Imagine a high school student realizing that in order to escape a manor with a bloodthirsty monster he has to solve equations, Hiroshi was probably like "GOD ANYTHING BUT THIS"

Having the monster hiding behind the text box is some genius shit

My first and fondest memory of Ao Oni was watching a pair of Japanese Let's Players go through the game - I may not know the language but the panicked yelling and laughter transcends language barriers.

I always thought Oni was just a photo picture of yandere dev

Hiroshi: *forgets to lock the cell* Oni: "Nothing personnel, kid." *teleports behind him*

The menu scare with Takuro-Oni is genuinely the most perfectly executed interface screw I have ever seen in any horror game ever.

Hank: what’s the problem? You scared Takeshi: *turns into a troodon and screams violently*

I love how no one made any joke or comment about how the Square shaped Oni looks like a prehistoric precursor of Amogus

Hiding the Oni behind the text box is hilarious and horrifying.

It's fascinating that each version sort of alternated between being able to save your friends and killing them all horribly. I actually quite liked the ending where all the survivors get an epilogue. Feels the most satisfying.

shoutout to me and my friend both individually, without communicating with each other, deciding to watch this video within the space of a few hours of each other, despite neither of us having seen this channel before... and both of us enjoying it enough to seek out other videos on this channel. if that's not a sign of quality, then I don't know what is, lmao

He could be you, he could beme, he could even be- *𝙎 𝙃 𝙊 𝙏 𝙂 𝙐 𝙉

"While Hiroshi runs for his life, you may be wondering who Naoki is. . . . So theres another piece of metal next to Mika's corpse" possibly my favorite part of the video

As iconic as Ao Oni is, i think this is one of the rpgmaker games that didn't age well at all. Still, it introduce me to the media so i can't hate it even if i wanted!

Wasn't there a version where upon finding Mika the Oni appears and chases you both and you have to hide in a closet, only for the MC to fall unconscious inside, he finds out that the Oni ate Mika who was hiding in another closet besides the one you hid ? I remember something like that happening

33:22 With takeshi's blond hair, the Ao Oni looks like Duke Nukem

There's something about incredibly esoteric and impenetrable rpg maker puzzles that only make sense if you knew the authors uncle that's just so charming to me.

I remember there being two endings of Ao Oni. The first ending involved an old man/custodian being discovered and eaten by the Oni, and the other ending showed another group of students who were implied to have been also killed by the demon. I guess this finally explains how I got the two mixed up.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how much passion the both of you have for this game, never looked too much into it. It's interesting to see how many versions there were, and explains why I had conflicting memories while watching multiple people LP it. Hats off for the quality and effort.

I always thought that the oni was just a fucked up photoshopped picture of yanderedev

God I was / am so scared of the oni and the oni in this game isn’t even what a “real” oni looks like. Also nice to see Ben.

As an old-timer who was there, I can assure you, the oni wasn't scary even back in 2008. It was ALWAYS goofy. That design was never anything but the butt of jokes and even back in the day there were memes about how silly it looked and acted. It was actually a common thing to show this game to your friends, and build up how 'scary' the monster looked just to make its eventual reveal (and said friend's reaction to it) all the funnier. The game itself had moments of effective horror and creepiness - but the monster, no.

Every time I see ao oni, I can't stop seeing yandere Dev 💀

26:53 This actually caught me so off guard, can't remember the last time I wheezed so hard lmao

I love the stock rock sliding sound effect every time Aaron comes into frame

I can’t believe the Oni was hand drawn, and yanderedev became him anyways

Just found your channel today while I was stuck in bed sick, I’ve been watching your videos all day, probably. Watched about 10 or so today and can’t wait for the next one, Thanks for the quality

i love how shit aaron's mic is

the original purple guy

By the way, trying to find a version of the first Ao Oni movie with English subtitles was genuinely the most difficult experience I have had in my long and storied history of media piracy.

36:32 "Looks like meat boy right there" lmaoooo so true 😂

8:58 "How did you-" "I chewed through the ropes" "But you had ducktape on your mouth-" "I chewed through the ducktape" *aaron says casually* 26:50 "Its time for the infamous scene!" *dies* 32:18 "It could even be ben!" *ben transforms into ao oni* "How dare you" *aaron also transforms into ao oni* "Oh, sorry" 33:09 "Takeshi is practicing his gymnastics" 36:52 "Oh, i love you fish king" *7 seconds later* 36:59 "I like this one" 38:08 "All of the characters in the south park art style"

I was first exposed to Ao Oni through a fangame of it called HetaOni, which is based on another franchise called Hetalia. Now I know that the reason that some of the characters in that fangame acts out of character sometimes is because its creator was replicating the scenes from the original game. Anyways, if Ao Oni already feels nonsensical, HetaOni is so much more crazy. There are time resets, actual magic, toilets acting as item shops, anime friendship moments and so much more.

