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terrible.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 114
Date: November 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

blah.. i'll make this review snappy. i don't care what people say, this game sucks, and it's obviously made for kids only. the idea of using a paintbrush in the game is supposedly "innovative." yet not fun or interesting. sure, whatever.

If you have epileptic seizures... meet your worst nightmare!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 40
Date: September 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Okami is very fun and exciting, I really like this game except for 2 things that are difficult to overlook.

First, Okami has a filter cover the screen that tries to make it look like the whole game is on a crumpled paper scroll but it just takes away from the graphics and makes the visuals look fuzzy and blurry. Not only that but living creatures and dialog window outlines are constantly wiggling making them look rough and making you dizzy. Also when you level up the wolf shines bright white, she's so bright she'll make your eyes water, I spent all my points right away just to douse her.

Second, this is a PS2 game so why didn't they add any voices to the characters? The written text bubbles have annoying screechy sounds to accompany them that repel you from Okami's entertaining story.

Okami: Better than its sales, but worse than you think

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 16
Date: February 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game did not sell. Most magazines list it as one of the most underrated games of the PS2. While that may be true, Okami would still not qualify as a "good" game. If it was rated a 1 out of 10, then it is underrated. If it rated a 4 out of ten, it is not underrated.

First, if you were to string all of the cut scenes together, you would be watching about 5 hours worth of cut scenes. They are tortuous, and they happen often. There is no recorded dialog, only text that types out one--letter--at--a--time. And you cannot skip them. The opening scene is a total buzz kill and takes--literally--about 30 minutes. You have to continuously hit X after each sentence. I've played video games since the Atari 2600. I love all of the Zeldas and Final Fantasies. This game is, by far, the worst with it's dialog and cut-scenes. This factor alone, had I known about it, would have kept me from buying this game.

Second, this game is unbelievably easy. There is this little bug character that sits on your head throughout the game. Every time you come upon a puzzle the bug says: "Hey! you should [INSERT ANSWER TO PUZZLE]!" You literally don't have to think about anything for the entire game. I kept thinking that my training period would be over. But nope, you are told what to do for the entire game. This game is for 3 graders who read slow and can't figure anything out.

That being said, the art is neat and the graphics are good.

If I can save even one person from purchasing this game, I have done my job.

What a shame

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 18 / 32
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

To begin with, I'm in my mid-20's, and probably not the most patient person in the world. That being said, my review. Okami is probably the greatest tragedy to hit the PS2. On the one hand, you've got amazing graphics, a decent fighting engine, very neat items and weapons. The game would be amazing, 10 out of 5, if they hadn't made it so incredibly, infuriatingly annoying.

First off, there's Issun. I won't ruin anything that affects the plot, but the little pest is the most verbose, bothersome creature I've encountered in any of my years of gaming. When he's not repeating the same thing you've just heard over and over, he's going on and on with the characters you meet about things you've already done. The repetition was annoying at first, but by the time you're spending 5-10 minutes breezing through dialog every time you meet someone new, you just want to strangle him.

There are two kinds of dialog in the game. Usually, you can fast-forward through each (very brief) line of text by holding down X. Of course, there are many, many of these brief lines, you can race through them pretty quickly. Whenever something essential to the plot occurs, however, there's no way to fast-forward like that. You're stuck sitting there waiting for each word to finish before you can click on to the next chunk of text. During these interactions you hear not words but a demonic version of the Peanuts' Teacher voice. The plot itself is actually pretty good, and would be interesting if they didn't repeat every key point 5-10 times.

It's confusing to try and figure out who their target audience is. Ammy (the wolf) is female and makes flowers grow wherever she steps. The artwork is amazing, and the brush is great (though would probably be difficult for younger gamers). The puzzles range from blatantly obvious (though they still force hint after hint at you about how to solve them) to near-impossible (the near-impossible ones are far, far, far more annoying than challenging). The level of repetition would hint that it's for younger gamers who might not be able to follow what to do next without hints. Yet there are very adult themes (including one character who is referred to constantly (by Issun, since Ammy cannot speak) by the size of her feminine endowments, and while she's on screen there are some very mature sighs and moans going on in the background).

What you are left with is a fantastic game that is so bogged down with frustratingly long conversations and infuriatingly annoying portions that it is, for me, unplayable. If they came out with an edition that didn't include Issun, I'd pay twice as much for it. This game should be for teens or older, and frankly, I'd say 16+ given some of the content. Nothing X-rated, mind you, but don't give it to your 8-year-old or you'll be getting a lot of questions.

