Okage: Shadow King
As a Zato-1 player, this game is going to be a piece of cake.
I owned this game 18 years ago. It only worked half the time because it was a CD-ROM. My sister really liked it and got about 10 hours in, even with all the loading and freezing. Then it didn’t work at all. Now I’m playing on the PS4 because my sister bought the game again. She finally did beat it and her life is much better. Those two things are probably related.
I am two hours in and just cleared the second chapter. If it goes on like this, I should be able to beat the game within 7 hours, but something tells me that it’s not going to go on like this. I have seen signs that this game has multi-level dungeons. Entering buildings, starting battles, and ending battles all transition through a 5-second dissolve. That time adds up. This game is going to be much longer than 7 hours. I intend to keep going.
I really like how often you have a chance to choose what to say. It feels almost like a Bioware game, but with a better world and funny dialogue. Like a Bioware game, there are three attitudes you can put on: overly enthusiastic, confrontational, and bored/passive aggressive. This is perfect characterization for a teenage boy. A fortune teller at each inn tells me how closely I’m aligned to other characters and now I wonder if my dialogue choices actually have an impact. I don’t want to marry Stan! or do I?
Stan is my braggadocious possessor. He calls me his slave, but most people I talk to think I’m practicing ventriloquy. The girl I grew up with and had a crush on thinks I’m too macho now. I’m moving away from her ideal. Maybe I can join the gear-lovers club and start hugging and kissing gears instead.
The director of this game, Tadato Kawano, has no other credits to his name. I think I’m going to have to play this through out of respect.