And by review I mean hatefest.
I don't consider any game worth tossing (except ET) but still, Okage: Shadow King was an overall bad game. And now I'm going to disjointedly tell you why.
If you're still interested, I'm going to review (bash to bits) a fairly small title for the PS2. I'm not quite sure when this sucker came out because there was dead-to-nil publicity for it (Wait, wait - October 2001) and it's general reception in mystical Internet land was that it was smack average, but I didn't fail Algebra by knowing or caring anything about averages, numbers, or those stupid little grid things!
This is one of those games where my first impression was, "God, this is a bit unplayable, isn't it?" Sadly, I was oh-so-right on that. The battle system is clunky and bland at best, and broken, boring, incessantly annoying at worst, and in the end leaves a sour taste in my mouth and an overall sense of discontent.
I really do want to love this game, in the same sense that I want to love all games that I or someone with money saw fit to purchase. Because I do so hate being ripped off.
It's actually a rather humorous game, at least until you actually play. That's when you have to scour the poorly designed dungeons and actually fight things. I believe I've said before that fighting things in this game doesn't happen. Oh, and Stan, your random pop quizzes before every three fights don't help in the least. I'm tired and bored and I just want to get to the stupid save spot so I can go play a real game, and here you are asking me how I like to eat my fried babies or some other wannabe-demonic shit.
And how is it that everyjoe can just pick up a stick and kill ghosts with it? Honestly, the first weapon in the game is a random stick you picked up off the ground. I was of the opinion that ghosts were ethereal beings that wouldn't keel over dead if you poked them with the nearest rotting tree branch.
Oh, and going back to how shitty combat is, can you even switch targets? And let's not forget the fact that if your wimpy little avatar, Ari, is ever killed, it's an automatic game over. Apparently your buddies are all pricks who just leave you to die if you ever show the slightest hint of weakness.
Don't even think for a moment you're going to be leveling up and getting some shiny-keen abilities with which to better kill things. Level ups are for games that aren't trying their damnedest to kill you in every other fight.
Now, as for the music, it's not too bad at first... but then you realize how repetitive it is. And how grating. And that in order to play for any prolonged period of time you find yourself turning the volume way down to spare your hearing.
Alright, so the music is shitty.
The graphics aren't too bad, nicely stylized I'd even say, but it just isn't vibrant in the way the game needed it to be. Everything seems dusty and a bit washed out. For today's standards it's pretty much shit, though, but maybe it was nice back in 2001. So...
It's not as shitty as the Grand Poo that is combat, but shitty all the same.
When you're not trudging around a town feeling lost, trudging around a field feeling lost and being chased by ghosts, or trudging around a dungeon feeling lost, being chased by ghosts, and slowly going insane because by now you've forgotten why the hell you're in the dungeon in the first place... you're either in combat or in a plot-related scene. The latter isn't as annoying as the first, (unless you hate cutscenes, because it'll be sanity-snapping then) but then the writers lose the small amount of funny they had and tried to make the plot deep. The combat I've already gone over enough, I think.
I originally picked up (fished out of a Gamestop's bargain bin) this game because of how quirky and neat the back of the box made it sound. Something about being possessed by a ghost and having to go on a quest to kill all the other evil guys so that you'll be the strongest evil guy. Instead, you play a wimpy androgynous kid who's such a nobody that his family doesn't even merit a last name. Shortly after the game begins, your gender-confused avatar's tart of a sister gets cursed by a ghost or something, and suddenly there's some odd business with a magic lamp and a demon summoning circle or what have you. Finally, after a solid hour of scrolling through text, you've got a smart-talking demon thing living in your shadow and calling you its *****.
At least it was kind of funny.
But sadly, around the half-way point the game suddenly lost all that and just became shit, depressing me to no end because of how much time I'd wasted on it when I could've been doing something more worthwhile, like baking cookies for orphans. Except I'd never do that in real life.
Overall, Okage: Shadow King deserves its place in the gaming bargain bin, but you can lend it out to "friends" who don't know better and make them think you're a nice person for it while in reality you're a cold heartless bastard lacking any semblance of a soul.
