Yeah, so. Hi. This is azureXtwilight, project lead for the game

Onigashima was never supposed to be a horror game, it was going to be a battle shounen about fighting onis (there were multiple onis, and the characters can turn to onis during the red moon, wild)

The idea started as a tragic romance story where you are an oni slayer and then redeem the Oni with the power of friendship, and something like “People transforming into Oni”  It wasn't even for a jam, it was for a commercial visual novel, but that went down the drain.

The last thing the artist sent me before total silence:

Then the original artist ran. (I am still salty about that). And then I  just stared at the half-finished sprites (as seen above, not complete expressions as well) and then the project was scrapped into the deepest hell of my GDRiVE and kinda sat there for a while. So when Spooktober rolled around, I thought, “Fine. Let’s throw this thing out from it's nameless urn (ha, ha, get it???) and see what I can salvage outta this.”

I rewrote the whole concept, the old story about a noble hero slaying an Oni became a different kind of story, and became "What if you are the oni and you don't even know that?" I wanted something that didn't rely too much on jumpscares like Intensive (S)care Unit, and then I watched a playlist of Saya no Uta. The rest is history.

Yamato was supposed to be the “friendly guy.” Your nice senpai and now he's a hater. i think an asshole tsundere fits him better though, the man who  ABSolutely cares too much but only knows how to show it by yelling (I thank Akua for his buns, he's cookin'.)

Hikaru is a fusion of two different characters, there used to be a ninja (a quiet kuudere) and the onmyoji (supposed to be MC's old lover), but since this is a jam I need to merge them. And suddenly Hikaru's sort of the favorite character, so I think I made a good decision.

Since MC and Hikaru are canonically lovers, they are both gender-ambiguous. You like straight romance? WLW? MLM? They can be either, pick your own canon.

Shiori never changed, she's always this monster-loving girl with a singy-songy voice. I mean, like we all simped for a monster once in our lifetime and think "I can fix her/him"

And Yamakui missing the MC is something I thought of mid-jam actually. Originally, it ends after the third loop and then true ending starts. But giving the Oni that emptiness and the feeling of missing you, turns the whole thing from a horror story into a tragedy. (Yamakui X MC anyone?)

So yeah, I'm guessing people think this project is very well-planned (it is, sort of, I wrote like 20 word pages for its outline alone), but Onigashima was basically reanimated from a long-lost project. Like our MC. Feels kind of fitting, actually.

I sincerely hope you enjoy it!