Okage: Shadow King

"An odd ball game that brings out the inner child"

Have you ever thought about your shadow and why it's there? Or the way your shadow seems to mimic every move you make without a complaint? What would you think if one day your shadow becomes possessed and begins to tell YOU what to do? You would no longer have control of your body but will succumb to the power of this dark possession, like a puppet with strings. Your shadow will be carelessly throwing your fragile body into a dangerous and humorous masquerade all across the world in search of its true power. In the game of Okage the Shadow King the main character quickly becomes overshadowed by an omnipotent being. His sense of a normal life will be completely shattered and his weary body dragged through several worlds that hold the key not only to his freedom but also to the true evil power of his shadow.

Okage the Shadow King is your typical RPG. There is really nothing in the department of game play that will knock your socks off, especially if you are an avid RPGer such as myself! Okage uses a unique battle system that on the exterior sounds like good mesh between Suikoden and Final Fantasy's battle system. The battle system may not sound to bad of mix but when meshed together in the worst way it tends to create a problem! First you wait for your gauge to fill up ala Final Fantasy's ATB or Automatic Time battle system. Then after you make your selection of what you would like to do then you watch you character jump fifty feet to the enemy and begin slicing and dicing, this also applies for multiple characters who's gauge fills up at the same time (Suikoden), so far so good! The worst part of this system is when you have more than one character and since a lot times there is always a character who is faster than the other one's right? Right! here's where the problem is, while one character is in the heat of battle and the other characters gauge is about to fill up then BAM!! All action, everything comes to a screeching halt just so you can input your characters command, once you input your selection action will resume from where it was left off. To me this destroys the atmosphere a battle system should create.

Okage is also very unbalanced when it comes characters and enemies. The enemies usually come in large amounts and most of the time tends to pick on certain characters, which results in an automatic death of that character. Also the most crucial thing you have to remember about fighting battles in Okage is that if your main character dies then it's an automatic game over for you. So remember to save often because all it takes is one battle where the enemies gang up on the main character and poof all you hard work is flushed down the toilet. The leveling up system is also ripped directly from Suikoden. In order to level up you need a thousand experience points no matter what level you are on. When you first encounter enemies they are worth lets just say for an example 250 points, so for every enemy you kill its 250 points but once you go up a level the experience points you will receive is cut in half so instead of 250 it is now 125 points of experience. All in all the level up system isn't a bad system it just isn't an original system.

While Okage's game play may not be the hook to reel you into this game the story line will. This fairy tale starts out in a far away land with a main character named Ari who begins a normal day in a house outside of Tenel. Ari enters the kitchen to see a mysterious bottle sitting on the kitchen table and then asks his mother where she got it. She explains that Ari's dad bought it off a traveling merchant and it is supposed to be some kind of expensive artifact yet no one has been able to take the top off the bottle. Ari gives it a shot and well he can't either, what did you expect a sword in the stone intro? Anyway Ari must fulfill his chores like a good boy in order to go the circus that recently came to town but his lucky sister gets to go without doing her chores, go figure. Well after completing the chores Ari finally sets out to the circus a tad late do to his fathers excessive talking. After getting to the circus and realizing he missed out on another good thing he decides to head home. Ari is stopped by a circus person and is told that ghosts roam these areas at night and to take caution when walking home. Ari then sets out for home and sees his little sister getting attacked by a ghost. He quickly comforts her and takes her home. After the doctor takes a look he realizes that she has struck with Pig Latin. Since Ari family is left with no alternative, they must open the bottle to cure her. They hold a séance in the basement of their house and poof out comes jumps a shadow that can cure Ari's sister but he also needs a host for himself. From there on the story takes hilarious twists and turns but of course I won't spoil it for you. The story line is perfect for anyone who is a) A Toy 'r' Us kid or b) A kid at heart!

The audio of this game is mediocre at best. While there are few good knee slapping songs to keep you entertained the overall music is pretty poor. Let's start with the battle theme song, it sucks, no really it does because it does nothing to capture the tense moment or the feel of the battlefield. Most composers for games try and picture themselves in the shoes of the main character and feel the songs out but I think this composer pictured himself at the bottom of a drained whiskey bottle singing ''She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain''. Most of the town theme songs are pretty good and actually highlight the feel of the town, I wonder if it was a different composer who did these? The music has a very limited variety to it and hence another nail in the coffin for the music department but I will give them some credit because this is Zener Works first RPG. While there are few good tunes to listen to, just make sure have a CD player handy when it comes to the battles.

In another twist of innovation Okage uses a Nightmare before Christmas art style. At first it may take you a little time to get use to the bizarre style but in the end it fits this game perfectly. The childish atmosphere is complemented nicely by it's childish graphics. The character's have plenty of frames of animation and there never seems to be any shape or form of slow down. Okage's magic effects are extremely poor for a game released so far into the PS2 life span. Sometimes the magic and effects don't match what it should be. A good example is a spell called Frost the guys in charge swear frost looks like a blue whirlwind, I thought it would like more like a huge chunk of ice or a snow storm. I will warn you now that there are no mind-blowing graphics or superb FMV's this game uses its story line and battle system to support itself as a good game. One last warning the load times are horrible so be prepared to sit there for a good couple of seconds between the start of battles, the end of battles, and entering/exiting a town.

To buy or rent? That is the question. I strongly suggest anyone who is slightly interested in this game to rent it because it takes a while to get into. Okage has absolutely no replay value what so ever, unless you get a sudden urge to play through it again for the fun of it. There is not a whole lot to this game in terms of side quests or extra things to do, it is a very linear game! So do yourself and your pocket book the favor and rent this before you buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/03, Updated 03/05/03