Oni-likes and engine ports

From OniGalore

After playing and replaying Oni, fans often ask what other games are like Oni. The article below lists games with high similarity to Oni (although none totally match it), games with some similarity, games inspired/influenced by Oni, and finally documents past attempts to recreate Oni in several different game engines.

Oni-like games

The games in this list meet the following three criteria: (1) third-person action, (2) gunplay (defined as some kind of ranged weapons being commonly in use), and (3) deep melee (combat system has more than basic punches/kicks, e.g. combos and throws). See the next table for games that have some similarities to Oni but don't meet all these criteria.

Name Year Platform Female hero Cyberpunk(-ish) Anime-style
Æon Flux 2005 PS2 Yes Yes No
Alias 2004 PS2, Xbox, Win Yes No No
Bayonetta 1–3 2009–2022 PS3–4, X360–XB1, Wii U–Switch Yes No Yes
BloodRayne 1–2 2002–2004 PS2, Xbox[1] Yes No No
Death by Degrees 2005 PS2 Yes No Yes
Devil May Cry 3 2005 PS2, Windows[2] No No Yes
Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition 2005 PS4, XB1 Yes[3] No Yes
Die Hard Arcade 1996 PS2, Saturn Yes[4] No No
Enter the Matrix 2003 PS2, Xbox, Windows Yes[4] Yes No
Fighting Force 1997 PS1, N64, Win Yes[4] No No
Ghost of Tsushima 2020 PS4[5] No No No
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast 2002 Mac, Windows[6] No No No
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy 2003 Mac, Windows[7] Yes[4] No No
State of Emergency 2002 PS2, Xbox, Windows Yes[4] No No
The Matrix: Path of Neo 2005 PS2, Xbox, Windows No Yes No

Oni-comparable games

These games don't meet all the criteria above for an Oni-like, but they still have similarities that may interest an Oni fan.

Name Year Platform Female hero Cyberpunk
(-ish)
Anime-style Third-person Deep melee Gunplay
Batman: Arkham Asylum 2009 PS3, X360, Win[8] No No No Yes Yes[9] No
Batman: Arkham City 2011 PS3, X360, Win[8] Yes[10] No No Yes Yes[9] No
Batman: Arkham Knight 2015 PS4, XB1, Win Yes[11] No No Yes Yes[9] No
Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2002 Xbox Yes No No Yes Yes No[12]
EOE: Eve of Extinction 2002 PS2 No No Yes Yes Yes No
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2004 PS2 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
God Hand 2006 PS2 No No Yes Yes Yes No
Gunnm: Martian Memory 1998 PS1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2 2000 Windows Yes No No Yes No Yes
Lugaru 2005 Mac, Windows No No No Yes Yes[9] No
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance 2013 PS3, X360 No Yes Yes Yes Yes No[12]
Mirror's Edge 2008 PS3, X360, Windows Yes No No No No Yes
Mirror's Edge Catalyst 2016 PS4, XB1, Windows Yes No No No No Yes
Overgrowth 2017 Mac, Windows No[13] No No Yes Yes[9] No
Remember Me 2013 PS3, X360 Yes Yes No Yes Yes[14] No
Sifu 2022 PS5, XSS/X, Win Yes[4] No No Yes Yes No
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2019 PS4–5, XB1–XSS/X, Windows No No No Yes Yes[9] No
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 2023 PS4–5, XB1–XSS/X, Windows No No No Yes Yes[9] No[12]
Tekken 4 2002 PS2 No No Yes Yes[15] Yes No
Tekken 5 2005 PS2 No No Yes Yes[15] Yes No
Tekken 6 2009 PS3, X360 Yes[4] No Yes Yes[15] Yes No[12]
Wet 2009 PS3, X360 Yes No No Yes No Yes
Urban Chaos 1999 PS1, Windows Yes No No Yes Yes No
Urban Reign 2005 PS2 Yes[16] No No Yes Yes No
Wanted: Dead 2023 PS4–5, XB1–XSS/X, Win Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
Yakuza 1-6 + 0 2005–2016 PS2–4, XB1 No No Yes Yes Yes No[12]
ZeiramZone 1996 PS1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Zeno Clash 2009 X360, Win No No No No[17] Yes Yes
Name Year Platform Female hero Cyberpunk
(-ish)
Anime-style Third-person Deep melee Gunplay

Oni-inspired games

These games, and thus their sequels, directly took inspiration from Oni's combat system during development, though in Lugaru's case the inspiration was somewhat contrary because the developer, David Rosen, did not like Oni's free, non-contextual combat and sought to make a game that would be fully contextual.[9] If a game in this list has been released, it will also be found in one of the above tables.

  • Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and its sequel Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
  • Lugaru and its sequel Overgrowth
  • Reikoneo (in development)
  • Spine (in development)
Comment by a developer of Jedi Outcast under an Oni video on YouTube.

Engine ports

These were attempts to create a new "Oni" in a more modern game engine.

Name Engine Under development
Ion Eyes Unreal Engine 4 No
Konoko Payne Flexine No
Oni Deathmatch Multiplayer GoldSrc No
Oni-Round2[18] Unity No
OniBGE Blender Game Engine/UPBGE Eevee No
Serious Konoko Serious Engine 2 No
UnrealOni Unreal Engine 4 No

Footnotes

  1. Remastered versions of the BloodRayne games were released in 2020 for Windows as BloodRayne/BloodRayne 2: Terminal Cut and in 2021 for PS4, PS5 and XB1 as BloodRayne/BloodRayne 2: ReVamped.
  2. A remaster of DMC3: Special Edition was released together with Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2 in 2012 as the Devil May Cry HD Collection for PS3 and X360, and then the Collection was re-released in 2018 for Windows, PS4 and XB1.
  3. The Special Edition adds two playable female characters, Lady and Trish.
  4. Jump up to: 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 You can choose the gender of the player-character.
  5. A Director's Cut version was released in 2021 for PS5 and in 2024 for Windows.
  6. Later ported to PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
  7. Later ported to PS4.
  8. Jump up to: 8.0 8.1 Remastered and re-released in 2016 for PS4 and XB1.
  9. Jump up to: 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 The combat system is much more contextual than Oni's. "Contextual" means that the attack used is based on the physical relation of the player-character to the enemy – their relative positioning, distance, velocity, height – rather than on the specific input of the player. The main character will not launch an attack if the enemy is not in reach, and the attack used is determined by the engine, not the player.
  10. Catwoman has her own campaign as a playable character.
  11. Partially; the game alternates between control of male and female characters.
  12. Jump up to: 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Guns or other ranged weapons are used in a limited way but the focus is on melee.
  13. A female character model can be swapped in as the player-character using the built-in developer tools.
  14. The melee is complex, but combo chains are assembled in menus, not performed ad hoc.
  15. Jump up to: 15.0 15.1 15.2 Although Tekken games are 2D fighters and would not normally be listed here, these specific titles have a mode called Tekken Force (Tekken 4), Devil Within (Tekken 5) or Campaign Mode (Tekken 6) where combat takes place in a free-roaming 3D environment. These are all broadly referred to as Tekken Force mode. Tekken Force mode debuted in Tekken 3 but in that game it was presented as a sidescrolling beat-'em-up rather than true 3D free-roam. Tekken 8 only has a brief free-roam mode in the campaign's Chapter 10.
  16. Female characters can be unlocked and used in Free mode.
  17. Features the only first-person melee combat in the list.
  18. Fork of original project that resided at https://github.com/6opoDuJIo/Oni-Round2 (dead link).