Critique - Okami and Castlevania PDF

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Critical Response for Zain Dinaith's class...

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Okami I think it’s clear why we were given Okami as one of our week 11 Play! Responses since our focus that week was on aesthetics. Okami has an unbelievable aesthetic, from its visuals to the sound design, which largely are the only stand out features of the game.. Developed by Clover Studio, Okami uses traditional Japanese painting as inspiration for it’s defining art style which creates a beautiful sense that you are moving through a painting as you play the game. Similar to the movement of a brush where you feel the weight of each stroke, Okami Amaterasu, the wolf you control in-game, has a real sense of movement and weight to it that keeps you feeling the artistic inspiration of the developers beyond the sequences where you quite literally use brush strokes to alter the world around you. This is the game's main mechanic beyond its 3D adventure platforming and relatively mundane combat sequences. Though I have to say it’s done quite well. Duke Nukem Forever showed us all that drawing with a mouse or controller is considerably more difficult than using your actual hand. Luckily, the developers of Okami clearly knew this would be an issue, and they planned for it. Playing with my mouse, trackpad, or even controller, I never felt like I wasn’t in control of my brush strokes. During combat sequences, I didn’t feel like I needed think too hard about the brush mechanic, I just new what I had to do and I did it, which is consistent with the games overall sense of flowing moving and grace. Unfortunately, Okami didn’t sell very well, only selling 200,000 copies in North America the year of its release, 2006. People often believe this is the reason behind the closure of Clover Studios, but in reality, it was simply dissolved when three key developers left the company. But don’t shed a tear too quickly; After forming Seeds Inc, and merging with ODD, a new company, Platinum Games was born. If you recognise that name, it's because they’re doing quite well for themselves being the creators of such hits as Bayonetta. All in all, Okami is a beautiful game from its visuals and audio right down to the mechanics which reflect the themes of the game through feel and makes it a great example of art in the medium… Probably why it was chosen to be displayed in the Smithsonian “Art of Video Games” Exhibition.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night If Okami’s addition to the Play! list was for an examination about aesthetic, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was added for a focused examination of genre. after all, it’s the game that helped define metroidvania as a genre, to the extent that the “vania” part of the name is ripped straight from the title. This is not to put the aesthetics by the wayside as Symphony of the Night was Koji Igarashi’s attempt to revamp the series after it had grown tired. This shows in the game’s design through the addition of rpg mechanics and non-linear adventuring, though the standout change is the beautiful new art style. Ayami Kojima did away with the americanized, clunky characters of the previous games in favour of a more sleek, anime inspired style that simply looks amazing. Paired with the gothic design of the castle and stylized enemies, it all comes together to make a captivating visual landscape. Which brings me to the gameplay; Up until this point in the series, Castlevania was largely a linear adventure, with only a few optional or branching paths. This all changes in Symphony of the Night, due to the whole game taking place in one large interconnecting level though it was inspired by Legend of Zelda and not Metroid as you may think. There are some questionable things about this games design such as the addition of many items and

weapons you can collect. In theory would inspire exploration, but due to the lackluster nature of many of the items you find, they mostly just become inventory clutter and don’t do much to drive you towards more exploration. To this, I would argue that Symphony of the Night is still just the beginning of what Metroidvania style games would become and so it was still finding its footing which excuses some of the more questionable decisions. Regardless, Castlevania: Symphony of the night is a great visual experience due to its unique aesthetic which is what I believe drove people to keep playing through a game that clearly wasn’t sure where it wanted to go with itself. I mean…. Don’t get be started on the whole upside-down castle crap. Castlevania

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drastic revamp of the series Beautiful gothic art style Anime style characters Play as alucard Amazing player movement Environment art done well with 3d touches Enemies are large but die easily What it makes up for in aesthetic design it loses in level design Useless collectables Encourages but doesnt reward exploration...