What looks like a watercolour painting, shoots fire, and makes barking sounds? If you’ve suddenly found yourself conjuring up an ugly image in your head, don’t worry, I’m actually talking about Ōkami. Capcom’s seminal fantasy classic is now ten years old, so let’s take a look back at their phenomenal work of art.
Developed by Capcom subsidiary studio Clover (whose staff would eventually go on to form Platinum Games), Ōkami took place in a world reminiscent of Japanese mythology and folklore. You played as the sun goddess Amaterasu, as she descended to Earth in the form of a white wolf to vanquish the evil demon Orochi and restore peace to the land.
So firstly, let’s address the elephant in the room: Ōkami was inspired by The Legend of Zelda series, a fact that was clear in everything from its art-style to its combat system. Hell, neither of them even have voice acting. Rather than blatant ripoff, the term loving homage seems more appropriate, because Clover clearly have great respect and admiration for Nintendo’s classic series and wanted Ōkami to be a labour of love. Kamiya himself proudly acknowledges the influence of Zelda, and was glad to have followed in the footsteps of such a great series.
Anyone who thinks that video games cannot be considered an art form has clearly never played Ōkami. From its beautiful cel-shaded visuals, to its sweeping soundtrack, right down to the fact that you can use a paintbrush to literally help your surroundings come alive, the game was, in every sense of the word, beautiful. Many players found themselves slowly wandering through its vast open world simply to take in the sheer majesty of all that it had to offer. This game looks so beautiful that you can literally take any screenshot from it and hang it on your wall.
And in its huge world, Ōkami has a spectacle of colorful characters for you to encounter. A tiny, loudmouthed artist called Issun who acts as your traveling companion in the style of Navi in Ocarina of Time and resents being called a bug, a fisherman who’s almost completely naked apart from some sea shells covering his you know what, and a wise old village elder named Mr. Orange who loves to dance. Yup, you sure do meet some strange people along your journey. Amaterasu herself remains a silent protagonist, but hey, she’s a wolf. What do you expect?
Right, down to combat. Whenever you encountered an enemy, a barrier would suddenly arise trapping both you and them in a small confirmed space (although thankfully there were no random battles), and in addition to the usual biting and pouncing that you would commonly associate with someone of the canine disposition, you can also your paint brush to literally draw them to death and even shoot fire at them. Enemies would often explode into multiple parts once defeated (albeit in a mostly non-graphic way) and this caused the ESRB to slap Ōkami with a T rating with the descriptor ‘Blood and Gore’ instead of the expected E10. Amaterasu sure doesn’t pull any punches if you get on the wrong side of her.
Sadly, all did not end well for Amaterasu. Despite being a huge hit with critics, Ōkami only sold 200,000 copies in North America within its first eight months of release, and only 66,000 in Japan. These low figures were blamed on the fact that it was released very shortly after the release on the PlayStation 3, so the demand for new PS2 games, especially a new IP, was not exactly overwhelming.
It was later ported to both Wii
Despite being a commercial disappointment, the legacy of Ōkami lives on. An equally fantastic sequel titled Ōkamiden was released on the Nintendo DS in 2011, and Amaterasu would later appear in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (grrr, it’s now been delisted thanks to Disney), in addition to being referenced in a ton of other Capcom games. At this point, a third game in the series seems unlikely, but the original game remains such a classic that it will surely continue to delight players for many more years to come.
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