Okage: Shadow King

"The next Earthbound? Not quite, but it comes close."

Okage: Shadow King

Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Innovation: 8/10
Replay Value: 7/10

Okage is a very strange RPG that came out fairly early in the Playstation 2's life span. Unfortunately, not a lot of people have played it, which is really a shame. A lot of RPGs these days suffer from the same old humdrum story and seriousness. Unlike most traditional games of the genre, Okage is much more humorous and far less serious. Many games may make a quick comparison to Earthbound, but the two games are fairly different. Okage stars a young boy named Ari whose shadow has been possessed by the Evil King Stan. A great hero sealed Stan and his loyal butler James away in a jar. Many years later, Ari's father, who happens to find the jar, makes a deal with the Evil King to free his daughter of a curse, but in exchange Ari must be his slave for all eternity. When Stan is finally freed, he is surprised to see that no one takes him seriously and laughs at him, thinking he's some sort of joke. He becomes even more enraged when he finds out that fake evil kings have stolen most of his power while he's been sealed away! He quickly decides that he and his slave must travel the lands and defeat these fake evil kings so Stan can regain his power and conquer humanity once and for all!

The gameplay is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise too stale genre. On your journey, you meet many wacky and eccentric characters. Talking to people and seeing Stan yell at passersby is half the fun of the game. Usually, talking to NPCs in RPGs is something that bores me to no end! They almost always say something lame and unimportant. However, in Okage most of them say something amusing and often pretty funny. Stan will constantly get in arguments with people, and his butler James is always trying to get a date. Things get especially interesting when a hero named Rosalyn crosses your path. I won't give away any of the story, but one can imagine that a hero and an Evil King don't mix well. The two will always argue back and forth making for some really great scenes. The actual battles are pretty standard for RPGs. You can have up to three characters in your party at a time, and each has an ACT bar near their name at the bottom. You go back and forth with enemies exchanging regular attacks, or magic. Ari has Stan with him in battle, who will occasionally attack. Unfortunately, you can't control Stan's actions in battle. My major gripe with the battle system in Okage is that once Ari gets KO'd, the battle is over! It doesn't matter if your two other characters have their entire HP, the battle ends when Ari goes down. This makes for some very frustrating times in the beginning. At the first few tough battles, I would forget about this and have to play them over again because Ari got knocked out. There really is no reason for this in the game. The character design is done very well. All of the characters are extremely original and thankfully move away from the typical “girly as we can possibly make him” male hero, “female love interest in skimpy outfit” lead female healer, and “obligatory mysterious character” that make up most RPGs. Stan, Ari, Rosalyn, the people you meet along the way, and everyone in between is just great. Zener really came through with this one and gave RPG fans something that they've been dying for; original characters! Thank God someone finally did it. I'm sure I wasn't the only one that's been getting tired of the cookie RPG heroes. They also get points for crafting a completely original storyline that is completely different from anything else out there. Ari and Stan fight for evil, but in kind of a crazy loveable way. The enemies also fit the humor aspect of the game really well. Some of the stranger enemies include chicken chicken, frost urn, and spooky ghost! The fake evil kings are also a riot. Bosses like Teen Idol Evil King, and Bubble Evil King offer completely awesome and original experiences unlike those found in any other RPG in the past few years. Since it's an RPG, there really isn't much of a reason to play through it again after you've done it once. There are a couple side quests, but they aren't too in depth or difficult.

The graphics and the environments are well detailed and have lots of color to them. All of the characters and enemies look really good, and the towns are particularly impressive. You may be asking yourself why I gave it an eight instead of a higher score then. Well, the answer is load times. The game has to load every single time you enter a building, go to a new room, enter a new area, or do practically anything. There are lots of load times. They aren't very long though, but they are so frequent that they sometimes interrupt the flow of the game, particularly when you're inside a building with a lot of rooms (like Ari's house). It's not so bad when you're in a large area, but there are times that you're inside and it just really gets annoying. Besides the frequent load times, there isn't much to complain about. The graphics overall look stunning, and some of the environments are very impressive. The load times are really a small price to pay for the good looks.

Sound and music are a strong point for this game. I found all the game music in the different areas to be quite enjoyable. All of the towns have their own unique tunes that I found myself humming as I played. The battle music is decent. Voice acting is very good! There is a narrator at all the important parts in the plot to read the dialogue to you. His voice is nice and wasn't irritating at all. In fact, it was a lot different than what you might expect. The narrator's voice seemed to have soul and feeling to it. Good stuff all around.

If you're a fan of RPGs, or just want something a little bit different, pick up Okage. It's a solid title and it's a great addition to anyone's PS2 collection. It's been out for a while, so it shouldn't set you back too much either. I don't think it's terribly rare, but it is somewhat overlooked. You might have to look around a little for it. The gameplay and story are very different and refreshing, despite the sometimes frustrating battle system. Graphics and music are excellent, but if you have a problem with load times, you might want to steer clear. Pick this one up if you need something to play between big game releases. It shouldn't disappoint.

Final Score (Not an average): 83%

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/04