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Okami
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is an action-adventure video game developed by Clover Studio and distributed by Capcom. It was released for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia. Despite the closure of Clover Studio a few months after the 2006 PlayStation 2 release, a version for Nintendo's Wii console was developed and produced by Ready at Dawn and Capcom, which was released in North America on April 15, 2008, and was released in Europe in June 2008.
Set in an unspecified period of classical Japanese history, Okami combines several Japanese myths, legends and folklore to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by the Shinto sun goddess, named Amaterasu, who has taken the form of a white wolf.
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Encyclopedia
is an action-adventure video game developed by Clover Studio and distributed by Capcom. It was released for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia. Despite the closure of Clover Studio a few months after the 2006 PlayStation 2 release, a version for Nintendo's Wii console was developed and produced by Ready at Dawn and Capcom, which was released in North America on April 15, 2008, and was released in Europe in June 2008.
Set in an unspecified period of classical Japanese history, Okami combines several Japanese myths, legends and folklore to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by the Shinto sun goddess, named Amaterasu, who has taken the form of a white wolf. It features a distinct sumi-e-inspired cel-shaded visual style and the Celestial Brush, a gesture-system to perform miracles.
Okami was one of the last few PlayStation 2 games selected for release prior to the release of the PlayStation 3. Although it suffered from poor sales, Okami earned high acclaim from reviewers and earned, among other awards, the title of IGN's 2006 Game of the Year. The Wii version has earned similar praise though the motion control scheme has received mixed reviews from both critics and gamers.
Gameplay
Okami has the player controlling the main character, Amaterasu, in a woodcut, water-color style, cel-shaded environment, which looks like an animated Japanese ink-illustration with other styles of art. The gameplay style is a mix of action, platform, and puzzle gaming genres, and has been noted by many reviewers to have numerous similarities in overall gameplay style to The Legend of Zelda series, an inspiration that director Hideki Kamiya, a self-proclaimed Zelda-fan, has admitted has influenced his general game design. The main story is primarily linear, directed through by Amaterasu's guide Issun, though numerous side quests and optional activities allow for players to explore the game world and take the story at their own pace. By completing quests, side quests and small additional activities (such as making trees bloom into life or feeding wild animals), Amaterasu earns Praise, which can then be spent to increase various statistics of the character, such as the amount of health and number of ink wells for Celestial brush techniques.
Combat is staged in a ghostly virtual arena, and Amaterasu can fight enemies using a combination of weapons, fighting techniques and brush methods to dispatch the foes. At the end of combat, money (as yen) is rewarded to Amaterasu, with bonuses for completing a battle quickly and without taking damage. The money can be spent on numerous items from merchants across the land, including healing goods, better weapons, tools and key items for completing quests. The money can also be used to buy new combat techniques at dojos throughout the land. Additionally, rare Demon Fangs can be earned through combat which can be traded for additional, unique items that are beneficial in gameplay but not required to complete the game. Weapons inspired by the Imperial Regalia of Japan, the Reflector, the Rosaries and the Glaive can be equipped on Amaterasu as either a main or sub-weapon, and used in addition to other melee attacks that the player can have Amaterasu learn through the course of the game.
Celestial Brush
Unique to Okami is the Celestial Brush. Players can bring the game to a pause and call up a canvas, where the player can draw onto the screen, either using the left analog stick on the PlayStation 2's DualShock controller or pointing with the Wii Remote. This feature is used in combat, puzzles and as general gameplay. For example, the player can create strong wind by drawing a loop, cut enemies by drawing a line through them or create bridges by painting one, amongst many other abilities. These techniques are learned through the course of the game by completing constellations to release the Celestial Brush gods (inspired by the Chinese zodiac) from their hiding spots.
Plot
(Note: Most character names below are the shortened names of the U.S. version.)
Story
The game is set in Nippon classic history, and begins with a flashback to events 100 years prior to the game's present, and describes how Shiranui, a pure white wolf, and Nagi, a swordsman, together fought the eight-headed demon Orochi to save Kamiki Village and the maiden Nami, Nagi's beloved. Shiranui and Nagi are unable to defeat Orochi but manage to seal the demon away. In the game's present, Susano, a descendant of Nagi, accidentally breaks Orochi's seal, and the demon escapes and curses the lands, sapping the life from every living thing. Sakuya, the wood sprite and guardian of Kamiki Village, calls forth Amaterasu, the sun goddess, known to the villagers as the reincarnation of the white wolf Shiranui, and pleads her to remove the curse that covers the land. Accompanied by the inch-high artist Issun, Amaterasu is able to restore the land to its former beauty. Throughout the journey, Amaterasu is hounded by Waka, a strange but powerful individual that seems to have the gift of foresight, and further teases Amaterasu and Issun to his own mysterious ends. Additionally, Amaterasu locates several Celestial Gods who have hidden in the constellations that bestow upon the goddess powers of the Celestial Brush to aid in her quest.
