Beautiful!
Year after year, Capcom has made all kinds of different games such as MegaMan X series. This time Capcom has joined Clover Studios, and released their first game Okami. Does Capcom still have some tricks up their sleeves.
STORY: Okami's story is beautiful, well thought out plot. The story starts with a flashback to 100 years ago describing about Shiranui, a bright white wolf, and Nagi, a swordsman fighting the eight-headed demon Orochi to save the village of Kamiki and the lovely maiden Nami, Nagi's loved one. Sadly Shiranui and Nagi didn't defeat the cursive creature, but was able the seal it with his own blade. In the present, Susano, the descendant of Nagi, accidently removed the sword breaking the seal to Orochi, making the demon return from 100 years ago, cursing the lands and destroying everything he can get his hands on.
Sakuya, the Kamiki Village guardian calls for Amaterasu, the sun god and the resurrection of Shiranui, to remove the cursive lands. You are also accompanied with an inch high artist Issun, who can restore the land with his brush techniques. Later on Amaterasu and Issun are locating the fourteen Celestial Gods, whom have been hidden in the constellations to upgrade your godly powers and give you new celestial brush techniques. Thought out your mission, you will find a fellow named Waka, a strange yet powerful warrior, who has the ability to foresight, further, teasing Amaterasu and Issun. The story line is just wonderful, with some turns and twists with it.
DESIGN: The design in the game is beautiful, making the scenery water paint to give out the Chinese tradition. The graphics are amazing for a Playstation 2 and the the music is spot on making you fell like your watching a movie during the cut scenes. The only annoying thing is the talking, it would be better if there were actual people talk instead of them muttering like in the Sims. If you recover a patch of land you get praise points, with these points you can upgrade your health bar, ink containers, and collect more yen.
You also can get yen from monster battles; with yen you can buy upgrades, new moves from dojos, food, and ultimate attacks for battles. If you encounter a fight you can get more yen with the sections time and damage. The brush techniques are interesting and fun to use, but in battle it can be annoying. The controls are basic, X jumps, square attacks, triangle digs, circle to pee or poop to retrieve demon fangs, R1 to go brush mode, left analog stick to move, and right to control the camera angles.
You press start to retrieve to the menu to look up your treasures, animals you fed, fish you caught, enemies you fought, brush techniques, moves you learned, and your journal with all your conversations written in it. Later on you can start fishing, here you have a gauge of your strength, if you use to much of your strength you loss health. It's also annoying how you have to wait till Amaterasu can charge his speed to max for running. The mini games of Amaterasu digging to find objects are annoying and isn't fun.
During loading scenes you can tap the X button as fast as you can to find a demon fang, or tap the X button into a beat to retrieve the fang. With demon fangs you can buy secret items and weapons. When you're stuck in a fight you can escape by hitting the red boundaries. The boss battles are epic and are so exciting you can't wait for the other one.
GAMEPLAY: The gameplay in this game is outstanding, with the multiple attacks, different kinds of weapons and with the brush techniques will make you ask for more. There are three types of weapons; first one is the shield/blade weapons, the whips, and the swords. There are five weapons for each type; you can also get gold powder that can upgrade your weapon to max. The brush techniques are amazing, one of them is a blossoms trees where you draw a circle around a dead tree, slash is just a line, cherry bombs is a circle with a dash in it, and ect. Attacking and trying to figure out what to do with the boss, brings more excitement.
Capcom has out done them selves with is game. Its magical, beautiful, and incredible. If you're a big fan of MegaMan, save your money, and try Okami.
STORY: 10
DESIGN: 9.0
GAMEPLAY: 9.5
TOTAL: 9.8
-Indy123