Okami Review by: Snu - 8/10
A Brush Stroke of Art Oh Okami. What an overlooked game you are. It was an RPG/Action game made in 2008 by Four Clover Studios for the Play Station 2 and
later ported over to the Wii. It was praised to the high heavens, but it had extremely poor sales.
In Okami, you play as the Japanese Sun Goddess, Amaterasu (who is a wolf for whatever reason), as you run around the troubled land of Nippon (or Ancient Japan, whichever you prefer) and try your hardest to restore faith in the gods and get rid of all the demons.
Now, let's take a look at the game, shall we?
Graphics 8/10 The graphics in this game are beautiful and colourful. The big thing about this game is that the graphics are all done in a Japanese Watercolour style. Because of this, every area looks unique and pretty. The weapons in this game also look great and you can easily tell which one you have on.
However, the game still shows a bit of age as all the characters are a bit polygonal. The graphics are also blurry, though not to the point where you can't see anything.
Sound 9/10 The music in this game is as beautiful as the graphics, if not more so. Every song has a wonderful Japanese flair to it, which fits, since the game takes place in Ancient Japan. Every track is different and rarely repeats in any other area or event (Except for the tune Rising Sun, as it makes itself known throughout the game via remixes). The songs range from the beautiful Dragon Palace, to the cheery Kamiki Festival, to the haunting Cursed Sei-An City to even more.
My only real complaint instead comes from the sound effects. The battle sound effects are rather generic and the game seems to love 'whoosh' sound effects. The characters all speak via Banjo-Kazooie-esque grunts and squeaks, which gets annoying fairly quickly. They aren't otherwise bad by any means, but they aren't anything spectacular.
Addictiveness 6/10 This game isn't particularly addictive. The biggest thing that will keep you coming back to this game is the story. The sidequests are okay, but they are usually quick and/or annoying.
Depth 9/10 There is TONS to do in Ancient Japan. If you stick to the main story, you won't see much of it. The depth all comes when you start exploring every inch of every area. There are side quests everywhere you look, animals that you need to feed are running every which way and there are items and Stray Beads (needed for 100% completion) in nearly every crook and cranny! You can go fishing and earn some yen (it's a long and dull process, though, and better off if you do it sparingly), or see if you can find some stone relics (this game's version of heart pieces). So many things to do, but most of it is either done quickly (sidequests), or very drawn out (fishing, demon fang hunting).
Story 8/10 The story goes something like this: 100 years ago, the small village of Kamiki was once plagued by a great demon named Orochi. Every year, during the festival, Orochi would demand that a maiden be brought to his home, the Moon Cave, in exchange for the village's safety. This particular year, the great hero Nagi's crush, ?Nami, was chosen, but he wasn't going to let her go so easily! With the help of a great wolf, Shiranui, Nagi was able to seal the demon away and save his village. Now, fast forward 100 years where someone has broken the seal of Orochi! It's now up to Amaterasu, (Wolf) Goddess of the Sun, and her trusty Poncle companion, Issun, to regain her lost brush powers, defeat Orochi, restore faith in her people, and rid the land of evil!
This game's story starts off rather slow and dialogue heavy, and sort of stays that way for a good while. But once it picks up, you'll be satisfied every step of the way!
Difficulty 3/10 Okami is very easy. As in, 'if you want a challenge you shouldn't use any items,' type of easy. For instance there is a REALLY cheap item that gives you temporary invincibility. You can keep on using them and never take any damage throughout the whole game.
To be a bit more fair, you can easily not buy them, but still.
The rhythm you need in order to make consistent combos will take a little bit of getting used to, especially since it changes depending on what type of weapon you are using, and some of the stray beads will destroy your sanity, but the puzzles are typically simple and enemies are generally easy to defeat.
Things not Covered Above+The gameplay, once you get used to it, is fluid and simple to use
+The Menu is easy to navigate
+ All but three brush powers have upgrades via side quests and demon fangs
-Some brush techniques are very finicky and therefore impractical
-There's a certain boss that is long, dull and is fought three times. It is the exact same all three times.
*Though there isn't any blood, this game is rated T because of the very sexual innuendos that Issun loves to drop and the large amounts of Sake.
- Be prepared to grind a lot if you want to 100% the game. You need a lot of money for weapons and a few upgrades, and over 100 demon fangs if you want the good items and 100%.
+ The game has a really neat levelling up system that encourages you to do sidequests in order to gain praise, which you can use to get more health, a bigger wallet, more extra lives, or more ink pots.
All in all this is still a great game and one you should certainly consider getting. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Any and all criticism is greatly appreciated ^.^
Graphics
8 Sound
9 Addictive
6 Depth
9 Story
8 Difficulty
3
User Notice 
