Okami
 

Box art:

http://www.cloverstudio.co.jp/o-kami...pake/big01.jpg

Screenshots:

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1...ami52hj.th.jpghttp://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4...ami30td.th.jpghttp://img217.imageshack.us/img217/903/okami24zp.th.jpghttp://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6...23372jw.th.jpg

Wallpapers:

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/1...10241tq.th.jpghttp://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2...10244aq.th.jpghttp://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7...10248qd.th.jpghttp://img301.imageshack.us/img301/3...10241fa.th.jpg

Trailer: 1 2 3 4 5 (Latest trailer here(5 min(28/03/06))

Remember Viewtiful Joe? Remember Clover? Well, Clover studios are back with a Zelda-esque traditional japanese PS2 game. It takes over elements of Viewtiful Joe and Wind Waker, and it's cel-shaded as a nice little bonus.

The physics are simple. You play the role of Amaterasu, a female Shinto sun goddess who takes on the form of a wolf. She is dependent of humans, and will only grow stronger if the humans believe and have faith in her. Obviously, the more you help your townsfolk with problems and issues, the more they'll become to like and trust you.

The gameplay feels much like a platformer, as you're taking third person behind Amaterasu. The game has a very atmospheric feel, much like Wind Waker had. The basis of the game consist of you running errands and helping the townsfolk. Instead of restoring places you find, rather, you help restore what you're currently living on. If you're going to import you're probably not going to focus too much on the story, however, as it's in japanese.

Another feature which is quite interesting, is your ability to draw. There are obstacles in the game and specifics which you need to do in order to progress, and one way of doing that is by drawing with the "Celestial Brush." For example, you're capable of drawing in the middle of a battle to aid your own character. Puzzles aside, the plot is in restoring life to your world. This concept is pretty simple, with just a few strokes of the brush, and the defeating of enemies, land is restored.

An official website is up here, and simply by entering the website you can get a feel of what the game's style is going to be like. I've left the website minimized and just sat there, listening to the inspiring theme it plays. It's very japanese like, and it really shows. The japanese set release date is April the 20th of this year, but no date has been set for outside of japan. The developers at Clover have mentioned that there will be quite a long wait for it to reach america, yet nobody knows why. However, the game doesn't sound very heavily text based, and could be import friendly.

The official site also contains some more trailers and another has been added recently. I'll be keeping a very close eye on this game as it's shaping up to be one of the best games 2006 has to offer.

I've wanted this ever since I've heard the buzz about it around E3 time. I wonder how drawing with the brush would work, since I can only picture that kind of thing being done accurately on a DS compared to a PS2 controller. I guess there would be simplified strokes or at the very least, analog stick usage.
The world itself looks very colourful and artistic.

Found an interview with Atsushi Inaba, the developer of Okami. He said that it's quite possible for extra added content to be placed into the american release. You can find the interview here.

I've also heard that the international release date for Okami is September 23rd of this year, this however is unconfirmed.

Oh good, it IS getting a release here. I'm glad developers have finally decided that Western audiences aren't afraid of heavy Japanese cultural overtones anymore.

Interesting, quirky little game. It's pretty rare that anything grabs my interest these days, so hopefully it'll live up to expectations. They'd better have spent a lot of development time working on the controls, though. Painting with an analog stick isn't going to be easy.

I've had this on pre-order for a loooooooong time coming, and I'm completely stoked about it. Clover Studios quickly rose in the ranks of my favorite developers (although after VJ: Red Hot Rumble and Double Trouble they slipped a few notches down) with the Viewtiful Joe series, and I've really got no doubt about how unique the experience with Okami will be.

I'll be damned though. Still being PS2 games near the PS3's launch. My first PS3 titles won't get played until I beat all my backlogged PS2 ones!

So nice to see Clover step away from Viewtiful Joe, he was starting to smell just a bit. They didn't have the heart to tell him, hence Red Hot Rumble. But yeah, this really is a very beautiful game, probably one of the only few from this generation that'll hold its own in a few years. Looking forward to it. =o

I hope they have the OKAMI Kanji for the US box cover, however I highly doubt it, as it will be replaced simply with the romaji "OKAMI". I've heard lots of good things about VJ, but never got around to play it. Perhaps I should pick it up sometime since it's like $20 for each game. Not bad eh?

Yeah, it's worth it. The first one is an excellent groin expanding game, the second one's.. well, the same thing with new, slightly crappier levels. Making it excellent but not so excellent. What a crisis!

I hope that extra content doesn't mean voice acting. I was so releaved to see the game doesn't have speech at all, just random warbling for all characters, Banjo-Kazooie style, which should have made the localization a lot easier.

I've been looking forward to Okami for who knows how long now. It's one of the last few PS2 games I'm expectant of. Not only does it look wonderful, but the neat ideas all tying in with the old japanese painting style looked interesting as well. I wonder how much room for improvisation there is, or wether you can only draw the bridge or deflect objects in certain hotspots or moment (boss fights).

Still, the visuals alone should make it a special experience, people really need to see it moving to fully appreciate what Clover have achieved in style.

I've recently bought the first Viewtiful Joe. It wasn't on Okami's account, though, it's just that it was $15 and apparently so much better than it's sequel.

I don't mind if they change the box art for the american release of Okami, even though I would probably shed a tear. It isn't going to stop them from releasing an absolutely mind blowing game. The only way they can fuck this up is if they decide to remove features from the japanese version and replace them with corny, cheesy features in an american version. From what I've seen of Okami so far that likely isn't going to happen, since it appears as if they know what they're doing.

At IGN and amespot they've both shown the following box art, which differs from the original, but I don't know if it's officially the american version:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9...00542036gj.jpg

Okay, at least they still kept the Kanji. It does bring a very artistic appearance to the box, and perhaps lends to the brush stroke aspect, if I read correctly in Elixir's opening post.

I see people here have played the demo. I haven't played the demo but that's just bad luck living in the middle of nowhere. Whenever I think of Okami, suddenly Princess Mononoke comes to mind. That too was a great experience.

My god I love the website, it's just so awesome. I've been playing the minigames(middle right icon) and they're pretty fun. There's a minigame involving the Celestial Brush, too. But if it's going to require you to use the second analog stick in the actual game there might be a problem. I'm pretty sloppy with it.

I havnt heared much or seen much of the game, but I'm realy liking the artwork of it. I gotta check out the game previews these days, I hope the game is actually worth playing.

Double Post:
Btw whats that song called thats playing on the video here http://www.tsutaya.co.jp/sp/o-kami/index.html it sounds like a Ayumi Hamasaki song.

I tried to demo a while ago, really weird game. The draw function/skill is a refreshing idea though. Plus the OST is pretty good, which is a plus in my books. Might actually pick this one up, simply because of its unique style.

From what I managed to gather from the game's official site, the game's theme song is called "Reset." And from a little research, I found out that the artist for the song is Ayaka Hirahara. The song can be found on her latest album that was released on March 22, 2006, which I'm currently downloading. I'll upload the song as soon as its finished.

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/961...emesong4ec.jpg

BTW, has an OST been announced yet for the game?

Double Post:
And here it is, the game's theme song "Reset" by Ayaka Hirahara.

YSI to Ayaka Hirahara's "Reset"

Also incase anyone is interested in getting Ayaka's latest album (which was where "Reset" came from), "4tsu no L", here's the torrent to it. The album itself is pretty good.

Hirahara Ayaka - yotsu no L [2006.03.22]

I'd like to find out what the main theme on o-kami.co.jp is, or at least who made it. If there's more material like this then I'm definitely interested. Traditional japanese music much like the track on the official website has always interested me.

*reads the kanji*

"big god"? o__O eh!?

[/random comment]

I can answer that.

The name of the game is a pun; the word ōkami (狼) in Japanese means "wolf", however the kanji characters used as the title of this game (大神), also pronounced as Ōkami, mean "great deity". The same characters (大神) are also used to write the full name of the goddess Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami.

Thanks for the links. I swear she sounded like Ayumi Hamasaki in that song.

The game's OST is up for pre-order at CD Japan. It's going to be a 4 disc set with " folding screen-styled special box." Considering what I've heard so far, I think I'll be making an order for this.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=CPCA-10158

Looks like the official website, o-kami.jp has updated yet again. Seriously, take a look at the official page, it's damn awesome.

There's a bunch of profiles on characters(top middle button), but more importantly is that there's a commercial trailer, which is the first item once you've clicked the middle left button. I don't think I'll be importing this game as I already have another japanese RPG coming, and I'd really like to enjoy this in english.

But, of course, if it isn't released outside of japan I will import it. Since it's been described as "Clover's Twilight Princess game made in half the time" I assume there'll be little text to bother with.

I can't see any reason for Clover not to localize it for a US launch. The game is available for preorder at EB/GameStop as well, as I've had mine preordered for a good while now.

Yeah, plus the demo is in English, which means they've already worked on translating it. If it doesn't get released in the U.S. now, that would be pretty weird.

for once, I'm not sur if there is really some "speaking japanese" in this game, but I would love that they keep the VO and just translate the subtitle (and menu of course if there's one) I think it would really keep the true feeling of this game ^^

Really? Is it just the menus or the whole thing? I haven't seen any footage of the demo.

I watched my sister play it, and everything was in English, including the menus and the dialogue boxes (the voices were never in any real language to begin with, so those were left the same). The demo has two different stages, which means they must have already done quite a bit of work, which is why I said it would be really weird if they didn't release it here.

I played the demo, and this game looks and plays amazing.

However, I am curious as to how deep the game will be. Will it just be doing random chores for the towns people?

Or will it play more like a Zelda type game?

I was just thinking what kind of game it would be, in terms of action/platform type games.

Anyone pick up last months issue of Play for the cover story on Okami? It has an interview with Atsushi Inaba, president of Clover and a preview before that. I scanned it because I planning on maybe using some of the art in a sig but if you guys are intrested in seeing the article i might up it.

I'd like to see the article. We, for some reason, haven't seen anymore issues of play come in the mail at work, so yeah I'd really like to see that article.

Not the greatest scanner in the world but you can read everything and the pictures are pretty good (did some minor correction in ps as well): http://rapidshare.de/files/18203188/Play.rar.html

http://bt.eastgame.net/download.php?...4bb5788608d526

Game's out, and there's the torrent. I won't be downloading it, though, as I'll probably import the game directly when I'm not so busy.

So hows the gameplay so far? Can anyone here give a review or impressions on the game?

EDIT: Never mind, I'm playing it.

Granted I've only played the beginning part, first village, but wow, the style and look of the game is amazing, it may be cell shaded and all that, but its one of the best looking games in the PS2. Like Shadow of Colossus, the graphics may not impress the people who like techinical graphical breakthroughs (Like the new MGS4 trailer), the art style and look of the game is amazing. The framerate is decent in the game, and animation is flawless. There are little details such as puffs of cartoon dust appears when you run, and the more you run the faster you get , and trails of flowers follow behind you. The whole Oriental calligraphy brush strokes are everywhere in the game, it looks like a moving Japanese art.

Gameplay wise, its fun, Okami has a headbutt move for combat uses and breaking pots for items, jump movements and swimming, which like most platform games lets you swim till the life meter runs out. The best thing though, is naturally the use of the BRUSH to solve puzzles and for use in Combat, there are many strokes and symbols you can gain as you play through (Since Im still beginning, I only have 3), and they assist you in many ways.

The first one I've got its a zig zag symbol(though for differenrt puzzles you may need to draw different shapes, as I'll tell you now), the symbol or stroke is used for repairing broken things like Bridges or a Watermill. You need to draw the approximate shape to fix things to keep going.

The 2nd one I've got is a very basic one, use in both combat and field. A horizontal stroke creats a Slash attack. it can cut down trees and certain boulders for Item pick ups, it can also be used for combat. In combat when you headbutt the enemies long enough, they turn Black and White, thats when you hit R1 and Draw a line on them to finish them off.

The 3rd one is a circle, which is used to draw a sun, which lights up the sky, and is used in later puzzles as well.

