Ōkami is a 2006 action-adventure game created by Clover Studio and released by Capcom. It was first available for PlayStation 2 in Japan and North America in 2006, and in Europe and Australia in 2007. After Clover Studio closed a few months later, a version for the Wii was developed by Ready at Dawn, Tose, and Capcom, and released in 2008.
The game is set in a fictional version of classical Japan. It tells the story of how the land was saved from darkness by Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, who appeared as a white wolf. The game uses a visual style inspired by sumi-e, a traditional Japanese art form, and features the Celestial Brush, a system that lets players perform special actions by drawing on the screen. Originally, the game was planned to use realistic graphics, but this would have been too difficult for the PlayStation 2. Clover Studio changed to a cel-shaded style to make the game run better, which led to the creation of the Celestial Brush. The gameplay is similar to The Legend of Zelda, a favorite series of the game’s director, Hideki Kamiya. The game’s name is a play on words, as “ōkami” can mean “great god” or “wolf” in Japanese.
Ōkami was one of the last PlayStation 2 games released before the PlayStation 3 came out. It was not successful in sales, which led to Clover Studio closing after the game’s lead developers left. Despite poor sales, the game received widespread praise and won IGN’s 2006 Game of the Year. The Wii version was also well-received, though some players had mixed opinions about its motion controls. A remastered high-definition version, developed by Capcom and HexaDrive, was released for PlayStation 3 in 2012 and for retail in Japan in 2012, supporting the PlayStation Move controller. Later versions were released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in 2017, for Nintendo Switch in 2018, and for Amazon Luna in 2022. These remasters helped the game gain more popularity, and Ōkami is now considered one of the greatest video games ever made and an example of video games as an art form, thanks to improved visuals and details.
A spiritual successor, Ōkamiden, was released for Nintendo DS in Japan in 2010, and later in North America and Europe in 2011. A sequel was announced at The Game Awards 2024, with Hideki Kamiya returning as director through a new studio, Clovers, in partnership with Capcom.
Gameplay
The player controls Amaterasu, the main character, in a game environment that uses a woodcut, watercolor, and cel-shaded style. This look resembles animated Japanese ink illustrations, known as sumi-e, and ukiyo-e art styles. The gameplay combines action, platforming, and puzzle-solving. Many reviewers have noted that the game’s style is similar to The Legend of Zelda series, an influence that the game’s director, Hideki Kamiya, has acknowledged. The main story follows a linear path guided by Amaterasu’s companion, Issun, but players can explore the open world through optional side quests and activities. By completing quests and small tasks, such as helping trees bloom or feeding animals, Amaterasu earns Praise, which can be used to improve character abilities like health and the number of ink wells for the Celestial Brush.
Combat takes place in a ghostly virtual arena. Amaterasu fights enemies using weapons, fighting techniques, and the Celestial Brush. After battles, players earn money in yen, with extra rewards for finishing quickly and without taking damage. This money can be used at merchants and dojos to buy healing items, better weapons, tools, key items, and combat skills.
Rare items called Demon Fangs can be earned through combat and traded for helpful but non-essential items. Weapons inspired by Japan’s Imperial Regalia—the Reflector, Rosaries, and Glaive—can be used as main or sub-weapons. Players can also learn other melee attacks throughout the game.
A unique feature of the game is the Celestial Brush. Players can pause the game and access a canvas to draw on the screen using a controller or touchscreen. This ability is used in combat, puzzles, and exploration. For example, players can draw loops to create wind, lines to cut enemies, or paint over broken bridges to repair them. These techniques are unlocked by completing special patterns to release the Celestial Brush gods, inspired by the Chinese zodiac. Later in the game, players can upgrade Brush abilities, such as changing the "Inferno" power to "Fireburst," which allows flames to be created without torches. The amount of ink available for drawing is limited by special ink wells, which refill over time when the Brush is not used.
Plot
Most character names below are the shortened names used in the U.S. version of the game.
The player controls Ōkami Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, who appears as a white wolf. In the Japanese and European versions, Amaterasu is described as female. In the North American version, she is not given a specific gender, though she is called the "mother of all." When Amaterasu uses special ink powers, she is shown with red markings, cloud-like fur on her shoulders, and weapons on her back. Most human characters in the game see her only as a plain white wolf. Some believe she is the reincarnation of Shiranui, a white wolf that fought Orochi 100 years before the game's events, and do not recognize her spiritual nature. If Amaterasu uses the Celestial Brush too much and loses her power, she temporarily appears as a simple white wolf.
