In Bloom: Okami Review

Before delving into the logic behind this statement, let’s get this out of the way for everyone reading for a simple recommendation on what and what not to play: Okami is great. It is, without question, an exceptionally fun game to play. Just moving the main character Amaterasu, a white wolf and Shinto goddess of the sun, is thrillingly fluid and exemplary of one of videogames most basic premises: it is fun to make something on screen do things. In fact Okami is a game built entirely on familiar game actions, scenarios, and arenas, more specifically those conventions made famous by adventure and action role-playing games as The Legend of Zelda. You guide Amaterasu across a number of expansive landscapes, towns and dungeons, talking with NPCs, performing tasks for them, fighting enemies, and collecting a series of “items” to be used to overcome “item” specific obstacles. Its familiarity is a boon to the game though as where Okami excels, and why it should be played by anyone with a Playstation 2, is in its perfect melding of aesthetics and play, how its visual presentation directly effects and informs everything the player can do in its world. It is one of the strongest examples yet in the ever expanding argument over whether or not games are art. Okami is art.