So far, I've been running around the first village helping people. There are also mini games you can participate to gain Items and such. One I tried is to dig up all the 10 radishes in this field without this Mother woman punch me. Once I do so I can talk to her son and he would give me a reward. There are other mini games that come later as well, so far Ive heard theres a whack-a-mole game somewhere later.

Overall so far, I'm having fun with this game.

Oh, this is fantastic.

It's almost like a breath of fresh air when a game like Okami comes to such a relatively stagnant industry. The visuals, the presentation, the gameplay - everything's nearly perfect, save for that damn Navi ripoff who's just as annoying. Calling a goddess "furball" should automatically get you annihilated.

Anyway, the presentation is absolutely top-shelf stuff. The visuals are wonderful and vivid, and I adore the fact that flowers spring up everywhere Amaterasu steps. I also enjoy her breakneck speed - she moves, she moves faster, and then she speeds forward with yellow flowers blooming behind her. It's incredible!

I love the fighting as well. Being a wolf and tearing into the enemy's bodies is so much fun and I love splitting them in half with the Celestial Brush. Speaking of which, I thought the brush's mechanics would feel a little awkward, but they really don't. In fact, it's really easy and enjoyable to pick up and play with.

This game is going to be excellent, no quesiton. At the very least, most artistic game of the year and likely most innovative game of the year, or at least a nomination for it. Sadly, this demo will have to keep my occupied for quite a few months before I get my hands on the real thing.

I've been wanting to grab this game since I saw a preview on TV. It looks really fun, moreso than most games that come out nowadays. The brush functions look really cool! Also, the soundtrack is quite the feat.

I can't wait for it to hit the shelves.

A rip of the game's BGM has surfaced. Here's the torrent to it. It' about 410 mb.

Also, I got an update from CDJapan, apparently the game's OST is now 5 discs! I never would have expected a game like this to have so much music. Anyway, should be shipping at the end of the month, can't wait!

Okami has been on my wish list ever since I saw the TGS 2004 trailer on Cinamatech (of all places). It's been a long wait, but like so many other masterpieces in videogame history, it is well worth it. I've been playing through the Japanese version, and I really can't think of a single bad thing to say about it. Even the wierd character voices that some have complained about don't really bother me, and though Issun did kind of annoy me at first, I actually like him now.

I know I don't have to talk about how utterly gorgeous this game looks, but I will say this: as pretty as the screenshots at the official website are, the environments look even better in motion. Leaves flutter down from the trees, wisps of wind curve through the air in the distance, and reviving the dead trees across the land creates a swirl of color that explodes into a tidal wave of greenery. I'd have to say that this is probably the most unique looking game I've ever owned, with practically nothing borrowed from other titles visual-wise. When I think about how this game was originally supposed to have "photo-realistic" graphics, I'm grateful that they couldn't get it to work. There's a lot of time honored tradition and appreciation of that tradition apparent in the game as it stands now, and I think that had Clover Studio achieved what they were originally going for, all of this would have been lost.

As for the gameplay, it's fun and easy to pick up. All of the expected platform/adventure controls (running, jumping, combat, camera, etc) work well, and I'm particularly impressed by how easy it is to use the Celestial Brush. When I first heard about the concept, I was worried about how it would control with the analog sticks, but it actually works quite well. As for what you actually do in the game, a lot of it involves simply exploring the environments, reviving the land and undoing the damage caused by Orochi, an eight-headed dragon. Each area also has people who need your help, and while some can be ignored others are essential to progessing through the game. There are a fair amount of minigames (radish digging, fishing, whack-a-mole, racing, etc.) and sidequests are also in abundance--you can hunt special youkai (demons), feed the various wildlife you find in each area, and apparently there are special brush strokes you can get that aren't a part of the main storyline.

Now on to the music (my speciality ^_^). Everyone needs to download the torrent Hantei mentioned. Now. The music is, in one word, extraordinary. Traditional instruments--like the shamisen, koto, Japanese flute, and taiko drum--abound in this huge, 200+ track rip, and there is a noticeable nod to the traditional music and theater (in particular Noh) of Japan--that is, if you know what to look for. Most of the music features Western rhythms and chord progressions, though, so those who aren't fans of Japanese traditional music won't find themselves in completely new territory. Instruments aside, the music is beautiful, and even though there are some tracks I don't care for, there are also a ton of tracks I love to death. For example, the theme from the TGS 2004 trailer that I mentioned earlier is included in the game, and Issun's theme is turning out to be one of my favorites. I absolutely can't wait until the soundtrack is released at the end of the month. It's a "must buy" in my book.

Oh, and if the torrent is going too slow for anyone (it doesn't have a lot of peers at the moment, according to Isohunt), I can upload the rar file Shylph provided earlier this month (it's the same rip as the torrent) to someplace like File Factory or any other file sharing site that allows uploads in excess of 400 MB.

Actually Lian, if you could post the .rar somewhere else other than BT, I'd really appreciate it. I equally share your excitement, maybe even more so since every day at work I get to play the demo. Shh don't tell my boss or he'll get mad.

Right now though, BT's no longer seeding anything and I barely got anything from what little was being seeded.

Sure thing, SouthJag. Here is a Megashares link. I've never used this site before so let me know if you have any problems downloading the file. By the way, the rar file itself is password protected, and the password is "rpgmm" (minus the quotation marks, of course :) ). Enjoy!

Awesome Lian. I'm gonna let it download as I sleep tonight. Thanks again!

The last game I saw that was this visually appealing was Shadow of the Colossus, and Okami makes that one look bland in comparison. The latest E3 trailer has escalated my hype for the game tenfold. Wind Waker wishes it could have looked this good.

I had a chance to play through some of the japanese version.

First of all, you don't want to import it. Do you? Of course you don't. It's extremely text based and even the opening is about ten or fifteen minutes long. Of scrolling japanese text. And then BAM, japanese wall scroll transforms into 2D/3D world.

The most obvious thing in this is, it's entirely in japanese. There's not a hint of english in here, even if you tried to search. Which I didn't. But I don't need to. The game starts out by showing a person going into a castle and attempting to steal a sword, and by doing so unleashes an evil on the world.

The signs of evil alert the people of the town, and Issun (the female woman) summons the statue of Amaterasu to come alive. It does so, and then she proceeds to lick herself. Not the woman, the dog. Although that would probably have made the game even better.

Your tutorial assistant is (from what I can tell) a cricket which bounces on your nose. Amaterasu tries to eat it at first, but no such luck. Your first task is to enter a castle and slice a statue with the paintbrush, which releases your attacks. The second part is a tutorial, explaining how the paintbrush works, how it changes scenery, and what your different attacks do.

If you dig up this guy's vegetable patch he'll come and smack you. Yeah, pet abuse.

Square is a headbutt attack. X is your typical jump attack (and you can double jump easily if you're next to a wall or whatever). Circle allows you to drag people by the arm with your teeth to different areas (which isn't only pointless, but horribly entertaining) and triangle allows you to dig.

After the tutorial forces you through painting in the sky, creating a bridge from one end to another, slicing enemies in half, and whathaveyou, now it's on to gameplay. Proper gameplay. The first thing you'll notice is that your speed is greater depending on how long you're in motion.

It all makes for a really cute game, but you can't really follow the depth as it's in japanese. The graphics are awesome, but they are a bit blurry as everything has a glow to it. Some of the key features in the game are: breaking/slicing things with the paintbrush to reach new areas, changing day to night with the sky, cutting people's grass, generally helping the townsfolk as much as you can.

If you don't do anything for awhile, the "evil" will shroud the town yet again. I'm not sure how you get rid of this since I'm at a point which I can't get past, and haven't tried, but I don't think you're on a timer or anything like that. Thank god this isn't like Majora's Mask.

I will definitely pick this up by the time it's released outside of japan, because it's obviously going to be good. Call it Zelda with a dog, if you will, but it's still a great game. From what I hear it's quite lengthy, too.

Been listening to the soundtrack, which came in a few days ago, and man is it good. Definitely a worthwhile purchase, the illustrations used for the packaging itself are quite beautiful too. I especially liked how they even included the unused and image pieces on the 5th disc, which were great too. If you can't afford to import it, then definitely download it, as gamemp3s just recently released it.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4...amiost19mc.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7...amiost27dl.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/1...amiost39gw.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/3...amiost41om.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9...ost5thb8ag.jpg

Yeah I just got it!! 5 CD's man that's a lot or what?!?! 40-60 tracks on each it took me 2 days to listen to all of them. I was only hoping that it will be one of the good ones and it is =). Great OST! Can't wait for the game!

Could someone upload okami eng demo from OPM 103
to megashare or rapid?

Why would you want the demo when you can download the entire game? Obviously it's in japanese but that doesn't stop you "testing" it before it's released outside of japan.

Also, can someone please tell me why I'm not subscribed to my own thread.

If this game is as good as the OST, I'll be buying it FOR SURE. Seriously. This is aural bliss. So, is this more of an adventure game or more action styled?

I have to say, I'm not usually a fan of that type of Japanese-style music, but I really like the Okami OST. I don't know why, I just can't stop listening to it. It's just amazing how the tracks flow together, not to mention how freaking many there is (5 discs?!? Has there ever BEEN a soundtrack that's that big before?). I'd pick up the soundtrack if it wasn't so expensive, I just can't bring myself to spending upwards of $60 for music :( . Not exactly much chance of a domestic release, either...

When I first saw the game I thought it looked a bit...odd...but it was interesting. After reading and seeing more of it, I'm starting to get excited about it. It certainly looks unique, and while I still don't like the look of some of the characters, it looks much more tolerable to me than Wind Waker was. Thanks for that description and rip, Lian.

Oh, and I did have to lol at Gamestop's description of the game: I'm sorry, I just found that humerous.

I'm listening to the soundtrack right now, and I have to say it's pretty awesome. Actually, it's incredible. That's something I say extremely rarely, but this soundtrack deserves a lot of praise. Not really music I can "get into" and groove along with, but it creates a really nice ambiance.

Wouldn't know about the game. Haven't played it yet.

I think the original soundtrack is really great, the style is really good but I still didn't any strong music in it, like you know those kind of music that you just love so much at the first listening and you want to listen over and over? there's only the Reset song that I'm listening over and over, it's really good. The rest of the album so really good too but I don't think i'll listen to it very often, overall there's really not a lot of song that I would like to listen more then once or at least listen them outside of the game.

and I have to say that I HATE that more then half of the tracks on those 5 cd are shorten then 1min >.> which even if it's fun to have all those "music sound effect" I doN,t think they belong in a OST...

but still I suggest it to anyone, they really can't go wrong with it.

Any news for a European/Australian release date for Okami? If it didn't get a PAL release, I would be absolutely furious, this looks like 10/10 Gamespot & IGN material. I mean, Famitsu gave it a 39/40, jeez...I'm loving the soundtrack, as I am trailers and images. Okami looks like it's stunning in all aspects of gaming.

Through the ICO thread, I found a fanart site that has Okami fanart on it! It's really quite adorable.

tatsu.sakura.ne.jp/fp/home/index.html

Click on the second link under ICO・ワンダと巨像 (その他) to see it in all it's adorable glory.

Someone can correct me on this, but I'm fairly certain it comes out Q1 of next year. Possibly february. Though that may depend on how well it does in the US. Since I think it bombed in Japan.

This game looks so great one of the most anticipated games on my behalf. Trying to DL the gamemp3 OST as wee speak but it's very slow with 4 seeds. Capping your seeding speed to below a kb for the lose. ; ;

Okami Capcom 04/20/06 JP
Okami Capcom September 2006 US
Okami Capcom September 2006 EU

Woah, damn that's good, we're getting it really close to the USA? It's not often that happens. For example, Suikoden V gets translated in less than a month after it's Japanese release, but it takes over 5 months to change a few things here and there for a PAL release.../rabbling.

Ah, ok. I saw the same thing on GameFAQs, but I've notice a Q1 '07 release on more places, so I figured it was more correct. Pretty cool that Europe's getting a game that's not delayed for months on end.

Box art's changed, but it really isn't that bad so I can't complain.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8...03frontgy0.jpg

Huge.

