I likez Okami. : D
'S set in some sort of ancient-Japanish time. A long time ago, the great swordsman Nagi and the white wolf Shiranui defeated the evil demon with a bunch of heads, Orochi. Orochi was a real jerk-a** who liked to eat maidens and s**t from the village of Kamiki. So that was bad. Yeah. They sealed him in the moon cave with Nagi's sword, and, Hoorah, everyone was happy.
But like, a long time later, this shhaaaadowy figure comes and pulls out the sword all douchebag-like, and lets loose the evil demon inside. I hope you're happy, crapsack. It's really not his fault though, that gay-a** tao master guy should have had SOMEONE guarding it if he was gonna be gone. Slacker.
So, the goddess of cherry trees or something, Sakuya, goes and wakes up the statue of Shiranui, who turns out to be the sun goddess Amaterasu(I don't see why they always say god since she's a girl...XD), and you proceed on your quest to rid the land of evil and s**t with that tiny little god-thing wandering artist issun. He's more like a little flea.
So, you end up working with the good-for-nothing lazy-a** descendant of Nagi who's hot on the sake brewer lady. And when I say working with him, I mean doing all the work for him. rolleyes What a dickweed.
Throughout the game, you harness the very unique system of the celestial brush, drawing shapes with Amaterasu's tail. You can draw little symbols to do all sorts of nifty little things. You can cut things, make wind, draw the elements, make cherry bombs, slow things down with that drunkard sheep's "comforting mist" (we all know what it really means... XD)and the like. They also have upgrades hidden throughout the game.
Unfortunately, there is a bit of a catch. Apparently, being asleep for 100 years and whatnot, Amaterasu forgot all the techniques...DX So in your travels you find the rest of the brush gods to lend to their techniques. Cause you're the "origin of all that is good and mother to us all." XD
By helping random people with their problems and feeding animals, you get praise. Praise is nifty. It's pretty much like experience. You can use it to upgrade your amount of health, ink pots, astral pouches, which you fill with food to bring you back to like when you die, and increase the capacity of your wallet.
There is a dojo where you can learn new techniques. Most are simply personal preference, adding a combo to a certain weapon's attack, but some are necessary to continue with the game, like the double jump. Some are kind of weird, like golden fury, which allows you to pee on enemies to obtain demon fangs. I can't seem to understand why peeing on demons makes their teeth fall out, but demon fangs are nifty, and can be traded with certain people for awesome stuff, so I'm not complaining. XD There was also a technique called brown rage...XD I'm not sure I wanna know, and with the hefty price of 2,000,000,000 yen, I doubt I will anytime soon. XD
The whole game is in a very interesting art style. There's a rough paperish texture on everything. It's designed to look like painting, given the ancient Japanese/calligraphic theme, and it pulls it off quite well. Shadows sometimes end up frightening me, but I find myself staring at things sometimes as well. XD
The battle system is pretty nifty. Scrolls float around, and if you run into one, you get into a fight, but occasionally, with bossfights or new enemy introductions, the fights cannot be avoided. In normal encounters, there are glowing spots on the enclosure that surrounds you during fights which you can hack away at and jump through to flee.
Weapons are divided into three categories here. reflectors, the first type you get, ar fair, I suppose. Rosaries are weak, but they have large chains of attacks. Glaives are kind of slow, but you can charge them for powerful attacks. You can equip a main and sub weapon, and each weapon, when equipped as a sub weapon, has a special ability, such as ink bullet, where you can make dots with the celestial brush on enemies and they're like little bullets, and most rosaries can be shot as projectiles. Weapons can be upgraded with gold dust.
Each enemy has a weak point that can be exploited with the celestial brush. Let's say, the bird-lady-thing, ubume, for example. according to the description in the bestiary, it is a bird posessed by the the spirit of a woman slain by a samurai. I'll ignore the fact that that is positively silly. well, it also states that it blocks everything with its umbrella, but if there's a breeze, it'll remember its life as a woman and freak out with the umbrella, hint hint, make some wind. When enemies are gray, they are vulnerable, usually meaning you can cut them, but sometimes you have to do different things.
There are lots of fun minigames throughout. I'm partial to the digging game. But only because I love that music. XD
There are treasures to collect, but all you can really do is sell them for money. But it's good and all. XD There are also a lot of stray beads scattered across the land, and if you collect them all, you get a prize. I don't know what this prize is, but it better rock pretty damn hard for 99 beads! XD
Anyhow, I'd definitely recommend that you people buy this game. It's very long, it'll keep you entertained. So, that's it. I could always look for some pictures(Note: I just ended up to face to face with a lot of porn for you guys. XD). And I figured I'd add that Waka is a reall bulldyke. What a jerk.
(As you can probably see, I couldn't find a picture of him, so I improvised and took out my rage. XD)
Very nice screenshots courtesy of ign and some weird random forums. : D
