This is your standard spoiler warning. If you don’t
want Ōkami spoiled for some reason then don’t even bother.
Ghost here, thanks for joining!
UGH… I’m still not
quite over all the weirdness of last week.
KoD randomly showing up, all the insanity in Earthbound, it’s really
taking a toll on me. No, I gotta do
this! Need to keep on schedule. My brain is so fuzzy I don’t even know what
to review. Skyrim? No that will take too
much brain power. Tales of
Symphonia? No I really want to do that
one with Angel. Mother 3? NO CHANCE!
OOOH I SHOULD DO A HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!!!! YEAH Let's see here what games have I played that would fit for that? Well there's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge.......and.. umm... well crap! I guess it’s off to the gaming cabinet! HMMM what to do what to do…. Hey what’s this?
OOOH I SHOULD DO A HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!!!! YEAH Let's see here what games have I played that would fit for that? Well there's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge.......and.. umm... well crap! I guess it’s off to the gaming cabinet! HMMM what to do what to do…. Hey what’s this?
The more I think about it, the more I realize that this
game is the perfect thing to follow Earthbound because both games share some
amazing similarities in various aspects.
Both Earthbound and Ōkami sold fairly poorly upon their initial release
while both receiving glorious remarks by critics, and have gained more and more
fans as time passes. Both of these games
are considered by many to be among the best games out for the console they were
on. They also both thematically take
themselves seriously when needed to but keep things lighthearted as much as
possible without losing any depth of the world or the adventure. They also both were more prominent in Japan,
Earthbound having been Mother 2 over there, and Ōkami with its Japanese themes,
but I need to slow down before I get ahead of myself.
Main Characters
You play as Amaterasu, nicknamed Ammy, for the entirety of the
game. To normal people she appears as a
regular white wolf, but to those gifted with the ability to see the Divine,
such as apparently every single person who plays this game, sees her with her
red markings. Ammy is the Sun Goddess of
the Nipon region where this game takes place.
She is also the reincarnation of the dreaded wolf Shiranui which I’ll
get to in a few. So wait… she’s a
goddess who isn’t immortal and has already died once? Looks like the creators attended the Stan Lee
School of Mythology. I’m looking at you,
Thor!
Ammy is a very quiet and wise creature always wanting to
help those in need, but that doesn’t mean she won’t show her opinions easily
such as turning her head when a drunken man is speaking in her face, or getting
offended by people’s comments. As I
previously mentioned, she is the reincarnation of the dreaded wolf
Shiranui. Those of you who are not
familiar with the game may be wondering how the main hero of the game that you
control could be the reincarnation of something known to be “dreaded.” And you may wonder what any of that has to do
with the game that lies before you; but to understand the future we have to go
back in time.
We do need to go back in
time though, two hundred years to be exact
========================================================================
Amaterasu originated from and once lived in the Celestial
Plain. She was the ruler of the realm
and life was good until one day the dragon Orochi attacked from nowhere. The remaining celestials escaped while
Amaterasu dragged Orochi down to the mortal world near a small town known as
Kamiki Village, knowing that only the chosen one, Nagi, could possibly defeat
him. Orochi quickly made his home in the
Moon Cave nearby and summoned all manner of demons to his aid. Quickly, Orochi began a reign of terror on
Kamiki Village threatening to destroy the village unless a young maiden was
sacrificed to him once a year so that he could consume her soul and continue
living. This went on for 100 years.
All Ammy could do was sit and wait till Nagi was born. She ran into a tiny person named Ishaku, who
was a missionary to spread the word of the celestials to the mortal world. Ishaku teamed up with Ammy for her
adventures, however not everything was easy.
Since Ammy’s appearance was at the same time as that of Orochi, the villagers
thought her one of Orochi’s spies sent to seek out the young maidens and would
often become violent towards her dubbing her the name of Shiranui.
After Nagi became a fierce warrior and Orochi chose the
love of his life, Nami. Amaterasu,
Ishaku, and Nagi went into the Moon Cave to battle Orochi. Nagi was not able to defeat him but sealed
him away with his sword so that the evil would be locked forever. Unfortunately Ammy was poisoned by Orochi and
died in Kamiki Village with the elder apologizing for their behavior as she
died. A monument was built to honor
“Shiranui” and the world was at peace for 100 years.
