Okami vs Twilight Princess

[H Thompson]

I have a feeling a poll would be redundant considering the inherent nintendo bias in this forum, so I won't bother with that. So if you don't like essay dorkisms, you can get the hell out of here.

To be honest I'm not quite sure myself, Okami is certainly a more original with a really great concept with the combat, making something that's fast and action filled, but that also has a tactical element to it with the celestial brush. Controlling is also a lot more fun with ammy, being a lot more flexible, in general the style of the game borrows quite a bit from platform games, whereas in Zelda, lining up a simple jump can prove far more difficult than it should be, and in general there's more inventivness in the gameplay, art direction and music. And despite being a wolf without the power of speech, ammy is just bursting with personality.
But it's difficult to say no to Twilight Princess, I'm no Zelda veteran, the only other one I've played is Ocarina of Time, which TP surpassed in my opinion, with it's longer play time, wider variety and orginal twists on old gameplay mechanics, and a bigger, darker story, even though it is very similar in some ways, it did eventually really grab a hold of me, and as I've said, I've never felt so emotion in a game as I did for Midna. She certainly makes for a far better character than Issun, who as far as sidekicks go certainly isn't worst but could really be quite annoying at times.
Zelda does also have a longer playing time of course and yet it feels quite natrual, Okami's length seems a bit comftable to me, like it should of either been a lot shorter or a lot longer, as it is it seems they had too many ideas for your 15 hour type games, but not enough for a big proper RPG, so as it is, it feels a little padded out, fighting the same boss 3 times, is certainly quite lazy. So it just seems like it needed a few more story elements and gameplay ideas to make it feel really epic.
Although with all that said Okami, has a much looser structure to it, Zelda's dungeon gameplay can give it a bit of bland level based feel, and it means you know exactly what's coming, in Okami I never quite knew what was coming next.

I think that'll do for now.

[sacrelicious]

I have been looking at this essay for a while, waiting for someone else to get involved in the discussion, but lacking that I'm going to respond.

As a Zelda veteran I can add to what is less than stellar for Twilight Princess. In my mind it starts really kiddie, although it grows up really fast. But some of the things you don't like in TP I have to disagree with. Zelda's dungeon gameplay is not bland for me. I think we've come to expect having to beat levels in every Zelda game released. What is truly amazing about Twilight Princess is the levels. One room can be more complicated than entire dungeons in earlier Zelda adventures. I spent three hours in the City in the Sky level before I had figured out where to go and what to do.

I think you hit the nail on the head with Okami, but the more I play Twilight Princess the more I am amazed at the amount of thought that goes into each aspect of the game, down to the design and puzzles of each invidual room.

[H Thompson]

Well bland is probably the wrong word, I just mean it gets a bit too predictable and wish there could be a little more variety, I mean they certainly did have some great inventions in TP, the iron boots being magnetic, the crazy spinner thing and I loved the double hook shots.
But I don't quite see why not knowing what to do for 3 hours is, fun it's a testament to the size and complexity, but that's not always a good thing, and really, not being able to save in the middle of the dungeon can be quite infuriating, they remedied that somewhat with that thing that warps you in and out, but you couldn't use it properly in the sky city.

[Tino]

The controls and gameplay on Twilight Princess were amazing, but it wasn't the best Zelda game. I would say TP is better because it was challenging at times, but at the same time a lot of fun. Also, the game took me over 40 hours to beat it the first time. I want to play it again and get all the bugs and other items.

[SubSane]

I own both but only completed Okami (in fact I wrote a guide for it). I loved this game because it was so different, and dark, and certainly more mature than many of the goriest, most gruesome games out there. The controls were fluid and the morality in the ending didn't feel like it was being forced on the player. The NPCs were also very well-written and I actually cared what happened to them as I progressed through the game.

I've yet to play TP but will soon. From what I've seen so far it's comparable to OoT in it's story, but I can't really give an opinion yet.

[Channel Surfer]

Nice to know my casual, offhand comments can still inspire whole threads around here. :silly:

Speaking broadly, I think my preference towards Okami stems largely from the fact that it's IMO a much more cohesive, developed experience story-wise, thematically, and artistically than TP. It's not enough that it's one of very few games where its look is driven by a consistent artistic vision at such a conscious level (not to mention being one of the best looking games I've ever seen period), but also that its artistic vision becomes a vital part of the gameplay and storyline itself - most obviously in the form of a celestial brush actively interacting and sometimes outright beautifully changing the landscape as well as the role of Issun himself, first as an artist claiming to want to learn your techniques and later making a chronicle of your journey as art. Less obviously but just as importantly is its emphasis on myth and heroism (or perhaps also deism here) in a way that's not incidental but rather playing a pivotal role in the game, which are inevitably tied in the first point. The core motivation of your actions from beginning to end are in doing godly acts of goodness, where helping people makes you stronger and builds your part of the reoccurring myth, which in turn gets recorded as art. There are a lot of subtle strokes here that come together very well, IMO, that more than overcome any nitpicks I might have.

Twilight Princess, great though it is in many ways, doesn't seem to have as much focus or point in this regard. The game is at its greatest with its first half when the game is more event and story driven - be it when you're trying to remove the encroachment of Twilight over Hyrule or having to engage in horseback combat to save the kids and such - where there feels like there's an immediate sense of purpose in your actions. By about the second half it loses that purpose however and degrades into a more traditional Zelda dungeon item collectathon in finding the mirror pieces (and putting the plot largely on hold until done), made worse with the increasingly rigid structural nature of the Zelda template making even Dungeons feel formulaic and out-of-place with the game's broader ambitions. The series does need a shake-up in a number of ways, and I'm glad to see the developers recognize this as well (http://www.gamasutra.com/gdc2007/index.php?id=13103).

Do like both quite a bit though, regardless of whichever I think is better than the other. Both boast great character personalities (both the leads and incidentals), large worlds to explore, and plenty of secrets and gameplay variety to keep things interesting. Both are class acts.

[Kiyosuki]

Its hard to say really. I think as far as gameplay goes, Twilight Princess mixes it up a lot more which is a pretty solid standard in the series. You got all these tools with very distinct purposes, two distinct forms you can turn into, and the situations are a lot more varied. Okami has a good system but eventually it essentially becomes pretty straightforward. But in general I came away from Okami feeling like I had completed a much more fuller game, it felt like a mini epic. Its art direction, although I won't specifically say better since its going for a distinct style, is certainly very beautiful and rich. There's lots of references to really obscure Japanese folklore you don't hear about too often in the west. As strange as it sounds, swords made of light have appeared in far eastern mythology for a really long time.

Some thought it was kinda weird there near the end with the space ship, but I thought it was a creative take on a lot of the mythology. I mean, its all wild fiction anyways. And the gameplay system is pretty unique. I would have liked more enemies that used the brush against you too, but it didn't detract from it. It did feel a lot more complete, Twilight Princess was awesome most of the ways through but it felt like it kind of fizzled out in the last quarter of the game. I guess I'm saying I liked Okami a little better, but that doesn't mean I didn't like TP.