Okami

Now, this is an action adventure game, so I feel it belongs in this section (unless Roy wants to move it to Platinum and Clover but that's getting quite bloated) as it has all the elements of the genre along with the RPG-ish stuff which is super light. No more than any DMC game in terms of leveling up things.

There's a lot to say on the combat, but the main reason I made this topic is that I heard it was being released on the PS4.

Was about to make a note of this somewhere, but yeah still interested in this. If a PS4 release is happening as rumored I'll definetely check it out for sure. And yeah let's just leave this topic here, I'm still looking for ways to streamline the design of the forum.

That said how is the RPG elements and combat? Can you show some examples or tutorials?

Yeh action adventure is the term for those type of games, action combat and the adventure is indicative of the various activities you will perform on your adventure(platforming, puzzles, quests).

Here is the PS3 HD trailer. At some point you'll see a little combat and basically how the brush works.


In terms of upgrading, it's very light. Life, ink bottles and astral pouch. Weapons are powered up once by using an item called Gold Dust. Pretty much standard action game power ups. MGR has way more upgrading than this.

Other RPG elements are NPCs, sidequests, a few towns and shops, but not many. Some areas are quite open, but not 'open world' open. There's still quite a bit to explore and you'll be returning with new powers to access hidden or blocked areas.

There's a lot of dialogue and sadly you can't skip it on your first play-through.

As for combat, you have all the standard stuff, like dodging, double jumping, and can simply cancels into those. There are three weapon types, and you can equip them on first and secondary positions which causes them to act differently. Melee is pretty simple.

What makes the combat really stand out and super fun is the celestial brush techniques. By pressing R1, everything freezes (but has a time limit) and you draw the symbol for the technique you want to use. You can do this any time no matter what's happening in battle. You can be attacking, dodging, anything.

There are lots of techniques and they each have various uses (and an ink requirement so obviously the stronger the tech the more ink it requires) and they can affect enemies in a variety of ways. There's a ton of stuff to say on this.

You can watch this exhibition video of all the brush techniques. Many can be used outside of battle to affect the environment, solve puzzles, or reach inaccessible areas. The video doesn't show every possible application, but it gives more than enough of an idea.



It's a very easy game, but that doesn't stop it from being my favorite game. The music, atmosphere, design, controls, just everything is great. They just give you too many ways to make it easy. You have an item that grants infinite ink temporarily (cheap to buy and you can hold a lot of them), the astral pouch which you fill with fruit pickups, and once full it can revive you, and a magic shield called Godhood which can negate damage (depending on how strong the attack is) which builds when you rack up a combo.

There's a combo count, but it's not juggling or anything like that. More like Killer is Dead where as long as you keep attacking and haven't been hit, your combo count stays up.

No upgrade is a decent challenge in certain parts. You'll only have 3 life units and 3 ink bottles meaning no spam of high level powers and a few hits will kill you later in the game. There are also the devil gate trials which are sort of Onimusha like Dark Realms where you can choose to leave or continue per floor. The final one has some nasty combinations but still not that bad when you have max ink and can throw out whatever.

Did okami sell well enough to warrant a re-release? Glad it does but what of god hand or viewtiful Joe?

No idea. I never follow sales.

PS4, Xbox and PC boys. You are without excuse.

Haha, wish GH would get a remaster.

Without excuse.

Looks amazing, really going to have to pick that one up.

Yes, you WILL.

Im seriously hoping they add the option to skip dialogue and cutscenes. It's fine for first time players but for me it's horrible.

Some dialogue can be speed up but then some cant and you have to watch it crawl by, letter by letter. You can only skip in NG+.

It's odd how capcom are really pushing okami since it's on so many platforms now. Viewtiful joe doesn't even have a port at all which is just sad. I hope they give VJ and GH a chance at some point.

Gabriel Phelan Lucas wrote:It's odd how capcom are really pushing okami since it's on so many platforms now. Viewtiful joe doesn't even have a port at all which is just sad. I hope they give VJ and GH a chance at some point.

Honestly, there's a lot of things that might be the cause of this. Most are copyrights. It could be that Mikami or Kamiya have some share or copyrights or character-rights in those titles, meaning they'd have to be contacted. The games are old enough that some music used might not be allowed to be used if it was outsourced so it would have to be rerecorded or replaced. Other elements are coding, could be they are a disaster and hard to port.

