Bet you thought you’d seen the last of Okami for this decade! Well, this thang ain’t gonna die so easy. I thought it best to finish off my file before concluding the review, but since that hasn’t happened (a matter we will discuss shortly), we’re just going to have to settle for the first 37 hours.

But first, a little refresher.

The Story So Far:

It was congratulatory back-slapping and ego-massaging all around as I extolled the seemingly endless virtues of Okami, recommending it to all and any people under Amataseru’s sun. This echoes the warm critical reception of the game (even if its commercial reception was a wee bit chillier).

Now, the next chapter:

Prior to playing the game, everyone I’d spoken to had mentioned one thing: the length. They all said they were quite convinced the game was over at the 20-25 hour mark, only to have a whole new quest attached at that point. Because I was expecting it, I thought I wouldn’t mind as much when I got there.

Now, I find that the game remains enjoyable and the story worthwhile into this “second quest”. The same mechanics, finesse, and smoothness you’ve come to know, love, and expect, are still there. Any Zelda alum, or people with better attention spans than mine, should have no problem with this. (In fact, it was quite probably lengthened to coincide better with the expectations of the genre.)

But with a projected 50 hours of game-time (if you’ve gotten stuck at any point and/or strayed from the path on the numerous side-quests), I have to admit: it’s starting to get old.

The flags began to go up when I could never seem to finish one of my objectives, as it would invariably devolve into a series of smaller fetch-quests. The developers did their best to disguise that by keeping the environments stimulating and the dialogue entertaining, but you might find yourself yearning for a truly thought-provoking puzzle, a more demanding challenge, or just a good cutscene once in a while. (Or a new joke–man, they stopped changing those up a long time ago…)

The new brush techniques have some nice effects and will take you to new places, but the way you fight and interact with the world is mostly unchanged. The game balance shifts entirely in your favour by remaining exactly the same all the way through. You’re don’t need much except persistence to get through this game.

Every game has its problems. I don’t want to give the impression that my overall feelings towards Okami are negative, which they aren’t–but they have been hurt a bit. Okami is still all the things I said it was. But it seems like outside pressures were weighing on poor Clover, and led to their game being all too easy for far too long. Even though they’ve since been dissolved, let’s hope Okamiden is allowed to shine just the way they would want it to.

by Hydro033

What a game, what a game. It took me a good 4 months and a solid 30 hours of gameplay to tackle the beast that is Okami. Although only a port of the 2006 PS2 title of the same name, Okami for Wii still stands as a testament of a profound video game. Originally developed by Clover Studios for the PS2 in 2006, Okami made its way to the Wii in 2008 via Ready at Dawn after Clover Studios closed its doors shortly after the initial release for the PS2. The Capcom published game holds a special place in my heart for being one of my all time favorite games due to the stunning art direction, fantastic mythology, lovable characters, witty humor, engaging dialogue, beautiful music, and legendary story.

You are Amaterasu, the Shinto sun-goddess, and it is up to you to free the world of evil. Typical and yet not so much so.  The legend of Okami follows that a giant nine-headed hydra by the name of Orochi has escaped from his imprisonment. It is up to Amaterasu and a legendary swordsman, Susano, to defeat Orochi once and for all. The storyline is very in-depth, but let me just say a few things. Amaterasu is the sun-goddess, but she was formerly known as Shiranui, the white wolf of tales past. Shiranui was the first wolf incarnation of Amaterasu that, along with legendary swordsman Nagi, defeated Orochi. Well, Orochi is back and it is up to the second incarnation of Amaterasu (which is you) and the descendent of Nagi, which is Susano, to defeat Orochi for a second time. That is just the tip of the iceberg. The mythology and tale runs deep with this one. You’ll have to play it to find out, because I don’t want to spoil the tale, but keep in mind that Orochi is just the beginning.

Although it was released prior to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Okami’s controllable protagonist is also wolf, but don’t think it ripped off Zelda. This game may in fact be better – it’s close. You are a wolf and you have control of a heavenly object called the Celestial Brush. It is a paintbrush of the gods. Now this may seem strange, but you’ll begin to love the concept and its uses. The player holds a button which pauses time and allow the character to draw with the brush of the screen. There are many different techniques that aid you in combat, puzzle solving, and navigation. For example, the techniques allow you to blow wind, slash enemies, ignite torches, climb walls, make bombs, etc. It is a very unique and interesting system. Of course each skill is unlocked as the game progress from Celestial Brush gods, which are inspired by the Chinese zodiac. Other than the brush, Amaterasu can equip a variety of primary and secondary weapons that she uses to slash at foes. Combat is limited to a circular arena (incredibly similar to Twilight Princess’s battles with the Shadow Beasts) and foes are not free-roaming. You only encounter foes if you run into an evil floating banner that spawns the enemies and traps you in a cylindrical battle field. It can be annoying. I avoided the banners as much as I could. I really wish he got up to full sprint a little quicker as well, but other than that, Okami is incredibly enjoyable.

The characters were hysterical, emotional, appalling, epic, and sagacious. The cast of characters was, by far, the most enjoyable aspect of this game. While Amaterasu is a mute wolf, she is accompanied throughout the entire game by a small Poncle called Issun. Now, Issun can be downright annoying sometimes, but trust me, you will absolutely love Issun by the end of the game. His main role is comic relief, but his character is very interesting, especially once his history begins to unfold. Susano is another hysterical character. Completely full of himself, Susano thinks he is the greatest warrior of all time. His ego is profound, but you will love Susano once he finally comes through. Waka was a strange character, I didn’t really understand why he did the things he did, but you’ll have to play to find out what I mean. I did like him as a character though. There are too many characters to list, but they are all fantastic and the dialogue is just superb. The interwoven Shinto and Chinese mythology really adds to the game world and gives it and incredible amount of substance.

Sometimes, I got lost in the substance that is Okami. Don’t take prolonged breaks while playing through this game. I took a two months off and I had no idea what to do or what was going on when I returned. Sometimes, the game leads you by the hand, but other times you’re left in the dark. It is sometimes very difficult to figure out what to do or where to go. Sometimes you know what to do, but you just don’t know how to do it or what triggers it, but this is a common flaw of adventure games. it must be hard to make it easy without giving it away.

The camera was, by far, the most annoying aspect of the game. I was constantly frustrated by the poor camera. I just want to fucking see what is up ahead of me or above me for crying out loud. It just will not allow you to manipulate it. The worst part is that you must have a clear view of something if you want to use your brush techniques on it properly. This becomes increasingly frustrating during boss battles or areas with time limits. It’s a pain in my balls and is the worst aspect of this game.

In conclusion, Okami is a must play for any adventure game fan. The beautiful sumi-e graphics were beyond breathtaking. The gameplay was varied and fresh. The story and characters were deep. This is one game that you should not pass up. It just one of those games that you must play before you die.

1/2 Chez, just because of the camera.

