Since Tokyo RPG Factory’s upcoming action-RPG Oninaki was officially announced during Nintendo’s February 13, 2019 Direct, details for the game have been slowly but surely shared over time. Over the course of the past few months, we’ve received major details regarding gameplay and characters, the Daemons in the game, and the August release date. That said, many JRPG fans, including ourselves, have still wanted to know even more about this unique action-RPG that differs from what the developer has been known for. Thankfully, Square Enix pretty much read our minds as the publisher went ahead and interviewed two members of Oninaki‘s development team, director Atsushi Hashimoto and creative producer Takashi Tokita.

Game length, especially in JRPGs, is oftentimes a major key feature that will either draw in or draw away fans. Generally, most fans believe the longer a JRPG is, the better, and Oninaki is going to fit the bill. When asked how long it would take to see and do everything the game has to offer, Tokita-san mentioned that, “It depends which difficulty you play on and how much of the content you try to experience, but you will definitely need around 30 hours I think to enjoy most of the game. Personally, I am not all that good with action games, so I think I could enjoy playing for quite a while, even on Casual difficulty [laughs].”

On the flip side, however, Hashimoto-san gave a different game length mark, “If you really want to see everything the game has to offer then I think you would be hard-pressed to do it all in under 50 hours. There is even more content to do after you complete the game too…” So with both of their answers taken into consideration, it’s safe to say that Oninaki will take about 30 to 50 hours to complete. For me, that length is perfect — not too long, but not too short either.

A good chunk of players may be fans of I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphear, the developer’s past titles, but there may be some of you out there in which Oninaki will be your first-ever Tokyo RPG Factory title. If you’re part of the latter group, fear not, as Tokita-san shared that Oninaki can be “enjoyed by everyone.” What’s important to note, though, is that both Tokita-san and Hashimoto-san hinted that those that played the last two Tokyo RPG Factory games may find a few surprises. Tokita-san shared that “There are some things in there [Oninaki] that might make people..smile,” then Hashimoto-san followed-up saying, “We actually did the same thing with Lost Sphear, where if you really read the details in the game’s text closely, you might well find some references that make you smile. We don’t refer to anything from the previous games directly though, so it is up to individual players to enjoy interpreting what they see.”

Last but not least, as mentioned before, Oninaki isn’t quite like anything Tokyo RPG Factory has done before. Tokita-san shared that Oninaki is a “new style RPG” due to its “quirky touch for the characters, backdrops that have a unique and living sense of motion, a highly resonant use of color, and various anime-style visual effects…”, and also shared that the game “takes influences from manga, anime, and games.”

The Square Enix interview clearly provided us plenty of great details, but of course, many mysteries we all still have about the game can only be revealed by playing it from start to finish.

For right now, however, you can check out our overall preview, along with our battle system gameplay preview, to explore a bit more of what Oninaki will have to offer when it releases on August 22 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC-via Steam.