Genre: Action, Adventure, Hack ‘n’ Slash
Available Platforms: PS2, PS3, Wii
Platform I played it on: PS-motherfuckin-2
Developer(s): Clover Studios (OG PS2), Ready at Dawn (Wii), HexaDrive (PS3 HD remaster)
Publisher: Capcom
So I thought I’d do something different this time around and tell you about a game I played and loved in my childhood. Let me preface the review by saying I don’t think I’m going to go into any games that aren’t available on other consoles or as HD remasters, simply because I don’t know how many people actually own PS2’s anymore. I was a kid during the PS2 generation (like I was 13 when Okami was released back in 2006). PS2 games made up my childhood, so those are the games I’ll be talking about with these “retro reviews”. That’s not to say I haven’t gone back to play shit from before my time (Pokemon, Final Fantasy and Zelda being series that come to mind instantly), because I still do that to this very day, albeit with the help of emulators because finding older consoles is ridiculous and expensive. I know, I know, the HORROR… However, PS2 games will always hold a special place in my heart because they’re where I discovered this wonderful world of gaming and they still have some of the best games ever made. With that out the way, let’s get on with it, shall we?
There a few questions you have to ask yourself before you are prepared to play Okami. Namely, “Do I love Japanese culture and mythology?” “Do I love character action games?” and “Am I prepared to play some weird shit for a very long time?” If you answered yes to all of these questions, then Okami is the game for you. It’s an action-adventure game in which you play as the Japanese sun goddess, Amaterasu, in the form of a white wolf, and set in Nippon (the Japanese name for Japan) sometime in the age of mythology, populated by characters and stories from Japanese folklore. If you’ve ever had a passing interest in Japanese myth, then this game will teach you basically everything you’ll ever need to know. The story takes concepts and characters from Japanese mythology and remixes them to suit the needs of the game and it just works out so awesomely. In a nutshell, it’s the classic tale of good vs evil, light vs darkness, nature vs corruption, but with the twist of playing as a character you normally wouldn’t get to play as in any other game and presented in the most beautifully fun way possible.
The characters are charming and endearing, from Ame herself down to her sidekick, Issun, who serves as your guide and constant companion throughout the story, all the way to the various supporting characters you encounter in this widespread yarn. There is no actual dialogue, it’s more a kind of stylized made-up language, which means there is quite a bit of reading involved. I know this might put some people off, but if you grew up on JRPG’s like I did, then you shouldn’t have a problem with it and it can be easily overlooked as you get more invested in the game and it’s story. You meet a wide variety of different characters as you progress throughout the story and can engage with them in conversation and side quests that help flesh out the world and the characters themselves. Everyone has a purpose in the game, everyone has a story to tell and it’s interesting to try and learn them all.
The gameplay is a weird mix of ideas that somehow all gel together to make for a great experience. It’s core features are combat, puzzles and platforming. Combat is done in a ghostly area that you are teleported to as soon as you encounter an enemy, much like in a JRPG game, but instead plays out kind of like a DMC or Bayonetta combat arena, complete with scoring your performance and utilizing complex strings of combos and moves to dispatch enemies. Yen and demon fangs are earned from combat, which are then used to buy a wide variety of items, such as new combat moves, unique items and new weapons. Amaterasu has 3 weapon classes available to her – Glaives (swords), Rosaries, and Reflectors (shield-like weapons) – that each have their own combat styles and moves and can be equipped as main or sub weapons on Ame to change her combat style even further. It’s a very deep system and it’s wise to experiment with the different classes in various combinations in order to find something to suit your playing preference.
Now, on to the biggest, most prominent gameplay feature of the game: the Celestial Brush. This is basically the magic of the game and the unique concept that sets this game even further apart than all the others. Basically you pause the game and call up a canvas on which you “paint” a certain pattern or symbol on the screen in order to utilize powerful brush techniques of varying uses and effects. It’s the most important feature in the game and is used in all other aspects of the gameplay, from combat, to puzzles, to just exploring the world. You can destroy enemies with their elemental weaknesses or celestial cuts, rejuvenate trees that have withered because of darkness, or use it to progress through puzzle sections by using specific elements. As you progress through the story you learn more techniques by freeing Celestial Beings from their hiding places in constellations (based on the Chinese zodiac) and by the end of the game you will have a wide range of different moves available to you to cater to every situation. It’s use is limited by special ink wells, with ink wells regenerating over time when not being used.
The art style also deserves a mention because it really sets the entire tone for the game. It’s one of the main reasons this game is so unique (along with the fact you play as a wolf goddess with the power to summon celestial brush magic bullshit, obviously) and the attention to the little details is just amazing. Little touches such as flowers blooming around your character as you walk along for example. This tiny, seemingly insignificant detail really draws you into the game and illustrates Amaterasu’s purpose and power without having to shout it at you. The game is full of stuff like this that help build the world and mythos, subconsciously increasing immersion without having to be intrusive about it. It’s just sort of there if you care to look and if you don’t care then it doesn’t matter. The art style is an interesting mix of old Japanese artwork, namely ukiyo-e (wood block prints) and water colour painting, brought to life with cel-shading. The effect is a highly stylized, unique and unbelievably beautiful animated ink illustration (known as sumi-e). To this very day, it has to be one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played.
The world is absolutely huge and the game is longer than dicks, which is nice in this world of 6 hour quick hits that we’re seeing way too often in the gaming industry. Not that I’m really complaining, because sometimes a game suffers from being too long, such as Darksiders, which really starting testing my patience and felt unnecessarily drawn out and padded, despite being like 13-14 hours long. It says something when a game like that, that’s not really THAT long in retrospect, feels padded out, yet a game like Okami can keep me engaged consistently for the entirety of its 60+ hour run. There’s much to be done in the world of Okami: from side quests, to mini games like fishing, to small little side activities like making trees bloom to restore nature areas and fight the encroaching darkness, to just exploring the vast open world presented to you. All of these activities earn you “Praise” (what with Amaterasu being a goddess after all), which is basically the game’s form of XP, used to improve your skills, such as increased health and ink wells, so there is actual incentive to go exploring off the beaten path and helping people out.
You could call it nostalgia causing me to view this game through rose-tinted glasses, but I don’t really remember having any problems. Some have to exist obviously because nothing is absolutely perfect, but nothing major springs to mind right at this moment. It can get really difficult in some places, but I normally blame that on my own general skill level. Some of the puzzles can be really obscure or just hard to actually execute once you’ve figured them out, especially when they’re time sensitive and put to test both your platforming and puzzling skills as a whole, or particularly some boss battles where you spend the majority of the battle just trying to figure out how to get to them and what brush techniques to use against them. Again though, I blame my own sucking at games in general for those kinds of instances.
Overall, Okami is just a brilliant game. One of my all time favorites to be sure. It’s creative, beautiful and just one of the best games ever made, bar none. The mix of inventive gameplay, beautiful art direction and interesting characters, setting and plot are just so lovingly put together and carefully crafted. It really is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. It is a very big investment though, at least 50-60 hours of your time, as was customary in Japanese games from the PS2 era. I highly recommend it to this day to anyone and everyone, whether you like Japanese culture and mythology or not, because it’s just a really fucking good game. You would be missing out an absolutely amazing experience by not playing it. Pick it up on PS3 for the HD “definitive” edition, or Wii and PS2 if you still own those systems and know somewhere you can still find games for them. Hell, emulate it, I don’t care! Just go and play this game. You will not regret it.
Conclusion: 5 brush strokes out of a possible 5
RANDOM MUSINGS 