Issun, an arrogant, inch-tall "wandering artist," travels with Amaterasu. He searches for the thirteen Celestial Brush techniques and calls Amaterasu "Ammy" or "furball." He helps guide the player, speaks for Amaterasu in dialogues, and provides humor. As the game progresses, Issun becomes Amaterasu’s true friend, inspiration, and eventually her savior.
At the end of the game, Amaterasu faces Yami, the main villain and final boss. Yami looks like a small fish inside a large sphere, and his appearance changes during the battle. Yami is the ruler of demons. Before the battle, he takes away Amaterasu’s powers, leaving her as a plain white wolf. During the fight, she regains her powers but loses them again after the fourth round, leaving her nearly powerless. When Issun convinces others to believe in Amaterasu before the final round, she transforms into her strongest form and defeats Yami forever. Yami’s large, clawed hand symbolizes the evil that comes from human actions. The word "Yami" means "darkness" in Japanese.
Two other characters appear repeatedly in the story. Waka is a young man who plays a flute and wears clothing similar to a tengu. He knows Amaterasu’s true identity, predicts her future, and sometimes fights her. He leads the Tao Troopers, whose members, Abe and Kamo, are based on real historical figures, Abe no Seimei and Kamo no Yasunori. Waka speaks in a friendly way, using French terms, and reveals that he is much older than he looks and has known Amaterasu for centuries on the Celestial Plain. The other character is Orochi, an eight-headed demon and major villain. Orochi has threatened Kamiki Village for years, demanding a young woman as a sacrifice each year during the Kamiki Festival. Each of Orochi’s heads has a different elemental power, but he can be defeated with a special sake only found in Kamiki Village. Amaterasu trusts Queen Himiko, the ruler of Sei-an City, who is killed by a demon.
Throughout the game, players meet many characters inspired by Japanese folklore. The game takes place in Nippon (Japan) and is based on Japanese legends. A narrator explains that 100 years ago, a white wolf named Shiranui and a swordsman named Nagi fought and sealed the eight-headed demon Orochi in the Moon Cave to save Kamiki Village and Nagi’s love, Nami.
In the game’s present, Nagi’s descendant, Susano, refuses to believe in Nagi’s legend and frees Orochi, causing a curse that harms Nippon. Sakuya, the guardian of Kamiki Village, calls on the long-sleeping Amaterasu, who is reborn as Shiranui, to remove the curse. Amaterasu travels with Issun, a small artist, to restore the land.
During their journey, Amaterasu and Issun meet Waka, a mysterious man with the ability to see the future. They also find Celestial Gods hidden in constellations, who give Amaterasu powers to help her quest.
After regaining her strength and helping Susano change, Amaterasu and Susano return to the Moon Cave to defeat Orochi again, saving Kushi. Orochi’s spirit moves north, leading Amaterasu and Issun to follow it. They travel to Ryoshima Coast and Sei-an City, where they work with a priestess named Rao, the Dragon Kingdom, and Queen Himiko to stop a demonic plague and recover a mystical weapon from a sunken ship. Later, it is revealed that Rao was actually the demon Ninetails, who kills Queen Himiko and returns to her fortress on Oni Island. Amaterasu and Issun defeat Ninetails, who, like Orochi, moves to the icy island of Kamui.
In Kamui, Amaterasu helps the Oina tribe defeat two demons, Lechku and Nechku, who caused a deadly blizzard. She also learns that Issun ran away from his home to escape his duty as a Celestial Envoy and that Shiranui was Amaterasu in a past life who sacrificed herself to kill Orochi with help from Issun’s grandfather. After defeating the demons, Amaterasu discovers the wreckage of the "Ark of Yamato," a flying ship made of iron trapped in Kamui’s frozen plains. Waka reveals he is part of the Moon Tribe, a long-living race that used the Ark to escape the Celestial Plain after Orochi attacked. The demons sneaked onto the Ark, killing the Celestials before it fell to Earth. Amaterasu boards the Ark, defeats the demon spirits on board, and finds Waka fighting Yami, the leader of the demons. Waka is knocked out, and Amaterasu takes his place. After a long battle, Yami drains Amaterasu’s power and nearly destroys the Celestial Gods. Before this happens, Issun accepts his role as a Celestial Envoy and encourages others to send their thoughts and prayers to Amaterasu, who regains her power and defeats Yami. Amaterasu and Waka take control of the Ark and sail back to the Celestial Plain to rebuild the land of the gods.
Development
Ōkami was created by Clover Studio. The idea came from Hideki Kamiya, the lead designer, while he was working on Viewtiful Joe for Capcom. He saw a new game engine being developed for the Resident Evil remake on the GameCube and wanted to use it for a game with a lighter theme focused on healing and nature. Kamiya made a short movie showing a wolf running through a forest, with flowers blooming behind it, but there was no gameplay yet. He and other team members added ideas about nature, leading to the first version of the game, which Kamiya said was "very boring to play."
