Game Diary: Okami HD and Super Mario Odyssey

Well Christmas has come and gone. I hope you've all had an enjoyable one! I know I did, I've got the increased waist size to prove it! I was fortunate to get the opportunity to play Super Mario Odyssey this Christmas, and I gotta say it's been a joy to play. It's not been the only game on my roster this past week, I've been sharing it with another:

Before before Christmas I received Okami HD from my rental service. I've got a bit of a history with Okami, in  the past I followed it's development on the PS2 and then started it in earnest but then I got distracted with something else. I even tried again some years later but only got past the first boss before running out of steam. For all it's visual flair, tight controls and interesting setting I just couldn't get the morale to complete it. Was Okami style over substance?

When I spotted the HD port on my rental list I made a promise to myself, to finally finish Okami and put it to bed. Some may think it's a shallow reason to play a game, to say I finished it. But it's great for closure and over the years I have learned that I get most of my enjoyment from finishing a game than say, collecting 100% of all items.


So here I am, four hours into Okami HD and I'm past the last point I gave up at. I have to say it does feel aimless. Your next objective is stated in a elongated section of dialogue but other than clearing up the cursed areas of the world we have no villain (other than I assume the reappearance of Orochi) and we're just sort of running from place to place clearing up curses. This could be a fullfilling objective if the drama felt palpable but I feels like a generic errand, one big fetch quest. Lifting the curse from any area requires very little effort on my part so far and I just feel like I'm on a voyage of collecting skills and abilities.


I would be more engaged with the game's story, but the dev's choice of having every piece of dialogue hummed at you in a variety of annoying tones, means I don't have the patience to sit through the text. I so wished they'd had subtitled Japanese voice work or no voice work at all, but it is really grating to hear those noises. It's not like this game is dialogue light either, there's piles of the stuff! So, this has resulted in me skipping as many dialogue segments as possible which unfortunately has disconnected me from the plot.

I'm interested to see what else there is to experience in Okami, but it's not the gripping adventure I thought it would be. But I'm feeling very confident I'll have it beat this time. I guess Okami is my white wolf... no good?

Now I get to talk about the little Plumber with the red cap; Mario Odyssey is a refreshing game. Not that it's breaking the mold or anything, but it's just refreshing to play a colourful and adventurous romp. I find Mario Odyssey a very relaxing and easy game to get into.

The pacing is really good in Odyssey, unlike previous main console Mario games, collecting a Moon (this game's version of a Star) doesn't boot you out the level. You get to run around and collect the Moons as you wish. The game always lets you know how many Moons you need to proceed to the next stage and I think it's good that not every Moon is a mission in and of itself to obtain, you can collect a fair few just generally exploring and completing minor puzzles or platforming sections. 

I love Odyssey's controls. They are so precise, much more so that previous games. I normally find Mario is quite a floaty character to control and he normally slides a bit too much on normal terrain, but he feels so tight in Odyssey. I have yet to feel frustrated due to Odyssey's controls. Probably one of the biggest praises I could lavish on it.

It's also such a colourful and vibrant game, it has a great deal of energy in it. The worlds are so well designed aesthetically and for playability. This game feels like Mario has been distilled and bottled. The best criticism I have is that the bosses are a little too easy, but at the end of the day this a game aimed primarily at a younger audience and that's a good thing. I can give the controller to my four year old Daughter and she can play and enjoy Mario, as she should. It's still engaging to me as an adult, especially when it comes to obtaining the well hidden Moons.

So far so good, I'm hoping to make a huge dent in Okami by the end of next week and I imagine I will have wrapped up Mario Odyssey by then as well. Which will nicely fulfill my "game completed" urges.

As always I hope you enjoyed this blog entry and what have you been playing this past week? What are you looking forward to playing? I am always interested to know, so feel free to leave a comment.

Have a great weekend everybody!