Wryviews were created in the face of the illogical manner in which video game reviewers score games. In principle they are meant to strike out the bias inherent in most video game reviews by judging a game on what it aspires to be, as opposed to what the reviewer regards it should be. They are meant to inform the readers, and especially so not try to make decisions for them.

When I first put this game in, I had no idea what I was really in store for. Previously my only real experience with Okami had been trailers and internet hype about almost nothing other than the graphics. Considering nobody seemed to have much to say about the game other than the visuals I wondered if perhaps Okami wasn't that great. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much there is to discuss about the game despite the general lack of internet conversation. It was really nothing like I was expecting, nor like any other action adventure I'd ever played. I got what felt like a real adventure, and what's more probably one of the funniest and most memorable ones I'd ever been on.

The game introduces itself to you with a brush drawing a story onto a scroll in ink, really clinching that traditional Japanese feel within minutes of you playing the game. The drawings tells of an ancient beast known as the Orochi that once terrorized Japan, and how a wolf with mysterious powers fought together with a swordsman to vanquish it. Drawing from real Japanese myth you play as Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun taken the form of a wolf. The Orochi has been awakened after 100 years and you've returned as well to stop him. Amaterasu herself is an interesting character because she's a God, but a silent one. At times she expresses clear intelligence and intuition and at others she just acts like a normal dog. It's for this reason that a bug-sized artist named Issun accompanies your character on her travels, acting as your voice and general assistant. Don't worry, he has his own interesting personality and is not a pest when it comes to passing out hints. In fact he's even an actual part of the story. Navi, eat your heart out.



Amaterasu is likewise an example of a character who perfectly suits the silent protagonist role moreso than any I've encountered thus far. Her inherent power is the use of the Celestial Brush, allowing you to turn the world into a frozen canvas. That's already a really novel concept, but the sort of things you're capable of doing are pretty interesting. You can make trees shoot out from the ground to act as shields, you can cut and strike things from a distance, and you can even create gusts of wind and balls of fire. All of this is accomplished through simple strokes that are very natural and easy to use. The reason this makes the character such a perfect silent role though is that you're a protector of the world, and to observers it merely appears as though things are just happening magically. What's more you just look like an ordinary wolf to the majority of the world. A meadow of flowers might suddenly bloom around a child, or a lake suddenly fill itself with water just when someone needed it. The people may thank the Gods for their blessings, but nobody suspects the white wolf in the distance as being the one who helped them. It's one of those few cases where I feel this concept would be more fulfilling with a silent character than otherwise.

Visually I'm sure everyone knows this game has a very vivid cel-shaded style meant to imitate traditional Japanese artwork. It really does look great and helps bring the world to life and to me the graphics symbolize a bit of brilliance. Not because of how visually appealing they are, but because of how tightly they fit with the theme of the game. Your powers are completely integrated into the game in every sense I can think of, even graphically. Your greatest power is that of a brush, and the entire world already looks it was born from such a tool as is. There's already a pretty strong sense of freedom just playing as your character without any powers too. She's fast and she's agile and it's just an enjoyable experience running and leaping through the world. What's really satisfying though is jumping over a cliff into a lake, freezing the world and creating a lily pad to land on at the very last second, and leaping off the lily pad back on to solid ground without losing any of your momentum. Having these abilities really puts some icing on the cake of what was already a fun character, and you can pull out your brush techniques pretty quickly once you have the hang of it. Good thing too, because like I said these powers are integrated into every aspect of the game. One of my favorite ways to use the powers in combat is when an enemy jumps in the air, to have a tree shoot up his butt.



Based on the trailers I initially expected the game to take itself very seriously, and for a while that did seem to be the case. Thanks to the Orochi's curse the world starts off very dark and gloomy. All the vegetation has been withered away and many people have been turned to stone. To combat these curses you'll find yourself very quickly gaining new powers and fighting lesser demons. After a couple hours of learning your skills and getting rid of the curses though, you're allowed to meet numerous characters now free and resuming their daily lives. I was not prepared for this. I swear I can't even think about some of these characters without smiling a little. My absolute favorite must be Onigiri Sensei. He's a kind looking old man with a very large forehead and beard. He's very mellow until you ask him for a martial arts lesson in his dojo, then his head literally spins upside down. His huge forehead becomes a huge chin and his massive beard becomes giant angry eyebrows. Meeting Onigiri Sensei was but the first instance of the game forcing me to stop. Stop and just stare, then laugh at how incredible what I just saw was. He's but a drop in the ocean of weirdness that makes this game so much more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

That's part of what's so different about this game. It has many of the aspects you tend to expect from an Action Adventure game like huge open worlds and dungeons, but at the same time it can be very light hearted. The world is extremely vibrant and colorful, as is the appearance and personality of the characters once you save them. Not many of these characters are especially complex, but they don't have to be. Part of the game's beauty is that you come to really care about a lot of the game's cast, simply because of the fact that they put a smile on your face. The characters are what made me decide that this game was more of a whimsical Japanese fairy tale than anything else. Where else but in a fairy tale could you meet a plump and happy merchant who instead of being afraid of a large wolf, would merely assume that this wild animal has come to do some shopping for its master? I couldn't help but feel like it was my responsibility to fix these innocent peoples' problems, even when it came down to doing mundane aesthetic work like lighting a city's torches and making the trees in an old man's garden bloom. In some sense you could consider yourself an omnipotent custodian and caretaker.

