big head doing me a frighten | Ao Oni
3π€β no such thing as monsters erm
REVIEW
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Ao Oni is a mixed bag for me. I don't doubt its status of being a cult classic, an early niche title helping to establish horror tropes that are often used in other future RPGMaker or RPGMaker inspired games, nostalgia may give it more value than what is actually provided to the player. Considering the myriad of horror titles I've played, specifically 2D type games, Ao Oni adds nothing new to the table.
The story is essentially a stretched out consequence of initial choices. Middle school friends go to a mansion where a monster was sighted, suddenly everyone disappears after the main character investigates a noise and pandemonium ensues. Throw in the clichΓ© of everyone getting picked off 1 by 1 and there you have it. The exploration of the environments and gameplay seem to be more prioritized.
Gameplay is the exact same stuff I've seen in other RPGMaker games like Misao, Witch's House, Ib, etc. You move around collecting items to help solve puzzles, keys to explore other areas, overall doing whatever is needed to be done to progress the game. The "blue demons" that serve as a threat and roam are easily avoidable as you either need to hide in a closet or just run them long enough that they'll lose you.
Visuals are whatever RPG Maker XP had to offer and whatever the developer opted to use in the final product. I'm not expecting a marvel of graphics or exotic details to be used but it's pretty clear that simple assets and textures were all that were used. I can appreciate the charm in simplicity and I didn't mind the overall rudimentary feel the game exudes, the rest of the game falling flat to me just impacts this aspect as well in a more negative way as a result.
Certain instances of interaction not being entirely clear (especially without hints) got a little annoying really quick. Being forced to either spam use on everything everywhere in the hopes something will happen is not good game design, especially if one is forced to look up a guide to make up for it.
I won't deny the charm to the blue demons themselves, if not for horror, then for comedy as the middle school variants and a handful of them shown at the end were certainly cheesy. It's always important to find a silver lining in things, even if it's unintentional.
I think that a game like this is best played from someone that is either not much of a video gamer, not experienced in horror and/or RPGMaker titles. I've played a lot of games in my life and because of that, I end up catching on to a lot of what games utilize, for better or for worse. I really don't mind the simplicity of this game and there's always charm to 2D horror games; Ao Oni certainly has it, it just ended up being hit or miss for me a good chunk of the time. Whether that'll apply to others will depend entirely on their tastes and experiences, as well as what they want out of a video game.
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