Ōkami (2006)

I've made some good progress on the HD edition on PC, but I'm going to play the PS2 version for a bit and see how it compares. I'm so torn on whether I prefer HD or original editions of older games. I started playing ICO on the PS3 HD version, then switched to the OG PS2 because it felt more authentic. Playing on an old CRT monitor, low res, 4:3, you barely notice the low polygon count and low-res textures. I continue to believe HD upscaling just doesn't really do old games many favors, even if you can see more of the world more clearly and perhaps notice things you otherwise wouldn't (much like viewing stark naked pixels in old games on an LCD vs through a CRT). It is a trade-off. So far, Okami looks gorgeous at 480i on a CRT whereas the first thing I noticed with the HD edition was, gosh, this "paper and ink effect" looks exaggerated and overdone. Maybe I'm just more prepared for it this time around, but I feel it looks more authentic on the PS2. Both editions have their merits, particularly the menus and 2D graphics in the HD edition look amazing.

Going to be a "no" after just 37 minutes. The dialogues show up one short sentence at a time and each sentence takes a literal minute to show up. There is no way to make this go faster, you can't just skip to the end of the sentence. You will sit there watching each sentence appear letter by letter. I can't even tell if the cutscene itself was long or it just feels that way. This is an absolute disrespect of anyone's time and I simply am not willing to put up with several more hours of this.

(1,30h de juego) Primeras impresiones: la cámara es algo tosca y me faltan opciones de movimiento (acercar o alejar la cámara progresivamente, poder mover el pincel de forma táctil sin que el sensor de movimiento lo detecte...), pero tampoco estoy teniendo una mala experiencia. La forma de contar su historia supongo que deriva de la narrativa de 2007, así que no me puedo enfadar mucho con su narración en off. Eso sí, por dios, que alguien me dé una opción de pasar rápido los diálogos en cinemáticas concretas.

Very much feels like a game you can only enjoy when it came out and there wasn’t as many awesome games out there. I’ve personally never played when it originally came out and trying the switch version it feels like an old school game that it’s a bit hard to enjoy now and the visuals get too much, plus I had to turn off the obnoxious voice sounds.

This is artistically one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. It looks beautiful and the music sounds beautiful. I am totally enamored with the presentation and visual style. The gameplay is pretty decent but does get repetitive at times (too many Spider boss fight repeats). The brush mechanic makes this more than a generic hack and slash adventure game but for me the appeal is definitely the art and the world building. Story is not bad with some nice little character stories that evoke that folktale feeling. However, there are too many cut scenes with too much narration. Despite its flaws it remains a breathtaking visual and aural experience.

Okami is a lovely game, but I the technical issues are starting to get to me. At first I thought my Wifi router was interfering with my wireless mouse because I was getting lag and choppy movement. But after changing wifi settings and being sure that I had fluid movement outside the game, the problem persisted. Now I googled the issue and I see that the Steam forums are filled with people having serious problems with mouse movement. I cannot fathom how this serious bug slipped into the final game and persists to this day. This is a game centred around drawing figures with your brush, if ANYTHING should work flawlessly, is mouse movement... which is something that no game has ever fucked up before. WTF? The weird thing is that using the trackpad solves the problem (that's why I thought of wifi interference at first). It's far from ideal but get's the job done.