Blue man revisited

This week, we're talking about a beloved demon, dancing as a nugget, and the mystery of "The Waterfront Wranglers."

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Legendary RPG Maker horror game comes to Steam

Ao Oni, a Japanese cult classic indie horror game from 2008, finally got an official Steam release this week. Even if you haven’t heard of it, you’ve likely seen Ao Oni’s titular monster before; over a decade later, you can still find that rapscallion’s greasy, misshapen likeness smirking at you from TikTok memes and plastered to half-baked Roblox horror games. The game follows a group of students as they investigate an abandoned mansion, only to be picked off one by one by the blue demon that haunts it. Like Resident Evil 2’s Mr. X or 3’s Nemesis, Ao Oni’s demon is in constant pursuit of the player, appearing both in scripted sequences and at random. The game developed a cult following via livestreams and Let’s Plays, especially in Japan, where it was adapted for both live-action film and anime. 

Despite its status as one of the most famous RPG Maker horror games, Ao Oni is even more bare-bones than its contemporaries; its minimal style, for example, pales in comparison to the imaginative visual identities of 2004’s Yume Nikki or 2012’s Ib (which got its own updated Steam re-release in 2022). Its iconic “cell scene” has lost the edge it had in the late 2000s, defanged by years of memes and usurped by Poppy Playtime jumpscares. But as one of the first games of its kind to seize the internet’s attention, it’s become grandfathered into the online horror ecosystem, and it’s unlikely shitposters will ever be able to forget that devilish smile.