"A handsome guy like me should never be covered in wolf slobber!"
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| Source // PlayStation |
Games and art. They are one and the same, no? A game is a work of art whether it looks like a Hollywood film or a piece of garbage. Who are you to judge what is and isn't art? Some games take more obvious inspiration from the world of art and have a style of their own based upon brushstrokes and line drawings. Cel-shaded games can be found everywhere in the last two decades, but there's only one that allows you to get your own brush out and change the game directly (please let there be only one).
Taking on the role of saviour of the land/divine being Amaterasu, Ōkami has you control both a wolf on a mission and a spiritual brush with ink that can change the world. It's not too often you can describe a game like that now, is it?
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| Source // Moby Games |
Frustrations
I've got Ōkami HD for the PlayStation 3 and saying that it starts off in a leisurely manner is perhaps an understatement. We're told a tale of a village ruled by an 8 headed hydra-like being that likes human sacrifices every year. When a warrior's love is selected, he says enough is enough and sets about destroying the beast, but to no avail.
At least, not until a wolf that had been hanging around the outskirts of the village gets involved. Acting like some kind of protector, the wolf helps the warrior to defeat the beast, essentially sacrificing itself for the good of the village. A shrine is erected in its honour, the sword used to vanquish evil is stored away in a cave and the village goes about its business for 100 years before all hell breaks loose again, the seal keeping evil at bay having been broken. Whoops.
All of this is shown through the most basic of animation, and text boxes that make Twitter posts look like too much effort to read all the way through, and narrated by babble. Incoherent babbling. No wise village elder recounting the past, no. Just bibblebabblebobblebabble. I'd have prefered the swishing of a pen across the page to what we end up with - it'd at least sound more relaxing.
Anyway, cut to the chase, the wolf was the incarnation of a powerful God, and she's back to save the day once again.
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| Source // Moby Games |
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| Source // Moby Games |
As you roam around this third-person adventure, fighting with the camera that absolutely loves to reset each and every time you go through a door, various things babble at you, muttering about great power contained within 13 magical brushes that can paint bridges and dot stars in the sky and... oh my goodness, it looks like you have just such a brush!
And so you use it to solve problems, slice upon blocked paths, finish off downed enemies and generally paint stuff onto the game using the R1 button, the left analogue stick, and the square button.
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| Source // Moby Games |
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| Source // Moby Games |
You have to be somewhat accurate in what you draw. If you need to draw the sun in the sky, it should at least be curvier than a square for example, and any offensive slashes need to be arrow-straight for them to be recognised, but I suppose you'll get used to the shapes in time.
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| Source // Moby Games |
If, that is, you're interested enough to keep playing. I am not.
The controls are fine. Run, jump, attack, investigate, paint. There's nothing too difficult to grasp at first glance, and it feels quite fluid - though I am playing an HD rerelease. Not sure how much has changed from the original with regards to the controls.
The camera can be set to close behind you, or hovering far above you in the sky, which I prefer, but the game insists on resetting to the close view whenever you load into a new area. For as much as my thumb was on the right stick to swing the camera around, it was on L1 to keep switching the viewpoint. Was I struggling with the camera? No. Was it far more annoying than it should have been? Yes.
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| Source // PlayStation |
All the bibblebabbling and the tiny text boxes made me want to skip through all of the explanations and plot dumps, so I clearly didn't take it all in and will subsequently miss out on all of these fancy visuals on account of not wanting to play it.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Final Word
I played Ōkami HD for about 45 minutes. Nowhere near long enough to give it a definitive opinion on whether it is a must-play title or not, but there were glimpses here and there of how pretty it might look.
That's a funny thing to say. An HD version is - you'd hope - better looking than the original release, but it also allows you to see all the tricks they used in greater detail. The HD release looks too crisp, perhaps, losing a little of its painterly feel and instead showing it as more of a cartoon. Which is a weird argument, being cel-shading is something cartoons use far more than paintings...
What am I even trying to say here? Ōkami looks like a few games, but for the most part, we can agree that it looks like nothing else. It does stand tall as its own thing, even if it's not the only cel-shaded game or the only one inspired by paintings, or whatever. For that reason alone, Ōkami is worth at least a look at.
It also has to be a good game, and with exploration, action, and interaction on the part of your celestial brush gimmick, it has a few things going for it. For everything that makes it similar to other third-person action-adventures (breaking pots, wall jumping, collectables), it seems like it tries something of its own, too. Namely brushing a load of ink across the screen, but still. It's trying.
I can see how you could be swept up by it, and take joy in roaming lands as a wolf, restoring colour to lands covered in darkness. You can even take time out to feed the birds. Not sure why, but I think it's a mechanic you need to do from time to time, so sit back and feed the birds.
Yet I want little to do with it, because of its presentation. Ironic, really.
I may give it a second go, but something tells me I probably won't.
Fun Facts
Ōkami, developed by Clover Studio, first released in 2006.
Version played: Ōkami HD, PlayStation 3, 2012.