Game 16: Okami

In a few years, Okami is probably going to be one of those games that gamers call a "work of art" but hardly any of them will actually have played it. Well, I think that's actually happening right now but someday it will be a lot more prevalent. Anyways, for those unaware, Okami is basically a Legend of Zelda game set in feudal Japan with most of your abilities being executed using a calligraphy brush. The Celestial Brush is used by holding R1 (which freezes time and grays the screen) and then moving the thumbstick around while holding down a face button to draw. Offensive slashes can be drawn with a quick, straight stroke, or you can light an enemy on fire by drawing a line from a torch to the baddie. There are a whole bunch of different strokes available by the end of the game, but I'm only interested in the first hour. Do we even get to use the brush early on or should we cross that off our list of fun in favor of something... a whole lot less fun? Time will tell and it's about to start the clock.

I actually wrote this review about two weeks ago, but since I had the opportunity to play and review Portal, this review was delayed a week!

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Game and the hour begins. A girl's voice echoes: "Okami... Okami... Okami...". The story sequence begins right off. Looks like I have to press X to keep it going. The background looks hand drawn and there are cherry blossom petals falling across the screen.

01 - The game is telling me about Kamiki village and its dark secrets.

02 - Turns out an eight-headed dragon is fed a maiden every year! The village even makes a festival out of it.
03 - This intro could really use some voice over narrating. Instead, I'm stuck here reading everything. Even if it was in Japanese it would be much more interesting. Anyways, the story tells me about a white wolf that kept an eye on the village around festival time. The backgrounds are scrolling along with the text, and there's silhouettes of the characters being described. Looks pretty cool.

04 - A village named Nagi tried to fight the white wolf, Shiranui. No luck though as Shiranui was very swift.

05 - Concerning the lack of voice acting again, the words are accompanied instead by a weird, computer generated sounding voice. Almost like something is being read backwards. They did this in the last few Zelda games too (another series that could use some voice acting).

06 - Turns out Nagi's girlfriend was picked to be eaten this year, so Nagi went to confront Orochi, the octo-dragon.

08 - With Nagi unable to put a dent in Orochi, it's Shiranui's chance to confront the demon. The music has a nice harp sounding to it. It sounds appropriate for storytime, but it's been going on for eight minutes now...

09 - We see some of the Celestial Brush in action warding off Orochi, first by creating wind to blow fire back in his face, and then to sprout a tree to stop his advances.

11 - Shiranui and Nagi finally team up to tumble the giant. Shiranui gives him the power of the moon or something and Nagi starts lopping off Orochi's heads with his golden sword.
13 - Shiranui is mortally wounded by Orochi's poison and Nagi carries the wolf back to Kamiki village. The remnants of Orochi behind them, Shiranui "falls asleep."

14 - Wow, the first story scene is over! The music has stopped and there's color! I see for the first time the artistic style this game is going to offer.

15 - Well, one story is over, and another is about to begin it appears. A 100 years have passed since the epic battle and something bad is gonna happen!

16 - Someone is stealing the sword that sealed in Orochi - they pull it out and a giant shadow serpent appears. The thief hightails it out of there as Orochi erupts from his crypt.

17 - Fires ravage the nearby area as the sky darkens. Hey, a loading screen...

18 - We're loading another cutscene. This is a more dramatic one with the music pumped up. We see Shiranui's statue in Kamiki village, protecting the small town from Orochi's evil power. "It is here the real story begins." I hope.

19 - A woman in a leaf bikini appears - Wood Sprite Sakuya the game informs me.
20 - She throws a shield at the statue of Shiranui, causing the statue to come alive and become the white wolf! Shiranui no more though, this is Okami Amaterasu. The mother and origin of all that is.

21 - Amaterasu seems bored with Sakuya's speech. Join the club.

22 - I get a backview of Sakuya... she's got a plumber's crack in that dress! And the designers bestowed upon her Dead or Alive style physics.

23 - A little bug pops out of Sakuya's cleavage. It's Issun the wandering artists.

25 - Amaterasu pops Issun in her mouth, but unfortunately, Issun escapes and calls me furball. It should be mentioned now that you can not speed up the text at all, you always have to wait for it to slowly appear on the screen. I might only be at the 15 minute mark right now if I could do that.

27 - Sakuya morphs into a big tree with some fruit on it. Supposedly the villager's spirits are kept inside the fruit for whatever reason.
28 - OH MY! I finally get control! I guide Amaterasu inside the tree.

