3 posts tagged “okami”
All right, pretty much everyone knows I'm a terribly huge fan of Clover's Ōkami. So, what does that get me?
My birthday cake! Made by my friend, Jennie. A cheesecake with chocolate crust and a layer of raspberry. Delicious! Food coloring used to do a watercolor-style painting on top. What could be neater than an Ōkami cake?
Something to go with it!? A stuffed Ammy, also made by Jennie. How freaking cool is that?
Brian also helped to get things together. My friends floobing rock! Certainly made my day!
(Blagh, it took me two and a half hours to get Vox to post this entry; what's up with that?)
I finished Ōkami on Friday (or, Saturday morning, technically).
It was, in every sense of the word, the most beautiful game I have ever played. After seeing what it really had to offer, my previous impression review (only about five hours into it) doesn't even begin to do it justice, so I'll give it another entry, of its own, here.
It took me a good sixty-two hours to beat, doing most of the side-quests and such. I'd passed the story and characters off as fairy tale-esque, but it was so much deeper than it let on. Having heard the rest of the soundtrack, I must say that the music is just incredible. At least one of the top three soundtracks of any game I've played; quite possibly number one. So comprehensive. The gameplay kept evolving upon itself, nearly up until the very end of the game.
I'm not going to say this game is without its minor flaws, but they're so far overshadowed by all that's right with it, it would seem almost petty to draw attention to them, here. It's no difficult task to overlook or forgive them when scaled to everything else.
For being more-or-less an impulse buy, not knowing if it'd be something I'd really enjoy, I am just completely in awe as to everything it was. It far exceeded my expectations, not just once, but it seemed every time I thought I had a handle on what it could provide, it proceeded to one-up itself. For all it boasted to be, it was so much more. It's like it created its own little sub-genre, and then went and transcended it.
Aside from its encompassing appeal, it really hit me on a personal level. There was a lot about it, from fairly common to rather obscure elements, that resonated with me and what I would want in a game, and it added considerably to my own experience.
For me, someone who is unfortunately pretty stubborn when it comes to change and stray from what I like and am comfortable with, it is so refreshing for something unique and different like this to knock me off my feet and impress me so greatly. Kind of restores my faith in new things.
I simply can't give enough praise to this game. It's deeply saddening to know that a development studio who could create such a phenomenal work would be dissolved for insufficient profitability. I'm just grateful they had the time they needed to make this beforehand.
As with such great things, I wanted to get to the end to see how it all came to resolve, and appreciate it in its entirety, but knowing that once I did, I would be left with the sadness of it being over and a longing for more. It'll be a bit before I can hear music from or think of the end without tearing up...!
So... If you do ever get a chance to play through it, and it seems like something you might enjoy, it's a fair bet that you won't regret giving it a try. For all that I've played and seen, it's the most enjoyable game on the system...most impressive game of the era...and best game of, at very least, the last decade.
New desk! My friend Brian helped me put it together last week. Perhaps slightly less of a bitch than I had anticipated, but a fair sized one, nonetheless. Especially trying to figure out the mechanics of the upper cabinets' hinge-lock space adjusters.
The picture doesn't quite show off the lustrous color, but my orange oil polish made it look reeaaally nice. Large surface area, drawers, cabinets, a keyboard tray, and even storage slots below the upper cabinets to "temporarily" stash stuff you don't want to find a place for at the moment. I love it. (>^-')>
I haven't gotten a new computer, yet, and I didn't feel like trogging around with my old one, so I just have my laptop set up on it with my super-nice speakers, and a wireless keyboard/mouse set so I can make use of the tray (the surface is a little too high for comfortable reach). I even bought a new 10-outlet 3,600 joule surge protecter for all my various electronic gizmos. Definitely a satisfactory purchase! I can't wait to get around to getting a new computer to get everything set up all nicely. (And finally play Oblivion...oh-ho...)
I also got a new CD in the mail. One I referred to in my earlier post; Epica's Cosign to Oblivion. The one I found just by looking at the "similar items" links off of Within Temptation's first album, which also arrived, but seems to be some weird German non-standard audio CD, so it crackles and skips and pops, annoyingly enough. I'm going to have to get Brian to just download MP3s of it, so I can actually listen to it. Yes, I'm pirating something I bought!!
Anyway, Epica's album, though, is incredibly fun to listen to. Very operatic and dramatic, loaded with choirs and Latin and orchestras and guitars, making for some pretty powerful music. The only complaint I have is that in a couple of the tracks, the guitarist feels the need to speak in the growl of a constipated bear. None too pleasant a sound when compared to all around it, but on the bright side, I suppose the contrast does make you appreciate the female lead singer's strong vocals that much more when they relieve you of the attempted embeefing. Actually, one of the best parts of the album is the lead-in to the bridge and end of the song directly following the throaty grunts on the track they first appear.
All in all, though, an excellent work of music!
Ōkami! That's right; I caved into curiosity and picked up a copy of this game at Game Crazy. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I'd heard things here and there during its development, and some promising review convinced me to go ahead and give it a try.
I'm glad I did! It's far outweighed my expectations. You play as the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu, in the form of a wolf (kami is the Japaense word for god, thus ōkami means big/great god, and ōkami/ookami is also the word for wolf, ha-ha). A nice change from a drunken gnome, anyway. (>^-')>
The gameplay is somewhat of a demi-RPG platformer. I've heard it compared to the Zelda series, and that's actually a pretty good comparison. You have puzzles popping up here and there that you need to get specific objects (or in this case, divine powers) to come back and solve. You even have a little Navi-like sprite-ish fellow named Issun following you around, instructing you on game mechanics, and occassionally speaking on Amaterasu's (whom he cutely calls 'Ammy', or sometimes just 'furball') behalf. One of the most adventurous features is the method of using Amaterasu's divine power; you hold down a shoulder button and paint symbols onto the screen with an analog stick over whatever you want to affect. It's a lot of fun to mess around with, and the detached contrast between it and the traditional platformer controls lends nicely to the effect of it representing otherworldly abilities.
If you've heard or seen anything about this game, chances are it's mostly been about the graphics. And, I have to admit, it is one of the neatest things I've seen. They're very surreal; it's like walking around in a moving painting. Very smooth and flowing, yet still solidly defined. The ōkami herself is animated with much fluidity and grace, and it's fun to just zoom in and walk around the lush landscapes.
The music is of a traditional oriental sort, which is fitting and appreciated. Serene and soothing. The voices use the increasingly popular Animal Crossing like garble (though as it does not seem to actually base off of the text, Starfox: Command is probably a more accurate comparison). A nice tool to be able to relay the tone and pitch of a character's voice without paying for voice acting, though you of course don't get to hear intonation, inflection, and such, that way.
The story and characters are, expectedly, very folksy and fable-ish, which suits the game just fine. I haven't gotten terribly far in it just yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how everything unfolds, and if there are any more surprises and new things to try!
It's a very creative, innovative, and well-executed game, and I would certainly reccomend giving it a try to any of you PS2 owners! It didn't get a lot of press, as is generally the case with such unique games, but reviewers and gamers alike who have picked it up all seem to love it (seriously, the lowest score I have seen for it out of fifteen or more game sites or magazines is a 9 out of 10). I certainly can't blame them!
