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Saturday 9 February, 2008
Game Play:
As you progress into the game Okami the story starts to flesh out and you begin to meet new characters. You gain new weapons and new fighting moves that you did not have in the beginning. This adds a new feel to the game because it enriches the fighting of the game which started to lag. The brush part of the game still remains fun and you find new and fun ways to use it in both battle and just wandering around. It does get glitchy sometimes. If you try to bloom a tree for example, which become very important, you can be an inch off and the brush stroke will not work but move the circle up just a little and everything is fine. The brush can also be very demanding whine it comes to closing a circle and making strait lines. If things are not perfect then nothing will happen. That is not to say that once you get the hang of it, it is still a problem. I took about 30 minutes but I finally solved the problem and have not had problems since but those first thirty minutes were hell. In the beginning of the game the voices are easy to ignore but after two hours of play the characters voices get very annoying and there are cinematic that can not be skipped over. This can become a great source of dislike. For me it is not enough to cause me to stop playing but it is annoying.
Design:
As I have stated before that design of the game is very unique. It looks like a Japanese ink painting. Because the realism of the game is not there but the game has its own beauty and in many cases it is a very refreshing change from graphics intensive games on the market today. The brush is also another concept from Japanese culture that is very foreign to Americans. It is a very interesting change from the only power that matters is that of nukes and other WMDs. This uses Japanese faiths to bring a new feel to American videogames. So far the levels have been different but not varied. The levels look different but what is required in each is very much the same. It goes along the basis of, revive tree, do quest, get treasure. While this is fun if things don’t change it will get boring fast. The space in the game world or use of it is very nice in Okami. You are not forced onto a narrow path most of the time, instead you are put into a nice big open area and are required to find various treasures and complete the quests the game gives you. This allows a great amount of freedom when you are running around exploring. The tone of the game mostly is that of doom and gloom. The areas that you explore are usually cursed until you are able to revive the guarding tree of that area. If you step into the curse you will be surrounded by endless blackness and haunting music, and when you fight monsters you enter their realm which is the same as the area you were just in but dark and gloomy. This adds to the separation between cursed land and purified land. I feel that it is a very unique game with a lot of potential and I have really enjoyed playing it. It is new different and fun and in today’s game market that is saying something.
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