I need check your work in depth,that research and interview, was very enjoyable. Oh my, i would make a shirt with Hardy LeBel face at point to cry from interview, those tears have great value to me.
Oni’s source code leaked online recently, and it includes the code for the scrapped network mode. I hope fans will be able to re-implement that mode into the game
@@kurzackd And if for some reason someone is reading this comment. Yes, someone actually re-implemented everything back in to the game with full fledge online PVP.
@@anemone5870 I'm curious what mod/project you're talking about here? The ones I know available are all early alphas with very few features made years ago, way before the source leaked.
Mr. LeBel. I want to thank you for your work on Oni. You are the reason this game saw the light of day. I still remember actually seeing this game at a friends house way back in 2004. He was playing on his computer and me, being a GITS fan naturally mistook it for a GITS game. He said “No, this is Oni.” I was like “Oni? What’s that?” To which he replied “That’s what everyone says.” with a rather somber smirk on his face. He had me sit down and play it. I played for an hour and I was like “Holy crap this is great! Why did I never hear about this?” His response was slapping his copy of Halo down on the table. “This is why” he said. Which is when I realized Bungie made Oni. And then I finally saw the similarities between the two games and I was like, “What happened?” Unbeknownst to me, he also bought the Playstation port. He pointed two fingers at the bottom of the case. One to Take-Two and one to Rockstar, which I recognized as the people who made GTA. I noticed the art looked very different. I was like “What did they do?” His response is something I won’t forget. “They rushed perfection.” I played that console port for 10 minutes. He said “Should I just toss this?” I said “Break the f**king disc in half and stomp the crap out of it. This is disgraceful.” To which we took turns shattering that poorly made knockoff. He said “the PC one is the real one.” I was like “Yeah. I kinda want it now!” He looked at me and said “Good luck” I didn’t understand what he meant. Until Steam came out. I found OniCentral. And I remembered that game. I realized I had never seen a SINGLE Physical copy of it. This game had so much potential. It realized most of it. But the fact that we will never see a sequel hurts.
I love Oni, was exposed to it by a friend at some point around 2004, 2005. I come back to it every now and again, but it gets harder and harder to make it playable...but I love it, its unique, and I always talk about it to anyone I think will be remotely interested, even today - more than 20 years later. Thanks so much for your effort. I hope one day it'll get a remaster deserving of the effort and spirit of it.
~20 years later, I still remember Oni in good light and wish a sequel happened (will happen? Please?). I really enjoyed that game. For what it's worth, if any of the team members on this project reads this; Thank you. Hours on hours, I enjoyed this game!
Have you tried replaying it? The combat system is interesting but the pacing is pretty fucking bad IMO. I think a big part of the problem is that it was such a blatant GITS ripoff they legitimately didn't know what to do with it if they were gonna try to keep up this chirade.
@@shelltoe_soul yeah aesthetically, but that's about it. I don't see many paralels beyond that, really. And even if there were - I really wouldn't mind it as there is no good GITS game (there was a shooter, but it also had nothing to do with GITS other than aesthetics).
@@shelltoe_soul it’s a ripoff just from the looks and btw, I don’t really understand how people can like Ghost in the shell, it’s the most boring thing I’ve ever watched in my life. Just a bunch of psichological stuff mixed with an acid trip of a show and the pace is freaking slow. I’ve fallen asleep watching it and I’m not joking. At least oni has a better pace and better action, that’s for sure
@@lorenzocc3784 Y'all need Tarkovsky. If watchin' a couple of his films doesn't cure you from your lack of mise en scene perception then I'm afraid it's probably terminal.
Wow, I had no idea about any of this. Oni was a transformative game for me - it was such incredible gameplay, it had an anime story (in the late 90s/early 2000's anime still had not hit the US market in a big way so to see it in a video game like this was so exciting). And, for me personally, it was very cool to play as a female... she was voiced so well, animated so well, and had a full story where she was an important player. I really connected with her. The story was good - there was humor, drama, even pathos. I feel bad for how hard this was on everyone, but I played it for YEARS afterwards, keeping an old computer just to play it longer. I miss it, and I always hoped for another. I still have Oni desktop images that I rotate from time to time. :)
@@fantoniumnitrous yeahhhh ok well only Oni and Tomb Raider had a sufficient level of depth to their female leads along with sufficiently stylized and captivating anatomical attributes. "Took inspiration from GITS" Lmao yeah like Starcraft just took a bit of inspiration from "WH40". Just a smidge.
@@poundshopadamjones9654 again, there were already female protagonists years prior, like Samus from Metroid and Alis from Phantasy Star. Heck, before both of those there was Reika from Time Gal.
Plus, Alis's motivations weren't to become a princess, marry a prince, find her prince charming, it was revenge. Samus is a cold-blooded bounty hunter and walking death machine (if we just ignore her interpretation in Other M). @@fantoniumnitrous
15 years ago I was skipping school with my friend. We were sitting at his computer and on the desk was a copy of Oni. I was a massive Halo fan, and I'd heard of Oni, but never played it. When he went to the toilet I picked up the case and looked at the art of the back. Something about it, I still remember it so clearly, it was a sunny afternoon and the sun was shining through the window onto the paper box. What stood out was that the anime style seemed so weird and different to what I was used to with Halo. I asked if we could have a go playing it but we never did.
Time may have forgotten this game, but surely I didn't. This game is an unique, hidden gem. Perfect for people loving cyber punk vibes, tense action, interesting female character, lovely animations, martial art like hand-to-hand combat and gunfight on top of that,
Nicely researched and put together! Thanks for taking the time to remember this old game. Like you said, people are still actively modding it even in 2019. I'm one of them, and even I don't know why we keep at it! I think it must be the uniqueness of the gameplay. The world that Hardy LeBel created is also really compelling. Someone needs to get working on a sequel one of these days! (And I don't mean the ill-fated console sequel that was cancelled.) The game still has unfulfilled promise.
It's definitely a completely unique gameplay experience. I'm surprised there hasn't even been an attempt to make a game similar to it, and just lay claim to the genre.
LarryBundyJr drew the box art for Oni (2001). I'm surprised I didn't find his comment in the comments YET. That dude is everywhere. 15:51 - PTSD Crunch
Back in the late 90's, I spent my entire time playing arena shooters. However, I had started out playing Doom on keyboard only, and so that's how I'd play everything in first person. Oni forced me to move over to WASD+Mouse controls (in part because I couldn't remap it's controls, IIRC), and that's how I learned how to properly play first person shooters on PC. It was also a very unique game, and like you've pointed out in the video, we haven't seen anything like before or since, so that's probably why it still has an active community, which is amazing.
