Ok, so apparently people love crap. They must. There is no other explanation for why stuff like live-action Transformers, Kanon, Twilight, and every show on MTV are so popular. This love of shit spreads to every media, including video games. A while ago I wrote a completely even-handed review of Okami for the Wii. Despite my best warnings to you people, you didn’t listen. Despite horrible sales, you continued to write glowing reviews lauding the “merits” of this game, and guess what message you sent to the creators?
“LOL HEY CREATORS OF OKAMI TIHS GAME IS AWESOME YOU SHOULD TOTALY MAK EA SEQUAL LOL!”
And video game designers being the money-hungry whores that they are, decided to go ahead a make a sequel. If the first one didn’t sell, then the sequel will totally be a success, right? Now there is Okami 2, which is titled Okamiden. Typically, sequels will keep the best elements that worked in the original game, get rid of the aspects that didn’t work, and offer additional changes to create a new gaming experience. Is that what they did with Okamiden? No, of course not.
Did they get rid of the terrible Celestial Brush that never worked? No. Well, then they must have gotten rid of the monotonous side-quests of circling trees. No. Um, so they let you finally take recognition for being a god? No. So they must have changed up the repetitive combat system? No. Uhhh, is it a side scroller? Sorry, still no.
So uber-chibi-kawaii, I want to burn it.
The big change up they made was to make the dog-god Amaterasu into a puppy named Chibiterasu. In Japanese, Chibi means “little.” Are you fucking kidding me? That’s the best name they could come up with? Little-terasu? That’s like doing a prequel to Hellboy and naming it Hellbaby. See how it works in English? Or rather, doesn’t work? Suddenly, it’s no longer cute. Now you can see it in all of its terribleness.
Okami was originally released for the PS2, and then ported over to the Wii. The sequel, however, will be on the Nintendo DS. On the positive side, this should resolve the issues with the Celestial Brush spazzing out and never working (as it did for the Wii). On the negative side, it makes it seem like more of a Zelda clone than ever, since there are approximately 175,000 Zelda games made for portable systems. Don’t deny it Okami-fanboys, game creator Hideki Kamiya has stated that Zelda was a huge inspiration for him.
Let’s face it, Okami was a shitty game. It failed to have good sales in Japan, and continued to fail to have good sales in the U.S. Failing in two counties (with quite disparate markets) should tell you something. Unfortunately, the gaming blogosphere is dominated by weeaboo nerds, who forgave all of Okami’s faults because it looked like a Japanese watercolor painting.
Whatever. I guess Okamiden will be fairly benign. I just wish people would listen to me for once. Don’t waste all your time and money developing, releasing, buying, and playing a game that is AVERAGE at best. Save your money for something awesome. Like a Detroit Metal City game. Now that would rule. Getting to play as Krauser as he rapes the Tokyo Tower would be the most epic gaming experience of all time.
Just because a game lets you pretend to be Japanese doesn’t make it good.
Verdict: Shitty
Awesomely Shitty 
Just want to say what a great blog you got here!
I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work!
Thumbs up, and keep it going!
Cheers
Christian
shitty uhh no it was a dam good game if you two retards dont like it keep it to your selves. (selfish basterds)
It’s awfully selfish of me to give my opinion on my own blog. Thanks for pointing that out. You’re a helpful person.
Well i did not buy the game, but i rented it and played on PS2. Having played it, i can say my opinion about it.
Okami is a good game. Do not forget it was completely experimental when it first came out. It may have a lot of flaws (many of which you mentioned – like the celestial brush not working all the time) but it had a lot of new individual characteristics that made it unique. The speech (the first time i heard it i was laughing for like helf an hour) the sounds (the old lady at the first village that washes her clothes in the river sings a OnePiece-like song (the one that Luffy singed at the Skypiea arc) – more lols there) and ofc the hilarious little bug friend you have. The part that you are not a god that is respected from the start is what makes this game so unique. You must try to make your way through this world you are trying to save. Noone must bow to you until you have done something really great.
I kept the thing that amazed me for last: The beautiful colors. Most of the games i am playing are full of damp colors (based off of black and gray and sometimes red). This game was a nice change to this routine.
The most important thing about this game is that it made me laugh. And what a game is about. Having fun. I do not understand words like “gaming experience” or “details”, “graphics” etc etc. I just admire this game 🙂
I have to say I disagree with this review. I never once had a problem with the brush and found it intuitive and an imaginative gaming experience. I played both the PS2 and the Wii version. I myself prefered the PS2 version, but I like older style of gameplay and the stike mode with the wii-mote tended to kill my arm when playing for a few hours.
What made Okami so pleasant is that yes, it did indeed look like a brush painting. It looked beautiful. It was wonderful to see a change of pace on the look and feel of a game. You felt immersed into a real storybook legend. It had jokes for different ages, a beautiful look and a wonderful feel to the game play.
As far as Okami2 sounds, well, it sounds like a waste of money in my eyes. They could have thought up a much better story line and in bringing the small boy back. Well that seems a monstrous waste of time. I would rather have seen something different. Or nothing at all. Sometimes Stand-alones look better because they stand-alone.
And in reference to the Hellboy->Hellbaby thing as far as the name. There are plenty of times that type of thing is popular here. Muppetbabies anyone? xD
Do you think it might be because you are wrong? 😉
Amongst all the insanity in the world, Brikhaus stands out as a pillar of intelligence and *gasp* working brain cells. Tell it like it is.
