Okami was a 2006 sport of the 12 months winner that by no means achieved sale success in-line with its critical-acclaim. It’s becoming then, if nonetheless utterly bonkers, {that a} sequel to the Legend of Zelda-inspired journey sport would get introduced at this 12 months’s Sport Awards. A musical medley on stage revealed we’re getting Okami 2 from the unique director nearly 20 years later.
What made gamers fall in love with the unique sport again within the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii days was its evocative artwork impressed by Japanese folklore and its revolutionary painterly mechanics that had gamers emulate brush strokes throughout the display screen to resolve puzzles and fight enemies. There’s by no means been something fairly prefer it since, till possibly now.
It was directed by Hideki Kamiya as a part of Clover Studio. A Capcom veteran, he had additionally beforehand directed Resident Evil 2 and Satan Could Cry. Following the sport’s launch, he and different artistic leads on the firm departed to discovered Platinum Video games the place he made the Bayonetta collection and different motion video games. On the Sport Awards, Keighley revealed that Kamiya has returned to Capcom to guide a brand new studio known as Clovers that’s engaged on the sequel.
“One factor I wish to clarify is that I didn’t stop PlatinumGames in order that I may make a specific sport elsewhere, or that I stop the corporate to work with a particular accomplice underneath higher situations,” he informed IGN in an interview final 12 months after leaving his earlier firm. “I hear baseless rumors saying that I’ll be working with this or that particular person, however nothing has been determined but. After I left PlatinumGames, I genuinely had no different plans lined up. After I stop, I spent a while simply mendacity round watching films and TV exhibits. However once I began to consider it, I discovered I already had a transparent concept of a sport I wish to make. I can’t begin placing these concepts into motion but, however I’ve began to consider methods to doubtlessly make it occur. That mentioned, making video games hardly ever goes the best way you imagined, so I wish to discover my choices and discover the route that works greatest for me.”
Within the years since its launch, Okami acquired a religious successor known as Ōkamiden on the Nintendo DS and later an HD port which is at present out there on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Change, and PC. We nonetheless don’t know a lot about Okami 2 and it sounds prefer it may nonetheless be early days. The unique sport was so particular and followers have waited so lengthy that I’m certain they’ll be content material to take a seat patiently for a couple of extra years to play the sequel.