News do AniManiaClub de hoje dedica a versões metal (YEAH!) de covers de animesongs (Eizo Sakamoto) e J-Pop (Dr. Metal Factory – banda do Nobuo Yamada)! Além da trilha do jogo de PS2 Okami. Confira clicando aqui. Lembrando que o cadastro do site é fácil e, o melhor, DE GRAÇA!

Every website in existence told me that Mass Effect was essentially the second coming of Christ in video game form. So was it? Well, if Christ is a really annoying, boring asshole who closely follows standard genre tropes, then I guess the reference fits. Somehow, I don’t think that’s what they were going for.

Here’s a list of reasons why Mass Effect sucks:

1.) It’s not an RPG. — This game is billed as an RPG. Even though you have dialogue options throughout, and some of them are hilarious, that doesn’t really make it an RPG. The storyline is still just as linear as Final Fantasy X, which makes it an adventure game. You don’t actually “role play,” you just get to choose good, bad, or neutral dialogue options.

2.) The story is incredibly bland. — What’s that? A rogue alien has hatched a plan that will destroy all life in the universe? Yawn.

3.) The “ZOMG 8 Alternate Endings!” are really just 2 alternate endings. — There is a good ending and a bad ending. That’s it. There are minor variations in each, but those do not constitute “alternate endings.” Chrono Trigger had 12 endings, and that game was on the Super Nintendo. You’d think that the makers of Mass Effect would strive for something more, but they didn’t because they are a bunch of lazy assholes. On the other hand, maybe they figured they couldn’t top Chrono Trigger and gave up.

4.) Slow loading times.

5.) THE FUCKING ELEVATORS ARRRRRGH! — Could these things move any fucking slower? OK, I get it. They are just an opportunity for the game to load the next area and have it appear seamless, but it’s just boring as hell. I’d rather see a loading screen than stare at my three motionless party members and listen to announcements over the PA system.

6.) The side quests are annoying as fuck. — This is unimaginative shit at its worst. “Oh, can you please go collect 3 of these items or 10 of those items?” Is this really necessary? I thought collecting shit was supposed to be something you did on a scavenger hunt, not a fucking video game. All I want to do is kill shit, not waste my time traveling from planet to planet, and digging in the dirt for some random crap that will give me absolutely no advancement in the storyline.

7.) Barren Planets — What exactly is the point of this? I mean, seriously, who thought it would be a good idea to have you drive around on huge piles of dirt looking for the next plot point? Idiots, that’s who. And anyone who thought it was fun to explore and find “extra stuff” in the Mass Effect wasteland of mediocrity is retarded.

8.) The secondary characters are completely unmemorable.

9.) Driving the car — I’d rather lick my own ass than spend another fucking second driving the car around. It’s a rubbery piece of shit that bounces all over the place. The mechanics of maneuvering this thing are horrendous. It only has the one shitty machine gun, and no cannon. And just like your hand held weapons, the gun can overheat, which is annoying as fuck. Oh, and let’s not forget that while you are repairing damage you can’t move. Everything about the car is just another, “What the hell were they thinking?” scenario.

10.) “Before I can give you this item that will save all life in the universe, first you have to do me a favor.” — FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The one positive side of this game, is that you can have sex with one of your crew members. And they have a nice ass, too.

As far as RPGs go, Mass Effect is terrible and a waste of time… but it’s still better than Okami.

Verdict: Bad

During my family leave, I’ve gotten some time during 2.0’s sporadic sleep schedule to play a ton of games. The majority of those games features a common, popular gameplay element – set collection.  You know what I’m talking about, right?  It’s that optional gameplay element in which you’re invited (usually unsuccessfully) to “collect them all” or “find them all”.  A few examples:  Okami’s stray beads, Gears of War’s COG tags, Fallout 3’s bobbleheads, Ratchet & Clank’s golden bolts, Super Smash Bros.’s trophies, Pokemon’s… pokemon.  There are also other, more subtle forms of set collection that you may not have thought about: multiplayer titles, skill sets, armor sets, crafting recipes, beastiaries, codexes (I’m looking at you, Bioware) – even Xbox/PS3 achievements/trophies can fall into this category.  Since I’m a bit OCD and somewhat of a collection nut, I spot these collection opportunities rather quickly.  I also tend to determine rather quickly that the vast majority of such opportunites are not worth my time investment.  And I’m sure many of you have done the same thing – shelved a game without even giving a second thought to those things you left uncollected in that bygone world.  There’s a reason for that – it’s because most games implement set collection badly.  In this series of articles, I’d like to use personal experience from playing various games to examine how other games could improve the quality of these collection mechanics and give players more incentive to participate in these peripheral activities.

First, let’s define what comprises a “set collection mechanic” to restrict the scope of this article:

• Players must be able to complete the set: this rules out procedurally generated things (eg. Diablo/Torchlight loot) or a continually growing set of user-generated content (eg. Spore creatures or Second Life sets).
• Completion of the set should be a peripheral activity and NOT be required to progress through the game: otherwise, our examination of the player’s motivation to complete a set overlaps with other motivating factors; so this restriction prevents applying our study to things like the various mandatory devices in Zelda games – technically, it’s a set of devices that can be collected in its entirety, but (excepting upgrades to bag sizes, etc.) it MUST be completed to progress through the game; heart pieces, however, qualify as a valid set.
• The set must have some easily accessible, manifested representation in the game: in other words, the set must be an intentional collection placed by the designer; this rules out user-defined meta-sets.  Such sets are contrived by individual players who have clearly already conjured up the necessary motivation to attempt collecting the set.  For instance, in Animal Crossing: Wild World, I attempted to find and purchase all of the instruments in the game to make a music room – nothing in the game actually lists the set of instruments; neither are they denoted by some special icon.  It’s an arbitrary set I made up for which I had already mustered the necessary motivation to collect.

Now that we’ve defined the bounding conditions, I’d like to start this series with an examination of a game I only recently had the opportunity to play: the original Assassin’s Creed (and just in time for part II!).  As much as I enjoyed playing the game, I ran into a rather irksome collection mechanic – the city flags.  Of all the collect-them-all mechanics I’ve experienced in games thus far, the city flags are probably the worst of the bunch (at least as far as I can remember).  It didn’t take long after leaving the confines of Masyaf for me to swear off the entire collection altogether.  Here’s why:

• There don’t appear to be any gameplay or narrative rewards for procuring flags except for meta-rewards (i.e. Achievements and 100% completion with the filled “Additional Memories” DNA bar).  Even if such a tangible reward existed at the end of the tunnel, it’s so elusive that it doesn’t really factor into the typical player’s drive to collect the flags.
• Aside from their location, flags are indistinguishable from one another, making the experience of finding one identical each time.  This was exacerbated by the fact that there are 420 of those indistinguishable things!  So finding one was an altogether insignificant and homogenous (read: boring) experience.
• Flags are not particularly challenging to acquire.  Reaching them is simply a matter of hidden knowledge rather than a test of skill or logic.

