GamerNode: Reviews - Okami

Okami

• Okami
• PlayStation 2
• Clover Studio
• Capcom
• September 19th, 2006

Hideki Kamiya may be the best video game creator you've never heard of. As the creator of titles such as Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry, Kamiya has been responsible for many classic video games in recent years. But for all of his success, he is rarely mentioned in the same sentence as the Miyamotos and Kojimas of the gaming industry. With Okami, that may finally change.

Let me start off by saying this: Okami will change how you look at gaming. Over the last couple of years, critics in other forms of entertainment have constantly challenged video games, claiming that they had no right to consider the games themselves as art. People in all forms of the industry took offense to this, and it began an intellectual debate between them-can video games be considered an art form?

Okami should go a long way towards helping prove that games can, in fact, be art. The visuals in the game transcend anything done before in gaming, making it a truly enjoyable experience to watch, and play. Based off the style of traditional Eastern paintings, Okami creates a world unique with its watercolor-like environments, and creatures brought to life with vivid colors and inspired design. The graphics will easily be the first thing you notice when you see Okami, and even if you never play video games, you should recognize that these aren't the types of graphics you'd see in any other title. There's really no other way to describe the visual aspect of Okami other than saying it's like playing with a moving painting.

Even though you'll most likely be drawn in by the incredible artwork, the gameplay itself is the true selling point. Okami features one of the most unique interfaces ever seen in a video game: the Celestial Brush. Controlling this brush is rather simple (hold the R1 trigger to enter painting mode [which makes the world look like parchment], and use square or triangle to draw using the onscreen brush), but I can't even begin to describe how much this simple action changes the game.

Throughout your journey, you'll find thirteen brush gods, all of whom give Amaterasu (Okami's main character) a new technique for the Celestial Brush. These techniques include actions like cutting objects in half with a quick slash, making trees grow out of the ground with a dot, changing night to day with a circle or crescent, creating a cherry bomb and more; the list goes on and on. While one might expect some of these actions to be detrimental the gameplay experience by making it too bogged down and complicated-or by turning the game into a gimmick-fest-each brush action has its own advantages, and situations where it's needed to progress past a certain point. Not only will the brush be used to solve story-advancing puzzles, but you'll also need it to perform simple actions, like cutting obstacles and making plants bloom.

It's hard to describe the experience of playing Okami and using the Celestial Brush, because there's really nothing to which it compares. In a day and age where sequels reign supreme and gimmicks are often created only to add depth to dull gameplay, it's truly refreshing to see a game take a new idea, and pull it off this well. If I had one complaint about the brush, it's that a lot of the actions will become repetitive, since they're almost all lines or circles. Since you're controlling the movements with the analog stick, I can understand why Clover would want to keep the actions fairly simplistic (the game is designed for all ages), but it would be nice to have had some more complicated techniques you could perform with the brush.

Even without the Celestial Brush, Okami would be a great game. That's in part thanks to the wonderful story, and the way the story unfolds. In the beginning, you're told the tale of the warrior Nagi and his home, Kamiki village. Every year a festival is held, and during this festival the village must sacrifice a maiden to the horrific eight-headed dragon Orochi. When Nagi's beloved is chosen as the sacrifice, he heads to Orochi's lair to confront the beast. Shiranui (a white wolf who the townspeople suspect is working with Orochi) shows up during their battle, and together the wolf and the warrior defeat Orochi-but at the cost of their own lives. The game starts off 100 years later, when someone has managed to awaken the slain Orochi. Sakuya-the village's guardian spirit-heads to the shrine dedicated to the brave white wolf Shiranui, and brings the statue to life. This ends up being Amaterasu, a sun goddess resurrected in wolf form.

From there you begin your quest. Amaterasu is quickly paired with a tiny artist named Issun. The two make for one of the most entertaining teams in gaming. Being a wolf, Amaterasu can't talk-so Issun does the talking for her. However, Amaterasu manages to convey her feelings and emotions through wonderfully designed animations that would make any actor proud. At times, someone will be giving an incredibly important piece of exposition to the pair, only to have Amaterasu roll over and begin to sleep. That type of detail truly shows off the character's personality, and make the gameplay even more enjoyable. Along your journey you'll meet a venerable host of other unique personalities, ranging from Tao masters to spirits to bumbling wannabe warriors. All characters can be tied to the narrative, and all have personalities and actions unique to them.

Once you leave Kamiki village, you'll explore the fields outside of the town in order to discover just what's going on. While you explore areas, you're able to interact with NPCs, solve puzzles using brush strokes you'll learn later on, and fight with demons. The fight sequences themselves are structured in a unique way-each time you see a floating scroll, it signifies that a monster is present. If you touch the scroll, the game will quickly cut to a smaller boxed-in arena, where you'll battle the creatures. Upon defeating them, the boundaries vanish, and you'll be back in the outside world.