Soon, Amaterasu, along with Susano, must battle Orochi to protect Kamiki Village and rescue Susano's beloved, Kushi, recreating events from 100 years prior. This time, the duo are able to fully conquer the demon, causing a black, evil spirit to float northward. Amaterasu continues to remove Orochi's curse on the land, defeating other demons that release similar dark presences floating northward. Amaterasu travels to the north to find the source of these evil spirits, the wreckage of a ship able to travel through the stars, the "Ark of Yamato". Waka appears and reveals himself as a member of the Moon Tribe, a race that had supplied the Ark of Yamato to the Celestial Beings, who used it to escape from Orochi's assault on the Celestial Plain and sail the heavens, unaware of the evil spirits imprisoned on the Ark which attacked and killed all but himself, resulting in the Ark crashing to earth. Amaterasu defeats Yami, the final demon controlling all the evil spirits, and rids both the Ark and Nippon of these evil beings forever. With her mission done, Amaterasu departs with Waka on the Ark to sail back to the Celestial Plain together.
Characters
The player controls Okami Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, in the form of a white wolf. While Amaterasu is referred to in the Japanese and European version of the game as a female, the North American version never states Amaterasu as a specific sex. Some characters, however, will refer to Amaterasu in either a feminine or masculine method, but neither are shown to be correct or incorrect. While Amaterasu, when endowed with ink power, is seen by the player with red markings, pointed wing-like shoulders, and weapons on Amaterasu's back, most of the human characters in the game only see Amaterasu as a plain white wolf, some believing her to be the reincarnation of Shiranui (the white wolf that previously fought Orochi 100 years prior to the game's present), and do not recognize the spiritual nature of Amaterasu. If the player depletes their power by overuse of the celestial brush, Amaterasu will temporarily revert to this mundane white form. Issun, an arrogant, inch-tall "wandering artist" seeking out the 13 Celestial Brush techniques for himself, accompanies Amaterasu (whom he calls "Ammy" or "furball") and serves as a guide, dialog proxy, and as comic relief.
While there is not a main singular antagonist within the game, two characters reappear several times within the quest. Waka appears as a young flute-playing man to Amaterasu several times in the game, aware of the goddess's form of the white wolf and foretelling of her future and at times battling with her; his dialogue, dropping French affectionate terms at times, conveys a sense of familiarity with Amaterasu, as it turns out that Waka is much older than he appears and has walked with Amaterasu on the Celestial Plain hundreds of years ago. The other is Orochi, the eight-headed demon and a major villain within the game which the player will encounter several times. Orochi repeatedly has threatened Kamiki village, demanding a sacrifice of a young woman. Each of its eight heads is infused with a different elemental magic power, but the entire demon is susceptible to a special brew of sake available only at Kamiki Village, allowing Amaterasu to defeat it while in its stupor.
Throughout the game, the player will encounter several other characters that are inspired from Japanese folklore.
Development
Okami resulted from the combined ideas of Clover Studio. The art in Okami is highly inspired by Japanese watercolor and wood carving art of the Ukiyo-e style, such as the work of Hokusai. Okami was originally planned to be rendered in a more photorealistic 3D style. However, Clover Studio determined that the more colorful sumi-e style allowed them to better convey Amaterasu's association with nature and the task of restoring it. The change was also influenced by limitations in the PS2 hardware to render the photorealistic 3D graphics. As a result of the switch to the watercolor style, the idea of the Celestial Brush came about. Atsushi Inaba, CEO of Clover, noted that "Once we fixed ourselves on a graphical style and got down to the brushwork, we thought 'Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow get the player involved and participate in this artwork instead of just watching it?' That's how the idea of the Celestial Brush was born". Original concepts for enemies included the use of dinosaurs, but the designs settled onto more demon-like characters.