I’m going to take a look at each of these three points and examine how other games have remedied the problems with Assassin’s Creed’s flag-collection gameplay.

Collection Rewards

One could argue that completing an in-game collection is reward enough.  That may very well be true.  I think that such collections generally fall into the category in which each individual item in the set is distinct enough to provide sufficient player motivation (see the Collection Distinction section below).  But in any case, it doesn’t hurt to provide some extra incentive to the player to collect a set of things.  These extra incentives can typically be categorized as either a gameplay reward or a narrative reward.

Gameplay rewards consist of additional skills or abilities (or some currency toward the purchase of skills or abilities) that expand and augment the player’s gameplay experience.  The most recent example that comes to mind is Brutal Legend’s bound serpents, which, when found, each provide a small amount of fire tributes that can be used to purchase upgrades at the motor forge.  Furthermore, for every ten bound serpents that are freed, the player character Eddie Riggs gets an upgrade to some element of his stats.

Alternatively, collections can grant narrative rewards in several different forms. Again, Brutal Legend provides a convenient example of such a collection: the “legends” scattered across the landscape.  For each one the player finds, another cutscene detailing the Brutal Legend mythos is revealed.  Coincidentally, I also discovered that Halo 3: ODST contains an identical mechanic in the form of the audio logs that follow a story indirectly related to the main plotline.  Yet another example of a narrative collection reward is BioShock’s audio diaries, narrated by multiple characters related to the main story.  However, ODST and Brutal Legend’s narrative collections differ in that each piece of the collection is not associated with a specific piece of the narrative reward.  In other words, whether you find piece A before or after piece B, you’re always going to get story reward A before story reward B.  This is not true for BioShock’s narrative collection, in which specific audio logs are found in specific locations.  This is an important distinction that we’ll revisit in the next section.

There is, of course, no reason why a particular collection can’t give both narrative and gameplay rewards, as is evident in Brutal Legend’s “legend” collection (which I neglected to mention also gives fire tributes for each legend discovered).  Another game I’ve played recently (after putting it off long enough) is Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, in which every five pieces of treasure nets the player medal points that are used to unlock various metagame rewards (tweakable game modifiers like infinite ammo, faster run, and weapon select) and bonus content such as concept art and development videos.  I’ve lumped extra-game content into the category of “narrative rewards” in that they don’t actually augment the game experience.  In all of these examples, I think it’s safe to say that these various rewards can often be an effective incentive to the player to collect the entire set.

Collection Distinction

There is an important element of set collection that seems to be a no-show in many of its incarnations: distinction.  Each element of a set should be easy distinguishable from each other, via its textual, iconic, or geometric representation and/or some titular or numeric label.  As I’ve already observed, all of the flags in a particular area in Assassin’s Creed are identical except for where they are located.  This makes collecting each and every one the exact same experience.  There’s no sense of novelty in finding another one.

As I mentioned earlier, collecting a set of objects can be reward in itself – but this is generally a strong enough motivation to the player only when a distinction is made between the elements of the set.  The word “collecting” carries the connotation of collecting distinct elements.  How often do stamp collectors attempt to find every copy of only one type of stamp?  Or how often do card collectors try to acquire every copy of one particularly rare card?  While these real-world examples present collection goals that are obviously marred by real-world obstacles and impossibilities that don’t exist in the virtual space, art reflects life.  And in life, the appeal of set collection is in the diversity of the set’s various elements and in how those elements complement each other.  The set is a puzzle whose pieces, as they come together, become a clearer and more magnificent picture (even if that picture’s got a few missing spots).

I’ve always liked Nintendo’s first-party approach to collections.  I’m specifically referring to the trophies of the Super Smash Bros. series.  Each trophy is fan-service at its best – each with a unique, nostalgic 3D model of some Nintendo character, object, or setting and a short description of the subject.  All of the player’s trophies are displayed together in one place, literally becoming that magnificent picture I described.  It’s like looking at that Edge Magazine cover with all of the video game shoutouts.  I also played The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker recently (picked it up on the cheap a long time ago and only got around to playing it a few weeks ago).  In that game is a similar collection that the player can complete by using a camera to take pictures of the game’s enemies and NPC’s and showing them to a particular sculptor, who crafts figurines of the photographs’ subjects that are put on display throughout various trophy rooms.  Each figurine can be viewed in three dimensions and contains a short description of the subject’s place in the game universe.

And then, of course, we come back to Pokemon.  While each captured Pokemon simultaneously serves as a gameplay reward (with the new pokemon’s abilities at the player’s disposal), I would argue that the vast majority of pokemon are caught for the sake of completing a player’s Pokedex.  After all, the catchphrase (at least in America… not sure if it’s translated from Japanese) is “Gotta catch ‘em all!”, right?  And since the distinction between each pokemon is both visual and interactive, the drive to collect each one is that much more powerful.

Which reminds me of Endless Ocean (which I’m not ashamed to admit is one of my favorite games on the Wii).  At some point in the game, the player is allowed to populate a personal aquarium with creatures that he or she had already discovered.  It’s yet another fantastic Nintendo example of an interactive collection.

In fact, it appears that the common factor between these Nintendo games’ collections is the extent to which the player is allowed to appreciate his or her collection.  3D models that can be viewed from all angles, textual info and categorization, and in some cases, interactivity all contribute to the player’s connection to the collection and his or her drive to complete it.  It sure beats a little check mark or a line in a book or even a little icon.  And that is why, when Sony announced Playstation Home, something inside me grew giddy at the thought of 3D trophy displays.  Too bad it didn’t turn out that way…

There’s also one oft overlooked property that distinction imparts to a collectible set – it allows each element in the set to be described individually.  The reason this is so important is this: FAQ’s – of the GameFAQs type.  Not everyone can be expected to find every single element of the set on their own.  For those collectors that don’t wish to invest the required time, they should at least be able to look up the locations of the missing pieces.  This is impossible to do when the individual pieces are indistinguishable from one another.  This is especially problematic in Assassin’s Creed because in order to use a guide, you must use it for every single flag.  Otherwise, unless you have picture-perfect memory or you’re using a video guide (which I imagine would be ridiculously lengthy), you cannot possibly know whether you’ve already found a particular flag or you’re just looking at a slightly incorrect location on a flag map because there’s no way of knowing whether you already found “flag 53″ on the map – you only know that you’ve found 178 total flags, one of which may be the anonymous “flag 53″ in question.  I know this isn’t a purely ludological reason for set element distinction, but it’s a valid one nonetheless.  I’m rather confident that all but the most hardcore purists fall back on external sources (strategy guides, FAQ’s) to complete a collection.  I do it all the time.  So even if the “distinction” in a collectible set is just a numeric label or a dull identifier (like Okami’s stray beads), it’s still an important thing to have for the sake of simplifying the collection process itself.