29 - I arrive inside another world. I can move around, but my actions are limited to basically jumping, dashing, and barking. Issun teaches me about saving, but no need for that in the first hour I think. It should be noted that I can kind of fast-forward through text now. Something that should have been available from the start.

31 - I bust open some pots with my head and collect Yen. Then I learn how to wall jump. I'd better learn how to double jump soon!

32 - Issun teaches me a little about using the brush. There's a broken bridge and he magically repairs it with ink! Kind of cool! This power if called Rejuvination, there are 13 brush strokes in all, one for each brush god.

34 - We look into the sky and see a constellation, but it's missing a star! I get to draw the missing star by holding R1 and pressing Square where the star should be.
35 - A giant white serpent (only one head) appears. It's Yomigami, and he suffers from slow text too! Yomigami is the god of restoration. I have to seek out and reunite all the brush techniques to renew the flow of stardust... That's an odd mission.

37 - Amaterasu herself receives the power of restoration, time to use it! I scribble over some water and create a sort of liquid bridge over the cosmos below, cool! Oh, it's a river of stardust. Issun is impressed.

39 - After slowly crossing the bridge, I get an Astral Pouch. It stores food and will resurrect me if I die. But first I have to "feed" it and fill it up. I collect some fruit in the area.

40 - I enter through another shining door and into a new area. It's still perpetual night, but I'm climbing a grassy hill with Japanese architecture littered across it.
41 - As I hold forward on the joystick, Amaterasu begins speeding up! There seems to be no other way to run except to keep running and eventually you'll go faster. Neat gameplay aspect.

43 - I enter a large cave and right in the middle is a big old statue of Nagi. And when I say big, this thing looks Statue of Liberty big! He's even holding up a broken sword like a torch.

44 - If it wasn't obvious what to do already, Issun chimes in: I have to restore Nagi's broken sword with my brush power. I draw a bunch of sort of straight lines and his sword returns (where did this matter appear from?).

45 - Another constellation appears above Nagi in the open air. It looks like a little mouse... well, it's some sort of rodent, Tachigami. This thing could actually be like a pikachu or something.
47 - I received the power slash technique, basically a sword but wielded by my brush strokes! I slice a boulder in two. Issun finally realizes that Amaterasu is Shiranui reborn and decides to tag along for the long haul. Lucky me...

48 - Now I have to head out the way I came. There's a big orange arrow right in my face showing me the way. Why not just teleport me out of here!?

49 - Oh snap, some bad guys! I beat them up using the shield thingy on my back and my power slash.

50 - The orange arrow continues to beckon. Objects are popping in and out of view pretty quickly, sometimes it's a little distracting. Oh, another battle.
53 - I finally make it out of the stardust land, now to use my power slash on the fruit from the tree. The fruit falls and causes the whole area to blossom and green up! It's a really cool affect watching the village become alive again as grass grows, trees sprout up, and water rushes into the river.

54 - Issun makes a lewd comment about hanging out with Sakuya more, and then mentions it's time to head into the village.

55 - Too bad all the villagers have turned to stone! The game presents an orange arrow pointing toward high ground so I can get a better look at the trouble.

57 - We start into the dark sky and Issun mentions that we should draw a sun in the sky, simply by drawing a circle in the air. Preposterous! Well, I try it anyway and it works. A Japanesey sun appears in the sky lighting the area. The villagers have awoken!
58 - An old guy (Mr. Orange) appears behind me with playful music playing. He's a village elder and really, really old. Seems like he recognizes Amaterasu...