Amaterasu's initial designs were aimed to avoid having the character look like "your pet wearing clothing". The developers had considered having Amaterasu change into a dolphin when in the water and a falcon when jumping off a cliff, but dropped these ideas. Sakuya, designed around a peach motif, was envisioned with what were called "level 2" and "level 3" designs where the character would wear less clothing as the story progressed, but the "level 3" appearance, effectively naked, was vetoed by Inaba. Waka's character was aimed to be a Tatsunoko-like character, with the hood designed to be reminiscent of those worn by the Gatchaman. Orochi in Japanese mythology is a gigantic creature, so lead character designer Takeyasu Sawaki designed the back of the demon to include a garden and palace; this inspired the game designers to include a bell in those structures that would be Orochi's fatal weakness in the game.
The localization team had to translate 1500 pages of text to make sure it made sense in a "native check", due to lack of plurals in the Japanese language and the large number of characters and conditional conversations that the player could interact with. The team recognized that certain elements of the game would not be recognized by Western audiences, but left enough text and details to allow the players to look up the information for themselves. Only one puzzle in the game had to be changed as it required knowledge of the steps in drawing a kanji character which would be readily known for Japanese audiences; for the Western release, these steps were demonstrated in the game. The team noted that personalities of characters could be easily conveyed in Japanese text simply by the way sentences were constructed or slurred, a feature that could not directly be applied to localization. Instead, working with Kamiya, the team scripted the localization to either recreate the personality to match the Japanese version, or to create a whole new set of mannerisms for the characters as appropriate.
Okami was shown at the 2005 E3 Convention, approximately 30% complete, with a planned release in 2006. At this point, the game had much of the core gameplay, including the Celestial Brush and the combat system in place. The game was released a year later in 2006. However, a few short weeks following its release in North America to strong critical reception, Capcom announced the closure of Clover Studio.
The Okami: Official Complete Works art book was published by Udon in May 2008. The game was re-released under Sony's "Greatest Hits" in Japan in August 2008.
Naming and allusions
The title of the game is a pun; the word okami in Japanese means "wolf". However, the kanji characters used as the title of this game, pronounced differently, mean "great deity", so the main character is a great wolf deity. The same characters are also used to write the full name of the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami. The localization team opted to use shorter versions of Japanese names (for example, a boy named "Mushikai" was localized as "Mushi") instead of replacing the names with Western-style ones. Issun's informal name for Amaterasu in the Western translation, "Ammy", was inspired by Kamiya, and is similar in tone with the Japanese informal name, "Ammako".
Throughout the game, Okami includes several references (in visual effects, animation, or dialogue) to other Capcom titles such as Viewtiful Joe, which Clover Studio also developed. For example, Mrs. Orange's technique for making cherry cake parodies Street Fighters Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu, complete with a kanji word displayed on screen with her back facing the screen.
Audio
All of the music in Okami is original and inspired by classical Japanese works. The final song, played over the credit sequence, "'Reset'", is sung by Ayaka Hirahara. Capcom has released an official 5-disc soundtrack for Okami, which is available exclusively in the Japanese market. In the US and European release, the player can unlock a jukebox to hear the in-game music upon completion of the game. At the 2008 BAFTA Video Games Awards Okami won Best Score.
Suleputer has also published another album, a piano arrangement, entitled "Okami Piano Arrange". It was released on March 30, 2007. Mika Matsura both arranged the 10 songs, and performed it on the piano.
The characters' speech in the game is actually created by scrambling samples of voice actors' speech, with more emotional lines being created from voice work given in that emotion.
Wii version
The gameplay function of "drawing" or "painting" strokes on the screen led several journalists and gamers alike to believe that Okami would be well-suited for the Nintendo DS or Wii, both of which feature controls capable of creating drawing motions freely. After the game's release, industry rumors of the game being ported to either console persisted, despite Atsushi Inaba of Clover Studio feeling that Okamis action-based gameplay would not translate well to the console and statements from Capcom that there were "no plans for Okami on Wii".
