• 青鬼
• made in RPG Maker XP by noprops
• english translation, v6.23 🔗
• free !
• content warnings : blood, gore, body horror, hanging, disturbing imagery, corpses, etc.
• play time : abt an hour & a half
• played & "reviewed" on nov 27th, '23
• 15th anniversary !!
• thoughts :
  • to preface this, i was first introduced to Ao Oni through a fandom-variant and therefore never bothered to play the original. with that being said, i have major bias for the other game, and may hold the original to a similar standard, which isn't very fair.
  • let's not talk about the fact it was a Hetalia fan game lmaooo
  • game is straight to the point and kinda just throws you in there... not much context is given, then again i don't think there is much to be given in the first place, considering the nature of the game.
  • we don't get to see much of our supporting cast, which is a shame. i feel like character deaths would've been more impactful that way. character designs were also lacking but that's a nit-pick.
  • our main character, Hiroshi has the cutest name ever though, omg?
  • puzzles were a bit difficult at times but the further i progressed, the easier it was to pick up on the game's quirks, which made things a lot easier.
  • still had to rely on a walkthrough for most puzzles. i usually prefer to figure stuff out on my own but i was impatient lol
  • the puzzles i did figure out on my own though gave me great satisfaction, even if the Oni immediately killed me afterwards.
  • rooms and landscapes tended to look the same, which made navigating difficult. though i guess some could argue that it adds to the puzzle aspect... oh well.
  • the amount of times i was looking for the room across the hall and ended up going the complete wrong way and searching for waaay too long.
  • ending was extremely anti-climatic, which was a real shame. i didn't feel very accomplished once the credits started to roll and it left me feeling a little unsatisfied.
  • for an old 2008 puzzle-based horror RPG maker game, it wasn't that bad. it definitely has its problems but all and all, it isn't a bad game.

i personally enjoyed Ao Oni despite its flaws. it was fun to experience something i had known of for years, and consumed so much media of. it mirrored that ol' fangame in certain aspects, which offered me some unexpected nostalgia. however, it also made it harder to separate my feelings for the respective games, i constantly found myself comparing the two— which i tried my best to maintain (to no avail).

overall, Ao Oni is a classic horror RPG maker game that to this day, still offers a decent experience to its players. i can't exactly say i recommend it, but you definitely wouldn't be wasting your time if you tried it out yourself.

• overall rating : 4/10