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A jam submission

Onryō: Vengeful Spirit (Game Jam 2022)View game page

Death is Only the Beginning...
Submitted by Splendid Fox Games (@TheSplendidFox) — 10 minutes, 56 seconds before the deadline
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Onryō: Vengeful Spirit (Game Jam 2022)'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Aesthetics#14.9334.933
Theme#414.1334.133
Sound#1633.2673.267
Story#2702.6672.667
Mechanics#3123.0673.067
Fun#3922.9332.933
Music#5052.0672.067

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How many people worked on this game total?
2

Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
Royalty free Sound effects

Link to your source?
https://splendid-fox-games.itch.io/onryo

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

wonderful pixel art - you guys really nailed the aesthetic of mega drive ninja games. with one difference: no intro screen ever look SO DAMN GOOD. loving it.

1 little thing: is it normal that you can't move the orb anymore if your host dies? It's always just sitting there, waiting for it's life to run out... i played with a controller if that is of any help?!

Submitted(+1)

yeah, seems to occur with gamepad only.

Developer

Thanks for your amazing feedback, we are so glad you love the pixel art and intro.

The orb becoming stuck when exiting a host is a nasty little bug that I thought I'd fixed. It's caused by the control scheme attempting to switch from one prefab to another, while the first is still active, if it tries to switch too fast, it can't because the first object still has control. You experienced it with a gamepad, and I experienced it yesterday with the keyboard. I should be able to fix it by just making sure the host is fully dead before the orb comes back into existence.

That and more will be fixed, and updated, when we do our final build of the game. We really want to fix all of the problems and finish the game to our original vision.

Thanks again.

Submitted(+1)

Ok, so it's a bug indeed and not that you have to voluntarily "let go" before the host character is killed.

Maybe it's just me but the game is really too fast paced to even get a grip of what happens before you're dead...

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your reply.

We are currently working on updating the game, and it has been slowed down since this release, we have also fixed the bug where the orb gets stuck when exiting a host.

The orb is now easier to control, it doesn't fly off in the distance anymore. It is also now easier to possess an enemy, and the orb will now survive for a lot longer without a host.

We will also add in a screen to properly describe what's going on and what the player needs to do in the game.

We hope you will enjoy the final version when it is released.

Thanks again for playing.

Submitted(+1)

Played and rated.

Really loved the retro feel with the art and audio. The concept is interesting and has a lot of potential!

I was very confused when I was testing for the first times. Had to read the keybinds to understand what to press, and I even discovered that I was the light orb lol! It was only confusing that the light orb dies after too long when posessing someone.

Overall I really love the feel of the game including Art, Audio and gameplay, but what's missing are clear instructions. Your game has a lot of potential and I encourage you to keep improving! :)

Would appreciate if you check out and rate our game as well: https://hadilepanda.itch.io/rise-of-necromancy

Developer(+1)

Thanks very much for the great feedback! We are so glad everyone is loving the art, but people being confused with the game is a common occurrence, and we really wish we had a bit more time to make it easier to follow.

The orb should only die if it's not possessing anyone, and once you do possess someone, the orb health will slowly regenerate.

When our final version comes it will be with full explanation and be a lot clearer on what to do. The intro will be fleshed out and bugs will be fixed. Thanks again.

Yes I'll add your game to my list and will most likely be able to play it tomorrow. I saw it being played on stream and it looks pretty interesting, and the HUD gave me some Diablo vibes.

Submitted(+1)

This game is really cool and I think it has a lot of potential. It took me a second to get use to the controls but once I figured it out I was gaming. Like others have said the artstyle is great and does an excellent job at recreating that old ninja gaiden style. I just wish there was music to go with it, the SFX are a great touch tho.

Unfortunately I didn't make it too far, I kept running out of Life Energy and my spirit would die. I take to much time when trying to decide my next move, so the timer is good at making me feel the pressure but for some reason after leaving a body I would have the same amount of time left as when I entered the body. It would be easier if it reset as you hopped from bodies. It looked like it was meant to do that because the energy bar kept flashing between both the current and the full values.

I think this idea has a lot of potential and could be expanded on. All in all this is a stellar submission guys, amazing work and great job! (P.S. I really dig the Splendid Fox, seems like an upstanding bloke. In case you didn't know you can add that as a splash screen in unity so it pops up when the game starts :) )

Developer(+1)

Thank you for your amazing feedback, it's really appreciated! 

Our artist is very happy that people enjoy the artwork so much.

Yes we would have liked to add music, but we spent so much time doing the graphics and getting the possession mechanic to work, that we didn't have time to hunt down a suitable track for the game.

The orb health does slowly regenerate when you're inside a host, but it takes a bout 2-3x longer to regen as it does to deplete (if it didn't then it's a bug)

We do plan to expand on it further, as we want to fully complete the ideas we had. So we will expand on the level, better placement of enemies, more environment graphics, fix all the bugs, maybe add a 4th enemy type, balance them all correctly, and add a proper controls screen, with story, and game ending.

We are glad you like the Splendid Fox,, he really is a top bloke.

Yes I knew about the splash screen but totally forgot about it for this release, so thanks for reminding me, we will be sure to add it in for the final complete release of the game.

Submitted(+1)

Wow, love the look of this game. Reminds me of an old snes or genesis game. Agree with other comments about the controls, but once you figure it out, it was really fun. I can't get over how good the visuals are though!

Developer

Thanks very much for your reply, glad you enjoyed it. My artist team mate is very happy to hear your high praise of the visuals!

