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Its been a week or two since my last article in this series, since today I am writing about something a bit bigger – Capcom’s gaming artistry that is Okami. Released in 2007, the game was one of the titles released at the end of last generation, utilising the vast majority of the console’s power.

Now, the first thing anyone would notice about Okami is the art style – rather than square polygons struggling to be as realistic as possible, Okami does something unique – it is designed to appear as a living painting – the world and its inhabitants inked in as clever brushwork. This has a few purposes – firstly it allows the game to look good, considering the graphical limitations of the console, secondly the game revolves around the idea of manipulation of a magical paintbrush, and lastly – it looks amazing.

As the player, you take the role of the Okami Amaterasu; reborn in the guise of a legendary white wolf, Shiranui. In the land of Nippon, a cursed power enshrouds the land as the 8 headed demon, Orochi, appears and plunges the world into darkness. Amaterasu’s role is clear – to regain her power and rid the land of the foul curse.

The game plays in a similar vein to Zelda, free roaming a vast landscape, exploring dungeons and fighting bosses. The main progression of the game depends on various abilities that allow Amaterasu to reach new areas and access new dungeons. Accompanied by a bug-sized artist, Issun (who also acts as silent “Ammy’s” medium to speak to the game’s various characters), Amaterasu must regain thirteen ‘brush arts’ to recover her power to its fullest. The Celestial Brush is a core element of the gameplay – at any time, the player may hold the R1 button, and the game will pause - turning to canvas - and using a brush, manipulate the elements by drawing various lines and symbols on the screen. For instance, by holding R1, and drawing a horizontal line (by holding square, and dragging the brush to paint), the player can create a slash which can be used to cut trees or slash enemies. By drawing a circle around a withered tree or flower bud, the player may make them bloom or grow, bydrawing a circle with a line through it, the player can create a bomb which can be used to smash cracked walls or damage opponents in combat. In total, there are more than 15 abilities that can be gained – many of which can be used in both exploration and combat – controlling elements such as fire and wind, and creating lily-pads on water as platforms to jump onto. There are plenty of different powers to keep it interesting, and even some secret powers that improve upon the 13 core elements.

Throughout the world are scattered scrolls that float around – these signify the game’s enemies – in a more RPGstyle, contact with one of these scrolls takes you to an enclosed “battle arena”, where you fight the game’s regular enemies. Combat revolves around using one of three weapon types – Reflectors (shield-like discs), Rosaries (Beads) and Glaives(Swords). Each type of weapon has it’s own attack style, and later weapons of the same type offer Amaterasu more attack strength. Weapons also have a secondary function – if a weapon is equipped in the “Sub” slot, it serves a second ability - Reflectors can be used as a shield, rosaries grant Amaterasu bullet powers, and Glaives allow for alternate sword attacks. Although the range of weapons isn’t huge, the ability to mix and match means you can usually find a combination that suits you. By visiting a Dojo within the game, Amaterasu can also purchase combat upgrades – such as dashing, combo improvements, taunts and a few other things. However - combat also uses the Celestial Brush. Using ink, which is measured by a meter of ink pots under the HP gauge, you can use the majority of the brush techniques to inflict damage – and some enemies require certain techniques to be used in order to defeat them. Flames can be blown away with wind, shelled enemies can be opened with the Bloom power. The core Slash and Bomb techniques are pretty core to the combat, but many of the others can be used in certain circumstances.

The world itself is vast and there is much to explore – although I spent a good 50 hours completing the game I didn’t even touch upon some of the side quests – the game has 99 stray beads to find, Sun Fragments to find (collect 3 for a new HP unit, think Heart Pieces from Zelda). There are animals to find throughout the game, and feeding each group of animals nets you some praise points which can be used to upgrade your core stats (HP, Ink Pots, Wallet size etc). There are also special enemies to scout out (a ‘wanted’ list of sorts), extra weapons and improved brush arts.

The dungeons are where the game’s bosses can be found, after plenty of platforming, battles, and puzzle solving. The puzzles can be solved in various ways, using the various Brush arts, or manipulating objects to press switches, or collecting keys to open locked doors. The bosses themselves are challenging but not overly hard, a lot of the time the real challenge is working out the pattern to damaging the boss – again, brush arts are important for manipulating the environment or enemy to your advantage and open up an opportunity to strike.

The game’s music is very fitting, classic Japanese style music that matches the game’s ancient mythical feel. The music in the landscape is often calm and atmospheric, and in battle changes to a more fast paced, battle-drum oriented style, and it all flows together as beautifully as the game’s artistic style.

The game is huge and it feels almost impossible to cover everything – the game takes the player to a myriad of different settings – forests, plains, beaches, snowy regions and strange places such as a sunken ship. There are plenty of dungeons and the story has a few interesting turns. I spent a long time playing the title and it feels there’s a lot more gameplay in it.

If you’re looking for something interesting to keep you busy for a while, this game is definitely worth a shot. It’s put together very well and offers depth and plenty of things to keep it interesting. I would definitely say it’s a good rival for the Zelda series, yet doesnt feel like a carbon copy with the unique Brush Arts system. I thoroughly enjoyed it. One word of warning though – once you begin this adventure be prepared to be playing for a long time.

-Leon