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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Okami was a "huge failure" in terms of initial sales, director Hideki Kamiya has said. Had it been more successful, its developer Clover "would have probably continued" - rather than shutting down the following year.

Kamiya discussed the development of Okami with Ikumi Nakamura for the YouTube channel of her new studio Unseen. The pair worked together for the first time on the Zelda-like adventure game.

Okami has received plenty of cult acclaim since its release on PS2 in 2006, but was one of only a handful of games made by the Capcom-owned studio before it was dissolved.

Discussing his recipe for success, Kamiya said in the video: "There is no secret recipe". The pair agreed they haven't succeeded purely in terms of sales.

"Even Okami, did it make 150,000 units?" asked Kamiya. "The initial shipment was 90,000. It was a huge failure. If it had been successful, Clover would have probably continued."

He admitted: "For us who made it, it turned out something we can be proud of."

The pair chatted further in the video about working together, with plenty of banter and anecdotes between them.

Nakamura, for instance, recalled a party near the end of Okami's development where Kamiya said: "This team was the worst!"

Kamiya then elaborated further, explaining how Okami's development team was meant to be a "dream team" and Okami "Clover Studio's signature title". However, he described the team as a whole as "weak", due to different levels of passion from staff. Nakamura agreed and Kamiya stated he can be honest "because we're friends".

Later Kamiya said: "If [enthusiasm] had been a bit higher, Okami would have been even better. So to be honest, I'm a bit torn by the voices saying that the game is amazing."

"We could have done more," agreed Nakamura.

In another anecdote, Kamiya said Okami was originally intended to be photo-realistic, instead of the traditional Japanese art style eventually used.

"At the very beginning before you joined, we were trying to use a photo-realistic style," Kamiya told Nakamura. "But it became clear that it was impossible to create this vast natural environment on PlayStation 2."

Later in the discussion, Kamiya said he was inspired by the GameCube remake of Resident Evil Capcom was working on at the time. "When I saw that I thought the sense of realism was amazing," said Kamiya. "The level of photo-realism was very high. I thought it could be nice if we used that for something more light-hearted instead of horror."

However, once character designer Kenichiro Yoshimura created the Celestial Brush, the pieces of Okami's style and gameplay fell into place. "That Japanese touch struck a chord," said Kamiya, "so we decided to completely change the entire game."

After its initial launch in 2006, Okami was ported to the Wii with motion controls, before a HD version was released across PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. It's become a beloved game, despite its seemingly troubled development.

Okami's initial sales were "huge failure", says director Hideki Kamiya

Okami was a "huge failure" in terms of initial sales, director Hideki Kamiya has said. Had it been more successful, its…

www.eurogamer.net

 

[Werewolf Jones]

He's lucky it was even made. Current Capcom wouldn't even humour the idea.

 

[diffusionx]

I thought everyone knew this. Game was massive bomba. I did my part.

 

[drganon]

Shame, it's a fun game with a fantastic art style.

 

[McCarth]

Such a shame. Okami was far and away the best game of 06. Heck it was a better Zelda game than Twilight Princess.

 

[Generic]

Okami is a 40h long walking sim.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

I bought it twice and also the 3DS spin-off.

An underrated gem, one of the best non-Zeldas out there. I'd love a current-gen version with PS5 haptics.

 

[Rran]

Okami was pretty cool but really chatty.

Kamiya once banned me because I tweeted in English to him that I loved the game Viewtiful Joe.

 

[diffusionx]

I bought it twice and also the 3DS spin-off.

An underrated gem, one of the best non-Zeldas out there. I'd love a current-gen version with PS5 haptics.

*DS

It's also great. Also all-time cute character in Chibiterasu

 

[Neolombax]

Game is great, one of my favourites on the PS2. Using the brush during gameplay was weird initially but by the end it felt really natural. I wonder how the remake fared. Also thought the art style of the game was amazing, so much so I bought the art book and was not disappointed.

 

[GHound]

There are more than a few great games where this was the case that would have never existed, much less gotten sequels and/or spinoffs, if the people in charge and the people who take up for them were stomping their feet and demanding "infinite growth" back then like they are now.

 

[nial]

He's lucky it was even made. Current Capcom wouldn't even humour the idea.

