Okami
by Capcom
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Product Summary
Author: UnknownBrand: Capcom
Published: 2006
Release Date: 2006-09-19
Platform: PlayStation2
Model: P2CAPC 013388260591
Publisher: Capcom
Product features:
- Traditional Japanese art comes alive through beautiful scenic 3D levels that have the appearance and texture of paper scrolls
- Epic tale that combines folklore and mysticism kami uses folklore to bring forth an immersive experience
- Diversified gameplay - Defeating monsters requires the usage of not only physical attacks, but Amaterasu's own unique abilities
- Eclectic and diverse enemies Diverse lineup of enemies based on Japanese folklore and myths
- Okami Official Complete Works
- Okami Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames)) (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))
- PlayStation: The Official Magazine (1-year)
- Tips & Tricks Magazine
Video Game Reviews of Okami
Customer Review: An amazing RPG that should not be missed.
Summary: 5 Stars
kami (, kami?) is a cel-shaded video game developed by Clover Studio for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was released on April 20, 2006 in Japan and September 19, 2006 in the United States and Canada. It is scheduled for release in Europe on February 9, 2007. kami's main character is the Shinto sun goddess named Amaterasu, who has taken the form of a white wolf. The title of the game is a pun; the word kami () in Japanese means "wolf", however the kanji characters used as the title of this game (), also pronounced as kami, meaning "great deity", so the main character is a great wolf deity. The same characters () are also used to write the full name of the goddess Amaterasu--mi-kami. kami can also be read to mean "big paper", hinting at the game's sumi-e-inspired visual style.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Story
* 2 Gameplay
o 2.1 Weapons
o 2.2 Brush techniques
* 3 Characters
o 3.1 Major characters
o 3.2 Supporting characters
o 3.3 Bosses
* 4 Mythology and folklore
* 5 Music
* 6 Reaction
o 6.1 Reviews
o 6.2 Awards
* 7 Trivia
* 8 References
* 9 External links
[edit] Story
Set in the Nippon region in an unspecified time in the classical Japanese era, kami combines several Japanese myths and legends to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by the wolf, Amaterasu.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The quiet village of Kamiki, filled with beautiful cherry trees, had a price to pay in order to maintain their peace. Each and every year a festival is held, during which a maiden must be sacrificed to the eight-headed serpent, Orochi, signalled by a white arrow being launched into the house of his chosen sacrifice. In the 100th year since Orochi's arrival, as the time for the sacrifice drew near, a pure white wolf the village dubbed "Shiranui" would appear and stalk the village's streets at night. A swordsman in the village, Nagi (Izanagi in the Japanese version), detested Shiranui, believing him to be one of Orochi's agents, and repeatedly tried to drive the wolf away. When the night of the festival finally arrived, Nagi's beloved, Nami (Izanami in the Japanese version) was chosen to be slain. Determined both to save the woman he loved and to put an end to the village's burden, Nagi went to Orochi's lair to slay the beast. Alas, he was defeated and about to be killed when Shiranui stepped in and took over the battle. Using strange skills, the wolf battled valiantly against Orochi, but still could not defeat the serpent.
Battered and beaten, Shiranui released a powerful howl the heavens. Strengthened by the howl, Nagi struggled to his feet and took up his sword once more, leaping onto Orochi and defeating the creature. Shiranui, filled with poison and fur dyed crimson with his own blood, was carried back to the village by Nagi where he was praised as Kamiki's savior - and then died. A shrine was built in the image and honor of Shiranui, and the sword that had saved the village was interred in the "Moon Cave" where the battle had taken place, and used to seal Orochi away. 100 years of peace passed, and a man disturbs the sword at the "Moon Cave", unleashing Orochi, who is not quite as fictional as the intruder had believed. Orochi immediately begins covering the entire world in darkness and evil. In response, Sakuya the wood sprite, guardian of the village, goes to the shrine dedicated to Shiranui and brings the statue to life as Amaterasu, the kami, reincarnation of Shiranui and sun goddess incarnated in the form of a white wolf.
Amaterasu must search Nippon for the 13 brush spirits to gain the power to defeat Orochi and heal the land. Throughout the travels, Amaterasu is hounded by Waka, a strange but powerful individual that seems to have the gift of foresight, and further teases Amaterasu and Issun to his own mysterious ends.
The 100th anniversary of the original defeat of Orochi, celebrated now by a festival held at Kamiki villiage, is quickly approaching while Amaterasu is in the process of removing the curse from other parts of the land. Returning just in time for the night of the festival, events begin to unfold exactly as they did 100 years ago: Orochi summons an arrow to indicate the chosen sacrifice: Kushi, the sake maker in Kamiki and romantic interest of Susano, a descendant of the great warrior Nagi. It is discovered that Susano himself was the one who disturbed the sword to begin with, as he despised the pressure of being Nagi's descendant and did not believe that his ancestor really defeated an evil spirit. To stop the constant pressure to be a hero, he wanted to prove to the village that the story of Nagi was nothing but a myth and there was no evil serpent sealed by Nagi's sword. Susano pulled the legendary sword out, releasing Orochi into the world. As it was 100 years ago, both Amaterasu and Susano return to the Moon Cave to defeat Orochi again and rescue Kamiki; as Orochi finally dies, a black evil spirit is seen to rise from the body and drift northward, but not unnoticed by Amaterasu.
