and almost child-like. This juxtaposition plays to the common naivety that many characters have about death. It also makes many of the more morbid scenes feel that much more potent.The narrative sports some strong themes and execution, but it also takes a while to progress. I don’t only mean that it’s a slow burn, because it is, and that aspect of the game is wonderful. But, Oninaki falters a bit when it moves from sequence to sequence.

More specifically, the issue comes in the form of transitions between cutscenes.When you encounter a cutscene, Kagachi freezes, and the screen slowly fades to black, before it fades back in showcasing a new scene. There are also long periods where characters are walking or moving around before more dialogue appears.

The simplistic style doesn’t allow for those more intimate, silent moments to contribute more, so they often feel like empty spaces. These may not seem like a big deal in writing, but their frequency poses a great deal of downtime when actually playing. The transitions between cutscenes and periods of long pauses feel like a small bump in the otherwise excellent presentation. Fight With Your DaemonsOther than the themes and characters, Oninaki, of course, features combat and Daemons play a big part in how you fight enemies. Daemons are dead souls that have grown too corrupted in their regrets to pass on.

You wield their weapons, and they attack based on your command. As you fight with them, you gain skill points that you apply to their individual skill trees. Many different Daemons lay in wait around the map just waiting for you to unlock them. You find Daemons scattered through the world. Recruit them to use their unique combat styles against your enemies.As you fight enemies, you earn weapons for each of your Daemons, which you can strengthen and customize with an alchemist and gem sockets. Much of the combat revolves around your ability to improve and organize your Daemons beforehand.

This makes Oninaki feel more strategic, even though combat is very much action-based.When you find a new Daemon, using them effectively proves to be quite challenging. At the onset, all Daemons only have one ability to use alongside basic attacks. This means that you have to wait for cooldowns and kite a lot of enemies in order to develop that particular one. All your Daemons do not share experience pools or skill points, so you have to run each one separately to develop them.Since the number of enemies and the challenge increases as you go along, being able to test out new Daemons becomes more of a chore than something you want to invest time into. This sees you mostly sticking with the Daemons that you had the opportunity to develop early on, leaving some of the more interesting ones on the sidelines. Stronger weapons can help grease a Daemon’s development, but you still need a great deal of time to get them combat-ready.

I wish this aspect of the game were more accessible and you could develop multiple at once. Oninaki offers up a variety of combat scenarios, but you are mostly forced to use your Daemon that has the highest level. Oninaki Thrives In Dark And Melancholic WaysOninaki paints a very dark picture of life in the face of death, as well as how many people perceive both of those concepts, and the game will stick with me for a while because of that.The game offers up a thoughtful narrative through and through. Some presentation and pacing choices sour it and combat can bottleneck your choices. Either way, the stellar tone, soundtrack, and tales of Oninaki feel memorable and potent.

The Yawhg is a one-to-four player choose-your-own-adventure game that randomizes a unique story every time you play. The evil Yawhg is returning. The yawhg online. How will the town’s locals lead their lives in the meanwhile, and what will they do when the dreaded Yawhg finally arrives?

Once you get past a couple of issues, Oninaki is worth experiencing.

For some time now I’ve felt burnt out on the JRPG genre. It started with Final Fantasy XIII, and then Tales of games began to lose their luster. Every day I long for a return to the old school games I loved so hard. Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger. Final Fantasy IX and VIII. Sure, I could play them again thanks to remasters or dusting off my sturdy grey PlayStation, but my brain craved a new tale to enjoy. The announcement for Tokyo RPG Factory’s third title, ONINAKI, seemed to check off all the items on my wishlist and I figured now was the time to see what this studio had to offer a gamer such as myself.

ONINAKI revolves around the concept of reincarnation

Who Watches the Watchers

In a land that believes strongly in the tenets of reincarnation, there exists a group of dedicated men and women whose purpose is to help Lost souls sever their ties to the living world and move onto their next life. Not every soul lingering in the Veil wants to leave; these souls are known as Fallen, turning into monsters to be slain and forced toward their new life. Watchers provide a valuable service to the realm as they maintain the status quo in service of the Sovereign.

ONINAKI is the story of one particular Watcher. At a young age, our hero Kagachi loses both of his parents and is taken in by Veil Watcher Kushi and his family. Reminded that grief and regret are ties that keep the Lost anchored to their world, Kagachi must steel his heart so his parents can be reborn. He gives himself just a moment to cry but is interrupted by an ephemeral girl appearing before him. She knows him, or so she claims. Years later, now a Watcher himself, Kagachi runs into this same young girl in the streets of Deto. With a past she can’t recall, Kagachi offers to help her discover who she is and what it is she needs to accomplish, giving her the name Linne for the necklace she wears.

