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A breath of fresh air.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 107 / 113
Date: September 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Today's video game market is a stagnant one for the most part. Publishers rely on franchises and proven formulas to make their money. Meanwhile when something creative and original comes along publishers don't want to take a chance on it in fear of lousy returns on their investment. While this does make for a great business decision, it makes for poor gaming experiences. Thankfully Okami made it to fruition.

This game is reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda. The cell shaded graphics harken back to The Wind Waker, and inevitably any third person adventure game is going to merit a Zelda comparison. However, this is definitely not a Zelda clone. It merely takes the genre and builds on it to produce something extraordinary.

The gameplay is relatively simple. You can run around, fight baddies, talk to villagers, etc. The real innovation here is the use of a "paintbrush" that you activate with R1 to alter your environment. If you run up on a bridge that's broken down? No problem, activate your paintbrush and paint another one onto the landscape. Bad guy getting you down? Simple, just activate the paintbrush, draw a slash through the enemy, and he's down for the count. I've only progressed through the first hour of the game, so I have not collected all of the paintbrush techniques. But there is no doubt that the paintbrush is a big part of the game.

The graphics are nothing short of beautiful. You do a good bit of running around in this game. Fortunately it never gets old because the scenery around you is just so awesome to look at. I never thought a Ps2 game could look so good.

The story takes on the guise of Japanese folklore (I've read that the basis of this game is an actual legend, but I would assume some liberties have been taken with the story to fit the game). The story is interesting, although nothing groundbreaking (at least as far as I have progressed). Still, it is enough to keep you interested.

There are some small things that annoy me. The text comes with a gibberish voiceover (like Animal Crossing). Its bearable at first, but tends to grate on your nerves the farther along you go. The intro is about ten minutes too long, and I never found a way to skip past it or make it go faster. The big gripe I have is that there is no widescreen support, which would have made this game really shine on TVs that supported it.

This game might be the last great game on the Playstation 2. I'm happy that Capcom decided to break the industry mold and publish a title that displays a lot of creativity and beauty without it being a proven franchise. I consider this game to be in the same mold as Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus, Katamari Damacy, etc. Games that displayed a ton of creativity and were fun. Unfortunately games like this often go unnoticed by the majority of gamers and they don't sell well. Hopefully Okami will be an exception, and it needs to be if we ever want developers and publishers to release more original and "unproven" content to us.

Sucessor to Zelda? Perhaps

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 42 / 49
Date: September 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Many game critics have raved about this game, and it is no surprise. Once you start playing Okami you will quickly realize you have picked up quite the original adventure game. Okami does have certain hints of Zelda (i.e. bombs to blow up walls, searching for treasure, interaction with different people to find quests, time change, etc.) but at the same time Okami is a different animal. It is quite hard to explain really, but what really sets this game apart from most adventure games are the graphics and the almighty Celestial Brush. The graphics if anything will remind you most of Wind Waker, but while Wind Waker chose to go with the traditional style cel-shading (although they worked quite well and helped that game along), Okami chooses to go with stylistic cel shading, if that makes any sense...the graphics really bring every single enviornment in the game to life and not only that but they are defintely crucial to the whole theme of Okami on which its story is basically that of a Japanese legend novel. The calliography stylings you will find are incorporated with the watercolor-like graphics of Okami, and thus this is where the Celestial Brush comes into play. Throughout the game, you will gain brushstyles (once again reminiscent of Japanese calliography) from mythological constellations. Once you gain these you will use them to progress throughout the game. So a bridge is a broken? No problem you can fix it simply by waving your brush back and forth to create a new one. You will also use it a lot in the battles you will face, as you can draw bombs to defeat enemies quickly or draw a simple line through them to slash them powerfully and gain the upper advantage. Then at times you will face say, like a fire elemental and an ice elemental...using the brush once again, use the fire against the ice elemental and then use the brush once again to create wind and blow the fire elemental out. Tired of drowning in the water? Draw a circle to create a lily pad and then draw wind to travel faster on the lily pad. These are just a few of the things you can do with the brush but there is much more. As for the battles themselves, they are relatively easy but not so easy that they get boring...all you need to use is a bit of problem-solving and you have it down, the bosses take more of that of course. I will not spoil the boss encounters at all but the ways you use your brush against them is really inventive and original. The controls are tight and quite responsive, yet the only gripe I have with this game is the camera. It's not terrible, but it seems during the battles it gets a bit frisky but it's just a minor flaw. The oriental-type music fits with the theme of the game very well, it does get a bit repetitive in some parts but it's otherwise well done.

