[PS2] Okami

Box art:



Screenshots:



Wallpapers:



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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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 am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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!

I was speaking idiomatically.

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

Spoiler:

I wonder if they'll replace the soundtrack with heavy metal and mess with the box art, shoving in a photoshop of a wolf holding two guns.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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?

FELIPE NO

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!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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:



There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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.

How ya doing, buddy?

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 was speaking idiomatically.

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.

Originally Posted by LivingDreams

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.

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.



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]

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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.

FELIPE NO

*reads the kanji*

"big god"? o__O eh!?

[/random comment]

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Hantei

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.

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]

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

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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 am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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 ^^

FELIPE NO

Quote:

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.

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

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Onyx

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.