Together, Kagachi and Linne will traverse the land, both Incarnate and Beyond the Veil, in search of the truth.

Defeat Sight Stealers so you can see into the Veil

Don’t Fear the Reaper

Every JRPG needs a solid battle system. ONINAKI provides its players with an active battle system. Real-time encounters with Fallen appear in both the Living World and The Beyond. These real time battles are a welcome change. There’s nothing like a major break in combat to really ruin the mood, and ONINAKI avoids doing so extremely well.

A Watcher uses warrior souls known as Daemons to fight. Kagachi starts his journey with one such being, Aisha, a swordswoman lending her blade skills to the Watcher. As he and Linne explore the world, other Daemons can be located and join your party, bringing with them new weapons and skills. My personal favorite is Zaav, a spear-wielding soul that lets me abuse his jump function to perform aerial lunges. Each Daemon can slot up to four attack moves and has a special ability mapped to X; for some this is a dash or jump function. The more Fallen you slay, the higher your Manifestation gauge grows, and that’s where you can pull off some pretty damaging blows.

Sight Stealers are a unique enemy in ONINAKI. The manifest in the Living World and in doing so take away a Watcher’s ability to see when they pass through the Veil to the Beyond. You will need to kill them and absorb what they leave behind in order to pass to the other side safely. Trust me. It’s pretty much a guaranteed Game Over to cross into the inky darkness of the Beyond if Kagachi can’t see.

Kagachi can have four Daemons in his party at a time and can easily be swapped in and out of battle using the right stick. If you ever want to change up which Daemons are in the line up, because there are definitely more than four Daemons in this game, just head on over to a Waystone and customize your selection wheel to your liking.

Branching Paths

Just how well you do in battle is up to you. Each Daemon you can possess has its own unique skill tree for you to explore. When you defeat enemies they have the chance to drop a Soulstone for that particular Daemon. Hop on over to their sub-menu to spend these stones on passive abilities and new, stronger attacks. Also hidden inside the branches of each skill tree are fragments of the Daemon’s lost memories. Once you’ve unlocked these, head to a Waystone to view them; doing so often opens up further access to their most powerful skills.

A look at Aisha’s Skill Tree

If you’re a little short on Soulstones, odds are you may have a Null Stone or two in your inventory that you can use instead. By completing sidequests given by the Lost souls you encounter in the world outside of the main story, you can obtain more. These are not locked to any particular Daemon and can be used freely.

This means if your goal is to max out every skill tree, you’re going to want to rotate your battle partners regularly. I’ve personally found that when adding a new Daemon to my menagerie it’s helpful to travel back to an earlier level and grind for Soulstones. Not only does that nab me some stones, but also lets me get a feel for the new weapon style at my disposal.

Playing with Power

As well as dropping Soulstones, destroying Fallen is a great way to obtain better weapons for your Daemons. But you can make them even more stronger and imbue them with Shadestones (also dropped in battle) to create the ultimate killing implements. To do so, you’ll need to visit the Alchemist next to the second Waystone in Deto. From here you can use extra weapons to strengthen those you wish to use or place Shadstones into weapons with available slots.

Another service the Alchemist provides is Transmutation. Every hundred kills or so, he will have new formulas available to Kagachi. Most of the time these will be for stronger weapons or ones with more Shadestone slots and require offering up other weapons in your possession to craft. Other times he may have Shadestone formulae displayed, which, you guessed it, require trading in other Shadestones to create. I’ve found his services invaluable as Kagachi grows stronger. The more stones I can slot on stronger weapons, the easier it is to fight through hordes of Fallen and survive boss battles. I always seem to be checking in with him, especially when I’m working on powering up my newer Daemons.

Shifting through the Veil which separates the Living World and the Beyond.

No question, ONINAKI has reignited my long extinguished JRPG spark. I’ve actually been looking forward to booting up my PS4 every day to follow Kagachi and Linne’s journey. It’s not a slam dunk game; there is a lot of predictability in the storyline, but even then, I’m compelled to see this through to the very end. There are Daemons I absolutely do not enjoy having in my party but will eventually grind out simply to view all of their lore and max out skill trees. All in pursuit of that feeling of accomplishment for hitting the one hundred percent completion mark, or perhaps in this case, my next Platinum trophy.

ONINAKI review code provided by publisher. Version 1.01 reviewed on a standard PlayStation 4 console. For more information on scoring please see our Review Policy.