AIMEE GREEN, Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, September 28, 2006 12:00 am
Gamers who complain about lack of creativity in the industry should play "Okami."
"Okami" is the story of a wolf, who is really a sun god name Amaterasu. As evil overcomes the world, Amaterasu must fight to vanquish it.
The story's fairly typical, but it's not the story that makes the game so different.
For starters, the art style is incredible. Everything looks painted on the screen, with thick black brush-stroke outlines and bright colors. It literally feels like moving around inside a watercolor painting.
The painting feel is more than just a gimmick, too, as it's essential to the gameplay. The only way Amaterasu can defeat the evil is by restoring her powers with the "celestial brush." By holding in the R1 button, the world goes gray and pauses, and a paintbrush appears on-screen. You then can use the brush to make strokes, which affect whatever's on the screen.
For example, the first stroke you recover is a slash. By drawing a line across an enemy in battle, it acts as an attack. Drawing a circle in the sky makes the sun come up, and drawing a circle in a barren tree makes it burst into bloom.
The brush strokes act as pieces of a puzzle; you can't get by certain areas unless you know specific strokes and use them on certain items.
Be prepared to read, however. "Okami" is very dialogue heavy, and the text pops onto the screen very slowly (only sometimes can you make it speed up). There's no actual spoken word; instead, there are strange sounds made to imitate muffled speech.
"Okami" may feel a bit strange to start, what with the very different art style and the "seems lame at first" brush strokes. But play it for a bit, and it's highly enjoyable and very well done.
On the other hand, if you've got an Xbox 360 and you want to play a Japanese role-playing game, there's literally only one option for you.
Ubisoft's "Enchanted Arms" is a typical role-playing game in just about every sense of the word. It's an entertaining time waster that's neither bad nor outstanding.
The main character is Atsuma, a student enchanter who suddenly finds himself faced with defeating evil before it conquers the world. His right arm has the magical power to defeat the evil, hence his role as the savior. As he travels around the world, he picks up helpers, called golems, whom he can swap in and out of his party.
If you haven't played an RPG before, "Enchanted Arms" is a good place to start. It contains all the typical aspects of an RPG and holds your hand throughout the game. I don't know many times the game told me, "To do this, press A."
It has an interesting grid-based strategic combat system, and there are fun minigames, such as a casino and arena fighting.
I'm on the fence about the dialogue. On the one hand, it's cheesy beyond belief, and there's an extremely annoying gay character at the beginning whom I either wanted to laugh at or strangle. On the other hand, cheesy dialogue can work if you don't take it too seriously, and it can be amusing.
I found myself underwhelmed by the graphics. They're very nice, but since the game was developed specifically for the Xbox 360, part of me expected more.
"Enchanted Arms" provides a nice escape from reality, but it isn't anything that's going to stick in your memory.
Given the scant options for RPGs on the Xbox 360, you can't really go wrong with "Enchanted Arms." But it's no "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion," either.
'Okami'
PlayStation 2
Price: $39.99
Rated: T for Teen
****1/2 (out of *****)
'Enchanted Arms'
Xbox 360
Price: $59.99
Rated: T for Teen
***1/2 (out of *****)