Allow me this instance to tell you a story. A story that starts in late December.

I once read in November in GameInformer about a game called Okami, by Capcom and Clover Studios. You should know that I love wolves. And this game has you PLAYING as a wolf. So after dodging the FBI agents surrounding my house and driving to Wal-Mart in an old Cabbie, with noting but $45 to my name, I went inside and bought the game. Then I came home and played it.

And I loved it.

Honestly, this is one of the greatest experiences I've ever had playing a PlayStation2 game before. The game throws you right into the artwork, opening with a watercolor painting of a peaceful villiage. Then it pulls you into the story, with the 8 headed demon Orochi and a white wolf, known as Shiranui, helping a warrior to save the villiage maiden from the terrifying beast. Of course, the game goes way beyond that later in, but I don't enjoy spoilers.

Then I was...erm...DRAWN into the gameplay. As like any other modern RPG, you move around with the left analog stick and using buttons to jump and attack. But Okami has something new...the Celestrial Brush. You turn the world into a canvas and paint on it, and they happen. Draw a circle with a line through it, and a bomb spawns on the battefield. Draw a line going through a block and it splits in half. Draw an X with a line through it (like a snowflake) and you get a hailstorm. There are lots of others, but I'm lazy and won't get into detail.

And now, in early February, I have finally completed the game. I laughed at Issun, the one-inch "Wandering Artist", who kept making perverted comments to a priestess ("It only LOOKS like I'm looking at your melons!"), cried at moments I can't describe because it'd be a spoiler, and got excited when I powned the most powerful of bosses.

Do yourself a favor and get this game (if you got a PS2 at least). Even though it was rated as IGN's "Game of the Year", I will always find that an understatement. "Game of the Century", more like.

Believe

~Z

(P.S. Compare it to Zelda and I'll set my army of giant rolling fire eyeballs at you! >D)