Collection Gameplay

It’s important to ensure that the gameplay surrounding the collecting of objects is as solid as the elements of the collection itself.  I can group collection gameplay into at least three broad categories: steady-stream, challenge, and exploratory.

• Steady-stream collection: these are the sets of the type where the player gets a relatively steady stream of random elements of the set, and completing the collection becomes all about either trading for the missing elements or just investing enough into the game.  Examples: Smash Bros. trophies, Culdcept Saga’s cards (or any CCG’s cards, for that matter), Treasure World’s treasures, Animal Crossing’s fossils, a good number of Free Realms’ collection components.
• Challenge collection: these are the sets whose elements take actual gameplay skill to acquire.  Examples: Street Fighter IV’s multiplayer titles, Modern Warfare 2’s Spec-Ops mode stars, Braid’s stars (yeah, you might not have known about them; I sure as heck didn’t), Xbox 360 achievements and PS3 trophies.
• Exploratory collection: these are the types of sets whose elements are found by exploring the game space.  Typically, you’ll find these kinds of collections in shooters and action games.  Examples (there are tons of them but I’ll just name a few): Gears of War’s COG tags, Modern Warfare’s intel, ODST and Bioshock’s audio logs/diaries, Fallout 3’s bobbleheads, just about everything in Brutal Legend.

Assassin’s Creed’s flag collection can basically be classified as an exploratory collection.  It is this class of collection that I believe is most often (and most disappointingly) implemented.  The big problem that I’ve experienced with these collections is this: they break immersion by forcing the player to think not as the protagonist or the player character but rather as a designer.

For most of these exploratory collections, the elements are often placed with little to no narrative sense.  They’re usually either strewn about randomly or hidden in obscure corners of the map that oftentimes don’t even seem accessible.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, completing such a collection is an excercise in hidden knowledge more than anything else.

When searching for elements of such collections, I almost always find myself thinking things like, This corridor doesn’t lead to anywhere meaningful – there must be something there, or, This ledge is out-of-the-way, but it’s accessible – there must be something there.  The only logic behind these thought processes comes from putting myself in the designers’ shoes rather than doing what makes sense in the context of the game and the narrative.  My wife can even attest to this fact as she watched me play Uncharted, exclaiming, “I smell treashuz!” whenever my designer sense started tingling.  And it netted me 50 out of 60 treasures on my first run-through.  I had similar moments in ODST.  When a path led indoors and to some seemingly irrelevant balcony, I could usually count on finding an audio log.  And there’s no reason to think this Sophie character was actually at any of those audio log locations.

Brutal Legend, however, contains a great example of an exploratory collection with at least some measure of contextual sense – the landmark viewers.  They’re around landmarks!  If I saw something in the world that looked like a landmark, I knew there was a landmark viewer nearby.  I didn’t have to go probing the mind of some sadistic designer.  Another simple way of limiting the breaking of immersion would be to give the player character some in-game way of “sensing” nearby elements of a collection – some blinking UI element or controller rumble feedback to indicate the proximity of the element.  I can’t immediately think of any games that have really done this, although I’m absolutely sure someone must have.  The closest example I can think of is Ocarina of Time’s use of the rumble pak to signal to the player that something was hidden nearby.

Application

So how could Assassin’s Creed have improved its flag collection gameplay?  Personally, I think the most unintrusive way would have been to tie flags to labeled chunks or chapters of historical info (fictional or otherwise) about the city.  Such a change wouldn’t involve adding abilities or tweaking/rebalancing character progression to accommodate gameplay rewards – and the change would fit well with the game’s prominent narrative delivery and historical setting.  Of course, this would probably involve cutting the number of flags down significantly – a most welcome change.  In fact, why not change the flags altogether and instead make them distinctly crafted relics in the vein of Uncharted’s treasures?  They would probably fit into the world a little better that way.   (Really – why are there random flags all over the place, anyway?)  Along those lines, the seeding of these “relics” could be in more logical locations: at the top of notable landmarks or inside obvious places of importance rather than in the shadows of some inconspicuous alley or atop a nondescript rooftop.  Furthermore, the designers can spread clues regarding the locations of those relics throughout lesser “eavesdropping” opportunities in the game.  I found the eavesdropping mechanic to be rather contrived, as the player can only eavesdrop for an investigative mission.  It would have been much more interesting if there were other groups of conversations on which the player could eavesdrop to get clues – much in the same way that pickpocketing is used for both investigations and for acquiring throwing knives.  And, being the valuable relics that they are, some of them can be guarded by hostile templars who must be circumvented or defeated, while others can be locked away in trap-laden rooms requiring a touch of finesse and dexterity to traverse.

And for the record, I have not yet touched the second title in the series.  So now someone who’s finished playing Assassin’s Creed II can tell me whether Ubisoft did, in fact, add a more compelling collection mechanic.

So that covers the shortfalls I noticed in Assassin’s Creed’s flag collection and how one might possibly improve that segment of gameplay. In my next post, I’ll be exploring the importance of community and recognition and how those things have strengthened the player’s drive to collect – especially with the most recent console generation’s emphasis on online play.

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Mini4WD: STO Auldey GFS










mini4wdfreaks

Mini4WD Customized: Speed










mini4wdfreaks

Mini4WD Customized: Handycap

mini4wdfreaks

Clover studio esagera nello stile. Continuando un pò la storia, ci si ritrova ben presto a dover risanare le campagne Shinsu ed affrontare quindi il primo breve “dungeon” del gioco, ed è molto interessante vedere come la normale linearità di un qualsiasi gioco d’avventura ( o come dir si voglia ) sia spezzata, per forza di cose, da una quantità interessante di piccole cose da fare.

Premesso che al termine del citato dungeon avremo finalmente il potere celestiale di far rinascere e rifiorire la natura grazie al nostro pennello, ci ritroveremo a poter piantare alberi, esorcizzare piccoli appezzamenti di terra maledetti al posto dei quali potranno apparire degli animali da sfamare o addirittura delle piccole costruzioni o ancora potremmo decidere di far fiorire degli alberelli di ciliegio tristemente “oscurati” dal male e riceverne i frutti come ricompensa ( nel vero senso della parola ). Ma proprio mentre siamo presi a ridare vita a tutti gli alberelli osservando le magnifiche animazioni in cell shading della loro fioritura, ci accorgiamo che, inconsciamente, abbiamo rivitalizzato tutta la zona e che appare uno scrigno di ricompensa per darci un frammento, che altro non è che uno dei pezzi di cui abbiamo bisogno per completare una riserva di energia. Per intederci, è come se avessimo trovato un quarto di portacuore in Zelda… Ah ! Una gradita ricompensa, sicuramente, oltre che un chiaro segnale di come bisogna affrontare il gioco, niente è lasciato al caso e dovremmo interagire con più soggetti possibili per trovare i bonus.