I don't consider any game worth tossing (except ET) but still, Okage: Shadow King was an overall bad game. And now I'm going to disjointedly tell you why.
If you're still interested, I'm going to review (bash to bits) a fairly small title for the PS2. I'm not quite sure when this sucker came out because there was dead-to-nil publicity for it (Wait, wait - October 2001) and it's general reception in mystical Internet land was that it was smack average, but I didn't fail Algebra by knowing or caring anything about averages, numbers, or those stupid little grid things!
This is one of those games where my first impression was, "God, this is a bit unplayable, isn't it?" Sadly, I was oh-so-right on that. The battle system is clunky and bland at best, and broken, boring, incessantly annoying at worst, and in the end leaves a sour taste in my mouth and an overall sense of discontent.
I really do want to love this game, in the same sense that I want to love all games that I or someone with money saw fit to purchase. Because I do so hate being ripped off.
It's actually a rather humorous game, at least until you actually play. That's when you have to scour the poorly designed dungeons and actually fight things. I believe I've said before that fighting things in this game doesn't happen. Oh, and Stan, your random pop quizzes before every three fights don't help in the least. I'm tired and bored and I just want to get to the stupid save spot so I can go play a real game, and here you are asking me how I like to eat my fried babies or some other wannabe-demonic shit.
And how is it that everyjoe can just pick up a stick and kill ghosts with it? Honestly, the first weapon in the game is a random stick you picked up off the ground. I was of the opinion that ghosts were ethereal beings that wouldn't keel over dead if you poked them with the nearest rotting tree branch.
Oh, and going back to how shitty combat is, can you even switch targets? And let's not forget the fact that if your wimpy little avatar, Ari, is ever killed, it's an automatic game over. Apparently your buddies are all pricks who just leave you to die if you ever show the slightest hint of weakness.
Don't even think for a moment you're going to be leveling up and getting some shiny-keen abilities with which to better kill things. Level ups are for games that aren't trying their damnedest to kill you in every other fight.
Now, as for the music, it's not too bad at first... but then you realize how repetitive it is. And how grating. And that in order to play for any prolonged period of time you find yourself turning the volume way down to spare your hearing.
Alright, so the music is shitty.
The graphics aren't too bad, nicely stylized I'd even say, but it just isn't vibrant in the way the game needed it to be. Everything seems dusty and a bit washed out. For today's standards it's pretty much shit, though, but maybe it was nice back in 2001. So...
It's not as shitty as the Grand Poo that is combat, but shitty all the same.
When you're not trudging around a town feeling lost, trudging around a field feeling lost and being chased by ghosts, or trudging around a dungeon feeling lost, being chased by ghosts, and slowly going insane because by now you've forgotten why the hell you're in the dungeon in the first place... you're either in combat or in a plot-related scene. The latter isn't as annoying as the first, (unless you hate cutscenes, because it'll be sanity-snapping then) but then the writers lose the small amount of funny they had and tried to make the plot deep. The combat I've already gone over enough, I think.
I originally picked up (fished out of a Gamestop's bargain bin) this game because of how quirky and neat the back of the box made it sound. Something about being possessed by a ghost and having to go on a quest to kill all the other evil guys so that you'll be the strongest evil guy. Instead, you play a wimpy androgynous kid who's such a nobody that his family doesn't even merit a last name. Shortly after the game begins, your gender-confused avatar's tart of a sister gets cursed by a ghost or something, and suddenly there's some odd business with a magic lamp and a demon summoning circle or what have you. Finally, after a solid hour of scrolling through text, you've got a smart-talking demon thing living in your shadow and calling you its *****.
At least it was kind of funny.
But sadly, around the half-way point the game suddenly lost all that and just became shit, depressing me to no end because of how much time I'd wasted on it when I could've been doing something more worthwhile, like baking cookies for orphans. Except I'd never do that in real life.
Overall, Okage: Shadow King deserves its place in the gaming bargain bin, but you can lend it out to "friends" who don't know better and make them think you're a nice person for it while in reality you're a cold heartless bastard lacking any semblance of a soul.
