10/10

Okami is a game that I personally consider to be one of the greatest of all time. There is so much to Okami that to try to summarize it in one review won't do it justice. I will have to make due though.

Okami is a game depicting Japanese folklore involving the goddess Amaterasu and the legendary 8-headed snake, Orochi, and various other characters of folklore. The game puts the player as the wolf Amaterasu at the start of the game, stripped of most of her powers and immediately pits you against the forces of evil. I will say no more about the story so that you may discover it yourself; All that I will tell you is that it is a long, complex, and interesting story. To put it into perspective of how long the game is, to fully complete the game you must play it at least 2 times, once in the regular game and once in new game+. The fastest anyone has beaten the game to any % completion is 1h 22m 39s. However, the average person will beat the game sometime between 36 hours to 56 hours. So know that when you start this game, you are in for a long and arduous journey that will require investment.

Onto the actual gameplay, the game consists of semi-freeroam where you can explore and discover areas of the game that are available to you. Within these areas are story events and location-based events. Story events will only happen once and progress the game. Location-based events consist of encounters triggered by running into a cursed gate or a cursed scoll which will then trigger and enemy encounter which can either be completed or broken out of. These encounters are not like an RPG just to be clear. The combat is fluid and can become incredibly complex depending upon your knowledge of the game and weapons. Certain techniques can be used within these encounters to aid you as well.

Next, the map of Okami, while at first appearing to be large and overall not terribly overwhelming, the map eventually expands to encompass a massive amount of land covering a rather impressive amount of ground. The art style of Okami is cel-shading which gives Okami a rather unique look that further accents its beauty. You may find yourself stopping throughout the map to just look around and observe, I highly recommend you do so.

The music of Okami is yet another enchanting aspect of the game. Consisting of highs and lows, dread and happiness, drama and content, etc. The music is diverse and will be a heavy influence on your emotions and how you percieve certain situations. The music present in battles gets your blood pumping; The music present during comedical moments makes you feel jovial and silly.

Next, 100% completion, this topic of Okami is a rather involved and intricate task. In order to 100% Okami one must play the game once in 'New Game' and once in 'New Game +,' the difference is the difficulty. Next, one must find all 26 Brush Techniques (14 Regular Techniques and 12 Secret Techniques), this task will require exploration and story progression. Next one must aquire th 100 stray beads spread out throughout the game, again alot of exploration. One must complete the bestiary by discovering and defeating all the enemy types in the game. One must find all the clovers spread out throughout the map. Complete all mini-quests. Complete all offerings to the statues. Complete all Wanted Beasts lists. Collect all the artifacts. Get all karmic transformers by completing certain tasks and achieving a certain rating for sections at the end of the base game. Feed all animals within the game. Max out all stats. Find all fish within the game. Complete all races. Complete all Devil Gate challenges. And finally, max out all weapon stats using gold dust.
Obviously this will take a long time.

In Summary:

Pros:
- Amazing and breath-taking visuals and art.
- Amazing soundtrack
- High replayability
- Fluid combat system
- Long game
- Incredible story
- So so much to do

Cons:
- Heavy investment
- Possibility of confusion at certain points on what to do
- Completionist will cry
- So much to remember
- Cel-shading is not for everyone (as in I have met some people who despise cel-shading)
- The story is long and arduous, I recommend taking breaks