The Bottom Line
Pros
- Okami is one of the best looking videogames out there
- Brings Japanese mythology to life
- Incredible levels and characters
- Lots of fun items and power-ups to collect
- Plenty of room to decide of you want to tackle every task or not
Cons
- Infrequent save points
- Goals not always clear
Description
- Graphics: 5 Both in terms of technology and art direction, Okami proves games can be beautiful
- Sound: 4.5 Features cute Simlish-esque dialog and rich, traditional Japanese music
- Control: 4 In-game controls are solid, but too many brush techniques use the same strokes
- Difficulty: 2.5 The toughest parts of Okami are its length and infrequent save points
- Gameplay: 4 Okami is extremely clever, though combat can seem repetitious at times
- Multiplayer: 0 While people may want to watch you play it, Okami is a single player game
- Online: 0 Planted firmly in ancient Japan, Okami does not understand this "internet" you speak of
- Documentation: 5 Okami comes with a serviceable manual, and it features excellent in-game docs
- Rated: Teen If you were OK with your kid watching Shrek, then you'll be OK with Okami
- All scores are out of 5. The overall rating is not an average of the above scores
Guide Review - Okami Review (PS2)
When using the brush, the camera pans back, and the game world looks like a Japanese scroll. The player then uses a traditional Japanese ink brush to draw symbols on the paper. These symbols have dramatic effects on the game world: changing day to night, cutting boulders in two, summoning wind, or creating bombs. More than a clever gimmick, the celestial brush brings a dynamic new way of interacting with platformer games, and it provides strong motivation to keep playing in order to learn new brush techniques.
The story seems to be ripped straight from Japanese mythology. On your quest to rid Nippon of an ancient curse you will have to help commoners believe in the gods again, and restore the world back to its natural beauty. And a beautiful version of Japan it is. Using a papyrus texture and cell shading, Okami rivals any current game on any system in terms of graphics.
Okami is one of those rare gems that is fun, innovative, and beautiful. I simply can't recommend it enough. My only real beef with the game is that save points are spread to far apart, but Okami is a game worth dealing with this minor hassle.