It irritates me how often I see Rockstar given credit for this game, often without any mention of Bungie at all. Especially knowing how bad the port was.
just saw this and dont know if i had missed where i could get the game, now I'm realizing the video is from 9 years ago so I reckon I sail the high seas because this looks amazing
The fact that any game ended up existing at all seems like a miracle in itself. The level of project mismanagement you end up hearing about in the gaming industry is incredible. It contextualizes a lot why games end up being released the way they are.
People somehow pretend that this is only a problem in modern gaming when it has literally been going on since the Atari2600. The only thing is we didn't know about all the development woes back then.
Counter point to 26:15 - Some players NEED these games, and enjoy them so much because the games helped THEM get through equally terrible/horrific or life threatening experiences. They DO find the bits of soul put into the game, and give their own into the effort of playing said game. Sometimes overly thoroughly, to know every secret. Everything you can do. The game can mean a lot of different things to all of us, and it doesn't have to be specific to Oni. I just today commented in your preservation video about Def Jam Fight For New York and Web of Shadows. Both games mean something to me, and both are arguably in Oni's position today. Dark Sun The Shattered Lands was actually the RPG that was most like Baldur's Gate to me, before I knew BG existed as a series. I played the hell out of that game, but search me if I can find anyone that even knew it existed, never mind played it. Gamers value games just as much as those that develop them. Often those that develop them came from a background as gamers themselves to start with. It's more cyclical, and even if I'd call a lot of implementations of game mechanics in varied genres questionable, it doesn't mean I less respect the fact it is work. It's work I can't do, because I don't have the patience to sit there and tell a computer a hundred different times to "Do X." Then sit there 95 times, and try to figure out the reasons it won't. Just for one in game event. Repeat that about oh, a thousand to two thousand times over. That's just the most basic form of anything to code in. It get's a LOT more complex when you add multiple trigger factors, like X can happen if A, B or C does. But if D, then it doesn't happen... etc. The computer can, and will frequently fuck it up. It's why I hate Bethesda's percentage value on damage skills. Or in general. A computer can use RNG to fuck you over endlessly, because percentage. Which it does not properly understand translates as a fraction. Which it cannot fuck up. 9 out of 10 is always going to compute to 9 out of 10, and in percentage it's the same idea. With added leeway therein, unfortunately. 90% gives a 10% chance that X won't work or won't happen. Just as X-Com players how frustrating that is. Where if it was done with fractions, you'd hit 9 out of 10 times, unequivocally. That's all to say game development requires a very specific mindset, that is needed to actually create a game. You have to be willing to be the microscope, and also be able to communicate to a literal baby (in as far as what a computer can comprehend when you tell it in coding to do something) about what you want to implement in any given game. That's a bar most gamers, and most people just don't pass. Whether they like the idea of game development or not. I am a writer, so I'd be involved in the story concepts and dialogue. I might also have suggestions for mechanics that could work, or work better for accessibility to players in general, but that's as far as I could get in the games industry. I didn't even know Oni existed until it popped up in my feeds by this video. I don't particularly agree with the non sexualization; as it can be seen as erasing the femininity of a character as well to try to purposely downplay that aspect. She's fine to be a little sexualized, or flirty with people, and dress to a certain attractive standard. That doesn't mean I need to see her in a chainmail bikini mind, but I had no problems with the "hot" version of Cortana being eye candy as well as functionally useful. Before she went nuts, and had to be torn down to the bolts. I could have used bits and bytes, I just didn't want people to think I was hungry...
i love this game, i would like to say thank you to all the devs who worked on the game, its just a masterpiece, your work did not go unnoticed and unappreciated, oni remains to this day one of my favourite game ever, and no other game even come close to it,....thanks for making this gem!!
Really fun to see you had done a vid on Oni while scrolling through your backlog! From the sounds of it, I'm one of few fans who enjoyed it on PS2, though that may be moreso because I was both young and didn't know it was on any other platform lol. Out of all the games we had as a family, Oni was the only one where my mom, dad, and I all played it on our own memory cards. I definitely have criticisms of it, but its uniqueness always trumped those complaints even at the time, and having more insight into its development like this only makes it more... Bittersweet? Imagining what could have been in better circumstances. It's one of those games alongside the likes of the original Armored Core and Gungriffon Blaze that have just stuck with me ever since playing them. Maybe it's time to figure out how to play it again, been several years since last.
I bought this game right around the time it came out on PC, in the big box format and I still have my copy. I had an absolute blast with it then and even dusted it off a few years ago and give it another go. It really is a shame how the devs were treated and how poorly the game sold.
Bro i was born in 1999 in India and since from that time i am playing this game till today. I think that i have started breathing Oni in my life. Because in my life their are many lemons and even though they are I can't break relationship that i developed with Oni. I am 21 now a mechanical engineer and my parents and friends say to me that i still play this game till today, I don't feel any old. As you mentioned in your video that oni was the child of developer and i respect that. I was just looking that who play this game till today and i visited your website and i saw. Complete respect to you, that you made this Documentary I watched completely till the end and i never felt bored i watched completely in a single stroke. Thank You and god bless you brother.
Got here via the EFAP recommendation. I had a Demo when I was little of this game and I thought it was the full thing or thought I was doing something wrong and wasn't able to go more than a few levels, really happy to find out all the history behind it and learn that there are more people who know about this game than I initially expected.
I am forever in love with the late 90s, early 2000s style of sci fi Bungie used to make. This video was a great watch. Won't be leaving my mind for considerable years haha.
No disrespect to the people at Bungie, but I feel the company deserves the brunt of the blame for Oni’s fate. Rather than split their Chicago office into two different teams, dedicated to two different projects (one for Halo, one for Oni) like a normal company would do, *someone* at Bungie came up with the ingenious financial and management decision of opening up a whole new studio in San Jose, staffed almost entirely with techies who had no experience in game design whatsoever. Yes, development for both Halo and Oni would have definitely taken longer with just one studio simultaneously working on two projects, but in due time, a great deal would have been gained if they were committed to the completion and success of both games, rather than dedicating their experienced and creative manpower into Halo, while their shared financial resources are being drained by a less competent team for Oni (and that’s not even factoring in the Myth II installer bug fiasco!). Ranting aside, I would personally like to thank Hardy LeBel for being able to salvage Oni’s troubled development in late 1999, particularly with making a vastly superior story rewrite (the original story pitch for Oni was *NOT* up to the standards set by previous Bungie titles), as well as making the tough decision of cutting out a broken multiplayer that just couldn’t be fixed with the current technology they were working with. Maybe Take-Two will someday sell the Oni property to an aspiring game company that is genuinely dedicated to its franchise potential, resulting in a belated but competent sequel (a la Blade Runner 2049)!🤤
Honestly, the best example would be for a company like Nightdive or GOG to contact them and establish clear ownership AND valuation, which would allow for potential sequels and remasters.
