http://gamernode.com/reviews/6567-okami/index.html
post it here please so i don't have to travel to random links while at work. thank you!Originally Posted by JSnake
My review of Okami is up on the site I write for. Tell me if you like it or not GAF.
http://gamernode.com/reviews/6567-okami/index.html
Originally Posted by PantherLotus
post it here please so i don't have to travel to random links while at work. thank you!
there ya go. yeah it's short, but gamernode has like a 900 word limit.Okami was originally a game released for the PlayStation 2 back in 2006. Ever since, Wii owners have been clamoring for a port to their system because the Wii was undoubtedly more suited to the game's unique mechanics.
Since Okami was a commercial failure (although a critical success) when it debuted on the PS2, the developers, Clover Studios, disbanded. Capcom then turned to Ready at Dawn, the creators of the recent God of War: Chains of Olympus, to handle the port. I'm glad to say that RaD has done a great job in successfully translating Okami to the Wii.
You are Amaterasu, an ancient god who takes the form of a majestic wolf. The evil god Orochi has broken out of his 100 year long confinement and has cursed the world to a state of non-fertility. The world is dying and it's up to Amaterasu to save it.
If you've played any Zelda title, you will be right at home with Okami. For all intents and purposes, the game is a Zelda clone. There is a massive twist to the gameplay however and it's what makes Okami one of the freshest games in years. Early on you will gain the ability to freeze time and use what's called your Celestial Brush to alter your surroundings. Whether it's restoring a dead tree to life or drawing a bomb to blow up a wall, Okami has it covered for the most part.
Of course, you won't gain all these abilities at the very start. At the beginning you are armed with only the ability to cut through monsters or soft surfaces by drawing a straight line across them. As you progress in your journey, you will gain the ability to create gusts of wind, make lily-pads on the water, and more. All the abilities are used often and the developers continue to make good use of them throughout the game rather than using them over and over for one task.
That said, the game can be repetitious at times. While the 13 Celestial Brush techniques are put to continously varied uses, that doesn't mean you don't use some more than others. Especially early in the game you will be using one or two abilities much more than others. However as the game goes on, that becomes less of a problem.
When Ready at Dawn ported Okami to the Wii, they of course added motion controls to take advantage of the Wii remote. Motion control is used in two ways: fighting enemies and controlling the Celestial Brush. Controlling the brush is much more accurate compared to controlling it on the PS2 version with its analogue control because you just move the remote as if you were actually painting. It's also much faster and after you get some practice you will be able to pull off brush techniques with blinding speed and accuracy.
However, combat is a bit of a different story. Battling enemies is done by shaking the Wii remote to attack much like in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. However unlike in that game, you can't just shake the remote wildly around and defeat your foes. Instead you need precise timing and rhythm which is very hard to get down. Some players may like this but I still don't have the timing completely right even after 20 hours of play.
Okami has some pretty good replay value--the main game will take most players at least 30 hours to complete and then there is a massive amount of sidequests and hidden treasures. For the completionist, Okami offers a lot and will keep you busy for a good amount of time.
Okami has one other thing that sets it apart from the crowd: its graphics. Okami uses a beautiful cel-shaded artstyle that gives it the look of an animated painting. It's rather difficult to describe in words but although the game isn't all that technically impressive, it's still gorgeous to the point that my mouth hung open when I started playing. Note that I've never done that with any previous game. To be honest, the game's graphics may further compel you to restore all the trees and dead grass you'll find. It's so beautiful that when you find an ugly, dying piece of land, you will want to restore it right away.
The music in the game is pretty good. It certainly adds to the atmosphere as the track is dark and dreary when you've encountered a land that's been cursed. Vice-versa, it's happy and upbeat when the landscape has been restored. The music at least is excellent, but the sound effects are a bit iffy. When talking to other characters their dialogue will be spoken out, but in gibberish. If you've played Animal Crossing then you have a good idea of what the spoken dialogue sounds like. It's annoying for some and charming to others.
Overall, Okami is an excellent game. The action/adventure genre is at the top of its game with this one. Anyone who likes Zelda or likes adventure games owe it to themselves to pick this one up. It can't be recommended enough.