The team used the realistic engine to make early prototypes, but the game did not perform well on the PlayStation 2. Kamiya said the team added too many ideas, making the game move away from its original goal. They later focused on the gameplay found in the final game. While improving the engine, character designer Kenichiro Yoshimura drew the wolf using a brush, which inspired the team to use Ukiyo-e and sumi-e styles, traditional Japanese art forms. This helped connect the game to restoring nature and fixed performance issues. Over three days, the team changed the game's approach to match this new art style, including the Celestial Brush. Atsushi Inaba, Clover's CEO, said the idea for the Celestial Brush came from wanting players to participate in the artwork instead of just watching it. Early enemy designs included dinosaurs, but they were changed to demonic characters.
Amaterasu's design avoided making the character look like "a pet wearing clothes." The developers considered making her change into a dolphin in water or a falcon when jumping, but these ideas were dropped. Sakuya, based on a peach, had designs where she wore less clothing as the story progressed, but the most revealing design was rejected by Inaba. Waka's character was inspired by Tatsunoko-style designs, with a hood similar to Gatchaman's. Orochi, a giant creature in Japanese myths, was designed with a garden and palace on his back, which became the location of a bell that was his weakness in the game.
Kamiya said the game was meant to have a larger story, but time ran out, and only half of the planned content was included. In 2024, Kamiya mentioned that while Clover Studio was a "dream team," there were conflicts among developers. Ikumi Nakamura, who worked with Kamiya on Ōkami and other games, said the team's enthusiasm was lower than for Viewtiful Joe or Devil May Cry, causing development struggles.
The localization team translated 1,500 pages of text to ensure it made sense in English, as Japanese has no plurals and the game had many characters and conversations. Some game elements were not familiar to Western audiences, but enough details were left so players could research them. Only one puzzle was changed because it required knowledge of drawing a kanji character, which was shown in the Western version. The team noted that Japanese text could convey character personalities through sentence structure, but this was harder to translate, so they worked with Kamiya to either match the Japanese version or create new character traits.
Ōkami was shown at the 2005 E3 Convention, about 30% complete, with a planned 2006 release. At that time, the game had the core gameplay, including the Celestial Brush and combat system. It was released in Japan on April 20, 2006, North America on September 19, 2006, Europe on February 9, 2007, and Australia on February 14, 2007. A few weeks after its North American release, Capcom announced Clover Studio's closure.
The Ōkami: Official Complete Works art book was published by Udon in May 2008. The game was re-released in Japan under Sony's "Greatest Hits" in August 2008.
The game's title is a pun. "Ōkami" (狼) means "wolf" in Japanese, while the kanji (大神) mean "great deity," so the main character is a wolf deity. The same kanji are used in the honorific name of the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu (天照大神, Amaterasu-ōmikami).
The localization team kept short versions of Japanese names, like changing "Mushikai" to "Mushi," instead of using Western names. Amaterasu's informal name "Ammy" in the Western version was inspired by Kamiya and matches the Japanese informal name "Ammako."
The game includes references to other Capcom games, such as Viewtiful Joe. For example, Mrs. Orange's cherry cake technique parodies Street Fighter's Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu. There are jokes about the Clover staff, like a character named "Animal Lover" who loses a rabbit named "Inaba," the last name of producer Atsushi Inaba. In the credits, Inaba the rabbit falls from a tree under Atsushi Inaba's name.
The music in Ōkami was inspired by traditional Japanese works. The final song, "Reset," was sung by Ayaka Hirahara. A 5-disc soundtrack was released in Japan in 2006. In Western versions, players can unlock a jukebox to hear the music after completing the game. Ōkami won the Best Score award at the 2007 BAFTA Video Games Awards.
Suleputer released a piano arrangement album, Ōkami Piano Arrange, in March 2007. Mika Matsura arranged and performed the 10 songs. With the release of Ōkami HD for the Nintendo Switch, Data Disc made a vinyl four-disc compilation of over 60 musical tracks, released in October 2018.
The characters' speech was created by combining samples of voice actors' lines, with emotional lines made from recordings in that emotion.
The gameplay feature of drawing or painting strokes on the screen led many journalists and gamers to believe that Ōkami would have more interactive drawing elements.
