Okami Going HD on PSN Later This Year

A must-buy! If only they would add actual japanese voice actors to complete the experience...

"A good game with a long playtime? Forget that!"

Ugh. Patrick.

@Steve_C: Well I see the problems you had but I found most weren't a problem for me, mostly due to me going in wanting a continuation of Okami but with controls that made the use of brush strokes quicker - which was what I definitely found with Okamiden.

I just think the game is totally worth a purchase if someone has either just finished Okami and wants to play more or it has been a long time since playing the original that you want to try it again (for instance for me, Okamiden came out just after I had finished watching a Let's Play of Okami so I was pumped to play that style of game again. I say this because I find the things you had problems with (like the re-using of mechanics/puzzles/areas and some of the music), I really liked; I liked the nostalgia of it as well as making a game which to me felt like a more compact, less filler, version of Okami.

I still think someone must play Okami first before Okamiden, and only if they are pumped to play it again then they should get Okamiden - but I do think if someone is in the state of mind where they would be happy to play Okami again (ready for a second playthrough) then they will definitely get something out of Okamiden.

I would also reccommend it to someone who wants to play a zelda/okami-style game on a handheld (or simply a shorter version of those types of games). I think Okamiden holds the same place for Okami that Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks do for the zelda series - games meant to evoke the style of the original one, creating a more compact story which fleshes out the world after the ending of the first; all while not aiming to innovate but rather to make a game for those still wanting to play that style while the developers can do something different on consoles.

Some actual Okami PS2 footage.

Also I was reminded that Issun was big pervert.

@Dixavd said:

@Steve_C said:

@TooWalrus said:

I've got a thousand games I need to play... but for some reason I just want to play "Okamiden"... was that even worth playing? I guess it reviewed well. Meh, it's only $20.

Noooooooooooo. The game is junk. It's inferior to Okami in every way. There's platform limitations to begin with. They did what they can to bring the visuals to the DS, but the screen size and visual fidelity just doesn't do it justice. The controls are more fiddly.

The real problem though is that the game is just a boring mash of recycled content with forgettable story and characters. Some of the same areas, and even moments that i'm sure were taken straight out of the original. It just tries to pander to fans of the original with hardly anything new of note. The original had lots of cool and clever ties in to Japanese folklore with characters, but I don't think they bothered at all to try and do the same thing (fuck "chibiterasu"), so for me it cheapened the fiction of that whole world. The music is cool.... because outside of one new song(?) I noticed and thought was cool it's all just from the original.

Now i've gone on a rant. I was so disappointed with that game, though I felt that way when it was first unveiled, let alone when I actually got to play it.

I have to tak the entire opposite view. While I agree it is nowhere near as good as Okami - I still think Okamiden is fantastic and is one of my top 10 games of last year. I seriously think it is worth it. The gameplay is vastly improved with the stylus truly making the brush strokes intuitive, the writing in my opinion is on par with Okami. The music is stellar again and actually most of it is new. I found the story engaging with the chibbi-gods much better written than in Okami. Plus while I belived it doesn't have the highs that Okami does, it definitely does not have the lows which Okami had making it a much more consistent experience with (in my opinion) a much better ending than Okami's.

I wholeheartedly reccommend Okamiden, especially if the trailers excite you. My question to you Steve_C is why did you bother buying it when you were already unimpressed by it - and why do you think your take on the game will be anywhere the same as someone who went into it while enjoying the trailers and ideas of it which TooWalrus obviously has? Maybe you shouldn't buy a game which you already didn't like the unveiling of in the first place.

Still it is just my opinion though, I just hate seeing a game I think is still worth the time of someone going in with the right frame of mind being ranted on.

P.S. Don't take this as me attacking you Steve_C I'm really not, I just don't see why you are trying to persuade someone not to buy a game which they have interest in which you didn't like even though you had already been turned off by it before its release.

That's fine. I don't mind having a conversation. As for why I bought it, I waited for it to get cheap, but Okami was one of my favourite games of all time back in the day. I needed to see what it was like, and if maybe it was actually decent. I didn't want to disregard it without actually giving it a chance, especially considering the good reviews.

To begin with, a question was asked of is it worth playing and from my experience it is not. Years after the original game came out, I don't think it offers anything above what Okami did. Milage may vary with the controls then. Obviously stylus control sounds ideal but in practice I found it more fiddly and harder to reliably get things out, bombs in particular.

The majority of the new characters are just kid versions of old ones. There are gameplay moments taken straight of Okami, like cutting at the same time as Kuni, just like you cut at the same time as Susano. So boring. One of the big copy moments I remember is around Hana Valley, and I actually checked this yesterday. Doing the same "puzzle" in bothgames at the same location, and then later doing the same thing of pushing the glass orb awkwardly back on to the same pedestal. Hardly a revelation in gameplay. It was a bit tedious back then, but repeating the same stuff, let alone in a game that's targeted at fans of the original. Unforgivable.