60 - As Mr. Orange blabbers on, some monsters appear! I guess this is my final minute boss? Well, they go down easy and as a reward I get Praise. Praise is like a reward from your followers, makes sense. Issun tells me he's going to show me around the village, but time's up! And my epic adventure was just starting to begin... I think.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 6
Okami's story is so well developed in the first hour, it barely leaves room for anything else! Literally half of the entire hour is devoted to story time. The whole back-story seems pretty interesting and Japanesey: you have a giant, eight-headed dragon taking a maiden from a village every year until finally a white wolf and a local swordsman stand up to the monster and slay him. The problem is, after the back-story is completed, it seems like we are about to reenact the whole thing all over again, this time 100 years later. Some guy steals the legendary sword, awaking the eight-headed dragon and causing the white wolf to reappear. This is both good and bad as I think it would be really cool to kill off a giant serpent like Orochi, but at the same time, I just watched a half hour slideshow of the game doing it for me! I can't say that the first hour of Okami leaves me with a lot of confidence for the story, but if you're into Japanese culture and history, it will definitely intrigue you.
Graphics and Sound: 9
The game is beautiful. I've probably said that a few times in my reviews already, but seriously, this game looks great! The art style is so wonderfully charming and very true to the original art it is modeled after. And I can say this after only playing an hour (half hour of real gameplay) and seeing very limited environments. The music fits the mood, soft flutes and some drums to accompany the story, I didn't really notice anything noteworthy while actually playing. The sound effects work for the game, nothing special, though the "voices" are kind of annoying. But Okami's graphics are just perfect and goes to show you don't need next-gen to have a beautiful game. There are some clipping problems and the lack of even a widescreen option is somewhat disappointing.
Gameplay: 3
Maybe if I would have actually been able to play the game, this score would have been higher, but half an hour of tapping X doesn't really lend to a great gameplay score. The opening really could have used some voice acting too. And like I said above, even if the narrator was Japanese, it would have been exponentially more interesting. Instead we just hear some weird squawking and the clicking of my controller. My perfect opening would have been a Japanese storyteller with the words appearing across the screen without my interaction. Then I could have concentrated more on the actual story being told instead of my great annoyance at the pokiness of it all. Anyways, that's the first half hour, the second half hour actually features real gameplay using more than one button. Running around is all very Zelda-like and almost feels like a direct rip-off (wolf and all, but that's probably more of a coincidence than anything) at times, until you get to use the Celestial Brush! This weapon/tool feels so much more natural than anything a 3D Zelda ever threw at us and it's cool too! Freezing time and slicing up bad guys is fun! I just wish I had gotten a few more moves in the first hour but that's okay, the game is obviously moving at a pretty slow pace. The Celestial Brush itself pretty much earns the game 3 points in this category.
Fun Factor: 2
"This game is not fun. The first hour moves really slow. But it looks gorgeous." There's my Okami haiku, I counted hour as one syllable and gorgeous as two syllables, guess it depends on your accent. It's also a little blunt but it's time to lay it down straight. It is incredibly obnoxious to sit there and stare at the screen for 30 minutes waiting for something to happen. I was so happy when I was finally able to do something I just about soiled my Okami underwear. The text moves slow, the game feels generic (until you get the brush), and there really aren't even any colors until you get past the story section. Okami is a story driven game but usually along with a story you get interesting characters, not here. Amaterasu doesn't do much and Issun the bug is just plain Navi-annoying. Not much fun here in the first hour.
Minutes to Action: 29
Overall: 2
Okami's first hour is probably not what you hoped for, but if it is, you are a masochist and probably imagine everyone talking in slow text bubbles as you press X on a PS2 controller tattooed on your arm. My minutes to action time of 29 is probably generous too because the first "action" consists of me using the thumbstick for the first time. I'd say the real action starts at the 49 minute mark (20 minutes later) when you finally get to fight some enemies and use your Celestial Brush offensively. But the minutes to action time is highly subjective game to game and once it gets past 10 minutes it doesn't matter too much (game designers read: you have gone on far too long at this point). The intro really ruined the first hour of Okami for me and really held the game back from exploring what gamers are interested: fun gameplay and using the brush's powers. I know they have a grand story to tell but there are other ways to tell it instead of in a giant block right after you press start. Disappointing. But the graphics are great, not sure how much they could even improve on the newer systems, though there are persistent rumors that Okami will be released on the Wii which seems like a perfect fit. (At the time I wrote this, Okami Wii was just a rumor, now it's really coming!) Time will tell, but Okami's first hour is up.

me: just finished the first hour of okami
friend: zzzzzzzz
me: exactly
friend: I stopped playing it after my first hour

Game 6: Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon was a Super Nintendo sleeper that proved to be unique combination of gameplay and originality that received a small, but devoted following. Natsume released numerous sequels over the last 10 years trying a few different formulas, but the original has always worked the best. Harvest Moon is definitely not for everyone, however. The game moves very slow, and does not introduce the player to the core concepts very well. The player has to conduct much trial and error to figure out many things, and the weak translation doesn't help either. Let's see how the first hour of Harvest Moon progresses.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I hit Start and the timer starts. I'm presented a diary screen, which must be my saved games. Only two save slots, I'm annoyed by games which offer so few save slots. I can see how it was limited back in the day of EEPROMs, but now we have huge memory cards and hard drives! Anyways, I choose a diary slot and input my name "Greg". All is well and the "opening scene" starts. My blue overall sporting character is standing in front of a small house and a man walks up. He introduces himself as "the shipper". Nice to meet you too. He says he'll bring me into town.

