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It's Wolflux again, here to review Õkami for you all.
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Okami is epic action adventure game that goes into the same house as the Legend of Zelda games. And like Zelda, it isn't a surprise that the game throws you puzzling challenges. Puzzles and having to think is just something to expect from this genre of games.



Indexation:

1. General
1.1 Graphical feats
1.2 Gameplay - Easy or not?
1.3 Music

2. Story
2.1 Short review
2.2 Plot development * Spoilers! *

3. Overall
3.1 Short summary
3.2 Ratings
3.3 Why should you not buy the game? Why should you do it?

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1. General

1.1 Graphical Feats

Õkami means wolf, and the name of the game couldn't be more fitting. The moment you begin the game, you are met by outstanding quality of the graphic. Seamlessly integrated, Clover Studios have managed to create living art. Õkami is know for being the game that silenced the critics who claimed "Video games will never be art."
From the moment you enter the game, you are free to interact with the world as you wish. A common mistake in any game is that the environments are too consistent; you cannot alter it in any way by gameplay. Have you ever played a Shoot'em-up game, and wondered why the heck that box wouldn't blow up when you hit it with your bullets? Õkami is not like that. You start the game without any brush techniques at all, apart from the Sunrise. Nearly everything in the game reacts to what you do. Do you want to slice a rock? Sure; just draw a straight line over it once you have the right technique, and voilá. You can even cause great confusion, or great happiness to the NPC's all around the world.
In short, you are playing inside a living painting, where the world is yours to change. Grow trees that harm your enemies, or flowers to please a maiden.


1.2 Gameplay - Easy or not?
The gameplay is the only part of Õkami that fails, even if just a little. While not very hard to learn, it is quite advanced and requires a lot of thinking; in my eyes, this is both negative and positive.
When you are fighting demons, you are often forced to use your brush techniques to unleash your wrath upon them. However, it is not always that simple. Because the Celestial Brush is controlled by your controller's joystick, accuracy is greatly reduced, and it can not always succeed when you are hurling Cherry Bombs at your enemies. In addition, Õkami have three to four very difficult obstacles, called "Blockheads". The two first are rather easy, but the third forces you to hit its six weak spots, while the last one forces you to hit EIGHT. The average human can only remember seven things simultaneously. However, there is a way to get past this Blockhead without ever breaking it. For a more detailed explanation, go here: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=15031

[EDIT]:


1.3 Music
The best part of the game is when you stand before an epic battle and hear the music coming to you. A beautiful composition of classic Japanese instruments, orchestral drums and 190-beats leaves you in pure awe after playing. Much work has been put into the composition of Õkami's music, and it was worth every Yen spent.
The emotions the music is able to summon forth is only a testament to the quality and seamless integration. In battle you heard a fast-paced music like the one I described above, and in the field the music takes you on an epic journey into the game world.
The absolutely best part of the game is during the last few scenes, where the most epic music is played. It's definitely something you do not want to miss out on ;].

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2. Story


2.1 Short review
The story of Õkami is basically revolving around Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess trapped in a Wolven body. The people of Kamiki, and the rest of Nippon have all lost their faith in the Gods, and thus weakening her power. However, Amaterasu starts her journey by giving new life to the saplings that have been cursed. Together with Issun, she travels all over Nippon, restoring peace, harmony and faith wherever she goes.



2.2 Plot development * Contains spoilers! *

2nd last warning; do not read on if you do not want parts of the game spoiled!



Last warning; do not read on if you do not want parts of the game spoiled!






The plot starts out with telling the story of Kamiki and the great dragon Orochi, where Amaterasu in her wolven form fought valiantly against the dragon, and lost. Her rescuer was a legendary warrior that summoned great power to his blade and defeated Orochi. Amaterasu had been poisoned, however, and didn't have long left, and ultimately, she died. In her honor, the people raised a statue of her.
A hundred years later, Sakuya, the wood-sprite, gave life to the statue again, and Amaterasu (hereby referred to as "Ammy") was reborn. Issun then jumps out of Sakuya's robes, and jumps around.

