'Okami' Brings 'Zelda' to Folklore Japan

By Connect Mason Reporter Daniel Sims

Possibly one of the most tragic stories in the game industry of how art often doesn’t sell, Clover Studio’s (Viewtiful Joe) "Okami was a critical favorite when it hit the PS2 in 2006 and was IGN.com’s game of the year that year. Sadly, it failed financially and Clover Studio was subsequently dissolved. Many gamers may tire of the ported games from other consoles that the Nintendo Wii gets, but if there’s any game deserving of a second chance on the system, it’s "Okami."

"Okami" can be thought of as a "Legend of Zelda" game painted into a folktale depiction of ancient Japan. Players take the role of Shinto sun Goddess Amaterasu, incarnated in the land of Nippon as a white wolf in order to fight demons who curse the land and to generally make people’s lives better.

What Okami excels at is creating an open world that is at once beautiful, intricate and utterly addictive.

The entire game is rendered in a toon-shaded style comprised of vibrant colors outlined by thick black lines and a stylization of everything on screen, deliberately making "Okami" look like a moving Japanese woodblock painting. In today’s age of high definition gaming and ultra-realistic graphics, "Okami’s" visuals still manage to constantly impress.

"Okami" borrows most of its game design from Zelda in that you have to explore a fairly large landscape seeking treasures and discovering puzzle-filled dungeons where bosses lurk. "Okami" emulates this better than any other game that’s tried and does it through a clever game mechanic of its own.

In order to uncover more and more of the game, players gain different God-like powers for Amaterasu and use them through a celestial brush. Using the Wii Remote in this version, players draw paint over the screen in specific symbols or patterns to create effects that let them control the elements. Drawing a circle in the sky to bring out the sun or a line across the screen to cut objects is simple and feels very direct despite the learning curve for it that exists in the Wii version.

It’s this design of gaining more abilities, using them to explore more of the ever-expanding world, and in turn discovering even more that gives "Okami" its addictive exploratory rhythm, which can easily turn 30 minutes of playing this game into several hours.

"Okami" also displays a story and world of characters that’s charmingly intelligent in its depiction of religion and traditional storytelling.

Spread out like a folktale pulling characters from all over Japanese mythology, "Okami’s" story eventually reveals a fair amount of intrigue and a wholly entertaining cast of characters, though some might not get used to how the game chooses to handle its massive amount of dialogue (which can be skipped in the Wii version).

As players use their powers to help people out from behind the scenes, those people offer their praise to the gods, which transfers into points players can use to upgrade Amaterasu’s abilities.

The only real failing in the game's design is that it’s not a very difficult game. Many of the game’s puzzles either don’t require much thought or are over-explained by extremely talkative characters. Enemies are also rather simple to defeat and the combat controls didn’t make a perfect transition to the Wii remote.

Bottom Line

"Okami" is one of those rare games that’s just too hard to put down, offering one of the most compelling experiences I’ve had in years. If you’ve never played "Okami," I suggest starting out with the Wii version for its small additions. If you already own the PS2 version, however, you won’t be missing much if you pass up on this. Either way, Okami is most deserving of this second shelf life.