Okami HD is a high-definition port of the beloved PlayStation 2 action-adventure game in which you play as the wolf-goddess Amaterasu. In it, you guide the deity across Nippon to defeat the demonic presence that threatens nature and mankind. On a basic level, Okami has a similar gameplay structure to The Legend of Zelda series, in that players must explore expansive zones to unlock power ups and clues that lead to new areas to explore. Even better, the game's visuals are unashamedly Japanese, utilizing a watercolor-like graphical style to create a unique aesthetic. If you enjoyed romping through mythical Japan as William Adams in Nioh: Complete Edition, you might enjoy Okami's take on the subject, as well as its lighter tone and colorful visuals.
Wolf God
Amaterasu is the sun goddess and maternal deity in wolf form. She presides over Nippon, the Japanese-inspired realm where Okami takes place. After suffering defeat against the demons that plague the realm, Amaterasu's spirit is sealed away. She is reincarnated one hundred years later to complete her task, but has lost most of her powers over the century. Amaterasu must venture across Nippon to recover these abilities: sacred brushstroke techniques that let her manipulate the world around her. With these abilities in hand, Amaterasu can cut through boulders, summon the elements, slow time, and regenerate flora.
Brushstrokes are your primary means of interacting with the world, aside from basic movement. Think of them as the sub-weapons in the Zelda series, as they share many of the same functions. For example, Power Slash lets you cut through rocks, foliage, and enemies alike, and is useful throughout the game. Cherry Bomb drops a massive, ornate bomb onto the field that blows enemies into the air and destroys weak walls.
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Okami HD's brush skills are unique in that they must be drawn into existence. By holding down a controller button, a paper scroll unfurls over the screen and stops time, letting you draw the ability you want over your target. Every skill has a corresponding brushstroke associated with it: Power Slash is a horizontal line, for example, while Cherry Bomb is represented by a circle intersected with a line. This style of gameplay is similar to the attack morphing ability seen in The Wonderful 101, Platinum Games' action-strategy Wii U title. It takes some time to properly implement brushstrokes into combat routines, especially when gauging the distance between Amaterasu and enemies, but the overall the system works well. There are a handful of side quests that require highly precise brushstrokes to complete, and getting the line work correct can be slightly frustrating. But they're few and far in between, and largely optional.
Why You Should Game on a PC
A Painted World
Amaterasu is fleet-footed and can travel across environments at great speed, as one might expect from a four-legged canid. She can also jump great heights, double jump off walls, and dash through the air, giving her excellent mobility in virtually all situations. This base agility comes in handy throughout the game, as many puzzles incorporate platforming elements that test your mastery with the controls. It's also very satisfying to run around as Amaterasu: wind trails off her back impressively, and she leaves a wake of flowers and foliage as she moves. You can easily get carried away and just run around aimlessly in search of NPCs to interact with or secrets to find.
That said, Okami HD is not an open-world game. It features several hub areas that connect expansive cities, fields, and dungeons. However, there is an inherent structure to the game that prevents you from going wherever you want. In order to make progress, you must restore nature and defeat the demons that have cursed Nippon's many regions, which often involves helping NPCs or crawling through monster-infested dungeons to defeat the source of the scourge. Doing so nets you new brush powers and weapons, which let you move to the next hub area where you can do more divine intervening. This formula keeps Okami HD engaging throughout most of the adventure, as you earn new powers—and upgrades to existing powers—often enough to feel like you're making progress.
What bogs down the momentum is Okami HD's odd story pacing. The game is broken into three story arcs, each of which have relatively slow starts. During my first play through, I assumed the game would end at the second arc, and was shocked to learn that there was an entirely new region to explore and fight through immediately afterwards. But the idea of slowly unraveling the happenings within an all-new region felt much less interesting a third time around. The excessive text certainly doesn't help any, as event scenes drag on for quite a while. There is no real voice acting in the game: NPCs speak in a muffled gibberish to signify speech, and all information is delivered through text boxes. Okami HD is much more forgiving than the original game and gives you an option to skip text and event scenes. Still, the pacing is off.
Sword and Fang
Amaterasu battles with three unique regalia: a reflector, a glaive, and magatama beads. The reflector is your base weapon, which Amaterasu whirls in front of her during combat. Glaives are hefty swords that can be charged to deal extra damage. Beads are fast weapons that let you pelt enemies with damage from range. In addition to basic attacks, Amaterasu can use a secondary weapon when she has multiple weapons available to her. Reflectors, when used in this manner, can block and counter incoming blows. Glaives can be used to launch enemies into the air when used as a secondary weapon. Beads unleash a basic projectile attack.
I lean towards using the glaive as the primary weapon and the reflector as the secondary weapon, because the hard-hitting melee and defense suit my style of play. But all combinations have their uses, and its fun to experiment with them to see what works best in a given fight.
Brush techniques play a major part in combat, too. As you explore Nippon, you come across a wide variety of monsters, each of which is weak to specific brush skills. Experimenting with techniques to see what works best is an important part of combat, as many of the later enemies can be highly difficult if fought without exploiting their weaknesses. Enemies that block aggressively can be guard-broken with a power slash, for example. Advanced monsters are much more complex: The blue Cyclops becomes enraged if his smoking pipe goes out, so you must be careful not to do anything that snuffs the flame, and quickly use a fire-based brush technique on the pipe if you mistakenly do so.
Art and Aesthetic
Okami uses Japanese ink-wash styled borders and highlights to emulate Sumi-e ink art, and the results are visually stunning. The unique graphical style gives Okami a timeless look that is pleasing to see even now, more than 10 years after the game's initial release. Okami HD is sharper than the original game, thanks to the new 4K resolution, so it looks better than ever. There aren't many improvements to the visuals beyond the resolution overhaul, however. The draw distance is very low, so you can expect plenty of pop in as you dash around fields and cities. Sadly, there's no option to turn off the motion blur effect.
My Nvidia GeForce GTX 970-powered gaming desktop smoothly renders Okami HD at maximum settings, with no issues whatsoever. That's not surprising, as Okami HD has meager system requirements: a Windows 7 PC with a 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-2500 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 GPU, 34GB of storage, and 2GB of RAM. Loading can take a few seconds, but I chalk that up to the game being old, rather than taxing on my PC. Okami HD supports Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, and Steam Trading Cards.
My biggest gripe with the game is its capped framerate: the game is locked at 30 frames per second, and cannot be increased. Some digging reveals that much of the gameplay is tied to the Okami's innate 30FPS, and the value can't be modified easily without adversely affecting the game. Having played the original at 30FPS, I find this cap disappointing, but not deal breaking. However, keep the FPS cap, draw distance, and motion blur in mind if these are sticking points for you.
The game has a stellar soundtrack. Okami HD's music makes heavy use of Japanese instrumentation, and with a focus on ambience. There are a few recurring themes that are sampled into many of the compositions, which gives the overall soundtrack a wonderful sense of harmony. Fans of the PS2 original may be upset to learn that the ending theme, Reset, is not included here due to licensing issues. But the rest of the soundtrack is excellent, even if the end credits feel a little emptier without Reset playing in the background.
Glorious Adventure
Okami HD is about as faithful a port of the original game as you can expect. The game is a classic, well-designed, and beautiful action-adventure game, so people who missed the initial release will definitely want to check it out on PC. While I wish Okami HD allows you to tweak the motion blur, frame rate, and draw distance, the game is still enjoyable without these boons. If you can overlook those shortcomings, Okami HD is a grand adventure that's well worth your time.
If you've never played Okami, or are looking to replay this classic, this HD rerelease offers a grand experience for the PC.
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