Oni2:Slaves of War/Story

Story Notes
Not a plot, but notes on storytelling and ideas for a story.

Possible themes/events

• Capture of Konoko using nanotech or phase tech
• Mai __ her Imago stage
  • Reaches
  • Ascends past/around
  • Resists reaching (is it irreversible?)
• Mai leaves Earth __…
  • To train her Daodan
  • To convince Daomen to help us
  • To survive
• …by traveling through __
  • The phase veil
  • Outer space
  • Time
• Mai rejects the promise of great power and becomes a normal person
• Dissolution of the WCG
• Exploration of the Wilderness
• Attack of the Screaming Cells
• Discovery of other Imagoes (perhaps in Wilderness)
• Betrayal of Mai or her group, possibly leading to lucky turnout by accident
• Rejecting given identity (Oni), discovering one’s true self (Oni 2), and then finding where one belongs (Oni 3)
• Mai feels the world is on her shoulders and is over-extending herself
• Mai is being flattered or worshipped by a group she must turn against
• Alliance with Mukade
• Self-sacrifice of Mukade
• Muro’s escape and downfall
• Introduction of Daomen
• Deception by Daomen
• Mai is sent around the world to fight Daodan hosts
• Nanotech vs. Daodan
  • Introduction (nano seemingly winning)
  • Climax (even match, world at war)
  • Conclusion (Daodan leaves Earth)
  • Conclusion (Daodan beats nano)
• Enemy saves Mai because she is needed for his plans, but he dies in the process, spiteful that he saved her but not himself
• Mai’s final team combines their abilities to aid her, perhaps building a chain like Cloud’s friends at the end of FFVII: Advent Children

Plot development

Make sure to provide twists and turns in the story. Perhaps use one of the alternate paths in the polylectiloquy or Oni 2 Storyline thread as a red herring before revealing the truth. At some point I can order the alternatives from least to most interesting and consider how that would work in the story. For example, the Daodan could be something to resist at first, seeming as dangerous as Mukade makes it out to be in Oni. Then it might turn out that, depending on how/why a host gives in to it, the outcome varies. The Daomen could seem benevolent and in need of help at first, then turn sinister and cunning, or desperate and selfish.

The story should not feel “safe” or “inevitable”. There should be cliffhangers and near-death and near-failure moments, the sort that down the road will allow fans to play “what if” games — “What if Mai didn’t spare this person?”, “What if so-and-so died there?”, etc.

Leave dangling threads. This can be a way of leaving room for multiple future story paths, or simply adding a bit of mystery for thoughtful players to chew on. One opportunity is the strange case of Bertram Navarre (see Unit 731 for inspiration). One can also create a sense of foreboding by dropping a phrase that has an ill portent but not explaining it for a while, as the characters ponder what it means.

A certain pretense of agency can be enjoyable, even in a linear story. E.g., “Assemble a team from around the world to accomplish your mission”. Even if the player doesn’t get to choose where to go first, the phrasing suggests that the player is the one in the driver’s seat.

It might be rewarding to start off with Konoko taking orders as in Oni, then breaking out after a certain point and making important decisions on her own.

Players who care about plot and character backstory love it when writers plan ahead. They eat it up when those little enigmatic nuggets that you drop in a corner of game 1 suddenly become meaningful in game 2 or 3. Far from a simple parlor trick for the gamer’s amusement, this practice wins you respect from the gamer, as evidence that you are adept at your storytelling craft. Regular TV viewers are starved for stories that are planned ahead, as TV (at least in America) is absolutely awful at pre-planning stories and then following through on those plans across multiple seasons.

It’s a smart idea to do two things: (1) plan ahead for sequels, and (2) make sure that each story is “detachable” or “collapsible”.

Oni provides a fairly good template for a detachable story: the game ends with the defeat of the villain and the foiling of his plan, but there is another big problem on the horizon that needs to be dealt with, and mysteries still remain about the Daodan. A minor conclusion has been provided, but the major conclusion (what to do about the pollution, what about the oppressive one-world government, where will Mai go and what will she become...) is still out there. Arguably the solution to the pollution is simply to give everyone a Chrysalis, but Mutant Muro showed us that this is a problematic concept, thus allowing for a sequel that addresses those problems. Similarly, Oni 2 or later games can end on a note which is arguably a conclusion or arguably a cliffhanger. For instance, if Oni 2 has the Chrysalis being distributed worldwide, then perhaps by the end of the game, the resulting chaos causes the WCG to break up. If the game ends on that note, then there is a similar sense of conclusion as found in Oni, namely that there is potential for a brighter future, but there is also looming chaos. This allows for us to hang back and see how successful Oni 2 is before deciding on making a sequel.