CryMor Gaming Two factoids I’d like to get clear regarding the video: 1. Oni wasn’t first revealed at E3 1999, but at E3 *1998* with a pre-rendered trailer that featured the famous “Trailer” music by Power of Seven, all serving as a proof-of-concept for what was to come (Oni was also advertised in a jewel case insert for Myth II that same year). ua-cam.com/video/ANQWWqECzI8/v-deo.html 2. The PS2 port of Oni was *NOT* Bungie’s first foray into the video game console market, an honor that is reserved for Super Marathon, released on the Apple Pippin in 1996. marathongame.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Marathon Peace!✌️
Great video! Recently saw a new game called Spine that looks to combine melee and gunplay like John Wick and John Woo movies. Always enjoyed that style of action and it reminded me of Oni which felt like the only game that really does the gun and fisticuffs combat thats so rarely used.
This explains so much. I've always been fascinated by early Bungie's work, and Oni still has *some* of that spark, but I always struggled to enjoy it. It's a real shame things happened the way they did and Oni and its developers paid the price, as there was definitely potential for something great here.
9:00 "none of it was real". Yeah, I remember loving this game so much, I inspected the box art and noticed even the box art and game info was wrong. Claimed to have more levels than were available, and other small things. With my child mind I was so entranced by this, thinking there was more to look for. But, coming back to the game at a later stage in life, it seems like I could "semi" justify the wrong level count, if you add the fact that two stages have 2 different endings. The last mission, and mission 4 (or 5? The mission where Muro runs up a set of black stairs in a warehouse.)
I've played this gem totally randomly during my childhood years, very enjoyed it. Was also puzzled why there was so little reception, no one know about it.
Yep, count me in for the full interview video. i'm now off to get myself Oni and sort out a stream for it ;) (you have greater reach than me, but I will def point ppl in this direction when I do stream the game ;) )
I had totally forgotten about Oni! I was a massive Myth fan, with hundreds of hours sunk into multiplayer. Naturally, as a Bungie fan and Mac diehard, I couldn’t wait to play Oni. Unfortunately, up until I saw your video thumbnail, Oni was totally gone from my memory. I remember Oni being “okay” but I was happy to take a trip down memory lane. Like so many, my teenage heart broke when Microsoft bought Bungie; the Mac gaming dream died that day.
Wish bungie bought back Oni and Myth, would like to see either remasters of these games, or sequels to them. Especially since they’ve been bought by Sony and can probably afford to get them back.
Definitely deserves a remake or at least a remaster or a sequel. It was at it's time quite unique and revolutionary in some aspects, one i can remember off the top of my head is the combat system.
And here I thought Destiny was the forgettable franchise. That crunch time sounds insane. Literally collapsing of exhaustion and PTSD. I want Bungie to make another anime game now...
Bungie just released an anniversary event on Destiny 2 with weapons inspired on almost all of their past games, but guess what's the only bungie game that wasnt remembered on the event. Even Bungie forgot about this game
It's funny because as a kid going to my grandma's house where my auntie lived(since we were like 2 years apart) I always remember coming across oni and it's reflective PS2 case but never being compelled enough to actually play it. I always popped in Tekken 4 or something else. Even back then I could tell the influence from ghost in the shell because I'd watch stand alone complex on the weekends on adult swim and thought to myself: "is this a ghost in the shell game?"
I loved this game, played on the Mac back in the day. I also played the console version later on, and it did suck badly. It’s was very hard to maneuver Oni, to the point that some levels were basically impossible to get past. I just saw a pole on whether the game has potential for a remake, more “no’s” than “yes’s” and the comments most people said they didn’t like the game play very much. I bet all of those people saying that were console players. Too bad… I’d love a remade / upgraded modernized version on Oni!
It was good. But also kind of lifeless in it's Environnement. It definitely release too late. In 99-00 it would have been a blast. A year gap can make all the difference in that time. bad console version was also a nail in the coffin. Especially while the first DMC releasing a few months after. I was so confused by the art direction also. It was really weird to see this clearly Ghost in the Shell game but without the official license. It seems like cheap knock off when you look from the outside and doesn t inspire confidence into the product.
Anybody know what the game shown at 1:49 is? It's not the original Marathon or the Xbox port - looks like someone took an early-2000s engine and did a Marathon-inspired total conversion. (EDIT: someone has kindly told me that it's Marathon Resurrection, an Unreal Tournament mod. Thanks!)
i still have the original game here :-) i bought it when it was in a sale in an electronic market. I've read it in several gaming Magazines and i was sold on the Anime style. Unfortunately my pc wasn't good enough for the game (or myself) so i couldn't get very far
Я много лет не понимал полностью что твориться с игрой, теперь понимаю что не стоит ждать продолжения. Была мысль что виноват Microsoft, теперь понимаю какой я дурак и игру убил Take-Two. Мне хочется забыть данное интервью что бы верить в возвращение игры. Спасибо за ролик!
I still have my game and game saves from 20 years ago for each level, backed up to a drive, that's been copied over to another drive, that's been copied over to another, and another, now a 16TB media storage drive on my main PC. Anyway... I'm able to play it again and in HD thanks to the "Anniversary Edition" mod loader and game launcher. Good stuff. Cheers.
I played Oni on the Mac back then and it was not bad at all, much better graphics then in the console. Problem was that I did not like the third person view ... I am a FPS player till today.
Me and two of my mates loved this game, it truly was and still is quite a unique game, I was yet to get to know what is anime also, only years later the aha moment would come. edit: I actually still have the game installed, as some time ago I did play through it with nostalgia. And I also game sometimes with Oni soundtrack in background..
I've only ever played the PS2 version and it was still one of my favorite games as a kid. I have even dusted it off and played a few times on an old PS2. This video has made me want to find a PC version and give it a go.
Good to learn there's a whole modding community for the PC version. I picked up ONI last year for my PS2 cuz I never got to play it and it looked cool when it came out way back. Then my PS2 died and so here I am still having not played lol. Time to hit the PC version.
I love «Oni». I bought this game when it was released in early 2001. Being an anime fan, I played and beat this anime influenced game actually thrice between 2001 and 2003. Three years in a row a complete playthrough. To me it was that good. For me personally, it's still an unforgotten gem. Even nowadays the graphics of the PC-Version - that I still own (CD-Rom) - are not really that outdated and still okay looking. It's not nostalgia which let's me think that way, but definitely the nice anime graphics of the then really nice and unusual looking game.