During the fights, you'll notice that the actions you can perform change. While adventuring, pressing the square button will tackle, and triangle will dig. Once you enter a fight, however, square becomes the primary attack, and triangle is the secondary action. These change, depending on which two holy artifacts (weapons) you have equipped at the time. Each weapon has a unique function for either the main or sub equipment slot, allowing you to customize what Amaterasu is capable of. For example, some weapons belong in the disc category. When equipped primarily, you'll swing these at your opponent, causing decent damage. If you have a disc on the secondary slot, however, it will act as a shield, blocking all attack from the front. Other weapons include objects such as prayer beads, which act as a whip when equipped in the primary slot, and give you the ability to use the ink gun when in the secondary spot. Weapons in Okami can be found by completing quests, and a few can be purchased at markets later in the game. I won't spoil too much for you, but let me tell you this: some of the weapons are so stunning visually, you'll want to use them just to look at them-even if others are far superior, statistically speaking.

Sadly, the normal fights in Okami are incredibly easy, and pose almost no threat at all. Since you don't get anything but money and the rare item out of winning a fight, there's also no real reason for you to get into them. After a while, you may find yourself trying to avoid the enemies, because they simply aren't worth the time.

There's one other issue I had with the fights-sometimes it's hard to draw brush strokes on monsters. The way the brush aspect of the game is created, you won't be able to use two skills at once. Due to this, if a monster is close to (or touching) another one, trying to perform a simple slash on them may bleed into the second opponent. This will cover the demon in ink, rather than deliver the intended action. Because fights are easy, this will rarely cost you the fight. It is increasingly frustrating as the enemies become larger and more numerous, however.

On the other hand, boss fights are incredible. Like in the Zelda series, each boss requires solving a puzzle whilst fighting in order to beat it. For example, you may need to find out how to make a boss lose its armor before you can attack a vulnerable portion of its body. Often, this requires strategic use of brush strokes in conjunction with your normal attacking. Of course, with a game like Okami you'd expect the bosses to make a huge impact visually, and they do. Most of them tower over Amaterasu, and some of them fill up entire rooms. With bosses so awesome, you'll probably end up wishing that there were more of them. The first boss (which is, of course, a giant spider) may be very easy to defeat, but don't let that lessen your spirits-spider bosses are traditionally the cannon fodder for beginning players in games.

Since Okami is an adventure game, fighting is only part of the equation. Most of the time you'll be running around, solving puzzles and looking for hints on what to do next (the first few hours of the game are almost ridiculously simple, so if you find yourself finding it too obvious, wait it out). In this respect, Okami does extremely well, again having the same impact as the best titles of the Zelda series. Clover did add a nice feature in allowing Amaterasu's running speed to increase as you pick up momentum. This allows you to avoid enemies when you don't wish to fight, and it also makes long journeys fun. While not on the level of a racing game, running through Okami's world can be entertaining, and the visuals which surround you easily make each and every journey worthwhile and awe-inspiring.

To go along with the lengthy main quest (which will take 40 hours or so to complete), there are also a large number of sidequests and minigames you can complete. These range from the standard "I can't find my son!" quests to more ridiculous ones, like a tulip-digging contest. You'll find most of these sidequests and minigames while exploring areas and talking to NPCs. While not integral to the main story, I highly recommend talking to all of the NPCs you spy in Okami-the dialogue can be incredible, and the interactions with the various characters are really wonderful.

If there is one complaint I have about the game (other than fighting normal enemies being nearly pointless), it's that at times the game can be too easy. It's not a huge complaint, since the game is a title casual gamers and hardcore gamers alike can enjoy, but it would have been nice to have more difficulty in the end of the game, which would truly make you feel like you accomplished something epic. As it stands, there's just no real moment in Okami where you can sit back and say to yourself, "Wow, I can't believe I finally figured that one out!" Don't get me wrong, the game is thoroughly rewarding. But, for the extremely hardcore gamers out there, Okami may not pose much of a challenge. Thankfully, the gameplay, art and story are more than enough to hold your interest, even if the game is often on the simple side.

In the beginning of the game, I also grew agitated at the sounds characters would make while talking. Due to the space already taken on the disc-and the nature of the game itself-it's not surprising that Clover opted to leave out voiceovers for Okami. Instead, when a character talks they emit an annoying gibberish-like sound. For the first few hours of the game, you'll find yourself turning the sound down whenever a character begins to speak. Strangely, though, there's a point in the game where you just don't care anymore. In fact, you begin to like it. I can't even remember when this change took place in me, but looking back, I can't imagine the game without the strange sounds during the dialogue.

In the end, Okami is a truly great game, and one people have rightfully anticipated for a long time. With the PS2's days winding down, and the focus moving to next gen, the console deserves a hit. The unique visuals, engrossing gameplay and the incredible plot make for a truly wondrous experience, and is something you won't soon forget. Over the last few years there have been several great games, but none have made as large of an impact on me as Okami has. The way Hideki Kamiya managed to intertwine a new form of visuals, a new gameplay mechanism and an incredible environment (including some very well-scored music) is sure to turn some heads in the non-gaming world. Who knows, maybe Okami will finally be able to persuade a certain critic out there that video games can be artwork, too.

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