Hmm, I would have preferred the kanji box art, but what can you do. It's highly unlikely a game's box art will ever (fully) contain Japanese characters (although I'm sure someone will prove me wrong :)). I'm sure the store selling the game would be flooded with questions like: "ZOMG iz dis game in jap? dat sux0rs" (I'm awful at the leet manner, but you get what I mean).

The demo is awesome!

It looks great, even on a crappy 27" tv.

only thing i didnt like, was issun.. the nosie he makes after every line :P

other than that, great demo.. cant wait for release now

Was the demo in the latest issue of OPSM?

yes. i got it in the mail

Cool didn't know there was a demo! But it doesn't matter,only a few days to go :)

We got the pre-order bonus Buddha Boards in today, so those who pre-ordered it at EB Games or Gamestop can go grab theirs. It's pretty nifty -- better than some pre-order bonuses, definitely.

Buddha Boards? O_o

Yeah, what SouthJag said made absolutely no sense.

Well if you preordered the game...you get this little board thing where you can draw on it (buddha board I suppose) as a promotion. So preorder it, you get something for free!

I can't wait to get the game (and board...would make a nifty gift I guess)...so close.

IGN's review is up, 9.1 for the game!

Ahh, may just wait before I purchase this though. As I doubt I'll have much time to play it (very busy semester for me). Probably by the time I do have time to play, it'll drop in price.

Wow 9,1..as expected ^^ I'm getting this game as soon it's out, still in vacation and uber bored XD

Here's what bothers me about IGN's review. They would say the exact same thing for a Zelda title, yet Lasting Appeal and Sound would've gotten higher scores. Ah well.

And as for the buddha boards. They're something akin to watercolor paints, but without color. All you did is dab a brush (which is included) into water and draw on the included board. I assume that when it dries, whatever you painted goes away.

Now, I've no idea why what I said earlier made no sense....but oh well. Just alerting those of you who pre-ordered your game would be able to go get your bonus.

Any idea if this bonus is only for the US preorders? I preordered this game, and well, as you can see, I'm Canadian.

I couldn't imagine why'd the bonus would only be for the US pre-orders, but then again I don't know for certain either way.

I never got any bonus when preordering in any EBGames store. And I'm canadian.

Aw horse shit, just noticed this game has been removed from Aussie release lists altogether. Thanks for pulling another Megaman Anniversary on us, Capcom!

if I pre-order now do you think I can still get that water-board or something? XD

Well it comes out in like a week, right?

doubt it, since it comes out in like 2 days :P

yay thankfully I preordered mine 4 days before the release XD

Sorry, I was looking at Inhert's sig and was thinking VP2.

Really?

They had the same problem with Zelda's sound as Okami's and *GASP*, the score REFLECTS IT! They also give Gameplay the same score as Okami, with the same complaint about the game being too easy!

Good to hear. I have no time to pick up my copy today, but hopefully I could get it tomorrow. I wanted the buddah board when I preordered it, but the people at the Gamestop I go to said they never got it, at least I know that that we get the buddah boards with the game now.

I pre-ordered off amazon a few days ago but I picked that free shipping option...which takes 5-9 days =(...oh poo

Edit: With the Sound score, yes you're correct. However, you're quite a bit off with the Lasting Appeal score, as Okami only scored an 8.0, not to mention I wasn't even concerned with the Gameplay portion of it, so I don't know why you threw that argument in there.

I checked in today at EB Games. They said tomorrow, so okay then. ^__^

So you're saying that the Zelda games aren't actually better, they are just rated that way due to the name?

Judging from the similar scoring due to similar flaws in a game, I fail to see your argument having weight.

(And just in case you're not figuring it out, I'm not addressing the Lasting Appeal part because I'm implying that IGN feels that Zelda's replay value is better than Okami's.)

I was really just making an observation. With Okami being very, very similar to a Zelda game (in this case, Wind Waker), I would've thought its score to be higher. A 9.1 is nothing to scoff at, but alas. For the record, none the Zelda games I've played have had any real replay value outside of "Hey that was cool. Let's do it again." I admit to being a little disappointed that IGN doesn't believe Okami measures up to Zelda in that respect.

And I'm not really trying to make an argument out of it. In any case, I'm still anxiously awaiting this game's arrival. I'll be at work tomorrow when it comes in, but I plan to take my lunch break to go to another store and pick up my pre-ordered copy. Too bad I have a huge test on Thursday and won't be playing it until early afternoon on Friday. :( :( :(

supposidly a torrent has been released for the game here.
Not sure if its real but i'm getting it right now, hopefully its good.

Gamespot gave this a 9.0, and user reviews seem extremely high for it. I'll have to do a price check on this one, but it sounds like a keeper. Isn't life grand? Xbox 360 is out, Wii will launch in the next couple months, PS3 launch coming up... and a game like Okami is just now coming out for the PS2.

Wow, thanks for posting that link, it made me go straight to TL to check if it could be found there, which indeed it could. That's usually enough proof for me, so I'd say that the torrent is real. (Don't hold me to that, though)

I finally picked up my copy today... I'm just pissed I didn't get my buddah board. The dude who works there told me they gave their last one away 20 minutes before I came, but said if they had anymore shipped in, he'd contact someone i'm friends with who worked there before and tell her to give it to me.

Now I actually have to try the damn game. My parents are just really strict with their whole, "No video games on the weekdays" policy... I know it, it sucks. But they're parents, what can you do?

No special offers for me when I picked my pre-order up. Whatever.

Gamefly told me it'd be the 21st. Toggled as Now Available on their website. Seems I'll be dumping off my last game at the post office tonite so that I can get a copy of this =d

I'm totally excited! All tests finished and I was surprised to find it at Blockbuster when my friend who works at EB said it would be in next week on the 27th for some reason.
I'm going to pop it in the PS2 after this and eagerly hope that it lives up to the insanely high reviews and innovative gameplay seen in the trailers.

Finally getting my free copy in 11 hours..cya tomorrow Okami (L) XD

Damn. No money for Okami, but I did play the OPM demo. Quite impressive. The artistic style of the game left me a little stirred up with jealousy.


Anyone else bark over and over again?

I just picked mine up today (with the Buddha Board thing it came with, still haven't waterpainted it to find out what's on it though). I have to say the game is fantastic. The controls work well, the combat's fast and fun, and the painting method of performing special techniques is awesome.

Capcom has been getting a lot of my money lately D:

I'm ordering this from ebay as we speak. This game shits all over Zelda.

It'll take 12 days to get here but IT WILL BE MINE, OH YES, IT WILL BE MINE.

I own this. I have it sitting on my bed, with the guide, ready and eager to be played. Yet it sits, in its plastic wrapping. Why? Goddamn huge exam tomorrow, with papers and studying to be done tonight.

Alas, Thursday evening/Friday will be dedicated to the enjoyment of Okami!

WOW, when this game hits europe i'm gonna buy it ORIGINAL..this game deserves money! LOVE IT!!!

I tested the one from the torrent and it is real and works perfect.
I'll play more through the game later though

Looks like no one has posted much of game play.
I only have gotten up to the first save point. Well, that's gameplay for you.

I've gotten to the second save point in the village. Game is not only awsome it has a few laughs in it too.



I love every chance I get to use the brush, its all so magical.
The battles are sort of and rpg where u get confined in an area until you beat all the monsters. The action is fast but so far all that works is square, square, square, and then the brush to finish them off. Atleast in the begining.

Only thing I didn't like is that once I was done with reading the opening scenes and finally made it to the first save spot, it times in at 21 minutes. Its a long read.
So far its an awsome and most visually stunning game evah.

I'm enjoying this game to no end. There's a point where this game stands out from others when



I'm a little over 4 hours into the game, and I'm barely getting to Agata Forest. I can tell this game is going to be deep to almost no end. I suggest people pick this up as soon as possible.

I'm also thoroughly enjoying the game.

Me six, seven!

This game is beautiful. I'm personally not into the whole cel shaded thing, and never was, however I still find the gameplay very enjoyable. I'm 1 hour 15 minutes into the game.

A few questions (I haven't bothered going through the instruction book yet, yes I'm a dummy)



Furthermore, whenever Issun orders me to draw something, I usually try to do it in the most whackiest way.

If I remember seeing in a vid correctly:



Spatula:



Hope that helped a bit.

I already possess most of the brush styles, i hope i don't finish this game TOO fast :(. love the voices btw:p

how long does it take to posses all the brushes, so far I've only played 1 hour and got the frist 2 brushes. Wouldn't possesing all the brushes pretty much put you half way through the game.
I honestly wish they spoke clearly instead of the gibberish way they do. I didn't mind it for shadow of the colossus but the okami voices are a bit annoying ^^;

The "gibberish" actually worked for SOTC since Wanda and the Gods seemed to speak a very archaic sounding "forgotten" language, and the sounds weren't repeated over and over again, making it sound more realistic. Yes, the gibberish for Okami gets somewhat annoying, more so than the King of All Cosmos' rappin' track skills speak.

As for the length of gameplay,

I've heard 30, myself. I don't think game length is a spoiler though Spat.

What makes me sad is that this thread is only 110 posts long, and some of the...umm...questionable RPG forum threads DWARF this. :(

Bloody fantastic game so far though. I'm just not far enough to comment on anything specific quite yet.

The same thing happened in Japan though. This game came out and it didn't sell very well, from what I heard. It was overshadowed by FF12. :(

the game would be really lengthy if it is more than 30 hours. Most action games nowadays really only take less than 20 hours unless its gta.
Its good to know that its made to last.

Gamespot said it was around 30 hours long. Knowing them they probably just blew through the game just to get an idea of how long it took to complete. I've been in the game 6 hours and I've unlocked 6 brushes I believe

The "language" instantly reminded me of the Klonoa series for their use of a unique language.

The language reminds me of Animal Crossing speak even though it's not just the words sped up. It sort of annoys me since the sounds are repetitive, but I think I can vaguely grasp the effect they were going for with it. I wouldn't have been disappointed with voice acting though.

Okami is truely as beautiful as I initially thought and I am very pleased with the amount of brush freedom. I don't quite see the urgent need to up your ink bottle capacity yet though.

I'm now excited at what possible kind of secret twist the end of the game could throw at you, as stated in the manual?

I have 6 ink bottles right now. When it comes to attacking enemies' weak points later in the game, you'll need them. I've actually lost my Divine Instrument a few times from running out of ink.

I'm still at the first town, LOL. ::haven't been playing much::

Tip: Do LOTS of fishing. If you catch 2 Huchen (which take 3 slashes to capture one) You can make 15000 Yen easy--run back to Shinshu Field and get new moves. Buy the Rosary Bead Storm, you can reach lvl 3 Godhood with ease using those.

i only have three hours and just got the thrid brush, I guess I'm taking my time too ^^;
I love it when I restore a place's beauty, it feels so freakin magical like lucky charms on acid
And when do I get to fish o_0

Shenlon:

I was bored

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...A/IMG_2276.jpg

how u wrote that so well with the analog is beyond me.
And I also think you just started a good game:sonyPS2:

Check out my journal. :tpg:

Yes, the game rocks. I actually found myself craving it at work today - I just needed to see that awesome art style, hear that music, play the damn game! Easily one of the best purchases I've made recently, I'm getting the guide just to get the character art - it's amazing.

awsome okami art spatula ^_^
How awsome would it be if they actually came to life in the game, I mean that wolf basicly brings life to everything he steps on.

This reminds me of Mononoke Hime and the Deer God. BRINGER OF LIFE AND DEATH.

I'm up to the Hana Valley, or whatever it's called now. Dangerous Business.

Wait till you get to

Love Waka, he reminds me of Yondaime :p (Naruto), Cape looks the same and blond hair XD (plus his coolness)

Can your own cherry bombs hurt you?

What's with the 100,000 yen skill at the dojo? Has anyone got this much money to buy that skill? I hear you just bark and get fangs, okay. Not too sure if it's worth 599 US dollars. =/

I have 4 brush stroke skills and 2 special tecniques - the 4 wind slash and the fleetfoot. I'm on the monster hunt with the Moon Shrine.

I'm a little ahead of you, Spatula. No, your own Cherry Bombs can't hurt you, fortunately. Battle Tip: Since most enemies appear right in the middle of the "arena" you can create a Cherry Bomb beforehand and easily take out the Green Imps. Ftw.