Coincidentally, there was another third person action game inspired by Ghost in the Shell in development around the same time as Oni, called Titanium Angels. It was more of an action adventure than beat em up and the aesthetics were more western than anime, with some alien stuff mixed in but it was set in a dystopian cyberpunk future, starred a strong female protagonist similar to Konoko and she had a big beast-like robot sidekick that was clearly inspired by Tachikoma, the GitS influence was definitely there. The studio was called Mobius Entertainment and the game was ultimately cancelled, but not before Take2 of all people acquired the developer! Take2 even rebranded them as Rockstar Leeds, talk about deja vu. Someone at Take2 must have been VERY interested in this style of games at the time. I don't know what's up with all these developers suddenly falling in love with GiTS in late 90's, even Rare came out with Perfect Dark in that period (although it's more of Blade Runner's influence, but the female protagonist is not unlike Motoko Kusanagi).
@@fantoniumnitrous It is but I guess I should have said "capable" rather than strong. Point is, the archetype was relatively new at the time but yeah, I miss when it was actually cool and not a total joke.
@@Diwasho "capable" would sound even worse dude 🤣. No, this archetype was not relatively new as it's existence started since the 1980s. Point is, the gender of the character doesn't matter. Their development does.
@@fantoniumnitrous I meant that specific style of heroine was uncommon back then as female leads in games were more gentle and graceful than gun-totting and rowdy. Movies and western media were quicker to adopt that archetype, games and anime/manga took quite some time.
It's weird that Oni never even got an indie spiritual succesor considering it has a unique and solid PC friendly melee gameplay that begs to be ripped off.
>It was announced at E3 '99, and so it should have been released in '99 Those were the days, eh? Oni was a fun game imo. It scratched a certain itch nothin' beisdes Path of Neo has been able to since.
Oni is one of those pieces of media where every single element needs to what it is, otherwise it's no longer the same. The gameplay, the graphics, every voice actor, every sound effect, the soundtrack... All create a unique atmosphere that will burn itself into your memory. Or maybe that's my nostalgia speaking. But once you run up to a guy, spin around his head and break his neck while knocking down the guy next to him, you'll be hooked. Play this game.
I was surprised how awesome the intro was as I though no western animated studio at the time would ever do such an authentic anime-looking animation like this at the time with complex but stable angles without looking like those ugly cringy how-to-draw manga bs... It turns out the intro was actually anime as the studio responsible for it was the anime studio IAC. It would be really cool if they made more anime cutscenes for the game and even portraits as the portraits looked like the typical 2000s western imitation of modern Japanese visual style. I don't know about those western anime/manga-inspired works back then but they seemed to use western techniques and methods such as thicker lines and more saturated colors like most western cartoons as well as they struggles much more often with the faces, especially the eyes and perspectives, as if they aren't actually used to it. Many amateurish media at the time often overuse the burn tool and make light much more shinier than it needed. The use of digital cut-out animation such as flash makes the work not move like traditional limited hand drawn animation of most anime but many use it regardless because it was much easier, cheap and new at the time. The combination of western experience, western techniques/methods as well as amateurish techniques/methods and inexperience in general makes these western anime/manga-inspired works fall into uncanny valley. They feel and look more western in general even if they tries to pass as anime or manga. Although they technically are indeed anime and manga in the Japanese language as it's just their word for animation and comics but they aren't more anime or manga than any other western works such as Shrek or Peanuts.
Since so many people have asked, I've uploaded the Hardy LeBel interview in full here: ua-cam.com/video/s2zwA_g7ilc/v-deo.html
I need check your work in depth,that research and interview, was very enjoyable. Oh my, i would make a shirt with Hardy LeBel face at point to cry from interview, those tears have great value to me.
Oni’s source code leaked online recently, and it includes the code for the scrapped network mode. I hope fans will be able to re-implement that mode into the game
it leaked *A LONG* time ago... Even with regards to the date of posting of your comment. :P
@@kurzackd And if for some reason someone is reading this comment. Yes, someone actually re-implemented everything back in to the game with full fledge online PVP.
@@anemone5870 I love that you posted this comment just one day before my watching the video.
@@anemone5870 holy crap. Thanks a lot for letting me know, I will check it out right away
@@anemone5870 I'm curious what mod/project you're talking about here? The ones I know available are all early alphas with very few features made years ago, way before the source leaked.
Nice. Took me awhile but loved watching this.
Thank you very much, I appreciate that
Warehouse Worker: I don't want to hurt you
*Proceeds to beat the Shit out of me*
Thanks for enjoying several of my videos today, I really appreciate your comments :)
Dear God - I clearly should have shaved! :-D
Mr. LeBel. I want to thank you for your work on Oni.
You are the reason this game saw the light of day.
I still remember actually seeing this game at a friends house way back in 2004. He was playing on his computer and me, being a GITS fan naturally mistook it for a GITS game. He said “No, this is Oni.” I was like “Oni? What’s that?” To which he replied “That’s what everyone says.” with a rather somber smirk on his face. He had me sit down and play it. I played for an hour and I was like “Holy crap this is great! Why did I never hear about this?” His response was slapping his copy of Halo down on the table. “This is why” he said. Which is when I realized Bungie made Oni. And then I finally saw the similarities between the two games and I was like, “What happened?” Unbeknownst to me, he also bought the Playstation port. He pointed two fingers at the bottom of the case. One to Take-Two and one to Rockstar, which I recognized as the people who made GTA. I noticed the art looked very different. I was like “What did they do?” His response is something I won’t forget. “They rushed perfection.” I played that console port for 10 minutes. He said “Should I just toss this?” I said “Break the f**king disc in half and stomp the crap out of it. This is disgraceful.” To which we took turns shattering that poorly made knockoff. He said “the PC one is the real one.” I was like “Yeah. I kinda want it now!” He looked at me and said “Good luck” I didn’t understand what he meant. Until Steam came out. I found OniCentral. And I remembered that game. I realized I had never seen a SINGLE Physical copy of it. This game had so much potential. It realized most of it. But the fact that we will never see a sequel hurts.
You are one of those straightforward and honest people in the game industry. A diamond in the ruff.
Also, I love that jab at Rockstar. 😂
This game is such a gem
I love Oni, was exposed to it by a friend at some point around 2004, 2005. I come back to it every now and again, but it gets harder and harder to make it playable...but I love it, its unique, and I always talk about it to anyone I think will be remotely interested, even today - more than 20 years later. Thanks so much for your effort. I hope one day it'll get a remaster deserving of the effort and spirit of it.
~20 years later, I still remember Oni in good light and wish a sequel happened (will happen? Please?). I really enjoyed that game. For what it's worth, if any of the team members on this project reads this; Thank you. Hours on hours, I enjoyed this game!
We'll have to see what Bungie does after Destiny
Have you tried replaying it? The combat system is interesting but the pacing is pretty fucking bad IMO. I think a big part of the problem is that it was such a blatant GITS ripoff they legitimately didn't know what to do with it if they were gonna try to keep up this chirade.