Another hard and painful truth could be that the original files are just missing. Clover disbanned and Capcom doesn't have good relations with P* at all - so there's a solid chance that some VJ-data is in the P* office while other files are at Capcom.

OR they just don't see money in it. GH had a PSN re-release and even paired with its PS2 release sold less than a total of 80.000 copies. Let's be optimistic and assume a HD release or digital re-release on PSN-PS4 sells 10% of that (so 8.000 copies) that would mean that the game has about a budget of (8000x25)x0,75 (allowing for 25% profit) 150.000 (assuming a price tag of 25 bucks). That's not nearly enough to get that title ported over at a good quality, files collected, copyrights renewed etc let alone get a physical release out there. Financially it would be a disaster.

It's odd how capcom are really pushing okami since it's on so many platforms now. Viewtiful joe doesn't even have a port at all which is just sad. I hope they give VJ and GH a chance at some point.

Like RE4, it's just that damn good. Both RE4 and Okami have appeared on numerous platforms now and I'm guess sold decently every time.

Weird that the Switch isn't getting it.

Weird that the Switch isn't getting it.

I'm really curious as to the whole Nintendo x Capcom relationship in general. Nintendo can't have been excited about them shitting on them with the abandoned Capcom Five or lack of support on both the Wii and Wii-U. Fact that all exclusivity deals outside of P.N.03 were ignored didn't help either (and that was only because that game didn't sell, otherwise I'd have had at least a PS2 port). I know the Wii and 3DS had Phoenix Wright, Layton and Monster Hunter but that's it really right?

Also I honestly believe (and I don't mind it) that we'll be seeing Resident Evil 4 ported every generation. It's just this timeless type of game and good for our newer generation of players to have easy acces to. I do wonder if they'll add new content one day (doubt it), the PS2 version had the passion to add a new campaign, costumes and weapons but all other versions did diddly-squat.

Wii got Okami and Okamiden was a DS exclusive so it seems odd for them not to get this remaster too.

I took a quick look at the Switch board and they seem really mad about not getting it. Could just be crazy console fanboys who haven't been enlightened to the ultimate truth; that it's possible to play and be a fan of more than one console. I know, it's a lot to take in.

Also I honestly believe (and I don't mind it) that we'll be seeing Resident Evil 4 ported every generation.
And every it will be accompanied by numerous troll topics hating and claiming how 'overrated' it is or how 'dated' the controls are, yet are powerless to stop it. I love that.

Good okami and re4 get plenty of love, can't complain really you can already just emulate god hand and viewtiful joe on pc.

that it's possible to play and be a fan of more than one console. I know, it's a lot to take in.

I still don't know where this comes from. I can understand it from a pre-teen who has to depend on his parents for consoles but ... outside of that I really don't get it. A console costs less than the money I have left at the end of a month. Really looking forward to buying a Switch with Mario.

And every it will be accompanied by numerous troll topics hating and claiming how 'overrated' it is or how 'dated' the controls are, yet are powerless to stop it. I love that.

A fact many forget and deny, is that it's still talked about in general; I love that. People say that in thirty years people will still remember the Last of Us as the best game ever made, but you don't hear anyone about it anymore. The only games that are truly remembered are those that changed something, and were major.
Super Metroid, Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Half Life, Quake, Mario, RESI4, DMC etc. They all did something for the medium at large. It is why I still believe that in thirty years time people will look back and try to emulate those games (or buy the gazilionth version of RESI4).

Still I wouldn't mind them hiring Mikami to bring a neat little new campaign to Resi4. That would be a thing of beauty that would never happen haha.

Mikami recently said he is up to direct re8, I haven't checked that comment so he might be joking.

December 12 coming up. You know what you have to do.

Don't make me hurt you.

Yeah I was about to note that I'll be going into hybernation starting next week...so yeah. But I'll get to it eventually....

Joking aside, I'll get it eventually. Really want to finish the games I have first.

Just read that cutscenes are skippable now! I'm so happy.

Birdman wrote:Just read that cutscenes are skippable now! I'm so happy.

Dear god this just keeps getting better and better...