Detto questo, volevo giusto sprecare una riga per convincervi di quanto le ambientazioni siano belle, raramente si può rimanere incantati e gironzolare solo perchè l’ambiente circostante è fatto *così* bene. Veramente, è impressionante. Senza poi contare che noi giocatori aiuteremo attivamente a scoprire nuove aree, in un continuo trasformarsi delle istanze, ed il tutto per mano nostra. Ed è veramente inutile dire che lo faremo al ritmo di una soundtrack speciale, che per gli appassionati come me per la cultura giapponese… beh, è veramente un capolavoro. A questo proposito consiglio di fare un giro su Youtube e digitare “okami soundtrack” troverete sicuramente qualcosa per rifarvi le orecchie.

Senza dilungarmi ancora molto ( anche perchè parlo più di quanto gioco ), volevo solo linkarvi due figate al volo, che ho registrato ieri notte mentre giocavo. La prima è la cutscene della fioritura della campagna Shinsu che è assolutamente fenomenale, vedere per credere, mentre la seconda è un’altro kameo che ho incontrato durante il gioco e che coinvolge il Sensei Onigiri ( il quale a sua volta cita Viewtiful Joe con le sue movenze ).

Se vi state chiedendo come mai giocate tutta quella merda su ps360 e siete poi finiti a leggere questa pagina, bè… c’è qualche problema.

Ōkami ( che leggendosi “Ookami”, può trovare, oltre al significato di “( Grande ) Dio”, anche quello di “Lupo” ( 狼: http://jisho.org/ provate pure a cercare )) immerge il giocatore nella tipica storia in cui gli spiriti maligni sono riapparsi per un qualche motivo che scoprirete giocando, iniziando a scompigliare l’ambiente circostante e portandolo in poche parole ad uno stato di “malattia”.

Noi, prenderemo il controllo di Amaterasu ( che è di conseguenza un lupo di sesso femminile… ? ) che avrà la capacità di utilizzare un particolare pennello carico di poteri divini, che ci servirà per interagire attivamente con l’ambiente, aiutare gli NPC e rinvigorire la natura. Un’interazione naturale e divertente.

Essendo solo all’inizio non posso far altro che consigliarvi di trovare il gioco ( no Wii plz ) e provarlo voi stessi per rendervi conto di che capolavoro è. Nella grafica, nel sonoro, ed in tutto il resto. Vi lascio con un kameo mica da ridere: guardate a 1:53 ! ( Il kanji alla fine 餅: “sticky rice cake” ).

Okami is one of the best games I have ever played. My forte being RPGs, I cannot compare it with the vast number of action-adventure games, but from my own admittedly limited exposure to them, and from other reviews I have heard, I believe it is a safe bet to say that this is a fair judgment.

Certainly, Okami has a more interesting plot than some RPGs I have played. Those of you lucky enough to not have played games like Lufia 3 will not know what I mean, but your average plot, even in RPGs, can be summed up as “evil guy wants to take over/destroy the world, and you’re the only one who can stop him. Because you’re good!” In a sense, Okami does take this approach, but it pushes it toward its logical extreme: you are Amaterasu, the god of the sun, the protector of the world, and demons, the very essence of evil, are destroying everything you are trying to protect. You are repeating a struggle which you have undertaken twice previously, once in Pyrrhic victory, once ending in death. This time, you are taking the offensive against the evil which is finally winning. You know what you’re doing, and the scary thing is, this is it – you are a god; you have no higher authority to appeal to, no superior wisdom to seek. You are literally the most qualified to battle this threat and if you fail, nobody is going to be there to pick up where you left off. The weight on your character’s shoulders constantly presses on you, especially because most of the world has no idea that you are a god, and you, being trapped in the form of a wolf and unable to show your divinity, cannot prove it. Only by performing miraculous deeds can you restore faith in your abilities, making you strong enough to combat the threat which faces the world.

Amaterasu is technically genderless in this game, but is referred to as both a male and female. Since the god Amaterasu is based on is female, I will refer to Amaterasu as “her” (and Ammy, Amaterasu’s nickname throughout the game) for this review. So, Ammy has an interesting personality, at least from what can be gleaned considering the character never actually speaks. When threatened, she becomes angry and stands her ground. Around friends and good people, she becomes helpful. She is also surprisingly trusting, which leads to an unfortunate betrayal half way through the game. Loyal to her wards, protective of her world, fierce in the face of danger, Amaterasu is a good cipher for the player and her own actions push the game, and even the player’s boldness, forward.

The supporting cast maintain three-dimensionality primarily by possessing both a serious and a comical side to them. Issun, the Wandering Artist, is a tiny sprite with a beloved sword and the determination to learn all the brush techniques of the gods; he serves as comic relief for much of the game, but you come to sympathize with him after you learn about the mistakes he made in the past that nag at him throughout the game and see how he redeems himself in the present. Susano begins much the same way, but by the end of the first arc, your opinion of him will change drastically.

In fact, much of the game has this sort of atmosphere. The people are naive and cowardly, trying to forget or ignore the horrors that surround them. They have eccentric behaviors and sometimes weird requests, and it is these personalities that keep the game from being constantly grim.

Much like the battle between humor and drama, the game is a struggle between beauty and corruption. At the beginning of the game, much of the world has been horribly corrupted by the cursed zones spread by Orochi. As you progress, you undo the corruption, resurrecting the glorious landscape.

It might be a bit much to say that the world is extremely detailed, but that doesn’t seem to be the point anyway. It’s the aesthetic appeal of the swathes of colors, the breathtaking panoramas, the delicate strains of music that play when you resurrect the landscape, the way the gloom retreats and the cel-shaded calligraphy look, with the thick outer lines and angular designs; it’s all this and seeing the game cut to flat shots of calligraphy scrolls done in traditional style, showing a different perspective of the world and its characters.

The music counts for something here too. It is hard for me to think of a track that stands out in my mind. They all tend to flow into the overall experience, pulling at your emotions, raising your excitement, tension, sadness, joy and humor.

The brush system, much advertised, isn’t exactly what people might think it is when they first pick up the game. You are not constantly rewriting reality on a large scale, even in boss fights. Battles take place on a small circular plane, often on a single flat surface (though some enemies fly). Rather, the brush enables you to make on-the-fly adjustments to the landscape to serve your needs: lighting fires, dropping lightning bolts, creating jets of water, temporary lily pads, turning night to day and vice-versa, slashing things apart, creating gusts of wind and so forth. A lot of techniques serve purposes both in and out of combat (in fact, I think they all do), so you get a lot of mileage out of many of them.

Yes, though, in some cases you make permanent alterations. When you revitalize the landscape, it stays that way. Sometimes you need to draw in a missing bridge.

In combat, too, your techniques can be important. You can try to rely on your weapons (reflectors, rosaries and glaives, each with their own range and usefulness in various situations), but you will find that slow going against some foes. As the game progresses, you will find yourself using your brush techniques increasingly frequently: slowing down time to keep enemies from moving too fast or overwhelming you, drawing gusts of wind to put out enemy flames, drawing fire from some location to an enemy to melt his defenses, and so forth. In boss battles, such techniques are always necessary and part of the fun is trying to discover which techniques are necessary to defeat the bosses.

