Hello readers today I will do my review of one of my favorite games Okami
Okami is a game heavily based upon feudal japan.
You play as the sun god Okami Amaterasu who takes the form of a wolf and run about the huge and expansive world of Nippon Japan, killing demons and Purifying the land as you go. Now I personally believe that this one of the most creative and fun games i have ever played.
For those who do not know the game was originally on the PS2, the game was then ported to the Wii because of thousands of comments say how its gameplay would fit better on the Wii. After experiencing both platforms I would have to disagree, the PS2 was much better.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is one of the many places that this game shines brighter than a supper nova. For the most part the controls function like most action/adventure/puzzle/platformer. But the games main mechanic is downright creative, being a god you have powers over the earth. To use these powers you have the ability to pause the game and paint the paused screen with a magical ink brush as if the world is a clean piece of canvas. What this does depends on what you painted. For example : say you are fighting a monster , you have several ways to defeat him,you could defeat him the old action game way and hit him till he falls down OR you could pause the game Paint a line on him and unpause the game causing the enemy to be sliced in half, or you could even paint circle with a line in it to create a bomb and blow the demon into the upper stratosphere. The mechanic is fun creative and very satisfying to use
GRAPHICS
The visual style of the game is based upon the woodcut painting style of the 1700's in japan. I have to say that this art style fit the games main mechanic perfectly, and isn't shy with the use of color. All the characters you meet are somewhat cartoony,quirky, and unique, each with their own defining feature. the landscapes are huge and out right beautiful. This game can be so beautiful that there was a specific scene that (much to my discontent ) Brought my dad near to tears because how gorgeous it was. COMPARISON: The PS2 version had some what duller colors than the Wii, the Wii also has widescreen, something that the last generation console can't do. But the Wii is lacking a specific paper filter that contributed to the visual style,Wii Wins this round.
Okami is a game heavily based upon feudal japan.
You play as the sun god Okami Amaterasu who takes the form of a wolf and run about the huge and expansive world of Nippon Japan, killing demons and Purifying the land as you go. Now I personally believe that this one of the most creative and fun games i have ever played.
For those who do not know the game was originally on the PS2, the game was then ported to the Wii because of thousands of comments say how its gameplay would fit better on the Wii. After experiencing both platforms I would have to disagree, the PS2 was much better.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is one of the many places that this game shines brighter than a supper nova. For the most part the controls function like most action/adventure/puzzle/platformer. But the games main mechanic is downright creative, being a god you have powers over the earth. To use these powers you have the ability to pause the game and paint the paused screen with a magical ink brush as if the world is a clean piece of canvas. What this does depends on what you painted. For example : say you are fighting a monster , you have several ways to defeat him,you could defeat him the old action game way and hit him till he falls down OR you could pause the game Paint a line on him and unpause the game causing the enemy to be sliced in half, or you could even paint circle with a line in it to create a bomb and blow the demon into the upper stratosphere. The mechanic is fun creative and very satisfying to use
GRAPHICS
The visual style of the game is based upon the woodcut painting style of the 1700's in japan. I have to say that this art style fit the games main mechanic perfectly, and isn't shy with the use of color. All the characters you meet are somewhat cartoony,quirky, and unique, each with their own defining feature. the landscapes are huge and out right beautiful. This game can be so beautiful that there was a specific scene that (much to my discontent ) Brought my dad near to tears because how gorgeous it was. COMPARISON: The PS2 version had some what duller colors than the Wii, the Wii also has widescreen, something that the last generation console can't do. But the Wii is lacking a specific paper filter that contributed to the visual style,Wii Wins this round.
SOUND
The games sound track is outstanding and perfectly fits the setting of the game. The soundtrack really has that traditional japanese feel with instrumental choice of drums, flutes, and warrior shouts in the background during intense battles. Averagely the songs are mellow, and very atmospheric so it is beautiful but they're not tunes that will stick in your head not to say that there aren't frenzied and fast paced tunes that really get you in the mood to play. All characters communicate to you through text and speak in a sort of gibberish, and at most times it works but there are a few characters that sound annoying if you listen to them for to long unfortunately one of those characters is your sidekick, the the most talkative character in the game, and it gets annoying pretty quick! Examples
STORY
Like almost every part of this game it heavily dipped in te japanese theme the story itself harbors several monsters and characters from japanese myths and legends Such as the terrible 8 headed serpent Orochi. The game starts as a narrator describes a myth that occurred 100 years before the beginning of the story describing a village tormented by a monster that was eventually defeated by a warrior and a white wolf
though the wolf died at the end of the battle the white wolf actually turned out to be the sun god Amatarasu in the form of the . The village enjoyed 100 years of peace until one day the monster is revived and threatens to throw the world into darkness. The wolf god is then revived and with its sidekick a glowing bug named Issun set off to purify the land, Defeat Evil, and reacquire Amaterasu's lost powers.
LEARNING CURVE
This game is filled with various bosses and puzzles that will give you some moderate challenge. More often than not, solutions to puzzles are often telegraphed by either suggestive camera views or your little bug sidekick talking to you stating the obvious and having the vague solution to the puzzle in red font never leaving you completely stuck, it's less about knowing what to do and actually doing it. I actually found the combat more challenging, the game scores you on your battles how much you got hit and the time it took to win the fight at the end of the game depending on how well you did you get extras. So you experiment with new weapon combinations or new brush techniques to make the fight end faster. So all in all the difficulty keeps you moderately challenged throughout the game.
CONTROL SCHEME
COMPARISON: This is actually the greatest difference between the two platforms In the PS2 the paint brush moves at a somewhat slow pace compared to some of the fast pace fighting gameplay, but the game almost always recognizes what you drew, the Wii it's the opposite the motion sensing Wiimote makes the painting much quicker to pull off, but at times it can be very difficult for it to register what you want it to do this is inexcusable especially since this gameplay was the main reason the game was ported in the first place and it could have been done so much better. The controls of the camera also differ in the PS2 the camera is controlled by the second analog stick wich for the most part works, but in the wii version you have no control of the camera unless you pause the game to pull off a brush stroke and move the analog stick for the most part this isn't a problem but it can lead to some awkward camera views. Dodging and attacking while buttons on the PS2 correspond to either shaking the wiimote or numchuck the dodging is unreliable in the wii version but not essential to beat the game.Attack wise the main difference you'll see is that you'll select different weapons from the PS2 because of how the control sceme works.
CONCLUSION
Controls aside this game is a testament to originality and creativity in video games and regardless of platforms This game will make a nice addition to your Wii or PS2 library
This game gets 5 howls into the moon light out of 5
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