Okami

[Ivan]

Figured I shaked thing up with some ps2 classics here, trying to recommend some shit and getting some new activity. Will be doing a bunch of these hopefully.

First off Okami, obviously considering the title.

Developed by the now closed( seriously Capcom? ) studio Clover, Okami is a game that basically gets everything right in such a beautiful way that it's almost insane how they managed to produce this baby. Set in the awesome ancient Japan, it mixes a bunch of japanese folklore and legends.

"The game is set in Nippon based on Japanese classic history, and begins with a flashback to events 100 years prior to the game's present, and describes how Shiranui, a pure white wolf, and Nagi, a swordsman, together fought the eight-headed demon Orochi to save Kamiki Village and the maiden Nami, Nagi's beloved. Shiranui and Nagi are unable to defeat Orochi but manage to seal the demon away.

In the game's present, Susano, a descendant of Nagi and self-proclaimed greatest warrior, breaks Orochi's seal due to the fact that he does not believe in the legend, and Orochi escapes and curses the lands, sapping the life from every living being. Sakuya, the wood sprite and guardian of Kamiki Village, calls forth Amaterasu, the sun goddess, known to the villagers as the reincarnation of the white wolf Shiranui, and pleads her to remove the curse that covers the land. Accompanied by the artist Issun (an inch-high Poncle)" From wiki because I'm a lazy bastard.

It's a long, beautiful tale about friendship, loyalty and many other things. It has a really gorgeous art, hand drawn characters and settings. A great soundtrack consisting of a ton of japanese instruments and innovative gameplay: you use a sort of magic brush to attack your enemies by drawing on the screen with your analog stick.

It's one of my favourite games, almost brought me to tears near the end, if any game is art, this it folks.

[The Bossman]

I bought this 4 years ago on PS2, really liked the game and wouldn't mind playing through it again sometime. A prequel for it is coming out fairly soon on the DS, looks pretty good. Only thing I didn't like were the voices, but the rest of it was excellent, and a very long game too.

[Ivan]

Yeah, it's really long, like 40 hours or something. It's pretty epic. It never gets old though, at least for me.

[Nate10]

I still haven't played it yet, but since you recommended it to me I've kept it in the back of my head to give it a go. I'd probably buy it now but I've been glued to GTA IV and Black Ops lately.