The development following this introduction goes slowly, and as you enter the Moon Cave to fight against Orochi for the first time, you will most probably have over ten hours played (* Note: You are not done yet, there is still approx. 30 hours left of the game on one play-through without the side quests. *). Inside of the Moon Cave, you will eventually find yourself becoming the Chef's courier; gathering ingredients for Orochi's appetizer is what you ought to be doing. When you have done this, you will see Orochi for the first time, and engage him. During the fight, use Waterspout on the sakè and move it to one of Orochi's eight heads if it has its mouth open. Get three of them drunk, then you can do some damage. After victory, Kumi (can't quite remember the name) is saved by Susano (descendant wannabe Hero like Nagi) who carries her away and they fall in love.
But it's not over yet; there are still parts of Nippon that needs to be explored, and you will find yourself going to a beach area, that eventually leads you to Oni Island, where you need to exorcise various demons, and fight the Nine-tailed Fox in order to complete. However, there are still a few more demons to exorcise, but let's not go into detail of those (as I can't remember their names).

Well, I'm not going to spoil much more here. Anyhow; plot development is slow, but great graphics and decent gameplay makes up for it. And besides, who says you can't use your powers for some evil fun? >:]



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3. Overall


3.1 Short summary

The graphics of the game is great and allows for seamless immersion. You can change almost whatever you like in the game environment with your Celestial Brush.
The gameplay is not-so-great. Easy to learn, but in the long run, Celestial Brush techniques becomes a bit hard to do because of reduced accuracy.
Music is wonderful.
The plot is well-made, but development goes slow. However, there are still a lot of things to do other than to develop the plot, which makes up for this.


3.2 Ratings

Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Music: 10/10
Difficulty: 7/10 whereas 10 is the hardest. Requires a lot of thinking, and a good memory to play without problems.
Plot: 10/10, but slow-moving.
Entertainment: 10/10
Humor: 8/10

Overall: 9.3/10


3.3 Why should you not buy the game? Why should you do it?

Five reasons you shouldn't buy the game:

1. If you dislike playing games with wolves in them.
2. Don't like thinking.
3. Want the plot to progress fast.
4. Being impatient won't get you any further in this game.
5. Don't like art and accuracy.

Five reasons you should buy it? The opposite of the above ;]

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That concludes this review. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed making it.


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This is Rusty the Fox's review of the Wii version of Õkami!


Because the Wii version of Okami is a port of the PS2 game, I won't be touching the things that have stayed the same, such as the story. My main focus will be the differences between the two, and boy there are a lot.

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The first is the visuals. The PS2 game had a filter that gave everything on screen a parchment texture and washed out the colors. Being that the art style of Okami is based off of Japanese woodblock and watercolor paintings, the paper filter added the sense that you're watching a living painting. In the Wii version the filter is still there but not as pronounced. Because of this the colors are very vivid, making the game more beautiful than it originally was. Add wide-screes support to the mix of the Wii version, and you have a stunning game. Fortunately, that is the case.
Who wins?
The Wii version. I know it's an opinion, but I would much rather have a bright, beautiful game with wide-screen support than a fully pronounced paper filter that washes out the color and without wide-screen support.

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Now the major topic: controls, the main thing fans hammered Capcom with and what eventually made the Wii version of Okami a reality.
Do they work? Yes. And no. Like many things, there are pros and cons about the new controls.

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Starting with the brush. In the Wii version of the game you hold the B button to call the canvas up and the A button to draw with the brush. That's the same as the R1 and Square buttons on the PS2 controller. The real difference is the use of the pointing function of the Wiimote versus the control stick on the PS2 controller. With the Wiimote you get speed and fluid movement because of the natural feel of the "brush" on you hand.
The problem comes from the brush's accuracy at registering shapes for the the different brush techniques. A simple line for the power slash may not be too much of a problem because there is an aid function on the Z button that restricts brush movements to straight lines, but drawing circles for some of the techniques can be a real pain. You'll have to redraw quite often to get the ability to work. Fortunately, this problem shrinks down and possibly goes away the more you play because you'll be getting practice with the brush.
Who wins?
OK, maybe this goes more to personal opinion on learning curbs. If you don't mind the increase of on the learning curb for the brush, the Wii version is for you. If you get frustrated easily and don't have enough patience to learn the new brush, you'd better stick to the PS2 version.
But my final word is that the Wii version wins over the PS2. Why? Because with enough practice you can become really fast with the brush, which in turn increases the pace of the game (especially in battle) and you'll get more fun out of it. Amaze your friends with you're incredible brush work! Heck, you can as fast or maybe faster that the few characters who also have the bush ability you have.

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The next control aspect I'd like to touch on is the use of your combat weapons and the use of the Fleetfoot dodge.

