Okami Review [Minor Spoilers]

Number of hours played: ~25 hours

Completion status: Main story

Click here for a TL;DR version

Let’s take a short trip back to 2006, the infamous Nintendo Wii had just released, creating the greatest dilemma for parents everywhere as to whether they should get 3 or 4 Wii’s for each member of their family. YouTube was just beginning to crawl out of its crib, and the PS2 was nearing the end of its short, sweet life.

And I was still only in the conceptual stages, if you know what I mean…

The gaming landscape was on the brink of spiraling out of control, and amidst all the chaos, one little game would release for the PS2 before it drew its last breath, and that game was Okami, the game would shock critics and reviewers, and amaze the gaming populace with its stunning art direction and fun gameplay. But alas, the game would receive poor sales, and its studio, aptly titled Clover Studios, would shut down just weeks after its release.

But how did Okami even come to be, and how exactly did it flop so badly that it caused its creators to shut down their studio, despite receiving critical success? These were just a few of the questions I had pondering at the back of my mind for 12 years as I eagerly waited for my chance to play the game myself. So, now that I finally got my hands on the game, let’s see if I was able to find what I was looking for.

What if this game had a forgotten sequel where you can play as PEPE THE FROG!

Story (Skip the first paragraph if you want to avoid any type of spoilers)

The story opens with a LENGTHYY introduction detailing the return of Orochi, a powerful evil deity that had been sealed for over 100 years. Naturally, after having slept for a whole century, Orochi does what powerful evil deities does best and unleashes total darkness throughout the glorious land of Japan Nippon. Sensing the world’s imminent destruction, a wood sprite named Sakuya decides to awaken the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, a white wolf that had originally sealed Orochi in the first place. Now Amaterasu must rise up against Orochi and his evil forces and save the land of Nippon from darkness once again. But before we do any of that, Sakuya first needs to take 50 years to explain every single insignificant detail that has occurred ever since she left.

Here we see a wild wolf showcasing symptoms of the I’mGettingFedUpWithThisBoringNonsense disease.

Ok, so despite how I just sounded like I pretty much almost wanted to kill, I’d like to first say that I genuinely really enjoyed the overall story in this game and thought that it was mostly well thought out. However, as you may have realized after reading the first paragraph, I am really not a fan of how the story first opens to the player. Remember how I said that I waited 12 years to play this game? That was a lie, I played it when it first came out, but couldn’t stand the opening of the game and promptly left the game to collect dust all the way up till now. Now that I addressed my biggest gripe with the story, let’s move on to the good stuff.

So, if you haven’t caught on yet, the story of Okami is primarily based on using a culmination of different Japanese Shinto myths and lore all together to create what I would describe being a rather interesting take on the hero’s journey, so you pretty much have a history 101 course on the most famous and prominent ancient myths in Shinto religion, similar to what you would find in the God of War series, which is great if you’re a myth junkie like me.

BUT THE DEER, DID YOU FIND THE DEER YET BOY!?

However, despite its dark opening, the overall tone of the story is surprisingly light and filled to the brim with humor. It definitely focuses more on telling a fun and entertaining story rather than a very serious tale, and while that may put off some players, remember that this type of story was common for games similar to Okami back when it first released. You’ll witness Amaterasu traveling all throughout the land of Nippon, visiting unique locales and meeting delightful characters along the way. All of this culminates into an amazing end to the game, and dare I say, one of the best game endings that I have ever played.

Yet even for a simple story like this, its quality still has its ups and downs. Mainly it feels somewhat segmented and disconnected in the way it’s structured, as if the writers couldn’t quite find a way to make all their ideas fit into one tight cohesive narrative. As a result, this can result in some uneven pacing at certain points throughout the game. These were ultimately minor however in my experience, as they only happened occasionally throughout the story.

Characters

Since this is a game that’s based around Ancient Japanese Shinto myths, it’s no surprise that most of the characters featured in the game are also taken from real mythological characters from the same myths as well. You have characters like the legendary Susanoo, the all-powerful Yamato no Orochi, the wandering artist Issun, and many more all featured as prominent side characters throughout the game. And of course, let’s not forget our main protagonist Amaterasu, who is inspired by the Sun goddess that [obviously] is also named Amaterasu.

Gotta love ancient Japanese men growing their beards super long so that they can one day use it as hair…or a blanket

One interesting question I had while playing the game was why the creators decided to portray Amaterasu as a wolf instead of a normal human. It gets even stranger once you consider the fact that Amaterasu doesn’t speak a single line of dialogue throughout the entire game and acts pretty much like a normal dog.

As it turns out, the developers of the game thought that playing as an animal character would complement the theme of depicting nature much more than if you were to play a human character. They also expressed that playing as an animal character makes character interactions far more interesting.

Remember kids to always get a good night’s rest, even when god is literally crying for your help!

These moments can be found all throughout the game and is one of the many reasons why I love Amaterasu as a character, she (or is it a he?) can be kind, fierce, as well as incredibly silly and humorous at times. She is in my opinion an example of a silent protagonist done right, since she’s able to portray her character entirely through her actions and mannerisms rather than using dialogue. It’s also incredibly fun to try to guess what Amaterasu is thinking when she’s just spaced out or half-asleep while something serious is happening around her.

The other characters also get their own little spotlights, showing in just how wacky and fun they are through their interactions with Amaterasu via dialogue, and most of that energy is seen through their character designs and mannerisms alone. Almost every character in Okami have their own distinct looks that help portray what kind of character they are. For example, Navi Issun, the companion that travels alongside Amaterasu throughout the game, is an extremely small, hot-headed, and energetic Poncle (a sprite basically) who jumps around like a flee whenever he gets mad. Some character designs are also so daring I almost questioned how Okami was passed with just a Teen rating.

SOMEBODY CENSOR THIS ****, THINK OF WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO OUR CHILDRENNN

Jokes aside, the written dialogue is also something I want to commend Clover Studios for, since the localization process for Okami I imagine, must have been an arduous process. Not only did they have to translate the text and the mannerisms of the characters, they also had to localize the names of characters and locations so that it stays true to its Japanese roots while not alienating the western audience in the process. However, they were able to achieve all of the above, whilst also capturing the adventurous feel of its characters and setting.

One issue I could see affecting players however is the spoken dialogue. Rather than having traditional voice acting, Clover studios opted to use Computer-processed sounds for their lines. This resulted in the game having …. very questionable gibberish-riddled dialogue that can be incredibly grating to hear. While I personally found that it fit with the game’s charm, I can see this being a serious issue with other players. But hey…at least you can mute them.

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