You enter combat whenever you run into enemies wandering the world, with a fiery red border creating an impromptu fighting arena and a press of the attack button whipping the magical disc from Amaterasu’s back and smashing it into your foes. Traversing the game’s many gorgeous locations is a pleasure, with Amaterasu initially able to double jump and run faster the longer she keeps moving and learning fancier tricks as the story progresses. As a white wolf, Amaterasu is quick, nimble and agile and, thanks to a magic disc hovering above her back, is pretty handy in a fight too. This shouldn’t put you off the game though, and the dialogue is spot on, with your little green cling-on friend, Issun, providing some much-needed comic relief amidst the general doom and gloom. While this reflects the fact that Okami was initially created in an era where fully voicing a game from start to finish was not as common as it is today, it does feel a bit old-fashioned and eventually gets annoying. The plot is certainly vague, but it’s far from shallow, and it’s told through strange sequences where passages of text are accompanied by weird mumbling sound effects that mimic speech. You play as Amaterasu, who (deep breath) is a white wolf believed to be the material manifestation of a long-deceased Sun goddess who once defeated an evil multi-headed Dragon that polluted the beautiful world with darkness and destruction, and you must now pick up where your predecessor left off by ridding the world of the recently released darkness. Set during a non-specific period of ancient Japanese history, Okami’s world combines several Japanese myths, legends and folklore. Obviously, the visuals have been boosted to meet modern standards, and Japanese remastering specialists HexaDrive have even added lush 4K visuals that are sure to delight those who’ve shelled out for a PS4 Pro or Xbox One. Originally emerging as part of the PS2’s golden age of gaming, Okami was rejigged for the PS3 and Nintendo Wii and now arrives on the Xbox One and PS4 in a sparkly new version dubbed Okami HD. Games that, put you in control of a god or a god-like being are commonplace now but none have ever felt as majestic as Okami.
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