A beautiful, artistic game and I must say, I do love art!
The game tells the story of a white wolf named Shiranui that once saved a small village named Kamiki from the 8-headed dragon named Oorochi in the lands of Nippon. Soon it suffered poison after the great battle and dies instantly. After it's death, Shiranui's legacy lived on by a statue that was made from the villagers, and Oorochi was sealed forever and peace came to the land. Is the story over? Of course not! 100 years has passed now and a crazy lunatic opens the seal and the furious dragon is awaken once again. Soon a young maiden named Sasuka resurrects a Goddess named Amaterasu that takes the form of a white wolf, which is Shiranui reborn! So her quest is to restore peace to the lands of Nippon with the help of a Wandering Artist, Issun and the story unfolds there....
The gameplay is pure awesome! You will be using a varitey of weapons that comes in 3 sets; Reflector, Rosary and Gaive. It's sorta hard to explain these in details but it's simple once you get the hang of it with the Wii Remote. If you played Zelda: Twilight Princess, you'll see similarites with the combat but it's quite different though. Sadly you can't use these weapons anytime you want but only when enemies appear out of nowhere, encountering boss battles or when you find enemy scrolls throughout the world of Nippon. Otherwise you'll spend most of your time running around finding secrets, talking to townsfolk and discovering the beautiful world. The gameplay is definitely Zelda-like but you can't lock-on or anything but it's not frustrating when mastering the weapons. The only thing that's frustrating is the Gaive weapon and it definitely takes some time to get used to. But if you can't harness the power of that weapon, then you can always switch to the others (they're ALOT easier).
Oh I forgot to mention, Okami has a great feature; the celestial brush! You use it to draw things such as creating blossoms, leaf pads etc. and bring them to life to help your way through. They're also powers that destroys your enemies too such as the power slash, thunder, fire and many more! Trust me it's sooooo awesome especially when you can freeze your enemies when drawing anytime you want. Be careful though because you are limited with ink pots as you use your celestial brush but if you help people along the quest, you can increase your powers and become stronger overtime.
The soundtrack is absolutely, positively amazing! I love every bit of music in this game and that's what really makes it good! My main 3 are Shinshuu Fields, Ryoshima Coast, & The Sun Rises (you won't hear this til the very end of the game). There are, of course, sad, creepy, and dramatic music that makes my heart skip a beat...really did I mention the music is that good?! The composers sure did put alot of effort into this and I highly praise them for it! ^^
The graphics is, dare I say, artistic! The art-style reminds me a mixture of Wind Waker's cel-shaded graphics & Yoshi's Island's crayon design but 10x BETTER! I love how the world shines and sparkles as you restore peace to the land. The animation of the characters is pretty funny and you may laugh. Trust me, it''s astounding and I'm just as amazed by it as Twilight Princess's style (though it's more realistic but in a way, artistic too!).
In conclusion, this game is an absolute beast (like literally) and a must-buy! If you're a fan of the Legend of Zelda series then you must look into this. Now would I say that it's better than Zelda? No! I won't compare it to any other because I'll always Iove the Zelda series to death and it'll always remain one of my favorite childhood games. But Okami is one of its rare treasures and it's highly addictive, and it made me become a fan of wolves now!
So do not miss out on this, it's a great Wii title (though this was originally a PS2 port) with awesome gameplay! So with my last statement, please buy Oookami, Oookami, Oookami, Oookami! ^_^ 10/10