01 - We take his pickup truck into town. Nice wheels. He sets me loose in town (I suppose it has no name?) and I start out. I have no direction or no idea where to go so I head up.

02 - I go into a flower store and meet Nina, a pink haired beauty, though she looks rather young... Her mom (more appropriately aged for a bachelor-farmer like me) gives me a watering can. I'm not sure if I actually get it or not as it just disappears off the shelf.

03 - I walk over to the church and meet Maria, a blue haired nerdy looking girl. Meh.

04 - I break into mayor's house (at least that's what it feels like in RPGs) and then head to the town square. It's completely empty except for one bum hanging out. I head down and head for the local watering hole. This is the place to be, as a blonde bombshell named Eve. This is more like it.

05 - Too bad the bar is closed though.

06 - Next to a tool shop is Ann, who has orange hair. I'm noticing a trend here, where's the brunette? I receive some grass from the cow dealer and once again it disappears from the shelf. Where do I pick up this grass pops?

07 - Now for the oddest building yet, a fortune teller. Does a town of 10 really need a fortune teller? It's like Kakariko village in A Link to the Past. There's also a Star of David behind her. A Jewish fortune teller? And she won't even read my fortune!

08 - I head back to The Shipper and we leave town in his truck. Greg wants to sleep right away when he gets home, fine with me.

09 - I wake up and explore my very small house. The TV says it'll rain tomorrow. My only channel is the weather? Crappy reception. A note says I have 300G. It's the 2nd of Spring and I head outside. A dog runs up to me, and a brunette asks me to keep it. I have no choice so now I'm stuck with a little puppy. I name him Dog.

10 - The girl's name is Ellen. Five girls, five hair colors. I get to explore the farm for the first time and it's a complete mess. Rocks and stumps all over.

11 - I direct Greg to the tool shed. I can carry two tools at a time, just like Halo. I grab a hammer and ax, as these will probably help the most in clearing the land. The barn and chicken coop behind me are totally empty. Whoever gave me this farm left me nothing!

12 - I'm going to head into town. There's about 20 feet in between my farm and the town. Did we really need to ride in The Shipper's pickup truck for this?

13 - I buy some potato seeds, only 100g left. How do I make money? The game has not made it clear except for saying to chuck things in the shipping bin.

14 - The bar is still closed... I head north into the forest.

15 - There's a bunch of creepy lookalike forest men living in a tree. That's kind of odd. Short on sprites? Just lazy? Or trying to make a statement on mountain men? We'll never know.

16 - I head into a cave, seems to be a few weeds or herbs in here, I'll pass as I can only carry one thing at a time. I keep heading up the ridge and run into an outdoor bath, nice! I jump in and rest for a moment. It starts getting dark out.

17 - I arrive at the top of the mountain and get a great view of the landscape. It's dark out for sure now.

18 - Think I'll head to the bar, see if it's open. I pick up a wild grape for the lovely Eve just in case.

19 - My preparation paid off. Eve loves the drink (I think, she never mentioned it...) and then she gives me a drink. No doubt "cider" or "soda" but it still makes me a little tipsy. I think I'm in love.

20 - It seems to be perpetual night after it gets dark, so I think I'll work on my farm for a bit and clean it up.

21 - Chop up my first stump, it takes six hits of my ax.

22 - I accidentally move after the fifth hit of another stump and have to start over. That's kind of annoying. Am I fatiguing at all, do I have limited strength?

23 - Greg wipes sweat off his face, I guess so.

24 - I find a "Secret Garden" at the north end of my land. I think I should explore my property before I go to bed.

25 - Besides a few trees, it's just stumps and rocks, it'll be a lot of work to clean all the farm land up. I think I'll head to bed now before I faint.

26 - Day 3, it's raining today. My dog looks bored, does he do anything besides mope?

27 - I guess I can make money by shipping items from the forest, so I'll head into the mountains and gather fruits and herbs. The shipper stops taking stuff at 6pm (when it becomes dark and time freezes). There's no music while it's raining, kind of weird.

29 - Time and gameplay mechanics work against me. How much money did I make? I delivered a grape, an herb, and maybe another grape? Couldn't tell because that's when it got dark. I'll plant my potatoes now.

31 - I sow the potato seeds, it's up to nature now (and my watering can).

32 - I spend a few minutes and widen my fence. Looks like chopped up stumps give me six pieces of wood. The rain actually causes slowdown in the graphics. This game must be too graphically intense for my Super Nintendo.