I have never heard of Clover before, I don't know if this is the first game they have come out with or what...but you can be rest assured I will be looking into them after this masterpiece of a game. The PS2 is nearing its end but this is definitely one of the last games it should go out on. Okami is a must buy for this year, I promise you no PS2 owner should be without it. All critics have been raving, I have yet to hear a bad review about Okami, that should tell you something. Overall this is a must buy game, do not doubt it buy it. Peace.

A Beautiful Masterpiece

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: September 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Hands down, Okami is one of the finest Playstation 2 games ever made. An engrossing story mixed with intricate gameplay make Okami a textbook example of how a game should be done. Okami is a masterpiece that brings a huge world to life, and any action/adventure fan would be happy to have this title on their shelf.

Okami centers on the legend of the Japanese sun god Amaterasu. The game stays centered around Japanese tales. You needn't know these stories to be engrossed in the games overall main story, though. All you need to know from the get go is Amaterasu is the sun god reborn as a wolf to rid Japan of a demonic curse that has swept the land. The God responsible for this was actually killed 100 years ago. It's time to make sure history doesn't repeat itself, and it's up to Amaterasu to get rid of this evil God. Amaterasu is joined by her companion Issun, who throughout the game will do all the talking, and also provides a nice sense of humor to the game. At first the story is simplistic, but don't be fooled. There are several subplots in the game that eventually become part of the overall story. You'll do more than stop this curse from spreading across the land. You'll rescue villages, battle fearsome monsters and everything epic in Okami. It also helps that the game is a massive 30 hours of steady going gameplay.

The story is mostly told through beautiful cutscenes, and quite a bit of dialogue. None of the dialogue is directly spoken so you'll have to read it all. It's unfortunate that a masterpiece such as Okami doesn't have voice acting, but in the end it's forgiveable. The cinematics and artistic style of Okami are fantastic. Visually the game is by far one of the best looking of any game this generation. It's so distinct and original. There's no game out there that looks like this. Equally impressive is the fantastic music score that clearly defines the setting of the game and actually brings you into its unique world.

You'll be able to explore quite a bit of the world. There's a lot of running around to do and you'll have some excitement doing it. Amaterasu carries around a sword like weapon all the time which she'll use whenever she engages in a battle. Battling isn't tough in Okami, nor is it too frequent to the point where it's annoying. So you won't be frustrated while traveling through Okami and putting up a good fight. The battle mechanics work almost like any other action/adventure title with one exception: the powers of the gods at your disposal.

Throughout the journey Amaterasu can use a brush technique to unleash her powers as well as the powers of her allies. When in battle you can press R1 and it will bring up a canvas. You'll then be given control of a paint brush and you can unleash several powers. When it gets dark out you can use the paint brush to make the sun come back up. There are other powers too, such as being able to cut through stone. This mechanic takes a moment to get used to at first, but you'll adapt surprisingly fast. Even better, this isn't a simple gimmick. You'll find it imperative to use these powers to solve puzzles and progress further on in your adventure. It's an integral part of the gameplay and storyline. You don't start off with all the powers of the paint brush, of course, you'll have to travel through the game and get them. This system certainly breathes new life into the genre as a whole.

As you go on your adventure, you'll also be given chances to make Amaterasu more powerful. You can learn moves at the dojo, and you can find health powerups, and get more ink reserves for your brush techniques. There are also plenty of weapons and items to help you out on your quest. The game is easy, even when faced against some of the bosses, but it's a lot of fun, and has a lot of variety. You could go through Okami never actually dying once. This isn't to say the game doesn't have its challenges. Some puzzles have their own unique challenges that could leave you stumped for a moment.

Okami is also full of plenty of other small things you can do as you traverse the land. You can restore vegetation to the land, feeding animals in need of food. These don't sound too appealing, but there are a couple of things that make it worth your while. For starters, these scenes just look beautiful. Second, you get praise for doing so. Praise helps you to improve your powers and strengths. These aspects of the game can keep you busy for quite some time.

