Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
Say you have a superfun, kinda cool friend who’s way into computer games. You visit her and she’s playing Okami on the PS/2. You grab a drink, sit on the arm of the couch and watch the screen. The first thing that strikes you are the wonderful visuals of the game, a beautiful cell-shaded animation style with a cardboard cut-out feel. She tells you the game is from 2006, but the graphics you’re watching seem truly timeless and somehow too big for the screen.
Not that you’re convinced at this point. You want more than just pretty pictures from your games. If you wanted art, you’d go to a museum, right? You’re a pretty demanding crowd. Will Okami live up to your viciously high standards?
Okami is a PS2/Wii game about the Japanese sun-god Amaterasu, incarnated as the cutest white wolf teenage girls have ever screamed “kawaaaaai” at. Ami (as he is affectionately called) has to save the world from the corruption of the evil dragon Orochi - one location at a time. Every province he visits has been marked by corruption - the scenery is drab brown and black, the trees twisted and leafless, the people are unable to think or talk coherently. Ami is here to revive the heart tree of the province and to make all of this gloom a distant memory.
The “bringing color back to a dark corrupted world” theme isn’t new, but there’s a good reason it’s such a classic. It means the game is able to give you a reward that’s not measured in XP or new equipment - you get a sense of accomplishment that goes beyond quantifiable rewards (no, don't freak out, the game still also has XP and equipment. Sheesh). This game is willing to go all-out in showing how you’ve affected the world for the better. When Ami reconquers the province, the entire area is literally washed over by color, lotus petals flying, leaves growing back, the sun shining over the hills. A newly colored location is teeming with goodies, mini-games and new people to listen to, leaving you with a warm and fuzzy feeling in your gut as if you’ve just donated 20 bucks to NPR’s Radiolab.
Paint-brush magic makes the sun go up
Even more satisfying is the main weapon in Amaterasu’s arsenal: the celestial brush. Art is how gods exert their influence over the world. It’s yet another fun and original way to have your actions directly affect the world. Drawing a circle in the sky will make the sun come out and turn night into day, a circle around a dried-up tree will reinvigorate it into full bloom, a horizontal stripe can cut through a boulder. As you progress there’s new brush stroke techniques for Ami to pick up. The strokes are all fairly simple and thank the kami for that, because drawing with a PS2 stick is not easy! The game is generally forgiving about your clumsier strokes, except for one annoying trial where you have to make a long sequence of drawings in one go. This got one VGG user to toss the game all together (I admit I appealed to the powers of boyfriend who happily spent an hour drawing circles till he finally got it right.).
The clever wolf catches the spooks
Of course you can’t save the world from darkness without getting your paws dirty - you need to defeat some pretty nasty bosses along the way. In true Zelda fashion* these boss fights are not only about showing off your latest cool weapon but mainly about making smart use of your most recently learned paintbrush techniques. Instead of just bashing away there’s always a trick to the fight and clever wolves will do better than reckless bullies. If combat is your thing, there are a fair few wandering monsters in the provinces that you can heroically defeat to collect even more goodies - if you’d rather leave them, they are easily avoided.
Cutting a monster in half - the brush is mightier than the sword.
Explore to your heart’s content (possibly beyond)
The true heart of the game is in exploring the country and finding the many secrets hidden all over the place. This game is a completionists wet dream or worst nightmare, dependent on how happy you are with your own completionist urges. There are a stunning amount of things to collect: xp, bonus items, beads, treasures, star sign statues. The world of Okami is one extensive treasure trove waiting for you to uncover it.
If you’re not a big completionist, don’t quietly slink away through the backdoor. There is such a wealth of things the game gives you to do, so many puzzles to solve, people to help, minigames to play. The cutest minigame in particular: Ami gets XP (or “praise”), by feeding the deer, birds, rabbits, monkeys and other animals he comes upon. Every feeding comes with a small cutscene that will charm the socks off of any player: male, female or soulless marketing executive.
A great experience
Playing Okami is a very soothing experience for the senses. You explore a new area, blossoms sprouting in your every footstep. You talk to people and to your sidekick bug, their voices a dreamy hum of sounds passing you by. You look for hidden treasures, scanning the screen for visible beams of light or cracks in a boulder, easily avoiding the few monsters that are scattered around the place. Every once in a while you stop to feed seeds to the sparrows, herbs to the bunnies, meat to the dogs, who greet you with floating hearts the next time you backtrack through this area looking for the last bead you’ve yet to find.
I generally shy away from action games because I mostly play games to relax. My job (at a communications office) is fairly stressy, so especially during the week I look to games to unwind. Okami is the one action adventure that I’m always happy to play. It’s just the mood the game evokes, the non-urgent way the game is set up - it’s an action adventure you can really mellow out with.