I've acquired the Rosary Beads and the Snarling Beast -- an instrument similar to the Mirror Ammy was initially given. I gotta say, I really like the Rosary Beads.

As a main weapon, they act like a hit. My combo counter's gotten up to over 50 with it equipped. The Snarling Beast, as a primary weapon, lets you shoot out "Ink Bullets" which is pretty damn cool.

I just beat the Spider Queen -- I guess the first major boss of the game, save maybe for Waka depending on how you look at it.

As for divine attributes, I've bumped up my life two or three times (costs 170 now, I think), ink once and my purse once. The purse allows you to carry a maximum of 999,999. I only upgraded it because I did actually hit the max on the initial purse -- 99,999.

Anyone been collecting Demon Fangs? I had 70 but I met the Fang Trader Kiba and picked up the Lucky Cat -- draws money and items to Ammy. It was a cross between that and a Mat which, when you made an "offering" you could sleep on it to regain health. I've only gotta get a few more Demon Fangs and I can run and pick that up as well.

I'm definitely gonna work on upgrading my ink though -- during the fight against the Spider Queen, I ran out numerous times and you can't do anything save for waiting until the ink containers fill back up. I ran outta ink in several different regular fights too, especially against the Bud enemies since they require you to use Bloom and Power Slash kinda often.

hehe

I have questions since I was really slow and backtracked around the time you beat Hana Valley and found stuff like the nighttime visible treasures, and stopping to feed every animal.

1) Has anyone practically used trees in battle? I'm tempted so much more to slash enemies instead of seeing if my trees would succesfully sprout.
2) What is Godhood? I found 2 traveller's charms but must have missed the stat in the fan menu or something.
3) Should I really just sell treasures? They have pretty descriptions.

Anyone actually like the henohenomoheji's?

By that I mean this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...A/IMG_2289.jpg

A mnemonic drawn by Japanese school children to remember their kana.

I just thought it was funny, and instantly recognized it amongst the towns people.

i've got a few 6 hours in the game with alot of traveling in the hana valley. So far I've reached the ruins in the second valley.
Waka was awsome but once I got his attack patterns down he was nothing ^_^
Theres also a small glitch thats like a trap,

I bought this game last night, and I've played about 5 hours. It's a lot of fun so far.

I'm in the Shinshuu Plains right now; I just got there, so I'm mostly exploring. Since I haven't played any console adventures or platform games, the learning curve was a little higher for me than for most of you. It took me forever to figure out that you have to keep pushing the dig button to finish up digging. I'm not very good at the combat either, but luckilly it's been easy so far.

The art is wonderful though. So is the gameplay. I've enjoyed running around, playing with the brushstrokes, and even just feeding all the animals.

I bought this game last night too and... Well let's just say I won't be buying another game for a LONG time. This is my new favorite game.

Miles claims he bought that skill, but given the nature of what he told me, I'm calling shenannigans...

So, does this game remind anyone of Mononoke Hime yet? No seriously. I really mean this.

You can easily buy the 100,000Yen skill, but you'll be fishing in Agata Forest for at least an hour. Then you'll have to run to Taka Pass, sell the Huchen and Salmon to the merchant in the beginning in that zone. Then run (and Lily brush) ALL THE WAY BACK TO SHINSHU FIELD to train. I guess it's better that way as it gives you a chance to take out baddies and make even more money. By far the best weapon so far into the game is the Devout Beads and the "*something* storm" technique that costs like 10,000 I believe. You can get like a 45 hit combo.

For those that would like to know what B4 is doing when hes not on GFF just get my latest Okami save =P Taka Pass (15:07:58 sec | 168,580 Yen | SE: 7 | IP: 5 | 100,000 Yen skill included and all tools from Fang Trader). I just love this game =D

Save was made in Action Replay Max Evo in *.max file type.

Nope, not really. It's hmm... or maybe a little. You just need to play it to know it =)

Ahahaha I recently acquired the Golden Fury Technique.



Love that technique. Demon fangs for ALL.

I'm having a blast just running around dropping cherry bombs on stuff. Cherry bombs own. If I find a pot, I draw a cherry bomb above it and watch it explode. Also, cherry bombing is the best method of cutting the grass, period. Beats hacking it to death with a sword.

How does one go about making an offering? I was at one place earlier in the game, and it asked me to make an offering....rather, Issun said I should making an offering, and the word was highlighted.

Remember the first dude that allow you to fight monster and tell you how fast did you win? First it was 20 sec, now with Cherry Bomb it takes... 2 =P Just wait a while, draw, they appear and *pooh* the're gone =D

Oh yeah -- I posted that little battle strategy a page back. Soon as you enter battle, draw a cherry bomb in the middle and it'll almost always hit/wipe out the weaker guys.

It's also really handy to use against those flower-bud enemies. One hit makes them susceptible to Bloom, and a powered-up Rosary Bead combo with the 6-hit technique utterly destroys them.

Life Beads with the Spirit Storm technique (6-hit combo) utterly destroys enemies...twice as fast. I don't use Cherry Bombs as much as to maintain my Godhood.



Double Post:

I think I missed about how important this Godhood thing is somewhere.
Would that happen to be that indicator that sometimes appears on the bottom left when you enter battle? It seems to change from green to yellow to red, but I have no clue what the effect is.

I've clocked 9 hours and I'm only at the Tsuta Ruins still, since there are so many hidden nooks and crannies and things to find out within the areas available to you! I can't find Ume at all after getting the vine technique and I've searched and re-searched the whole level twice, looking for bloom ops.

Same, I don't have much of a clue and still trying to figure it out.

Godhood is actually the amount of shielding you have against attacks. Use a Traveler's Charm to increase it, or rack up combos to do the same.

Watch carefully when you get hit by enemy attacks -- if you see something golden or red appear around you, that's your Godhood shield.

SouthJag basically hit the nail on the head. Godhood is your shield, and depending on your level (red to yellow to green), you're attack power will increase noticeably. I would rather my Godhood take a considerable attack from Orochi than my solar energy.

Possibly done playing for today.

Time definitely flies when I'm playing this, though. I didn't know it was 5:30 until a few minutes ago. Yikes. So far, my favorite brush power is still the Cherry Bomb, but the Tsumugari glaive is the coolest weapon yet. Charged attacks = end. Those pesky flying fish that cling to you and blow themselves up can't even stand one fully charged hit after you cut their wings. Getting Demon Fangs has never been easier.

I've collected about 105 Fangs so far and bought everything from Kiba in Agata Forest. I spent sometime going back and forth through the Moon Cave fighting the Black Imps to get a lot of those though, since they offer up 3 per finishing strike with the Brush. Just running around Shinshu Field, using Tsumugari and ending battles with teh quickness has gotten me several more Fangs, probably at a faster pace than earlier.

Well there's 148 posts in this thread. . . I saw the game the other day but got turned off by what I saw on the back of the case. With this much hype surrounding the game, I suppose I will try this game out. With this many people talking good things about a game who's genre I tend to stay away from, I figured why not?

Trust me, you won't be disappointed. I'm currently 26 hours into this game, and I can't put it down. I've accumulated 17 of the hours within the past 2 days.

Holy shit, I like the game, but the max I've played is a 3 hour stretch. I'd hate to say it, but it somewhat saddens me the VP2 is coming out in 3 days, therefore I won't be able to focus my attention to just this anymore. Then a month away to FFXII.

The Tsumugari Glaive doesn't seem that powerful to me for some reason--charged attacks or not. I guess I need to power it up with Golden Powder or something.

One way I've taken advantage of that is placing the cherry bomb right in front of me for certain enemies, or in between me and the enemy. This works pretty well for foes that like to charge straight at me, like (spoilers for the Gale Shrine quest) With a little luck, they throw themselves right into the area of effect of the cherry bomb!

Man, all this talk is making it really hard to not go back and play again tonight. :/

Wow, you guys are all so far. I'm 9 hours in, and I'm still in Shinsho Field, though I've just about cleaned everything up - I think i have a couple of walls to Cherry Bomb, and then I'm heading back to make the village bloom and to see if anything changed in Sakuya's shrine.

I should get an hour (or maybe 2) of playing in tonight.

SS - Check Kushi's house...I think you'll find a couple of Sakes in there.

My copy arrived earlier. I'm loving this.

My only complaint is that you can't fix the camera angle, which is annoying because it's too low.

press L1.

Or play with right analog stick =D L1 change your overal view like in racig games. Close view and far view =)

Can someone please re-upload or redirect me to where I can find the OST for this game ;_; Really wanna listen to it.

HERE you go my friend =) Quite BIG id say =D

I meant fixing the camera angle into whatever place you wanted, not an actual fixed preset.

I don't know of a single game that lets you do this, actually. But as said, L1 lets you choose between two different angles and right analog stick moves the camera around.

The game itself is just wonderful; I have only played about two hours, but the setting and gameplay is so unique you just have to love it.

Thanks B4-Hunter!! Well regardless of file size I just hope it'll d/l without any probs. Thank you so much!

Been 17 hours into the game. Still loving it lol.

No problem =) Have fun downloading and listening, it's really great!!

Thanks, I had considered using Cherry Bomb in her house, but thought against it. Maybe I'll go back and do one more thorough exploration of the village and Shinsho before I head to Agata forest.

I wonder how far out in the water I can go before I hit a barrier....

You won't last long if you're actually in the water, but with a Lily brush, I suppose pretty far.

Okay, finally (at about 11h 25min elapsed) had my first Boss battle. Man, it was tough. Waka obliterated me the first time, even with the one-life from the Astral Pouch, and 5 or 6 Holy Bone S's. So yeah, I actually hit the "game over" point and had to reload.

I beat him on the second try though, without digging into the Astral Pouch, and using a few less bones than before. I guess it's all about timing, and learning how to use the beads and mirror properly...

I know there's games which allow you to do this but I can't think of any at the moment. There's no middle camera angle, it's just third person or really far away.

Wow. Dragon Palace's music is some of the most soothing music I've heard in some time. It rivals Klonoa's OST in terms of calmness.

MGS3:SUB gave us up to 3 views. MGS type, FPP and 3rd person. But in Okami it's like in some driving game.

An (easier) way to beat Waka :-

The Jade Glaive (at my point) is the most powerful weapon in the game. It fully charges in literally a fraction of a second. You can take out black imps with 2 strokes.

Kyuubi is so badass ^^, almost at the end

OK few questions:

Looking forward to the last fight.

Wow, so many spoilers that I can't click on.

Anyway, I got to play for a few hours last night, so I finished the first dungeon, and beat the first real boss. She wasn't hard once you knew what to do, but I spent a good 10 or 15 minutes trying different things, probing in various places. Defeating her was very satisfying.

I also bought the Golden Fury technique =p , and traded in a bunch of fangs for Lucky Cat and the Prayer Mat.

So, do you guys use your Gold Dust right away? I've got 3 bags, but I haven't decided if I should use one on my new reflector.

I would say at least one of them for the Divine Instrument Life Beads. If you don't have them yet, you'll be coming up on them pretty quick.

Yeah, let's hope so^^..i'm looking forward 2. The thing is i don't want this game to end...really,i LOVE this game and i'm def gonna complete Every Quest there is..from the list of monsters to whatever :biggrin:

Double Post:
I completed Okami *sniff

I got this in the mail today(order'd it a few days back) only played like 2 hours so far.. going through Baten Kaitos Origins first. From what I play'd, this game kicks ass.. the graphics even on my shitty 27" tv looks fantastic. The only gripe is the sims talk, gets annoying after awhile :) I cant wait to play more.

Any tips before I start it, in a couple days?

There are lots and lots and lots of secrets and rewards to be gained by backtracking. I've clocked 9 hours and have only beaten the first boss, but have gotten lots of praise points, items, and terrain knowledge from going back and revisiting places and exploring in general.

Keep at least ten of each different type of animal food -- seeds, herbs, meat, and fish. Feed every single animal you happen upon. You get dozens of praise points that way and it's extremely easy.

Even though it can be tedious, fight at every opportunity. For one, the fights are easy. Two, if you're quick enough, you can get double the victory yen every single time. It's an easy, easy way to earn yen.