========================================================================
Darkness crept back into the forests of the world. Rumor
grew of a shadow in the East, whispers of a nameless fear, and the Ring of
Power perceived. Its time had now come. It abandoned Gollum…
After 100 years, darkness spread over the land and the
demons returned as Orochi appeared from his prison because someone had removed
Nagi’s sword which held the seal in place.
As the world became more and more poisoned with evil only Kamiki Village
was left because of the protection of the sacred tree Konohana and its resident
Wood Sprite, Sakuya. Sakuya, using the
last of her power, resurrected Ammy from her stone statue erected of her to
save the tree and village from despair.
Teaming up with Issun, a tiny person of the same race as Ishaku
mentioned earlier, the pair restored Kamiki Village.
However due to the fact that Ammy was “in slumber” for a
century her original powers as a goddess have been lost and she must regain all
of the celestial brush techniques back.
I guess it does make sense being asleep for so long you would have
difficulty again or at least a crick in the neck.
What is a celestial brush technique? Well it’s a technique that Ammy can perform, theorized to be done with her tail, that draws symbols to create things or make things happen. These can be anything from revitalizing flowers, to creating wind or fire, to summoning cherry bombs. She has to gain all thirteen of them back so that she can save the world, but more on them later.
With the assistance of Suzano, a descendant of Nagi who is nothing like his ancestor but is rather a lazy drunk, they were able to leave the village and venture out into the world restoring many areas to their former glory. With Orochi awakened he chose Kushi, a descendant of Nami who is also a sake maker, as his sacrifice for that year. With the help of Suzano they defeated Orochi but a ghostly shadow rose from its body and into the sky. There was much left to do. For time’s sake, I will not go into all the details of the story since it’s a really long one, but Ammy and Issun go on many adventures together including ridding a man of an evil disease, meeting underwater people and a water dragon, meeting the fearsome Ninetails in battle, going back in time to change history of the original battle of Orochi with Nagi, as well as boarding a celestial boat on which has the final boss and demon to be defeated.
What is a celestial brush technique? Well it’s a technique that Ammy can perform, theorized to be done with her tail, that draws symbols to create things or make things happen. These can be anything from revitalizing flowers, to creating wind or fire, to summoning cherry bombs. She has to gain all thirteen of them back so that she can save the world, but more on them later.
With the assistance of Suzano, a descendant of Nagi who is nothing like his ancestor but is rather a lazy drunk, they were able to leave the village and venture out into the world restoring many areas to their former glory. With Orochi awakened he chose Kushi, a descendant of Nami who is also a sake maker, as his sacrifice for that year. With the help of Suzano they defeated Orochi but a ghostly shadow rose from its body and into the sky. There was much left to do. For time’s sake, I will not go into all the details of the story since it’s a really long one, but Ammy and Issun go on many adventures together including ridding a man of an evil disease, meeting underwater people and a water dragon, meeting the fearsome Ninetails in battle, going back in time to change history of the original battle of Orochi with Nagi, as well as boarding a celestial boat on which has the final boss and demon to be defeated.
That’s about all you can say about the majestic wolf
goddess. So let’s run on to the other
characters
Issun is Ammy’s partner throughout the game and
is the grandson of Ishaku, who was Ammy’s partner 100 years prior. He was studying to be the new Celestial Envoy
but felt his grandfather was not recognizing his skills as an artist, so he
stole a drawing of Sakuya that Ishaku had done and left the Ponc'tan eventually
landing in Kamiki Village where he spent most of his time talking to the
villagers and sleeping in Sakuya’s kimono…specifically around her chest.
...Thought I was gonna make a joke there didn’t you? NOPE! Just going to let you make your own
joke with that one. We meet Issun
properly after Sakuya resurrects Ammy. Being
only an inch tall most people perceive him as a tiny bug. He agrees to join Ammy in her adventures to
learn all of her celestial brush techniques to master his craft. The rest of the time our diminutive friend
just hangs around Ammy, talks to her and others constantly as Ammy doesn’t
speak, and can be fairly annoying at times with all the dialogue he spits
out. Wait… why does that sound familiar?
I’m
watching you game…. I’m watching you!
OF COURSE! Why am I not surprised?
