This game is rated ESRB: Teen for Animated Violence.
Oni is a third-person action game developed by Rockstar Toronto and released in 2001 for PC, Mac, and PlayStation 2, blending shooter and hand-to-hand combat mechanics within an anime-influenced science fiction setting. Players control Konoko, an elite agent working for a technology crimes task force whose mission centers on dismantling a criminal organization known as the Syndicate. The narrative carries a darker undercurrent, as Konoko is gradually confronted by unresolved mysteries from her own past that complicate her sense of purpose and loyalty. Gameplay combines firearms with close-quarters fighting moves, allowing players to switch fluidly between ranged and melee approaches during combat encounters. The game draws heavily on anime visual aesthetics and storytelling conventions, framing its action through a character-driven plot that emphasizes personal identity alongside the broader conflict against the Syndicate.
The events of Oni take place in or after the year 2032. The game world is a dystopia, an Earth so polluted that little of it remains habitable. To solve international economic crises, all nations have combined into a single entity, the World Coalition Government. The government is Orwellian, telling the populace that what are actually dangerously toxic regions are wilderness preserves, and using its police forces, known publicly as the Technological Crimes Task Force (TCTF), to suppress opposition. The player character, code-named Konoko (voiced by Amanda Winn-Lee), full name later given as Mai Hasegawa, begins the game working for the TCTF. Soon, she learns her employers have been keeping secrets about her past from her. She turns against them as she embarks on a quest of self-discovery. The player learns more about her family and origins while battling both the TCTF and its greatest enemy, the equally monolithic criminal organization called the Syndicate. In the game's climax, Konoko discovers a Syndicate plan to cause the Atmospheric Conversion Centers, air-treatment plants necessary to keep most of the world's population alive, to catastrophically malfunction. She is partially successful in thwarting the plot, saving a portion of humanity.