In the PS2 you use two buttons to use your weapons, the Square button for your main and the Triangle button for your sub. In the Wii version you use a waggle motion of the Wiimote for your main and the Z button on the Nunchuk for your sub. The waggle motion in Okami is similar to that of the waggle motion in Zelda: Twilight Princess but you need to swing it a little wider to get it to register. Not much of problem, right? Wrong. See, in order to really deal damage to your enemy you have to perform weapon combos, and in order to do that you have to time your swings. The problem is that you have to somewhat precise with your timing; you can lose your whole combo by being slightly off. That's more to the learning curb. But it does get frustrating when your have to restart the combo when you could of finished off an enemy if only you didn't screw up with your first combo.

The Fleetfoot ability is a dodge that you can learn in the game's Dojo. It's a useful ability and all you have to do to use it is press the R2 button on the PS2 controller and the direction you want to go on the control stick. On the Wii, both of those two inputs are reduced to a waggle of the Nunchuk in the direction you want to dodge to. That's where the problem lies. While the game detects that you want to dodge with a waggle of the Nunchuk, it doesn't have an easy time detecting the specific direction. It's still a useful ability if you don't mind a random direction that the game thinks you want to dodge to, just as long as you get out of harms way, right? If Read-at-Dawn studios had just given the R2 button function to the waggle of the Nunchuk and left the direction to the control stick, using the Fleetfoot ability wouldn't feel like such a gimmick.
Who Wins?
The PS2 version. Simply, the Wii controls for weapons add a learning curb that you shouldn't have to face, and thing with the Fleetfoot ability is unfortunate.

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The Showdown
Which is the the version you should get?
My recommendation is the Wii version because, for me at least, I got more fun out of it and in turn enjoyed more that the PS2 version. But in reality it doesn't matter because both of them are superior games. I can't make the decision for you so ask yourself what you want.
I'll leave youwith something to think about: If a sequel were to come for Okami, what system is the most practical and obvious for Capcom to put the new game?

It's a OK review you have there, Wolflux.

I would like to make some points that otherwise could mislead people.

1. When you explained the plot and getting to the point where Ammy fights Orochi, you said that that was about 10 hours in. The misleading part is that Ammy died fighting Orochi in the pre-game story, so readers would think that's the main, most important objective. I'm just going to say to the readers not to worry; the game is at least 30 to 40 hours long on one play-through without the side quests.

2. Using the brush isn't as inaccurate as you make it sound.
While the screen is frozen with the brush canvas, you can use the right control stick to move the camera about to the right angle to get the most from your brush strokes.
The cherry bomb might is harder to use efficiently than the other brush techniques, that's true.
Try using the cherry bomb technique with the camera angle rally high. That way you can place it in the desired spot.

That's it for those.
I'd like to say some general information about the game that you left out. Just one:
1. Okami is epic action adventure game that goes into the same house as the Legend of Zelda games. And like Zelda, it isn't a surprise that the game throws you puzzling challenges. Puzzles and having to think is just something to expect from this genre of games.

That should clear things quick enough.

Now, overall, your review is Ok; agree with it part ways.

I think your gameplay score is like two to three points too low. My reason: you're criticizing on aspects of the game that are almost staple to that genre. As I said before about adventure games, expect to get hit with puzzles and thinking challenges because that's part of the adventure side of the game.
Now, if the puzzles or a game mechanic, say the combat system, were broken, hack-n-slash at it all you want.
Frankly, the Blockhead challenges are not broken to any point, they're just hard.

Which brings me to your difficulty score. The game is challenging, don't get me wrong, specifically during bossfights. The puzzles on the other hand are OK in difficulty but they are easier than they appear because Issun and other characters will do a lot of hand-holding through them.

And that's it.
Your Graphics score, with the game's beautiful, Japanese woodblock and watercolor painting inspired, cel-shaded art style, it dead on.
The Music score is also perfect. I mean, come on, it has to be good if all the songs were released on a 5-disk OST.
And the rest of 'em are good too.

Oh, and a final note: WAIT a bit before you head out to by this game. At least until April 15 or 16 because the Wii version of Okami is being released. Wolflux's review of PS2 Okami could be use for the Wii version because it is the same game. BUT the brush is mapped to the IR feature of the Wiimote which fixes the speed issue with the brush on PS2 and make the whole experience playing the game batter.

Thanks for the response, Rusty. I will make the necessary changes (and thanks for pointing them out <3).

You are right that the gameplay and difficulty scores may be a bit off, but I will stay with those opinions ;]

Edit: From my experience, you can also not stay in the Celestial Brush-mode for more than a minute, or so. It's a bit of a pain that I can't remember.


EDIT 2: When the Wii version of Õkami comes out, feel free to make a separate review of it that isn't covered by mine, and I will add it to my first post (with credits).