Holy hell... Zelda TP and this crap compete for some A class boredom. Glad it bombed, hopefully it'll bomb on Wii too.
You're a bad person, and you should feel bad.Originally Posted by yoopoo
One major boring ass game, got to the mail man part...fought the first night creature. With MK Wii and GTA coming next week...this game is going back to gamefly today.
Holy hell... Zelda TP and this crap compete for some A class boredom. Glad it bombed, hopefully it'll bomb on Wii too.
Originally Posted by yoopoo
One major boring ass game, got to the mail man part...fought the first night creature. With MK Wii and GTA coming next week...this game is going back to gamefly today.
Holy hell... Zelda TP and this crap compete for some A class boredom. Glad it bombed, hopefully it'll bomb on Wii too.
Thus far, we have:
+ Wii Remote controls
+ Smoother look
+ 16:9 widescreen and 480p
+ Skippable cutscenes
+ Buying it to show Christian Svensson that listening to the community is a good thing (although he already does his best, I guess)
? More saturated colors (could either be positive or negative, depends on the original developer's vision of the game)
- less pronounced paper filter
- less bloom
- occassional freezes
- missing credits cutscene
But what about the loading times? More direct comparison shots? Any other cut-out content besides the ending credits?
Oh man! The credits were friggin great! They actually slowed down on my PS2 version for some reason, so I was looking forward to seeing them in the Wii version, had I got it.Originally Posted by Prime Blue
Inferior version confirmed.
There's other minor visual differences in terms of the inky line blending... as far a freezing though, after 37 hours I still haven't had the game freeze once on me. The issue might be more related to existing issues with the disc drive itself (a la Smash Brawl).
I have to say, I like the Wii version a lot more. The loading times are almost twice as fast, the graphics are more vibrant, and it's 16:9.
The waggle controls aren't as intuitive as hitting a button, but they work fine. The painting does suffer, it requires a lot more skill than the PS2 version.
Overall, I feel this is the superior version. I've acclimated just fine to the waggle.
Game froze twice on me, but I've put 17 hours into it so it doesn't occur often. As for demon fang loading minigame, I never was too successful, and it is amazingly easy to nab more than enough fangs in combat regardless(Black imps alone give three just for a basic power slash fatality...plus an extra if you use the pissing insult technique).Originally Posted by jarrod
Load times are shorter, but it also cut the loading minigame from the PS2 version. If you want demon fangs, you have to get them the old fashioned way now.
There's other minor visual differences in terms of the inky line blending... as far a freezing though, after 37 hours I still haven't had the game freeze once on me. The issue might be more related to existing issues with the disc drive itself (a la Smash Brawl).
Didn't know about the credits, never saw em in the original, guess I'll youtube it when I beat the Wii version. As for graphics...eh the Wii version looks ridiculously good, filters or not.
Oh and I much prefer the wiimote drawing over the old analog way. It takes a lot of conditioning, but once you figure the trifling methods to success, it's very intuitive. Waggle combos still irk me though, but its not a dealbreaker.
Head, meet table.
<minimeltdown>
25/04/2008
Current mood: [IMG]http://i27.************/2dchi52.jpg[/IMG] jaded
Dear lifejournal,
It's like Capcom wants me to feel bad about my purchase. I wasn't that thrilled with Okami when my friends showed it to me on the PS2. Later on I heard about Clovers demise and somehow felt bad about not giving it a chance. Then suddenly there's a Wii port, my chance to repent! Seeing as both RE:UC and RE4:Wii were pretty good I decided to splurge, "just this once!"
...so far, the prerendered ending video has been crippled/left out, there's apparently a tacked-on waggle control interface, graphics arguably have been improved, although slowdowns and crashes still persist while some effects have been seriously toned down, there's not one tiny bit of new content... then there's the cover thing.
what the hell kind of port is this? What's next, will the game format the Wiis' internal memory at random intervals? Spam the message board with Amy pics?
