The recent trend of "cell shading" is typically hit or miss for me. In some instances the graphics are richly stylized and look amazing, but at other times it looks like a half thrown together project. The most recent "cell shaded" endeavor I've come across is Okami, and boy does it ever fall in that first category. Okami, from a visual perspective alone, is an amazing work of art. When the gameplay is factored in, Okami becomes simply outstanding!

Okami follows Ama Terasu, a sun god who takes on the form of a wolf, as it sets about to help heal the world by ridding it of evil beasts. Besides the cell shading graphics and the fact that the player runs around doing combat as a wolf, the other big innovation with Okami is the inclusion of the paintbrush. By clicking a single button, the game goes into a pause, where the entire screen takes on a golden brown hue with a magical paintbrush hovering above the landscape as if some god is waiting to draw. Though not used all the time, the paintbrush is used quite frequently to solve puzzles and perform actions. During the preview I used the paintbrush to draw the final star in a pattern in the sky, to cut objects in half, to attack my enemies, and to draw a magical river through space that allowed me to swim from one destination to the next. Most of the time the paintbrush is used during the down time of puzzle solving, but even during battles the action never slowed down whenever I had to bring out the brush. For the most part it is easy to draw with the paintbrush, so there were no difficulties in whipping it out momentarily to perform a slash on an enemy.

Outside of the paintbrush use, combat is fairly typical. Enemies for the most part were easy to dispatch as several swipes with my character or a jumping combo was enough to lay waste to their vial existence in a matter of moments. During my time with the game, combat was always preceded by a ring of fire coming up around the area I was in, and then the enemies would appear in front of me. Once all the enemies were destroyed the environmental blockade of fire diminished and I was free once again to roam the world and head to my next destination.

The majority of my time spent playing the preview seemed to involve running about and solving puzzles, which I had absolutely no qualms about. Actually, I preferred the quiet times and paintbrush solving puzzles rather than the combat, but that isn't to say the combat was bad. Much like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, though the combat gets the job done and looks nice, even in that game I enjoyed the quiet moments of sailing around on the waters than the actual fighting. Okami is quite similar in that respect, plus the fact that Okami features the best use of cell shading since The Wind Waker.

The game also controls really well, as it always performed how I wanted it to. There weren't any instance of me getting frustrated when Ama Teresu didn't behave like I wanted. From running around the world, which leaves beautiful streaks of flowers in Ama Teresu's wake, to engaging in combat, Okami worked flawlessly.

If there is one complaint I have it is that there were a few instance where I didn't know what exactly to do. Perhaps clues and hints were prevalent in the cutscenes, but I skipped over them (only watching one long enough to see its visual style and sense of storytelling) so that I could maximize my limited time spent with the game. Luckily, helpful ladies milled about the game stations, and were quick to point out the solution to a problem if the player were unable to grasp it right away. I thank that woman, because otherwise I might still be trying to figure out the fact that all I had to do was place a star rather than trace them.

Okami, simply put, was a spectacle that instantly lured me in with its beautiful art style, but kept me glued to the television screen with its dazzling gameplay. The PS2 looks to have a hit on its hand when Okami is eventually released.