Okami Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Today's video game market is a stagnant one for the most part.Publishers rely on franchises and proven formulas to make their money.Meanwhile when something creative and original comes along publishers don't want to take a chance on it in fear of lousy returns on their investment.While this does make for a great business decision, it makes for poor gaming experiences.Thankfully Okami made it to fruition.

This game is reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda.The cell shaded graphics harken back to The Wind Waker, and inevitably any third person adventure game is going to merit a Zelda comparison.However, this is definitely not a Zelda clone.It merely takes the genre and builds on it to produce something extraordinary.

The gameplay is relatively simple.You can run around, fight baddies, talk to villagers, etc.The real innovation here is the use of a "paintbrush" that you activate with R1 to alter your environment.If you run up on a bridge that's broken down?No problem, activate your paintbrush and paint another one onto the landscape.Bad guy getting you down?Simple, just activate the paintbrush, draw a slash through the enemy, and he's down for the count.I've only progressed through the first hour of the game, so I have not collected all of the paintbrush techniques.But there is no doubt that the paintbrush is a big part of the game.

The graphics are nothing short of beautiful.You do a good bit of running around in this game.Fortunately it never gets old because the scenery around you is just so awesome to look at.I never thought a Ps2 game could look so good.

The story takes on the guise of Japanese folklore (I've read that the basis of this game is an actual legend, but I would assume some liberties have been taken with the story to fit the game).The story is interesting, although nothing groundbreaking (at least as far as I have progressed).Still, it is enough to keep you interested.

There are some small things that annoy me.The text comes with a gibberish voiceover (like Animal Crossing).Its bearable at first, but tends to grate on your nerves the farther along you go.The intro is about ten minutes too long, and I never found a way to skip past it or make it go faster.The big gripe I have is that there is no widescreen support, which would have made this game really shine on TVs that supported it.

This game might be the last great game on the Playstation 2. I'm happy that Capcom decided to break the industry mold and publish a title that displays a lot of creativity and beauty without it being a proven franchise.I consider this game to be in the same mold as Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus, Katamari Damacy, etc.Games that displayed a ton of creativity and were fun.Unfortunately games like this often go unnoticed by the majority of gamers and they don't sell well.Hopefully Okami will be an exception, and it needs to be if we ever want developers and publishers to release more original and "unproven" content to us.

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Product Description:
In Okami, the legendary monster Orochi has come back to life and turned the world into a veritable wasteland. Players become a wolf, an embodiment of the sun god Amaterasu -- the world lies in gamer's hands as they fight ominous beings and reclaim the earth from a curse that plagues it. It is crucial to help Amaterasu make the world a place where all living creatures can dwell once again.

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