First Impressions: Okami (PS2)

It would be a complete lie if I said I wasn’t expecting a lot from this game. From the moment I saw the first piece of artwork, I knew I had to have this game. Then, once I saw the game in motion, I starting expecting even more out of it. What was I expecting? Well, you name it. Story, gameplay, music, etc.. And so far, after playing the game for 10+ hours, I can already tell that Okami had preceded my expectations. Let me explain without giving much away.

 

The game drags you in with a story about a tale. The way that it’s presented is where nicely done. Instead of just displaying the story in a detailed 3d fmv (full motion video), or anything like the such, it goes for a simple “story telling scroll” type. The story itself may seem kind of cliche, but then again, you have to remember that the game is set in a fantasy ancient Japan. It becomes very obvious while telling the story that technology in the game is going to be absent, and what you’ll be seeing is a very lush landscape with many different environments. You can read the story at the official website here. That saves me the trouble of writing the whole story out. I also encourage you to check out the trailer, and get some of the wallpapers on that site. The wallpapers are very beautiful, and may excite you for the game as much as did to me. I will however give you the basics.

 

The main character in the game is Okami, a wolf who seems to be a decedent of a legendary wolf who saved the village 100 years ago from an evil 8-headed dragon. 100 years later, it seems that the 8-headed dragon has been let loose, and has spread evil over all the land. Thus you, Okami, and your little buggy friend must go out and rid the world of this evil, and bring back colour, nature, and life to the world. Your weapons, a magic mirror (essentially a disk that launches at enemies and used for massive damage), a paintbrush, and your fangs.

Okami running through an open field

I’ll move onto gameplay. One word about it: interesting. If you watched the trailer or seen/heard about this game before, you will know that there is a paintbrush that you use to draw lines or circles in order to advance through the game. I absolutely love this. It’s something completely original, and it works. The paintbrush comes in handy in and out of battles. Out of battles you will use it to do certain tasks like cut down a tree, or create a vine from a flower than will propel you to a whole new area. In battles, the paintbrush is used to slice up enemies, grow tall trees, and launch projectiles. The paintbrush, however has a limited ink supply, but even when you run out, it will fill back up in about 30 seconds or so. Other than the paintbrush, you also have the mirror at your side. The mirror rests on the back of Okami. It cannot be utilized out of battle, only in battle. When enemies are about, you use the medallion to attack but pressing the square button. You can follow up hitting an enemy with another square button, or you can choose the cool looking ( and cool feeling) way of pulling out the paintbrush and chopping the enemies in half. Whenever you complete a certain task, you may be given a different mirror. Each mirror you get posses a different ability. I’ve so far only received 3, but that’s because I haven’t progressed very far. Although I may have spent 10 hours on this game, I can tell you that about 7 hours have been doing other things that following the main story.

 

You see, while wandering around, I realized that there are a bunch of animals roaming around, many trees that look suspicious, and a lot of land to cover. I took it as my duty to uncover and secrets that I could possibly find. Little did I know that feeding rabbits, chopping trees and drawing circles in the sky would end up being so much fun. Throughout this world there are many side quest, but many of them are usually found by accident. For example, you can buy food of different types ( seeds, meat, herb, fish) and look around for animals. Certain animals like certain food. Give them the food, and they give you Praise points. These Praise points can be used to make your life meter larger, increase the amount of paint you use, fill up your “Astral Pouch”(which I have yet to figure out the use of), or to make your wallet bigger. Feeding animals however is not the only way to gain Praise. By talk to the people around the town, or in the fields, you may be given certain tasks, which when completed, reward you with praise points. There are many other pays to gain Praise, but most of it is random events that take place.

On the way to getting a new power

Oh, and the music is great. The instruments for the music are Japanese instruments, so don’t expect any rock and roll, hiphop or pop. But the music seems to fit the setting very well, and in some cases, it’s scary how awesome the music matches with the scene and the atmosphere. Too scary if you ask me.

This game does have some minor flaws. For example, the game seems a bit easy, but that may be because I’m not that far into it. Another problem that I sometimes have is drawing the shapes. At some points the paintings have to be a certain size in order to continue. My final problem, however, is the worst. My biggest complaint is that it’s so freakin’ addicting. Once you start getting use to the combo’s and continue with the story line, you keep going back to it. And this is horrible when you’re trying to complete a certain task in real life, such as eating breakfast, or itching an itchy spot.

Overall, this game has been a blast so far. I can tell I’m not anywhere close to finishing the game, but it looks to be an enjoyable playthrough. This game seems to be more of an interactive work of art instead of a plain old videogame. The fact that the whole game looks as if though it’s on a canvas and everything else is moving is simply an amazing effect, and the characters and worlds looks stunning. It’s an amazing package altogether, and it looks like it’s going to get even better from here on out.

Anyways, I must go back to clean the toile…play Okami for hours upon hours ’till school starts.