Ōkami

Ōkami is an action-adventure game from 2006, developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom. It first came out on the PlayStation 2 in Japan in 2006, then in North America in 2007, and in Europe and Australia later that same year. After Clover Studio shut down a few months after that release, a Wii port was made by Ready at Dawn, Tose, and Capcom, arriving in North America in 2008 and in Europe in 2009. The game takes place in a made-up version of classical Japan, drawing on Japanese mythology and folklore. Its story follows the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu, who appears as a white wolf and saves the land from darkness. The visuals use a sumi-e-inspired cel-shaded style, and the Celestial Brush lets players perform miracles through gesture-based drawing. Originally, the developers planned a more realistic look, but that put too much strain on the PlayStation 2's graphics processing. Switching to cel-shading eased that load and also sparked the idea for the Celestial Brush. The gameplay takes cues from The Legend of Zelda, a favorite series of director Hideki Kamiya. The title is a pun: "ōkami" can mean either "great god" or "wolf" in Japanese.

Ōkami was released after the PlayStation 3 had already launched, making it a late-era title for the PlayStation 2 rather than one of its last games before the next generation. It didn't sell well, which led to Clover Studio closing after Kamiya and other key staff left. Despite poor sales, critics loved it, and IGN named it their 2006 Game of the Year. The Wii version also got strong reviews, though its motion controls had mixed reactions. A high-definition remaster by Capcom and HexaDrive came out on PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network in October 2012, with a Japanese retail release in November, and it supported the PlayStation Move. That port later hit PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One worldwide in December 2017, then Nintendo Switch in August 2018, and Amazon Luna in April 2022. As these remasters spread, the game gained a wider audience, and it's now seen as one of the greatest video games ever made, as well as an example of video games as art, helped by sharper art and higher resolutions. A spiritual successor for the Nintendo DS, Ōkamiden, came out in Japan in September 2010 and in North America and Europe in March 2011.