Okami is a masterpiece. A highly expansive game with a vast world to explore. It's beautiful cinematics and well crafted storyline, among a few other things, make this one of the best Playstation 2 games out there. It's simply a fantastic game to play and the fun last for a long time. Okami is the definition of quality.

The Good

+Engrossing storyline
+The game is absolutely beautiful; among the best looking for the Playstation 2
+The game sounds fantastic
+Battling is a lot of fun
+The brush techniques are really innovative
+Plenty of side-quest and mini games to keep you busy
+For an action/adventure title the journey is long, lasing for over 30 hours... on top of that the game is full of replay value

The Bad

-The only truly bad thing about Okami is that there is no voice acting in the game. There's gibberish whenever a text box pops up, but no actual voice acting to speak of.

Even better than a new Zelda game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Story / Gameplay
In playing as Amaterasu, A Sun-God awoken to defend a classical Japanese village in the area of Nippon, you will use a variety of weapons, combat techniques, and Celestial brushes to defeat your enemies and rid the land of an ancient evil that has been resurrected. The weapons will be your standard platforming arsenal of short and long ranged devices that you use to keep yourself from harm, and try for the opposite effect with your enemies. These will include various twists on Japanese Imperial Regalia to include, A reflector disk (Your beginning weapon), Rosary Beads (Your primary ranged weapon), and a Glaive (Powerful long sword).
The Celestial Brush is what makes this game unique. It allows you to pause the game at any time using the R1 button and paint various symbols to have a wide reaching effect on gameplay. These include, but are not limited to, attacking enemies/objects, bringing back life to various dead flora, creating platforms, and in general showing off your God-like ability to affect almost every aspect of reality in the game. The Celestial Brush will be your major gameplay factor in practically every puzzle the game offers. It's also used for story progression and helping out some of your village friends think they can do things they really can't without them knowing.

Art / Graphics
Okami draws a lot of it's animations from Japanese watercolor paintings most famous from the Ukiyo-e style. Like the game Zelda: The Windwaker, which people most commonly relate Okami to, Cel-shading is used as opposed to 3D Polygon textures to give the game a more animated feel. This serves the purpose of bringing out smoother movements in the character models and bringing the characters themselves more to life. Unlike the aforementioned game, however, Okami uses a brushed style that helps bring more color into the game rather than focusing solely on shape definition. In short, it's the best thing that Cel-shading has ever produced. It even winds up showing off a lot better than some of the cinematic driven games to date.
Music / Voice Acting
The music in this game is on par with many of its platforming brethren, and exceeds a lot of the standards for the genre. The scores are large numbered and always seem to have a good piece of music to back-up whatever situation you, as a Brush wielding Sun-God defending good in the form of a wolf, may find yourself in. The voice acting is the only thing that could bring this game down. The simple truth? There is none! Well, it's no great loss because the game does fine without it. However, during the opening sequence, which consequentially is about 14 minutes too long, the little humming sounds that they use instead will probably have you wanting to claw your ears out before it's done. After this little sequence however, you should be good to go through the rest of the game.

Controls
I list Controls as its own category because quite simply, they will make or break a game. I won't lie to you, I was a little skeptical when I heard that somebody had a made Zelda clone for the PS2 based in feudal Japan. But from the moment I picked up the controller and started maneuvering smoothly through the cel-shaded environment, switching from weapons to brushes quicker than thought, I was sold. Okami has some of the most intuitive controls of any Console game I've ever played. You will almost never have one of those moments where you are left thinking, "If only I had put the camera somewhere else."

Overall
Okami is a fun Action-Adventure / Platforming game that will keep you locked in to the very end. The Brushed Cel-shading quite frankly outdoes itself as you progress through rich and peaceful villages as well as dark and brooding cursed lands. The controls boast more than their fair share versatility as they put in your hands the ability to change the very fabric of existence surrounding your character with just the few buttons and strokes of your brush.
The downsides you will see in the game mostly center on the distinct lack of Voice acting and the horrendously long opening sequence. These however, do very little to detract from the overall masterpiece that Clover Studios has created.

Okami takes everything that made people love the N64 and Gamecube Zelda games, and then improves upon them ten fold (Yes, I though it was impossible too.) to create one of the most original and masterwork Action/Adventure games to ever hit the markets, and has no competition whatsoever on the Playstation 2 gaming console.

