Okami October 12, 2004
In her blog entry on this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Robin mentions an upcoming game called Okami, which has an amazing graphics style. Think Wind Waker + procedural Japanese calligraphy. There’s a trailer on Gamespot. It looks really really good, even if the gameplay seems standard. The game is developed by Clover Studio (what a typically Japanese name somehow), and it’s published by Capcom.
I’ve been watching this for a while, and I’m really looking forward to it. For once, I am truely interested in the graphical style (and merely hope that the gameplay matches its level of completeness), because it’ll prove to execs that “cel shading” is not the only Non Photorealistic style obtainable. My thesis was on NPR, so I guess I have a sort of invested interest in proliferating a variety of graphical styles, other than just the typical Realistic 3D and Cartooney-ish 3D that we get at the moment. NPR styles also often imply a level of abstraction from the real world, allowing the game to be something other than realistic.
Bring on watercolours, oil paintings and all the abstract styles you can possibly give us, whether it’s based on grand masters’ work, or a style all your own! We need more of these opportunities to get away from the fetishism of realism.
This is what I would have written if I weren’t so lazy.