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Okami and the Problem of Collecting

Posted by Cole Stryker

I finally finished Okami on the Wii. There were parts of it that I adored, and parts that I found infurating. I talked a bit about Okami's wealth of collectables earlier, but I'm not quite done whinging about it.

I could list the items that one can collect in Okami, but it would be pages long. Most of these are only useful as currency, and have no meaningful function beyond getting more items. All this becomes a chore very quickly, and I see it as the Achilles heel of adventure games at large. The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker was especially guilty of this, but Okami blows it out of the, uh, water.

I was able to finish the game after thirty hours. I could have easily completed it in half that time if I wasn't regularly prompted to dig up treasure, bomb a wall, break a barrel, slice through tall grasses, or water a plant. What's more, completists could spend another fifteen hours finding all the game's hidden items.

What's especially annoying is that these games insist on providing the player with little cinematic sequences, irritating sound effects, and worst of all, dialogue boxes. "You found a pearl." Ok, great. I see that a pearl popped out of that chest. "It shines in the sunlight." Augh! Why do we have to click through this description every single time? FFFFFFUUUUUUUU-

I pick on Okami because it's otherwise so graceful. But why does the game have to constantly hold our hands? With your sidekick constantly giving you advice, I am reminded of Tim Rogers's thoughts on Shigeru Miyamoto:

Maybe he’d played the latest Zelda games, where a blasted text box will scream at you about the function of a key every single god damned time you pick up a key: “You got a magic key! . . . This is a magic key! . . . It can be used to unlock one door! After unlocking one door, this magic key will vanish!”

I call these items "currencies" because they have no intrinsic value. They are only used to trade in for other things that actually help you in the game. Get rid of them. They drag down the pace of the game and make me want to just give up. Some might argue that because these items are "optional", and can be easily ignored. No. I'd rather have one nice steak dinner than eat twenty cheeseburgers from White Castle, even if you give me the option to forego the bun.

+ DIGG

+ DEL.ICIO.US

+ REDDIT

Posted Feb 03 2009, 03:00 PM

Filed under: wii, cole stryker, okami

Comments

AlexB said:

I honestly had no issue with the collecting issue about halfway through the game I realized I had way more money than I needed, and I stopped digging up every little thing I found. But yes, the constant repetition of the objects' descriptions was annoying.

I personally think Okami's biggest fault is that it artificially lengthened the game in a few spots. Seriously, the Orochi battle was cool...the first time. The overall pacing of the game and story was wonky, too.

Every fault is little, though. Minor blemishes on a really wonderful game.

February 3, 2009 6:55 PM

Cole Stryker said:

Yes! I can't believe I forgot to mention how the game forces the player to play most of the bosses twice and the super long, repetitious Orochi battle three times. There are a few other games that have done this but I can't remember who to blame. I seem to recall several SNES games that force you to replay all the bosses right before the final boss. Anyone?

February 3, 2009 11:18 PM

Amber Ahlborn said:

Huh, I enjoyed the boss battles enough that I was happy to replay them.

February 4, 2009 1:57 AM

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

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Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

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