Hailing from that Playstation 2 era when AAA wasn’t afraid to get weird with it, Okami returns, freed from console exclusivity with a fresh coat of paint to boot. Does this Capcom legend hold up? In short: yes. In long: just you keep reading smarty pants.
The first and most noticeable aspect of the game is its visual design. Its Japanese ink painting style is one of a kind and quite good looking to boot. The transition to 3-D is remarkably smooth and effective, even if the higher definition makes things look distinctly wobbly up close. The game also pulls heavily from Japanese culture, mythology, and history. Diving far deeper down that rabbit hole than most results in an immensely visually varied cast and setting. Some arguably necessary shortcomings do crop up from time to time, like whacking a great big obvious visual indicator where level entrances and exits are.
The game’s mechanical strengths and shortcomings can be neatly summarized by analyzing its signature mechanic: the Celestial Brush Techniques. The Brush Techniques are unique and creative, satisfying to use, and allow for occasional out-of-the-box solutions both in and out of combat. There are fully 15 of these abilities, which is much less impressive when one considers nearly half are just drawing a line between two contextual environmental objects. Of the remaining, a further half have such narrow use cases you’d be forgiven for forgetting some of them even exist.
This wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle design is a constant from model-swapped enemies to basic dungeon designs. Only the late game bosses give tantalizing glimpses into the kind of in-depth gameplay that could have been. Beyond the brush the gameplay is pretty unremarkable. If you’ve played any Legend of Zelda game say, just to pick one at random, Twilight Princess, you’ve played Okami.
Since we’re on the nitpick train I found the game’s 3-speed movement mechanics to be quite awkward, especially during the game’s frequent platforming sections. The camera on controller is also very sluggish and the game has a very short draw distance, making exploration and some combat a chore. The game is also very easy, but I don’t consider this much of a negative as it smooths over the rough patches and keeps the creativity and charm on display.
The writing has a similar set of strengths and weaknesses. The overarching plot is pretty thin, only really existing as a means to shuttle you from one self-contained story arc to the next. Character development is an unsurprising casualty of this fragmented setup. Plotlines, friends, and enemies will show up and leave with little fanfare or long-lasting story impact. The bosses suffer the most from this, with only the final boss receiving any kind of meaningful characterization.
Within each story arc is a different case, though. One-note personalities and predictable arcs are more than made up for by a charming and memorable cast. Despite not billing itself as a comedy, Okami is also a very consistently funny game. It keeps spirits high despite the often dire circumstances, letting its rare somber moments strike all the harder.
What Okami lacks in depth it makes up for in spades with creativity and charm. Don’t pass up on this rare, resurrected Capcom classic.