Upgrade your purse at least once and ink at least once. Eventually, upgrade your Astral Pouch. Always upgrading health is an easy trap to fall into. You want your purse to be upgraded so you can afford the more expensive techniques taught by Onigiri Sensei, and I'm up to 6 ink bottles just because you end up chaining several brush techniques back to back, and not running out of ink helps.

how many fields?

Notice my lack of posts since September 27th? Damned VP2 stealing my time. At any rate I did pick up the walkthrough guide. I don't know if I'll need it but from what I read so far in this thread, there's a hell load of little bits of information and things to collect, so I thought mind as well.

I've heard the strategy guide is basically worthless aside from the locations of the beads.

I'm about 8 hours in, just defeated the spider boss and saved. I've been feeding everything in sight and taking it quite slowly, trying not to miss anything out there, but the game is so huge I probably already have.

eventually there will be plenty of things you'll have to stumble over and come back to later in the game. Like the various rock digs, catwalks, and boulder busting (which I'm assuming needs the last Celestial Brush).

Those huge boulders -- I think they can be broken with the advanced charge technique you have to buy. Ammy gets a "powered up" version of her charge when she's on the field that'll let her break larger rocks, just like Digging Champ and breaking through rocky ground.

How far am i?

You have tons and tons of game left -- that's only the first real boss.

I got to play some last night, and I got past the second boss, so I'm finished with the Gale Shrine. Tonight I'll probably finish the most recent "Wanted" list before moving ahead and following where the plot directs me.

I just clocked in at 29:00, and I don't understand how I'm going so much slower than everyone else.

I just finished this game at 58 hours. That wasn't even collecting all the stray beads...I might start it over since you start with a "1" save much like MGS, so you start out with 4 out of the 5 weapons for each class...and I THINK all the Celestial Brushes.

Just going out today to pick up a copy. Finally found time after such intense schoolwork. Whew.

question.. how do you attack with your subweapon, is that a skill you have to buy? I have 2 reflectors equiped, but only seem to use the main one.

reflectors are only to deflect attacks as a subweapon or counter attacks, like a direct attack from an elemental wheel. You'd have to equip either a Bead or Glaive as a sub to have an offensive subweapon.

I wouldn't know...I never did the 2nd wanted list. So at this point I'd assume there's a wanted list for each major area.

I never found one for Agata forest. I doubt every area has one, and Agata doesn't really have that many monsters in it.

not exactly a spoiler, but did anyone happen to pick up The 8th Wonder, the 2nd to last Glaive? I skipped that one somehow...that and the last Bead. =/

I havent got a glaive yet :P

3 reflectors, 1 rosey.. whens the next rosey?

You're talking to a guy who took 58 hours to beat the game, I couldn't possibly tell you when you'll get the next Rosary Bead. I've forgotten already.

heh, i have like 11hours

^ I hate you.

58 hours completed
2 deaths (;_; )
116 saves
932 enemies defeated
539K Yen earned
5300+ Praise obtained
36 Stray Beads found ;_;

That's off the top of my head. If I can review the complete game stats, I'll post them up. ^^

really? wow, and im 20 or so hours into it

Mmm... First post so i'll try to make it semi-lengthy. I didn't write down my exact score so I shall see what I recall.

55ish hours completion
0 deaths
5.5 million yen
quite a bit of saves over 20 proably
Over 900? enemies defeated
5,500ish praise earned
around 90 stray beads found

I missed the lightning strike technuike, 3rd power bursh tech, and I didn't discover the ice attack. I earned all Cherry blossom trees. Also this game took up all my free time for about 3-6 days...

its also cool, you get to replay the game with weapons, different skins for looks.. do brushes carry over to?

Brushes don't carry over but certain moves do, I think the game also doubles your money, or I just got quite a bit of yen from beating the last boss

I got 1.2 million Yen for beating the shit out of Yami. :D

RPGcrazied, you're slightly behind where I'm at.

Diggin the new rosary beads, but I'm gonna stick with the Seven Strike. I think that's what it's called anyway -- the second glaive. Powered it up with the Gold Dust and it's the strongest weapon I've got. Plus, it has Ink Bullet. Does anyone actually use the ink bullet ability?

One quick question. I bought the wood mat, figuring it'd be nice to have in case I ever needed a heal and ran out of items. It says I need to make a cash offering, but how do I do that? Thus far, I haven't been able to use it, at least not to my knowledge.

Ah the wood mat puzzled me too at first. Don't press any button for like 10 seconds and Ammy should lye down and you will see green grass sprouting up. As you lay down with the wooden mat equiped I regained but at the price of yen, the game automaticly donates for you.

On a 2nd note Block Head Grande sucks... He has best me yet, at my last two atempts. I've read that recording while playing with a vcr/digital camera works, if all else fails i'll try that. I think what makes it so had is that there is no grid, and the dots enlarge and shrink and my memory is off because of it.
During my first playthrough I only needed one more gold dust and Grande had it... It is quite frustrating.

Well, last night I killed

The sad part is, it took me over an hour to kill him (no deaths, just one continuous long battle) -- not because I couldn't figure out what to do, but because executing the pln was difficult with so much going on and with my not-so-great brushstroke control when drawing from point to point. Also, I used up 2 golden peaches, 2 inkstones, and a pile of holy bones S.

For later bosses, I think I should upgrade my pouch some more.

But, it felt great to bring him down. Now, at the first save after the battle, I clock in at ~34:00.

Ah. I kinda thought that's what her laying down was, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for clearing that up, Xeno.

By your 3rd Dig game in Dragon Palace, you should have AT LEAST 7+ Ink pouches. Upgrade NOW!!! I'm serious, you'll regret it later if you don't. SouthJag knows which Dig game I'm talking about--where you start at the bottom, then work your way up, THEN BACK DOWN AGAIN!!! :aargh:

Don't worry, I was talking about the Astral pouch. I've got 7 ink pouches now, and my next upgrade will be an ink pouch.

Yeah, that one sucked. The one or two other dig games after that one though are unusually easy, even with less than 7 ink containers.

Oh yeah, did anyone besides me face Princess Fuse and the Kusa 5 (or should I say 8). After Orochi, re-enter Gale Shrine and go to the right and they should be there waiting for ya. Definitely stock up on Exorcism Slips and Holy Bone Ms on this one.

you fight them all? can you do that anytime, after gale shirne? I guess you get a stray bead for it eh

stray bead and I think about 35K yen.

wow, all at the same time? i bet thats intense, im gonna go do it :P


i guess you have to be at the end of the game to do this, i visted the gale shrine.. nobody was there..

Huh. I don't know when exactly they're there, but I did face them after Orochi.

stock up on Ink pouches and do the Dig mini game, which'll be inside to your right. Good luck.

I just picked this up today, and my God, what a beautiful game, and such an innovative battle system! This is shaping up to be a great one indeed.

That blockhead was a pain?

I got Blockhead Grande on the first shot luckily. I think it was 6 or 7 points. :D

Man an Okami Sequal on ps3 ......drools* xD

I doubt that's oging to happen considering how long it took Clover to make Okami in the first place.

Just be greatful for what you have already.

Well The ending sure made it pretty clear that there will be a sequel, ("the secret ending") so i'm positive there will be one.

What?? I got it after 20 tries.. There were 8 weakpoints by the way. The gold dust and stray bead behind him was worth the trouble though.

Double Post:
What secret ending? I didn't know of such a thing.

ooooooh. Where did you buy the 8th Wonder?

http://ir.capcom.co.jp/news/html/061012a.html
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123646

Seems like Clover Studio is disbanning X_X

Wow. The hopes and dreams of an Okami 2 has disbanned as well. =/

http://translate.google.com/translat...&hl=en&ie=UTF8

Hopefully that'll lead to the translated version of that webpage.

Reason #3 is what concerns me, but has me confused. It sounds like it's saying that Clover racked up an immense 400 million Yen expense, and its earnings wre only 90 million (taken from Reason 1).

Edit: Here's a figuratively translated version of that page. A bit easier to understand. Found it at the neogaf forums.

You guys should check out the Okami official site:

http://www.o-kami.jp/

There's a lot of neat stuff on there, including some cute little cartoons.

Meanwhile, I'm about 60 hours in, just finished Oni Island, and I'm currently running around some of the previous maps, trying to find beads I missed. Also, I've found 4 upgrade brush strokes.

Does any one have the locations of all the gold dust mercants?
PS: who thinks there should be a Okami 2?

If you'd pay attention to the thread... Clover Studios is disbanding there will never be anymore Okami.

Been playing this game sporadiacly am up to the second Waka fight. Has been fun till now. And really love the atmosphere the game has.

Beat the game with 28 hours X_X. Nearly lost to the last boss, had one life orb left before I was able to finish him. I have to say that was a really moving ending. First time I ever beat a game and felt depressed that I finished it. Beautiful game, can't say I enjoyed any other game as much as this one.
Ready for a second round so I can collect all the stuff I missed T-T.

It is really depressing that Clover is gone, which probably contributed towards feeling a little down after beating the game.

I need two music tracks form game,if anyone can help i will explain which ones?

Eh I have the OST which tracks in particular?

That sucks that clover studios has stoped I mean Okami
was there first game.

Poor Viewtiful Joe just shed a tear.

Oh I forgot about Viewtiful Joe.

I asked at gamefaqs about the name of songs

My post

"I need to know the name of 2 tracks,just names form OST.

1.The one that plays in Moon cavern,where the door is blocked by mist.

2.Other is tricky one,when you come out of cavern after defeating first spider boss.You talk with the boy(fisher) who lost his dog. The track plays in conversation there,when dog gets aggresive stance towards the boy. Its really pleasant track.

I need the name of these 2 ,please help."


Someone replied

"1. Disc 1 59 - Harami Lake

2. Don't recall which track it was. I think it might be Disc 3 43 - We'll Always Be Together!"



I don't know if he is right or wrong,i dont have any choice but to request these 2 tracks on sendspace or if you have beter idea what those tracks are,i want them.

I wrote a more In-depth Review on my Blog which you can read HERE. I also worte down some infos about the Soundtrack with a nice picture of the beautiful Box-Set.

What makes you think that is going to happen? Even if Clover dosen't fully disband into nothingness, I highly doubt they will be able to retain some of their licenses from Capcom...

Here's hoping they can, though.

Wait I just thought of something just because clover's gone doesnt mean the chance of an Okami 2 is ethier. I saw that Capcom not clover owns
the rights to Okami and you all know how Capcom can be so Okami 2 might not be that far away after all.

Pift, but with it being out of the hands of Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba, the creative minds behind the game, it's doomed to be utter crap just like Devil May Cry 2.

Exactly. I mean, sure I'd give it a chance, but thats like playing Metal Gear without Kojima. Kind of.

Shinji did ResidentEvil(shinji's brainchild) - Kamiya did sequel which wasn't bad but really good direction.

Kamiya did DMC direction along with Shinji's supervision - DMC3 was bad ass and DMC4 looks really bad ass too, will rock ass too surely.

Everytime Silenthill director changed.

So if Okami 2 will be made by some other Capcom guy,chances are it will be tight as well.

I have confidence in Capcom,what worries me is selection of "person", to whom the direction/prodution will be given. The selection and decision should be made according to talent of person, rest will be ok.

DMC2 team was full of new bees ,crap people.Capcom realizes the mistake and surely wont repeat it to piss off gamers and fans.

In anycase i am skeptical about Okami 2 being as great as 1,in terms of creativity.

They havent left any room of creativity,almost done evrything.I am imagining what other moves they can give to Ammy?

Specially new and more than what is in the original.

Yeah right DC3 has some of the most amazing in-game-action sequences on the PS2 and we all know much of a new revolution RE4 became so Okami 2 could be pretty awsome as well.

sorry guys I will upload OST/Track, as soon as my midterms are over. I have a lot of crap on my hands X_X

It will be a few days, hope that is alright?

So I just beat Nine Tails. Please tell me the rest of the boss fights are as bad ass as this one was. I mean...seriously - I'm about 40 hours into the game. I realy need to quit exploring every damn nook and cranny of the game for clovers.