Well, he may have an opinion and I respect him for voicing it, but I certainly wouldn’t consider him a pillar of intelligence simply because he stated his opinion.
This itself is part of the insanity, he’s not standing against it at all.
While he may not have enjoyed the game, many people did. I enjoy that the game was in a refreshing art style and that it had a new way to control how you changed the world around you in game.
True, it had it’s faults, but every game does and not every game is going to appeal to every player.
Unless this review is a grothesque rant of game i completely disagree with this review. Playing this on Wii was little tyring for my arm, but i used to it. Game itself have a very good storyline, i personally thought that first battle with Orochi is the final battle of the game, how was i surprised when i discover it is only a link to other page of story. Same with second boss Ninetails, it is great experience and mostly fun when you can’t predict what comes next. Some people may enjoy it, some won’t, there is not a such game that fits anyone likings, correct is that it have some flaws, sometimes celestial arts didn’t work or was misinterpreted by the game like blooming and wind. In the end i would put this game in group of best games i ever played. “Hellboy = Hellbaby” – since when the title describe how good is its content, while hellboy could sound cool, hellbaby could be much more deeper and and fun despite lame title, don’t judge the book just by title and the cover, read the book to do so.
I started to play Okamiden and it doesnt look that great as Okami, propably DS specs force they to made cuts, but as long as i am not insanely focusing on what Chibi really means, i could say it is OK game.
You have an interesting review here, although I have to disagree. I thought Okami was a great game I found some similarities to Zelda, but it was not a “Zelda Clone”. Also i wanted to add some translations and interesting facts in the mix .Chibiterasu translates into “little sun” and is Amaterasu’s son not a shrunken Amaterasu. Amaterasu is the Shinto religion’s Sun goddess. Okami actually has some aspects of the the legend of Amaterasu. I found it fascinating to find a game that had such deep culture in it. The game itself was done beautifully in my opinion. Remember this game was built originally for PS2 so the graphics are much rougher than modern graphics. The Wii’s graphics aren’t much more astounding to be honest either. The controls for the Wii are much harder to command than the PS2’s for the celestial brush’s, but after a while you get used to.
Thanks for the culture lesson. I am, after all, an ignorant gaijin. Glad you enjoyed the game, but clearly I can’t stand it.
WTF?! Are you sure you played okami? because i bought the game a while after it came out and after hours of playing this game and long nights of gaming the first thing i thought when i beat it was “Is there another?” So search it on the internet and find this bullshit written all over the page. At least the other commenters know what their talking about.
Okami was one of my favorite games so dont go tryin to shit all over it
If I had known that you were such a big fan, I never would have written this post.
the begining of this is hypocritical saying that what is commonly liked by the masses is crap but this isnt a well known game since it wasnt made by “wholey-crap-shoot-everyone-recon-games-cause-we-cant-make-anything-original” inc. by your logic, this would be a good game then since it ISNT apart of the masses of shit
Okami was a “shitty game”???? Might i ask the potency of the meth you have been potato-thumping???
It’s really potent. Breaking Bad levels. I’m high all the time.
Do you get paid to be a doucebag or do you do it for free?
I do it because I love trolling dipshits like you.
I think okami 2 should be made on ps2 okami is one of the best games I’ve ever played im playing it now and when I beat it I am just disappointed to know how the creators just leave you hanging and you barely get to see the celestial plains and issun is not with amaterasu and everyone believes in amaterasu it just disappoints me I’m disgusted in the creators if they don’t make an okami 2.
Hey I respect your review on this game but don’t you think you’re too negative? Well look on the bright side. Okami won the game of the year award (base on IGN.com). Well my English sucks so I’m just gonna take a review from IGN.com which really say what I feel about this game.
Why It Rocked: 2006 was a great year for gaming, but the one game that was enjoyed by everyone across the board at IGN was Okami.No game received as much all-around praise as Clover’s brilliant adventure, and for very good reason. Mixing the best elements of the Legend of Zelda series with the unique and astoundingly natural celestial brush, few games have mixed so many elements together as what we’ve seen in Okami. The art style is of course incredibly beautiful, and the way that it directly ties into the game’s main play mechanic, the celestial brush, makes it feel like an extremely natural and fluid experience.
There’s a whole lot to do and see here as well. With miles of land to cover, numerous towns filled with characters to interact with and secrets aplenty, Okami is about as epic as they come. Its story fits this perfectly as well, mixing fairytale elements with classic Japanese folklore, making for a timeless tale that would hold a place in any setting.
It’s not too often that a game comes along that really nails every part of the package, but this is one of them. From the core gameplay to its visuals and soundtrack to its touching storyline, Okami has it all. There were a lot of fantastic titles released this year, some that we’ll be talking about years from now, but Okami stands above them all.
— Chris Roper
I’m glad to hear you found so much of Okami to be positive. I don’t think I’m being too hard on it, because it honestly annoyed the fuck out of me for every moment I played it. And, hey, your English happens to be pretty good.
” It failed to have good sales in Japan, and continued to fail to have good sales in the U.S. Failing in two counties (with quite disparate markets) should tell you something.”
How could that even be possible? It won the Game of the year award 2006
I don’t think winning awards has anything to do with sales. Just look at the Academy Awards for a prime example of that phenomenon.