@@shelltoe_soul yeah aesthetically, but that's about it. I don't see many paralels beyond that, really. And even if there were - I really wouldn't mind it as there is no good GITS game (there was a shooter, but it also had nothing to do with GITS other than aesthetics).
@@shelltoe_soul it’s a ripoff just from the looks and btw, I don’t really understand how people can like Ghost in the shell, it’s the most boring thing I’ve ever watched in my life. Just a bunch of psichological stuff mixed with an acid trip of a show and the pace is freaking slow. I’ve fallen asleep watching it and I’m not joking. At least oni has a better pace and better action, that’s for sure
@@lorenzocc3784 Y'all need Tarkovsky. If watchin' a couple of his films doesn't cure you from your lack of mise en scene perception then I'm afraid it's probably terminal.
I'd love to see a current day Oni.
A remake would be so dope
Yeah, one that hopefully has an actuall block button.
@@janbittner1465 lol that part
I wouldnt like to see anything made for modern audencies. Today, Oni would be a trans gay story with shallow gameplay
@@jeanbethencourt1506 you're not the court, jean.
Wow, I had no idea about any of this. Oni was a transformative game for me - it was such incredible gameplay, it had an anime story (in the late 90s/early 2000's anime still had not hit the US market in a big way so to see it in a video game like this was so exciting). And, for me personally, it was very cool to play as a female... she was voiced so well, animated so well, and had a full story where she was an important player. I really connected with her. The story was good - there was humor, drama, even pathos. I feel bad for how hard this was on everyone, but I played it for YEARS afterwards, keeping an old computer just to play it longer. I miss it, and I always hoped for another. I still have Oni desktop images that I rotate from time to time. :)
There have been female protagonists since the 1980s btw.
@@fantoniumnitrous yeahhhh ok well only Oni and Tomb Raider had a sufficient level of depth to their female leads along with sufficiently stylized and captivating anatomical attributes. "Took inspiration from GITS" Lmao yeah like Starcraft just took a bit of inspiration from "WH40". Just a smidge.
@fantoniumnitrous I guess you weren't there though because you would remember what a big deal it was for characters like this one and Lara Croft.
@@poundshopadamjones9654 again, there were already female protagonists years prior, like Samus from Metroid and Alis from Phantasy Star. Heck, before both of those there was Reika from Time Gal.
Plus, Alis's motivations weren't to become a princess, marry a prince, find her prince charming, it was revenge. Samus is a cold-blooded bounty hunter and walking death machine (if we just ignore her interpretation in Other M). @@fantoniumnitrous
Thank you so much to all of you who help share our content!
15 years ago I was skipping school with my friend. We were sitting at his computer and on the desk was a copy of Oni. I was a massive Halo fan, and I'd heard of Oni, but never played it. When he went to the toilet I picked up the case and looked at the art of the back. Something about it, I still remember it so clearly, it was a sunny afternoon and the sun was shining through the window onto the paper box. What stood out was that the anime style seemed so weird and different to what I was used to with Halo. I asked if we could have a go playing it but we never did.
Time may have forgotten this game, but surely I didn't. This game is an unique, hidden gem. Perfect for people loving cyber punk vibes, tense action, interesting female character, lovely animations, martial art like hand-to-hand combat and gunfight on top of that,
Nicely researched and put together! Thanks for taking the time to remember this old game. Like you said, people are still actively modding it even in 2019. I'm one of them, and even I don't know why we keep at it! I think it must be the uniqueness of the gameplay. The world that Hardy LeBel created is also really compelling. Someone needs to get working on a sequel one of these days! (And I don't mean the ill-fated console sequel that was cancelled.) The game still has unfulfilled promise.
It's definitely a completely unique gameplay experience. I'm surprised there hasn't even been an attempt to make a game similar to it, and just lay claim to the genre.
Awesome i wanna tru
LarryBundyJr drew the box art for Oni (2001). I'm surprised I didn't find his comment in the comments YET. That dude is everywhere.
15:51 - PTSD Crunch
also this is my favourite CryMor video yet you killed it M boiii
Back in the late 90's, I spent my entire time playing arena shooters. However, I had started out playing Doom on keyboard only, and so that's how I'd play everything in first person. Oni forced me to move over to WASD+Mouse controls (in part because I couldn't remap it's controls, IIRC), and that's how I learned how to properly play first person shooters on PC. It was also a very unique game, and like you've pointed out in the video, we haven't seen anything like before or since, so that's probably why it still has an active community, which is amazing.
Great vid lads I wanna see that interview!
I played the hell out the demo of this game back in the day. Thank you for reminding me of it. Now off to find the download.
Hope this video gets all the traction it deserves! Very well put together. Thank you for bringing this gem to light.
It irritates me how often I see Rockstar given credit for this game, often without any mention of Bungie at all. Especially knowing how bad the port was.
Yeah. I was happy to be able to tell the true story.
I like Hardy. Seems like a genuine dude.
He was very funny, quite pleasant.
just saw this and dont know if i had missed where i could get the game, now I'm realizing the video is from 9 years ago so I reckon I sail the high seas because this looks amazing
One of my favorites back in the day on PC. Thanks for the great backstory!
The fact that any game ended up existing at all seems like a miracle in itself. The level of project mismanagement you end up hearing about in the gaming industry is incredible. It contextualizes a lot why games end up being released the way they are.
People somehow pretend that this is only a problem in modern gaming when it has literally been going on since the Atari2600. The only thing is we didn't know about all the development woes back then.
Awesome video.
Saddened that Oni was not fully polished and marketed.
Definitely would like to see the full interview please.
I've added the interview as an unlisted video, you can view it here: ua-cam.com/video/s2zwA_g7ilc/v-deo.html
Oni was on my work computer for three or four years .
So when I needed a break, I would pull it up and play it.
I'd love to see the full interview. Going to have to look into Oni now
I'll let you know when it's up!