Everything screams of either heavy budget or time constraints. What a waste. I'm seriously de-hyped by now. I know they ran into quite a bit of trouble while porting this, but e.g. fixing the clover icon with a simple time-based fadeout in the ending sequence should have been a dirty, yet easy hack. It's, what, three lines of code inside the movie players' rendering loop, and a bit of math? Sure, it's slow, but hey, we have 700+MHz to burn.
if (is_endingmovie & (framecount>=somevalue)) break; //or decrease gamma, or overlay a fullscreen polygon featuring some artwork, or freeze the frame and ignore the next x frames, or whatever
In their favor: They've rectified the cover issue, which is commendable(, yet should never have happened in the first place). I'm gonna cut them some slack, I doubt this port was a pleasant experience for all parties involved.
Still, there are so many issues, it's hard to see the effort that went into making this.
I'm still looking forward to playing this, but Capcom certainly has lost vast amounts of goodwill with me.
</wrists>
Why were the credits left out? Administrator s-kill responds:
Oh and...You asked, so I asked. Here's the score:
The credits were removed because they were a pre-rendered movie that contained the Clover logo. We have no legal right to use the Clover logo in a game they were not involved with directly. We also didn't have the source to the credit movie itself, so we couldn't just use it and remove the Clover logo.
Hadn't even noticed they were missing until you pointed it out, but there's your answer.
best,
Seth
Relax man. I've put about 10 hours in, having not played the original, I can see nothing obviously out of place. The only real issue is the waggle combat, which is rectified by a few upgrades and switching to rosary beads. I've yet to have any slowdown or any crashes.Originally Posted by CTLance
...so far, the prerendered ending video has been crippled/left out, there's apparently a tacked-on waggle control interface, graphics arguably have been improved, although slowdowns and crashes still persist while some effects have been seriously toned down, there's not one tiny bit of new content... then there's the cover thing.
what the hell kind of port is this? What's next, will the game format the Wiis' internal memory at random intervals? Spam the message board with Amy pics?
Is the port flawless? No, but there were a lot of well publicized problems during development. All things considered, the port is great and the game is still great.
P.S. I would love it if they spammed the message board with Amy pictures. LOVE IT.
It's hard seeing all that effort and potential "go to waste" for what is ultimately a no-frills port. It's the last version of this game, barring a wonder or two. It could have been so much. And they blew it, not only once, but multiple times. Which, I'll say it again, is a friggen shame.Originally Posted by morningbus
Relax man.
And that fact irks me. Oh how it irks me.
The game is good.Is the port flawless? No, but there were a lot of well publicized problems during development. All things considered, the port is great and the game is still great.
AFAICS the port on the other hand is nothing short of desastrous in and of itself, but given the circumstances I'll upgrade that to "adequate". I had been hoping for "competent" to "decent". Nothing earthshattering. I think. Alas...
:lol That sure backfired.P.S. I would love it if they spammed the message board with Amy pictures. LOVE IT.
Admittedly it would have been awesome to find some wallpapers on the wii MB (or better yet, SD card) after completing the game, or parts thereof. Sure would've been nice.
Gripe gripe gripe.
Man, reading my own ranting is just... sad. But I'm really disappointed with the way Capcom has handled this project.
I'm gonna shut up or I won't be able to enjoy my purchase once I get it. I'm talking myself into another emo ingrate frenzy. ;)
After all, the game is good, and that's all that matters, right?
I agree that it is a shame that this version isn't 100% perfect or at least substantially better. I think you just need to look at it this way: would you prefer this port to have never been made at all? Because, given how the first version sold, these conditions of a quick, inexpensive port were almost guaranteed.Originally Posted by CTLance
It's hard seeing all that effort and potential "go to waste" for what is ultimately a no-frills port. It's the last version of this game, barring a wonder or two. It could have been so much. And they blew it, not only once, but multiple times. Which, I'll say it again, is a friggen shame.
It is a lot like reading a novel in the language it was originally written (even the original Japanese Okami suffers from this). A lot of world play, colorful language, and metaphor is lost when doing translations into other languages, but, I think most would agree, it is better to at least be able to read (or play) the thing than not.
