LordTheNightKnight

User Score
9.0

Presentation - 10
Gameplay - 8.5
Value - 9.5

There are only 4 games of the 6th generation I paid more than $30 for: The GC and PS2 versions of Resident Evil 4 (and they were both that good), Zelda Twilight Princess (didn't have a Wii yet), and finally this game.

I confess the other three appeal to me more... and if you think that's putting the game down, you obviously don't realize how highly I regard those other three (I don't care if others were less than impressed with Twilight Princess; it's Ocarina where you can skip cut scenes; that jumps the replay value).

(Note: This is for the PS2 version, but should apply to the Wii version as well.)

Story:

You're playing the sun goddess of Japan, in the form of a white wolf. That's awesome enough on its own. The fact that it has a good story, with memorable characters, and even some deep scenes, is just gravy. It's better than a 9.5, but not quite a 10, so if there was a scale for story here, I'd give it a 9.7.

Presentation:

The best part of the game. Clover didn't even plan on this at first, but since the PS2 doesn't have texture compression, the realistic art direction they wanted wasn't going to work. So they went with this, which not only avoided looking like an outright ripoff of Twilight Princess, it apparently inspired the brush mechanic.

Good choice, guys.

And the sound, while usually servicable for me (not an audiophile), does have some great music, especially the festival and the field rebirth tunes.

A great package all around. 10

Gameplay:

Here is where it falls short of being the superior game to Zelda everyone touts it as. Freshness doesn't matter if the gameplay doesn't quite match up to it.

Of course Okami has great gameplay, but Zelda has some of the most excellent of any game series, so even minor flaws will fall short.

If you are playing the PS2 version, the brush controls aren't as intuitive with the analog stick, and can break into the action. This gets really annoying if you waste an ink point getting the wrong technique on screen.

The Wii version apparently has good brushing, but weaker combat. I'm only going by the word of others, but unless they are lying, the combat controls are not inuitive there.

So in either version, you gain something, you lose something. Neither one is a dealbreaker, but it does keep it from the smooth perfection of the Zelda games (mostly; try using the boomerang in Phantom Hourglass). 8.5

Value:

You get around 30 hours of game time in the first playthrough without even trying for all the sidequests. Then you get a new game +. If that isn't enough for you, I don't know what is. But it's great for me. 9.5

Overall:

This isn't the superior game to Zelda it's touted as. Yahtzee is just wrong about it being the fresh look the series needs (since they sell more than Okami in a week). In fact, that kind of hype does a disservice to both series (that and weak marketing for both versions).

This is its own game, with its own pace. It's not as polished as the Zelda games (not having loads of predecessors to build upon does that), but it's about a polished as the very first Zelda game is. And that's still a damn good thing, and this deserves to have its own series from this. 9