Capcom says Ōkami sold quite well, actually, and it's wanted to do a sequel for ages but was waiting for 'the stars to align'

Capcom’s announcement of a sequel to Ōkami got here as a giant shock final 12 months, not least as a result of the unique is infamous for being a industrial flop. However in a latest interview, Capcom producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi identified that Ōkami’s popularity for underselling is not deserved, and due to that the writer has wished to do an Ōkami sequel for some time.

Talking to IGN, Hirabayashi noticed that whereas Ōkami did undersell on its preliminary launch in 2005, its varied ports have supplied a constant trickle of gross sales throughout the final twenty years, racking up a complete of 4.6 million models throughout its completely different variations. “I do know particularly that individuals are nonetheless having fun with this sport, simply from the numbers. Usually once we take a look at video games, the gross sales type of decelerate and so they lower steadily,” Hirabayashi advised IGN’s Rebekah Valentine.” However for Ōkami, we see that it has been a gradual stream of individuals at all times having fun with the sport. So in that means Ōkami is a really, very distinctive IP.”

Consequently, Capcom has been eyeing an Okami sequel for years. However Hirabayashi says the writer “wanted to have sure key folks in place” earlier than pursuing the mission formally. When Hirabayashi says “key folks”, he means Ōkami’s unique director Hideki Kamiya, who till lately was busy at PlatinumGames, in addition to a number of different Ōkami veterans employed at Machine Head Works. Given the dispersion of Ōkami’s expertise, Hirabayashi says “it took a little bit of time for all the celebrities to align.”

Kamiya, for his half, was likewise satisfied to pursue an Ōkami sequel on account of its enduring reputation, albeit from a much less industrial perspective. “Simply listening to all of the cheers from the followers pushed me,” Kamiya advised IGN. “With out everybody’s voices on the market, with out everybody cheering us on, we would not have moved ahead with this. So thanks very a lot.”

Ōkami took a very long time to wend its means onto PC. But it surely lastly arrived in wonderful HD type in 2017. Former Edge deputy editor Chris Schilling sang its praises for PC Gamer on the time. “There’s one thing in the best way Okami instantly entails you within the telling of its story—primarily casting you as an artist retelling a fable within the strokes of your brushwork—that feels unusually magical,” he wrote in his assessment. “There’s a way of surprise in even the best interactions, whether or not it’s light dabs of ink producing stars to finish constellations, a crescent to speed up dusk, or a snaking line traced to a floating bloom to spirit Amaterasu upward.”

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