The game is relatively easy. You have a lot of health, can easily regenerate it, can buff yourself, escape easily from most combats, and can have up to five lives at a time. In most battles, you probably won’t even exhaust your first life. I died once, due to an out of combat situation, and if you have a lot of experience with action-adventure games, you will probably have an even easier time than I did of it.

I was really surprised by the game’s length. I put in at least 50 hours, 60 if the clock time is accurate. That feels about right for a first playthrough, but it does feel long for a non-RPG. I don’t think MGS4 took me 50 hours. If you don’t feel like doing side-quests, you could make the game more challenging for yourself and probably finish in 35 or less. Perhaps significantly less if you are very familiar with action-adventure games.

It is cool to play a game with religious themes that are just fun. Unlike deeply philosophical games like Persona, the religion here is very literal and simple; Amaterasu is the god of the sun (and, implicitly, life) fighting against darkness and corruption. The game respects itself for taking up this simple but meaningful task, and has a quiet sobriety about the nature of the being you play and the things you fight against. You feel like you are living in a fantasy version of ancient Japan, where the idea of gods and demons was commonplace, and where it is assumed that demons interfere with your lives and the gods hear your prayers and provide miracles.

If you have a thing for fantasy, some light humor and engaging fast-paced combat, Okami is for you. If you enjoy aesthetically-pleasing games and simple but rich story lines, Okami is for you. Pick up the calligraphy brush and give it a try; the picture you paint will be epically memorable.

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I cried during the build-up to the final battle. That’s how awesome Okami actually is. For an action-adventure game, it has an incredible amount of feeling put into its music, characters and cut-scenes. I’ll get to the crying scene in a moment…

You arrive in a tremendous plane of pure darkness, in which sits a black orb criss-crossed by red lines. Waka is already here, trying to withstand the orb, which is Yami. Unfortunately, he is not doing very well. Yami is too powerful in this state and the world is literally falling into darkness outside. The sun has turned into a red sliver and it is being eclipsed.

Suddenly, the sun is completely eclipsed; all of the brush technique powers drain out of Amaterasu and flood into Yami. Amaterasu is left as a practically powerless white wolf. Then Yami gears up for one final strike. He attempts to annihilate Amaterasu and is stopped only by Waka: Waka sacrifices himself to stand directly in front of the blast, taking the full brunt of it and being knocked off the platform into the darkness below.

Then Yami comes for Amaterasu.

What ensues seems like a hopeless battle at first. All you have is your wolf bite. No brush techniques. No double-jump. No fleet-footed side-step. No ability to inflict any significant damage. The battlefield has lightened up enough for you to see it: a large circle with several catwalk pillars off to the side and a gigantic orb. Curiously, you learn right off the bat what Yami actually looks like: the orb opens for a moment and shows a sphere inside which is something that appears to be a fish curled up into a fetus-like position.

The orb rolls around the battlefield, trying to smash Amaterasu with its body or with a gigantic hammer that it produces. If the hammer misses you, it slams into the ground, creating a gigantic hole. To “defeat” it, you have to attack the thing and do a little bit of damage. This brings back one of Amaterasu’s techniques, which restores enough of his power to give him back everything except his brush techniques.

Yami changes forms to make things complicated. His second form is a gigantic floating slot machine. You have to power slash the slot machine to make it stop: that determines what kind of attack it uses against you, amongst them being lightning bolts, icicles, and fireballs, beside other things. You need to bat these back at it. You can also align three options to make it damage itself reflexively.

Its third form is a gigantic walking orb that summons lightning tentacles. You can barely hurt this thing until you recover your lightning ability and zap it, dazing it. Until then, you have to wait for it to open up and let you attack the orb with the fish inside of it.

Once you have done enough damage to it in this form, it collapses. It seems you have won. Amaterasu has a moment where he imagines seeing Issun, then gives a victory howl. The howl is interrupted as Yami rises once more and once again completely drains Amaterasu of his power.

And then the crying begins. You actually hear Issun speaking encouraging words, and you see flashes across the world, as Issun tries to get everybody to give praise to Amaterasu. He reveals at last to everybody that the white wolf they all met is truly a god. You see people turning their faces toward the sky, dropping to their knees in prayer, worshiping Amaterasu. You see Issun finally accepting his designation as the Celestial Envoy, spreading drawings of Amaterasu. It’s a moment that’s so joyous, so inspiring, seeing everything Amaterasu has done coming together, that I wept tears of happiness. This is one of the few games that has ever actually touched me so deeply; even few RPGs have this much emotional muster. All of their praise flows into Amaterasu and she suddenly rises up again, back at full power, glowing, with tendrils of light emanating from her. And then you know it’s time to kick the ass of the Ruler of Darkness.

The Ruler of Darkness assumes the form of a gigantic floating orb with a hand stretching forth from it upon a void of darkness. Issun’s voice still shouts out to the people of the world as the battle continues. Draw in the Sunrise, shedding light upon the Ruler of Darkness, and he is rendered powerless. His true form drops out from his body. Rush in, slash at it wildly, again and again, until you destroy it. At last, Yami drops and Amaterasu has emerged victorious.

Waka comes back, having miraculously survived the blast and the fall. Together, you activate the Ark of Yamato and ascend back to the Celestial Plane: having saved the world, you now return to your home, to rebuild the Celestial Plane.

End Game

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Amaterasu climbs the rainbow bridge to the entrance of the Ark of Yamato. Issun, however, isn’t coming. He jumps off Amaterasu’s back, saying that he doesn’t deserve to go onto the Ark. It will take them to the Celestial Plane and Issun doesn’t believe that he has earned the right. He points out that he got what he wanted, the 13 brush techniques, and that he plans to see the world. Amaterasu tries to stop him from leaving, but Waka interferes. Waka mocks Issun a bit, but seems to hold a valid point: that the Ark is truly meant only for the gods and others whom are worthy. Issun gets so riled up that he tries to enter the Ark anyway, but it repels him. It seems that only Waka and Amaterasu can enter.

As for the Ark, well, there are some Celestials on-board, but they’re all fading spirits whom have been waiting for Amaterasu to show up. Apparently Amaterasu was the guardian of the Celestial Plane and fought alongside Waka when Orochi assaulted the Celestial Plane long ago.

So, boss rush time! That’s right. I had to fight the Spider Queen, Blight, Crimson Helm, Orochi and Nine Tails again. Fortunately, they were no harder than last time, although I still could not figure out how to avoid Blight’s super-cheesy-awesome attack.

Once they were all defeated, it was time to go into the middle of the ship and confront Yami! RULER OF DAAAARKNESS!