There are 2 new brush strokes. 1 is completely dungeon specific and doesn't really have any real use out in the world, and the other one to guide your partner didn't really add much for me. There aren't any challenging puzzles, and it just slowed the pace down even more. Lots of the locations are old ones. Technically there may be more new music that maybe gets played at some specific moment, but i'm going on what stood out to me. The majority of stuff I seemed to hear most often was just old remixed tracks. The only song that stood out to me and recognised as new with its own identity was this.

Again, from memory, I don't remember much story wise from Okamiden, so I can't have a discussion about the narrative devices or whatever. One of the coolest things about Okami though was how they took characters and aspects of the story from real folklore and religion. Amaterasu, Issun, Orochi, Susano, Kushi etc. Even The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter found its way in there. I didn't realise it at the time, but to discover this after having just played it was really cool, and to see how they realised aspects of certain characters and old stories. This became a fundamental part of that universe for me. So for them to make a sequel to this revered game and fiction "for the fans", but then completely not bother to do this at all really annoyed me.

For me, the overall experience was pretty bland. A lot just felt like filler, while not really expanding the universe or gameplay mechanics in any interesting way. It really was some Okami gaiden, which may be some excuse for characters with no real background. The only consolation to me was that they could be using the money to finance a proper sequel and to raise interest, but it always could have been accomplished more easily with this HD version.

@Steve_C said:

@TooWalrus said:

I've got a thousand games I need to play... but for some reason I just want to play "Okamiden"... was that even worth playing? I guess it reviewed well. Meh, it's only $20.

Noooooooooooo. The game is junk. It's inferior to Okami in every way. There's platform limitations to begin with. They did what they can to bring the visuals to the DS, but the screen size and visual fidelity just doesn't do it justice. The controls are more fiddly.

The real problem though is that the game is just a boring mash of recycled content with forgettable story and characters. Some of the same areas, and even moments that i'm sure were taken straight out of the original. It just tries to pander to fans of the original with hardly anything new of note. The original had lots of cool and clever ties in to Japanese folklore with characters, but I don't think they bothered at all to try and do the same thing (fuck "chibiterasu"), so for me it cheapened the fiction of that whole world. The music is cool.... because outside of one new song(?) I noticed and thought was cool it's all just from the original.

Now i've gone on a rant. I was so disappointed with that game, though I felt that way when it was first unveiled, let alone when I actually got to play it.

I have to tak the entire opposite view. While I agree it is nowhere near as good as Okami - I still think Okamiden is fantastic and is one of my top 10 games of last year. I seriously think it is worth it. The gameplay is vastly improved with the stylus truly making the brush strokes intuitive, the writing in my opinion is on par with Okami. The music is stellar again and actually most of it is new. I found the story engaging with the chibbi-gods much better written than in Okami. Plus while I belived it doesn't have the highs that Okami does, it definitely does not have the lows which Okami had making it a much more consistent experience with (in my opinion) a much better ending than Okami's.

I wholeheartedly reccommend Okamiden, especially if the trailers excite you. My question to you Steve_C is why did you bother buying it when you were already unimpressed by it - and why do you think your take on the game will be anywhere the same as someone who went into it while enjoying the trailers and ideas of it which TooWalrus obviously has? Maybe you shouldn't buy a game which you already didn't like the unveiling of in the first place.

Still it is just my opinion though, I just hate seeing a game I think is still worth the time of someone going in with the right frame of mind being ranted on.

P.S. Don't take this as me attacking you Steve_C I'm really not, I just don't see why you are trying to persuade someone not to buy a game which they have interest in which you didn't like even though you had already been turned off by it before its release.

@TooWalrus said:

I've got a thousand games I need to play... but for some reason I just want to play "Okamiden"... was that even worth playing? I guess it reviewed well. Meh, it's only $20.

Noooooooooooo. The game is junk. It's inferior to Okami in every way. There's platform limitations to begin with. They did what they can to bring the visuals to the DS, but the screen size and visual fidelity just doesn't do it justice. The controls are more fiddly.

The real problem though is that the game is just a boring mash of recycled content with forgettable story and characters. Some of the same areas, and even moments that i'm sure were taken straight out of the original. It just tries to pander to fans of the original with hardly anything new of note. The original had lots of cool and clever ties in to Japanese folklore with characters, but I don't think they bothered at all to try and do the same thing (fuck "chibiterasu"), so for me it cheapened the fiction of that whole world. The music is cool.... because outside of one new song(?) I noticed and thought was cool it's all just from the original.

Now i've gone on a rant. I was so disappointed with that game, though I felt that way when it was first unveiled, let alone when I actually got to play it.

If it's running at 60fps, then I'm in

$20 sounds great. I'm pretty excited for it, since it will be my first time playing it if I buy it.

How the shit have you not played this game Patrick? And don't worry about the 40 hour campaign. You wont even realize it's been that long, but I do understand you have other stuff to do.

