Okami (PS2 Game)

Anyone here have this game? From what I understand it’s an action/adventure/pseudo-RPG along the lines of the Zelda games. Instead of an Ocarina, you have a paintbrush.
I just bought it today and am going to start playing it soon.

I have only read the manual so far, but it shows that a good amount of care went into bringing the game to the US: it has a section that explains a little bit about the Japanese mythology that’s referenced in the game and also explains the meaning behind the hand gestures of one of the characters in the game and how Japanese people would understand it but not most Western audiences.

I picked it up on Wednesday. It’s a really good game, very Zelda. The emphasis is very much on exploration and collecting. There’s a lot of combat, but it’s pretty simplistic and not terribly difficult. Visually, it’s one of the most striking games I’ve ever seen. They did an amazing job of caputuring the look of Japanese woodcuts, right down to laying a parchment pattern over everything. My chief complaint so far is the absurdly long intro to the game. Something like fifteen minutes of text set to an annoying Charlie Brown-ish “wah wah” speech. But once the game gets going, it’s pretty addictive.

I’ve played for about four and a half hours so far, and it really is good. It takes a long time to really get going.

The graphics take some getting used to. The palette of colors it uses is different from any other video games I’ve ever seen. I like the thick outlines on a lot of the objects, and the minimalist mountains in the background.

The drawing also takes some getting used to. It took me several tries to blow up the first wall with the bomb because you have to draw it in 2d to position it in 3d space.

I love the fact that you play as a wolf.

One thing it took me a while to figure out with the bombs is that, the bigger you draw the bomb, the closer it will be to the screen. Drawing the bombs smaller makes them appear further away.