Waka is actually one of the Moon Tribe, a people from the Celestial Plane, and he is responsible for the Ark of Yamato. He wasn’t aware that demons were aboard, so he is also responsible for the deaths of the Celestial crew and the release of demons onto this world. For this, he is sorry.

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Yes, it’s that time again. Time to avoid saving the world so you can do the interesting things that just happen to have become available at this precise moment. The world can wait.

Canine Warriors! I got to fight them again! I hate them. I hate them a lot. For no good reason, they just get on my nerves. I guess it’s that they are utterly inconsequential to the game.

Racing Kai through the forest. This is the serious battle. It’s a total blast to dash through the forest, trying to keep ahead of her, especially as the game favors her over you; she’ll never be hit by falling icicles or rolling snowballs.

Blockhead Grande! The human mind can normally save an average of only seven pieces of information. Blockhead Grande has eight weak points. And you must get them in order. This is a bitch. I did it on try number 15 or something.

Devil Gate Trio! Three of the holes in the game drop you into a battle against a Bandit Spider, which is like fighting the Spider Queen, only much easier by this point. After you defeat those, you can drop back into the hole to find a devil gate there, one of those shrines that you can enter to fight a bunch of enemies. The difference is that the enemies in these gates come in large groups and several waves and are harder than normal. There is a sequence of ten battles in each of these three gates: for winning, you get a golden peach and a stray bead.

The hardest of the devil gates is the one in Kamui. The last three battles involve fighting super versions of Waka and Rao, then, in the very last, several super powerful versions of Nagi. Also, if you leave the dungeon to rest up, the entire thing resets. Believe me when I say you need a LOT of healing, group clearing items and buffs to stand a chance here.

Well, with all that cleared, it is time to enter the Ark of Yamato.

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So, guess what Oki did when he found out that his sword wasn’t glowing silver? He decided to go break open the sacred gate to the mountain and try killing the demons, hoping that his bravery will somehow awaken the sword.

Idiot.

Anyway, I had to go after him, since his brash action meant that Lika could not awaken the volcanoes.

The twin mountains weren’t actually a separate dungeon. In fact, it was a little disappointingly small. It is basically an ice fortress inside the mountains with the most frustrating trap in the entire game.

Okay, so, there are these cannons. You know how my time-slowing mist lasts only about four seconds? Well, these cannons fire very rapidly, and even so when they are slowed. The first time I encountered them, I had no idea you could slow them down. I had to walk across this ice with frozen blocks in front of me, getting constantly bombarded by these extremely accurate cannons. In the second area, there are a bunch of quickly rotating platforms which you need to slow down with the mist while the cannons bombard you. If you get hit, or don’t keep time slowed (possibly because of the need to press the jump button to avoid a cannon or time the jump), you get knocked down and have to climb back up. In the third area, I had my only official death in the entire game. There are two cliffs separated by a ravine. To cross the ravine, you must draw in a series of platforms of ice with the brush. Meanwhile, you are being bombarded by four cannons from the opposite side. The first time I did this, I destroyed only two of the cannons, got to the other side, kept getting blasted, didn’t know I could destroy the cannons by slowing time and reflecting their shots, and tried to get back, but kept getting blasted to pieces. So I died. The second time, I did things right and it was just slightly more bearable.

There are also spiders here. Obviously they are gigantic spiders. And super-freakin’-annoying ones too. The principle here is that these platform spiders are on fire, so you need to freeze them to be able to use them as platforms. But if you don’t have them aligned in just the right position, it is almost impossible to make the requisite jump to the area you are trying to platform to. Therefore, you have to get off, wait for them to unfreeze and try again and again until you get it right. WTF?

Then there’s the blizzard slot machine where you get the final constellation and the power over blizzards. You have this gigantic slot-machine looking thing. First, you have to unfreeze the wheel. Then you have to look at this nearby diagram that kinda-sorta tells you that you need to stop these spinning wheels in a certain position, with their eye facing a certain direction. But the first time I looked at it, I thought it was referring to the mouths painted on the wheels. I don’t know why they couldn’t just make the diagram show an eye-looking object instead of a large indent.

On that note, Blizzard has an associated attack power which you immediately get, but the game never tells you that you actually got it. You have to figure out that you got it, or you have to read an FAQ to know. Why this complication?

Anyway, when you get Blizzard, you also get Solar Flare, one of Amaterasu’s ultimate weapons. Eh, it’s all right. AND LOOKS FREAKIN’ AWESOME! RAINBOW DISK! But you won’t use it much.

The only really cool thing is the boss fight. It’s a gigantic clockwork owl with a little goatee, a fancy coat, a walking stick monocle, top hat, and slot machine in its chest. Oddly, your past self from 100 years go shows up to fight in this battle. So, you basically knock icicles back at the owl until he’s dazed, then pounce on him and slash away. Eventually, a nearby wall busts open and another owl comes crashing through with Oki on board, stabbing it repeatedly. It turns into a three-on-two cinematic battle. Then the owls retreat and Issun warns Oki not to pursue them. He does so anyway, and the new owl stops time. It moves forward to stab Oki to death with its… walking cane, when your 100-year-ago self jumps in, knocking him aside and taking the death blow. Then the owls fly off. Your 100-year-ago self is hanging from a precipice and Oki must decide whether to pursue them again or go help you drag your earlier-self to safety. He chooses the latter and, in doing so, his sword glows silver. Your 100-year-ago self returns to the past to die saving Nagi (how and why he knew to come to the future, I care not to imagine). Then you and Oki go to destroy the owls, Oki now with the realization that to be worthy of this sword he needs a hero’s wisdom.

The second battle against the two owls plays out much like the first, except they have more techniques. They toss gigantic ceramic eggs, budding plants, bombs, icicles and glowing pink balls. They can also charge, trying to sweep you up in their claws then drop you. The objective is the same as the first battle: just keep knocking things back at them, or prevent them from tossing them, to stun the owls. Then Oki, in a cool twist, turns into a bow and arrow you can shoot at the owl. At that point, he starts beating the crap out of the owl. Then you jump into the air, swipe it to knock it to the ground and start tearing into it.

With the twin owls defeated, Kamui is saved. But one task still remains. It is time to return to the Ark of Yamato. Oki’s sword, now alight with silver flame, shatters the ice surrounding the ark, enabling Amaterasu to enter the lair of the Ruler of Darkness.

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The Spirit Gate is a white stone structure with elegant engravings. It stands about as tall as your average doorway, alone in the middle of a glade. Beside the bizarreness of it being constructed there, nothing is immediately supernatural about it. However, once Issun draws his sword and cuts it open, the doorway reveals a blinding white passageway. Oki rushes in and steps through it before Amaterasu and Issun can; he is determined to find a foe powerful enough to make his sword glow silver. We follow behind and arrive in…

Kamiki Village! In the past!

Now, normally, I’d be disappointed in a game that pulls of time travel, since it is usually done so poorly. And I still stand by that. I think Okami does it better than most, but it still comes off a little weird.