PS2 Perfection ...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: November 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was very eager to get this title on import, knowing that it was somewhat 'unique' in terms of it's genre label - yes it has rpg elements, but it's something quite separate. I only wish there were more such games on the ps2 or any format for that matter. This is storytelling, videogame-style, at it's best, Capcom/Clover have produced a real gem, it's an experience, like Zelda, a highly enjoyable slice of fantasy that is sure to hold you in it's thrall for some 50 hours or more, a visual treat and beautiful soundtrack also. If you consider yourself a gamer then get this, it's destined for cult status, in a word SUPERB...

Innovative and beautiful!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is the most unique adventure game in recent years. Okami is a mixture of different gameplay. Prior to buying this game I was expecting more combat. You control a reincarnated god wolf and travel thru many beautiful scenaries. You will talk to people, solve simple fun puzzles, do some platforming, feed various animals, collect/buy weapons, play mini-games, and fight cool enemies. Your goal is to save ancient Japan from demons.

The setting is very unique. Its Japanese mythology with cell-shaded graphic which resembles Ancient Japanese water/oil painting. You visit cool Japanese style towns, pirate ship, dungeon, many beautiful environment and fight mythological enemies/beast with a Japanese twist. A visual pleasing game. You will want to see what the next level looks like, its like traveling! The bosses are really cool too but there are only a few! The characters are zany and funny. Wait until you meet Rao!!

One disappointment is the lack of voice acting, you have to read text! Minus 0.5 points for overall score.

The combat portion does not happen during the 'normal' game, there are talisman in the environment and when you touch it the game switches into combat scenario with confined 'border'. A unique aspect of this game is the 'celestrial brush'. Its hard to describe this gameplay but you basically draw with a brush. There are many different brush powers. You can draw and fill missing bridge gap, draw a line thru enemies and slash them to death, or draw a circle in the sky to make night turn into day or a crescent to make day turn into night. These are few examples. The game difficulty is pretty easy. Overall a fun adventure ride for everyone, all ages and players.

Graphics: 4.5/5, Music/Sound: 5/5, Story: 5/5, Gameplay: 4/5, Design: 5/5, Fun: 4.5/5, Value: 5/5, Overall: 4.5/5

Fantastic Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: December 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is AMAZING! The graphics style is very original also. You wander the country of Nippon destroying different demons to restore peace in the land as a wolf called Amaterasu. Definately NOT a kids game, I'm an older teen and I LOVED it. It would probably be good for kids though, but the controls are a little tricky at first. However, the thing that annoyed the crap outta me was the narration, it's this screetchy mumbling that sounds like they took what someone was saying (in Japanese, maybe?) and warped it. I muted my tv whenever it came on. I hope that Capcom/Clover Studios comes out with a continuation of this, because it really is a fabulous game!

Breathtaking

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: September 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is gorgeous. Its rich in Japanese culture and art of course, and the art is just stunning. Ive never seen a game look more beautiful than this. It's also easy to get into playing, and enjoyable once you do. Lots of dialogue, but its enchanting so its bearable. The lack of voice acting is a blessing, because thats something that can often ruin a game. Overall its just a joy to experience this game. I havent played games in years, I usually just watch my husband play them, but I played this time and had no trouble figuring out the controls and getting started. Good stuff, if you like japanese culture, lore, if you like wolves, or even if you just appreciate really good art... this is a game you need to try.

An amazing RPG that should not be missed.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 17
Date: December 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Lkami ('^, Lkami?) is a cel-shaded video game developed by Clover Studio for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was released on April 20, 2006 in Japan and September 19, 2006 in the United States and Canada. It is scheduled for release in Europe on February 9, 2007. Lkami's main character is the Shinto sun goddess named Amaterasu, who has taken the form of a white wolf. The title of the game is a pun; the word Mkami (ü) in Japanese means "wolf", however the kanji characters used as the title of this game ('^), also pronounced as Lkami, meaning "great deity", so the main character is a great wolf deity. The same characters ('^) are also used to write the full name of the goddess Amaterasu-M-mi-kami. Lkami can also be read to mean "big paper", hinting at the game's sumi-e-inspired visual style.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Story
* 2 Gameplay
o 2.1 Weapons
o 2.2 Brush techniques
* 3 Characters
o 3.1 Major characters
o 3.2 Supporting characters
o 3.3 Bosses
* 4 Mythology and folklore
* 5 Music
* 6 Reaction
o 6.1 Reviews
o 6.2 Awards
* 7 Trivia
* 8 References
* 9 External links

