Zel-kun’s Words

For Christmas, I received ‘The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess,’ which has truly been long awaited.  As I just finished Okami, this was a well-timed present, as my fingers were still itching for another adventure title.  On the various message boards I read, it seems that there’s something of a feud going on between the players of Okami and Zelda.  The fanboyism from the the Zelda side and the elitism from the Okami side is palpable, with the rest just copping out saying you can’t compare the two.  While the games are very different, they’re are some striking similarities.

1. You play a wolf in both games.  Sure, in Okami you’re a wolf the whole game, and in Zelda you periodically become a wolf.  I’m not sure if that means anything, but there it is.  After playing Okami, the control of Zelda’s wolf seems clunky and inept, its skill in fighting far less that of his Hylian counterpart.  Okami’s wolf is more fluid and exciting, with more moves than ‘hit the attack button to lunge, then do it again.’  But then, Amaterasu was always a wolf, and Link had just been transformed into a wolf, so maybe that’s to be expected.

2. You purify the world, one section at a time.  Okami has ‘Cursed Zones’ and Zelda with ‘Twilight Realms,’ (essentially the same thing) and as you delve into these areas, revive a purifying source (spirits or trees), and make the region safe again.  This is not nessessarily a bad thing, as both have unique and interesting ways of ridding the lands of the darkness that engulfs them.

3. With the exception of Okami’s so very long intro, the two have about the same story:action ratio.  Also, the action is similar (fight, gain new powers and/or weapons and items), but with very different feels.  So both are fairly comparable, if you like one game, you’re bound to like the other to some extent.

The differences?  Okami is definitely more lighthearted, while Zelda seems to have delved a bit deeper into darkness.  Okami isn’t very challenging, with a focus on running around and doing any number of countless godly sidequests, while Zelda (in traditional Zelda style) is moderately challenging with a focus on puzzles.

So bottom line, Okami or Zelda?  I say both, although in the long-run, Zelda will likely have the higher replayablity, as all of its predessessors.  Zelda is already sporting some of the coolest graphics (as much as I liked the cel-shading, I’m glad they went back to more traditional 3D) and gameplay out of the series (the boomerang it sweetness embodied), and Okami pioneered a style that while lacking in the challenge department, truly manages to be extremely fun and visually stunning.

Zel-kun out.