During the February 13 Nintendo Direct, Square Enix and Tokyo RPG Factory showed off a new action RPG, Oninaki. Despite its fairly grim tone, this tale of death, grief, and reincarnation features fast, flashy combat in a colorful world.
With exciting new action-RPG gameplay, players will explore the world as a mysterious Watcher named Kagachi who is bound by duty to sever the bonds that tie the Lost to this world. With Kagachi’s guidance, these wandering souls in the world of the Beyond can continue the cyclical process of reincarnation over again.
To put that in less press release-y terms, you’ll have to delve into the afterlife to fight corrupted spirits of the dead and allow them to reincarnate. According to the game’s website, Oninaki is set in a world where grief traps the dead on the other side, so death is celebrated rather than mourned.
In combat, you can summon the powers of various Daemons at will to gain access to different skills and weapons. The trailer shows a few of these, including a sweeping axe, a spear that lets you charge and leap on enemies, and a rapid-fire handgun attack. It seems that you’ll be joined in combat by a companion at some points, but it’s not clear whether they act autonomously or just appear when you execute certain skills. It’s a far cry from Tokyo RPG Factory’s previous games, I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, which both had turn-based battles.
Oninaki is scheduled to release this summer on Playstation 4, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
A committed indoor kid, Bryan moved from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles for a prettier landscape to ignore. They can be lured outside with promises of taco trucks and film festivals, and enjoy trawling through used book stores for works on the occult. Bryan has been gaming since the SNES era and is a sucker for good pixel art.
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