First, it tries to throw you off by the fact that almost all of the villagers are exactly the same, right down to the kid with the dog. Mr. and Mrs. Orange are Mr. and Mrs. Grapefruit and Sakuya is a little kid, so you should be aware that something is off, but otherwise it feels like one major fake-out.

Since this is 100 years ago, Orochi has not been defeated and everybody thinks the white wolf is EBIL! EBIL THEY SAY! Honestly, this section is less interesting than it sounds.

You go find Nagi, whom looks just like Susano but in armor. You headbutt him and have to fight him (he’s like Oki, Waka and Rao; all the humanoids fight similarly) because he thinks you are EBIL! Then you knock him out and have to go steal a sacrificial gown to dress him in. Then you drag him to the Moon Cave, go up the steps and fight Orochi for the second time (it’s just like last time, and the dialogue is almost the same). The only really interesting thing is that Oki shows up and tries to deliver the finishing blow, but he gets his ass handed to him. After you defeat Orochi, you see the true Amaterasu from this time period show up, only to die saving Nagi (rock crushes him, he gets retrieved, slowly dies). You save Lika and return to the present, then you leave.

Yay time travel…

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Wep’keer Village was empty when I found it. All the villagers had locked their doors. I managed to speak to the chief and learned that the twin demons had regained enough power to assume form in stone replicas of themselves and had planned to assault the village. The chief had tried to stop them, but nearly died. He also possesses the ability to see Amaterasu’s true form, so he asks for Amaterasu’s help. In order to prevent Kamui from chilling over, they need somebody whom can reactivate the volcanoes with a traditional dance. The chief is no longer able to do it; only Lika, a missing child, can perform the ritual. Unfortunately, she has disappeared into the Forest of Confusion. Of course, I agree to go there – Issun seems hesitant.

Kai, one of the villagers, had traveled through the Forest of Confusion when she was younger. She offered to guide me through it, so I took her up on her offer. Did I mention everybody in Wep’keer can turn into a wolf? They all wear animal masks too. It’s bad-ass.

So, the Forest of Confusion is a timed maze; failure means Amaterasu returns to the beginning of the maze. It’s filled with those living trees that attack, tangled branches that slow you down, falling icicles, rolling gigantic snowballs, the occasional enemy and lots of slippery ice. It’s pretty thrilling to be dashing across the forest, trying to build up speed and dodge obstacles simultaneously.

At the end of the course is a small untouched glade; seeing green grass after dodging the forests’ horrors is slightly disconcerting. In the middle of the glade is a tree stump which doubles as the home of the Poncles, Issun’s tribe.

Here’s the thing about Issun and the Poncles. The Poncles are sprites whom serve as a relay between mortals and the gods. The most excellent of them each generation gains the title of Celestial Envoy. Issun is the grandson of the Poncle village elder, whom was the Celestial Envoy 100 years ago when Amaterasu last assumed avatar form. Issun got frustrated with the training, stole one of the elder’s famous scrolls, and left the village claiming to be an excellent artist. Issun is too embarrassed to return to his village and is trying to shirk responsibilities while making a name for himself.

I had to go into the village of the Poncles to learn where Lika went off to. Fortunately, the Lucky Mallet dropped from the sky to help out. I really like that mallet. It shrunk me down and I got to visit the Poncles.

The village of the Poncles is a series of flowers and roots from which are carved a variety of buildings.

I found out that Lika had traveled deeper into the Forest of Confusion, to the Spirit Gate. The Spirit Gate was sealed and could only be broken by a sword like Issun’s. The Spirit Gate was sealed because using it involves time travel. So, onward then! Time to travel through time!

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The only way to Kamui is both kinda dumb and kinda cool at the same time. Unlike what you might expect, you don’t cross the sea to get there. You actually return to Shinshu Field. Since the beginning of the game, a big stone monument has been sitting on an inaccessible hill, so you know it’s going to be important eventually.

Anyway, now that I had Catwalk, I could draw a line from a nearby statue to climb up to that hill. Next, I had to draw a lightning bolt to the monolith itself. Then the stone monolith just twists, revealing a secret passageway. Go through the passageway and you shortly arrive in Nippon.

Why is there a secret pathway to Kamui? Why are there no normal routes to it? Why the device? Was this always its purpose? How could you get it to work from the inside? What if somebody in Nippon just sealed it up? You’re screwed. Perhaps I could piece together a convoluted answer to these quandaries, but there is nothing in the game to explain it, and I think the designers just didn’t think about this one. It happens here and there in the game: they sacrifice realism for cinematics. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s just fun to poke holes.

Upon entering Kamui, immediately to the left is a path leading to a cul-de-sac. Several elevated pits dot the cul-de-sac, but it is better-dominated by a hut. Entering this hut provokes a scene with a new character, Oki. Oki is from the village I mentioned earlier. He took the sacred sword I mentioned earlier. He plans to use it to go to those mountains I mentioned earlier, to fight those demons I mentioned earlier. As you might imagine, he’s a pretty important character to the plot. Anyway, he isn’t too happy to see me. He steps outside.

When I stepped outside, one of the coolest and toughest battles in the game commenced. Remember those pits? Well, fire comes out of them. Then Oki draws his sword and goes psycho-berserk on me like Waka and Rao, only much more intensely. You beat him after a LONG battle involving a lot of dodging, only to see him transform into a freakin’ wolf! And then it’s like fighting the Canine Warriors, only he is much stronger than them. After this massive two-part battle, he finally concedes defeat.

Oki isn’t actually a bad person; he is just very intense about saving his people. He has taken his peoples’ legendary sword and is trying to fulfill its legend: when it glows silver, it will open the path to heaven. I’ll be seeing more of him later.

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Kamui, the Land to the North, is both the origin point of life in these lands and the home of Yami, the Ruler of Darkness, the master of all demons. It is also a frigid land, relatively small compared to both Nippon and Sei-an. But, as the saying goes, big things come in small packages. Kamui’s Forest of Confusion hides the village of the Poncles, the sprite race to which Issun belongs. The Spirit Gate, a pathway through time, is also secreted in this poisonous forest. Wep’keer Village rests along the incline of one of Kamui’s mountains and guards passage to the frozen lake and the twin mountains. The Ark of Yamato is sealed within the frozen lake, an iron ship bearing hieroglyphics which resemble various important demons from throughout the game. It is said to be the ship by which the celestials, a race from the Celestial Plane, descended to this land and accidentally brought the demons that slaughtered them all. The two mountains are actually volcanoes and contain the sealed spirits of two powerful twin demons. The sword used to defeat the demons long ago is placed on a sacred altar before the lake.

So, yeah, a lot of important history to this place.

Genre : Action RPG

Editeur / Développeur : Capcom / Clover Studio

Sortie : 2007

Supports : –

Versions : - -

Sauvegardes : Memory Card

Nombre de Joueurs : 1

Prix Payé : 15 €

Mon Avis : Pas encore joué.