[edit] Story

Set in the Nippon region in an unspecified time in the classical Japanese era, Lkami combines several Japanese myths and legends to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by the wolf, Amaterasu.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The quiet village of Kamiki, filled with beautiful cherry trees, had a price to pay in order to maintain their peace. Each and every year a festival is held, during which a maiden must be sacrificed to the eight-headed serpent, Orochi, signalled by a white arrow being launched into the house of his chosen sacrifice. In the 100th year since Orochi's arrival, as the time for the sacrifice drew near, a pure white wolf the village dubbed "Shiranui" would appear and stalk the village's streets at night. A swordsman in the village, Nagi (Izanagi in the Japanese version), detested Shiranui, believing him to be one of Orochi's agents, and repeatedly tried to drive the wolf away. When the night of the festival finally arrived, Nagi's beloved, Nami (Izanami in the Japanese version) was chosen to be slain. Determined both to save the woman he loved and to put an end to the village's burden, Nagi went to Orochi's lair to slay the beast. Alas, he was defeated and about to be killed when Shiranui stepped in and took over the battle. Using strange skills, the wolf battled valiantly against Orochi, but still could not defeat the serpent.

Battered and beaten, Shiranui released a powerful howl the heavens. Strengthened by the howl, Nagi struggled to his feet and took up his sword once more, leaping onto Orochi and defeating the creature. Shiranui, filled with poison and fur dyed crimson with his own blood, was carried back to the village by Nagi where he was praised as Kamiki's savior - and then died. A shrine was built in the image and honor of Shiranui, and the sword that had saved the village was interred in the "Moon Cave" where the battle had taken place, and used to seal Orochi away. 100 years of peace passed, and a man disturbs the sword at the "Moon Cave", unleashing Orochi, who is not quite as fictional as the intruder had believed. Orochi immediately begins covering the entire world in darkness and evil. In response, Sakuya the wood sprite, guardian of the village, goes to the shrine dedicated to Shiranui and brings the statue to life as Amaterasu, the Lkami, reincarnation of Shiranui and sun goddess incarnated in the form of a white wolf.

Amaterasu must search Nippon for the 13 brush spirits to gain the power to defeat Orochi and heal the land. Throughout the travels, 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.

The 100th anniversary of the original defeat of Orochi, celebrated now by a festival held at Kamiki villiage, is quickly approaching while Amaterasu is in the process of removing the curse from other parts of the land. Returning just in time for the night of the festival, events begin to unfold exactly as they did 100 years ago: Orochi summons an arrow to indicate the chosen sacrifice: Kushi, the sake maker in Kamiki and romantic interest of Susano, a descendant of the great warrior Nagi. It is discovered that Susano himself was the one who disturbed the sword to begin with, as he despised the pressure of being Nagi's descendant and did not believe that his ancestor really defeated an evil spirit. To stop the constant pressure to be a hero, he wanted to prove to the village that the story of Nagi was nothing but a myth and there was no evil serpent sealed by Nagi's sword. Susano pulled the legendary sword out, releasing Orochi into the world. As it was 100 years ago, both Amaterasu and Susano return to the Moon Cave to defeat Orochi again and rescue Kamiki; as Orochi finally dies, a black evil spirit is seen to rise from the body and drift northward, but not unnoticed by Amaterasu.

After leaving Kamiki again, Amaterasu continues to search for more brush techniques and to investigate the mysterious spirit that left Orochi's body. Along the way, she encounters two more similar spirit foes - Blight, which had taken residence inside the Emperor and caused him to breath out a strange mist that was slowly killing the people and lands nearby, and Ninetails (a kitsune), who has the same god powers as the gods, and was sending evil spirits out from a mysterious island in order to try to take over the land. After both are defeated by Amaterasu, the same type of black spirit leaves the bodies and drifts northward. Following these spirits, Amaterasu is led to the snow-covered parts of the land. There, a village of humans that can assume animal forms is found and one gifted young girl has gone missing; without her song, an evil force would be unleashed upon the lands and the people implore Amaterasu to find her. Amaterasu discovers that the girl has fallen back through a doorway in time to 100 years prior in Kamiki Villiage, and to rescue her, Amaterasu must work with Shiranui and Nagi to defeat Orochi (as had originally occurred at the start of the story). Upon returning to the present, Amaterasu then proceeds to encounter two final evil beings, known as Lechku and Nechku, giant mechanical owls, which are the source of the evil threatening the village.