@@reallycool Please consider uploading the full interview. I know the community would great appreciate its contents :)
I've added the interview as an unlisted video, you can view it here: ua-cam.com/video/s2zwA_g7ilc/v-deo.html
Counter point to 26:15 - Some players NEED these games, and enjoy them so much because the games helped THEM get through equally terrible/horrific or life threatening experiences. They DO find the bits of soul put into the game, and give their own into the effort of playing said game. Sometimes overly thoroughly, to know every secret. Everything you can do. The game can mean a lot of different things to all of us, and it doesn't have to be specific to Oni. I just today commented in your preservation video about Def Jam Fight For New York and Web of Shadows. Both games mean something to me, and both are arguably in Oni's position today. Dark Sun The Shattered Lands was actually the RPG that was most like Baldur's Gate to me, before I knew BG existed as a series. I played the hell out of that game, but search me if I can find anyone that even knew it existed, never mind played it. Gamers value games just as much as those that develop them. Often those that develop them came from a background as gamers themselves to start with. It's more cyclical, and even if I'd call a lot of implementations of game mechanics in varied genres questionable, it doesn't mean I less respect the fact it is work. It's work I can't do, because I don't have the patience to sit there and tell a computer a hundred different times to "Do X." Then sit there 95 times, and try to figure out the reasons it won't. Just for one in game event. Repeat that about oh, a thousand to two thousand times over. That's just the most basic form of anything to code in. It get's a LOT more complex when you add multiple trigger factors, like X can happen if A, B or C does. But if D, then it doesn't happen... etc. The computer can, and will frequently fuck it up. It's why I hate Bethesda's percentage value on damage skills. Or in general. A computer can use RNG to fuck you over endlessly, because percentage. Which it does not properly understand translates as a fraction. Which it cannot fuck up. 9 out of 10 is always going to compute to 9 out of 10, and in percentage it's the same idea. With added leeway therein, unfortunately. 90% gives a 10% chance that X won't work or won't happen. Just as X-Com players how frustrating that is. Where if it was done with fractions, you'd hit 9 out of 10 times, unequivocally. That's all to say game development requires a very specific mindset, that is needed to actually create a game. You have to be willing to be the microscope, and also be able to communicate to a literal baby (in as far as what a computer can comprehend when you tell it in coding to do something) about what you want to implement in any given game. That's a bar most gamers, and most people just don't pass. Whether they like the idea of game development or not. I am a writer, so I'd be involved in the story concepts and dialogue. I might also have suggestions for mechanics that could work, or work better for accessibility to players in general, but that's as far as I could get in the games industry.
I didn't even know Oni existed until it popped up in my feeds by this video. I don't particularly agree with the non sexualization; as it can be seen as erasing the femininity of a character as well to try to purposely downplay that aspect. She's fine to be a little sexualized, or flirty with people, and dress to a certain attractive standard. That doesn't mean I need to see her in a chainmail bikini mind, but I had no problems with the "hot" version of Cortana being eye candy as well as functionally useful. Before she went nuts, and had to be torn down to the bolts. I could have used bits and bytes, I just didn't want people to think I was hungry...
i love this game, i would like to say thank you to all the devs who worked on the game, its just a masterpiece, your work did not go unnoticed and unappreciated, oni remains to this day one of my favourite game ever, and no other game even come close to it,....thanks for making this gem!!
I'd love to see the full Hardy Level interview!
Off to check out his playlist. Didn't know about them
Will definitely let you know if we upload the full thing.
I've added the interview as an unlisted video, you can view it here: ua-cam.com/video/s2zwA_g7ilc/v-deo.html
Such high quality video. I'm actually impressed by the subtitles. Thank you!
Really fun to see you had done a vid on Oni while scrolling through your backlog!
From the sounds of it, I'm one of few fans who enjoyed it on PS2, though that may be moreso because I was both young and didn't know it was on any other platform lol.
Out of all the games we had as a family, Oni was the only one where my mom, dad, and I all played it on our own memory cards. I definitely have criticisms of it, but its uniqueness always trumped those complaints even at the time, and having more insight into its development like this only makes it more... Bittersweet? Imagining what could have been in better circumstances.
It's one of those games alongside the likes of the original Armored Core and Gungriffon Blaze that have just stuck with me ever since playing them. Maybe it's time to figure out how to play it again, been several years since last.
Fascinating. It's really cool to see you investigate the past, package this story in a video, and give the game an audience
This channel is so underrated. Leaving a comment for the algorithm
I bought this game right around the time it came out on PC, in the big box format and I still have my copy. I had an absolute blast with it then and even dusted it off a few years ago and give it another go. It really is a shame how the devs were treated and how poorly the game sold.
Bro i was born in 1999 in India and since from that time i am playing this game till today. I think that i have started breathing Oni in my life. Because in my life their are many lemons and even though they are I can't break relationship that i developed with Oni. I am 21 now a mechanical engineer and my parents and friends say to me that i still play this game till today, I don't feel any old. As you mentioned in your video that oni was the child of developer and i respect that. I was just looking that who play this game till today and i visited your website and i saw. Complete respect to you, that you made this Documentary I watched completely till the end and i never felt bored i watched completely in a single stroke. Thank You and god bless you brother.
Yeah, I'd pay $60 for a new oni.
Great video. The oni central community is truly amazing, I still play the game to this day.
Got here via the EFAP recommendation. I had a Demo when I was little of this game and I thought it was the full thing or thought I was doing something wrong and wasn't able to go more than a few levels, really happy to find out all the history behind it and learn that there are more people who know about this game than I initially expected.
I'm really glad I could share something with you =D
Well researched, well documented and well presented. Thank you, Oni deserved it.
I saw this video a long time ago but forgot to save it, finally found it again and now I have the time to get into this game.
I've never played this, but after watching your video I am going to do it. Fascinating video, glad I found it.
Still have it in my games folder
I am forever in love with the late 90s, early 2000s style of sci fi Bungie used to make. This video was a great watch. Won't be leaving my mind for considerable years haha.
Very kind compliment
Great episode. Criminally underrated channel
Thank you
This footage is totally exhaustive. Thanks for that not to mention I'd love to get a sequel.
No disrespect to the people at Bungie, but I feel the company deserves the brunt of the blame for Oni’s fate.
Rather than split their Chicago office into two different teams, dedicated to two different projects (one for Halo, one for Oni) like a normal company would do, *someone* at Bungie came up with the ingenious financial and management decision of opening up a whole new studio in San Jose, staffed almost entirely with techies who had no experience in game design whatsoever.
Yes, development for both Halo and Oni would have definitely taken longer with just one studio simultaneously working on two projects, but in due time, a great deal would have been gained if they were committed to the completion and success of both games, rather than dedicating their experienced and creative manpower into Halo, while their shared financial resources are being drained by a less competent team for Oni (and that’s not even factoring in the Myth II installer bug fiasco!).
Ranting aside, I would personally like to thank Hardy LeBel for being able to salvage Oni’s troubled development in late 1999, particularly with making a vastly superior story rewrite (the original story pitch for Oni was *NOT* up to the standards set by previous Bungie titles), as well as making the tough decision of cutting out a broken multiplayer that just couldn’t be fixed with the current technology they were working with.
Maybe Take-Two will someday sell the Oni property to an aspiring game company that is genuinely dedicated to its franchise potential, resulting in a belated but competent sequel (a la Blade Runner 2049)!🤤
Honestly, the best example would be for a company like Nightdive or GOG to contact them and establish clear ownership AND valuation, which would allow for potential sequels and remasters.
