Okage: Shadow King

"A bizzare charm that will disturb you in a good way"

Okage: Shadow King is an offbeat game about the exploits of a young boy who fights evil, in the name of evil. Along the way, he meets up with a bunch of weird and wacky heroes who will aid him in his journey. This engrossing journey will keep you guessing with the constant humour and odd activities.

Story 7/10 - The story needs some work, as it is nonsensical to begin with. The boy's father finds a strange bottle and makes a pact with the demon inside to cure the boy's sister, Annie from a curse. Everything in this game is ridiculously geared towards corny humour, which so happens to be an effective way of disguising any game spoilers. The demon, obviously, joins with the boy's shadow and goes on a journey to regain his power. The quest then consists of vanquishing false evil kings to rebuild the shadow's power. You'd have to really get a feel for the gameplay to understand the story.

Gameplay 9/10 - The gameplay seems to have a charm of it's own. You'll enjoy watching the lives of the characters intertwine and unfold, however strange they may be. There are a bunch of crazy townspeople to interact with, such as the worried man, and the scared man. The enemies are even wackier! For example, chicken chicken, and square rhino are some of the foes you will encounter. The gameplay is chock-full of corny jokes about the shadow, and other characters, as well. Everything is so out of this world that you'll either hate or love the game, no questions asked. This game isn’t about the gameplay, ironically. It is about the humour that is crammed into the game. The gameplay is can be either pretty easy or pretty hard depending on how the enemies attack. Most enemies are weak and easy. Even the bosses fall easily to the combined strength of your most powerful attacks. However the hard part can be when the enemy comes in numbers. There can be up to 10 enemies at a time, no matter how weak or strong they are! If they decide to all target Ari in a combination attack, the main character, then you’ll take big damage and most likely die. So you will have to act fast in battles, which are fortunately very simple, so don’t fret too much about it. Representing your enemies outside of battle are ghost clouds, which will eventually gang up on you and force a battle if you don’t run away. This is just a unique way to disguise the fact that the encounters are random. The gameplay is a very standard system with almost no originality except for the combination attack, which is just your characters attacking the same enemy at one time. However, what the whole package has to offer is the key.

Audio/Visuals 8/10 - Tenel village may sound weird at first, but the other towns have beautiful music. The boss and normal battle music is okay, but it's nothing you would probably hum to. The visuals are excellent, as the running animations are smooth and the towns are rendered in polygonal detail. Even the psychedelic backgrounds when Stan pops out of nowhere, almost giving you a heart attack, are pretty good. The only thing that may turn you off is that although the graphics are good, they may be a little bizzare. Looking at the villagers’ faces and crazy reactions of certain people may have you thinking that it’s a bit too strange. However, it’s a solid offering.

Control 10/10 - There’s nothing wrong at all with the controls. They’re quite smooth and there’s nothing to complain about.

Replayability 5/10 - It’s an rpg so once you beat there’s probably no reason to play it again except to witness the wacky story unfold yet again. There are few but not really in-depth sidequests, so once you finish you are finished.

To buy or to rent? - To buy, since it’s pretty cheap and it will last you a while. Rent it if you are turned off by the strange nature if the game but just want to try it out.

Overall 8/10 - It’s good but not for everyone. If you are captivated by it’s weird charm then you’ll find a good game underneath all the jokes and wackiness.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/03, Updated 07/09/03