There, a legend of a mysterious "Ark of Yamato" is discovered. The Ark seems to have fallen from the heavens 200 years ago and crashed into a frozen lake (Laochi Lake), and open up to reveal hordes of evil demons that immediately began to spread across the land. Some of these demons would go on to become Blight, Lechku, Nechku and Ninetails, and thus the black forms seen heading northward after their defeat would be these demons returning to their point of origin. Further discovery indicates that before the Ark crashed, a race called Celestial Beings had found the Ark and thought it would usable for transporting around the Celestial Plains, but it was found out too late that the Ark already had residents, and was effectively a prison ship for the evil demons. All but one of the Celestial Beings were killed before the Ark crashed, the last one fleeing the destruction. Amaterasu, with the spiritual and physical help of many others guided by the encouragement of Issun, is able to defeat all the remaining demon foes, including those she previously fought before but have returned here. It is finally revealed that Waka was the last Celestial Being and had known Amaterasu's spirit prior to the crash of the Ark, and by guiding Amaterasu to the Ark and destruction of the evil spirits, Waka is finally able to return to the Celestial Plains alongside Amaterasu, using the freed Ark as their means of return.
Spoilers end here.

[edit] Gameplay

Lkami has the player controlling the main character, Amaterasu, in a paintbrush style, cel-shaded environment. 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. The main story is primarily linear, directed through by Amaterasu's guide Issun, though numerous side quests and optional activities allow for the player to explore the game world and take the story at their own pace.

Unique to Lkami 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 using the left analog stick to control the Celestial Brush.[3] 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 from their hiding spots.

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 through 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.

By completing quests, side quests, and small additional activitives (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.

The art in Lkami is highly inspired by Japanese watercolor and wood carving art of the Ukiyo-e style, such as the work of Hokusai.

[edit] Weapons

The Imperial Regalia of Japan are used as weapons in the game:

* The reflector (or mirror) serves as a melee weapon with a fast attack rate. Equipped as a sub-weapon, it also functions as a shield to block and counterattack enemies.

* The rosaries (or beads) can be strung together as a whip-like melee weapon capable of inflicting rapid hits; when equipped as a sub-weapon, the individual beads can be shot out as projectiles.

* The glaive (or sword) is also a melee weapon, slow on the attack but each hit can be separately charged up to inflict heavy damage. Equipped as a sub-weapon, it can be used for melee or lunging attacks.

There are five weapons of each type in the game, each type differing in its basic attack power, its use as a sub-weapon, and how it interacts with Amaterasu's Celestial Brush; for example, the most powerful of each weapon carries an elemental power which Amaterasu can extract to inflict damage upon enemies.

[edit] Brush techniques

There are 15 Celestial Brush techniques that the player learns through the course of the game. (Issun and the game refer to 13 techniques, but Bloom, Water Lily, and Vine are generally considered part of the same Technique.) Note that the gods that grant the brush techniques are based off the animals in the Chinese Zodiac that match up to some degree with the granted powers, either by animal traits or personality traits. The names of the Celestrial gods are based on the Japanese word gami (^, gami?) (kami with a dakuten, meaning "god"), and a word describing the effects of the brush stroke.

Rejecting the Usual to Ignite the Imagination

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 15
Date: September 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

By CHARLES HEROLD
Published NY Times: September 21, 2006

Last year I went to the video game trade show in Los Angeles called E3, a noisy event with games displayed on gigantic video screens and wandering models, skimpily dressed as video game characters, who looked as uncomfortable as you might expect of people standing in a crowded convention hall in their underwear.

I saw hundreds of games in development at E3, and they all looked pretty much alike. There were a bunch of first-person shooters I couldn't tell apart, strategy games that looked the way strategy games always look and cartoony action adventures that looked like the previous year's crop. Public relations people were praising the improved graphics of the brand-new Xbox 360, boasting that you could see the players' sweat in a sports game, but to me the 360 games were just slightly sweatier versions of the games that had come out the year before.

Then I saw a Japanese game for PlayStation 2 that looked like a living watercolor painting. And as I watched a white wolf running across a field, flowers sprouting in its wake, I fell in love.