Ultimately, I think whatever small problems this version has compared against the original are moot, especially when the port is still really good.
Absolutely.After all, the game is good, and that's all that matters, right?
I believe it is only the credits that are cut. The game still has an ending.Originally Posted by tetsuoxb
Sorry if this has already been answered, but if the ending is missing, how does the Wii version end? Spoiler tag of course.
that's coolOriginally Posted by FlyinJ
I invested about 10 hours into the PS2 version, and I just got past where I stopped in the Wii version.
I have to say, I like the Wii version a lot more. The loading times are almost twice as fast, the graphics are more vibrant, and it's 16:9.
The waggle controls aren't as intuitive as hitting a button, but they work fine. The painting does suffer, it requires a lot more skill than the PS2 version.
Overall, I feel this is the superior version. I've acclimated just fine to the waggle.
...yeah I just got my ps2 version in today ...more impressions later
It's just an FMV that contained the credits-it doesn't affect the ending plotwise. It contained the Clover logo, which Capcom doesn't have the rights to, and they don't have the source for the video so they can't modify it.Originally Posted by tetsuoxb
Sorry if this has already been answered, but if the ending is missing, how does the Wii version end? Spoiler tag of course.
after I got the Sword weapon from Orochi, a very strong and cool weapon btw, the battle went from " passable" to "fucking broken". I kinda got the timing with the shields, but holding the wiimote up to charge the sword is too fucking stupid. when I want to charge it attacks, when I want to attack it charges... it is by far the most annoying wiimote implementation. I hope they learn after this trainwreck :(
The worst thing is that it is really affecting my enjoyment... and I was loving the game so much... :/
its a much more relaxed game. I found myself playing in it a few hourly segments at a time. I never really played the game for very long for exactly the same reason. It is very slow-paced until much later.Originally Posted by Leon S. Kennedy
Everyone seems to think Okami is a great game, but its putting me to sleep. Literally, I only play at night and I'm nodding off while playing. Never happened to me with Zelda or Metroid Prime. Does it get better as the game goes on? I just got the cherry bombs, so I'm hopping it gets more interesting.
SD Download
a deserved 9.2
...though their complaints about the controls are mostly exagerated, as I said before, I've not had any substantial issues with them

On a side note there is also a Clover Logo, which apparently they aren't allowed to use :lolOriginally Posted by Sir Alemeth
say hey
Amazing. If I see the guide I'm buying it.Originally Posted by Drkirby
On a side note there is also a Clover Logo, which apparently they aren't allowed to use :lol
It says it was only updated for the Wii version, so it's also usable for the PS2 game.Originally Posted by Drkirby
On a side note there is also a Clover Logo, which apparently they aren't allowed to use :lol
Anyone else had framerate problems?Its a weird problem with the framerate, sometimes (about 2 times during a 1 hour game sessions) a hiccup interrupt the silky animation, it happen randomly being the water tunnel pass to Agata Forest the most conflicting part, this hiccup is kinda hard to notice, but still, someone is getting those hiccups?
Too Sakuya only say the last word while she talk, before Orochi´s defeat =/
The Ps2 version had the same problem?
Yeah, I think so. I noticed the palette, additional bloom and bad aliasing during the opening wolf-jumping sequence.Originally Posted by stewacide
Are the cut-scenes pre-rendered from the PS2 version? Because they looks very different (subdued palate, obvious paper filter, bad aliasing) from the game when playing?
Pretty sure yes. It has more bloom and more "dreamy" look, unlike the Wii version...Originally Posted by stewacide
Are the cut-scenes pre-rendered from the PS2 version? Because they looks very different (subdued palate, obvious paper filter, bad aliasing) from the game when playing?
Btw, what is the so called "paper filter"?
The PS2 version looks like it's printed on canvas: the whole scene has a 'bumpy' texture behind it. Looks neat. I'm not sure if removing it / toning it down below where it's noticed was a stylistic choice by RAD, or if they were worried about LCD burn-in.Originally Posted by Baiano19
Pretty sure yes. It has more bloom and more "dreamy" look, unlike the Wii version...