Seems there is some kind of graphical issue where everything is really bright and glowing outside the lines of objects. Some have described it as a ghostly afterimage. I can see it in some videos but not others so I don't know if it's a TV issue or the 4K. My tv is just regular HD but I still haven't received it yet.

Just finished the HD version on a no upgrade run.

Overall it wasn't too difficult. You'll run out of ink fast, especially on boss fights requiring multiple brush techniques in a row, so they are slower than normal, and some attacks can near OHK you.

No high level brush tech because that counts as an upgrade. This means that for elemental attacks, I could only use elements if there was a nearby source. In Okami, sources can be in the environment, on enemies, and even on some of Amaterasu's weapons. Upgrades let you summon elements from nothing and are super powerful, but are heavy on ink usage. Funny, because in a no upgrade run, the high level brush tech would actually be worse to use, because you only have 3 ink bottles meaning you'd lose it all on one attack.

I did buy new weapons (or used the ones the game gives to you as rewards for beating a boss) but I did not upgrade them with gold dust. What I found is some of the later ones are damn strong anyway and making me consider another run using only the first type of each weapon.'

Advanced tech is to use the glaive (large sword) as your main weapon and use the jumping attack. This weapon lets you charge attack power, but you can still move and do everything as normal. The jumping attack has Amaterasu come straight down Helm Breaker style, then she backflips, which is also part of the attack because the sword hits as she's spinning.

What you do is low jumping attacks repeatedly. Absolutely shreds through enemies and with bosses you combine this with Veil of Mist (time slowdown) to get in as many as possible.

The final boss was somewhat tough, because you lose all your powers and have to get them back by damaging and stunning the boss. It changes forms a lot and throws out many attacks that normally you could 'brush' aside if you had full stats.

Over all I'd say it changes the game difficulty from easy to normal, with certain points heading into hard territory. Lesser if you know what to expect.

I made an extra save file before the point of no return because I want to try out the devil gate trials. The final one I'm pretty sure will not be possible because even with everything it's still nasty.

Might try the devil gates this weekend or maybe start over and use only the first type of each weapon.

Cant see much changing though. Just going to take longer to kill stuff. Might see how the rosary weapon is in this kind of run.

Devil Gate 1 complete.

This one isn't too bad on NUR but there were a few levels that were dangerous with only 3 health units, mainly one of the last levels where you face a few waves of wheel monk consisting of either fire or ice, 2 at a time. As soon as you kill one another warps in. Normally this would be a pushover, but with only 3 health they can kill you in 2 hits.

Might as well talk about the fight and what they can do/how to deal with them.

While they are covered in their element most of the time, you can't touch them or attack them. Touching them deals damaging according to their element, so they don't even need to be attacking to hurt you which can be dangerous when one is attacking and the other is just moving around casually, controlling space.

Fire damage sets you on fire and slowly drains health, while ice damage freezes you in a block of ice, dealing initial damage for follow up attacks. One of the things that makes this game so great is how you can use the brush to put yourself out with a gust of wind with Galestorm, or make rain it rain with Deluge. If an enemy has an elemental source, you can even draw from that. This game has tons of stuff like that if you know what to look for.

Speaking of sources, since this battle contains a fire and ice enemy, you can use the fire enemy to melt the ice one and put it in a vulnerable state. I'm not going to go in-depth into mechanics now but these states usually take place when you attack with an enemy's weakness. They get knocked down and dizzy and lose all color. In this state they have no defense and you're free to go crazy for a few seconds, more if you use the Veil of Mist brush technique which slows down time.

If you attack these guys with your weapon, it'll bounce off and trigger them to do a powerful attack where they spin at you. Has huge range and can be difficult to avoid because they do it near instantly after impact, and they are quite big enemies. But, if you have the Reflector weapon equipped as secondary, pressing the triangle button deploys it as a shield, which on most attacks, Amaterasu will totally Izuna Drop them.

Found a video but the player is awful. It happens toward the end


Back to the wheel monk fight. So it was a combination of hitting them to trigger attacks for reflector counter, or using the fire enemy as a source to melt the ice one. Using Galestorm will also put out the fire enemy.

After a drop, the wheel will be stunned and lose its elemental shield. Same goes for if you exploit their elemental weaknesses. They have a lot of attacks where you can use the reflector and Izuna them which disregards their elemental shield and uses no ink.

