Okami is still the best Zelda-like

Amaterasu’s running. Her paws touch the earth. Her feet are a fountain of life, with wildflowers flourishing at her feet.

OkamiYou play the role of Amaterasu the Japanese sun goddess in the shape of a white wolf, and you must save Nippon from its famine. The game was my first experience of free movement in a virtual world. It had many regions and a large map. I was able to run from Kamiki Village to Shinshu Field in the first region. It had enough space to allow me to do a long, loping run and turn it into a sprint. But, it wasn’t so big as to feel lost. It was my only task to make the most of all this space.

Polygon has announced a Zeldathon for 2023. Follow us as we journey through The Legend of Zelda, starting with the 1986 original game and ending in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

It would be a common theme to enter a new place with the desire to dig with my little grubby paws into its mysteries. OkamiContinuously This idea was teased by Continue reading — that behind any barrier, there might exist a dungeon, or even an entirely new map segment. A single boss or unlocked power could be all that is needed to unlock a new area of mysterious land. This loop is full of discovery, exploration, and even more exploration. Okami This game has been frequently compared to Zelda (especially) Twilight Princess, thanks to Link’s lupine form). Because I played OkamiIt was my first Zelda experience, long before any other action-adventure game.

Okami’s expansive move set comes in the form of Celestial Brush powers that Amaterasu wields to revitalize the land and fight the demons plaguing it. As I played, I’d pause to manually draw a slash, loop, or other shape using a calligraphy-style brush, creating a tornado or a fire. Outside of combat — you’re also given the option to fight with a giant JRPG-style sword — brushstrokes modify the world by healing plants or summoning rain. The original game was released on PlayStation 2 in 2006. I then played the game on Nintendo Wii. I beat the game again on Wii in 2020 and began a new series. Okami HD (Last year. At the time it was released, a number of critics called the Wii’s motion controls a great fit for Okami’s Celestial Brush mechanic. However, I found Wii notoriously finicky and difficult to control, as well as prone to missreading any gesture.

Clover Studio/Capcom image

It was an asinine pain. Amaterasu’s ever-expanding palette of moves meant learning how to execute a new motion on the finicky Wiimote with perfect accuracy and timing. My arms would flail with the easelessness of a little child grasping a crayon. On more than one occasion, I nearly battered my parents’ TV. My dad checked my wrists before I could play to ensure that I had the proper straps. Imagine a boss battle that you have to repeat ad nauseam, because the controller won’t let you draw a straight line across the screen, and then rewatching the cutscene again and again every time you fail. Okami’s boss fights aren’t hard. The paintbrush mechanics were.

But I didn’t care. This brushstroke produced such beautiful results. Okami’s mutable world. An “O” around a tree’s naked branches made it burst with cherry blossoms, a vision of abundance. An air curlicue created a gentle zephyr, which gently moved through the sky. The world was my sketchbook, and I wanted to beautify the game’s gorgeous woodblock and sumi-e ink art style. Every little action brought the Wolf one step closer in healing the desiccated soil and restoring the huge Guardian Saplings that anchor each area. Celestial Brush tornadoes were able to sweep up enemy as though they were in a blender. I also snorted with laughter. Drawing the sun in the sky instantly triggered daytime, waking up villagers — sorry to all the shopkeepers I forced into constant clopenings.

Before internet access, I didn’t know if hidden passageways could lead me to small treasures or new areas covered in snow. Each boss battle and each Celestial Brush move meant that there was more to discover. A properly placed cherry bomb could reveal an additional ink pot hidden within a chest. A cavern brimming with water — just too long for the wolf’s swimming stamina to breach — became a portal to another region, once I had the power to make lily pad platforms to traverse it.

I was also pulled into the game’s dungeons, each with a unique gimmick that taught me how to wield a new brush power. These puzzles remain unique even though I have spent hundreds upon hours in Metroidvanias. I summoned vines to jump from point to point in a swamp dungeon, drew lines from enchanted cat statues to invoke cat climb powers — which allowed me to scale up towers — and even used the brush to turn back time. As in Zelda, dungeons were based on elemental themes. I used levers in Zelda’s Zelda game to lower waterline of a cursed pirate vessel, as well as firepowers in a lava-themed one. However Okami’s puzzles are less open-ended than those of The Wild Breath — it’s pretty obvious which brushstrokes you use to solve things — I was still wowed by the powers I amassed, and how they let me modify the world.

Clover Studio/Capcom image

Playing Okami HDPlaying a couple Zelda games has only increased my respect for this cult classic. Okami’s woodblock art style in particular has remained beautiful over the course of numerous remasters (most recently, the Okami HDRerelease on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Nintendo Switch was available in 2018. I expected a larger gulf between the visuals of the relatively underpowered Wii and last-gen consoles, but it speaks to the whimsy and enduring vision of the game’s art style that it remains gorgeous today.

Sure, it’s a bit awkward to take your hand off of the Switch’s joystick in order to draw the brushstrokes on a touch screen, but it’s still leagues ahead of the finicky Wii controls. Okami’s gentle level design and open plains are not so new to me anymore, and yet this new, tactile way of playing has renewed that childlike sense of wonder.

Okami has become synonymous, for me, with that sense memory of newness — a particular pocket of adventure video game “firsts,” which felt novel as a kid who had only played Game Boy SP platformers and PC edutainment point-and-click titles before. This was the feeling I felt again after playing. The Wild BreathA game of astonishing scope and ambition. One that redefined exploration and problem-solving creativity. The In BOTW you can climb tall peaks and spires — gliding gently from such perches — tame an unruly horse, and fly into the sky using inane bomb physics. Okami’s toolkit is comparatively lightweight. The games leave an impression on me, but they are still linked. This urge to explore is something I chase constantly. I want to feel that again. Tears from the Kingdom arrives.

With Okami’s brush in hand, I am content to wait.