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Okami really is a poor mans Zelda
- Thread starter Dragnipur
- Start date
I'm playing through it for the first time and while it is a great Zelda-like, it ain't no Zelda. I would certainly say Twilight Princess, which came out the same year, is better.
The game looks amazing and all the areas are visually distinct, there's a lot of creativity in its design. But dungeons are too linear and easy, plus the combat is pointless at times despite the enemies having cool gimmicks.
I'm going to make a LttP thread when I finish it to finalize my thoughts.
The game looks amazing and all the areas are visually distinct, there's a lot of creativity in its design. But dungeons are too linear and easy, plus the combat is pointless at times despite the enemies having cool gimmicks.
I'm going to make a LttP thread when I finish it to finalize my thoughts.
Zelda fans are seriously biased and elitist. And this is coming for a person who loves the franchise.
Why can't Okami be its own game without comparisons? It's actually on par with the greats and the action is 10x better than any other Zelda game to date. Your opinion is subjective and that's all it is... as is mine.
IMO, it's probably better to play Okami as three Japanese visual novels than a Zelda game. There's way too much hand holding and it's too linear to treat it as a Zelda game.
I liked the 3 story arcs, like when an event in the 3rd arc connects directly with the first arc. It's similar to some heroes journey-style sagas (like the original Star Wars trilogy), where the boss is beaten just to reshape in a new adventure.
Issun becomes a very multi-layered character at the end. There's a lot of back story to him, and quite a few gameplay twists in the 2nd and 3rd arc that relate to him. Issun is pretty similar to Midna in some ways, but he talks 10 times as much.
Some things Okami does better:
* The silent protagonist. It works much better with a silent wolf than a mute man.
* The enemy variation. Even though the enemy battles never really are that difficult, it's nice to have the visual enemy variety.
I liked the 3 story arcs, like when an event in the 3rd arc connects directly with the first arc. It's similar to some heroes journey-style sagas (like the original Star Wars trilogy), where the boss is beaten just to reshape in a new adventure.
Issun becomes a very multi-layered character at the end. There's a lot of back story to him, and quite a few gameplay twists in the 2nd and 3rd arc that relate to him. Issun is pretty similar to Midna in some ways, but he talks 10 times as much.
Some things Okami does better:
* The silent protagonist. It works much better with a silent wolf than a mute man.
* The enemy variation. Even though the enemy battles never really are that difficult, it's nice to have the visual enemy variety.
I think comparing Ōkami to Zelda is like comparing Earthbound to Final Fantasy VI. One has way better gameplay, technical aspects, and is generally better regarded. But the other just has a vibe and beauty to it that hasn't been replicated.
Ōkami has major flaws. It's the weakest combat system in any Kamiya game, the pacing is incredibly choppy at times, there's some lame leering fanservice, and the difficulty is uneven as hell. But I'd still call it a classic and one of my favourite games for how beautiful, creative, majestic, and grandiose it is.
Ōkami has major flaws. It's the weakest combat system in any Kamiya game, the pacing is incredibly choppy at times, there's some lame leering fanservice, and the difficulty is uneven as hell. But I'd still call it a classic and one of my favourite games for how beautiful, creative, majestic, and grandiose it is.
I bought it on Wii and got the IGN cover. Then I bought it on sale on another platform so I could avoid the Wiimote. Also borrowed Okami HD from the library.
Have I played it though? No.
Have I played it though? No.
OP
OP
That's why its subjective, I don't agree with the combat being better but I prioritize gameplay over story, art, and music. Now that I think about it the music part I don't agree with either
"Combat sucks" is a new one to me
The brush thing is not particularly intuitive at first since it was a new mechanic but you're supposed to get faster with it
Boss fights in general often have annoying invincibility breaks (hello Spiderman PS4) but yeah, I do remember there being a lot in Okami
The brush thing is not particularly intuitive at first since it was a new mechanic but you're supposed to get faster with it
Boss fights in general often have annoying invincibility breaks (hello Spiderman PS4) but yeah, I do remember there being a lot in Okami
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeh. BOTW is inferior in so many ways. I'd rather take the more numerous dungeons and more intricately designed world/environments that actually require a more thoughtful approach to exploring and solving things to the bore of total openness with very little in the way of obstacles that BOTW offers.
