Ōkami HD

I reviewed Ōkami a couple of years ago. My partner downloaded the HD release time ago, but shamefully, I have only just gotten to playing it.

The "HD" in the title implies that the graphics are vastly improved from those of the original game. The imagery in the pre-menu intro is negligibly improved as it is probably the same video rehashed, but there are some differences in the introduction once you've started a game, with improvements in the text and images, and of the transitions between them.

Originally, the non-language-specific narration voice had a wondrous quality to it. This time around, it's rather annoying. This is perhaps because the opening scene has been notably extended. The story portrayed has been padded out, to the point of ridiculousness. It may genuinely have taken me fifteen minutes to get to a part where I was in control of Amaterasu.
There are some parts of the gameplay that allow you to make screen text come up faster by tapping the X button; unfortunately this is not the case for the introduction, and regardless of how fast you can read, you just have to sit there and wait.

My dog Freya becomes enamoured with the screen.

What are you doing, Mr. Orange?

Holding chickens: mean and hilarious.

Is her bum on show?

Yeah, man.

Feeding monkeys.

I probably cannot remember the original game well enough in order to compare the HD release fairly, but I can certainly tell you that the cut scenes are just patronising. They take too long and iterate things that would be obvious to a five year old. This was perhaps deliberate to compensate for some of the confusion in the original Ōkami incarnation, but it has definitely been overdone. I can honestly say that I hate Issun quite passionately.

Uh, OK.

What.

Excellent.

That was my reaction too.

Perhaps if you weren't sat on me.

Contrary to what you'd think, snowball-making is utter tedium.

Parts of this game had me wondering whether I was no longer a fun person. I grumbled with disdain whenever I had to do a digging puzzle or fight one of the canine warriors, and I unleashed full on rage at having to roll that bloody snowball. And for only 50 units of praise, mind you! Hmph.

But then I realised, that I still gleefully enjoyed feeding the random animals, and drawing on things, and covering other characters with ink when they were rude to me. So parts of the game just are tedious, at least for me.
You fight Orochi no less than three times, and other major bosses twice. For some reason I actually enjoy fighting the Jorōgumo queen, and I'm not sure why. But things are undeniably being padded-out when bosses are included towards the end of the game for a second (or third in Orochi's case) time.

I didn't remember much of the game beyond the village of Kamui, and I don't want to spoil things for those of you who have yet to play Ōkami in any incarnation, but I must say that the ending felt very different from the themes of the game in the beginning. It all became a bit, well, weird.

I certainly appreciate what they were trying to do with the credits, but they're highly illegible as a result. It just doesn't work.
While I didn't remember the ending, I did somehow remember the credits, and I realised that this song from the original version is missing. I've no idea why, but I can imagine it's a licensing issue of some sort.



I've griped a lot during this review, but Ōkami (HD) is a lovely game, and everyone needs to play it at least once, if not keep it in their collection and revisit it every few years.
It can be hard to make time for old games or machines, especially when it feels like there is a constant stream of new ones being released, but some of them are just worth the effort of looking at again.