"You might be wondering who Naoki is." [silence] "So there's another piece of metal next to Mika's corpse." That got me. I got a good chuckle out of that one.

33:09 takeshi is practicing his gymnastics takeshi seems a bit busy takeshi takes a rough tumble 💀💀💀💀💀

3:22 Its him! the man behind the slaughter!

Ao Oni is such an extensive franchise in terms of indie horror games. It's like FNAF in terms of how successful an indie game could get.

I will never not laugh when remembering Mark playing through this game and not seeing Takeshi's body until after he completes the puzzle and moves to leave (33:09)

My god this game is so nostalgic. It was such a big hit in korea that every youtuber / streamer did a lets play at least once

21:54 I would've been too scared to leave the closet too 😅

I once thought ao oni was just a silly little horror game that made no sense but thanks to your wonderful video I know now that it's actually a unique but still silly horror game that revolutionized rpgmaker horror puzzle games

Ao Oni is "Oh Hi Mark" in video game form. I'll be real, haven't paid attention to this game, just didn't stick out to me, but the professionalism of this video's making me reconsider and regret not paying attention to this game years earlier.

15:02 the bite of 23.

26:54 Hiroshi: oh nice a star pie- Oni: *prowler theme* Also oni: *RIPS THE DOOR OFF AND BREAKS HIROSHI'S NECK*

There is actually a mobile version too as well as two sequels. Sadly I don't think you can get them anymore, but it would have been fun to see you play them

Rpgmaker horror games have a special place in my heart, and I’m glad creators like you aren’t just letting them be forgotten as just another childhood fever dream. Can’t wait to see which one you decide cover next

The instant I saw that cutscene in the jail cell it reminded me of the PewDiePie song he did for this game. That was a buried memory that I hadn't remembered in years.

I love Aaron. He's my favorite human-ish shaped talking rock.

Something in the final version that was missed that I’d like to point out, in the previous versions the cast were high schoolers but in the final version they’re middle schoolers Edit: I was wrong, in 3.0 they were also middle schoolers

I can’t find the words to describe your friend Aaron here. Like not only his unique persona used for the video but also his personality and voice. I like him. He seems silly.

Ahhh Ao Oni was one of the first indie horror games I really heard of. Watched PewDiePie play it back in the day, and I've been interested in the genre of indie horror since then. Cool stuff!

What's strange is, I swear at some point or another ending, you were able to save your friends from the onification (or something like that)

Aaron was an unexpected, but *very welcome* addition! Very funny guy and I love his enthusiasm! I like the additional joke comments interspersed with the run-through of the game. And I also like discussing what works or doesn’t work mixed into the summary as well so the video doesn’t feel like a basic summary with only the closing thoughts being analysis. I noticed this is the writing style, but I think you’ve utilized it the best here Also agreed: Oni Cat is the best creature ever

I can confirm, back in 2008, the Ao Oni looked terrifying. It's not so much that it was an objectively scary image, but it was so jarringly different from the usual RPG Maker style that it felt unnatural and wrong. Helped by the fact that there's never any explanation for what it is or why it's there. It just exists as this grotesque thing that breaks all the rules of the medium and wants to violently murder the characters. That feeling was why it initially received so many fangames, everyone wanted to recapture that experience (eventually, it just became a meme and the later fangames leaned heavily on that).

I just found this channel and this is bringing back so many memories of when I would watch different KZfaqrs play this whenever I was younger these videos are very entertaining to watch and nostalgic keep up the good work

I'm so glad my translation of Ao Oni Version 3.0 made it into the video! Thanks, Ben!

One thing I like is just how little lore there is. Its weird to say, but not knowing just what Ao Oni is, makes it scarier. A lot of indie games find themselves making novels of lore, which end up lessening the horror.

26:51 the way he says WHAT so crisply after the oni just decided to open the door 😭

6:20 that's what you get Ao Oni for pirating Mario Party ds. Remember kids, Piracy is no party.

Now, that's real horror. Not "indecipherable auto-generated noise", it's about the execution. I love how it goes against the now popular tropes like "main character hides in a closet, the villain peeks inside in a drawn-out and tense scene but then doesn't see them", it's always changing it up. The cell scene, the textbox hide, the fake partymember, all that. There's a charm to that raw but original nature of it. It's creative.

I didn't even know there were different versions so this is very interesting to me.

