Daily Debate: Do You Consider Okami an “Unofficial” Zelda Game?
Posted on May 11 2021 by Andy Spiteri
Recently, the PlayStation 2 classic Okami just celebrated its fifteenth birthday. Many people, your writer included, have considered this sort of an honorary Zelda game over the years, and it’s easy to see why: the game presents a fantastical fantasy world, full of dungeons and unique abilities, a gripping score, an annoying companion, and an art style unlike anything we had seen at the time. That, and you happened to play as a wolf in Okami, right around the same time the Zelda franchise was getting wolfy(?) over in Twilight Princess. In my eyes, it was a really nice mix of the too-cartoonish-for-some presentation of The Wind Waker and the sullen world of Twilight Princess, and it really clicked for me. Playing as the Sun Goddess Amaterasu and using her paintbrush techniques also offered a more intuitive use of the Wii’s motion controls (it would later get ported over) than Twilight Princess had as well.
I’m not afraid to say that after finishing my first playthrough, I remember thinking that the game had outdone some Zelda games, including the aforementioned Twilight Princess. So my question is this: do you count yourselves among the sect of Zelda fans that consider Okami an honorary Zelda game? If you don’t, why not? And if you do, what area’s in particular would you point to in the game that really made you say “this is a Zelda game”. Let us know in the comments below!
Andy Spiteri is a Manager of Zelda Dungeon, Host of The Zelda Cast podcast, and Owner of Omega Metroid. Probably drinking a Tim Horton’s Double Double as you read this.
Business: andy.spiteri@zeldadungeon.net
