Oni (no relation)

With the popularity of the Japanese mythical oni, there are a number of works and characters titled "Oni". Despite the confusion this sometimes causes with Bungie's game Oni, due to the shared inspiration, interesting similarities can sometimes be found.

ONI RPG series and OVA

In the OVA, Shuramaru meets two characters who can transform into oni like he can.

A classic RPG series created by Pandora Box, and once popular in Japan, depicted transforming heroes with beast forms. The series is primarily identified by its use of the romanized "ONI" rather than the kanji 鬼. Hover over any text below with dotted underlining for a best-effort English translation.

GB	1990-12-08	鬼忍降魔録 ONI	Template:H
GB	1992-02-28	ONI II 隠忍伝説	Template:H (cartridge photo)
GB	1993-02-23	ONI III 黒の破壊神	Template:H
GB	1994-03-11	ONI IV 鬼神の血族	Template:H
SNES	1994-08-05	鬼神降臨伝ONI	Template:H
GB	1995-03-24	ONI V 隠忍を継ぐ者	Template:H
SNES	1996-02-02	幕末降臨伝ONI	Template:H
PS1	2001-03-22	ONI零〜復活〜	Template:H
DS	2007-08-30	ONI零 戦国乱世百花繚乱	Template:H
PS1	canceled	ONI零〜流転〜	Template:H
Arcade	1995	隠忍 ーザニンジャマスター	Template:H

The one game that actually released for PlayStation came out in 2001 and was called ONI Zero ~Resurrection~; thankfully it wasn't for the PS2, which might have been confusing since Oni's Japanese box used a romanized "ONI" too. A 1995 arcade fighting game loosely based in the same universe was called Oni: The Ninja Master. Despite the game's subtitle already being in katakana-ized English, it was released in the Western world with the inscrutable name Metamoqester.

Also in 1995, the game universe was the basis for an anime OVA called Touma Kishinden Oni (Template:H) consisting of 25 10-minute episodes released on five discs. Incredibly obscure and hard to find, the opening can be seen here. It's about a young warrior who has to come to terms with his inhuman nature and ability to transform into an "oni".

Halo's ONI

See Easter eggs – Halo.

Street Fighter's Akuma Oni

Oni (sometimes called Akuma Oni or Oni Akuma for clarity) is a "demon" form of long-time Street Fighter character Akuma who has been corrupted by the dark energy of his martial art. He first appeared in Super Street Fighter IV. There is also a Pandora's Box variant of Oni in Street Fighter X Tekken.

Urusei Yatsura's Oni

In this anime, "Oni" is the name of an alien race, but the name isn't mentioned much. What's more important is how the myth of the oni influenced the design of alien character Lum, so see Oni (myth) – Aliens for information.

ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni

An upcoming Nintendo Switch title with a very cute art style. A partial game description from the publisher: "The protagonist, Kuuta, attacks the enemy using his club. Kazemaru sucks the enemy's spirit out of its body, and by destroying that spirit, Kuuta can then claim victory. Enjoy an all-new, unique co-op experience by playing both Kuuta and Kazemaru at the same time! […] The player can also level up by running away from pursuing monsters, like a game of tag, and collecting mushrooms that grow in clusters to purchase upgraded clubs."

The main character is himself an oni, a demon warrior, and it seems that his goal is to absorb other oni to get stronger. The children's game of tag, called "oni" in Japan, is also somehow a part of the gameplay.

Agent of Mayhem's Oni

Agents of Mayhem, an open-world action game set in the Saint's Row universe, has a cast of 12 playable characters including Oni, a Japanese hitman.

AT-43's ONI Corporation

AT-43 is a role-playing board game with a faction called O.N.I., standing for Okamura Non-aligned Industries. They're a mercenary corporation that creates zombie soldiers and builds weapons based off any technology they can get their hands on, then sells them to the highest bidder in the war between the other factions of the game.

Also not Oni

Oxygen Not Included

A survival game set in a space colony, released in 2019 by Klei Entertainment. No connection to the concept of the Japanese oni, but abbreviated to "ONI" often enough that it competes for attention with Oni in search engine results. People post on our Oni subreddit asking for help with that game. We even had to expand our Discord server's name to "Oni (Bungie, 2001)" to cut down on confused Oxygen fans joining the server.