Now for my take with the Wii version of Okami.

Because the Wii version of Okami is a port of the PS2 game, I won't be touching the things that have stayed the same, such as the story. My main focus will be the differences between the two, and boy there are a lot.

----------

The first is the visuals. The PS2 game had a filter that gave everything on screen a parchment texture and washed out the colors. Being that the art style of Okami is based off of Japanese woodblock and watercolor paintings, the paper filter added the sense that you're watching a living painting. In the Wii version the filter is still there but not as pronounced. Because of this the colors are very vivid, making the game more beautiful than it originally was. Add wide-screes support to the mix of the Wii version, and you have a stunning game. Fortunately, that is the case.
Who wins?
The Wii version. I know it's an opinion, but I would much rather have a bright, beautiful game with wide-screen support than a fully pronounced paper filter that washes out the color and without wide-screen support.

----------

Now the major topic: controls, the main thing fans hammered Capcom with and what eventually made the Wii version of Okami a reality.
Do they work? Yes. And no. Like many things, there are pros and cons about the new controls.

----------

Starting with the brush. In the Wii version of the game you hold the B button to call the canvas up and the A button to draw with the brush. That's the same as the R1 and Square buttons on the PS2 controller. The real difference is the use of the pointing function of the Wiimote versus the control stick on the PS2 controller. With the Wiimote you get speed and fluid movement because of the natural feel of the "brush" on you hand.
The problem comes from the brush's accuracy at registering shapes for the the different brush techniques. A simple line for the power slash may not be too much of a problem because there is an aid function on the Z button that restricts brush movements to straight lines, but drawing circles for some of the techniques can be a real pain. You'll have to redraw quite often to get the ability to work. Fortunately, this problem shrinks down and possibly goes away the more you play because you'll be getting practice with the brush.
Who wins?
OK, maybe this goes more to personal opinion on learning curbs. If you don't mind the increase of on the learning curb for the brush, the Wii version is for you. If you get frustrated easily and don't have enough patience to learn the new brush, you'd better stick to the PS2 version.
But my final word is that the Wii version wins over the PS2. Why? Because with enough practice you can become really fast with the brush, which in turn increases the pace of the game (especially in battle) and you'll get more fun out of it. Amaze your friends with you're incredible brush work! Heck, you can as fast or maybe faster that the few characters who also have the bush ability you have.

----------

The next control aspect I'd like to touch on is the use of your combat weapons and the use of the Fleetfoot dodge.

In the PS2 you use two buttons to use your weapons, the Square button for your main and the Triangle button for your sub. In the Wii version you use a waggle motion of the Wiimote for your main and the Z button on the Nunchuk for your sub. The waggle motion in Okami is similar to that of the waggle motion in Zelda: Twilight Princess but you need to swing it a little wider to get it to register. Not much of problem, right? Wrong. See, in order to really deal damage to your enemy you have to perform weapon combos, and in order to do that you have to time your swings. The problem is that you have to somewhat precise with your timing; you can lose your whole combo by being slightly off. That's more to the learning curb. But it does get frustrating when your have to restart the combo when you could of finished off an enemy if only you didn't screw up with your first combo.

The Fleetfoot ability is a dodge that you can learn in the game's Dojo. It's a useful ability and all you have to do to use it is press the R2 button on the PS2 controller and the direction you want to go on the control stick. On the Wii, both of those two inputs are reduced to a waggle of the Nunchuk in the direction you want to dodge to. That's where the problem lies. While the game detects that you want to dodge with a waggle of the Nunchuk, it doesn't have an easy time detecting the specific direction. It's still a useful ability if you don't mind a random direction that the game thinks you want to dodge to, just as long as you get out of harms way, right? If Read-at-Dawn studios had just given the R2 button function to the waggle of the Nunchuk and left the direction to the control stick, using the Fleetfoot ability wouldn't feel like such a gimmick.
Who Wins?
The PS2 version. Simply, the Wii controls for weapons add a learning curb that you shouldn't have to face, and thing with the Fleetfoot ability is unfortunate.

----------

The Showdown
Which is the the version you should get?
My recommendation is the Wii version because, for me at least, I got more fun out of it and in turn enjoyed more that the PS2 version. But in reality it doesn't matter because both of them are superior games. I can't make the decision for you so ask yourself what you want.
I'll leave youwith something to think about: If a sequel were to come for Okami, what system is the most practical and obvious for Capcom to put the new game?

Added to the first post, credits to you given.

Although I must still say, I prefer the PS2 over the Wii (I tried it but didn't find it any fun at all).