CryMor Gaming Two factoids I’d like to get clear regarding the video:
1. Oni wasn’t first revealed at E3 1999, but at E3 *1998* with a pre-rendered trailer that featured the famous “Trailer” music by Power of Seven, all serving as a proof-of-concept for what was to come (Oni was also advertised in a jewel case insert for Myth II that same year).
ua-cam.com/video/ANQWWqECzI8/v-deo.html
2. The PS2 port of Oni was *NOT* Bungie’s first foray into the video game console market, an honor that is reserved for Super Marathon, released on the Apple Pippin in 1996.
marathongame.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Marathon
Peace!✌️
Great video! Recently saw a new game called Spine that looks to combine melee and gunplay like John Wick and John Woo movies.
Always enjoyed that style of action and it reminded me of Oni which felt like the only game that really does the gun and fisticuffs combat thats so rarely used.
Man this channel is underappreciated
This explains so much. I've always been fascinated by early Bungie's work, and Oni still has *some* of that spark, but I always struggled to enjoy it. It's a real shame things happened the way they did and Oni and its developers paid the price, as there was definitely potential for something great here.
9:00 "none of it was real".
Yeah, I remember loving this game so much, I inspected the box art and noticed even the box art and game info was wrong. Claimed to have more levels than were available, and other small things.
With my child mind I was so entranced by this, thinking there was more to look for.
But, coming back to the game at a later stage in life, it seems like I could "semi" justify the wrong level count, if you add the fact that two stages have 2 different endings. The last mission, and mission 4 (or 5? The mission where Muro runs up a set of black stairs in a warehouse.)
Omgggggggg what a nice thumbnail
The artist is pretty talented.
@@reallycool Yup, that was Lorraine (Reyes) McLees, still at Bungie to this day. She's an amazing talent.
I've played this gem totally randomly during my childhood years, very enjoyed it. Was also puzzled why there was so little reception, no one know about it.
Yep, count me in for the full interview video. i'm now off to get myself Oni and sort out a stream for it ;)
(you have greater reach than me, but I will def point ppl in this direction when I do stream the game ;) )
Aw, thanks. I always appreciate any love
I've added the interview as an unlisted video, you can view it here: ua-cam.com/video/s2zwA_g7ilc/v-deo.html
If Bungie would rerelease their older games in HD they would make some serious cash.
I had totally forgotten about Oni! I was a massive Myth fan, with hundreds of hours sunk into multiplayer. Naturally, as a Bungie fan and Mac diehard, I couldn’t wait to play Oni. Unfortunately, up until I saw your video thumbnail, Oni was totally gone from my memory. I remember Oni being “okay” but I was happy to take a trip down memory lane. Like so many, my teenage heart broke when Microsoft bought Bungie; the Mac gaming dream died that day.
Liked and Subscribed! I played this game in 2003 and still recommend others to play ONI. It is definitely not a bad game.
I remember watching Ghost in the Shell and after that I was obsessed to find a game that resembled it... I found it. Love this game.
Wish bungie bought back Oni and Myth, would like to see either remasters of these games, or sequels to them. Especially since they’ve been bought by Sony and can probably afford to get them back.
You didn't mention Marathon, and considering the announcement today I find myself wondering if you have insider knowledge ;D
So, what this documentary video inferred to happening actually occurred with SONY?
Oni was great fun. A little rough around the edges, but definitely one of my favourites for a number of years and one I still go back to now and then.
Definitely deserves a remake or at least a remaster or a sequel. It was at it's time quite unique and revolutionary in some aspects, one i can remember off the top of my head is the combat system.
This is what the game "Devil's Third" was trying to do
And here I thought Destiny was the forgettable franchise. That crunch time sounds insane. Literally collapsing of exhaustion and PTSD.
I want Bungie to make another anime game now...
Need a hashtag and a petition. #Bungieeb? #Weebungie?
Bungie just released an anniversary event on Destiny 2 with weapons inspired on almost all of their past games, but guess what's the only bungie game that wasnt remembered on the event.
Even Bungie forgot about this game
Very sad
19:30 Well that explains why I got Shogo vibes.
I loved the combat system of this game, it was unique and it still is to this day
It's funny because as a kid going to my grandma's house where my auntie lived(since we were like 2 years apart) I always remember coming across oni and it's reflective PS2 case but never being compelled enough to actually play it. I always popped in Tekken 4 or something else.
Even back then I could tell the influence from ghost in the shell because I'd watch stand alone complex on the weekends on adult swim and thought to myself: "is this a ghost in the shell game?"
I loved this game, played on the Mac back in the day. I also played the console version later on, and it did suck badly. It’s was very hard to maneuver Oni, to the point that some levels were basically impossible to get past. I just saw a pole on whether the game has potential for a remake, more “no’s” than “yes’s” and the comments most people said they didn’t like the game play very much. I bet all of those people saying that were console players. Too bad… I’d love a remade / upgraded modernized version on Oni!
It was good. But also kind of lifeless in it's Environnement. It definitely release too late. In 99-00 it would have been a blast. A year gap can make all the difference in that time. bad console version was also a nail in the coffin. Especially while the first DMC releasing a few months after. I was so confused by the art direction also. It was really weird to see this clearly Ghost in the Shell game but without the official license. It seems like cheap knock off when you look from the outside and doesn t inspire confidence into the product.
At least bungie or someone else could try to buy the rights for oni.
If anyone wants to make a spiritual successor to Oni, I would be down with that.
Great news : there is a spiritual successor of Oni, called Reikoneo :)
perhaps I'll try it sometime
Man I remember played it in 2002,nostalgia..I am 34 now!!What a time
Excellent video. Thanks!
I'd love to see a reboot of this game with the team that bungie has today.
Yes, please show us the full interview!
I've added the interview as an unlisted video, you can view it here: ua-cam.com/video/s2zwA_g7ilc/v-deo.html
Anybody know what the game shown at 1:49 is? It's not the original Marathon or the Xbox port - looks like someone took an early-2000s engine and did a Marathon-inspired total conversion.
(EDIT: someone has kindly told me that it's Marathon Resurrection, an Unreal Tournament mod. Thanks!)
There's an Unreal Marathon mod? That's awesome!
i still have the original game here :-) i bought it when it was in a sale in an electronic market. I've read it in several gaming Magazines and i was sold on the Anime style. Unfortunately my pc wasn't good enough for the game (or myself) so i couldn't get very far
Have you played it since? The Anniversary Edition makes a lot of major upgrades.