Plus Okami is more rewarding than BOTW that gives a literal golden shit for the gargantuan effort of finding all those shitty little korok seeds and gives pitiful rewards for solving shrines (weapons that break in five hits mostly). Plus it has more variety. Zelda is just climbing and the same goblins for 99% of the time with some ok fun physics hijinks thrown into the mix occasionally.
It's a good game but it doesn't have enough ideas to take it through its bloated play time.
There is also a complete lack of any challenge whatsoever which really hurts it. Solutions to puzzles are literally given to you before you can even begin to look at it yourself. The combat is tedious anyway but it's pretty much impossible to die to anything including bosses.
I'm sounding down on it but I do like the game and just recently beat it again with the Switch release. I don't think it's as good as any Zelda though.
There is also a complete lack of any challenge whatsoever which really hurts it. Solutions to puzzles are literally given to you before you can even begin to look at it yourself. The combat is tedious anyway but it's pretty much impossible to die to anything including bosses.
I'm sounding down on it but I do like the game and just recently beat it again with the Switch release. I don't think it's as good as any Zelda though.
OP
OP
I don't really understand the point of this weird BOTW rant, but BOTW isn't really a traditional zelda game and shouldn't be compared to Okami at all since they're trying to do different things.
I thought that it was a far better game than the Zelda of its generation, Wind Waker. It's not perfect but it's hands-down better than that. I do think the game suffers from some flaws. From that gen, I put Beyond Good&Evil > Okami > Wind Waker as far as action/adventure games.
How is a completely linear world "intricate"? A world where (if you want to leave an area) the sidekick basically says "Do you really want to leave this area? We have stuff to complete here first!"
What awards did Okami give the player, apart from the tools to continue on the linear quest?
Between August and December of 2006 the Wii and PS3 launched and all these games came out that I bought-
Dead Rising
Ultimate Ghosts'n Goblins
Yakuza
LocoRoco
Okami
Rule of Rose
Mega Man ZX
God Hand
Final Fantasy 12
Metal Gear Solid: Portable OP's
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 & 2
Enchanted Arms
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
Contact
Tokobot (PS2)
Elite Beat Agents
Luminous 2
Yoshi's Island DS
Final Fantasy 3 -DS
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
I've played through all but 4 of them and Okami is still the best game of that year IMO. (I spent so much money, and since the launch line up was so bad, I put off getting a PS3 until 2007).
But I like meditative and relaxing parts of games that seem to irritate others, like The Okinawa part of Yakuza 3. Some games just hit you in the right place. Okami is very uplifting and it came out during a dark period of my life so that might color my view of it. Playing it is like comfort food.
Dead Rising
Ultimate Ghosts'n Goblins
Yakuza
LocoRoco
Okami
Rule of Rose
Mega Man ZX
God Hand
Final Fantasy 12
Metal Gear Solid: Portable OP's
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 & 2
Enchanted Arms
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
Contact
Tokobot (PS2)
Elite Beat Agents
Luminous 2
Yoshi's Island DS
Final Fantasy 3 -DS
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
I've played through all but 4 of them and Okami is still the best game of that year IMO. (I spent so much money, and since the launch line up was so bad, I put off getting a PS3 until 2007).
But I like meditative and relaxing parts of games that seem to irritate others, like The Okinawa part of Yakuza 3. Some games just hit you in the right place. Okami is very uplifting and it came out during a dark period of my life so that might color my view of it. Playing it is like comfort food.
Saying it's a poor man's Zelda doesn't mean it's bad. To look at it from another perspective, it's the only non-Nintendo made 3D Zelda style game ever made that's actually good! (Sorry Okamiden, but you had nothing new to say).
It's probably THE hardest style of game to nail down and they did a bang up job with Okami! It's well worth playing, even if it isn't as good as most Zelda games.
It's probably THE hardest style of game to nail down and they did a bang up job with Okami! It's well worth playing, even if it isn't as good as most Zelda games.
Not fair, after BotW almost any other game looks outdated.
