Okami
1 Player
Rated T for ages 13+

(My first Review. Please tell me how I did )
Alright. Here it is. Now listen, when you first saw Okami for the PS2, then saw the Wii. You wanted a port at first right? Well it's here (and its been here since April. Hooray for me to point out the obvious), and its fantastic.
Main story hauls you out as a god. This god is Okami Amaterasu, who is a wolf. The entire game is basically wrapped around a small town which was part of a legend, a hero who sets out with Okami (called "Shiranui" which meant demon or something) 100 years ago to kill an eight headed dragon called Orochi. Story starts up when someone accidentally released Orochi from his slumber and he begins to wreak havok upon Nippon (Main world in this game).
Your weapon of choice: The Celestial Brush. It unleashes a pretty vast array of unique elements and powers upon your enemies. You may also equip a sword, reflectors, or magic beads to fight alongside your brush skills.


Onto how gameplay is, I'd say it is truly great. You get basically 30+ hours of gameplay by just beating the story alone. There are plenty of things to keep you occupied for those perfectionists. I beat the game first time at just about 39 hours. That was just raw storyline. Barely stopped to look for treasure, but occasionally got lost. Obviously the Wii remote is used as the brush as well as your main attack, so I'm assuming that it is definitely quicker to create things with the Celestial Brush this time around. Despite how good and smooth this may sound, there are definitely a few kinks to be worked out, such as the combat system and some of the lesser used brush techniques.
Combat consists of several weapons all used by shaking the Wii remote, sub weapons are assigned to the Z button. One thing I never got, is why they couldn't just give the main attack a button to use? At times I find my self trying to swing a sword and all I see on-screen is Okami just charging the swords attack (Hold the Wii-remote upward in order to charge your attacks).
As for the lesser used brush techniques. There are a few of em, Lightning, Inferno and Deluge to name a few. Now, despite getting certain water, lighting, and fire abilities, you need a source such as a torch or lightning cloud nearby to harness them. Although if you are like me and want to just summon em randomly, you can go through some sidequests to make life easier. It sort of goes like this: Draw lightning symbol... *draws* Wind gust appears... IN THE SHAPE OF A LIGHTNING BOLT... ): So yeah, its a bit confused sometimes.


For describing graphics, I would say they're quite good. They were a lot better on certain videos I've seen for the PS2 game because it had a paper filter used all the time so it looked more like a painting. Here's a quick comparison.

As you see in that video, the Wii version seems a bit more like a cel shaded game rather than a unique graphics style, but I really don't mind. Graphics don't make a game right?


I have to say that the soundtrack for this game is truly epic. If you're like me you usually like to play some games with other music playing through steroes or headphones or whatnot. This game is a different case. It's kind of hard to explain the music so I'll let it do the talking...


Music ranges from slow to fast as you can see, and it always suits what's going on perfectly.
Music like this grows on you, almost like the Mario Galaxy soundtrack


Despite a few downsides, I'd say Okami was a great game. It does a good job of story telling, and it gets its point through without becoming boring. What's also good here, is that the scriptwriters were apparently pretty funny and tossed some jokes around. Some of those jokes may give you a laugh especially when they happen completely outta nowhere.
Even during combat, you may find some special moves to give you a quick laugh.

(just about 20 seconds in if you're impatient to see Okami find an enemy)
If you are an avid adventure gamer (kinda like me), you'll notice a lot of games out there which do not reward you for finding certain things or going through with sidequests. This game does the opposite. With hidden treasures that can be sold for money and 100 stray beads strewn about the game, it's rewarding to always go searching for something. For the stray beads there are always hints to tell you the general area of where to get em. In the menu regarding how many you've collected, the town you may be looking in has question marks. But one question mark per letter, so a quick little check of the town name and you'll know where it is, the list goes in order of the story line. Yes, you get rewarded greatly for finding ALL 100.
Aside from collectibles, there is also an upgrade system in this game. Not heavily focused on here, but it's there. By earning praise (which is basically exp. for some of you RPG'ers), you can upgrade how much health you have, how much money you can hold, how much paint you have, etc. Some sidequests offer praise, but also some of the simpler things get you praise, like just feeding some animals or by simply listening to someone and resolving their small problems.
There is also a nice little task of doing as much as you can. By this, I simply mean do almost any thing available to you as much as you can. Feed animals, do sidequests, get demon fangs. By doing this you earn a grade on how much was done at the end of the game. If you get an A on something, you get 9 Karmic Transformers. These allow you to change the way Okami looks at any time during gameplay.

The Final Verdict
Graphics:B :It looks good, but definitely could have looked even better.
Sounds:A :Great soundtrack, fits the game perfectly, and it wears on you.
Gameplay:A- :Cool effects and flashy attacks make up for the sometimes unresponsive Wii Remote.
Replayability:B+ :Not much to do after playing the game, besides play it again. Other than collectbiles, there are ways to change how you look in the New Game+, but that's about it.

Overall score:A+ : Despite some shorfallings, this game really wraps up to be a great game. I highly recommend it to any Zelda fans out there, or if you're just looking for a good game.

Is it just me or is there already one of these around here somewhere...

XP poo. I hadn't noticed that.
Well.. um.. *tries to find an excuse...*..
erm..
DIS WONS FOR TEH WII. NAWT TEH PLAISTASHIN.
lol.

lol... its alright... i didnt think anyone liked okami as much as me to review it too

^Everyone should like it enough
I've had it for less than a month, beaten it twice, on my 3rd game with all stray beads and transformers.
And it's already my favorite game of all time.
Amazing game.

I was going to beat it for a second time, but then I got a 360 and well... I got caught up in other games D: I will surely pick it up some other time but for now.. I'm sticking to my 360. Too bad Clover Studios broke up . I would have soooo bought the PS3 just for an Okami 2.