Btw, what is the so called "paper filter"?
OTOH the Wii version has much much better IQ. Too bad a few cut-scenes (not all it seems) are PS2 rips.
LCD burn-in?Originally Posted by stewacide
The PS2 version looks like it's printed on canvas: the whole scene has a 'bumpy' texture behind it. Looks neat. I'm not sure if removing it / toning it down below where it's noticed was a stylistic choice by RAD, or if they were worried about LCD burn-in.
OTOH the Wii version has much much better IQ. Too bad a few cut-scenes (not all it seems) are PS2 rips.
...
Heh, thanks =)Originally Posted by _Alkaline_
TunaLover posted this in a different thread:
Ok, since the framerate hiccups are random I´ve found a section in which this problem still appear.
You must be in the Agata Forest entrance, you´ll see the sleepy bear on the nut. Go to the portal to Shinshu Field, then cross the water tunnel, in the middle of this occur the hiccup. The problen happens in the water tunnel only in direction Agata Forest-Shinshu Field, not Shinshu Field-Agata Forest. Please try and comment. Thanks.
Are you sure that those cutscenes were in-engine on the PS2? I'm pretty sure the larger "flowers blooming" animations were videos of in-engine grabs on the PS2 as well. TOriginally Posted by stewacide
The PS2 version looks like it's printed on canvas: the whole scene has a 'bumpy' texture behind it. Looks neat. I'm not sure if removing it / toning it down below where it's noticed was a stylistic choice by RAD, or if they were worried about LCD burn-in.
OTOH the Wii version has much much better IQ. Too bad a few cut-scenes (not all it seems) are PS2 rips.
here's no way they could have had all the assets loaded for the areas they show blooming... especially given how fast those animations came up.
I think that the IQ was just better on the engine-grabbed videos on the PS2.
Indeed, that's almost certainly the reason some cut-scenes don't match the Wii version (they were pre-rendered in the PS2 engine). I'd guess RAD didn't have the original animation scripts to re-render them in the Wii engine. I'm playing in 4:3, but I'd assume the PS2-rendered cut scenes are stretched-out or black-bared for people playing in widescreen?Originally Posted by FlyinJ
Are you sure that those cutscenes were in-engine on the PS2? I'm pretty sure the larger "flowers blooming" animations were videos of in-engine grabs on the PS2 as well. T
here's no way they could have had all the assets loaded for the areas they show blooming... especially given how fast those animations came up.
I think that the IQ was just better on the engine-grabbed videos on the PS2.
This sticks out only because the port overall is so well done. No crashes, no glitches, and no frame-rate hiccups at all for me so far (~15 hours in)
IGN reader review wrote:
http://rr.wii.ign.com/rreview/wii/okami/884970/84117/...So all in all the play is good but has minor flaws. One such minor noted flaws are the rare hiccups in framerate. I haven´t had a lot of them so this one really varies...
Were they being lazy or was there some technical limitation?
This one issue is really holding me back from getting this game (I don't have a PS2). I don't know which control method I'd prefer, but what's wrong with having multiple control options?
It is because the port is not handled by Capcom.Originally Posted by Alcibiades
So why did Capcom include Gamecube controller options for RE4 but not for this?
Were they being lazy or was there some technical limitation?
This one issue is really holding me back from getting this game (I don't have a PS2). I don't know which control method I'd prefer, but what's wrong with having multiple control options?
Because everyone realised that the Wiimote is the best way to play this. They should've taken it out for RE4 Wii as well, to force all the whiners to acknowledge the superiority of the Wiimote over the GC or not be able to experience the game at all.Originally Posted by Alcibiades
So why did Capcom include Gamecube controller options for RE4 but not for this?
Were they being lazy or was there some technical limitation?
This one issue is really holding me back from getting this game (I don't have a PS2). I don't know which control method I'd prefer, but what's wrong with having multiple control options?
lol options.
Originally Posted by cpro
So Capcom is giving out free alternate covers to the game. I think I'll be getting one for my PS2 version...
Wha? Where was this made known? I want a replacement cover too.