Have three more Resident Evil remakes for the rest of the gen, bro.

 

[Magic Carpet]

That super long opening killed the game for me.
years Later a friend said I should give it another try and glad I did. It was pretty good.

 

[LakeOf9]

It's a shame because it's a GOAT game

 

[K' Dash]

Such a shame. Okami was far and away the best game of 06. Heck it was a better Zelda game than Twilight Princess.

it was a great game by its own merits, no need to compare to Zelda, even if it was inspired by it.

 

[Punished Miku]

Happened again with Bayonetta 0. Criminally underrated game.

 

[Labadal]

I didn't play it until I got a PS3. Very fun, and beautiful game, with some flaws. Still worth plating, though. All it needs is skippable dialog.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

It's as gorgeous as it's boring and tedious as fuck imo. I've bought it twice and tried it three times total and just give up at various times. It's a great idea and beautiful to look at but I don't like actually playing it at all. The intro is also especially tedious. Bad idea.

 

[SaintALia]

Okami was pretty cool but really chatty.

Kamiya once banned me because I tweeted in English to him that I loved the game Viewtiful Joe.

Should've just used Google Translate and messaged him in Japanese. He explicitly stated he would be banning all non-Japanese tweeters.

Never played Okami, but I do remember the great artstyle. I remember people loving it for it's Zelda-ness gameplay wise. But I think it got lost in the shuffle on PS2(it was the PS2 and this was the year of MGS3, FF13, Kingdom Hearts 2 etc) and only became more of a thing on Wii due to the control scheme, which I heard fit it perfectly. Good thing it didn't go with that realistic artstyle, I doubt many people would even remember it today. A lot of action adventure games from that era are mostly forgotten unless they had a HD remake/remaster or are part of a massive franchise. I still remember you Mark of Kri......

 

[Madserb2023]

Amazing game. Has it's flaws but they could have easily been improved upon. Could have been Capcom's equivalent to Zelda if they pursued it further.

 

[Švejk]

If it wasn't in that hot new, brush stroke style cell shading at the time, I would've had no interest. But I played it and it was a very mid Zelda clone.

 

[Pagusas]

A great game, but I think everyone and their mothers knew it would be a bomb, the art style, marketing and everything about its presentation really were not mass-audience compatible.

 

[violence]

I’m assuming it kept selling over the years given the various re-releases.

 

[Neolombax]

Should've just used Google Translate and messaged him in Japanese. He explicitly stated he would be banning all non-Japanese tweeters.

Never played Okami, but I do remember the great artstyle. I remember people loving it for it's Zelda-ness gameplay wise. But I think it got lost in the shuffle on PS2(it was the PS2 and this was the year of MGS3, FF13, Kingdom Hearts 2 etc) and only became more of a thing on Wii due to the control scheme, which I heard fit it perfectly. Good thing it didn't go with that realistic artstyle, I doubt many people would even remember it today. A lot of action adventure games from that era are mostly forgotten unless they had a HD remake/remaster or are part of a massive franchise. I still remember you Mark of Kri......

Mark of Kri...a violent action platformer that looks like a Disney cartoon. If it werent for Xplay, I never would have tried it.

 

[ManaByte]

The IGN logo in the box art cursed it.

 

[ManaByte]

Okami was pretty cool but really chatty.

Kamiya once banned me because I tweeted in English to him that I loved the game Viewtiful Joe.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Never played it but saw videos. Looked artsy and cool, but seemed like a slog. Unless you can skip that drawing animation, it seemed like it was happening all the time when I saw vids.

 

[Hudo]

The IGN logo in the box art cursed it.

Was it on the original release as well? I thought only the Wii release was affected by that logo

In any case: Okami is the best thing Clover have ever done. I know some people like God Hand more but I couldn't get into it.

 

[KXVXII9X]

Game is great, one of my favourites on the PS2. Using the brush during gameplay was weird initially but by the end it felt really natural. I wonder how the remake fared. Also thought the art style of the game was amazing, so much so I bought the art book and was not disappointed.

Using the brush woth the Wiimote was such a fun experience. The art style is still among my favorites.

