Ōkami

The game has a great premise, and I really love the Japan setting, the art style and the music. Atmosphere is great too, the whole presentation is amazing. However, it has some of the most dull gameplay in recent memory. The main problem that the game is just too easy. Finding health items is not hard at all and every combat encounter can be beaten by using the brush to break the enemies defence and by just spamming the attack button. Rinse and repeat. Most of the items feel absolutely worthless and upgrading your character is not satisfying when the gameplay is so mind-numbingly easy, it all just feels pointless.

I'm still going to give the game a positive rating, because there are way too many things the game does right, but the gameplay is not one of them. Mid-way through the game I had to drop it. Maybe I will try again some other time, but right now, I'm just too bored to continue.

Okami is my favorite game of all time, so I do have a bias. However, I think this game is amazing and not given enough credit. It plays like a Zelda game with puzzles, dungeons, and abilities to unlock. This game improves on Zelda with an in-depth story based on Japanese mythology. Most notable is the glorious art style which is unique and beautiful. The game is fun, it has a bark button. My only complaint is that the combat is not the best, it can get repetitive or frustrating, but the rest of the game makes up for it. I love this game. I think everyone should at least try it out especially if you enjoy the Zelda series.

Uma aventura que triunfa quando aposta em seus cenários, na sua música e no seu design de arte. A densidade do mundo aberto é ótima e as atividades secundárias são tão bem integradas à campanha principal que raramente me senti desviando do jogo.

O combate, simples em sua estrutura, ganha mais corpo com a variedade de armas e combinações possíveis e permanece minimamente interessante até o fim. Outro destaque é o design dos inimigos, visualmente distintos e que nos força a encará-los como pequenos puzzles.

Ao mesmo tempo, é um jogo às vezes inconveniente, seja na forma como conta a história ou na incômoda lentidão geral de sua progressão. Há muito diálogo tolo e tutoriais evitáveis, bem como pedaços grandes de narrativa muito repetitivos. Uma duração menor remediaria boa parte desse problema.

I don't know how many people get 50 hours from this game. I finished it in ~19 hours, and i was not hastening myself. I played Ocarina Of Time before (not finished it), and i must say Okami is doing lot of improvements on this whole Zelda shtick, for example wolf is much faster than Link, world is bit less empty, so exploration is much more pleasurable than in OoT. Other reviewers's complaints are valid however, game is way too easy, even at the end of game, and there is no diffuculty choice, so game has no replayability. Cel-shading graphics is beautiful and very forgiving off bad hardware (you can play this on your thinkpad), and also there is lot of good humour from wolf's sidekick issun, humour which is at time adult and self-aware

I remember my friends wanted to play this game fro our weekly game nights, so years ago they bought this for me on PSN for us to play but after only one day of playing it we realized the game would be way too long to beat, and the next being not many people were really interested in the game since it was slow paced and the combat seemed kind of slow and easy. Well years down the road I finally decided to put my balls to to the wall and just go through the game from start to finish since I heard so many good things and seeing it compared as the PS2 version of Zelda. Well to be fair, this game got better, I was bored for the first few hours as the game focused heavily on narrative and storytelling and the combat before the more difficult enemies come in are mind-numbingly easy. But Okami does a lot of unique things with its art style and having you play as a wolf that paints things to solve puzzles and fight enemies, I mean how many games can say they have such a unique concept. And surprisingly it works, even if it is a little simplistic and most of the puzzles really end up solving themselves. Like many adventure games you travel to new areas and gain new abilities along the way, eventually you are able to progress to the final area and take on the final boss gauntlet.

But despite the beauty and unique style, and decent sense of progression, there is some tedium in the game. There are times where you will be going back and forth between the same areas and you don't unlock a fast travel ability until about halfway through the game and an even better one which is only unlocked through trading in collectibles. The combat ranges from incredibly easy, to difficult but even the tough enemies can be overcome since you get so much money in this and can easily afford to buy power ups that make you invincible and give you unlimited ink and reduce your damage taken. But I'll admit, there is solid enemy variety all which require different techniques to kill, although some enemies do get tedious and are a bit of damage sponges.

Now outside some tedium, and somewhat simplistic combat and puzzles, the game is pretty solid and unique. It has a deep rooted Japanese folklore feel and the graphic style is simply beautiful. The whole brush mechanic is interesting and even if it is a bit simplified, it does give the game character. Plus there is some odd pacing occasionally like the game sort of feels it should end then drags out a little longer. And yeah there are some annoying fights that do drag out, even if they are easy I don't want to spend 10 minutes on a boss fight because they have temporary invincibility moments. Despite its flaws this still is a solid game and I think it does a lot good with a good story, good characters, a unique style and sense of humor, and a big open world to explore with collectible items. But at the same time the flaws and issues do increase the amount of tedium and the combat at times does feel a bit limited and dull. But outside the combat system and dragged out moments this game is a masterpiece of its era and a must play for any adventure game fans. I might not have been the biggest fan of this game, but I really appreciate what it does, plus it just looks beautiful.

Absolutely majestic style which remains unique to this day, fairly high praise for a PS2 title, and ultimately a decent attempt to bring Zelda out of its comfort zone. The puzzles and inventory upgrades are there, as is a Metroidvania element to its progression, but combat, while fine, is too shallow and easy to make for an invigorating play, and between stop-start dialogue scenes and prompts, and some badly placed boss rushes, the pace is a killer. Had the game ended at the first Orochi fight, it would have made the story worse (some interesting twists reside in the game's later acts), but would have made the game measurably better.