Ōkami HD and cultural wealth
By: Guilherme F. Mota
Tags: Japan, Capcom, Hideki Kamiya, Game Review, Okami

Purifying Japan

Ōkami takes place in Nakatsukuni (ナカツクニ), which means “middle country” or “middle land’, a fictionalized version of Japan, where the parallels between both versions are quite clear, with a variety of localities based on real places of the Asian country. His period in history is unconfirmed, but many assume that his plot fits somewhere during the Kamiyo Era (the age of the gods, in a free translation) or during the Edo Period (1603–1868), a time interval where the country was heavily ruled by the Tokugawa family’s xoguns.

The truth is that a few of this matter, the only relevant information is that several gods and demons, mostly based on the Shinto religion, are directly interfering in the human world and, many years ago, the forces of darkness, commanded by Orochi (ヤマタノオロチ), a creature with eight heads, and the forces of light, represented by Shiranui (不知火) and his companion Nagi (凪), a powerful warrior, have fought a great battle.

As expected, the dark forces were defeated and with that Orochi was imprisoned in a cave sealed with Nagi’s sword. However, about 100 years later, a young man “accidentally” breaks this seal, freeing the forces of darkness once again.

Our heroes, Issun and Amaterasu

And in the midst of all this chaos, created by various demons and curses, that the goddess of the sun, Amaterasu (天照大御神) is awakened, returning to Earth in the form of a beautiful white wolf. To help her in this journey, we have two more characters, Issun (一寸) a rather perverted little artist, and Susanoo (スサノオ) descendant of Nagi and legendary hero, curiously depicted as a rather pot-bellied middle-aged man.

With their divine abilities and with the help of other celestial beings, Amaterasu and Issun begin their long journey throughout Japan, defeating evil creatures, restoring order in the villages, allowing life to flourish again where, today, there are only shadows and death.

Combat

The game has quite simple combat mechanics. Throughout his journey, Amaterasu will face a variety of demons and evil spirits, each with his peculiarity, and during these confrontations, our friendly wolf will be able to perform three main moves: attack, dodge and defend, being possible, in this last action, a counter-attack movement, if the defense has happened at the right time.

Also, the player can improve their skills and unlock new ones in the Dojo of Onigiri-Sensei, a friendly old martial arts master. Still, about combat, Amaterasu has a basic arsenal, composed of three types of weapons, they are reflector, a kind of disk; rosary, which functions as a whip; and the good old sword. Each of these has its characteristics, such as damage and reach, as well as five distinct variations that can be found throughout the campaign.

The differential of Ōkami’s combat lies in his special action, the Celestial Brush, a skill that manifests, in the form of drawings and symbols, the divine powers of the character.

Whenever the brush action screen is activated, the game will be paused and a

canvas will appear, with that the player can paint the symbols he may need

Throughout the main missions, Amaterasu will also release certain guardian spirits who repay her with new painting techniques that, consequently, give her new powers. The Yumigami rabbit, for example, represents the moon, and grants the protagonist the power to decide when it will be day or night; the Phoenix Moegami, another one of these special creatures, grants Amaterasu the power to control the fire and so on.

Besides, this new mechanic also allows us to change certain aspects of the map. For example, to cross large rivers and lakes, Amaterasu can use the Greensprout technique, when making a circle in the water the player makes a water lily sprout that will prevent our protagonist from getting wet. During combat, for example, it is possible to draw a straight line through enemies, which activates the Power Slash, a very effective ability that deals considerable damage to multiple enemies simultaneously.

Each one of these technics is represented by some creature which represents, in a way, an entity present in Shinto, as well as a “sign” of the Asian zodiac

There are about 13 techniques in all, each with its specific effect and design. I believe that it is a great mechanics, very well implemented, since at the same time that it brings some complexity to combat, it also portrays the importance of Sumie-ê (墨絵), brush art, for Japanese culture.

Unfortunately, its use in the current controls, or even in those of the time of its release, such as that of the Playstation 2, may not work in the best way. With very sensitive analogs, the player can make some involuntary mistakes when drawing. But I believe that this is detail present only in the big console versions of the game since in portables, such as Switch, we have tools that allow us to draw more accurately.

Art Direction

For the images used throughout the article, you can get a good idea of the artistic quality present in the game. All its graphic aspects seek to represent traditional Japanese art, with a style that closely resembles watercolor paintings.

Still, about the art style, it can be affirmed that this choice was as correct as possible since everything began to have some timeless aspect, because even after several years, the game remains extremely beautiful, especially during the scenes focused on the environment.