 

[Bloobs]

 

[Icymanipulator]

That’s too bad I played it a few years ago and thought it was amazing and had aged pretty well. Very unique and fun adventure.
Would love to see them revisit this someday with a sequel and modern cell shading

 

[bender]

I really don't care for the game much but you wouldn't know that by my buying habits. I purchased it for PS2, Wii, PS3 (twice), Switch (twice) and PS4.

 

[kunonabi]

That super long opening killed the game for me.
years Later a friend said I should give it another try and glad I did. It was pretty good.

The whole game is too long. I loved it at first but it really wears out its welcome well before it ends.

 

[Griffon]

Clover had some excellent devs and artists. Too bad they put Kamiya in charge, guy can't write a story to save his life and has no idea how to pace a video game.

 

[A.Romero]

This is a great example of how the market doesn't necessarily receive good games well and how studios with good potential can crash and burn, even without the participation of huge evil publishers.

Also a good reference of how difficult it can be to manage a video game studio. Making great games is just not enough.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

I really don't care for the game much but you wouldn't know that by my buying habits. I purchased it for PS2, Wii, PS3 (twice), Switch (twice) and PS4.

It's one of those games that just looks like so much fun that you want to like it and keep trying.

 

[bender]

It's one of those games that just looks like so much fun that you want to like it and keep trying.

And then you can't get past the intro.

 

[StereoVsn]

I thought everyone knew this. Game was massive bomba. I did my part.

Yeah, that’s really unfortunate. I love this game and have it on four platforms, lol, with 3 physical copies.

 

[Bloobs]

I really don't care for the game much but you wouldn't know that by my buying habits. I purchased it for PS2, Wii, PS3 (twice), Switch (twice) and PS4.

I bought it two times. For PS3 and X1. Cant remember if I played it on Wii...Might grab it for Steam.

 

[bender]

It's also kind of funny how many re-releases this game has had considering its' bomba status. Where the fuck are my Viewitiful Joe re-releases, Capgods? On the other hand, maybe there is hope for PN03.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Great game. Ending was awesome

 

[GametimeUK]

I'm guilty of this. I didn't initially pick it up. The first time I played it was on PS3. Since then I have also bought the PC version, Switch Digital version and a Japanese physical import of the Switch version.

Amazing game I have been meaning to revisit.

 

[Astral Dog]

He's lucky it was even made. Current Capcom wouldn't even humour the idea.

budgets looked way different back then, they could afford to take more risks, the good news is that even if Okami never gets a sequel(other than DS spinoff), the re releases have been so succesful it won't be forgotten by gamers, its a nice twist if you look at the positive

 

[Thabass]

Was it on the original release as well? I thought only the Wii release was affected by that logo

In any case: Okami is the best thing Clover have ever done. I know some people like God Hand more but I couldn't get into it.

It was not, that only effected the Wii release of the game. The game was cursed from the get-go, which is a shame because the game is wonderful.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Bought it four times. First on PS2 at release. Then the HD-version on PS3 (which I ended up platinum). Then on Switch. And then a physical copy on PS4 to replace my PS2 physical copy I sold. Love this game. One of my all time favourites. It's a shame it bombed. Kamiya has spoken about it several times in the past and expressed his disappointment with the low sales. He had a lot of passion for Okami and to see it go up in flames like that and get your studio closed? I think this one personally got to him.

 

[qbxwhi]

He's lucky it was even made. Current Capcom wouldn't even humour the idea.

current capcom is releasing this quirky game

 

[DeVeAn]

This is one of those games I've bought multiple times and never played more then an hour.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

I own it on PS2, didn't complete it but rebought on Switch and finished it for the first time a few years back. It's complicated, and I completely understand why it failed so spectacularly. I mostly enjoyed it, but it's not a particularly good game like many would have you believe. Out of the 3 acts, the first is the best one (except maybe for the finale at the very end). You are in constant tutorial throughout the game, and there are really boring, seemingly pointless segments that are blatant padding. People make comparisons to Zelda, but that's not the game's strong suit. The celestial brush in particular is an amazing concept that was left half-baked. Wouldn't be surprised if this is what Kamiya meant in his criticisms.

 

[SHA]

He's lucky it was even made. Current Capcom wouldn't even humour the idea.

This company is decentralized as f, you can't really tell where it comes from, this is really disappointing.

 

[Kataploom]

I loved this video, I need more of it!