The next devil gate should be possible, but I remember it has a few levels with humanoid boss character clones, and more than one at time.

Was doing the second devil gate just now but quit because I accidentally reset it.

After a few levels, you get a reward and the devil gate won't reappear until you either pick up the item (which is a solar unit part which is against no upgrade) or you leave the dungeon. I think that's how it works so I left but when I came back and went through the gate I was on level 1 again. I'll redo it if I have time this week.

There were some somewhat challenging battles in here. Tons of enemies at once in combinations you'll never see elsewhere. Could talk for hours on the situations and possible methods of defeating them. This is how the whole game should have been.

Okami makes me sad everytime I think about it. It's so unique that reminds me how modern game try more to streamline to the current trend than to make something original.

Damn, it's a game in which you are a wolf that does things with a brush. Nowadays action games are all about people on steroids with swords and maces.

Now, I'm not arguing about Okami level of challenge or depth, because I played it many many years ago so I can't judge it. Also it's not a pure action game but it is action adventure, so you don't expect a huge level of depth in the fighting department (aside from the fact it may very well have a lot of depth), but the concept is very fresh regardless.

It actually has quite a bit of depth. There only thing lacking is overall challenge. I would still call it an action game though. It has all the elements.

No upgrade is pretty much hard mode though only a few parts can be tough if you dont know how to deal with the enemies, and with only 3 health you're dead in 2-3 hits.

I plan on writing a guide on all the combat options at some point. There are many states you can inflict on enemies, tons of reactions to various brush tech.

I got OHK'ed buy the Blue Cyclops. It's a flying type and actually a really interesting enemy. There are a few different types which I'll talk about later. It got me with a fireball move, or maybe I hit the fire it leaves on the ground. I was running underneath it and didn't pay attention.

Will try again on the weekend. I have to say these devil gates are thoroughly enjoyable on an NUR.

One of my clients canceled so I was able to come home early and play this. Beat the second devil gate. Only tough part was the wheel monks.

The Blue Cyclops I mentioned in my previous post can be taken down quite fast. It's just that every attack they have will murder you in NUR.

They appear two at a time (something that never happens in the main game), and can spit a poison cloud that follows you, or a fire ball that leaves a fire burning where it lands. This can be an issue if you have one put down fire, while the other shoots a poison cloud. The poison can be blown away with Galestorm though, and the fire can be doused if you have Deluge (or Galestorm). Thing is, you may not want to do that.

This is why this enemy is so interesting because it has two forms. It's initial form, it has a pipe with a fire blazing from it. If you were to use Deluge, it would start raining and put out its pipe. This triggers chaos mode, where it transforms into a humanoid form and goes ballistic. It can also transform after some amount of time has passed but I have no idea exactly how long.

In chaos mode, it becomes completely invincible and has a huge AoE attack that will destroy you on NUR instantly. That's why it's best to not provoke it and leave any fire it shoots on the ground. I tend to run behind them and attack with the glaive's jumping attack down instantly after leaving the ground. These guys hover quite low so you can get in multiple hits.

You want to destroy them as fast as possible, because the clock is ticking. You can relight their pipe using any fire they shoot as a source in NUR. In a normal game you will probably have Inferno, allowing you to use fire without a source.

If they enter chaos mode, running around the edge of the battle zone at full speed will allow you to avoid them, but don't stop even of a second because in Okami you don't reach full speed immediately.

Veil of Mist is SUPER helpful as it will slowdown time for about 4 seconds giving you time to take them out before they transform.

Other than that, there was only one boss in here, the tube foxes. There are 9 I think, but they aren't too bad. The glaive's jumping attack is really useful here, not just for the damage. As Amaterasu's lands, she backflips and the glaive hits again in front, as well as behind as she returns to standing position. The tube foxes love to jump around and come up behind, so doing continuous, quick low jumping attacks worked extremely well.

They have a super annoying ability where they absorb your ink, and usually do this from the other side of the arena while you're busy. Thankfully, it seems only one fox can do this at a time, but with only 3 ink it drains very fast. You can stop them by attacking them directly with your weapon, or a brush tech but they won't take damage from those unless they're dizzy.

Losing all your ink reverts you to a normal wolf form with no weapon or brush abilities, just your movement and some basic physical attacks (pretty much the equivalent of Raiden losing his sword in MGR).

