![]() ![]() ![]() The fearsome monster sends forth a curse that drains the life of every living thing. But 100 years later… a descendant of Nagi, Susano, disbelieves the legend and breaks Orochi’s seal. After their battle, Orochi is sealed away in the Moon Cave. A pure white wolf named Shiranui and Nagi, a great warrior, fought and defeated the eight-headed dragon Orochi, saving Kamiki Village and Nami, Nagi’s beloved. Set in folkloric Nippon (Japan), the game opens with the narration of a 100 year-old myth. While not a screenshot from Okami, the game immortalizes iconic images like this in its visuals.Īmaterasu, the Japanese female solar deity, in the form of a white wolf is the lead character referenced by the title. This visual approach drawing from art history has bled into Okami’s gameplay and the use of the Celestial Brush which allows the player to draw lines and shapes on the tv screen in order to trigger certain abilities. Taking cel-shaded graphics to the next level, Okami is a living, animated ukiyo-e woodblock print in the style of the Japanese Edo period (1600AD-1860AD) with its hard black-stroke outlines and vivid watercolors. This is largely because of Okami’s distinctive presentation. Some of its fairy tale moments might fly right over the heads of many North American gamers, to say the least, but the heart and themes of the game remain true and archetypal without coming off as trite or dispensable. Expect several trips to Wikipedia while playing Okami. ![]() Okami draws heavily from Japanese mythical history and folklore to craft its story and settings. It’s a Japanese word which means “great spirit” or “wolf”, so its a kind of wordplay. Okami translates roughly into something in English, I’m sure. Still, I would recommend getting a hold of either motion controller to get the full immersion into this watercolor world and its unconventional gameplay. It’s not much of a loss to forgo the motion controls. I had the pleasure of playing through Okami with the use of the Wii’s motion controls the first time and though I didn’t have the PlayStation Move motion controller (because I’m not a nerd) when I played the Okami HD edition, I still found it an enjoyable game nonetheless. Critical praise despite poor sales eventually resulted in Okami returning to the PlayStation, to the PS3 specifically, for an updated high-definition remaster in 2012. ![]() For only $19.99, a wondrous adventure awaits.Originally developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom, Okami was first released on the PS2 in 2006 and then to a more widespread reception on the Nintendo Wii in 2008. If you haven’t yet played this captivating, artful title, you owe yourself the service. Everything looks great, and the game still plays well. The true vision of the creators has seemingly been realized, in glorious 1080p high definition. Some PlayStation Move gripes aside, Okami HD should still be on any gamer’s purchase list. This is really the only blemish on the otherwise outstanding high-definition remaster of Okami. To top things off, you lose control of the game’s camera when using the Move. The Move helps to create more accurate paint strokes, but it isn’t nearly as satisfying as it could be. But in today’s games, such actions would likely play out in real time your paintbrush cursor would stay on-screen at all times, allowing you to slash and stroke at will, all the while maintaining immersion in the wonderful world of Nippon. When this game was created on the PlayStation 2, pausing the game mid-fight to allow you to position the cursor and draw lines/shapes made sense, and helped compensate for the sluggishness of drawing lines and shapes with an analog stick. Here’s what we had to say about the PS3 version: Most recently Capcom released Resident Evil Revelationson PlayStation 4, and Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisenwill arrive on Sony’s newest console on October 3.įor more on Okami HD, check out our review. Capcom bringing Okami HD to PS4 and Xbox One wouldn’t be surprising, as the company has ( successfully) re-released several games for the consoles. A HD remaster was then released on PlayStation 3 in 2012, but it was a digital-only title in the West. Okami was first released for PlayStation 2 in 2006, then ported to Wii in 2008. ![]()
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