Man what a throwback. I thought I was going mad misremembering some sequences; I didn't realise there were multiple versions! Drove me insane wondering where the old character art went and not seeing people talk about it. Fun video! Thanks for your time, hope you're doing well.

27:14 fun fact! Every map can be colored so that no regions of the same color touch (excluding corners) with at most four colors. It took like a million pages of math and nerd shit and a big computer to prove that

I always loved the Takuro menu jumpscare

I remember watching my cousins play this when we were all preteens. We all laughed when we first saw the monster, because it looked so ridiculously. But by the end of the game we were all terrified. The noise that played, the way that it could just appear at any time. It terrified the hell out of me for months

37:35 I remember seeing this scare in an old Let's Play of the game, and I've always been fond of it. It's so simple but also super creative.

The oni appearing behind the textbox has got to be one of the most hilarious moments in an rpg maker horror game.

Ngl the one thing I wish they retained was the room to get one of the item with Blob Oni. It's really funny seeing the supposed monster that had almost killed you more than a dozen times be turned into this slow moving blob that mainly just serves as a guard dog to one specific item.

Back then I was into Hetalia and there was a fan version of Ao Oni called Hetaoni. I've seen more Hetalia rpg maker games too, there was also a Danganronpa one. I would love for you to check that one out because they did change some stuff and the story was way crazier and more emotional, when I played Ao Oni afterwards I actually liked Hetaoni more than that.

This aaron guy sounds like such a creep

3:50 bro needed to clean his desk after that

26:53 Bro this caught me so off guard , I was not expect the Oni to just sonic speed inside 😂

Tbh I do think the doll puzzle is genius I honestly love it when puzzles look so complicated and complex …. Only for them to have a very simple solution Signalis actually did this with quite a bit of the puzzles and it got me every time

Gotta be honest, I can't believe this channel exists, literally a channel where all the nostalgic and fascinating horror typa games are talked about! About to binge alot of your videos Hope you get more subs my boi ❤

Is anyone here from pillar chase 2?

This is actually a really interesting way to look at the history of a game. Would now like to see something on mad father as that's just something i remember being my fav rpg maker horror game.

32:21 I started the video rolling my eyes hearing its a collab but honestly you guys are hilarious together and its quire wholesome

24:20 his gamma must be turned way up lol

The video editing is so good! So underrated channel.

I'm most familiar with the final version, but the other ones have their charms. I particularly like the one with multiple endings where you can choose to save or abandon your friends.

My favorite adaptation of the Ao Oni story has to be Nira Oni, where it's set inside of an abandoned Hospital instead of a giant mansion.

How come I'm just now finding your channel? Your content is so good! Keep up the good work king. You're making great videos here.

9:01 i love this part

Love this "aaron" guy, he's a real treat!

really enjoyed Aaron in this, -i checked to see if he had a youtube channel and was shocked he doesn't- it was nice to hear him talk and how he explained things, as well as his avatar which was very creative imo hope to see more of him in future videos, he's a hoot EDIT: Aaron has a channel! fishgaylord7526 in the replies below :-)

Omg man absolutely love your content, great music and super well editing. First video seen.

never let that other guy be in any of your other videos again.

Gotta admit it’s absolutely wild hearing you explain the plot at the beginning and realize how much has been added to the game in post. The game used to be even more stripped down - like I remember there only being four characters and the bully characters weren’t even a thing, it was just friends checking out a spooky house together

32:15, I tought Ben was going to shoot him before he could finish the sentence.

26:53 bro really said Jab, Jab, Forward, Short, Fierce

6:15 the fucking closeup made me choke on my food as if I haven't seen it plenty before

3:50 Bro sounded a bit too surprised.💀

I recently learned of this game so I feel like I can actually appreciate this going into it. I always enjoy your commentary/ takes on things, and I especially enjoy when I have the chance to learn something new about a game I've already been aquatinted with. Thanks for always going the extra mile

AAAA YOUR BACKGROUND MUSIC IS HOTEL DUSK OST!!! LOVE IT!!! SO GLAD MORE PEOPLE ARE USING THIS BECAUSE I ODDLY HEARING A LOT OF IT NOW!!!

why oni looks like YandereDew?

God dude the quality of your videos is so fucking good You edit them so well, the scripts are good as hell, and your audio FUCKS!!!!

Re: Kinder always makes me cry. Not just because of how tragic the game was at points, but because of what happened to the game creator IRL after how that game ended. If only the world were kinder...

Aaron looks like sans, sounds like oneyplays, and has the personality of a runaway freight train Amazing

KZfaq did a good thing for once and recommended this video to me, and I'm glad it did, this channel is pretty darn good.