Have you ever played a PC game that doesn’t have a display menu? How about when that same game is graphically demanding, has intense combat, and switches its framerate from 30 to 60 on a whim? That’s the case with ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni, the debut game for Japanese studio KENEI Design. KENEI Design is a team of 5 that has worked on the project for 2 years.

Described as aiming “to make players feel as if they had jumped into the pages of a childhood picture book“, the game has an undeniable charm within its setting and character design. At the same time, its action seeks to challenge players with pinpoint timing and using all of their tools/abilities to succeed. How does this first game suit KENEI Design’s efforts?

ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni tasks you, a demon by the name of Kuuta, with slaying other demons and taking their souls. Armed with only a club, you’ll have to also make use of your ghost companion, Kazemaru, who can float across the battlefield and instantly defeat most enemies before his stamina bar depletes. You’ll be destroying demons in combat missions that increase in difficulty and scope as the game progresses.

When not fighting, you can traverse the island of Kisejima, at least, as much of it as you can before you encounter invisible walls blocking you off to a relatively-small portion of the island for the first two hours. To progress, you’ll also have to capture spirits and bring them to shrines. This is an exercise in frustration and tedium that would have been better left on the drawing board due to its unbeatable enemies and slow-as-a-snail pace.

While the combat and scenery are excellent in ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni, there are some serious issues at play that hinder the experience. There is exactly one song for the overworld, bursting with generic inspirational lyrics and a lacking backdrop, that you will hear from the start every time you finish a mission or enter the game. It’s the kind of “stuck in your head” song that you don’t want there in the first place. It is aggravating and sure to make players turn off the music as a whole.

That aside, the lack of an options menu for the game’s display is a massive detriment, as ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni is actually quite demanding and several players are reporting performance issues with no way to remedy them. I’m lucky I had a high-end card to run it on, as others are stating the framerate drops to 20 and below on lesser hardware.

With a $30 price tag and about 7 hours worth of content, it’s a challenge to recommend ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni. There’s tons of potential for this to be a great game, as KENEI Design has talent in world-building and combat. Sadly, the structure of the game and lack of polish has led to the game sitting at a troubling 34% Mostly Negative reception in its first few weeks on Steam.

The foundation is there, but there’s a lot of work to be done before ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni can be redeemed. In the meantime, there are plenty of cheaper, deeper narrative experiences to be had. Hopefully, KENEI Design can take note of this and improve from here on out.

A PC review copy of ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni was provided by Clouded Leopard Entertainment for this review.

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ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni

29.99

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Solid Combat
• Great Character Design

Cons

• Annoying Soundtrack
• Extremely Tedious
• Performance Woes