Ammy and the Flea

I had no idea when I got into Okami on PS2 that it was estimated to have 60-100 hours of gameplay time. I had no idea how it would suck me in, how I would be hunched over on my floor with a pile of papers trying to collect all the collectibles and restore all the clovers (MORE BLOOM!), and work my way through puzzles that DON'T get tiresome with brush techniques.

Time and time again I have been blown away by this game. Originally I thought it was cute and had beautiful art. The gibberish dialogue bugged me and so did Issun, your wandering artist (flea-like) companion. But now I don't mind either so much, rather, I appreciate them since it wouldn't be Okami without them.

I'm only 37 hours into the game and I've laughed a lot, almost cried once or twice, open mouth-gaped a few times...generally thoroughly enjoyed myself.

However, now that I can pee on my enemies to damage them (not to mention trying to save up 2 million yen to get the akin "Brown Rage"), what more is left? Am I going to be bored in the last 30+ hours of the game?

I've told Curtis, who is currently playing Assassin's Creed, "My game is totally better than your game", and while I'm not saying AC is bad by any stretch of the imagination (mmm stealthy killing goodness), as far as a well rounded game goes I'd much rather put my time into Okami.

Well, I suppose we'll see how the last half of the game goes....!