Okami is a good game but a bit to repetitive in the second half.
i LOVE okami, but i love it despite its shallow and meh gameplay, not because of it.
i love it for it's story, characters, music, graphics and style. i also like "feel" of controlling tiramisu.
but other than that, the game doesn't have much to offer. the dungeon designs are beyond basic and most of them, as you said, play themselves. there's rarely an actual puzzle involved and even the ones that are there have brain-dead solutions.
the world design is nothing special, it looks great, sure, but it's not interesting and doesn't invite exploration.
the challenge is non-existent. i recently finished the switch version, and died zero times during my 45 hours with the game
the combat is basic, the three types of weapons offer no depth, and the upgraded you get in the dojo don't matter a lot. the combat is saved a little bit by the brush technics but unlike their usage in the world, they feel clunky and kill whatever little rhythm there is to the battles.
the brush is probably the only thing saving the gameplay from being completely generic
i think if the game had a less stylized skin and the story/music wasn't as good i would consider it a very mediocre game not worth playing, so it says a lot about how much i love the story/characters/music/vibe of the game that i still love the game despite thinking so low of the actual gameplay.
i love it for it's story, characters, music, graphics and style. i also like "feel" of controlling tiramisu.
but other than that, the game doesn't have much to offer. the dungeon designs are beyond basic and most of them, as you said, play themselves. there's rarely an actual puzzle involved and even the ones that are there have brain-dead solutions.
the world design is nothing special, it looks great, sure, but it's not interesting and doesn't invite exploration.
the challenge is non-existent. i recently finished the switch version, and died zero times during my 45 hours with the game
the combat is basic, the three types of weapons offer no depth, and the upgraded you get in the dojo don't matter a lot. the combat is saved a little bit by the brush technics but unlike their usage in the world, they feel clunky and kill whatever little rhythm there is to the battles.
the brush is probably the only thing saving the gameplay from being completely generic
i think if the game had a less stylized skin and the story/music wasn't as good i would consider it a very mediocre game not worth playing, so it says a lot about how much i love the story/characters/music/vibe of the game that i still love the game despite thinking so low of the actual gameplay.
I had to stop playing it about 2/3rds of the way through because of the sheer repetition, only to pick it up a month or two later. I actually said "No" out loud when the final cutscene talked about Amaterasu having more adventures because I thought it was threatening me with a fourth act.
It's always been weird in retrospect how at the time it was heralded as Capcom out-Zeldaing Zelda and stodgy outdated Nintendo, when it has many of the exact same flaws, arguably executed even worse, that caused TP and SS to be treated like the plague.
It's always been weird in retrospect how at the time it was heralded as Capcom out-Zeldaing Zelda and stodgy outdated Nintendo, when it has many of the exact same flaws, arguably executed even worse, that caused TP and SS to be treated like the plague.
Compared to other classic 3D Zelda's it's easily better. Much more charm, better story, better characters, better combat, better graphics and style, better music. It's a beautiful game.
Breath of the Wild is too different to compare because it feels more like an open world rpg.
I think the only 3D-Zelda-style game that's actually better is the first Darksiders game. That's still the king of the genre for me.
Breath of the Wild is too different to compare because it feels more like an open world rpg.
I think the only 3D-Zelda-style game that's actually better is the first Darksiders game. That's still the king of the genre for me.
What's interesting to think about is that Capcom had developed Zelda: Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, The Minish Cap, and ported A Link to the Past to GBA just a few years before. Flagship who wrote the scenario's for those Zelda games also worked with the same division of Capcom that became Clover on the Resident Evil and Dino Crisis series.
Development of The Minish Cap and Okami overlapped too.
I don't see any crossover of talent beyond that, but that and the wolf aspect of Okami and Zelda Twilight Princess is cool if you think there was a drive within Capcom to make another of that style of game.
Development of The Minish Cap and Okami overlapped too.
I don't see any crossover of talent beyond that, but that and the wolf aspect of Okami and Zelda Twilight Princess is cool if you think there was a drive within Capcom to make another of that style of game.
It's one of my least favorite games I've completed, along with Wind Waker, Thumper, and Hollow Knight. Just a slog by the end, where I had to force myself to play more in the hopes that, since I'd gotten this far, I may enjoy the ending. Very poorly paced game for me.
Let's stir the pot
Breath of the Wild > Okami > Wind Waker > Ocarina of Time > Majora's Mask > Twilight Princess > Skyward Sword
Breath of the Wild > Okami > Wind Waker > Ocarina of Time > Majora's Mask > Twilight Princess > Skyward Sword
For those disappointed by both Okami and Breath of the Wild, I suggest Golden Sun and to a lesser extent Mario Legend of the Seven Stars and Paper Mario 64 for Zelda-quality level design/interactivity.
If Okami shortened the Orochi and Kyuubi parts it would he the perfect game. It took the Zelda formula and made the most unique thing ever out of it. One of my favorites of all time.