Okami

[ItsThere]

I wouldn't bother with the manual. There is a bit of hand holding but it eases up slightly when you have a reasonable grasp of whats going on.

[Number45]

Good stuff, I like to go into it cold where possible. I enjoy a good tutorial section as long as it's not rammed down your throat for the entirety of the game.

[lostn]

I recommend reading the manual. When you're new to the game there are a lot of things not explained very well... things like Godhood (raises godhood by 1 level - eh?), and the Astral Pouch (is there a way to check how full your bag is without picking up some food?).

You can figure this stuff out after a while, but the tutorials don't hold your hand that much. What do you think upgrading your Astral Pouch will do? Give you more lives? Reduce the amount needed to 'fill' the pouch? Guess if you play blindly, you'll have to figure it out the long way.

Okami is reminiscent of Zelda, but not as intuitive IMO. Not everything makes sense.

[vocoderfreak]

I've heard it's very large. 40 hours plus.

I'm going to be starting this next. A quick question, do I need to bother reading the manual, or will it hold my hand Zelda style?

Yeah it's big alright. I'm a fair way into the game now and I'm clocking in at around the 40 hour mark. No idea how much further I have to go but

->Open Spoiler<-

I've just fought Orochi for the second time

. I haven't explored too much outside of the main story.

[Valken]

You're almost done.

[Number45]

Well, this is impossibly gorgeous! I'm sure it's been mentioned at least a hundred times in this thread, but neither pictures or movies really get across how amazing (And smooth) this all is.

Not very far in at the moment, just running around the village making sure everyone knows how awesome I am, but I've already been far more compelled to mess about with little distractions than I was for the entirety of Twilight Princess.

On the downside, I hate the Banjo-Kazooie style ramblings. Grr!

[smokedog]

Sorry if this question has been asked before but anyone tried this on a PS3?
I know it says minor issues on the PS3 website, but not sure what that means.

[daveyw]

So far so good. The only thing I noticed was a *really minimal* bit of audio static on the initial story cutscene.

Having to start again, so I'm not very far in, but it seems fine to me. In fact, most PS2 games I have tried so far are ok, including FFXII, which simply has slightly grainy movies.

This is with the 1.60 update, BTW

[vocoderfreak]

Well I finally finished this a few hours ago and I have to say that it is one of the best games that I have played on the PS2. What a treat it was from start to finish and I loved the final boss character. Although I do have to say

->Open Spoiler<-

it's a bit cheap having to fight the same fight against Orochi 3 times in the game!

[keineboom]

**** me the cutscenes get annoying in their unskippable-ness. Mostly the pointless 10 minute one right in the middle of the final boss fight.

I really don't need to hear a lecture from Issun at that point.

[Ady]

I've been playing this for the last week or so. This is an utterly amazing game. It almost feels like an honour to own it.

The graphics, obviously are exemplary; I've never viewed videogames as art at all (a game is a game, FFS - let's not get pretentious about it!), but this game certainly is artistic (something which a game certainly can be if done well), and, to my mind looks better than a good 90&#37; of next-gen games with their superflous HD onanism and over-use of browns and greys.

It's a game that proves that art can and should dictate technology and not the other way round (as with most games), and makes me wonder how much we really need a step-up in graphical fidelity. After all, if it's possible to produce something this arresting and artistic on 'old' hardware, then what purpose could newer hardware truly serve beyond smoothing out a few more edges?

But I digress. The game is a marvel to play. The Zelda comparisons are obvious and it's a testament to Clover that they've pulled of a variant with as much flair and verve as the titles that influenced them. Also playing this hot on the heels of Twilight Princess, I've noticed MANY similarities, but I have to say that I'm probably enjoying this game more. TP was great in an 'Exactly-What-It-Says-On-The-Tin' kind of way, but this feels fresher to me. I've been off work all this week, and a good 80% of my time has been spent playing this.

Overall, it's the little things. Amaterasu is a joy to control, and handles like the graceful, majestic deity she is. I really love the neat touches like the flowers that blosssom in her wake and the combat is genius. Some people had problems with the arena system, but given what you can actually do in battle, I can't see how this could've worked any other way (chasing enemies across the main map would've been messy as hell). And the fighting really does feel like painting. Poetry in motion, as they say, and this pretty much sums up the entire game.

[Brodie]

Wholeheartedly agree with everything you just said Ady - I finally cracked Okami open last night, and wow, instantly spellbound.

Beautiful game, lovely controls, art direction is out of this world. A solid winner!

[iloveannie]

Still not gripped by it. Shame, as I wanted to be.

[Big N Veiny]

I got about halfway through and was really liking this, then just had no compulsion to keep playing. Having picked it up for at least a month.

[PhilG]

Started playing this last night on the PS3 through an LCD tv.
I selected the LCD TV option in the menu, but the image is still very blurry. Usually SD stuff tends to look grainy/jaggy whe upscaled to the TV res, not blurred so does anyone know if there are some options in the PS3 menu maybe that are causing this?

(And I know that maybe the image is softer than normal due to the art style, but seriously, it made my head hurt).