The Zelda-Like Okami is Coming Back, Maybe, Eventually…

The first game’s director wants to bring Amaterasu back.

Nov 04, 2019

Okami was one of the most brilliant and artistic games to ever grace the PlayStation 2 generation. It had received a couple of re-releases over the years with a version for the Wii launching years ago and the game being brought to every current-generation console. However, it seemed like it just couldn’t get the audience it deserved. There was a sequel of sorts on the Nintendo DS called Okamiden, but fans have been waiting for a full-on next entry on the best tech possible. All hope seemed lost for a new Okami game, but hope was once again shined when the original game’s director Hideki Kamiya teased on Twitter that Okami would be coming back alongside former Bethesda Artist/Director Ikumi Nakamura who you might recognize from E3 2019.

Okami | Official Trailer

The Video

A video was released online where the original game’s director claimed “Okami is going to be back,” supposedly all but confirming that a new game will soon be in the works. However, there hasn’t been any kind of formal announcement from Capcom on whether or not this video is solid proof or not.

Amatersasu is playable in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Remembering Okami

Okami is often remembered, by the few who have played it, as the definition of an under-appreciated gem. It, in a lot of ways, takes a ton of inspiration from The Legend of Zelda, with a large overworld to explore, dungeons to delve into, and enemies to fight. It takes the foundation set by Zelda and adds it’s own new flavors into the mix. The story takes place in Ancient Japan and closely follows the stories found in Japanese tradition and stories. You play as Amaterasu, the recently awoken from stone God of the Sun and it is up to you to bring back the light to a kingdom consumed by Darkness. It is set up like many heroic stories, but the bits and pieces of authentic, Japanese storytelling and legends give it a flavor all it’s own. And speaking of standing out, the game’s graphics try it’s absolute best to look like a moving painting. The world of Okami is a beautiful and unique landscape full of great vistas and all sorts of quirky characters.

As you progress through the game, you acquire new and exciting abilities, taken from all the other gods you rescue along the way. When you rescue one, they gift Amaterasu with a new power for the Celestial Brush. The Celestial Brush is the biggest difference between Okami and other games like it. Instead of simply pressing a button to attack a monster, you instead are given much more powerful moves at the stroke of a brush. You can stop time, draw a specific symbol with the brush on the screen, and bam when time starts up again, your enemy is toast. Paint a straight line for a sharp slash, draw a bomb to clear obstacles, and even swirl to your heart’s content to make the wind blow around you. By the end of the game when you possess all the powers, you feel powerful and the sense of progression feels more meaningful than in most games.

The sense of wonderment in the game is still impressive to this day.

The Potential for a Sequel

The sky is the limit for a sequel, with so many elements to tackle and improve so much can be done to make a new game even better than the first. More dungeons, bigger and better boss battles, more characters to interact with and get quests from, to an even wider selection of powers to choose from. It looks like, from the video that PlatinumGames, the makers of games like Astral Chain, Transformers Devastation, the lesser liked TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan, and the also underappreciated Vanquish to name a few. They could try keeping the combat sections of the game more closely connected with the world instead of keeping them gated off in battle arenas like in the first game, or simply keep doing what the first game did well. It seems possible lately that even games series’ that have been away for a while can get another chance to shine. Games like Megaman 11, Shenmue 3, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Battletoads and this (as well as a growing list of others) are giving fans experiences that seemed to be little more than dreams and I think that’s pretty cool. Ultimately though, it might not even be another game you really want. It could just be you wanting something to make you feel the same way the first one did. But either way, I’m glad Okami (could) be coming back.