I **LOVE** this game! But there are some problems with it...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: November 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I can't get enough of Okami! I've beaten it and am started on a second play-though. Any action-RPG game fan has to at least try this game! The title basically says it all. It is a typically Japanese play on words, since, depending on how you translate it, "Okami" can mean either "wolf" or "king of the gods". For those people to whom that is not enough information to really understand the game, here are the basics:

100 years before the game's beginning, a huge 8-headed dragon monster called the Orochi menaced the small village of Kamiki. After suffering Orochi's tyranny for years, the village's champion, Nagi, and a white wolf the village dubbed Shiranui, defeated the Orochi. Shiranui died from his wounds after the fight, and the village built a shrine for him. Peace reigned for 100 years, until the evil suddenly and mysteriously reappeared...

You control Shiranui reborn in a quest to save the land from the evil. You travel all over the land of Nippon (which is Japanese for "Japan"; how original) fighting monsters, helping people, and healing nature of the curse of evil. The story is nothing new, and is both very linear and quite predictable. But it is very well done, mixing japanese mythology into a classic hero story, with a generous helping of humor to give it flavor.

The story has one major downside, though: it is told through cut scenes that contain bucket-loads of exposition. You will often find yourself button-mashing X desperately to try to speed things along, and that does not work very well because the important cut scenes don't let you speed up the dialogue. For instance, the very first cut scene that opens the game literally takes at least 15 minutes to get through before you can get to the action. Most of the rest are not nearly that long, but several of them do take a good 5 minutes at least. To say that it gets tedious is an understatement.

Still, the cell-shaded graphics largely make up for the tedious cut scenes. They are done in a very beautiful, yet simplistic style that evokes a traditional Japanese ink painting. Despite the simple style, though, the level of detail is outstanding. In fact, it is so detailed that there is the occasional spot of graphical slowdown. This game really pushes the hardware of the PS2 to its limits.

The music and sound are also fantastic. Most of the music evokes traditional Japanese art as much as the graphics do, while the sound effects range from wolf barks and footfalls to wind blowing gently through trees, and more. The mood is always set perfectly for whatever environment you're visiting.

Except, possibly, with the voices. Rather than real voices, people talk in a form of gibberish that sounds like someone trying to talk underwater. While it does not bother me personally, some people simply can not listen to these voice effects. Either you'll hate the voice noises with a passion, or you won't care at all. Either way, this is not a good point for the game.

The controls take a bit of getting used to, but when you have gotten used to them they become second nature. Unlike the "Legend of Zelda" games, there is no enemy lock-on during combat. Instead, you automatically target the closest monster(s) when you push the attack button. This simplifies combat without turning it into a button-mashing cake walk. It works perfectly...unless you get hit by the controller bug.

Yes, a *bug* in the game. Thankfully rare, as I only encountered it twice in 60+ hours of game play. Still, when it happens it is extremely annoying. During combat, while you're wailing away on a monster, the options-menu will suddenly open for no reason. Usually, the analog control on your controller will also go crazy, either just turning off or madly flickering on and off. Either case makes the game impossible to play, of course, since you control your in-game avatar with the left analog stick. The first case is easy to fix; just turn the analog control back on and exit the menu. In the second case, you can only fix it by literally unplugging the controller and then plugging it back in.

Far more common than the controller bug are the load times. They usually are not terrible, but it seems like a loading screen comes up at least every five minutes or so. Between these and the long cut-scenes, you might sometimes wonder if there is actually any game play included.

But there *is* game play, and it is a lot of fun. There is a great deal to keep you occupied, from the compelling story line to the many treasure hunts, races, puzzles, and mini-games. Between fighting to save the world, you can go fishing, feed animals, catch thieves, and a lot more. Plus, after you beat the game once it unlocks lots of extras, including image galleries and the sound track. All of that and the wonderful atmosphere definitely make this a game worth checking out. Rent it before you buy it, if possible, to make sure you can deal with the long cut scenes, numerous load times, and weird voice effects. But if you are a fan of action RPGs like "Legend of Zelda", you will definitely want to add Okami to your game library.

Summary:

Pros:

- Great story
- Great graphics
- Great music/sound
- Wonderful atmosphere
- Lots of culture and mythology to give it flavor
- Plentiful activities and mini-games
- Unlockable extras after beating the game

Cons:

- Occasional graphic slowdown
- Too much exposition
- Tedious cut-scenes
- Lots of load times
- Rare controller bug

Neutral:

- Voice noises that you might or might not hate

Over-all score: Five stars of fun-fun-fun! But three stars over all because of the many problems.

unique gameplay and visuals

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 20
Date: January 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Okami is more than an adventure game with a cell shader overlay. Okami draws the player into a fully realized world. However, it is not without flaws. In regards to presentation, graphics are stellar. However, the dialog is rather long winded, which, coupled with the lack of voice acting, creates an irritating distraction from the animation and plotline.

