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An Indepth Look at Oni: Road To Be The Mightiest Oni!

2K View2023-03-21

Hey folks, If you were hoping to get into the weeds of Kenei Design & Shueisha games' Oni: Road to be the mightiest - You're in the right place.

Mightiest Under The Sun

When strife took hold of the land, and the Oni were stirred into action- the great warrior, Momotaro, joined the fray and put them to the sword. Mostly. Which is all good and fine- but we're not playing as him.

Rather, we take the role of Kuuta, one of the survivors of the slaughter- who felt especially humiliated by his powerlessness during those events- and thus resolved to journey to the cursed island of Kisejima. Upon those isolated shores, he hopes to challenge the spirits of long dead demons, and his own inadequacy - all so that he might become a match for Momotaro.

Only, the the island isn’t quite as empty as he was led to believe. First he befriends the spirit, Kazemaru, then a fellow Oni arrives. But most importantly of all, he finds himself meeting a young human girl, who fearlessly attempts to befriend him.

And frankly, as far as storylines go- this one manages to do a decent job of hugging the curve between cute and kind of depressing. Because things aren’t quite as simple as hopping into the shoes of a demon looking to become the final boss.

As you progress through the game's various missions, you’ll occasionally find yourself treated with a cinematic scene which showcases the friendship which gradually blossoms between Kuuta and the girl- and the complicated truths at the heart of their respective origins, and the place Oni’s inhabit in the world.

Factor in the details you can unearth from scouring the island for the various memos scattered about- and you’ll find yourself immersed in a -very- different take on the Momotaro Myth.

One which ultimately makes for a fairly satisfying narrative conclusion- regardless of the ending you pick. Admittedly, you can sort of -see- the bad ending coming, if you’ve been paying attention- but, even if you take the bait, you’re not actually locked out from seeing the other one, given the game helpfully saves -right- before the finale.

An Oni-rous journey

But how does the gameplay fare? Well, it's not just a hack and slash, since Oni actually kicks off as a small-scale adventure, where you’re tasked with exploring the island.

Well, 'explore' might be a bit of a strong word since, not only is Kisejima Island small, you initially only have access to a third of it. In any case, the gameplay loop is simple enough. In order to progress the main quest, you need to find a series of shrines to unlock the isles trials- which then take the form of Oni’s Hack and slash flavoured missions.

To initiate them, you need to track down Shadow Oni which serve as their physical manifestation - with every 6 culminating in a boss fight, and every 12 unlocking another portion of the island- and a fresh set of shrines to hunt down.

Admittedly, there is a little bit more to the adventure component than this, For instance, you can go mushroom picking, since that’s the game's currency. There’s a pig you can tame in the second area, to compensate for your move speed- and there’s collectibles, such as the memo’s I mentioned earlier, chests containing supplies, and even some small oddities tied to the game's sidequests.

That said, the -crux- of my exploration time was spent spirit hunting. See, Kuuta starts out -incredibly- fragile, to the point that you’ll be barred from tackling the first boss until you gain the requisite amount of health. That said, gaining health is a trial, since you essentially need to rove the island, pinging a radar command with the help of your little ghost buddy. I mean, it’s not quite blindly, since his horn does ignite when you’re close to a spirit, but- if you’re keen on unlocking everything, and gaining as much health as you possibly can (which does have additional rewards) - it’s a lot. Especially given that it’s not simply a matter of -finding- the spirit. You also have to bring it to the save statue . . . While being hounded by a giant slobbering shadow demon. And no, you can’t simply cheese it by riding the pig, you’ll get kicked off. Nor can you even use the teleport move you acquire later on. No, you simply have to waddle across the island, occasionally flopping onto your face as a dodge when it gets too close.

Rinse and repeat. For 56 different spirits. ...Yeah. Yeaaaah.

As for the hack and slash elements? Mechanically speaking- it’s simple enough, given Kuuta’s kit consists of a simple combo (which changes depending on the weapon he’s wielding), a spin attack, and a dodge. Well, that, and his special attack- which charges over time. Initially, this is a shockwave that also grants brief invulnerability- but as you clear out certain bosses, you’ll slowly gain access to other options, such as making clones of yourself, or a massive AOE.

I mean, there is a limited range option in the form of Kazemaru- but the spirit's energy pool is limited, and often better reserved for emergency heals.

And then there's the missions themselves. Each one tasks you with beating the living hell out of a fair number of Oni In an -especially- living sense, given just knocking them out isn’t enough. You -also- need to pummel the soul that floats out of their downed bodies. I specify need, because they -will- revive if you don’t finish the job- though, this -is- facilitated by the ability to stylishly chain together soul murder for the sake of convenience- with button inputs that are forgiving to the point that you can just mash through them.

Overall, there’s an adequate array of opponents to square up against- but, it won’t be long until the actual experience starts to blur together, given how similar the missions will start to feel.

And this is despite Oni's attempts at adding interesting wrinkles to the mix, like some perspective shifts that make the game a sidescroller, or a top-down experience. Really, they're more of a quirky little novelty at the end of the day.

Except the Escort missions. Those are just suffering - since those stages are very much a case of guarding an inept bozo from getting circle beaten if you stray too far- while still trying to get the mission objective done.

Still, I do have to give Oni some credit here- because even when I found myself feeling a bit worn down from the busy work of clearing missions, the boss fights were always something to look forward to. Each one plays out fairly differently, serving as both a solid combat encounter- and a bit of a puzzle insofar as to how to navigate the bosses mechanics and create openings. In fact, my absolute favourite was the sixth boss, which I enjoyed to such a degree that it made me substantially more excited for the ensuing finale. It’s a -great- encounter.

Fashion & More

And I’m honestly not sure what to say here, since- I frankly found it looked quite good. Really, the only thing I might nitpick is that there’s a number of ‘harder enemy variants are just the mob but blanched’ - but, eh?

I mean sure, the cutscenes did feel a bit slow insofar as their execution- But I actually fond myself fond of how they played out stylistically- and the way that the words and images lingered on the overworld after the fact. It’s just a really cute detail.

Oh- and playing with fashion is fun. See, while you do have some mechanical benefits for buying gear, like changing your combo, or maybe adding an altogether negligible amount of health- the most powerful option is -fashion- since Kuuta does change his appearance depending on what you have equipped.

As does the girl, if you find additional kimono’s spread across the island. Then we get to the music- and while I enjoy the soundtrack, and find it to be a solid accompaniment to the mood the game is trying to establish- it does feel rather limited. To the point that you will get -very- familiar with its vocal tracks.

The Road Travelled

At the end of the day, Oni exists in a rather odd spot. On a purely narrative level, I’m actually quite fond of the way it tackles the story of Momotaro- and found it to be an altogether touching tale. That said, -getting- to that narrative payoff was a process, one which I managed -despite- the gameplay.

In fact, I think it was the boss fights that served as some of the largest incentives for progressing forward- though, I’ll admit that the actual act of exploring the island and actually engaging with what it had to offer wasn’t terrible. …*Cough* Beyond Spirit hunting *cough*

Still, I found the highlights managed to offset it’s low points enough that I can at least tentatively call this one a FUMBLE, since I managed to get some fun out of it. Despite the fact that the game kept insisting that I scour it’s hills for roving spirits in. Whee.

Though- I should probably offer a bit of additional warning. While you can use keyboard and mouse or controller with this- I definitely preferred the controller and you -don’t- have any rebinding options.

Really, the -nicest- thing I can say Oni does for you, is Auto save after any progress you make.

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