That's part of Okami's appeal as well. There is always something to do no matter where you are, and there is always some small thing you've missed or some ability you can come back to an area with. Some of the tasks you can complete like feeding all the animals in the world are fairly mundane, but for those who love to collect this is a boon. You really have no idea how many hidden chests are scattered through the very large game world alone. It's ridiculous beyond belief and just the tip of the collecting iceberg. You will receive small rewards, but not great enough ones that the average person will feel obligated to do them. It's a solid balance, leaving exploration of the world as a matter of choice. You're free to simply have fun using your wolf agility and exploring a very large and beautiful world, seek out sidequests, or simply progress in the game's storyline which is actually pretty stellar sometimes.



I should clarify that at the beginning of the game you'll be gaining powers rapidly and going on some fairly standard adventures. It's still an engaging experience and pretty subtle in what it's trying to do because usually it just feels like you're playing the game and that's it. The reality is that the first quarter of the title is training you for the bigger adventures to come. The absolute most interesting thing about this game is how it works in story arcs. At a certain point in your adventure the game will come crashing into a climax and suddenly you're out of the little leagues. Shit just got real. All those silly and lighthearted characters are met with a great danger and all of a sudden there's this strong sense of urgency in the face of some great menace. Like I said before, you're likely to already like these charming characters and the transition to a serious mood is actually pretty easy to swallow. The game builds to what feels like what could seriously be the ending of most games, and you never know if it really is.

The game really keeps you guessing, because the way it plays out you really do start wondering to yourself "Maybe this game is shorter than people said it would be." Then the game starts back up again with a new story arc, a new part of the world to explore and a once more lighter mood, and a new epic climax to come that will once again make you wonder if this is really the end. The game keeps on building momentum and raising the stakes, presenting you with greater and grander scenarios as time goes on. There's even a point in the game where you engage in a bit of mystical time travel. The initial comedic draw is still there, but the story itself is intriguing enough to the point that it's just an added bonus now. The plot throughout always remains simple, but there is a certain mystery to everything that helps things feel fresh. You never quite know what's going on or if certain characters truly have good or bad intentions until near the climaxes and it's a pretty satisfying experience.

I really want to downplay the graphics in the game since everybody already knows about them, but you really can't say anything about Okami without addressing them. The game really does feel like an illustration; and in a sense it still looks pretty good even compared against a PS3 game. The music which I haven't even had the time to get into is just straight up incredible. I know that's a vague statement but I will say that the melodies of the game always fit the mood and often remain memorable at the same time. Okami's one of those cases where the developers didn't overstep their boundaries; making something that their hardware was capable of doing without aging poorly. Okami is an incredibly tight package. Were you to take away the graphics, setting, characters, music, or even one the gameplay mechanics the game would no longer be Okami.

The puzzles are rarely complex and the concept of the Celestial Brush has so much more potential for interactivity than what this game used, but these are both nitpicks and not even necessarily flaws. What it comes down to is that in certain aspects Okami is simplistic, but that can be argued as part of why this game is accessible. Okami is almost a perfect puzzle, connecting everything together in a masterful manner. I have but one major criticism of the game: The game continues to reach greater and greater heights in a time when so few games can even present us a single satisfying climax, but in the end Okami does suffer from an anti-climatic final battle. I can't bring myself to dock the score considering how many good climaxes there were previously, though. The ending wasn't actually bad, it's just that my expectations were so high and there were mysteries regarding the game's plot that I wanted to have answered.

It seemed clear that Okami was setting itself up for a sequel, and that it was also rushed out the door at the last minute. I'm going to give Clover the benefit of the doubt considering the history of the company and how quickly it went out of business after this and God Hand's release. I'm just going to go ahead and say that the anti-climatic conclusion probably wasn't their fault. Considering the game offered me about 40 hours of great fun and adventure, having the final hour just being average isn't a very big deal. Trying to narrow down what this game sought to accomplish is pretty difficult to be honest. It does so many things that all I can really say is that I had myself an advenchah.

5 out of 5 stars

A 5 is a mark of a game that stands at the very top of its genre and gets just about everything right. It stands apart as unique and interesting without being bogged down by its own ideas. While a 4 is still a well regarded game, Wryviews do not hold a 5 as an unobtainable mark of perfection. In short: The reviewer's calling this a masterpiece. If not just because there's very little he could suggest to make the game better at what it seeks to be.

Okami is available on the Playstation 2 and Nintendo Wii. This Wryview was based upon the PS2 version, and I can't comment on how well the game was ported to the Wii after Clover's abrupt going out of business.


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