No worries,just try to pack two tracks(imentioned) in seperate rar file.

I just encountered Blockhead Grande -- what a piece of shit. I can't remember all the spots quick enough, so to possibly quell my frustration, what's the reward you get for beating him? Please use spoiler tags if it's anything spoilerific.

You just get a Hidden Bead and some gold dust and maby some money.

HA. I JUST got there and beat him. After about 20 failed attempts, I seriously had to whip out my phone and record a video of him showing all of his weak points. I cheat. But I win.

In addition to the stray bead and gold dust, you also get a new treasure (silver watch?) worth like 30,000 or so...

And It is possible to get the watch someplace else in the game. I also cheated, it was just too frustrating. And It is possible to get a watch someplace else in the game.

That's an AWESOME idea. I forgot about recording it on my phone! I tried to map them out on a piece of paper but the dots come and go so quickly.

Well fuck, if it gets me a Stray Bead and Gold Dust, I'll have to beat him. The watch I could go without, since I'm not really strapped for Yen at the moment (having already bought every technique and donated 300k to get Cherry Bomb 3, which I'm convinced is entirely useless).

How do you upgrade your brush techniques?

It's part of the story. Do certain sidequests and you unlock new techniques.

http://www.kotaku.com/assets/resourc...kami_plush.jpg

I demand an ammy plush! :)

Not get new techniques I mean power up the ones you have.

You don't use an item like you use to power up your divine weapons. They're hidden, and you can only upgrade certain brush techniques -
That’s all the hidden stuff regarding techniques I have found so far, anyways. There may be more...

Used my cell phone's video cam to record Blockhead Grande. Pretty clever trick, heh.

Anyway, got a question for ya. Where does one obtain the Ressurection beads?

To add to that list Bomber, though not sure if this was mentioned already...if you draw a "star" over enemies (draw an X and then a vertical line through the center) and you can cause icicles to rain down on enemies and freeze them. I guess the only prerquisite is that you have the ice power, since I never officially learned that skill anywhere.

Yeah I noticed that too. I didn't really include it because it was technically not hidden, but you are just uninformed of it unless you look at your scroll techniques in your stat menu. The only reason I ever found out about that technique in the first place was because of Ninetails :(. I don't understand why they don't explain it? It's a pretty sweet move.
Yeah, that whole BlockHead thing would have been impossible (for me, anyways) if it wasn't for my phone. Are the Resurrection Beads the last rosary weapon? If they are, then they can be found in two places...
ALSO. I can’t believe I forgot these two hidden water techniques –

Edit:

Hey! Power Slash x3! From GameSpot (I would have never found this...)

Hey beat ninetales yesterday shes the way all bosses should be!

XD, I used my camera for the same purpose!

Double Post:
Well, I finally beat it. The part where

AHHHH. At 59 hours, I have officially just completed the game :(. I hate those feelings you get when you beat a game that you’ve been playing for so long and have been enjoying so much. I got all the stray beads and unlockable extras, and… I don’t want to put the game back on the shelf to gather dust now…but that’s sadly what’s probably going to happen…

And now I want to know one thing...WHERE IS MY FUCKING OKAMI 2.

I'm already beginning my new game+. I haven't collected even half of the stray beads, and I still need to learn some techs.

I can imagine replaying this game once a year or so, just to relive it.

Started my new game + a few days ago and I'm really enjoying it. I'm glad they let you skip through most of the cutscenes you've already seen...I've just been watching the ones about Waka and stuff to catch a few things. Just beat Blight in Sei-An City at about 7 hours in so things are going pretty quickly. Still, I've already discovered a lot of things I've never seen before including two of the secret brush techniques and that secret place above Sei An....love this game =)

Quick question for those of you who beat the game already. I've just recently acquired the final Divine Instrument -- the Tundra Beads -- and between that and the Solar Flare, I don't have enough Gold Dust to upgrade them both.

Is it possible to obtain all the necessary Gold Dust on the first playthrough? If so, what'd I miss? I completed all the revenge lists and bought all that I could from the merchants, unless there's one merchant I missed.

Ya know...that's a good question. I was missing one gold dust as well...

YOU GAVE ME REASON TO PLAY IT AGAIN.

I have to say though - once I got the glaives, I never used any other type of weapon again - especially the beads. Am I just a sword whore?

I always used the beads more than the swords, except for the very last sword, which I mainly used on the final boss. Beads are nice because they hit so quickly, and from far away, and also seem to have a "holding" effect.

After taking like a month long break from Okami, devoting my time soley to VP2, I'm back with Okami. Albeit only for tonight, it'll start to collect dust again until FFXII is beaten. I'm glad I'm not a video game.

I'm a sword whore too, really. Although, when I looked at the damage chart for each weapon, the Solar Flare reflector is more powerful without an upgrade than the Thunder Edge glaive with an upgrade. So I switched, but kept the Thunder Edge as a sub-weapon. That uppercut pwns n00bs.

Just got the game recently and wow it's beauty in motion.
I can't wait to play thru it.

I finally got all of the stray beads. Jesus God, that battle with the three nagi in the spider pit in Kamui was hell! Especially when all three of them would summon fire swords at the same time! I had 4 astral pouches going in and ended up using 10 of my 13 Golden Peaches! The battle with the waka clones and Evil Rao clones was stupid too.

But it was worth it, because now I have all of the stray beads, and with it,

I might play through just one more time. This time, there will be no worries, just a nice speed run, with no chance of ever dying.

So I just got the sound track. Holy. Shit. Is it long.

I go into it thinking no fucking way was their that much music in the game, yet every song I listen to, I totally recognize. It's bringing back all of these memories from the game, and it's bugging the hell out of me. The game is done, but I don't want it to be.

WHERE IS MY FUCKING OKAMI 2.

Also, am I the only one who totally didn't even realize how awesome the dungeon music was in the Ezu Fuji shrine? It fit the setting perfectly. Everything is so...mechanical. Clockworks and gears and shit. Awesome.

Blue Bomber -- could you please upload that to YSI or Megaupload or SOMEWHEREZ. I would like, rate you a 5 and stuff.

HOLY SHIT A 5!!! I'll get right to work on it. Rapidshare ok? I might have to break it into multiple files that are under 100 mb. The thing has over 200 tracks, and roughly 5-6 hours of straight music...

Eh...dang and I just started X_X

oh well

cd 1 http://www.sendspace.com/file/mkevmw

cd 2 http://www.sendspace.com/file/d0eqhd

cd 3 http://www.sendspace.com/file/3g2ruo

cd 4 http://www.sendspace.com/file/04r8v5

Hey - if you want it that's cool by me. THEN WE CAN HAVE 2 SOURCES WOW.

My internet connection is INCREDIBLY slow right now, and is taking a while to upload everything. Probably won't be done till morning.

Heh, s'cool. Gave you a 5, and grabbing CD 1. :D Thanks val.

P.S. I just got solar flare its THE BEST WEAPON EVER!!!!!!!!!

Put your text in between the spoiler tags. It's the same as using an image tag.

Ok its fixed.

You can get the soundtrack at Shadowhaxor.net (You just have to register there). The speeds are better too... (I got 80 ~ 100 kb/s using Flashget).

OKAMI OST -

Okami OST - Disc 1 (1 of 2) - 45.8 MB
Okami OST - Disc 1 (2 of 2) - 58.3 MB
Okami OST - Disc 2 - 98.1 MB
Okami OST - Disc 3 (1 of 2) - 57.6 MB
Okami OST - Disc 3 (2 of 2) - 48.4 MB
Okami OST - Disc 4 (1 of 2) - 49.6 MB
Okami OST - Disc 4 (2 of 2) - 51.9 MB
Okami OST - Disc 5 - 46.4 MB

Yeah, so I'm not very good at this. Even when I tried to compress them down to .rar files, they didn't compress that much, and some of the discs are split into 2 parts so I could keep it under 100 mb. I know, I suck...BUT IT'S A HUGE ASS OST. LIKE, 5 DISC'S HUGE.

Mp3 files are already compressed; using data compression tools on them will not reduce their size much more.

Whatever happened to using YSI? Rapidshare sucks. =0

Goddamnit. I have to wait an hour just to download another file? Fuck you, Rapidshare. It's not that I'm not thankful for the service mind you, but this sucks. I remember the good 'ol days when FTPs were basically the only way to get stuff around here. Is there even an FTP thread here anymore.

Sorry :(. I was gonna do YouSendIt, but I've never used it before. It asked for an email address to send the file I was uploading...? So I just used a file hosting service that I knew gave a link. I'll use it the next time somebody asks, though!

Heh. I guess I was prety anxious to get my hands on the soundtrack. After hearing you guys rave about it, I was pretty excited to get a hold of it. :p

FYI, YouSendIt requires you to have an account to download anything from their site. You tried SendSpace yet?

I uploaded it on to sendspace already T_T

lolx, i just cr8ed an account to post here ^^;
okay i completed okami a couple of days ago and the game totally rocked, the final boss music kicks ass too!!

Now, start your new game plus. Be sure to collect all of the stray beads.

Listened to the whole soundtrack last night. It's absolutely amazing! I didn't think I'd recognize so many of the tracks, but sure enough. Listening to it without hearing that Okami speech going on makes the music seem that much more spectacular.

The only annoyance I have is that some of the songs are broken up into two songs, including and most notably the Shinshu Field song. I wish they would've left it as one whole, long song. :/

Yeah, I also found that annoying. CD players can lead the first track of a particular pair into the second without any interruption, but mp3s unfortunately can't, so we get a little bit of a break between the two halves. Frankly, I think they should have just included the two versions of these tracks seperately, each with their own fade out, but failing that, I agree with you that it ought to be just one long track. To that end, I've spliced each of the two-part songs together into single tracks, so they'll sound just like they would if you were playing them on a CD player. I've uploaded all of them in a rar file to SendSpace, and I also included some exclusive artwork from the Japanese website as a bonus. Enjoy!

Players like foorbar2000 and RockBox have gapless payback.

I download #gamemp3s version of the Okami ost but, it sounds really how do I say "compressy". Right now I'm downloading Valiants rip.


edit -
I must apologize my player was messed up, it was not the file.

I am just getting back into Okami. I put it down for about a week and a half to beat Shadow of the Colossus. I was about 18 hrs into Okami, and I decided to try SotC for about 15 minutes. Needless to say, I couldn't go back to Okami until I finished the game. Well I beat it and want to beat hard mode and the time trials, but I have really wanted to get back to Okami. I am at the point in which you walk into Sei-an City for the first time, and it's all evil. I also saw a floating island on the way in and tryed to jump to it. No luck...

Double Post:
I have a question: Did anyone else find this game to be, on the whole, very easy? On my first playthrough, I never died, or even came close to dying. Even the final boss was kind of a let down. (What was with that baby seal/fish-looking core anyway? Is THAT Yami?). The only truly difficult part of the game, for me, was fighting the Nagi clones in the cave in Kamui.

Well, I've finally finished the game, so I thought I'd give you all my stats:



All in all, I'm sad it's over, since I thoroughly enjoyed the game and grew to care about the characters. it's been a long time since a game drew me in to such an extent.

I have to say that the sheer "endlessness" of this game amazes me to no end. I just defeated Ninetails and for the second or third time thought I had finally completed the game. Instead, the game just goes on and on ...

I really like that, but some of the story aspects seem a little tacked together here and there. It's like the game designers tried a little too hard to connect all the subplots to each other.

I popped this in today before heading to work not having any idea what to expect but just a few seconds of watching the opening sequence I knew this was something special. I ended up playing for about 3 hours not able to put the controller down. Okami has to be one of, if not the, most beautiful game I have ever played. This game is so fresh and fun it's intoxicating. I'm so glad I decided to purchase this (impulse buy) a few days ago as I was likely just going to let it pass by.

this game has got me hooked.
The only thing I can think of other than the story itself are the abilities I want to acquire since they are so incredible to look at.
I regret not playing this sooner.

Ok I have a question for all of you.. IS THEIR any other games as fun as Okami but WITHOUT the absurdly ridiculously hard mini-games. That crap with blockhead has ruined this game for me completely not everyone has instant short term memory recall.. Developers are sadistic to put this into the game trying to remember points in the right order at the right spot.