Reception
Ōkami received high praise from many critics, earning a score of 93 out of 100 on Metacritic. GameSpot gave it a 9 out of 10 and called it an Editor’s Choice, saying its "visual design stands out, but it is just one of many strong features of this impressive action adventure game." IGN scored it 9.1 out of 10, calling it "beautiful, charismatic, engaging, and one of the most original games you’ll play anytime soon." Electronic Gaming Monthly’s reviewers gave it scores of 9, 9.5, and 9 out of 10, with one reviewer stating, "I’ll be surprised if you can find a better game on any system this fall." Newtype USA named Ōkami its Game of the Month for October 2006, saying its pacing was "nearly flawless" and calling it "a game without any obvious flaws." Clover Studio’s creativity and attention to detail were praised. Eurogamer gave it a perfect score of 10 out of 10, saying it "creates an atmosphere of being special" and that its quality over 60 hours of gameplay ensures it will be talked about for years. In 2007, Ōkami was listed as the 18th best PlayStation 2 game of all time by IGN. Famitsu gave it a near-perfect score of 39 out of 40, the 15th game to receive this score from the publication.
Some critics noted flaws, such as uneven difficulty and challenges in using the Celestial Brush patterns. Reviewers also mentioned excessive dialogue, especially at the beginning, and the use of computer-generated voices instead of professional voice acting.
The Wii version of Ōkami received similar praise to the PlayStation 2 version. GameSpot said the support for widescreen and the Wii controls made it "even more relevant today than in 2006." The use of the Wii Remote for the Celestial Brush was well received, improving the game’s pace. However, some controls, especially in combat, were criticized. Nintendo Power recommended the PlayStation 2 version over the Wii, saying "though you can overcome the drawing and attacking issues with practice, it’s a hurdle you shouldn’t have to leap." The Wii version was named Game of the Month by IGN in April 2008 and was nominated for awards like Best Artistic Design and Best Use of the Wii-Mote. In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked it 33rd in a list of greatest Nintendo games.
The PlayStation 3 version of Ōkami was praised as the "definitive" version, with 1080p graphics that made the game’s style stand out. However, IGN’s Cam Shae noted that the PlayStation 3 version did not fix the "pop up" of distant objects, a limitation from the PlayStation 2 version. Eurogamer’s Oli Welsh said the game remained as relevant as when it was first released in 2006, calling it one of the few Zelda-style games.
The 2017 release of Ōkami HD for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One received critical praise, showing the game’s lasting appeal. Wired’s Julie Muncy called it "an underrated masterpiece," while PC Gamer’s Chris Schilling said it could feel "languid" at times but remained a "gorgeous and unforgettable adventure." Rock Paper Shotgun’s Katherine Castle noted that improved graphics and using a computer mouse for the Celestial Brush made the game feel "reborn." Polygon’s Jeff Ramos called the HD release the best example of a remaster, praising its art style and detail at 4K resolution.
At the 2005 E3 Convention, Ōkami won awards like 1UP’s "Best PS2 Game" and "Best Action Game," IGN’s "Best PS2 Game of Show," and X-Play’s "Most Original Game." GameSpy ranked it fifth among the best games shown at the event.
Upon release, Ōkami was named "Game of the Month" by IGN, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Game Informer. IGN, Edge Magazine, and Game Revolution called it the best overall game of 2006, while GameTrailers and PSM named it the best PS2 game of the year. IGN also awarded it multiple titles, including "Best Overall Story" and "Best Artistic Design." GameSpot gave it the "Best Artistic Graphics" award for 2006. In 2017, IGN listed Ōkami as the 90th best game of all time. In 2010, GamePro ranked it fifth among the best PlayStation 2 games. A 2023 poll by GQ ranked Ōkami 94th among the best video games of all time.
Ōkami won awards outside gaming press, including "Best Character Design" and one of three Innovation Awards at the 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards. It won the Grand Prize in the Entertainment Division of the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival and multiple awards from the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAViGaTR) in 2006. It also received awards from the Japanese Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA) and the BAFTA Awards for "Artistic Achievement" and "Original Score."
The HD version was nominated for "Game, Classic Revival" at the 17th Annual NAViGaTR Awards.
In 2006, Ōkami sold over 200,000 copies in North America, earning about $8 million and ranking as the 100th best-selling game of the year. By March 2007, PlayStation 2 sales reached nearly 270,000. In Japan, 66,000 copies were sold in 2006. In 2024, the game’s creator, Hideki Kamiya, said these numbers made the game a "failure," contributing to the closure of Clover Studios. Though poor sales of Ōkami and God Hand were initially blamed for the studio’s closure, it was later revealed that three key developers left Capcom and Clover Studio, leading to the studio’s dissolution. The trio formed "Seeds Inc," later merging with "ODD" to become "PlatinumGames."
On July 30, 2008, Capcom announced plans for the HD version of Ōkami.