Last Update: 1/10/08
Okami
"Okami is based on the Japanese legend of the sun god, Amaterasu, whom you control throughout the game in the form of a white wolf. A truly epic journey awaits this wolf, who wields divine power quite literally as an artist wields a brush. Despite its unusual premise and other unique qualities, Okami is in many ways a textbook action adventure game. It takes its cues from the Legend of Zelda series in particular and achieves similarly outstanding results. Much like in those games, in Okami you'll traverse a vast countryside filled with intrigue, meet a variety of interesting characters, delve into dungeons chock-full of various traps and fearsome-looking creatures, and become more and more powerful as you go. All the while, Okami's stunning good looks give it the appearance of a cross between a cartoon and a traditional Japanese ink-and-watercolor painting, and perhaps best of all, the game keeps going and going for much longer than most other games like it." Release Date: 9/19/2006
Publisher: None/Unknown
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Bottom Line: Fantastic game. Play it even if you have to borrow a friend's PS2. At first glance, Okami looks kind of like an art house movie, with its weird visual style and unusual subject matter. Okami's unorthodox aspects only add to its appeal and enhance nearly every aspect of the game.
Stunning graphical style gives extra live to vibrant characters - and for a game where there is not a single spoken word (at least, not in any human language), that's impressive. All the interaction is done through text, but each character has its own "voice" - a series of burbling chirps that lends each NPC its own character. It's a bit weird for the first couple hours of gameplay, but after that you can practically hear what they're saying without reading the text. These characters are more expressive and empathic with their non-language than most games' NPCs are with full-on voice acting. The plot is also truly epic - by the time you defeat what you thought was the final boss of the game, you realize that you're less than halfway done. Timeless themes and morals are brought forth over the course of the game. Their presentation is a bit heavy-handed at times, but the game's earnestness and sheer heartwarming power more than compensate. This game made me tear up more than once, and with the exception of Homeworld is the only game to accomplish that. Ever. If there is any weakness in the game, it's that the combat is pretty darn easy, right up to the end of the game. Once you key into the celestial paintbrush mindset, you can defeat pretty much any boss the first time through without too much frustration. That said, combat is never boring, just easy, though fighting a few of the more common enemies is repetitive at times. This might put some off, but like I said above, Okami's other features make it a must-play. Learning Curve: Instant!
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