Which is curious, because what I generally appreciate most in a game is the story. I rely on the narrative to evoke an emotional reaction, to draw me into the game. Okami’s story is just the vague background of the game, the part you don’t pay much attention to, that don’t draws much attention to itself. Despite the lack of narrative, the game still evokes so much and draws you in so well, it’s kind of refreshing.
If you know your way in the action adventure genre, you’ll most likely have noticed that Okami is kind of similar to aforementioned Zelda game where you (partly) play a wolf bent on bringing color to back to the corrupted world, accompanied by an annoyingly chirpy sidekick who does the talking for you. Being a big Twilight Princess game fan, I got a little worked up about the similarities at the start, but it’s really not worth getting your cables in a twist. When you play the games you’ll certainly find plenty of things that make both games interesting and unique. So just relax and enjoy your double world-cleansing-wolf goodness.
I'll probably pick this up. Didn't know that there was a PS2 version.
If you have a Nintendo DS, I highly recommend you get the Okami game for that system. It isn't a port but a continuation of the game in which the next generation of adventurers set out to stop the spread of evil. Amaterasu's son takes on the adventure and meets the son the hero who travelled with Amaterasu. Along the way they meet the offsprings of other celetstial beings that bestow more abilities to the duo.
The artwork is just a vibrant but also has more of a cuteness tinge to it.
I don't know about the PS2 version but the story is hilarious in the DS version and touching.
Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
Oni no board wrote:
I'll probably pick this up. Didn't know that there was a PS2 version.
If you have a Nintendo DS, I highly recommend you get the Okami game for that system. It isn't a port but a continuation of the game in which the next generation of adventurers set out to stop the spread of evil. Amaterasu's son takes on the adventure and meets the son the hero who travelled with Amaterasu. Along the way they meet the offsprings of other celetstial beings that bestow more abilities to the duo.
The artwork is just a vibrant but also has more of a cuteness tinge to it.
I don't know about the PS2 version but the story is hilarious in the DS version and touching.
Ah, so that's what Okamiden is! It sounds really cutesy (Chibiterasu?), but then again Okami itself manages the cute quite well and it should work wonders on the DS! Now I'll need to find my DS again..
And Okami for PS2 is still available from Amazon, so you should have no trouble picking it up there or elsewhere.
The PS2 version was the main version, if I recall correctly, Wayne R.
Either way, this was a really beautiful artistic game (and fairly fun from what little I played). Sadly it was plagued with that most horrific of crappy Japanese game-design issues - super slow text to read accompanied by the most annoying weird voice-sound thingy. It was so annoying that I eventually just decided to return the game and save my ears and my patience.
Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
wytefang wrote:
The PS2 version was the main version, if I recall correctly, Wayne R.
Either way, this was a really beautiful artistic game (and fairly fun from what little I played). Sadly it was plagued with that most horrific of crappy Japanese game-design issues - super slow text to read accompanied by the most annoying weird voice-sound thingy. It was so annoying that I eventually just decided to return the game and save my ears and my patience.
Oh well.
Very good review, btw.
Thanks! Yeah, it's a real jrpg alright! The simlish voices don't bother me at all, but pressing X to advance dialogue every other eight words is a pain. It's the only genre that can give you repetitive strain injuries in a cut-scene.
I need to re-try this game sometime when I get a chance, it was pretty darn cool (and that's HIGH praise coming from me as I normally detest many Japanese-based games).
Okami is a PS2/Wii game about the Japanese sun-god Amaterasu, incarnated as the cutest white wolf teenage girls have ever screamed “kawaaaaai” at. Ami (as he is affectionately called) has to save the world from the corruption of the evil dragon Orochi - one location at a time. Every province he visits has been marked by corruption - the scenery is drab brown and black, the trees twisted and leafless, the people are unable to think or talk coherently. Ami is here to revive the heart tree of the province and to make all of this gloom a distant memory.
The PS2 version was the main version, if I recall correctly, Wayne R.
The PS2 version came out first, but even though I had a PS2 I waited just in case it might come out on the Wii later, and I was right. A game where you paint brush strokes on the screen is really made for the Wii.
The PS2 version was the main version, if I recall correctly, Wayne R.
The PS2 version came out first, but even though I had a PS2 I waited just in case it might come out on the Wii later, and I was right. A game where you paint brush strokes on the screen is really made for the Wii.
Yeah, but everything I've heard about the Wii controls makes the PS2 version sound much more reliable. Okami should be a natural for the system, but only if well-implemented.
Edit: also... Ōkamiden is trash. I was as excited as the next fan, but it's not a good game on its own merits and it's outright insulting when placed alongside the superb original.
Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
