Arguably the most unexpected announcement at The Game Awards 2024 is the revival of Capcom's classic action-adventure game Okami.
The brief teaser trailer below doesn't reveal much, except for teasing a return to the gorgeous paintbrush art style and a comeback for wolf protagonist Amaterasu. The most notable detail, however, is that original director Hideki Kamiya is returning to helm this new sequel. In a press release, Capcom says the game "being co-developed among multiple studios," including M-Two and Machine Head Works. The third studio in this triangle is called Clovers, seemingly named in tribute to the old Capcom studio Clover, and it's there that Kamiya works.
The original Okami was a Zelda-style action-adventure game released for the PS2 in 2006, notable for its absolutely gorgeous watercolor woodcut aesthetics and unique paintbrush gameplay gimmicks, and it maintains a devoted fanbase to this day. Director Hideki Kamiya was a decade-plus veteran at Capcom by the time of Okami's original release in 2006, and his sub-studio Clover was responsible for beloved cult classics like Viewtiful Joe. Unfortunately, while Okami got outstanding reviews, it didn't sell particularly well, and in the wake of the game's release, Kamiya left the studio shortly before Capcom shut it down.
- Devil May Cry and Bayonetta veteran Hideki Kamiya is still leaning on Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami's wisdom at new studio Clovers: "I have always made decisions based on his teachings"
- After 30 years of work on Capcom's Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma games, director Hideaki Itsuno has already started his "new project"
While Capcom itself did try to keep Okami going with the spinoff title Okamiden on DS in 2010, it didn't quite capture the magic of the original. Kamiya went on to co-found PlatinumGames with a number of other Clover veterans, and there helmed titles like Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101. In 2023, he announced that he was leaving Platinum, but it wasn't clear what his next step would be at the time. Earlier this year, however, he did tease that it's his "duty" to make sequels to Okami and Viewtiful Joe, and it seems at least one of those duties is getting fulfilled. (Here's hoping the other one pans out, too.)
Okami deserves its spot in our list of the best PS2 games.
