looking forward to this game.

There's a demo in the new OPM.

Reviews are in, and it looks like a BIG winner!

IGN 9.1/10

GameSpy 5/5

Gamespot 9/10

I've been all over this game since I first heard about it. Between this and Rocket Slime, I won't have time for real life!

And 9.0, 9.0, 9.0--Game of the Month in last months EGM as I posted on the last page.

It's definitely a winner. How I wish I had time to play this right now..I just can't work a 30-40 hour game in right now.

So I've been playing this for a couple hours now.

First, let me get the bad out of the way - half of the 2 hours that I've been playing this has been nothing but redundant exposition and stilted dialog. I hate that in video games, and feel that it's a really lazy way to tell a story in this medium. After playing games like HalfLife and others that has the story happen as you play, it's really frustrating to play a new game with constant, insesant and unnecessary exposition.
But I think the more the game goes on, the less dialog there'll be.

So besides that, this game's a blast, and absolutley beautiful. Who needs next-gen graphics, when brilliant art designers come up with this stuff, which to me, looks a lot better than something "real world" like Gears of War.

Anyway, even casual Zelda fans should love this, as the gameplay is similar, but with a nice twist. There's all sorts of things to do from fighting, exploring, and neat little side-missions and puzzles. The difficulty is below average, which I feel is better than above average, and at least it'll never get frustrating, or artificially drag out the game by having to play sections over and over.

So, get this, you won't regret it - you'll be getting way more for your $40 than you would for most any other $60 360 game.

Except perhaps Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Nah, I'm sure it's great. I haven't gotten to pop mine in yet, a combination of school work, a full DVR that needs to get cleared out, and Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime.

Played this for a few hours tonight and I am already freakin' hooked! Okami is a fury on the visual senses - and, thankfully, not just eye candy. I am personally fully sucked into the story. It's something very different, yet it feels welcomingly familiar. The gameplay is pretty darn solid, too. Using the Celestial Brush was my only concern on the game before playing it. Concern shot down - the brush is an absolute riot to use, very uniquely useful, and most importantly pretty responsive.

I'm very impressed and satisfied to this point. It's exceeding my expectations.

All of the praise convinced me to grab this today. It looks great, but the first hour is just awful - I can see where this game could be a lot of fun ONCE IT LETS ME play. I'm in the process of summoning the courage to go back. Slow text = the devil.

I totally agree.

I'm about 6 hours in, and the first couple hours were very boring. I'd say the 3rd hour is where it reels you in and gets good. Stick with it.

I enjoy a rich story with my games, so prolonged introductions and game mechanic break-ins rarely bother me. Okami danced on the border of tedium with me, as well. However, I could tell that it was breaking me into a great game, so I sat back and just enjoyed the experience. The visuals are so stunning and the story is equally as rich that it wasn't too difficult for me to continue plugging along, even though some of the same statements (especially from Innus) were repeated a few times over.

However, I'm now over 10 hours into it, and I seriously think this might be one of the best games I've ever played - period. It's up there in my top 5 of all time, easily.

About 15 hours into it now, and my only real complaint (which isn't too big a deal) is that sometimes it's not too clear as to what to do or where to go next.

Anyways, I'm having loads of fun with this game, and it's one of the best games I've played of it's kind - I like this far better than the last Zelda, and I'd put it up there with Psychonauts.

I got through the whole opening part and then my electricity flickered off. I want to cry now.

Played the demo from OPM and thought it was awesome. So, picked it up from Wally World today for $39.99. Looks like my PS2 is going to get a good work out this fall.

Just to update, I'm about 8 hours in and I'm loving it.

I'm past the worst of the hand-holding, too. I like it; nothing amazing, but well-executed Zelda-style game.

I'm loving this game. The visuals have me so entranced, and the gameplay is solid.

Okami definitely lives up to the hype, which is no small feat. The presentation is just amazing. Yeah, the game starts off pretty slow and with an overabundance of text, but once you actually get a chance to explore, use the brush, and try out the combat, you'd be hard-pressed to find weaknesses with the game. The brush is a lot of fun to use, especially when integrated with the combat, although it can be tough to make precise movements with it. The writing is really good too. It's got more humor than I expected, and although it's faithful to the Japanese source material, the dialogue seems to be just a little bit westernized to make it more palatable for non-Japanese gamers. I'm less than 3 hours in, but I'm already convinced that this will be near the top of my list for best games of the year. If it wasn't for Twilight Princess looming on the horizon, it would definitely be a lock for #1.

My only problem with the combat system is when you're trying to use the brush slash and something else is in the way, and by the time you get around to a good angle, the monster is no longer gray.

Man, I've gotta pick this one up. Maybe this weekend. I passed on Earl to justify this purchase, and then my local BB was out of the game.

Let's hear it for Big Daddy Jamba!

I'm a few hours in, and I don't think I'm going to finish the game. It's probably the most beautiful one I've ever played - really, it's amazing how the in-game world looks and feels - but it just isn't that great of a game underneath that incredible coat of paint. The story has already been seen a million times, it's easy to the point of not being fun, and it's filled with a lot of tedium.

If you thought Wind Waker was way too hard, had too many dungeons that were all way too long, and didn't have enough inconsequential fetchquests, then Okami is manna from heaven.

I picked it up tonight and put a bit over 2 hours in (spent a good 40 minutes on getting the 10 turnips dug up in the village ).

I'm loving it so far. The graphics and are design are phenomenal, the game controls well, and it plays a lot like a Zelda game which is a good thing in my book.

Will post some more impressions when I play it some more.

I got it a few weeks ago and love it. The brush is so well integrated into the game, both in adventuring and (surprisingly) in battles. It's beautiful to look at; just breathtaking actually. I'm not too far yet as I don't get much of a chance to play that often, but this game is really something special -- the best game I've seen since God Of War.

Still to be fair, I don't know how derivative it is of the 3D Zelda games as I haven't played any of those.

Wind Waker's problem simply that the puzzles were too trivial (to the point of boredom). The boss battles weren't difficult and the dungeons just got tedious. Okami have the same issues?