Okami

Following its mention in Admintendo XIV and Drunka linking a few of us to this article on the game on Twitter, I thought it timely to chat about Capcom'n'Clover's wolf 'em up. Whichever version you've played, it never sold well, so it's become my definition of a cult classic. The oft-discussed art style is amazing and its love for Japanese culture helps lift the Zelda-like gameplay out of the ordinary and up to the special.

Chip in with your thoughts, guys! Thanks to Drunka for finding that article.

I can't recommend highly enough all of Holly's writing.

I never got especially far in Okami- I guess I just had other stuff on. It was a banger though, so I'm definitely looking to pick it up again in the not-too-distant future (along with Resi 2, Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta and the Wonderful 101).

I did see your RT

I've not played Okami for ages, I may look to see if it's on PSNOW as that part from the Wii version is more options.

Drunka I could lend you RE2 on Cube and I could do VJ as well, I guess you have Bayo & W101.

That'd be sick if you could, Mas, I was just starting to browse for cube/ PS2 copies.

No rush or anything, I won't be doing this for a couple of months.

Just drop me a message anytime

I'll likely be posting in this thread a fair chunk during my playthrough of the game!

I'm loving what I've played thus far. It feels very Zelda at points but it's still its own beast at the same time (no pun intended). It's a lot goofier than Zelda for one - case in point...

Okami Spoilers:

This is my kind of retro thread. And the reason that "Wii" really needs to be taken out of the home consoles sub-forum name.

Okami was a brilliant game. On the Wii, its one major problem was the battle controls, flapping around hoping that Ammy would actually do something. Oh, and you had to fight Orochi THREE CHUFFING TIMES. Otherwise, we're talking one of the best games ever.

The story, apart from the ending, was brilliant. The characters surprisingly engaging, considering they barely had faces (sparrow-gangster!). The references to Japanese culture, for a weeaboo like m'self, brilliant. And the bosses! I even liked the final one, who most people weren't too fond of, but my favourites were Lechku and Nechku.

Mostly because of the music. That soundtrack, ladies and gentlemen, is how to do traditional Japanese videogame music. It wrote the currently relevant book, and anyone wanting to do the same (like, er, me) cannot do better than to learn from it. It's obviously also a beautiful game, but enough has been said on that.

And the gameplay? It wasn't bad, apart from the thrashing. The battles were okay, I'd have preferred them to be free-roaming rather than gated off but I guess some things had to be different from Zelda. The use of the Brush, however (in dungeons that were mostly unremarkable), was a stroke (I'm not sorry) of genius. Brilliantly used on the whole. It also allowed them to bring in the Brush Gods, which is a very good thing.

I have quibbles, but this is nonetheless one of my favourite Zelda-likes ever, and a worthy entrant (in its waggleless guise) into anybody's gaming hall of fame.

Balladeer wrote:

This is my kind of retro thread.  And the reason that "Wii" really needs to be taken out of the home consoles sub-forum name.

Okami was a brilliant game.  On the Wii, its one major problem was the battle controls, flapping around hoping that Ammy would actually do something.  Oh, and you had to fight Orochi THREE CHUFFING TIMES. Otherwise, we're talking one of the best games ever.  

Suggestion duly noted, sir!

Also, spoilers!

(He says, talking about a ten year old game. Pretty sure the statute of spoiler limitations is only about a year or so now.)

I think that's more "saving you disappointment" than "spoilers". Nah sorry Jay, I'd hide it away now but I think you're probably the only person who'll come to this thread having not played it before, and you're a lost cause!

No worries! I was spoiled anyway looking through the trophy list and seeing a trophy being dished out for beating Orochi and "True Orochi" and already knew you fought him at least twice.

Orochi? More like BOREochi!

You can have that for the RSTB.

Oof. I'm not sure if I want to sully the RTSB with that!

Balladeer wrote:

On the Wii, its one major problem was the battle controls, flapping around hoping that Ammy would actually do something.

That's true. I basically played the game using the secondary attack, which is mapped to a button. I actually forgot there was a primary attack after a while. But that's my only complaint.

Balladeer wrote:

Mostly because of the music.  That soundtrack, ladies and gentlemen, is how to do traditional Japanese videogame music.  It wrote the currently relevant book, and anyone wanting to do the same (like, er, me) cannot do better than to learn from it.

Yes. If you don't like going from the "rejuvination" theme to the Shinshú Field theme(s), you're probably dead, or may as well be. In fact, I'm going to listen to it right now.

Drunkalilly wrote:

That'd be sick if you could, Mas, I was just starting to browse for cube/ PS2 copies.

No rush or anything, I won't be doing this for a couple of months.

Just thought as good time to do this would be a month before Scalebound comes out.