When I first saw
Okage: The Shadow King featured in various
magazine previews, I thought it looked like a pretty
cool RPG. It had the look of Tim Burtons The
Nightmare Before Christmas which I found pretty
cool. When it was released last year it unfortunately
got overshadowed by the likes of other games such as Grand
Theft Auto 3 and Halo. Last week,
I came across a half off sale in a local Toy Works store
and amongst the games featured was Okage.
With the half off, the game came out to a mere $11.50
plus tax. Not bad at all and a deal I couldn't resist.
Okage is about a young 16 year old boy
named Ari. Ari's sister Annie has been stricken with a
terrible disease which makes her speak only in pig
Latin. To cure this, Ari's dad released the spirit of a
300 year old evil king called Stan. In order for Stan to
cure Annie, he wants a host to posses their shadow. And
guess who's shadow he wants to posses? You guessed it,
Ari. After agreeing, Stan becomes Ari's new shadow and
makes Ari his slave. Now, Stan commands Ari to search
the land and help him track down and destroy various
fake evil kings around the land.
That's all the story I'm going to tell, since I don't
want to ruin it for anyone. Its a pretty whacked out
story and while it may not have the depth of an epic
like Final Fantasy 10, it does have humor
and originality. Its good to see developers trying
something different in the way of RPG storylines.
Especially when its a really bizarre one like in Okage.
Character design here is very strong. Like I mentioned,
it looks like it was strait out of Nightmare
Before Christmas. Characters have sort of a
super deformed look with their big heads and small
bodies. The also kind of remind me of the characters in Evolution
for the Dreamcast. While Ari and the rest of the cast
are all cool, my hands down favorite is Stan. Stan is
just too cool, even though he's nothing more then a
flat, goofy looking shadow with yellow eyes standing
behind Ari's back. He constantly goes on and on about
world conquest and how evil he is, yet, no one takes him
serious. There's some very funny incidents in the game
that deal with this.
The overall gameplay in Okage is pretty
familiar to anyone that's played RPGs in the past. There
are a number of towns to roam around, as well as outdoor
field maps to explore. There's also a number of little
secrets and side things to do, such as finding all the
gears hidden throughout the games worlds.
Dungeons are one of the games weak points. With the
exception of the last dungeon, they all feel and sort of
look the same. Simply find and destroy all the urns on
each floor and trigger switch's that open doors and
raise bridges. There's no real puzzles to be solved,
just pretty much strait forward action here. The only
thing really resembling a puzzle I've seen was this gear
puzzle near the end. Its very simple and I wouldn't even
really call that much of a puzzle though.
Combat in Okage is also fairly weak.
Fights are not random and you can always see them
coming. The overall system can best be described as
being like a watered down Final Fantasy
battle system. Only a lot faster paced and less
polished. Each character has a little bar that raises up
and then they can use an action once its filled.
Characters can use their standard attack, use magic or
items. One of the biggest let downs in the whole battle
system deals with the use of magic and items. First off,
everyone shares magic points. Why? This is a stupid
idea. The second problem is that certain attacks don't
use magic but rather they drain your life. While this
may sound original, it doesn't really add anything to
the system and in my opinion, hurts it. Also, you may
want to be extra careful when using Ari's life draining
attacks. Unlike other characters, if Ari dies, its game
over.
One of the cool things I like about the combat is Stan.
At random times before a fight, Stan will ask you
something like how great he is. You then have to pick 3
words to best describe what he ask. If you answer
correctly, then Stan will unleash a powerful attack at
the start of the fight. Even if this doesn't occur
before the fight, Stan will still attack at random
during some fights. Its not quite as powerful as if he
attacks after answering the question right, but its
still quite strong and can really help out at times.
Graphics 8: Graphics are definitely a mixed bag
in Okage. On one hand, the town and field
map graphics are simply breathtaking. Textures are very
crisp, clean and detail, characters look and animate
great. So, what's the problem? A few things really.
First off is that there's some camera problems. Half the
time, the camera is never where you want it. It will
frequently swing around to the front of your character,
so you cant see what's in front of you. Sometimes it
even obscures your view completely with things like
tree's. There's a button to adjust it, but it never
quite stays put.
The second problem is the blurriness in the town and
field graphics. While thing look simply amazing close
up, at a distance they don't really look so hot. While
this isn't quite as major as the camera, it does serve
to annoy a little.
Finally, the dungeon and battle graphics are boring.
Dungeons all seem to look alike and are really lacking
in detail. The same can be said about the battle
graphics as well. Things just look really plain in them.
Magical attacks are nothing special looking at all and
pretty boring. It's almost like the dungeon and battle
graphics were rushed.
Sound 8: The sound here is pretty impressive. The
music has sort of a movie like feel to it and fits the
game perfectly. The only problem is that there's not all
that many music track. There's only maybe about 10 or so
that constantly repeat throughout the game.
Also, besides the cool sounding narrator, there's not
really much in the way of voice acting. This is
something that I would have really liked to have seen in
it. Well, maybe in a sequel.
Control 7: While the controls are nothing bad at
all, their held back by a very uncooperative camera. You
find yourself fighting with the camera and trying to
adjust it a lot more then you should. Still, its not
that bad and even RPG novices should have very little
problems with it.
Overall, I really enjoyed Okage. While it
wasn't the next Final Fantasy or Phantasy
Star, it was a very enjoyable game and a
refreshing change of pace from the RPG norm. Its also a
little short and can be beaten in around 24-35 hours.
Still, despite the problems it has and its short length,
I'd still recommend Okage to RPG gamers.
Most hardcore RPG gamers may snuff it, but the more
casual RPG gamer or beginner may find it just right. If
you have any doubts then I'd advise you at least give it
a rental. Great job but it still shows a lot of promise
for a sequel.
7.5
