Okami is a legendary game. I feel like everyone knows Okami and everyone loves Okami, but has everyone really played it? I don't think it really gets brought up in conversations past its art style. That's the camp I was in. I really liked the idea of Okami. I even bought it back in the day, but never really played it.
At the Game Awards, an Okami Sequel was announced, which put the original game back on my immediate backlog. With revisiting a lot of classic games lately, I wanted to finally give Okami its shot.
And, it's incredible. (I played through the PS4 version of Okami HD)
Nearly 20 years after its original release, its art style still looks fresh and stunning. The heavy thick black inked outlines create imagery invoking Japanese calligraphy and traditional painting matching the fairytale story it tells.
The story of the game starts like a fairytale, explaining a 100-year-old legend, a battle between the ultimate evil, the 8-headed serpent Orochi, being defeated by a hapless warrior, Nagi, and a wolf. The wolf was killed in battle, so the town erected a statue in her honor. Now, 100 years later, you emerge from the statue, a reincarnation of the wolf and the goddess of the sun, Okami Amaterasu. Someone broke the seal of Orochi, which has released you from the statue, so you now explore the land, cleanse the land of its curse, defeat his minions, and make your way to its layer reenacting the legend.
Okami is a very standard action adventure game which feels reminiscent of early 3D Legend of Zelda games. Through exploring, more areas of Japan are opened with more secrets and introducing more characters. Story sequences thrust you into exploring dungeons and defeating the monsters within. This results in giving you new weapons and abilities to expand your exploration in the world and also backtracking for previous secrets.
The abilities you gain are executed using brush strokes. Hit the R1 button, and the whole scene pulls back to an inking canvas. Move the brush around to create strokes matching your abilities. Return to the scene, and the abilities execute by blooming trees, slashing enemies, and blowing wind.
Much like classic Zelda games, the story really opens up after completing the initial story sequence, the recreation of the 100-year legend. Evil still reigns in further areas of Japan, so you continue to chase after the shadows of the true evil.
Up until this point, I had not really noticed how much of Okami was steeped in Japanese fairytales. I thought it was telling its own story. I did not know that the story of Orochi and Nagi was an actual Shinto tale until reaching the next section of the game.
When reaching the major city, you meet Momotaro, try to locate Onigashima, also meet Urashimataro, and swim to the bottom of the sea to Ryuguujou (the Dragon Palace), and meet Otohime. You also meet Princes Sakuya, cut from Bamboo. These are all Japanese tales I'm quite familiar film. Momotaro and Onigashima is probably the most well known fairytale in Japan. All the kids here know it. The One-Inch Prince is another Japanese tale that I had read before and never made the connection to Issun, your companion throughout the whole game.
I'm not a Japanese fairytale or mythical expert, so many of these things went over my head on their first pass, but it never detracted from the experience for me. All of these stories felt natural within the story of Okami. There are fun references to real lore that really enhance the experience rather than use it as a crutch.
I was really surprised by Okami. The Japanese mythology, the overall structure and crafted nature of the gameplay and exploration, and the length of the game. I completed a full 100% playthrough in 52 hours. That's the same length as Twilight Princess, which came out a few months after Okami's original release.
Overall, I think a lot of people skipped Okami because the Playstation 2 was waning at that point. The Xbox 360 was released the year prior, and games looked FAR more incredible than the PS2. Okami released in September, and in just a few more months, the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii would be released. The future!
Personally, I was so busy finishing college in Spring and study abroad in Japan for my final semester in the Fall. When I came back in 2007, I immediately played Twilight Princess and then focused on other games.
Also, as much as the art style is one of Okami's strongest points, cell shading was very divisive at the time. People hated Legend of Zelda Wind Waker because of its art style, and Twilight Princess was finally the realistic Zelda everyone wanted. I think this looked too "kiddy" for the PS2 crowd.
I'm glad that I finally took the time to play through Okami, and I think more people really should do the same. Now that Okami finally has a second chance with this new sequel, I hope people actually buy into it.
I'll be there.