Other aspects that have turned me off this game is not even knowing if a weapon that can be purchased is better than the one I have or not.. No specs on weapons or anything at all. Got several weapons and I got tired of trying to switch them around to find out what combo is best.. Too much non-information in the game itself ruin the fun completely for me. At least in FF I know if the next weapon I purchase is better or not by the stats.. I also know what the weapon does.. their isn't even a description of what the weapon does in Okami.

Why do game companies have to do this.. Game is so easy for the primary part even the bosses are quite easy but than make mini-games that are intensely memory intensive and hard to accomplish. 13+ hours into the game only to find I will be returning this game because the mini-games to accomplish anything in this game plain sucks they are so dang hard. This game has made me very leery of looking at gamespot reviews they rated this as 9.2 and didn't even mention the absurdity of the mini-games difficulty at all.

The next part so annoying is the lack of skipping many dialogues.. especially when you seen the dialogue so many friggen times that it makes you sick. It is nothing but a method to make the game last longer for no real reason at all.

Any suggestions on WHO does do good reviews.. I really wish to avoid purchase mistakes like this one again. Ones with very near impossible mini-games for me.

Wait, what? Mini-games are supposed to be difficult. That's why they're optional. I had just as hard a time as you did on the Blockhead parts, but they are able to be beaten.

And yes, you can skip dialogues. Any brief one or two-line dialogue session can be skipped with the press of the Start button once you've read it one time.

Molitar, obviously you're letting a difficult optional mini-game ruin an entire game's experience for you. If you're that pissy about it, then fine, go return it and miss out on one hell of an experience. But if you can suck it up and get over it, great.

Blockhead's not that hard to beat unless you've the memory of a goldfish. Try recording the video of where the dots on his body appear. That's how I beat Blockhead Grande. Compared to him though, the other ones are kinda simple...

Are you honestly bashing the game for its 'Blockhead' mini games. There's what - a total of like 4 of these in the game? Something like only 2 which are needed to advance the story, where you only need to memorize 3 weak points? Wow. You just wait until you get to Blockhead Grande.

I noticed the same thing, and I think it's awesome. Another company (Bandai?) might've ended the game early so they could shell out episodic sequels. Okami is, by far, the most enjoyable game I've played this year. Sure, I have some gripes here and there (camera bugs me a lot), but no game is perfect.

The most challenging Blockhead you have to do is the one on Oni Island and can be "skipped" very easily by just jumping and hitting the invisible wall to the left of it. The resulting backflip will send you flying right over his head. You might have to try a few times before you get the angle right.

As been said, the harder ones are optional and the first Blockhead is a pushover and hardly ruining the entire game.

That's not the hardest Blockhead, Rock. I believe it's Blockhead Grande, the last Blockhead. We're supposed to hit it 8 times, more or less. Somewhere on Kamui I think. Optional, but a must to obtain one of the beads.

Unless Blockhead Grande is easier for you compared to the one on Oni island..

For those of you who have beaten the game -- what do the karmic transformers do? I haven't beaten it yet, but I'm in the process of gathering all possible 99 beads (on the first playthrough).

Karmic Transformers are, in other words, costumes/alternate skins. Nothing special besides a different look on Amaterasu. =\

The 100 beads reward is still the best.

But it's the hardest you have to do in order to advance the story.

Yeah, true enough. But even so, I actually got the Oni island Blockhead with one try. On the other hand, Blockhead Grande took me 20 tries, and I got him by pure luck :gonk:

Hey guys, looks like I'm a bit late on the Okami train. Anyways, I was wondering if at some point in the game I gain access to gold dust again, because after I finished upgrading the solar reflector and the sacred beads weapon, it went out of stock in Agata. Or do I have to advance to story for them to be available again.?

Oh, one last thing: I've already got the Lucky Cat and the resting mat items from the Demon Fang trader. The only thing left is that Peace Bell. Will more items become available via that or not? Same goes for the Dojo (he says he has no more to teach me).

If you traded fangs with the emperor, you must be in the city. You should be able to buy gold dust there. Also more items (and moves) become available as you progress in the game. There is another Dojo in the final area of the game, and you can get a tablet from the emperor that lets you walk on water.

Tell me, have you been collecting ALL of the stray beads? How are you enjoying the game so far? Awesome, isn't it?

Emperor? I'm only at the pass, which I'm still trying to finish/purfiy completely. I think the only thing I have left to do there before moving on to Kusa (that's where I have to go next, right?) is that fucking old lady who keeps attacking me. I detroyed the roof with a bomb but that's as far as it goes, and there's nothing in the surroundings that hints at what else to do.

I've been scouring older areas as I've received more Celestial Brushes, and I found the ones in Agata and Kamiki today. I don't remember where I found the others, but I have more than just those two.

The game is a blast, and is absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, if anyone's planning on making the leap to an HDTV, get one that does SD very well because it's worth it. I mentioned it to my sister time and again, that it's like I'm playing with a piece of art. The timecycle, battles, dialogue, character art, etc... Incredible, really.

Which also pisses me the fuck off, since I'm going into this knowing that Okami won't have any possibility of a sequel nor of a title with a similar approach/art style. If the game gets better from where I currently am (after 2nd Waka fight, have to go to Kusa) then I'll make sure to get a second copy for safe keeping/collector's purposes.

Sorry, I didn't read your post closely enough. I also forgot that there was more than one fang trader. Oh well. You'll find the second one soon enough, and more gold powder there as well.

As for the knife lady, wait until night time, when the moon is out, jump down the hole, and drag her into the light.


Damn right. It's like a living sumi-e painting.

The problem is, she's asleep, and the only interactive option it gives me is Listen. I knew that was all I had to do, but the game isn't letting me do it. Thanks for the info on the gold dust, I want to power up that reflector I got from that spider thing (that fight was confusing for a bit, and then it went by like nothing).

What really gets me is how well every thing is animated. The world is just unbelievably cohesive, it doesn't really take you out of it at any point (at least so far).

In that case, you should go ahead and go to Kusa village and fix the problem there. A certain quest needs to be activated before you can mess with the old lady again.

And just so you know, you have plenty more gold dusts that you will be able to get as you progress the game. Isn't there just enough gold dusts to max out every weapon in the game?

Ah, I figured as much. I think I got everything in Taka Pass, though I might have missed a demon gate or two, like I did in Shinshu field when I went back there exploring.

Nice, that's good to hear, since I didn't want to find out that I'd used some limited resource on two weapons (apparently, early ones going by the equipment menu).

I've acquired every single gold dust possible, and it's left me with two weapons I can't upgrade -- the Tundra Beads and the Solar Flare reflector, the most powerful weapons of their type.

....Whoa. So should I say 2 Gold Dust for those two and neglect some other weapons?

Those two weapons come pre-upgraded. Well, mine did anyway. I went to use Gold Dust on them, only to be told that they were already at maximum power.

I guess PN's right. I had no Gold Dust to try out on them anyway, so I wouldn't know. All I know is that when you use Gold Dust, it gives the weapon's icon a shiny background, and those two weapons don't have one in my inventory.

I looked in the strategy guide, and according to it, the weapons are upgradeable. The guide gives a chart of the damage points each weapon inflicts pre- and post-upgrade, and those numbers are included for every weapon.

I guess I was mistaken then. It's been more than a month since I last played.

So, to avoid missing out on upgrading my weapons, which two shops should I avoid buying them from until I have those two?

Oh, you can buy/acquire all the Gold Dusts you want to, by all means. Just don't upgrade two of your weapons until you get the final two. My advice is to not upgrade one of your swords and one of your reflectors. Reason being? Swords can be charged for uber-attacks, and reflectors are best kept as shields and not weapons, therefore their damage rating doesn't need to be considered. Soooo leave out one sword and one reflector. :D

You can buy Gold dust in the final dungeon, too, and you'll have all of the best weapons by then, so don't worry about it.

Hey. I'm going to pick this game up within the next few days, how long did it take you guys to beat this? and how long have the sidequests taken you to complete?

Thanks.

I spent about 88 hours on the game, though I completed almost all the sidequests.

I think most people (who are more experienced console gamers than me) are around the 35-40 hour mark for the main quest.

!!!!

I really wasn't expecting anything near that much, I was hoping for at least 10 hours. I'm really looking forward to getting into the game now. Thanks!

Damn it, I've already upgraded all the reflectors (and with the new Mirror tech, they do a ridiculous amount of damage, and quickly too) that I have (Sun, Beast and Infinity), the first beads and I think the second. I don't think I've upgraded any swords.

BTW, I think they're not all that good. The uber attack's damage can be outdone by that double shield equip, since I tried it on those new red scroll enemies that have been showing up.

Hopefully I haven't screwed up and left myself with 2 weapons left hanging.

Even if you did, you can upgrade them later when you start your new game +.

....Holy shit. This game just keeps giving and giving. I just passed the even where you earn Tsukuyomi. Man, I loved the music in that dungeon and the fight against that boss. But that was earlier yesterday, now (as I said before) I bought all the stuff I could in the Dojo aside from that ridiculously expensive technique at the bottom.

Thanks for the info though, Piccolo. Definitely lets me be at ease with the whole upgrading business. I'm split though, should I focus on getting more health or ink?

I'd say ink bottles are more immediately necessary, since you can still upgrade health by seeking out those Sun Fragments. Maxing out your ink early on (and acquiring an item through Demon Fang trading that rapidly refills your ink bottles) helps out tremendously.

Plus, if you need to restore health, just equip the wood mat and heal yourself when you lay down.

I recently completed this game and I have had it since it's release date. I actually put it aside for a little while because I knew the ending was coming up, I was simply putting off the inevitable. I just didn't want such a beautiful thing to end. Unfortunately, it did and the ending was just tear jerking in my opinion.



I'm very distraught that there will be no sequel due to the disbandment of Clover Studios. Hopefully there will be some sort of a resurrection of this group of developers in the near futue. Here's to hoping.

Hey, can anyone give any hints on how to draw that Kanji symbol over in the Capital.

Are you doing the side quest with the little girl who keeps drawing stuff? Be sure your stroke order is correct.

Strike order? I keep it at 4.

1. First horizontal line, the longest one
2. The second horizontal line, the short one
3. Left downstroke starting from the middle of the first line down and to the left
4. Right downstroke starting from the middle of the second line down and to the right

That's 4, just like the demonstration the little girl's thought bubble gives, and I keep doing it and nothing. I'm wondering if the thickness has to be just right, or maybe the space between the lines is too small (or too big?). Sadly, this is probably something I'll never get to finish because I've searched and there doesn't seem to be a picture of a player-made version that I could copy.

I'm not kidding, I tried doing it about sixty or seventy times, and each time come up empty. It doesn't help that the guy blabbers on before/after each attempt.

Well, it took me several tries to get it as well. It's certainly not impossible. Whatever you do, don't give up. You absolutely must get all of the stray beads on your first playthrough.

I'm about 11 hours in right now. Got the game from a friend for Christmas.



It's a really fun game. I'm trying to get as much as I can in terms of items on my first run through. For the beads and such, do I have to get them at exact times or can I go back before the final boss and collect them?

I'm glad to this this thread finally get the recognition it deserves. Great game. Too bad I sold my PS2, or else I'd go over it again. =/

All I want is some sort of hint or anything to tell me when I close to drawing the symbol correctly. I'm already drawing the brushstrokes in the correct order, but it sems like the game is being nitpicky about some part of it. That's the irritating part, not knowing where you're screwing up.

Oh and...

The beads do carry over, but the prize you get for getting all of them is so awesome, you don't want to have to do a second playthrough just to get them all.

I do not believe there are any missable beads. They are all either in the overworld or in areas that you can return to later. (Or from sidequests.)

Has anyone had trouble getting all the cherry blossom trees in the big city? The old man there says I have one left, yet I searched all around and the only ones I have are the cursed trees that need the other Cherry blossoms blossomed. I tried consulting GameFAQs but nothing. So I don't know if I'm missing something, or if it's a glitch or what.