However, at the 2007 UK Gamers Day, Capcom announced that Ready at Dawn would oversee porting and development of a Wii version of Okami originally scheduled for release in March 2008 but subsequently pushed back to April 2008. Christian Svensson, Capcom's Vice-President of Strategic Planning and Business Development, stated that Capcom had received numerous requests from fans for the development of the Wii version, and that the ported game "specifically exists because of that direct communication, especially those we receive on our message boards (even if they're sometimes mean to us)." Ready at Dawn president Didier Malenfant has stated that, aside from the control scheme, the Wii version will be "an exact port of the PS2 version." The lack of enhancements for the game caused several complaints from gamers, to which Svensson addressed, stating that
Svensson reported that the original game assets given to them from Capcom Japan were incomplete, and even after requesting old hard drives and computers to recover more assets, Ready at Dawn was still required to recreate some from scratch. Furthermore, the game had to be recoded to change optimizations that were made for the PlayStation 2 version; Svensson stated that "part of the reason we didn't show it until we started showing it was because, if we showed it in a form that was anything less than near-perfect, people were going to freak out".
On November 15, 2007, Svensson noted that the engine had been ported to the Wii, writing that "There are still several systems getting set up properly but there's most definitely a Wii-driven Amaterasu running around Wii-rendered environments as we speak." A listing posted at Capcom's website for the game on February 15, 2008 revealed that the Wii version would support 480p and widescreen output, and IGN confirmed that the motion sensing of the Wii Remote would be used to perform the Celestial Brush features within the game. IGN's hands-on also cited small changes to the game such as additional motion-sensing controls using both the Wii Remote and Nunchuck attachment, and the ability to skip cutscenes, but reported no other changes in content of the game.
Svennson noted that Capcom would not use television advertising for Okami on the Wii, but would use online marketing, including art contests and a new website with "all sorts of things for fans to use to make stuff". This site was made live on April 3, 2008, featuring wallpapers, character artwork and fan-created art for the game. Svennson further noted that "If [Okami for the Wii] did the numbers that we did on the PS2, I'd be very happy. This doesn't need to be a mainstream success for this to be a success for the company."
A "paper parchment" filter applied to all on-screen elements that was readily apparent in the PlayStation 2 version was still included in the Wii port, but the effect was made much less significant. To help with drawing with the Celestial Brush, two different buttons on the Wii controllers can given brush functionality; one button was assigned to provide free-form strokes, while the other was set to draw a straight line from the starting point.
The final credits movie that was in the PlayStation 2 version of the game was removed from the Wii version, much to Kamiya's regret as it removed the omoi—"a combination of thoughts, emotions, and messages" — from the game: "[The staff roll was] the omoi of everyone who worked on the project, put together in a moment of bliss held out just for those who completed the journey. It was a special staff roll for a special moment. And now it is gone. All of it. ...It's incredibly disappointing and sad." A Capcom representative noted that the credits, a pre-rendered movie, had the Clover Studio logo within it, and they had "no legal right to use the Clover logo in a game they were not involved with directly". Since they also lacked the source to the credits, they opted to remove them entirely from the game. Ready at Dawn's co-founder Didier Malenfant stated that the Wii version of Okami took up much more space on the game media than the PlayStation 2 version, and that the movie was cut in order to fit everything on a single game disk.
Players have discovered that the cover of the North American Wii version of Okami includes a watermark from IGN, and traced the source to an image taken from IGN's site. To make up for the error, Capcom offered for a limited time to replace the cover with one of three high-resolution covers free of charge to users in North America. Due to delays in fulfilling the offer, Capcom shipped copies of all three covers to those that registered. They have since discontinued the offer, but have made the cover images available worldwide in high-quality PDF files for users to download and print themselves. The European PAL version of the cover has no such error.
Sequel
No official sequel to Okami has been announced. In response to users questions on the possibility of a sequel, Svensson stated that "I think we need a lot more people buying the current version before we seriously consider a sequel".
Reception
Reviews
Okami has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics with an average score of 93 percent on Game Rankings, making it the eighth highest overall game of 2006 and second for the PS2, behind Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.
GameSpot gave it a 9 out of 10 and selected it as an Editor's Choice, citing that its "visual design instantly stands out, but it turns out to be just one of many inspired aspects of this impressive action adventure game." IGN gave the game a 9.1 out of 10, as being "beautiful, charismatic, engaging and one of the most original games you'll play anytime soon." Electronic Gaming Monthly's three reviewers gave it a 9, 9.5, and 9 out of ten, one saying: "I'll be surprised if you can find a better game on any system this fall." Newtype USA named Okami its Game of the Month for October 2006, heralded the pacing as "nearly flawless" and proclaimed "Okami is that rarest of beasts: a game without any obvious flaws. Clover's creativity and attention to detail are on full display here. Shame on any gamer who passes up this divine adventure." Eurogamer.net scored the game 10/10 saying "Right from the start it conjures an atmosphere of being something special, but to keep that level of quality up consistently over 60 hours ensures that this will be a game that will be talked about for years to come". In 2007, Okami was named eighteenth best PlayStation 2 game of all time in IGN's feature reflecting on the PlayStation 2's long lifespan. Famitsu gave the game a near perfect score of 39 out of 40, the 15th game to date to receive this score from the publication.
