I broke my rule. I bought a second game in October. (I'm only buying one game per month, and I'd already purchased Bully - and I love it, by the way.) Emma and I had about the worst weekend we've had in a long time. But as much as it sucked for both of us, we stayed strong and supportive of each other throughout the trouble (the trouble hasn't gone away yet either, but we're still hanging in there). We decided that Sunday would be a pamper yourself day. We went out and did a little shopping. We bought some toys for our nephews and some toys for ourselves. Emma bought an iDog (which is a little robot dog that you plug your iPod into and it moves and emotes to the music), and I allowed myself a new video game.
I bought Okami. It's published by Capcom and developed by Clover Studio, which is a subsidiary of Capcom, and is responsible for Viewtiful Joe and God Hand. Unfortunately, Capcom has decided to dissolve Clover in March. I'm upset about this. Especially after playing Okami for two hours.
After a somewhat lengthy info dumping intro, which was all done in japanese caligraphic style, I finally got to see what the game looks like. It is spectactular! You are a white wolf with a stone sun on your back, which ratiates flame. The landscapes are classically japanese, reminiscent of Samurai Jack (if it were animated by someone who had time traveled to the present from the edo era). The game is painted ... with light. It looks exactly like a painting would look it it came alive. The outline brushstrokes are broad and black, and the colours are pulsing with vibrancy. I cannot believe the amount of attention paid to detail.
Gameplay is good. Movement and camera control are perfectly natural. One quibble with the camera: only two distances, and the close one, in some situations, is too close, and in the same situations, the far one is too far - but this is a minor problem.
You are a god in she-wolf form, and you hae the power of the celestial brush. You can paint the world. There are 13 brush powers. I have two of them so far. One is restore/create - fix a bridge, a water wheel, put the sun in the sky when it's dark, etc. The other is a slicing power. Paint a stroke across something that can be cut, and it will collapse in two pieces.
The painting controls are not too bad. You hold R1 and move the brush with the left analog stick, and press square to put brush to paper. This is a bit awkward, but they did the best then could with the DualShock2. Celestial Brush is a big part of the game, and for that reason, I think it would have been more successful as a Wii title than on PS2. Oh well.
Seriously, it is a fun, and beatiful game. Emma will actually sit and watch me play because it is so pretty. It really is like watching a painting tell a story.
Buy it guys.
I bought Okami. It's published by Capcom and developed by Clover Studio, which is a subsidiary of Capcom, and is responsible for Viewtiful Joe and God Hand. Unfortunately, Capcom has decided to dissolve Clover in March. I'm upset about this. Especially after playing Okami for two hours.
After a somewhat lengthy info dumping intro, which was all done in japanese caligraphic style, I finally got to see what the game looks like. It is spectactular! You are a white wolf with a stone sun on your back, which ratiates flame. The landscapes are classically japanese, reminiscent of Samurai Jack (if it were animated by someone who had time traveled to the present from the edo era). The game is painted ... with light. It looks exactly like a painting would look it it came alive. The outline brushstrokes are broad and black, and the colours are pulsing with vibrancy. I cannot believe the amount of attention paid to detail.
Gameplay is good. Movement and camera control are perfectly natural. One quibble with the camera: only two distances, and the close one, in some situations, is too close, and in the same situations, the far one is too far - but this is a minor problem.
You are a god in she-wolf form, and you hae the power of the celestial brush. You can paint the world. There are 13 brush powers. I have two of them so far. One is restore/create - fix a bridge, a water wheel, put the sun in the sky when it's dark, etc. The other is a slicing power. Paint a stroke across something that can be cut, and it will collapse in two pieces.
The painting controls are not too bad. You hold R1 and move the brush with the left analog stick, and press square to put brush to paper. This is a bit awkward, but they did the best then could with the DualShock2. Celestial Brush is a big part of the game, and for that reason, I think it would have been more successful as a Wii title than on PS2. Oh well.
Seriously, it is a fun, and beatiful game. Emma will actually sit and watch me play because it is so pretty. It really is like watching a painting tell a story.
Buy it guys.
Be cool if they developed this for the DS...