That game is pretty cool, but after the first half of the game, when it seemed like it was over, I was getting a bit bummed out on it, especially Issun. He would say the most obvious things that would seem like the game is trying to hold me by the hand. I get what's going on, you don't have to do that.

Check this out.



Just put in spoiler form in case anyone wanted to figure it out for themselves.

Ah, got it. Don't worry about that challenge, Piccolo. I blindly walked into one those things when I first got to Ryoshima, and didn't get killed. Some enemies are fucking bastards though, as in they wallop you something fierce.

Thanks for the heads up on the beads. That finally got me to stop worrying about it, as I've been doing while playing. Oh, I have 4 Gold Dust right now (from the wanted monsters lists), do I get any more? I was counting the weapons and all I need is a few more until I can upgrade what I have and still have some left over for the rest.

The final spider cave is nothing like those. It is harder than anything you have seen. It took me nearly an hour to beat it, I used 13 Golden Peaches, all of my astral pouches, all of my inkfinity stones, and just barely scraped by with 3 health units left at the end. The attacks never stop, and you're constantly bringing up the canvas just to deflect all of the projectiles. You're lucky to even get a chance to attack. The enemies have a huge amount of health and take very little damage. It is by far the most difficult part of an otherwise fairly easy game.

Jesus, sounds like madness. I'm guessing there must be more projectile-happy enemies coming up, eh? That was the only "round" in the one I did that gave me trouble. Looks like I've got something to spend my money on now. How many peaches/stones/godly charms do you think I should bring?

I would bring no less than 15 peaches, 10 inkfinity stones, at least 10 godly charms, as many Holy Bones as you can buy, and be sure you maximize your astral pouches and fill all of them beforehand. Exorcism Slip "L", and Steel Fist/Soul sake are also very helpful. A shield is a must, especially when there are multiple enemies summoning flaming swords (5 swords at once, I think), one of which can easily take off half of your total HP. One of the harder parts is where you must fight several evil Raos and Wakas, (all at once) both of which are far, far more powerful than they were when you fought them as bosses. The Wakas are just annoying, but the Raos have very high defense and can easily kill you in one or two hits. And they keep respawning over and over again. Sometimes, it seems like it will never stop.

Of course, there's a chance you just might breeze through it, but it is best to go prepared. It would suck to make it to the last round, and then die.

Edit: Be sure to buy the two super expensive techniques from the dojo. They make getting large amounts of Demon Fangs much easier. They're as funny as hell to watch, too.

Wow...I never caught that. Thanks.

I found the symbol online (it's the one on the right):

http://z.about.com/d/japanese/1/0/i/m/tengoku.jpg
http://japanese.about.com/bl50kanji5_tengoku.htm

What the hell, I just copied that thing down to the shape/size and strokes the game is giving me and... nothing. I'll say it right here: I'll probably complete that final challenge before I get this right.

You know, I think I may play through to the City again, just to help you out. I have the super secret ultra power up with me, so it won't take long at all.

Thank God. This, a like 5 or 6 other beads are all that I need to finish the stray bead search. I've been sitting here for a good hour and a half, maybe two, just repeating what the little girl has in her thought bubble. Still coming up empty. I try the one I posted above, which is literally the exact same thing, nothing. If I were one of those folks, I'd say something's wrong with my game.

Oh and I found out that there's a way to completely drain the challenge out of the continuous Demon Gates. Have everything else (Peaches, stones, etc..) but get a ton of vengeance slips and steel fist sake. From how it was explained to me, if you have enough, you're essentially super-powered and invincible.

Sounds like hot stuff, but the only downside to this is that it's extremely costly to use it (since the slips and sake cost a ton).

Weird...I swear I got this on my first time. It's the one on the right you say? I could have sworn it looked a lot more like the one on the left...maybe I still have a save from around there. I'll check it out.

Whoops, you're right BB. It's the one on the left. That's why I'm baffled as to why something so simple could hold me up so badly, especially when I've been replicating both the example AND her thought bubble over-and-over again.

Fear not, Metal Sphere, for we Occuria have chosen you, and you alone. Now take this helpful quicktime video, and use it to destroy Venat. Or solve the Kanji puzzle, if you want.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/wx27tu

MS, if you're still collecting Stray Beads, have you gotten to the Demon Gate where...

Sonuvabitch. That took me over two hours to beat.

That's the one I've been telling him about. Hard as shit.

Heh, thanks. But it says the download link's been updated, but that there's an error or something. SouthJag, I only have these left:

48 - The one Piccolo's helping me on now
65 - This one I'll tackle before the other one
79 - Doing this one right after #65, after considerable stealing+battling for enough money/horns for Peaches/Stones/Steel Soul-Steel Fist items.

Question:

Really? I'll try again then.

Yeah, I clicked the download link and it opens another window and says something about an error and the file being updated.

Ok, let's try this:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vxax7b

Edit: Verified functional.

Metal, I'm using a sword/shield combo. Having the sword as a primary weapon lets you abuse the charge attack easily, and the shield as a secondary weapon still lets you use that counter ability. Uber damage can be done with two swords equipped, since you can charge them both simultaneously.

I rarely use rosaries except when my godhood runs out. Those bead weapons allow for long chains, and high combo chains restore godhood.

Not two seconds pass after I saw your symbol (dear god, where did it say the two horizontal lines had to be that far apart?), I nail it. Jesus, you don't know how fucking grateful I am to get this out of the way.

Now, I'm off to slaughter some folks over in K-land, and get enough money/items (50 of each, maybe 60) to last me in that uber-challenge.

The problem with the swords is that they're entirely too slow. I don't know if it's because of their size, but they take far longer to inflict damage than a Mirror/Mirror combo. I mainly use that one because of the damage per second savagery that the dual mirror setup allows. It's not as fast as the beads, but they're much stronger and hit far faster than the next step up. Not to mention, I find any "downtime" in battle for holding buttons down/waiting for the glaive to swing dangerous, since it does leave you open a bit, without covering the much larger range of the mirrors.

Now if I was going one-on-one with an enemy? I'd go with the glaive, though I'd use a certain brush technique to negate its slow attack speed.

I don't use them at all, as they don't stun, and it only seems to embolden enemies. If I lose godhood while fighting, it's just a notice telling me that I need to pay more attention/stop fucking up. I don't think running out will be a problem with a good supply of slips. ;)

LOL, no problem. I had a bunch of cheats turned on, so it only took me a few minutes to get into the city. Good luck with the Waka/Nagi/Evil Rao clone challenge.

Ah, I see. I was wondering if I had put you though too much trouble just help me out, and here you are zooming through. I've upgraded everything completely and all I need is 3 more Sun Fragments for my final piece of health, any ideas where they might be?

One more thing: Do you get rated in this game? Like deaths, money, etc? I played FFXII thinking you might get rated because there was a lot of potential stats to track, but that turned out to be wrong. I guess I assumed that since Tales of the Abyss rates you (monsters, time, money, battles,etc).

Well, relatively speaking. All in all, it took me about an hour, I'd say. I still had to do the Lucky Hammer quest, and kill Blight, and some other random stuff.

Yes. Battles, money, praise, deaths, all that good stuff. Ratings range from a dead, wilted tree, to a cherry tree in full bloom.

You know, I read in a FAQ that when drawing that kanji symbol, the biggest thing you have to make sure of is the top horizontal line being larger than the middle one. Not that any of this is relevant, as you already completed it.

I realize that the dual reflectors is probably the most effective combo, but I hold true to my heart - I am, and always will be, a sword whore. Plain and simple.

....

In an hour? Holy shit, you must be using some insane cheats to manage all that that quickly. Still it still sees like a bit of a chore.



Wow, then I must have an A+++ grade or something, because I have an immense amount of battles under my belt (never ran away) as well as monsters killed. Praise, I'm worried about. Is getting enough to fill all your bars enough?

Damn, I've got to get these last two beads to see what I got.

That's what all the ones I checked kept saying. None mentioned the distance between the first line and the second, which seemed to be the grand salvation Piccolo delivered unto me (and anyone stuck on the damn kanji).

Oh, no doubt. Sometimes I just feel like using the swords because they're just awesome to see in action. It's just that I'm used to a fluid/responsive combat feel.

I started a new game with all of the brush techniques already available, so I only did what I absolutely had to, and nothing else.

Best story moments?



Edit: Wanted to add that I acquired the last Stray Bead I needed to before completing the game (still on my first run. I put it down for a while once I realized the only thing I had left to do was collect the beads), and it was a bitch to get.

Heh, you must've blazed through the game, since I remember taking forever to get to the city. Your brush techniques carry over?





BTW, I finished the final challenge thing before heading off to bed. I even semi-timed the whole affair.

• First Round, 4:49-4:55
• Second Round, 4:56-4:59
• Third Round, 5:00-5:02
• Fourth Round, 5:03-5:06
• Fifth Round, 5:07-5:11
• Sixth Round, 5:11-5:16
• Seventh Round, 5:16-5:18
• Eighth Round, 5:18-5:21
• Ninth Round, 5:21-5:25
• Tenth Round, 5:25-5:31

With Piccolo's help, I got #48 and I pulled off #65 as a quickie before hitting the sack. So now I have all the beads, and if I have time later today, I'll wrap Okami up (not really, I'm probably going to replay this game several times).

This is using the Steel Fist+Slips, so this is nothing compared to the feat you guys accomplished. The last few are ridiculous.

I was there was a way to extend the Mist technique. Certainly would've helped. 4 seconds is crap. ; ;

Yeah, it's entirely too short but, it's also too easy to abuse even at its current setting. Maybe 6 seconds would be a nice medium, but that'd be ages for a monster.



Edit: Just beat the game! Wow, that was great. Anyone have a link to the ending track? I was surprised that 1. it wasn't like most of the music in the game and 2. it had vocals, but it actually worked very well. I'll put some thoughts on the ending later.

That necklace is the most awesome thing in the whole game. Open up your clear game file and check it out. And yes, you got all of the karmic transformers on the first try.

Yeah, I was definitely surprised with how awesome it is. Secrets in games have been meh for a long time now, glad to see Clover wasn't afraid to award you for all that trouble. BTW, what the hell does the Karmic Transformer #2 do? A lot of them are ridiculous, and that last one is... very odd to see in a heavily stylized game.

HA! I just watched PiccoloNamek's video, and couldn't help but laugh when I saw the screen loading. I swear I could NEVER enlarge all of the paw prints to get that damn demon fang. I would always miss that first one, and would then just get offbeat somehow. FRUSTRATING. Ahh...good times...

Ah, about those two missing Gold Dusts --



So MS, go ahead and spend all those Gold Dusts.

Way ahead of you bro, I'm already in Tsuta again. This item is amazing, and yes I used those Gold Dust on the two weapons that hadn't been upgraded then .

Geez, I've had the game since launch and just beat it tonight. Man, I'm a slacker. :( Oh well.



And yeah, String of Beads = win.

The string, and the final bead (can't say this enough, after all that trouble, it's downright gorgeous) are easily some of my favorite things to show up in a game in recent memory. I threw on the fourth rosary with a sword as a subweapon and the first boss battle literally ended in the low single digits.

Huh? I don't get what you mean.

In the final battle, when use mist, people that have died will give you items.

Also, if you create a moon, a giant Nagi will attack Yami.

I knew about the Crescent brushstroke, but I never saw anyone give me items after using Veil of Mist, and I used it pretty frequently. Ah well.

Wait, did you have to Power Slash them or something? I saw them but didn't get any items from them, or at least I didn't notice that I picked anything up (and like SouthJag, I used Mist pretty often).

The Nagi thing I knew of, since that's one of the ways your break the sphere.

All I know is that I saw Queen Himeko, and a lot of restorative items were dropped.

Interesting everyone already knew about the Nagi attack. I didn't find that out until my second playthrough, and even then only accidentally.

I heard the game is selling badly and Capcom will close the studio which made Okami :/ Majority of players accepts only "normal" games. But what other "deep" titles are coming to PS2 after Okami? Not much, so people should really give it a try I guess.

If you'd like to read the whole thread about Clover's closing, there's a link in my signature.

During the Yami fight, I just used every single technique I got back -- just happened upon the Crescent moon attack. Cool touch though.