However, the game was noted to have some flaws. Many reviews commented on the lack of difficulty within the game. Reviewers have also noted some difficulty in getting the game to recognize the correct Celestial Brush patterns, as well as excessive amounts of dialog, particularly at the introduction, which was also hampered by the computer-generated voices used in lieu of voice acting.
The Wii version of Okami has received generally similar praise to the PlayStation 2 version, with Gamespot stating that the support for widescreen and the Wii controls "make it even more relevant today than it was in 2006". The use of the Wii Remote for the Celestial Brush was well received; in Gamespots review, they noted that the Wii functionality with the Brush "improves the pace of the game". However, other aspects to the controls were found to be weaker, particularly in combat. In their review, Nintendo Power recommended the PlayStation 2 version of the game over the Wii, stating that "Though you can overcome the drawing and attacking issues with practice (and by sticking to whip-style weapons), it's a hurdle you shouldn't have to leap." It was a nominee for multiple awards from IGN in its 2008 video game awards, including Best Artistic Design and Best Use of the Wii-Mote.
Awards
Okamis initial showing at the 2005 E3 Convention garnered severals awards and recognition, including 1UP's Best PS2 Game, 2nd Best Game of Show, and 3rd Best Action Game; IGN's Best PS2 Game of Show, and runner-up for Best of Show and Most Innovative Design; and X-Play's Most Original Game. GameSpy recognized it as the 5th best game showing for the convention.
Upon release, Okami appeared as the Game of the Month for IGN, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Game Informer. IGN, Edge Magazine and Game Revolution rated it as the best overall game of 2006, while Game Trailers and Official PlayStation Magazine, named it best PS2 game for 2006. IGN further awarded the game the Best Overall and PS2 Adventure Game, the Best Overall and PS2 Artistic Design, the Overall and PS2 Most Innovative Design, and the Best Overall Story. GameSpot awarded the game for the Best Artistic Graphics for 2006. IGN named Okami the ninetieth top game of all time in a December 2007 Top 100 list.
Okami has also won awards from outside the mainstream gaming press. The game earned the Best Character Design and only one of three Innovation Awards at the 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards. Okami won the Grand Prize in the Entertainment Division of the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival. On August 13, 2007. It was also awarded the best Animation in a Game Engine, Art Direction in a Game Engine, Outstanding Original Adventure Game, and Game of the Year in the 2006 awards by the National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers (NAVIGaTR). Okami was given an "Award for Excellence" from the Japanese Computer Entertainment Suppliers Association (CESA) at the Japan Game Awards 2007. The game was awarded the Best Anthropomorphic Video Game in the 2006 Ursa Major awards. It also won the 2007 BAFTA awards for Artistic Achievement and Original Score.
Sales
Okami sold 200,000 copies in North America in 2006, grossing approximately USD$8 million and ranking as the 100th best selling game of the year in the region. By March of 2007, the total sales of the PlayStation 2 version were near 270,000. By comparison, Okami sold 66,000 copies in Japan for 2006. While it was initially thought that poor sales of Okami and God Hand (another Clover title released in the same time frame) were the cause of the closure of Clover Studio, it was later revealed that three key developers within Capcom and Clover Studios, Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil series), Hideki Kamiya (Devil May Cry series), and Inaba, had left the company, and the studio was dissolved, such that "now all the resources should be used more effectively and more efficiently since they are centralized." Inaba, Mikami, and Kamiya went on to form the video game development company "Seeds Inc", later merging with a company called "ODD" to become "Platinum Games".
On July 30, 2008, Capcom revealed that the Wii version of Okami had sold approximately 280,000 copies in North America and Europe since its release date, essentially putting it on par with the PS2 version's sales in the same time frame.
Legacy
Ben Mattes, producer for the 2008 Prince of Persia video game, cites Okami as well as Ico and Shadow of the Colossus as influences on the gameplay and artwork for the game. Capcom's Street Fighter IV is also stated to have models influenced by Okami with hand-drawn images and brushstroke-like effects.
See also
External links
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