Issun does have a couple of shining moments. After you reach Ponc’tan, on a search and
rescue mission, you find that you need to go to the Spirit Gate and which is
the gateway to the past. No one will
take Ammy there, but Issun knows the forest and guides Ammy through it. The reason you need a guide is because if you
take the wrong turn you have to start all over again. It’s a forest maze… a
“Lost Woods” if you will.
But of course, his crowning achievement is at the end of
the game when he is separated from Ammy.
He cannot get on the ark where the final boss is because he did not
accept his destiny and can never board the ship. As Ammy gets downtrodden and beaten she loses
her power and it seems that she is going to be defeated. However Issun has been traveling all over the
land with his art showing people Ammy’s true form and how she is the sun
goddess. He continues telling everyone
about her so that they will believe on her.
Together their beliefs and prayers are what give Ammy her renewed
strength back to finish off the enemy. Why
does THAT sound familiar too??
===========================
We don’t end up meeting Waka for a while and you can’t help shake the
feeling that there’s more to him than meets the eye. For the majority of the game, Waka just
randomly appears where you are about to be, plays his musical instrument, and
gives you hints about where you need to go and what needs to be done to save
the world from evil.
Of course, why wouldn’t it be another rip-off?
Waka, as it turns out first met Ammy when she still lived
on the Celestial Plain. He arrived there
on a ship and lived in peace with Ammy and the Celestials until the day Orochi
showed up. Waka has the gift of prophecy
and it was he who prophesied that Nagi would be the one to defeat Orochi. It is revealed that Waka is one of the last
remaining members of the Moon Tribe, a group of people who lived on the moon
till they were defeated. And here I thought
moon people were two dimensional.
One other interesting thing about him is that he uses
French expressions like "mon amie" and such even though this is just
an extremely Japanese based game. There’s
some sort of cultural mishmash going on here I just don’t understand.
Apparently in all versions other than English he uses English expressions, and
they just changed it to French for our version.
He’s a fun character who fights with you and you really end up kind of
liking by the end of it all.
There are multitudes of really unique and interesting
side characters but if we get into all of them, Ammy will have resurrected again. So instead let’s just talk about the 3 most
memorable and influential villains.
Main Villains
The eight headed dragon himself.
Much of what is known about Orochi I already covered in the Amaterasu
section so I’ll be brief here. Orochi is
a long standing enemy of Ammy and one which won’t go away. While in the gameplay you face him on 3
separate occasions. The second of these occasions
is actually back in the past in which they find out that the legend of Suzano
isn’t 100% true.
The way that you defeat Orochi is… unique to say the
least. You get him drunk. Each of the eight heads have to be stuffed
with sake using the Waterspout brush technique and once they are dizzy and out
cold you can attack the barrier surrounding him from normal attacks. Then once that is destroyed you have to get
him drunk again, and attack him properly defeating each of the 8 heads.
Ninetails
Ninetails
“Rao” pleaded with Ammy to assist her in expelling the demons and in turn killed the queen of the realm. Ammy however was not fooled and attacked. Eventually Ninetails presented her true form and ran away to Oni Island. Ammy eventually found where Oni Island would appear once more, as it disappeared every morning and reappeared somewhere else the next day, and was assisted by the Queen of the Dragonians turning into a water dragon herself to break the barrier on Oni Island so that Ammy can defeat Ninetails.
After going through Oni Islands, Ammy found only a
constellation in the sky. After
finishing it similar to the Celestials, Ninetails was summoned. You fight Ninetails in an area similar to
that of the celestials as she is mocking them and calling herself a god. Ninetails
fights with each of her nine tails and regular charging attacks. To defeat her, you must strike her with
lightning causing her tails to appear as ghostly versions of Rao each with
their own properties. Once each of them is
defeated, Ninetails shows her true form as a beaten old fox with one eye.
This form is easier to defeat and Ninetails runs away. You will later fight her again as well as
Orochi on the Ark.
There isn’t much that is known about Yami, in
fact, we don’t even know about his existence at all till Ammy confronts
Ninetails. He was hidden deep within the
Ark of Yamato which Waka brought to the Celestial Plain 200 years
previously. It is from his influence and
the depths of the Ark that Orochi attacked to begin with. After Waka crashed the Ark into the mortal
world, Yami’s influence fell on the world but he stayed in waiting and rest
until the Day of Darkness.
