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#1 12/05/16 15:12

ViciousReilly
Member
Registered: 07/15/09

Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Hi all!

I thought you guys would enjoy this video by PtoPOnline featuring Oni 2 and it's short development.

You can view it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZItobLIJJMY

I hope all is well!

-VR

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#2 12/05/16 16:12

TOCS
Member
From: Denmark
Registered: 04/04/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

This is really cool, but for some reason I'm kinda happy this never got released, at least based on this footage. The art direction seem pretty off. The same thing goes for the theme and universe. It doesn't really look much like Oni, in my opinion. Honestly, besides the running neck twister attack I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell this was an Oni game. The movement and combat looks really stiff and clumsy compared to the fluidity of its predecessor. It's one of those key aspects that really sets the gameplay mood for Oni; the smoothness that connects every animation to one other. Even today I'd say it does a damn fine job on that regard. This is really interesting regardless.

It's times like these we need a developer to pick up the game and re-imagine/remaster the original game and get a decent deal on Steam. Games like Age of Empires, Stronghold and Heroes of Might and Magic already got a face-lift. When I see this, I can't help but feel like we just need someone to do a nice update on the existing game to get the game universe out there. The gaming market and its audience has changed so much since the original game was released I'm sure it'll have its place.

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#3 12/05/16 23:12

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Thanks for posting this!  I was just hearing rumblings of this today while away from the Internet, and hadn't gotten to see it yet.  So how about that, eh?  We'd heard in the past that a sequel was once under development, but it's amazing to see it in the flesh.  That being said, it's true that it doesn't look a lot like Oni.  I can't say I'm surprised, as Take Two never really demonstrated that they "got" Oni, and even the small additions that they made to Oni's art when marketing it were not in keeping with the original style.

As far as any awkward movements, PtoPOnline's host Andrew Borman says that this was a long way from being finished.  Probably they were still focused on the technical aspects of the game, not the art/animation.  It sounds like the game was only in development for a year, as opposed to Oni's 3.5 years.  Also, since this is apparently a PS2 game, we should probably compare its controls to the clumsy controls of Oni for the PS2, not the PC version that we prefer.

I don't have much time to really delve into this since real life is crazy for me right now, but I will be nibbling away at this, analyzing the video for a while to come.

P.S.: I hope that subtitle, Death & Taxes, was indeed a joke or placeholder while the game was under development!  ...Unfortunately, it seems that Oni 2 was anything but that certain.


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#4 12/06/16 01:12

Lithium
Member
From: Colorado
Registered: 10/17/08

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

I wonder what they wanted to do with the story, I get the impression that it's a future where humanity adapted and we fixed things up quickly but there's still some Syndicate influence there, I guess it's not bad but it wouldn't have been as interesting as seeing the decaying world caused by Muro, this feels a little too far ahead of that, also designs are really lacking in some areas, especially the enemies.

Last edited by Lithium (12/06/16 01:12)


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#5 12/06/16 02:12

Jon God
Member
Registered: 01/17/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

I think a lot of this is probably to do with the fact that this game was super early. Had we seen Oni 1 at this state, it probably wouldn't have looked much better.

That being said, who knows how this would have turned out, different team and all.

I also had someone link me to a post on another forum of the 'leak'. I haven't gotten it to work in an emulator yet, and my PS2 isn't modded, so I can't tell you how it'd play.

If anyone else gets it running, please help me on getting it running.


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#6 12/06/16 04:12

s10k
Member
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

The game indeed looks weird and is very different from the original. Especially in art style. It may be a very early stage of development which could explain some of these. If I understood correctly the development team was also different which can explain some of these differences.

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#7 12/06/16 12:12

EdT
Moderator
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: 01/13/07
Website

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

@VR, thanks for sharing the video.

@Jon, do you have access to Parallels or VM Fusion? I have found that running an emulator there will work better, than one in macOS.

