Mystical and cheery are words I’d use to describe Capcom’s new PS2 adventure: “Okami.”
The player journeys into the quaint world of Japanese Shinto and folklore, playing not as a warrior or hero, but as a god. And what’s better, you’re in the form of a white wolf: sun god Amaterasu.
You can dig, bark, carry things in your mouth and save the world, or at least Japan. Amaterasu was killed when killing the eight-headed monster Orochi in legend. But Orochi has been unleashed again, and Amaterasu must regain her powers and bring peace back into a land swept by demons.
For this review I also consulted video game connoisseur Nathan Dalton, computer science major at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Let’s start with the obvious: the graphics. Gamespot.com gave them a 10. No matter what perspective you find — for you can control the camera — it all looks like a Japanese woodblock painting. When you look at the sky, you can clearly see there is a scroll texture overlaying all the graphics. Screen borders resemble the borders of painted hanging scrolls. The game is always a bright, beautiful painting, including little marks for blowing wind, flames, water, etc. The sun is a clear example of the painted style. These graphics are also highly advanced.
“The draw distance is practically infinite and yet the frame rate generally stays high enough that you don’t ever notice it,” Dalton said. He said even from a great height and distance, the player will appreciate the rendering of locations far away.
The Celestial Brush is how the player taps Amaterasu’s godly powers. Pressing R1 anytime freezes whatever and whoever is on the screen (including you), and it all becomes your canvas. Paint a line across monsters to slash them. Paint a circle around a dead tree, and it comes to life. Paint a circle in the sky, it becomes the sun. Paint lily pads in water and then create wind to push you along. Draw a circle with a line coming out of it, and you get a bomb. Of course, you’ll need ink to use it, but it refills automatically.
It certainly makes sense that a god would have powers like this: to paint upon reality events and to create, and it is simply one of the game’s most fun aspects.
Battles take place when you run into a floating demon scroll/talisman. The scroll transports you to another dimension, where you are encased to fight with demons. This also makes sense, since the demons do not exist on the plane of the reality people see. In addition, it makes battles optional.
“I would say that the battle sequences are fantastic, and it’s largely due to the variety that gets thrown in because of the brush techniques,” Dalton said. “Everything seems to be so frantic and chaotic, but you know what’s going on and what you’re going to do next … I’d say the battle sequences are my favorite aspect of the gameplay.”
Common battles only bring you practice, yen and some items. It does not win you EXP or anything like it. It is fun as well as smart to fight and practice for the bosses, though.
Instead of experience, Amaterasu collects Praise (appropriate, isn’t it?). You use Praise to build your powers. Feeding animals (which is cute and makes me happy to watch) with different feed bags, bringing dead plants back to life and helping people brings you Praise. You can help people, for example, by painting a waterwheel to restore it or finding a child’s lost dog.
“Okami” is filled with characters who are fun to talk to. The game is full of towns and villages. There is no speech, only written dialogue. Amaterasu doesn’t speak, but of course she has a companion to do the talking: Issun, a fairy sprite that seems to live in our wolf’s fur like a flea. He is reminiscent of Navi from “Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”
In fact, much of the game is like the Zelda series, in that you have a defined set of abilities that need gaining. You will often remember things you cannot access and then get something you need and go back to it.
If all this sounds good, you’ll be pleased to know the game doesn’t cut itself short like many others in the genre. Thirty hours is an average completion time. It might take longer.
“It’s … full of small little side quests, absolutely chock full,” Dalton said. “These side quests are optional.” But they only expand the main, important task.
“It feels like a pretty large-scale quest,” Dalton said. “You feel like you’re doing something very important.”
The standard answer about the downside of the game on Web sites and among gamers is that it is too easy.
“I think the game’s quite easy,” Dalton said. “I don’t think I have been killed in the game yet … 16 hours in, I don’t think I’ve died.”
Gamers should hardly mind in a game of such brilliant artistry. The easiness makes it all the more whimsical. “Okami” has a way of cheering you up. When you run, flowers appear in your wake, as they do when you jump and land. You go about restoring, not destroying; you create and heal. If I had small children, I would let them play “Okami” as much as they wanted.
Grade: A
