Ugh, Okami. That goes in the pile where I point at it with extreme disgust and say "If you ever make something as utterly broken as this, you have failed as a developer and/or publisher. Shame on you."
Sorry, but I don't care how pretty a game looks. If the game is broken because you didn't test your controls at all, you have failed and deserve no praise. Art should bring people happiness, not pure rage because the controls and mechanics don't work. First they give you broken combat until they finally give you one of the bead weapons and you can put away the disc that doesn't work. And then they load you down with so many magic spells that require you to draw various forms of circles that the game can't differentiate between which spell you want, no matter how perfectly you draw its shape. And then they decide to make you do some timed mission where you need to be absolutely perfect with these spells because making one mistake means you won't have enough time to finish. And of course, because the spell casting is broken, you will be making many, many mistakes.
Oh, and not to mention that it's loaded down with way too much pointless dialog. In the event that I actually wanted to play any more Okami, I probably couldn't, because Isun won't shut the hell up about random nonsense that I don't care about.
Yep. I will never see Okami as art. I will only see it as another shining example of how NOT to make a game. In fact, that's my general rule for whether or not I think a game is art. If it just looks pretty but isn't any fun to play, it's not art. It's just a bad game with nice graphics. A game that is art should be a good game to play as well, not just a good game to watch gameplay videos of. Remember, you're making an interactive experience, not a painting or a movie.
But hey. Everyone's mileage will vary depending on what they think makes something art in general, and what they think a game should do to reach that standard. Maybe that's what we should be discussing here. Forget about Flower: Why don't we talk about what we each think makes a game art? And you can say if Flower fits that or not.
Liberaliter said:
I don't see how Flower is art more than any other game, apparently making your game as pretentious and indie as possible is the best way to become 'art'.
Hello, Braid.
