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Game:OkamiPublisher:CapcomDeveloper:Clover StudioGenre:Action-AdventureTested for:PS2Available for:PS2USK:Released in:2 / 2007
Glistening rays of sunlight fall on the crystal clear water of the gently babbling stream, are reflected and bathe the surrounding area in shimmering light. Lush green blades of grass sway in the warm evening breeze. Flowers of all stripes reach out for the last rays of the setting sun. The sky slowly turns reddish and gives the wonderful panorama a romantic splash of color.
I’m once again reminiscing – today the once idyllic village of Kamiki looks completely different: dark clouds cover the sky and the magnificent flora has given way to parched earth and bare stone. The reason? The gigantic, eight-headed monster Orochi was awakened by a careless person and plunged the country into ruin: darkness spreads and plants wither. Now it’s up to me to free the Earth from its dreary existence and eliminate Orochi once and for all. You ask who I am? My name is Amaterasu – an emissary of the gods. But you wouldn’t take any notice of me, because I walk around in wolf form and remain silent except for animal sounds.
My tool, which also serves as a weapon, is a simple brush. But a few blobs of color aren’t enough – as my journey progresses I have to learn different techniques. The instructions for this are written in the stars: Whenever I see an incomplete constellation in the sky, I pull out my painting tool and add the missing celestial bodies with a few blobs. The constellation then takes the form of a creature and teaches me a new brush technique. With this I can, for example, restore collapsed bridges or fight Orochi’s minions. Is this beyond your imagination? Pah, people… But well, I’ll explain it to you: Imagine being able to freeze what’s happening around you at the push of a button and capture it in sketch form on a piece of parchment paper. Furthermore, imagine that you are drawing a line right through the middle of an opponent in this drawing. What is that supposed to do? Well, if we let time run its normal course again, the villain will be neatly separated into two halves at the point you marked. Practical, isn’t it?
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But that’s just one area of application for my all-purpose brush: If I’m standing in front of a fragile entrance, for example, I draw a bomb – a few seconds later the entrance is exposed. If, on the other hand, a raging wall of fire prevents me from progressing, I put out the fire with a brisk gust of wind. A simple ink circle scrawled on the sky and the sun turns night into day.
But my favorite brush technique is different – it gives me the power to transform waste land into a sea of grass and flowers. But that’s not easy: First I have to find one of the withered sprouts. Only when this tree is in full bloom does the dark veil that covers the surrounding landscape lift. So I pull out my brush again and add a proud tree crown to the bare trunk. It sounds harder than it is – even simple earthlings like you could do this: a simple circle around the withered branches is enough. What follows leaves even a seasoned god like me breathless: from the sprouting tree, a wave of regeneration washes over the dead land and breathes new life into it – truly an impressive spectacle! I could stay here forever; but I have to move on, there are numerous other withered areas. And I still have to take care of Orochi. However, until I have learned all 13 brush techniques, I don’t even need to face the fight. I will probably need 35 to 40 hours to be fit for this final encounter.
My path sometimes leads me into dark dungeons. Here I have to use learned brush techniques wisely in order to progress. So it happens that I draw creepers that catapult me to dizzying heights. Or I cross a seemingly insurmountable body of water with the help of water lily pads that I have drawn myself. Occasionally I also solve smaller puzzles: I remember, for example, this glass ball that I had to roll into the right place so that it reflected sunlight and passed it on to a sprout – child’s play. I also regularly find myself in front of closed doors; But I can usually find the right key in no time.
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You two-legged friends will have to come up with trickier ideas to pose real problems for me. If, contrary to expectations, I get stuck, I can always rely on my little companion Issun, the beetle. This bug talks a bit too much and gets on my nerves at times, but her tips are always helpful.
Before I can leave the dungeons, I have to face fearsome opponents. I still bristle today when I think of this spider queen, who was far superior to me in terms of strength and size. But with the right tactics I managed to crack the robust spider shell and expose her sensitive area – a few shield attacks later she was history. But I don’t know if I would have made it without the strength-giving bones I dug up along the way…
On my journey I met many unique people. And because people think of me as an ordinary wolf, I have gained insights into their lives that I probably wouldn’t have had in my true appearance.
Are you asking about the most interesting character? Hmm… hard to say, I actually grew fond of them all. But the weirdest was definitely Susano: a slightly arrogant fellow who gave himself the title of ‘greatest warrior of all time’. He constantly avoids fights, takes a nap somewhere or gets drunk on sake. And yet the villagers put all their hopes in this pseudo-world savior. However, you have to give the shirker one thing: by constantly maneuvering himself into precarious situations, he regularly causes laughter. The residents also keep me on my toes: sometimes I’m supposed to make trees bloom for the village elder, and then I’m supposed to track down his missing dog for a cheeky little kid. But I enjoy doing these tasks because if I can do my part to restore the beauty of the country, it fills me with pride. I would love to stay among you people forever – I have found heaven on earth here.
Opinion
André Kazmaier says: Sob… The world is unfair. That’s it Eyes-Create Clover out of such a work of art – and what is the reward for the effort? Due to lack of financial success, the studio has to close its doors. To cry! However, tears of joy come to my eyes when I roam through the wonderful anime Nippon with the wolf god Amaterasu. Here I really have the feeling that the world does not consist of bitmaps and polygons, but has been brought to life stroke by stroke with watercolors. The great brushwork fits perfectly into the picture, of course, and the diverse areas of application are particularly convincing: a bomb was scribbled here, a storm was conjured up there and trees were felled in between – great! And the whole thing is accompanied by a fine Far East soundtrack. What more do you want? Well, I would have liked a few more dungeons with slightly harder puzzles. And the dialogues are a little less extensive – even if they are written in a funny way. But the wolf fairy tale is almost bursting at the seams with wonderfully quirky characters – even the genre leader can do that Zelda cut a slice. Domo Arigato, Clover!
Oliver Schultes says: I can only agree with my colleagues. The presentation of Eyes is a graphic poem – stylish, poetic, unique. At this point even pulls The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess the short straw: Although better in all respects, Link’s Wii adventure pales in comparison to such visual violence. Luckily, beneath the dreamy watercolor shell there is also a playfully successful core with an innovative brush feature and varied tasks – but overall more depth and challenge wouldn’t have hurt. What really annoyed me, however, was the extremely slow beginning: a yawningly boring intro that I can neither stop nor speed up – it really doesn’t have to be such a mood killer at the beginning!
Matthias Schmid says: In a frenzy of colors: Next Shadow of the Colossus and Killer 7 The Nipponmär is one of the few games that immediately captivated me simply because of its presentation – Eyes is so beautiful, so magnificent, so lovingly staged that just wandering around in the digital meadows evokes pure rapture in me. But even behind the intoxicating exterior, the adventure has a lot to offer: the innovative brushwork works perfectly with the pad, and you can also solve numerous nice puzzles with the imaginative painting techniques. The fact that the camera isn’t always up to speed and the voice output only consists of incomprehensible babble is annoying – but this doesn’t detract from the unique gaming experience.
Rating
+ adorable watercolor look
+ novel drawing function
+ great Nippon music
+ charming characters
+ fairytale story
– long dialogues that cannot be accelerated
Masterful: Overwhelmingly beautiful watercolor adventure with innovative brush painting.
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