Oni-likes and engine ports: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:51, 18 May 2025

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

↑ 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.
↑ 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.
↑ The Special Edition adds two playable female characters, Lady and Trish.
↑ ^{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.
↑ A Director's Cut version was released in 2021 for PS5 and in 2024 for Windows.
↑ Later ported to PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
↑ Later ported to PS4.
↑ ^{Jump up to: 8.0} ^8.1 Remastered and re-released in 2016 for PS4 and XB1.
↑ ^{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.
↑ Catwoman has her own campaign as a playable character.
↑ Partially; the game alternates between control of male and female characters.
↑ ^{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.
↑ A female character model can be swapped in as the player-character using the built-in developer tools.
↑ The melee is complex, but combo chains are assembled in menus, not performed ad hoc.
↑ ^{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.
↑ Female characters can be unlocked and used in Free mode.
↑ Features the only first-person melee combat in the list.
↑ Fork of original project that resided at https://github.com/6opoDuJIo/Oni-Round2 (dead link).

[BloodRayne-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.

[gender-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.

[Batman-8] {Jump up to: 8.0} ^8.1 Remastered and re-released in 2016 for PS4 and XB1.

[contextual-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.

[guns-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.

[tekken-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).

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