Ok, time for the final gate. This one has 3 bosses from the main game, who you fight at the same time. As I remember, there are 2 or 3 each. I can't remember how many you fight at the same time though. I imagine it's 2 at a time, one of each. The final floor has the 2 of Nagi, who is a massive pain when there's more than one of him and difficult even fully upgraded.

The final fight of the third and last devil gate trial cannot be done on NUR. No point describing it detail. You just dont have the ability to do anything to them.

A couple of questions: Which version do you guys think is the best version? If I have to choose between these two, PS2 version or Wii?

Haven't played the Wii version but I've read comments saying it's easier to draw, though I always found it easy on PS2. I'd go with PS2.

PS4/X1 is the best version.

Without generating any hope just yet, including the HD version, which version would you recommend Bird? The Switch an okay version? Or is X1 better in terms of performance?

I only have PS2 and PS4 HD. I haven't read much about the other versions. HD versions are definitely brighter.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Switch version has issues. I remember reading something about touch screen issues.

DF has performance on all versions tested.

The original has this blurry, dreamy effect. This is gone in the remaster. Everything looks really sharp and clear. This isn't exactly bad, but I liked the original better.

In the PS4 version, Amaterasu appears to be glowing. It hurt my eyes after a while. It might be that halo/ghost effect I've seen in HD anime of older stuff.

This recent talk has got me wanting to play Okamiden again. Might work on a challenge run while I'm waiting for clients.

Haven't played Okami = morally bankrupt horrible person who should be stripped of human rights.

Found some cool stuff I never knew was possible after all these years. The notes are piling up and will be posted in the near future.

Playing this again and found a ton of new combat stuff. Some of these things are so obscure I'm surprised they're even there.

Been posting short videos to Twitter due to my laptop dying so I can't transfer my PS4 stuff. I don't like Twitter. There's no way to turn off the likes or retweets of people you follow. I guess I solve that by choosing not to look at the main feed.

Had to start a new file on Switch. Just got to Kamui. Only need the two ice brush techniques now, then I can go back to testing inside the Devil Gate trials.

Just testing in Oki's boss fight now since you never fight him again.

It's amazing how many little details and mechanics are in this game. I keep finding new applications and rules.
Do this in every game; isolate an enemy and just watch them. Then use everything you have one at a time.

I can't believe how much is hidden behind the main strategies the game puts in your face.

It's in my backlog and seeing this thread reminds me that I really need to play it sometime soon. I'm glad to hear about the inclusion of fun mechanics and details as well. After beating the game do you unlock a higher difficulty setting or something in that vein?

No higher difficulties sadly.

You can make it harder by not upgrading health, ink or weapons.

The game is pretty easy. There might be a few things that can kill you if you don't know how they work. But largely I doubt you'll have any problems.

I check the Okami board after forever and find this masterpiece.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/920500-okami/79843032

While they're whining and considering quitting over the story (and not even getting that right), I'm on gameplay year 10.

I really need to dive into this one at some point.

For those who don't know, I've posted quite a bit of tech on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Birdman96813752?t=0DiiGY0YZvVSxZXo6cpV1A&s=09

There's a bit of Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity too.

Right now I'm going through every enemy and found another details I'd missed for years. One of those things I was aware of but only just figured out the exact rules.

The green imp is the very first enemy you fight. The one you usually see in every action game where everything works.

In Okami, there are various ways to stun enemies. Some have more windows than others. These might require certain brush techniques or catching them after certain attacks. With the green imp, all you have to do is hit them.

But you have to do it in a combo. So with the starting weapon you can only do 3 hits. These will stun the imp. It will get knocked back and land on its back drained of color. But this will not work if you just hit it 3 times at different times. It must be consecutive.

Reason I overlooked it for so long is it's not even an interesting stun, and you soon get stronger weapons and they'll be dead before they get stunned. Went back with the weakest weapon and figured it out. Originally thought it might be based on damage.

With the red imp, which is the next step up, the same applies but you have to destroy its guitar weapon first otherwise it just blocks everything.

There's an enemy much later that gets stunned from just being hit a ton of times. I have notes on it somewhere. Not sure it's based on anything but hits because this type doesn't take hit stun from normal attacks.