Bark at the moon
2006's sleeper PS2 hit Okami gets a waggle-controlled Wii makeover. While some subtle improvements were made, a few other details are lost in translation.
When I first popped the Okami disc into my PS2 over a year ago, it was already sharing space on my TV cart with a rival next-gen console; the Nintendo Wii. With memories of Twilight Princess still fresh; I suppose I just couldn't get enough of saving the world and ripping enemies apart in feral lupine form. But Okami did something that went beyond even Zelda, which means a good deal coming from a guy who's passion for the Zelda series falls just shy of a religion.
If you've played Okami on the PS2, or if you've seen trailers or watched someone else play it, the notion is bound to cross your mind at some point or another; "Wouldn't this game be great on the Wii?" Lo and behold, Capcom and the hard-working team at Ready at Dawn Studios (sitting in for the now-deceased Clover Studios, which designed and developed the original PS2 version) have made it so.
Those who are familiar with Okami may skip the following two paragraphs.
Those unfortunate souls who have not yet been exposed to this brillant work of playable art, read on. Okami puts you in the role of a weakened Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and one of the most highly-venerated deities in the Shinto pantheon. Starved of the praise she once enjoyed, she is reincarnated as a white wolf and charged with lifting the curse of the demon Orochi from a ravaged Nippon (known to Westerners as Japan.) As a god, Amaterasu will be able to restore life and beauty to the world through the use of the "Celestial Brush," an ability which allows you to paint directly upon the very fabric of reality to revive trees, fill in broken or incomplete objects, command the elements and wield a host of other wild and god-like powers. Yes, there is combat in this game, and you'll earn money and other spoils from your demonic adversaries. However, if you want real experience, the kind that levels up your character, you'll need to be a benevolent god and do the things a benevolent god would. Restoring the environment, helping villagers, and feeding the animals will all earn Amaterasu the praise that gods need to regain their powers.
Okami blends Zelda-style adventuring and combat with RPG elements, traditional Japanese art styles and music, and an epic, sprawling story that never seems to end. Just when you think you've beaten the final boss and the game is over, you're only about one-third of the way done. It's that epic; actually, about 80 hours epic. You'll seldom re-visit areas or see more of the same; Okami manages to stay fresh 'til the end.
That was the PS2 version. So how well did Okami come through it's Wii makeover?
In short, the Wii controls are both the game's selling point and it's worst potential shortcoming.
Early in the game, even before you receive the Celestial Brush ability, you'll notice the difference in combat right away. Like Zelda, combat in Okami relies on combos strung together with rapid, repeated and well-timed attacks. On the PS2, you simply mashed the square button in rhythm. On the Wii, you'll have to shake the Wii Remote. This is the folly of waggle controls: whenever precision, well-timed attacks are necessary, buttons just do it better. Twilight Princess pulled off the waggling, but only because it didn't require such timing. In Okami, your attack combos will break if your timing is even just a little off. With a lot of early practice, I was able to deliver consistent combos by flicking the Wii Remote forward (with some gusto necessary for your inputs to register) at a learned rhythm, but it's like learning to walk all over again. I was able to master the controls fairly quickly, but largely because I'm an Okami veteran and relatively patient; most gamers could quickly become frustrated by the controls. On a positive note, the difficulty does add a likable visceral feel to the attacks. I kind of like it when my arm gets tired after an hour or so of gameplay, but maybe I'm just weird that way.
The same awkwardness carries over in the way the Celestial Brush handles. On the PS2, you used the analog sticks to control the brushstrokes, and the shapes you were required to draw were kept simple for that reason: simple circles and lines. While all of the brush techniques work the same way on the Wii, you will quickly discover just how challenging it really is to draw round circles and straight lines, leading to the game failing to recognize about one out of five of my Power Slashes, a simple move involving a straight line used throughout the game, especially in boss fights. As with combat, you will eventually learn to steady your hand and draw those circles and lines fairly consistently, but the drawing-recognition system isn't perfect or completely reliable when you absolutely need a technique to work without fail (during cinematic sequences and boss fights.)
In spite of the control-scheme shortcomings, I'm happy to say the folks at Ready at Dawn have done an excellent job of porting Okami to the Wii. Fans of the original are bound to notice a few of the clean-ups in the game's unique, heavily-inked cel-shaded graphics. On the PS2, certain shadowy areas which made heavy use of the inking effect were often slightly choppy or glitchy, and the filter that was used to give the visuals a painted-on-parchment feel sometimes looked too hazy in bright, sunny areas. Moreover, the render range for objects in the environment was often annoyingly short. With the Wii's improved technical power, Ready at Dawn has squared everything up, and Okami's world never looked better. Colors are brighter, ink is inkier, and everything renders at once.
Storywise, all of the original dialogue remains unchanged. As a subtle touch, there are a few added scenes in the cinematics, but as with the digitally extended version of the Star Wars classic trilogy, they're hardly noticeable unless you were a die-hard fan of the original, and they have no bearing whatsoever on the plot.
It's tough to recommend the Wii's Okami over the PS2 version because of the difficult controls, so if you own a PS2 and a Wii, I would recommend trying to find the original at a used game store. However, if you want superior visuals and don't think you'll mind adapting to the unique control style, the Wii version is where it's at.
Either way, Okami is a unique work of art and an absolutely amazing game that emphasizes good karma over the incessant slaying of lesser creatures. Whether you play the PS2 original or the Wii remake, do not under any circumstances miss it.
This reviewer's score: 9.0/10