33 - I head to bed. Day 4 now and sunny out. I have 500G, it looks like the mountain supplies brought in 400G. Think I'll go get more and buy more seeds.

35 - I deliver some grapes and then buy potato and turnip seeds.

37 - It's dark and I'm holding a grape so I head to the bar. Eve seems to appreciate it a little more this time.

38 - I check Eve's diary in her bedroom, a heart! I hope it's for me.

39 - I need to water my seedlings and then plant my new bags of potato and turnips.

41 - I nearly collapse while watering my turnips. Time to hit the hay I guess. Watering is pretty monotonous.

42 - Day 5, 410G, sunny. Not as big of a haul today. Guess I'll just harvest the mountain more? Nothing else to do besides watering.

44 - I deliver three grapes by sundown. Really, are the days only three minutes long? That seems way too short, ignoring the forever darkness of course.

45 - The Shipper arrives and he informs me I made 450G today. That means 150G per grape. Good stuff to know.

46 - Watering is getting very tedious, please rain more! I plant my grass, does it need watering too?

47 - Time for bed, that was a pretty quick day. Day 6, 910G, sunny. My turnips are popping up already!

48 - I seem to be okay for money so I just grab one grape from the mountain. Time to start watering.

49 - I realize I can't water my inner turnip. That sucks. Back to bed, an even shorter day.

50 - Day 7, 1060G, sunny again. The game is becoming monotonous in almost every aspect.

51 - I water everything right away as I'm sick of heading into the forest.

52 - Decide to go to church as it is a Sunday. See how busy the town is on a weekend.

53 - I check the events calendar on the front pew, the 23rd of Spring is the Flower Festival. Too bad it's only the 7th, seems like the most fun in a while.

54 - Day 8, 1060G, and it's raining! Finally!

55 - Eight turnips are ready to harvest! I chuck them one by one into the shipping bin, this has been the most exciting moment since... I started 55 minutes ago! I head to the mountain to rake even more cash.

56 - I deliver two more grapes before dark, should be a profitable day, grass is coming up too.

57 - I made 780G today! A new record! Since that's basically four packs of seeds from the flower shop, that's like what? Two dollars?

58 - Day 9, 1840G total, sunny again.

59 - I don't feel like running around anymore so I just water and head to bed. Day 10, 1840G, still sunny.

60 - Last minute, and my potatoes are ready! This is the Harvest Moon equivalent of fighting the Colossus boss in God of War 2! Just two measly taters left in the middle of each patch. I finish on my hour on day 10 with 3180G! Not a bad first hour, in terms of profit.

Let's see how the first hour of Harvest Moon turned out, scores are out of 10.

Story: 1
There's a story? I somehow am in possession of a rundown farm and it is the first of Spring.
Graphics: 2
Half-Life 2 this is not, but of course this is a much older game on an older platform. But still, the graphics are drab and uninspired. There's absolutely no creativity in the characters and environments. Remember the family of woodsmen who all look exactly alike? Ah well, it's the gameplay, right?
Gameplay: 4
Harvest Moon is such an original game, it's hard for me to give it a low score, but it's the truth. The game is basically a modified SNES-era RPG with farming elements, which isn't necessarily a bad thing by itself, but there's really not much else. The game revolves around the day/night sequence, but the days are so short (around three minutes), that you're constantly repeating the same thing over and over again. My ten days I played consisted of me waking up, going up to the mountain, watering my plants, and heading to bed. The first day was exploration day and I went into town two or three other times, but there's really nothing else to do.
Fun Factor: 2
The first hour of Harvest Moon is really not that fun. I'm sure it picks up later when you can court the girls more, expand your house, and experience different seasons, but the game just does not start out well. The world is very small compared to other RPGs, and there's reasons behind that, but how much more fun will this game really become? The game is a constant fight against time and odd gameplay mechanics (you can only carry one item at a time???), not a great combination, unfortunately.
Minutes to Action: 10
Overall: 2
Harvest Moon for the Super Nintendo was obviously a gamble by Natsume, but they really blew the first hour of it. There was a lot of potential for at least a tutorial on how to farm, but they didn't even bother with that (and the instruction manual isn't that helpful either, if you're wondering). Instead, Natsume leaves you out to dry and you have to figure out everything yourself. This works for a game like Super Mario Bros., but definitely not an agriculture RPG. Luckily, Natsume learned from their mistakes and really improved on everything in the next iterations of Harvest Moon. Too bad the first hour of Harvest Moon doesn't leave that kind of impression.