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#8 12/06/16 15:12

Jon God
Member
Registered: 01/17/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

I have bootcamp, but parallels runs really poorly on this computer. I guess i should boot into windows and try again.


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#9 12/06/16 15:12

Gumby
Member
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: 08/30/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Was wondering when this would happen. smile Rumblings indeed. @ViciousReilly I tried to find you on LinkedIn. I have a real industry job and such now and was hoping to get you a drink at some GDC, if you ever attend (I know some companies don't send people down for it now).

Also, hi @all. Long time no see. smile


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#10 12/06/16 15:12

Jon God
Member
Registered: 01/17/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Gumby: we should meet up next GDC, I've been there the past 2 years.


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#11 12/06/16 15:12

ViciousReilly
Member
Registered: 07/15/09

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Gumby wrote:

Was wondering when this would happen. smile Rumblings indeed. @ViciousReilly I tried to find you on LinkedIn. I have a real industry job and such now and was hoping to get you a drink at some GDC, if you ever attend (I know some companies don't send people down for it now).

Also, hi @all. Long time no see. smile

That's awesome man, congrats!

As for GDC, I have not been. Our company sends people to it, but there is a list to attend and a lot of red tape to get on that list wink.

Someday I am sure we will meet..... someday smile.

-VR

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#12 12/06/16 15:12

s10k
Member
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Gumby wrote:

Also, hi @all. Long time no see. smile

Congratulations for the job Gumby! Would be nice to see you more times around here.

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#13 12/06/16 21:12

Jon God
Member
Registered: 01/17/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

By the way, if you are looking for it, hmm... without breaking any rules can I say to search "Oni 2: Death and Taxes" in a non-Google search engine? That's how I found it.

Mods, is this okay?

Last edited by Jon God (12/06/16 21:12)


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#14 12/06/16 23:12

EdT
Moderator
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: 01/13/07
Website

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Check out the comments to this article: http://kotaku.com/bungie-s-cult-classic … 1789693658  Lots of positive comments.

@Jon Interesting, that is the only post by the leaker.

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#15 12/06/16 23:12

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Mods, is this okay?

Unless Harry says otherwise, I think that's allowable.  I wouldn't say that the dev build is "warez" since it was never released commercially.  The work is, however, still owned by someone, so we can't go around offering it to people directly.

Check out the comments to this article: [...]  Lots of positive comments.

Indeed, and the same on the YouTube video.  Almost everyone remembers Oni positively.  This despite the fact that most players seem to know it from the PS2 version!


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#16 12/11/16 22:12

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Just to let any interested parties know, I've created a page on the wiki to document all aspects of the dev build: http://wiki.oni2.net/Oni_2_(Angel_Studios) .  The technically inclined should also check out the talk page, because I did some initial exploration of the data (in a very elementary way, just looking at ASCII strings) and came up with some questions and interesting references.  If anyone wants to devote some time to researching the game, we can start a conversation there.  Obviously I have a number of other projects on my plate, so I don't plan to go any deeper into the Oni 2 data at this time unless other people join in.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#17 12/20/16 20:12

Samer
Member
From: Lebanon
Registered: 09/04/09
Website

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

yikes I saw this on youtube today .. guess I am late to the party..
that video makes me wish it had a chance to see the light so bad sad

Last edited by Samer (12/20/16 20:12)


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#18 12/20/16 22:12

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

You need to refresh the forum more often tongue


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#19 12/21/16 14:12

HCthenemesis
Member
From: India
Registered: 05/24/15
Website

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

The animation and fluidity is really a turn off, but it is probably in early dev stages.

Saw this thread here and OMF wut!!!? I'm stunned and surprised, and honestly excited! I wish Oni 2 happens and that it does justice to us diehard Oni fans and the game.

Multiplayer needs to be tehre, and I miss some huge enemy like the MEch monster or the machine gun....


The animation is very similar to the SpiderMan 2 or 3 games, and I'm not a fan of that spandex super instant fake movements. Not natural.


