Okami Critic Reviews

Okami shames them simply by being the genuine article: A stunningly gorgeous and unique masterpiece that effortlessly blends art and storytelling with puzzles and amusement. Miss this landmark effort at your peril.

It's one of the best-looking, most creative 3D action adventures in recent memory, and every PS2 owner out there owes it to themselves to snap up a copy to enjoy immediately. Truly magical stuff.

The fighting is so nuanced and altogether joyous it never gets old for a second, and the bosses are simply stunning. Like I said, Zelda only better.

The game manages to achieve near perfection on every level, from technical to story to gameplay, and presents the player with an enticing world that is impossible to ignore. Even after completing the adventure, you'll be drawn back if only to take in the world.

It's an epic quest of rejuvenation, elemental and ornate, in the context of an extended action/RPG/platformer. It’s built from artwork that upstages anything you've seen on a next-gen console. Not since Shadow of the Colossus has a game world been presented so lovingly and evocatively.

The game's music is enchanting, combat is simple but a blast, and it all comes with a full cast of endearingly kooky characters.

Simply one of the best games of the generation and I’d even wager to put it up with some of the best of all time.

Okami has elements of many genres—platforming, adventure, RPG and action all apply. But there's more to it than that. There's something so ... joyous about it, in Amaterasu's happy barks, in her running, her jumping, her digging of holes. I found myself ignoring the game for stretches, just doing these things. I don't know if it's the way the controls handle, or the graphics, or what, but it's there. Okami is the video game version of Professor Dumbledore, managing somehow to be both gleeful and august.

Okami’s single player campaign is one of the most ambitious we’ve ever seen, and with its score of collectible items, trees to save and animals to feed as well as characters you like and a story you’ll want to revisit, this is a game you could easily wind up playing twice or thrice.

A true epic. It's a dog-eat-dog world in the games industry, and Okami buries the opposition like a load of old bones.

Right from the start it conjures an atmosphere of being something special, but to keep that level of quality up consistently over 60 hours ensures that this will be a game that will be talked about for years to come...A work of art, you might say.

The game is epic in scale and length, but its fascinating plot, characters and dialogue (impeccably translated from Japanese) ensures players will devour every second.

All in all, after playing this game I'm speechless. You've got to hand it to the good old PS2; just as the PS3 is coming out, the PS2 is producing some of the finest games ever seen.

A beautiful experience and a real must-have title. Possibly the last great game on PS2.

Despite its easiness, Okami is absolute fun to play, and its length and depth, as well as its superb gameplay and high replayability value, will ensure many an afternoon of total engrossment, trying to help Ammy and Issun fight the evil of all evils. It is indeed the best non-adventure, and one of the best overall games I’ve played in 2006.

10 / 10 / 10 / 9 - 39 platinum

The replay value for this game is immense as the storyline, sidequesting, and searches for those really rare items just never gets old.

A singluar game that proves videogames can be artistic. It must be played.

I can’t say enough about the graphics. This is true art - yet it doesn’t look stodgy. It’s almost what you would expect an ancient cartoon to look like. Even though each frame looks like a watercolor painting, the colors are vibrant and not washed out.

Upon completing Okami, you may feel like you have just taken in a classic Miyazaki film. The visual/aural presentation and sprawling narrative combine to present the game as an extended vision of an anime epic – equal parts The Legend of the Dog Warriors: The Hakkenden and Princess Mononoke, with a dash of Ranma ½ for kicks.