Description: 

An adventure game for the PS2, Okami emulates the brush style of Japanese water paintings, and uses it to create a world that can be directly interacted with a tool known as the Celestial Brush. The game uses its unique artstyle to bring the world of Japanese folklore to life, allowing for vibrant animations that bring honor to the artists of Japanese past.

Essay: 

Okami is a callback to the art of Japanese history. The art director of Okami looked at ukiyoe paintings and kirie (pictures cut out of paper), for inspiration. The designers of Okami felt a certain level of culture shock looking at these pictures, and they could now feel empathetic to how Westerns felt when looking at Japanese art. They emulated the feel of these paintings by studying the composition and framing of these paintings. This translated into using them for environments and scenery for various places in the game. They used paintings of the coastline to depict a rocky coastline with boulders and pebbles strewn around. They used pictures of Kyoto, to depict the towering and mysterious buildings of a city. They used temples and old statues to imitate the peaceful environment of sanctuaries and the stern look of ruins. However, the most beautiful thing about this game is how you could interact with it. The Celestial Brush allows for some of the most unique elements to be added to a game. Using it makes a canvas appear in the background, allowing for various objects and actions to appear or occur in the background. This makes you feel like you are an actual part of the world. The culture of the game feel convincing and immersive because of this. Okami shows that if you want to make a game feel like you’re a part of it, you need to be consistent to be immersive, and make you feel that your interactions matter in the world.