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#20 12/21/16 21:12

Knox
Member
From: (File Missing)
Registered: 08/15/11

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

I'm glad to see someone at least tried to make a sequel to Oni. Sure, the build looks a little rough around the edges, but it had potential. Shame it had to end like this.


"New car, caviar, four star daydream, think I'll buy me a football team."
Oni fan since 2001.

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#21 02/05/17 18:02

ltemplar
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 08/23/12

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Heh I'm a bit late for the party it seams..but it's probably the price I must pay for visiting here few times in the year.

The graphics .
Definitely bater than the original oni , but....
-Konoko model look strange (especially her new hair style)
-Neo syndicate thugs (I presume there are Neo syndicate) are well...badly design...some guys in the dark brown/orange suits- I expected something more to be honest.
-TCTF looks definitely improved(I like them more than the old one)minus the helmet (original was simply better)
-rest well .... acceptable I guess.
-Level aesthetics - Because there are only 2 relatively short but somehow finish levels it's hard to judge them but the graphics look  better.

Combat mechanic.

h2h
-counters(ad last)
-heavy attacks (not really needed in my opinion and can by easy traded for better grappling/throwing the only usable one I found; minus strange kick throw combo, is run double leg kick )
-light attacks - easy to preform combos in every direction (something I really wanted in the original)
-throws/grappling techniques)- hard to tell if there are better than original(sometimes creating animation glitches)
-absence of the escape moves(huge step backward in my opinion in comparison to original)
-no automatic block (even more carnal mistake than the previous one)

Shooting techniques
To be honest in my opinion overcomplicated the original system was definitely better. Yes you do have 3d arc shooting style but only when you are stand in the open and not moving (aiming doesn't help much too).

Controls.
Simply Overcomplicated.

-counters have separate button
-Two separate buttons for heavy and light attack and one additional for throws
-Separate button for super attacks(why?)

In other words to do almost everything you were able to do in Oni(minus counters) you need 5 buttons instead of 2 (I will not even mention that you can't dash any more , or I never found the way how )

AI.
Probably in early stage but it seams less complicated than original and that is a bad sing in my opinion. It can fight h2h it can shoot but its clumsy in it's execution and sometimes resembling to much today's genre oversimplified variants especially in h2h. It can run for backup however, but this behaviour can by spotted only in one level and its probably scripted for this specific map.

Ending
The prototype definitely have some potential.If they only simplified controls and add few things for original(like automatic block and related with it counter or escape moves), better AI and few other things, It could be really grate game worthy of its precursor. But it still only if... because the project was bonded and discontinued. It's relay shame that it ended like this. But maybe there is hope?Will the new ghost in the shell live action movie  make this "if..." a reality exactly like original anime created it for the Oni?Only the future will tell.

Ltemplar.

Last edited by ltemplar (02/05/17 18:02)

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#22 02/19/18 14:02

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

Just a little update: this month we discovered that the leaked disc image actually has 95 levels, not 15.  Many are small or don't load at all, but this is still a pretty surprising discovery.  If anyone is interested, I've started collecting tools for working with the disc here: http://oni.bungie.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3136.  The levels are documented here: http://wiki.oni2.net/Oni_2_(Angel_Studios)/Levels.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

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#23 02/20/18 10:02

Striker
Member
From: Toronto, ON
Registered: 03/10/08

Re: Oni 2: Death and Taxes

I have to say that from a level design perspective, the rooftops shown in the video are much more fleshed out than in the original. It's partially because of the increased draw distance, but the demo level appeared to be more spacious and contained more detail. Most of the rooftops level in the original are surrounded by bland, flat buildings with no personality. Perhaps it is the time gap between the development that allowed the devs of this one use new hardware to their advantage.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that the reworked art style of the game would fit very well, at least as a direct successor to the original. Part of what made Oni so appealing, at least in my opinion, is the anime art style mixed with the cyberpunk feel. While this does retain the cyberpunk, the art appears closer to something like Tomb Raider or Deus Ex than Oni.


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