[size=12] I've started to become aware of my own oddness as a gamer. I'm way over the five hours a week that apparently defines the 'hardcore,' and yet I certainly don't feel hardcore. I'm not interested in achievements and I'm laughable online. I've no time for games that want to punish me, and when Itagaki felt the need to label me a 'ninja dog' I was mature enough to realize that it said more about him than me.
Not hardcore then. But I am a completionist, and it's in this facet of my approach to gaming that my oddness is exposed. I've just realized that my greatest pleasure in gaming is not the initial triumph, but the revisit. With the pressure of beating the game behind me I like nothing better than wandering through familiar levels, taking risks I never took the first time round, looking at scenery I didn't have time to appreciate before, swatting enemies and revelling in all the animation and effects that passed me by when the heat was on. I don't raise the difficulty. That's not the point. The point is to appreciate what's been put down for me, to love the game.
I'm writing this blog in order to report something of a high water mark in this odd, gaming quirk. After 15 months or so I've just slipped Okami into the PS3. I'm one of the few who actually put the full 50 hours into this when it first came out. I've always had fond memories of the game, but this second run thru has been a revelation. Three hours in you get your 'cherry bomb' power - basically the ability to draw a circle with a line through it that transforms into a little bomb. It's hard to put into words the chain of visual events that culminates in acquiring this rather weak combat aid - but it involves a full fireworks display, the parting of the heavens, a visit from a celestial pig (with piglets in tow) and the effusion of enough blooms to make the Chelsea flower show look like a Brixton back yard.
Now Okami is a beautiful game. That's obvious the first time through. But with the pressure of actual gaming and completionism off the agenda the true generosity of the designers and animators becomes apparent. It's a truly awesome thing. And not even Hi- Def.
Gaming as art? Bet your cotton socks. There is a soulfulness to what I'm experiencing here, a glow of realisation that games can have the emotional impact novels and movies have long had. Gaming journo's tend to wheel out the usual suspects to defend the notion that games can carry emotional depth - Ico, Shadow of the colossus, FFvii, etc. Those were great games but their narratives were pitched deliberately at the heartstrings and, in my view, rather crudely so. Good for games but primitive when compared to the best in literature and film.
Okami is slightly different. It seems to be without pretension. It is honest and profound. It exudes love, generosity and personality. Play it if you haven't. And if you have, play it again. My true concern is that it will always be the exception that proves the rule - that gaming (and this isn't a criticism) can cater for our human senses but not for our human needs.[/size]