ONI (First Impressions)
Publisher: Clouded Leopard Entertainment
Released: 8 March, 2023
Price: $29 USD
When a developer asserts that their game is similar to another, they frequently take on more than they can handle. While this game may have some very bare bone ideas and similarities to the Zelda series, they are vastly underdeveloped.
This seems to be the case with ONI, which feels like a prototype than a game.
Graphics
It looks fine
There are a few tiny errors in the shading here and there that make all the characters and monsters appear to be a weird pencil-shaded image, but nothing that affects gameplay in any way shape or form.
The current performance is abhorrent
The level of performance for this game is currently below what you would come to expect. When you're not doing anything you can hold a steady 30 frames per second, but as soon as fighting begins, that drops to an unstable 15-20 frames.
This wouldn't be so horrible if the game didn't require you to keep performing the same finishers in order to shatter souls, which is what causes the issues.
It doesn't help that there are no Fullscreen, Borderless, Windowed, aspect ratios, or framerate modifications available in the game's video settings.
This makes it impossible for you to solve these problems yourself.
Audio
Repeats forever
While the music is typically enjoyable for the first loop, it quickly becomes apparent that if you enter combat, converse with an NPC, access the menu, or simply go to a new biome, the music immediately switches to the next track.
The music will either be reset if you exit a discussion or the main menu, or it will continue playing until it automatically resets. Due to vocals playing over the melody, the soundtrack isn't even appropriate for the game as atmospheric.
It feels alien, it seems that the director of this game did not handle it well.
It sometimes fits
The combat music occasionally works and is fantastic when it does, but it quickly goes back to being bad with how the game handles it's directions.
Stock sounds
It seems the developer decided to use the free assets from old stock sound effects, the same ones you would hear in your favorite classic 1990s games.
While I don't exactly mind too much, it just gets old when the majority of enemies use the same sound effects for their scream or their attacks.
Gameplay
Slow
I don't mind going through tutorials to understand the basics of the game, but it's done through so many loading screens and cutscenes. Mostly through a mission mechanic, not to mention having to scour the area looking for lost souls to lead them to a statue that will reward you with heart pieces to progress.
This wouldn't be as bad as it sounds if it weren't for the enormous shadow that will form almost immediately after you find one soul. Until it stops pursuing you, which you cannot fight, you can pick up no more souls. As a result, you spend an hour running back and forth while returning 8 souls one by one tediously.
Did I mention that this will allow you to progress the game, because you need those extra (2) hearts for the upcoming boss battle? You don't really need it.
It's all instanced
You can only engage in combat right after a loading screen when you interact with your shadow. You're then put into combat with a wave of enemies, all of which are rather simple to deal with, nothing difficult or overbearing.
Once you finish the combat, you go straight back to walking around and rolling, you can not initiate combat unless you interact with a shadow. It's boring.
Conclusions
I presently have little confidence that this game will even come close to matching BOTW's masterpiece status. In all honesty, it does seem to me like a game that was created for a school assignment in a game creation class.
Meaning it'd not even close to being good enough to be released to the public.
My initial thoughts on this game come to a close with the caveat that, while others may disagree, that is what makes gamers unique. You don't have to share their interests or agree with them and are welcome to critic me on mine.
If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.
- Pawkt
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