Okami Review

Okami is a 3D action adventure game developed by Clover Studios and published by Capcom in 2006, originally for PS2 but since then ported to all major platforms -- including the Switch, on which I played it. The player controls a wolf-god called Amaterasu as she attempts to release a fictionalised Japan from the clutches of an evil god.

Most notable about Okami is its cartoonish (but not cartoony) cel-shaded visual design, which takes inspiration from Japanese art. Early versions of Okami had a more traditional 3D action game aesthetic, but the game suffered from performance issues. Necessity being the mother of invention, the developers switched to a less graphically intensive cel-shading approach, which both solved the performance issues and provided Okami’s most memorable feature.

Before and after of Okami's art direction [Source: Wikipedia]

Cel-shaded games often have been cartoony, such as Borderlands, or taken direct inspiration from comics -- see XIII and the “BAM!” and “BOOM!” that accompany its gunshots and explosions. Okami decidedly isn’t like that, borrowing instead from the Japanese Classical Yamato-e style of artwork. Maybe it would be snobbish to say this is somehow better than Borderlands’ and XIII’s 20th century American comic inspiration, but Okami’s visuals are certainly unique among videogames, and refreshing for it.

Clover Studios leant into Okami’s new artistic aesthetic by adding a unique and complementary gameplay feature: the Celestial Brush. The Celestial Brush allows the player to defeat enemies by turning the screen into a canvas and painting lines and patterns on it. A horizontal line forms a slash attack, an inverted “Q” shape drops a bomb, and a loop produces a powerful wind, among many others. The system also has non-combat uses, such as drawing lily pads to cross bodies of water, fixing bridges, and restoring leaves to trees; and is incorporated into the storyline in a satisfying way.

On the PS2 original the brush mechanic could be cumbersome, slowing down combat due to the ponderous nature of drawing with an analogue stick. On the Switch, however, the mechanic is revolutionised by the device’s touchscreen, allowing the player to draw brushstrokes as quickly as it takes to swipe a finger. I had some issues getting the game to recognise my brushstrokes and sometimes it struggled with interfacing the 2D canvas with the 3D game world, but overall it’s a great feature that enriches combat and exploration.

Celestial Brush in action [Source: PCMag]

Okami’s single-player campaign is its only game mode: no co-op, online play or anything else. Thankfully, it is massive. I finished it in about 35 hours, a satisfying length, and only realised after completion that I’d missed huge chunks of side quests, minigames and collectibles, which would have added another couple-dozen hours. Okami’s storyline, divided into three arcs, is a bit haphazard. The first arc is a well-realised, self-contained story about defeating an evil eight-headed being that preys on a small village. The second and third arcs see the scope of the story expand considerably but it becomes less cohesive. Friends and foes come and go in a blur as the plot lurches from one catastrophe to the next.

Clover’s desire to tell a sweeping epic folktale saddles Okami with an almost crippling quantity of dialogue, which is by far the game’s biggest flaw. There is simply far, far too much talking. Some can be sped-up by holding (A) but plot-critical dialogue trundles slowly across the screen and lasts for minutes at a time. You can skip it entirely but doing so risks missing key info. The whole script needs a severe edit: Even talking to one of the games many merchants, for instance, produces about ten lines of pointless chitchat before you are offered to buy something. Compounding matters is that there are really only two good characters among dozens -- Susano, a doofus warrior from an old bloodline, and Waka, a mysterious French-speaking prophet whose role as good or evil is uncertain until the end.

Amaterasu, the wolf you play as, does not speak; instead your talking is done by a little forest sprite called Issun. Issun, unfortunately, suffers terribly from bad writing. Not only are his colloquialisms annoying, but he’s also a pervert. Despite being a notionally sex-less story about a wolf fighting monsters, Okami still finds a way to include a teenagerish sexism that so often marrs ‘00s videogames. Most of the women characters in Okami wear revealing clothes; one in particular who plays a major role in the second arc is referred to by Issun as the “busty babe” and has her own boob physics. Issun is repeatedly and groan-inducingly awestruck by the game’s five or six beauties and the game hits a low point when you have to steal the robe of a princess bathing under a waterfall. It’s disappointing that the script and story don’t match the maturity of its art direction.

In terms of gameplay, Okami is overtly inspired by the Legend of Zelda series. The player steadily unlocks new areas that it is free to explore and contains multitudes of discoverables. The game’s main plot events take place in dungeon-style areas, and these are varied and interesting, although not matching the sophistication of the best Zelda dungeons. Each introduces one of thirteen Celestial Brush techniques, which Amaterasu works to unlock across the game. About half are environmental techniques that help you traverse and restore nature to the world; and half are fighting techniques. Amaterasu’s use of the Brush techniques are limited by an ink-o-meter, preventing the player from spamming battles with them.

In typical Capcom fashion Okami features a well-developed combat system. It combines various weapon types, unlockable tricks, dodge and block mechanics, combo bonuses and single-use power-ups to rich effect. Monster encounters take place exclusively in circular arenas that spring up around you (boss battles occur in larger designated arenas, but they're still circular). Enemies are varied, from the relatively straightforward imps of the first arc to tough elemental creatures of the later stages. Unfortunately, the fighting isn’t particularly difficult and I was never required to develop my skills much beyond hammering attack and learning a few enemy-specific Celestial Brush techniques. I completed Okami without dying once, in fact, leaving a lingering sense of waste that mastering the deep combat is ultimately inessential.

Fighting an imp in a virtual arena [Source: Siliconera]

Dialogue aside, the pacing of Okami is excellent. Its missions are engrossing and the player's attention to the main quest is constantly tested by innumerable side quests, collectables and minigames. With each save the game tracks total play-time, and I would find myself astonished when it would inform me that another 40 minutes of my life had slipped frictionlessly by. I regret ploughing determinedly through the main quest; once you enter the final area your opportunity to explore Okami’s world is locked off. The biggest miss was a series of combat arenas that pit you against wave after wave of increasingly tough monsters -- I saw none of that. I also missed all-but one of the eleven secret Celestial Brush techniques and all the non-essential special items. On the one hand it’s irritating that so much material is superfluous, and at times Okami even discourages it: in one area full of side quests you’re explicitly told not to forget about your mission; and at a certain point in the plot when the game wants to create a sense of urgency it bars you from taking on side quests. But on the other, I accept I could have been more curious, basically.

All told, Okami is if not quite the all-time classic it’s sometimes feted to be, then at least among the finest examples of PS2-era action adventure games. Tighter plotting and writing and difficulty would elevate it close to Jak II levels of excellence, but for the £7 I paid on the Switch Store I’m satisfied I got more than my money’s worth.