A collapsible story would be one that allows us to decide during the development process, even a ways into it, whether there will be a sequel and adjust it accordingly. For instance, if we decided to make an Oni 2 and 3 and allow for an Oni 4, we could follow this path: release Oni 2, begin working on Oni 3, writing a story that could extend to an Oni 4. If, during development of Oni 3, we find that sales of Oni 2 are not what we hoped — or if we are simply tired of the work and want to move on to something else — then we can use our fallback plan which allows Oni 3 to provide the major conclusion to the saga of Mai and the Daodan. It’s less likely that this will be useful when making Oni 2 and planning for Oni 3, as we will have no way to know yet how well Oni 2 is going to sell, however if we think that we might only be “mentally committed” to making Oni 2, then we should also allow the story to be collapsed such that Oni 2 provides the major conclusion. In theory (and assuming a few redundant assets are created) we can have almost up to the last minute in making Oni 2 to decide whether to drop in the major conclusion that ends the series, or the minor conclusion that leads to Oni 3. This is analogous to alternate endings shot for films.

It is probably worth making potential plot-flow diagrams for the following scenarios: Oni 2 only, Oni 2 -> Oni 3, and Oni 2 -> Oni 3 -> Oni 4. Mai’s story can easily run up to Oni 3 or maybe even Oni 4. After that, additional Oni games would need another protagonist and probably have to be set in a later time period, therefore it’s not necessary to come up with potential plots for those stories, as a new threat or issue will have to be introduced for those games along with a new protagonist.

One possibility is to have Mai become the progenitor of a line of Daodan users (similar to Naruto’s Sage of Six Paths), who discovers more and more about her Chrysalis and teaches it to others. By Oni 4, she could be out of the picture, simply a mythical figure in the lore of Daodan users. Perhaps she finds a way to prevent her Chrysalis from maturing in the usual (Imago) way, and “cultivates” it to eventually sprout into something grand when she dies.

Also, if we are planning on making a long series of games, each one should have its own theme which is addressed and resolved (like Oni’s issue of identity). The series as a whole will also need an overarching theme (such as “a return to nature“ or “preparation for parenthood”).

Character exposition

Mai

During Oni

Who is Mai as a person? Bungie doesn’t give us much to go on in Oni, although that’s partly justified because Konoko is an identity constructed by the TCTF. She didn’t know anything except life at the TCTF, and whether through osmosis, or a fondness for justice, she might have wanted nothing more than to be a cop when she grew up.

She eventually is violently separated from that identity when her closest friend Shinatama is detonated in an attempt to kill her. I wrote HERE that the game’s story can be broken into three acts, and Act 1, which has “Konoko” as the main character, ends with that event.

Act 2 is about a “Konoko/Mai” who knows her real name but is adrift, uncertain what her past or future is. Her actions in going to Regional State are easy to predict, as Griffin says, because she is no longer much of a person with an identity; she needs information about herself in order to make decisions and function as a human being with free will. Temporarily lacking an identity, she encounters Mukade and rejects his offer of an identity based on violence (ironically, rejecting this using violence herself).

Act 3 begins when Mai learns about her Chrysalis from Dr. Kerr, and she is able to act for the first time with knowledge of her true capabilities, by using the Chrysalis to survive her swim in the acid vat. At this point a character who is essentially a blank slate with only a name begins to create a new identity for herself; one of her first acts in making this identity is deciding Griffin’s fate in the next chapter. Although this decision is in the hands of the player, there is arguably only one correct choice, meaning that the canonical ending is where she spares Griffin and does not fight Mutant Muro.

So then, at the end of Oni, who is Mai? We know that she’s headstrong, and can be violent; we also know that she absorbs information quickly in the field, and occasionally even quips while under pressure; but that’s about it. It’s up to us to decide in Oni 2 how much personality to infuse her with, and in what direction she develops. The truth is that, as of Oni’s ending, she still hasn’t had time to develop as a self-actuated person. In a way, she might still be naive.

Before Oni

This early window into Konoko’s character, from before Hardy’s rewrite, is somewhat embarrassing, as it paints her as a generic “kick-ass chick”. These days the stereotype of a “strong independent woman” who is really just fan service has become something of a joke. Thankfully Bungie had staff preventing them from going too far in that direction.

One unanswered question from Oni: Where did Konoko get her name? No one at TCTF seems to be Japanese, but her father is.... If her name is supposed to mean “this child”, perhaps it was written by Hasegawa in a coded note to Kerr about taking care of Mai.

When we consider her upbringing, it’s unlikely that Mai could ever turn out to be a “normal” person. She doesn’t remember her parents. She grew up in a police station from age three (“orphaned at the age of 3”, manual), was implanted without her knowledge at seven (“Griffin made me a monster when I was 7 years old”, dialogue 14_54_21) and then probably was trained from an early age to be a cop so Griffin could keep an eye on her (“Her upbringing has been overseen by a legion of scientists and TCTF personnel, and she has been trained in the most advanced combat and counter-terrorism techniques”, manual).

Although we can imagine that Kerr was allowed to take her outside the HQ on weekends for the first few years, this probably would have ceased when she was made into a Daodan host. So Mai won’t be familiar with the little pleasantries of life: making a snowman in the winter, then coming inside for a cup of hot chocolate; playing “house” with dolls or playing in the woods with bugs like a tomboy; going over friends’ houses or people-watching at the mall. She didn’t even get the socialization with peers that comes with formal schooling. Her available entertainment would have been pretty limited if she lived in the TCTF HQ, so we can imagine her becoming something of a jock, spending spare time at the firing range just for fun (“expert marksman”, manual) or sparring with the droids in a training program to kill time (“master of hand to hand combat”, manual).