A year and a half later, that game, Okami, is on sale in the United States. The game, from Clover Studios, is everything I was hoping for, a visually dazzling, imaginative action-adventure game that stands apart from the crowd.

That white wolf is the goddess Amaterasu, who has manifested a mortal form to battle an eight-headed dragon terrorizing the land. She is joined by Wandering Artist Issun, a flea-size creature who functions as the player's guide and irreverently refers to Amaterasu as "furball."

Okami's locales have been blighted by demons, and Amaterasu must bring these lands to life by finding magical trees and making them bloom, causing a desolate valley to erupt in flowers and take on the look of an ancient elegant Japanese woodprint.

To perform this magic, Amaterasu uses the Celestial Brush. At any point the player can freeze time and draw a circle to make flowers bloom, two lines to call forth a breeze, or a zigzag line to create a climbing rope.

The brush can also be used when battling demons. A painted line hits them like a sword, drawing a circle with a line through it creates a bomb, and swishing the ink on their faces temporarily blinds them.

There is a lot to do in Okami. Besides the main story, there are side quests that generally involve helping people. Every time Amaterasu does a good deed -- restoring a withered tree, finding medicine for a sick man, feeding a mewing cat -- she is bombarded with affection that translates into points used to increase her health or the number of symbols she can draw before her ink runs out.

There are also various treasures throughout the land, many of which you won't be able to retrieve until you've learned a particular symbol. The game is very reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda series, and is at least as good as those games.

There are also interesting mini-games that turn up occasionally. At times Amaterasu will have to dig quickly through a series of stone blocks or catch fish. You must also help out Susano, a samurai of dubious talent, by quickly slashing with your brush the monsters he attacks.

Okami is tantalizingly close to perfection, but is not without flaws. Dialogue is in written text that scrolls out much more slowly than anyone over the age of 10 reads. While you can speed that up in some scenes, in others you can't, forcing the player to do a lot of thumb-twiddling. And feeding an animal, which should take a couple of seconds, prompts a little scene that just wastes the player's time.

But over all, this game is so visually striking, so original and so well done that most other game designers should look at it and then hang their heads in shame. It is proof that the important thing in game design is not the graphical processing power of the game console but the power of the designer's imagination.

While Okami aims to create something fresh and new, Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine, from Himalaya Studios, is equally eager to do something really old. The game is a sincere and loving effort to recreate the style of the humorous adventure games published by Sierra in the late 1980's and early 90's, like Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest.

Taking place in the Wild West, the game follows the adventures of Al Emmo, a short, dweeby character with a bad comb-over who comes to the town of Anozira to meet his mail-order bride. Upon learning that Al is closer to good looking than he is to prosperous, she calls the wedding off.

Stuck in Anozira until the next train arrives, Al promptly falls for the town chanteuse, Rita, and determines to win her love, a task made more difficult by the suave Antonio Bandana.

Al soon learns what it takes to win a beautiful woman's heart: steal a flag, make a fishing rod and dress up as a woman. This at least is how it works in adventure games, where everything, including love, is a puzzle that can be solved through the proper use of hammers, flasks and inflatable dolls.

The game uses the point-and-click interface of those old games, and clicking on any item elicits some witticism. Click on a dartboard and the game's narrator will say, "Your eyes dart to the board."

While sometimes clever, the humor often falls flat. It's commendable to try to put a laugh in every bit of scenery, but it's disappointing when not a single tombstone epitaph in the town graveyard is actually funny.

The humor isn't helped by the voice acting, which has the rather hammy, artificial quality of community theater.

Still, the game can be quite amusing. I liked a Greek chorus of ditzy ladies and was surprised by the pointed wit in a scene involving an extremist pest exterminator determined to wipe out "termites of mass destruction" at any cost.

Like the acting, the game's puzzles are competent but unexceptional. Good puzzles force the player to think outside the box, but Al Emmo rarely challenges the player's ingenuity.

Al Emmo finally kicks into gear in its last third, when the humor becomes sharper and the puzzles become smarter. If the whole game were as good as the last part, it might have matched the games that inspired it, but instead Al Emmo is just a decent game for fans nostalgic for old-style adventures.

Still, like Okami, Al Emmo doesn't want to look like every other game on the market. Both games reject the cookie-cutter approach that permeates the video game industry and teach us a valuable lesson: the best games are not necessarily the sweatiest.

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