Я много лет не понимал полностью что твориться с игрой, теперь понимаю что не стоит ждать продолжения. Была мысль что виноват Microsoft, теперь понимаю какой я дурак и игру убил Take-Two. Мне хочется забыть данное интервью что бы верить в возвращение игры. Спасибо за ролик!
Я использую Google Translate: спасибо за просмотр, я рад, что смог помочь ответить на ваши вопросы!
Rockstar's social club has 1 or 2 Oni profile pictures to choose from, so T2 has to at least have some idea they own the property...
I wouldn't be surprised if they think it's from GTA3
@@reallycool It has it's own section as a franchise if I remember correctly so I doubt that
@@doughboywhine is a joke
I still have my game and game saves from 20 years ago for each level, backed up to a drive, that's been copied over to another drive, that's been copied over to another, and another, now a 16TB media storage drive on my main PC. Anyway... I'm able to play it again and in HD thanks to the "Anniversary Edition" mod loader and game launcher. Good stuff. Cheers.
Thanks for this great overview 🤩
I played Oni on the Mac back then and it was not bad at all, much better graphics then in the console. Problem was that I did not like the third person view ... I am a FPS player till today.
I prefer FPS myself.
Me and two of my mates loved this game, it truly was and still is quite a unique game, I was yet to get to know what is anime also, only years later the aha moment would come.
edit: I actually still have the game installed, as some time ago I did play through it with nostalgia. And I also game sometimes with Oni soundtrack in background..
I've only ever played the PS2 version and it was still one of my favorite games as a kid. I have even dusted it off and played a few times on an old PS2. This video has made me want to find a PC version and give it a go.
damn just found the channel love the vids!
Glad to have you!
"You lose!"
Good to learn there's a whole modding community for the PC version. I picked up ONI last year for my PS2 cuz I never got to play it and it looked cool when it came out way back. Then my PS2 died and so here I am still having not played lol. Time to hit the PC version.
Great fucking video man, its a shame you're so underrated!
Thanks =)
@@reallycool I posted on reddit btw :) www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/c94rmg/demon_the_untold_story_of_bungies_forgotten/
I love «Oni». I bought this game when it was released in early 2001.
Being an anime fan, I played and beat this anime influenced game actually thrice between 2001 and 2003. Three years in a row a complete playthrough. To me it was that good.
For me personally, it's still an unforgotten gem. Even nowadays the graphics of the PC-Version - that I still own (CD-Rom) - are not really that outdated and still okay looking.
It's not nostalgia which let's me think that way, but definitely the nice anime graphics of the then really nice and unusual looking game.
I actually recently bought this game. It’s pretty cool
Would love to see that interview!
I've added the interview as an unlisted video, you can view it here: ua-cam.com/video/s2zwA_g7ilc/v-deo.html
I really like Oni, makes me ragequit at least once every time I decide to replay it from start to finish :)
Am I the only one who played thousands of hours of the “unplayable” PS2 port?
I didn't play thousands of hours, but I beat it on ps2 around 2004, I was ready to pull my hair out by the end of it, but I did beat it.
i honestly never knew the port was terrible until many years later funny enough
Coincidentally, there was another third person action game inspired by Ghost in the Shell in development around the same time as Oni, called Titanium Angels. It was more of an action adventure than beat em up and the aesthetics were more western than anime, with some alien stuff mixed in but it was set in a dystopian cyberpunk future, starred a strong female protagonist similar to Konoko and she had a big beast-like robot sidekick that was clearly inspired by Tachikoma, the GitS influence was definitely there. The studio was called Mobius Entertainment and the game was ultimately cancelled, but not before Take2 of all people acquired the developer! Take2 even rebranded them as Rockstar Leeds, talk about deja vu. Someone at Take2 must have been VERY interested in this style of games at the time.
I don't know what's up with all these developers suddenly falling in love with GiTS in late 90's, even Rare came out with Perfect Dark in that period (although it's more of Blade Runner's influence, but the female protagonist is not unlike Motoko Kusanagi).
I guess they had some kind of complex, felt it stood alone
The "strong female" term is becoming too much of a joke at this point 😂
@@fantoniumnitrous It is but I guess I should have said "capable" rather than strong. Point is, the archetype was relatively new at the time but yeah, I miss when it was actually cool and not a total joke.
@@Diwasho "capable" would sound even worse dude 🤣. No, this archetype was not relatively new as it's existence started since the 1980s. Point is, the gender of the character doesn't matter. Their development does.
@@fantoniumnitrous I meant that specific style of heroine was uncommon back then as female leads in games were more gentle and graceful than gun-totting and rowdy. Movies and western media were quicker to adopt that archetype, games and anime/manga took quite some time.
It's weird that Oni never even got an indie spiritual succesor considering it has a unique and solid PC friendly melee gameplay that begs to be ripped off.
I agree
Oni was a super underrated masaterpiece! Name me a better hand to hand combat, I'll wait
>It was announced at E3 '99, and so it should have been released in '99
Those were the days, eh?
Oni was a fun game imo. It scratched a certain itch nothin' beisdes Path of Neo has been able to since.
Oni is one of those pieces of media where every single element needs to what it is, otherwise it's no longer the same. The gameplay, the graphics, every voice actor, every sound effect, the soundtrack... All create a unique atmosphere that will burn itself into your memory. Or maybe that's my nostalgia speaking. But once you run up to a guy, spin around his head and break his neck while knocking down the guy next to him, you'll be hooked.
Play this game.
I was surprised how awesome the intro was as I though no western animated studio at the time would ever do such an authentic anime-looking animation like this at the time with complex but stable angles without looking like those ugly cringy how-to-draw manga bs...
It turns out the intro was actually anime as the studio responsible for it was the anime studio IAC. It would be really cool if they made more anime cutscenes for the game and even portraits as the portraits looked like the typical 2000s western imitation of modern Japanese visual style.
I don't know about those western anime/manga-inspired works back then but they seemed to use western techniques and methods such as thicker lines and more saturated colors like most western cartoons as well as they struggles much more often with the faces, especially the eyes and perspectives, as if they aren't actually used to it. Many amateurish media at the time often overuse the burn tool and make light much more shinier than it needed. The use of digital cut-out animation such as flash makes the work not move like traditional limited hand drawn animation of most anime but many use it regardless because it was much easier, cheap and new at the time. The combination of western experience, western techniques/methods as well as amateurish techniques/methods and inexperience in general makes these western anime/manga-inspired works fall into uncanny valley. They feel and look more western in general even if they tries to pass as anime or manga. Although they technically are indeed anime and manga in the Japanese language as it's just their word for animation and comics but they aren't more anime or manga than any other western works such as Shrek or Peanuts.
It was such an amazing game though
Wow thx for the video
BTW- actually Iritscren also helped Me with my issue and the community is positive and realy alive