is a 2019 action role-playing game developed by Tokyo RPG Factory and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows. Gameplay has players exploring dungeon areas selected from a world map, fighting enemies in real-time combat with spirit weapons called Daemons while shifting between the worlds of the living and the dead. Oninaki is set in a world where the doctrine of reincarnation is enforced by figures called Watchers, who assist in the passing of souls and fight monsters born of regret. The player controls the Watcher Kagachi as he confronts a shrouded figure called the Night Devil, uncovering hidden truths surrounding the cycle of reincarnation and his own past life.
Concept work began in 2017 during the last stages of Lost Sphears development. Takashi Tokita, noted for his work on Chrono Trigger, came on board as a creative producer and pushed writer Hirotaka Inaba's story in a darker direction than his earlier work. The gameplay and graphics were also changed, becoming more action-focused and cinematic. The music was composed by Shunsuke Tsuchiya and Mariam Abounnasr of Procyon Studio. The game has received mixed reviews from critics upon release, with praise going to its mature setting and art design, though several criticised its story delivery and gameplay. It was the last game produced by Tokyo RPG Factory before its closure in 2024.
Gameplay
Oninaki is an action role-playing game where players take on the role of the Watcher Kagachi, who battles monsters called the Fallen while exploring the game world through two planes; the Living World and the afterlife world known as the "Beyond". Players view environments from an isometric angle, with Kagachi exploring dungeon environments completing both story-based and optional quests. Standard enemies roam the dungeon environments, attacking Kagachi on sight, while many areas end with a boss encounter.
During exploration and combat, Kagachi can find Healing Salves which restore health, upgrade artifacts, and grant new weapons. During combat in the Beyond, Kagachi gives and takes more damage. In the Beyond, the environment shifts, allowing for new routes to open or allowing access to teleport points for travelling between different areas. Players must explore both worlds in order to progress through the game, with areas that must be first explored in the world of the living, otherwise Kagachi must navigate a black void in the Beyond and can be killed in one hit by enemies. By defeating Fallen, Kagachi earns experience points which raise his basic statistics.
Kagachi battles the Fallen using Daemons, spirits manifesting as weapons. Starting off with a basic sword Daemon, Kagachi gains more Daemons as the story progresses. Each Daemon comes with a different weapon type, such as scythes, axes and spears. Daemons have different weapon-based skills, mapped to four different control buttons, each with a cooldown timer after use. Using a Daemon increases an affinity meter; reaching 100% raises Kagachi's attack power, while going above 150% begins decreasing his defence. When at 100% and above, Kagachi can trigger an empowered state. Using a Daemon in combat earns Soul Stones which unlock that Daemon's skill tree; unlocks include new combat abilities which are equipped to three of the four buttons, stat increases, and small cutscenes related to the Daemon's narrative. Using skills repeatedly unlocks bonuses for that attack. New weapons found during exploration and combat can be equipped to Daemons, with these weapons having slots for upgrade gems, which increase weapons stats.
Synopsis Kagachi is a Watcher, a person charged with defending the Cycle of Reincarnation, killing monsters formed from regret with spirit weapons called Daemons and helping spirits pass into their next life by any means necessary. Kagachi works closely with both Kushi, his adopted father, and Mayura, Kushi's daughter, operating from the world's only city Szaka. In the aftermath of a mission against a cult rebelling against the Cycle of Reincarnation, Kagachi meets a girl who does not remember who she is, and so he names her Linne. She is being hunted by the Night Devil, a powerful spirit who hounds Kagachi and gives aid to the cult in undermining the current monarch Lobelia. Lobelia and her son Leo instruct the Watchers to focus on destroying the cult over their other duties, causing friction within the Watchers. During one mission against the cult, Mayura is killed and Kagachi helps free her spirit. The Night Devil confronts Kagachi several times, possessing Watchers with his hatred and eventually using Kushi as his host.
Kushi incites a rebellion, with the people demanding spiritual equality with the elite surrounding Lobelia. Kagachi tries to reason with the mob, but they attack and force him to kill them. As Kagachi confronts Lobelia, Kushi appears and reveals that Lobelia usurped the throne after having the last true sovereign Sara executed. Kushi attacks, but Leo protects Lobelia at the cost of his life. Kagachi then defeats Kushi, learning as he dies that the Night Devil is a Daemon filled with hatred that wants to end the world. Lobelia further reveals that the true sovereign was key to preserving the world, and a terrible force has been preparing itself since she ended the bloodline. Kagachi finds the Night Devil: Kagachi then learns that the Night Devil is a fragment of Kagachi from a previous life when Kagachi was named Soju, the banished brother of the true sovereign. After defeating the Night Devil and absorbing him, Kagachi kills himself to quell his hatred. Linne, transforming into an adult form, prays for Kagachi to make a new future as a monster emerges from underground to destroy the world.
