Okami 2 was one of the most surprising game reveals ever, as evidenced by the fact that host Geoff Keighley almost broke into tears when talking about it at The Game Awards 2024. But there’s still a ton we don’t know about the sequel to the beloved PlayStation 2 cult hit, including its official title. That’s starting to change now, however, as director Hideki Kamiya and the rest of the team in charge of development open up about the highly anticipated project.
In a new interview with IGN, Kamiya and others laid out what fans of the 2006 game can expect from this follow-up two decades later. The original Okami let players control the goddess of the sun, Amaterasu, in the form of a white wolf with magical ink abilities who sets out to free a vibrant, painterly countryside from demonic curses. It was inspired by The Legend of Zelda but looked and played unlike anything else at the time.
Despite critical acclaim and a 2010 successor for the DS called Okamiden, Capcom eventually abandoned the franchise, seemingly due to poor sales. So why return to the beautiful world of Okami all these years later, especially when big publishers appear more focused than ever on blockbuster games that sell millions of copies? We learned the answer to “why now?” and some other important questions in IGN’s profile of the upcoming game:
- Capcom wanted to bring Okami back but was waiting until Kamiya was available again (he worked at Platinum Games until 2023)
- The team is using the RE Engine that all major Capcom games have been adopting in order to realize “Kamiya-san’s artistic dreams for this project”
- The sequel will be a direct continuation of the first game’s story, which Kamiya said he always felt was left unfinished (that’s Amaterasu in the reveal teaser)
- Despite being announced last December, the Okami sequel has only just begun development
- In talking about updating the control scheme of the original game, Kamiya said he wants “people of all ages to be able to enjoy it,” even if they aren’t hardcore gamers
- Okami has sold better than many people think: across ports and the HD remaster, the sales are currently at 4.6 million
- Kamiya isn’t the only veteran of the original game working on it. Kiyohiko Sakata heads up Capcom partner studio Heart Machine Games, which handled the HD port
Kamiya and the rest of those involved in Okami 2 didn’t go into much more detail beyond that, either because they’re waiting to reveal it later or, since it’s still so early in development, they don’t actually know themselves. It remains unclear just how big of a budget and launch the game will have, but one thing Capcom has proven in recent years is that even smaller releases, at least relative to a Monster Hunter Wilds or Resident Evil 7, can still deliver something exceptionally special.
That’s how I felt about 2024's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, a gorgeous action strategy game with a streamlined focus on its core mechanics. While some may have a desire for Okami to now be realized in a sprawling open world full of characters to meet and secrets to discover, akin to how Zelda has evolved in recent years, I’d love to see the sequel stay more focused and not become too burdened with modern AAA expectations and bloat. It might also be the only way we see Okami 2 come out a few years from now, rather than being made to wait over half a decade for a sequel many of us have already been dreaming of across multiple console generations.
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