Wireframe_-_Issue_23_2019

62 / wfmag.cc

Review

Rated

A matter of life and death

n trying to emulate the JRPGs of the

nineties, Tokyo RPG Factory’s past two

efforts – I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear

• felt too much like games rolled off a
  production line. Third time’s the charm,
  you might think, with Oninaki, which adopts
  a different, more anime visual style, switches
  turn-based battles for real-time action, and even
  adds partial voice-acting albeit only in -apanese).
  Nevertheless, the earlier games’ themes of
  death and lost memories remain the core here.
  6et in a realm where the population believes
  in reincarnation, death is supposed to be
  accepted with Moy, while grief can prevent
  the departed from moving on to the afterlife.
  Naturally, this belief system is all too
  Tuestionable when lovers are buying special
  charms in the hopes they can reunite in the
  next life, while bereaved parents can choose
  to be with their dead child by taking their
  own lives. -ust to make matters worse, a serial
  killer known as the Night 'evil is on the loose.
  As you might gather, Oninaki’s tone is almost
  unremittingly grim.
  You play as Kagachi, whose role as a Watcher
  is to help lost souls pass on in peace, lest they
  stray into the purgatorial dimension of the Veil
  for too long and turn into monsters. To do this,
  you have the power to cross between the world
  of the living and the 9eil at the press of a button.

<ou’re also accompanied by a daemon – these

are former lost souls that now serve as powerful

weapons, a bit like the Blades from Xenoblade

Chronicles 2. You can equip up to four daemons

and switch between them at any time with a

directional jab of the right stick.

There’s a decent variety of play styles for

each daemon, from Aisha’s swift sword slashes

to =aav’s spear, which includes a Mump ability

similar to the dragoon class in the Final Fantasy

series. 'aemons even dictate your actions

with the B button, so while Aisha might let you

dash to evade attacks, the tank-like *avod

can help you set up a shield, while for others,

it acts as a jump button. The idea is to switch

between daemons, depending on the situation.

'aemons aren’t Must weapons, however, and

function more like party members with their own

progression systems. The more you use them in

combat, the more you get out of them.

This becomes a problem when your current

daemons are already providing you with a

suite of skills and buffs, so that taking on a new

daemon can feel like starting from scratch. Still,

it’s worth putting in the grind to unearth their

potential scythe-wielding I]ana’s moves start

off much too slow and limited, for example,

but after investing the time, the extra buffs and

skills I’ve unlocked make her much swifter and

deadlier, including an attack that has a chance of

I

Info

Review

GENRE

JRPG

FORMAT

Switch (tested) /

PS4 / PC

DEVELOPER

Tokyo RPG

Factory

PUBLISHER

Square Enix

PRICE

£39.99

RELEASE

Out now

Oninaki

Review

Rated

 Using soul stones, you

can expand your daemon’s

skills and buffs. Naturally,

the more you use a

daemon, the more you

get out of them.

REVIEWED BY

Alan Wen