Awakening as Soju in the past, Kagachi pieces together his history; raised by an assassin's guild, Soju acted as a precursor to the Watchers as he carried out the last wishes of lingering spirits. After one such mission, he was killed. Meeting Sara, he realises that "Linne" was her spirit. Sara explains that the sovereign must keep the Oni, a manifestation of the despair humans discard during reincarnation, from awakening; the monster seen awakening in Kagachi's last life was the Oni. They go to the First Pillar, an ancient magical landmark, and view murals of humans defeating the Oni and Sara's ancestress establishing Szaka, with the Oni sleeping under it. Journeying into the palace and entering the pool of despair at its heart, Kagachi experiences the hopes of those who fought the Oni in ancient times as he escapes; during this time he sees Szaka, called here the Wailing Land where the Oni sleeps.
The Oni is revealed to have created the Cycle of Reincarnation to nourish itself with despair, heralded and nurtured by a human avatar called the Oni Priestess; with each awakening and defeat, the Oni destroyed a little more of the world, until only a portion of it remains. Its next awakening will destroy the world, also leading to the Oni's demise without humans to feed it. Kagachi confronts Sara, the current Oni Priestess, and she asks him to decide the world's fate as a piece of the Oni himself. Kagachi can choose to accept the Oni's awakening and the world's end, or fight Sara. Defeating Sara, he then destroys the awakened Oni. Kagachi then chooses to either kill himself or watch over the world from the Beyond.
Development Discussions and concept work for Oninaki began in 2017, during the last stages of development for Lost Sphear. Oninaki was the last of three titles conceptually planned by Tokyo RPG Factory when it was founded to work on I am Setsuna (2016). The basic plan was for a game built on the resources of the previous two games. A notable addition to the staff was Takashi Tokita, who had gained fame for his work on Chrono Trigger, Live A Live and Parasite Eve. Having previously provided creative input for the battle systems of its earlier titles, Tokita decided that this time he wanted a deeper creative role. Tokita was a general overseer for the project as creative producer, as well as helping create the basic world view and scenario. Main producer Ryutaro Sasaki, who had a supporting role in the company's earlier titles, supervised the gameplay and technical side of production. Atsushi Hashimoto returned as director from Lost Sphear and I am Setsuna, as did scenario writer Hirotaka Inaba. Oninaki used the Unity game engine.
The game's earliest concepts included the continued use of the turn-based combat system from I am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, with Kagachi fighting alone to protect the young Linne. Tokita wanted the studio's games pushing for reinvention, something he compared to the drastic gameplay changes between Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, which later led to the SaGa series. There was internal opposition to the change at first, but Hashimoto brought the staff round to the idea. Hashimoto was also exhausted with the turn-based system. Hashimoto wanted the ability for Kagachi to switch jobs, a term referring to schools of skills characters can learn such as magician or warrior. Hashimoto also wanted the character to be able to switch between jobs in real-time, which contributed to the shift from turn-based to action-based gameplay.
The shift between the real world and the Beyond started as a joke about moving between the worlds of I am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, but eventually became one of the founding elements of Oninaki. The game's dualistic story themes were derived from this style of shifting gameplay. Sasaki was initially aiming for a 20-hour experience, but Tokita pushed for a longer campaign, so it was eventually extended to past 30 hours. The Daemon system, compared by Hashimoto to the job system of Final Fantasy V, was designed so players would not end up hitting roadblocks because some boss enemies were weak to job types the player had not focused on. A notable Daemon cut during development was a human-monster hybrid who used tarot cards in combat. The weapon drop system was inspired by item drops in Kid Icarus: Uprising, a game which Hashimoto had worked on at Project Sora. An important element was keeping the gameplay accessible to casual players.
Scenario and art design
Tokita's aim for the narrative was to return to his long-held principles of using games to tell a narrative only games could tell, as well as pushing narrative boundaries in terms of theme and tone. One of the things Tokita pushed for was breaking away from the convention that Square Enix role-playing games had to fit within a certain age range. While Inaba was worried, Tokita encouraged him to include far more mature or disturbing content than either Lost Sphear or I am Setsuna. The game's main motif was life and death, drawing inspiration from many Eastern philosophies that incorporated the concept of reincarnation. The team wanted players to see the story and revisit their own views on the subject. The team crafted the narrative so it would disturb people who experienced it. While the story was dark, the team wanted players to feel rather than see it, so there was no gore or graphic violence and many of the "shocking" moments are implied rather than shown. Despite the story's dark tones, the team actively worked to avoid a high age recommendation that would bar younger players. The Daemons' backstories helped communicate the narrative's somber tone. The world's faith and its related imagery drew from real-world rituals for the dead such as the Bon Festival. Following the globe-spanning adventure of Lost Sphear, Inaba wanted to write a story on a small scale similar to Vagrant Story.