Yes the controls and player feedback wasn't done well enough by us, and it no doubt made the game more difficult and less enjoyable to play than we were hoping. We endeavour to do better in our completed version.

Submitted(+1)

Took me forever to figure out controls until I had the idea to visit the game page. Other than that, pretty neat and stylish

Developer

Thanks for the great feedback. Yes we should have added a very simple controls screen, as we ran out of time we had to add it to the game page. In future it's something we will add far earlier on.

We're glad you enjoyed it.

Submitted(+1)

Really cool theme and art, great job! I found it really difficult to understand the controls and the orb seemed to get stuck after possessing someone. It's really nice mechanic and fits the theme of the jam well.

Developer

Thanks very much for your feedback.

We will be fixing all bugs and refining the game when the Jam is over, hopefully it will all make sense then and be a lot easier to control.

Submitted (4 edits) (+1)

Love the style, feels super old-school. It was tricky to understand how to not die, I had to press posses multiple times to fully posses the person, as otherwise it left a column of blue that kept draining my life points. When it was working, the combat was good fun, but i felt that the throwing star character was the most over powered, as I could just spam the stars, I tried the other ones and they were far more difficult to do damage with

Its genuinely a great concept, possesing characters to kill them and their cronys. But the game was pretty buggy at times, getting stuck off the map, the orb being controllable after a game over(and with a full life point bar). The lack of feedback when you kill everyone, maybe a level complete could have helped as I didn’t know if I missed someone. And the keyboard controls were hard to get used to. But overall I think this was a good jam game, nice art, fun when it was working, and a unique design. I think this could be really fun with some bug fixing/refinement, amazing job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your great feedback, it's much appreciated.

Yes we ran out of time to further refine the games, and as you said, there isn't much player feedback.

The candles at the top right are meant to represent remaining enemies, but I think they were buggy too.

We will be expanding the game and refining everything and fixing all bugs, after the Jam is finished. so keep an eye out for the finished build :)

Submitted(+1)

Ah, I wondered what the candles were for! I’ve added the game to a collection, so I’ll definitely check it out in the future, as I adore the style.

Developer

Thanks very much. 

We will be sure to explain the game and mechanics thoroughly in the final release, as the current lack of explanation left many people confused as to what was going on.

Submitted(+1)

Fun

Unfortunately the game is very buggy. I had to look up the controls on the game page, and when I used them they often wouldn't work. I had the spirit freeze while possessing a target, I had the game over appear but I could still keep moving, I had the game crash twice, and when I finally was able to get into the game, it felt limited.

Aesthetics

Fantastic. Really cool old SNES style.  The intro was particularly cool and was nostalgic.

Music

I don't think I heard any music.

Sound

Sound matched the old snes feeling.  Didn't blow me away, but it stuck to the theme so I can't complain.

Mechanics

When they worked they seemed very similar to old castlevania. The orb movement felt weird, and I don't love the orb timer.

Story

Seems like there is something here, but I couldn't get to any story.

Theme

Despite its flaws, it sticks to the old snes feeling well, and uses the game jam theme. The possession mechanic has been done a lot, but it works.

Developer

Thanks very much for your  constructive feedback. 

Once the jam is over we do plan to refine the game and complete it, and can address the problems you mentioned. But there are some bugs you had that I've not encountered, can I have some more feedback please?

1. Do you remember what you were doing before the game crashed? Or did it just appear random?

2. When the game over appears the spirit should die, were you still able to see the spirit? Or were you able to move the camera and the spirit wasn't visible?

Thanks again for playing.

Submitted(+1)

1. Crashed when left clicking on load.

2. The spirit plays the death animation, then returns to the normal sprite and continues to move around with the camera. 

Developer

Thanks very much, I'll look into it.

Developer

Please note that the Onyro GJ2022 Build.rar is the game build. Download that to play.

The second file Onryo.rar is the entire Unity project, source code and all

Submitted

Congrats on getting out a submission! I really loved the aesthetic of the game. The mechanic was interesting as well; however, I think that outright killing the host maybe doesn't really have much of a drawback. There doesn't seem to be anything stopping the player from just floating from host to host and killing their way through the level. I'm also curious about something because on your page is says "continue until all enemies are dead". Was something supposed to happen afterwards? If so, I think it might be glitched because nothing happened for me.

Anyway, great work to the both of you!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing the game and for your great feedback!

The outright killing of the host as mostly put in as a safety feature, as the big guy can't jump, and Ronin (with the sword) can't jump across the bridge, so we didn't want the player to be stuck in a host that couldn't get past certain level areas. Also there is one minor drawback, when inside a host your orb health slowly refills, if you kill the host it starts going down again.

Thanks for pointing out the "continue until all enemies are dead" part. We planned to end the game there with a small credits scene and a conclusion, however we ran out of time. I will update the description to make note of this.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

Submitted

Yeah, I noticed that after another playthrough about the depleting bar. I think maybe it could be a bit faster, but yeah, I'd love to see this further developed.

Developer(+1)

Ahh glad you spotted it the second time.

We didn't want to make it too fast, because the floating orb is hard to slow down and you can easily miss your target, I died myself many times when testing it haha. We might make the depleting bar quicker, but the controls a bit more responsive.

We do plan to continue to develop this game, at least to fully complete the original idea, as some things were cut as we couldn't utilise them properly (such as destructible blocks that only the big guy can get past)

We will most likely keep this game as the Game Jam build, and create a new itch page for the fully developed page when that is ready.

Submitted(+1)

Nice, I'm going to follow you then in the hopes to return to it later down the line. Like I said, I really liked the concept and would love to see it fully realized.