Loved the PS2 game, though I never revisited after finishing it.

Liked the DS one, though it was more of an hors d'ouvre.

Still, I'll get the HD remake, just because.

It'd be really nice if they ported it to the Vita as well!

YESSS! i cant remember why i didn't get it when it originally released, but now.... YESSS!

Maybe I'll just trade in my unopened copy of the Wii version and wait for this version to come out. I've had it for 2-3 years, but never got around to playing it. I'd much rather play it in HD.

Slow news day I guess.

Awesome! With this I can feel comfortable not buying a new PS2 as I now have access to all the games I wanted to play again in HD remakes

@Rothbart said:

They really did a fantastic job in adding the motion controls to this game. I wouldn't know how this game could even be played without them, it was such an integral mechanic to the game. At least those with the Move will know how Okami was meant to be played in this HD re-release.

the game was on PS2 well before the Wii so it played perfectly fine without motion controls, yes i do agree motion did add to it for the Wii version but it's not a essential aspect, those without a move can play and enjoy it just as well as those with one.

@TooWalrus said:

I've got a thousand games I need to play... but for some reason I just want to play "Okamiden"... was that even worth playing? I guess it reviewed well. Meh, it's only $20.

definitely worth playing looks good and plays well has pretty much every thing you would want from Okami if you have played that.

They really did a fantastic job in adding the motion controls to this game. I wouldn't know how this game could even be played without them, it was such an integral mechanic to the game. At least those with the Move will know how Okami was meant to be played in this HD re-release.

If you put aside time for Skyward Sword patrick, you can make time for this. I played Okami right before skyward Sword and Skyward Sword sucked in comparison when it came to my experience.

HNGH THAT MUSIC WAS FANTASTIC

I've got a thousand games I need to play... but for some reason I just want to play "Okamiden"... was that even worth playing? I guess it reviewed well. Meh, it's only $20.

Never got around to playing Okami...I guess it is as good a time as ever? In HD too...hmmmm

@Cloneslayer said:

just make a new one already!

I concur. I most definitely concur.

Patrick, call dibs on the review (you can use "someone needs to check out the Move functionality" argument)! Force yourself to play it!

Patrick, since you've never played it (and you really should), I nominate Okami HD for an endurance run when it drops. Please think about it.

and heres the best okami version.. EVER

lol just had to do it

I personally like okami more the most zedlas

I didn't play the PS2 VR, Can't wait to play it!

I hope it's reallllly expensive, because I just bought it for the Wii, and I don't want to feel like I was screwed. They announced it the day I bought it. Fuckers.

I probably won't play it again, but I remember enjoying it a lot on ps2.

BRB, finishing Okami on PS2.

@Mumrik said:

"Who let the dogs out?"

...

...

...

Really?

I swear that all developers are in contest to see who can come up with the most cringe-inducing achievement names. There is an art to it.

FUCK YES!!!!!

Nice, more games to my HD Ps2

The original game really is good but it's also about 20 hours too long. I was pretty well ready for the game to be over halfway through. Ultimately the journey is still fun, but it's a long form zelda game and that doesn't entirely work.

All in all though, you should play Okami.

"Who let the dogs out?"

...

...

...

Really?

Nice. Never got to play the original so I'm looking forward to this.

Awesome, one of my favorite games on the PS2. Hope they make a Vita version.

Best Zelda ever.

Looks amazing, and I'm glad fans of Ōkami will be able to play this game again.

It's really too bad the gameplay sucks so hard, though. The story would've been passable if the game weren't absolutely stuffed with my least favorite combat mechanics in a game I've played in the last three years outside of Duke Nukem Forever and Amy. Tiny enclosed arenas, no variety or real challenge in the combat, and wasteful dungeon design makes Ōkami a divine failure I still manage to somehow enjoy rather than anything near a masterpiece.

Cool, I was just about to play it on my PS2 this summer. Glad I can play it, SotC, ICO, and MGS 2,3,4 on my PS3!

Played this game on the wii and absolutely loved it, but didn't complete it. I might need to plug my little white box back in and give it another go.

This might just be the time I give it a go too. Or at least convince my Move owning friends to.

WOOOO, but its too bad i already bought and beat the wii version a couple of years ago... its all thanks to this community too, i remember posting about the ending i saw on the ps2 and asking if the game was really over only to find out there were still 2/3 of the game left.

Never finished it on ps2 so this will be a great opportunity to do so. Loved the game but didn't want to replay 40+ hours after my save file got corrupt :(

I had it for PS2 but never finished it, bought it for Wii but the motion controls were shit. I think it's finally time to finish the best game I never completed.

Edit: It's funny that they don't show off the "voices". They are definitely off putting at first, but you grow to love them.

I liked Okami quite a bit but I don't think I want to play through it again, it originally took me like 60 hours.

Man, that music though. It brought me back to the ending sequence, and I nearly choked up again.