The gameplay, while solid, is not without faults. Your actions within the actual game world consist of solving puzzles and exploring. The brush mechanic is implemented effectively, and is useful both in puzzles and in combat. For instance, drawing a circle in the sky will turn night into day - doing the same around a dead tree will revive it. Drawing a horizontal line across an enemy or tree with cut him or it in two, and drawing a circle with a line through it produces a bomb. The controls are also pressure sensitive. How firmly the triangle is pressed determines the thickness of the line drawn.

There are no enemies in the game world. Instead, battles are fought during certain intervals when a fiery arena forms around the players character where enemies appear. The enemies in Okami seem relatively monotonous in appearance and behavior when compared with the diversity of other non player characters throughout the rest of the game world. Each encounter plays like a mini boss battle, but theres little to no puzzle element in defeating them.

In the first 15 minutes of playing, I found myself confused. Not by the controls or by a particular puzzle, but by the plotline. The games introduction, while beautiful, refers to events that happen centuries before the actual game begins. This in itself isn't particularly unusual.

However, as each character (who only appear in the introduction and are mentioned once or twice throughout the actual game) is introduced, much time is wasted describing his or her origins and familiars. To add to the confusion, characters who appear in the introduction are identical to characters in the actual game, but are different by name only.

The lack of voiceacting adds to the confusion, as it is difficult to keep track of different names attributed to the same character model without voice recongnition AND while reading the dialog. Ultimately I found myself more confused playing Okami than I did playing Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Playing Okami, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Had I more time to digest the dialog and storyline I would have had a better understanding of the game world and the task at hand. Okami is a wonderful visual experience and showpiece for the Playstation 2, but actual game seems inaccessible from the getgo.

DAMAGED BOX, BUT GAME IS GREAT!!!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: December 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

THE BOX TO THE GAME CAME WITH ONE OF THE CORNERS BROKEN, BUT IT IS STIL USEABLE. THE GAME ON THE OTHER HAND IS IN PRISTINE CONDITION AS WAS THE BOOK. THE ACTUAL GAMEPLAY IS EXTREMELY ENJOYABLE. IN ALL I WOULD SAY THAT I WAS LEFT A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED BY THE SELLER BECAUSE I THOUGHT THE BOX SHOULD AND WAS SUPPOSED TO BE INTACT. MAYBE I AM JUST TOO PARTICULAR, WHO KNOWS? EITHER WAY I AM NERVOUS ABOUT DOING BUSINESS WITH THIS BUYER AGAIN. B-

Beautiful and Original

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Okami rates among the most beautiful games I've ever seen.

The main point of the game is that you're the reincarnation of a god, awakened after a hundred years to dispatch of the evil that's overtaken the land. The entire landscape is bleak and dead--affected by the evil, and it's your task to both fight the ultimate evil, and restore the land using various techniques you learn throughout the game.

One of the really interesting aspects of the game is that, since the main character is folk tale diety (in the form of a wolf), the player can affect the environment of the game by drawing with a calligraphy brush. A circle stroke in the sky creates a sun to turn night into day. Another stroke across a dead tree brings it bursting into full bloom. A slashing stroke across your enemies cuts them.

My only minor complaint so far is that perhaps it does a little too much shepherding in terms of letting you know where to go next. However, this doesn't detract for the game overall. At the same time, the player does have a good deal of freedom--I haven't felt railroaded through the storyline at all. Perhaps the extra guidance will make this game more accessible also for people who aren't usually gamers.

If you're looking for something visually interesting, occasionally humorous, and with very different gameplay from the usual fare, Okami is highly recommended.

Best game in a long time

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

In a world of sequels and rehashed games, Okami is a breath of fresh air.

Okami is one of the best games I've played in a long time. The Japanese art style is fantastic, the music awesome and the gameplay fun. My only small complaint is the game is very easy.

Any gamer that doesn't like Okami should throw his controller in the garbage and quit gaming.

Beautiful, deep, and frustrating.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is a blast, the graphic style is like almost nothing I've ever seen before, but it is by no means perfect. The stop-start style of battles is distracting, and the fake voices make the game almost so annoying to be unplayable. Other than that, its deep, gorgeous, and etheral, I just would have liked the option to turn those damned blurbings off.

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