Once the Day of Darkness began, Yami awoke and stole Ammy’s
powers to make himself at full power, but not before revealing his true form.
It is at this point in time that Ammy falls into an
almost depression state but Issun aids the people in believing her true godhood
restoring her will and strength to fight.
As she fights Yami she slowly gets each of her celestial brush
techniques back. In fact, Yami attacks
her in several forms increasing in power with each form… and while I’m at it…
STOP RIPPING OFF LEGEND OF ZELDA FOR THE LOVE OF ALL
THINGS ON THIS PLANET!!! THIS MIGHT AS WELL BE A ZELDA GAME AT THIS POINT; JUST
PUT AMMY IN A GREEN TUNIC… Oh wait nevermind we don’t even have to do that
anymore
Themes and symbolism
Orochi – The entirety of the Orochi legend from 100 years ago is entirely based on the real Japanese mythological teachings of Orochi who is a legendary Japanese dragon that was slain by the storm-god Susanoo. Many other stories are very similar to this such as that of Hercules and the Hydra.
Issun – the story of Issun is attributed to the ancient
Japanese folk story about a couple who couldn’t have children so they prayed to
the gods that they would care for any child that they would be given if they
would just bless them with a child, and thus they were given a small boy that
was only one inch tall.
It’s actually kind of interesting how all of these
stories are compiled into one thing that’s actually to some extent hiding the
fact that it’s being educational. When a
game can be educational and be subtle about it, that’s a win in my book. Of course I’m using the term educational very
loosely. It’s as educational as Disney’s Hercules.
If you really want to know more about these backstories
do a Wikipedia search for this game and look at all the links. Or you can check out Chuggaaconroy's Let’s
Play of the game in which he speaks often of the different mythological
backgrounds of each of these elements throughout. It’s a very long watch but it might be
informative for you.
Art Style
The first thing that basically
everyone notices about this game is its unique art style. We were already used to a seemingly cartoony style
with games such as…. *sigh* Legend of Zelda Wind Waker. But this game adds a bit of flair as it is
slightly cel-shaded but yet beautiful.
Originally the game was meant to be a more photorealistic 3D style that you see
above on the left. However limitations
of the PS2 hardware caused this to be too much of a burden. It was then decided that to be fitting with
the ancient themes of the game that the art style would be inspired by ancient
Japanese watercolor. It was due to this
art style choice that they began the idea for the celestial brush. The developers wanted the audience to
participate in the art rather than simply just view it.
Honestly there’s nothing
remotely funny I can say about this.
This is extremely well executed and one of the greatest parts of the
game. If nothing else can entice you to
play this game, this would be it.
Gameplay
Ōkami combines many different styles of gameplay into one. It has action, puzzle-solving, mini-games, as well as some form of platforming. You have various zones in a massive world each of which with their own challenges and themes. Let’s see here we have
Ōkami combines many different styles of gameplay into one. It has action, puzzle-solving, mini-games, as well as some form of platforming. You have various zones in a massive world each of which with their own challenges and themes. Let’s see here we have
A small town in touch with trees
and nature to start off with
Relying on spirits to give you
additional powers.
Riding the ocean on something that talks
Entering a sea creature’s belly
Time Travel that only a sword
can initiate
Twin boss battles
The list goes on and on. And if I haven’t
yet pounded it into your skull, THIS IS EFFECTIVELY A FREAKING ZELDA
GAME!! I’m sorry I was calling Spirit Tracks
out for ripping off from their own series and maybe a couple things from Mother
but this isn’t even its own series. Not
to mention that originally this was ONLY for the PS2 meaning that this is
completely ripping off another company AND another franchise entirely. Hideki Kamiya, who is an avid Zelda Fan, has
said that the game was created with Zelda being an inspiration. I don’t think he realizes there is a
difference between inspiration and shameless rip-offs.
Conclusion
This game really is a great
one. If you are a fan of The Legend of
Zelda and don’t mind almost everything being lifted from that series and placed
into a different vehicle then you will love this game. The Mechanics are solid, the bosses
inventive, the atmosphere rich, and the art beautiful. Yes, at times this game can be extremely pretentious
and most people who are avid fans can tend to be up their own backside over it
but it’s really worth a play. It’s
honestly worth every cent.
This is Ghost, fading into the
darkness
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