After leaving Kamiki again, Amaterasu continues to search for more brush techniques and to investigate the mysterious spirit that left Orochi's body. Along the way, she encounters two more similar spirit foes - Blight, which had taken residence inside the Emperor and caused him to breath out a strange mist that was slowly killing the people and lands nearby, and Ninetails (a kitsune), who has the same god powers as the gods, and was sending evil spirits out from a mysterious island in order to try to take over the land. After both are defeated by Amaterasu, the same type of black spirit leaves the bodies and drifts northward. Following these spirits, Amaterasu is led to the snow-covered parts of the land. There, a village of humans that can assume animal forms is found and one gifted young girl has gone missing; without her song, an evil force would be unleashed upon the lands and the people implore Amaterasu to find her. Amaterasu discovers that the girl has fallen back through a doorway in time to 100 years prior in Kamiki Villiage, and to rescue her, Amaterasu must work with Shiranui and Nagi to defeat Orochi (as had originally occurred at the start of the story). Upon returning to the present, Amaterasu then proceeds to encounter two final evil beings, known as Lechku and Nechku, giant mechanical owls, which are the source of the evil threatening the village.
There, a legend of a mysterious "Ark of Yamato" is discovered. The Ark seems to have fallen from the heavens 200 years ago and crashed into a frozen lake (Laochi Lake), and open up to reveal hordes of evil demons that immediately began to spread across the land. Some of these demons would go on to become Blight, Lechku, Nechku and Ninetails, and thus the black forms seen heading northward after their defeat would be these demons returning to their point of origin. Further discovery indicates that before the Ark crashed, a race called Celestial Beings had found the Ark and thought it would usable for transporting around the Celestial Plains, but it was found out too late that the Ark already had residents, and was effectively a prison ship for the evil demons. All but one of the Celestial Beings were killed before the Ark crashed, the last one fleeing the destruction. Amaterasu, with the spiritual and physical help of many others guided by the encouragement of Issun, is able to defeat all the remaining demon foes, including those she previously fought before but have returned here. It is finally revealed that Waka was the last Celestial Being and had known Amaterasu's spirit prior to the crash of the Ark, and by guiding Amaterasu to the Ark and destruction of the evil spirits, Waka is finally able to return to the Celestial Plains alongside Amaterasu, using the freed Ark as their means of return.
Spoilers end here.
[edit] Gameplay
kami has the player controlling the main character, Amaterasu, in a paintbrush style, cel-shaded environment. The gameplay style is a mix of action, platform, and puzzle gaming genres, and has been noted by many reviewers to have numerous similarities in overall gameplay style to The Legend of Zelda series. The main story is primarily linear, directed through by Amaterasu's guide Issun, though numerous side quests and optional activities allow for the player to explore the game world and take the story at their own pace.
Unique to kami is the Celestial Brush. Players can bring the game to a pause and call up a canvas, where the player can draw onto the screen using the left analog stick to control the Celestial Brush.[3] This feature is used in combat, puzzles, and as general gameplay. For example, the player can create strong wind by drawing a loop, cut enemies by drawing a line through them, or create bridges by painting one amongst many other abilities. These techniques are learned through the course of the game by completing constellations to release the Celestial Brush gods from their hiding spots.
Combat is staged in a ghostly virtual arena, and Amaterasu can fight enemies using a combination of weapons, fighting techniques, and brush methods, to dispatch the foes. At the end of combat, money (as yen) is rewarded to Amaterasu, with bonuses for completing a battle quickly and without taking damage. The money can be spent on numerous items from merchants across the land, including healing goods, better weapons, tools, and key items for completing quests. The money can also be used to buy new combat techniques at dojos through the land. Additionally, rare Demon Fangs can be earned through combat which can be traded for additional, unique items that are beneficial in gameplay but not required to complete the game.
By completing quests, side quests, and small additional activitives (such as making trees bloom into life, or feeding wild animals), Amaterasu earns Praise, which can then be spent to increase various statistics of the character, such as the amount of health and number of ink wells for Celestial brush techniques.
The art in kami is highly inspired by Japanese watercolor and wood carving art of the Ukiyo-e style, such as the work of Hokusai.
[edit] Weapons
The Imperial Regalia of Japan are used as weapons in the game:
* The reflector (or mirror) serves as a melee weapon with a fast attack rate. Equipped as a sub-weapon, it also functions as a shield to block and counterattack enemies.
* The rosaries (or beads) can be strung together as a whip-like melee weapon capable of inflicting rapid hits; when equipped as a sub-weapon, the individual beads can be shot out as projectiles.
* The glaive (or sword) is also a melee weapon, slow on the attack but each hit can be separately charged up to inflict heavy damage. Equipped as a sub-weapon, it can be used for melee or lunging attacks.
There are five weapons of each type in the game, each type differing in its basic attack power, its use as a sub-weapon, and how it interacts with Amaterasu's Celestial Brush; for example, the most powerful of each weapon carries an elemental power which Amaterasu can extract to inflict damage upon enemies.
[edit] Brush techniques
There are 15 Celestial Brush techniques that the player learns through the course of the game. (Issun and the game refer to 13 techniques, but Bloom, Water Lily, and Vine are generally considered part of the same Technique.) Note that the gods that grant the brush techniques are based off the animals in the Chinese Zodiac that match up to some degree with the granted powers, either by animal traits or personality traits. The names of the Celestrial gods are based on the Japanese word gami (, gami?) (kami with a dakuten, meaning "god"), and a word describing the effects of the brush stroke.
Description of Okami
In Okami, the legendary monster Orochi has come back to life and turned the world into a veritable wasteland. Players become a wolf, an embodiment of the sun god Amaterasu -- the world lies in gamer's hands as they fight ominous beings and reclaim the earth from a curse that plagues it. It is crucial to help Amaterasu make the world a place where all living creatures can dwell once again.PlayStation2 Games
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