Conquer your demons and you may conquer the world in this distinctly styled role-playing adventure for the PlayStation 2. Some have compared the look of this game to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and the fluid, stop-motion appearance of the three-dimensional characters is not completely unlike that seen in seasonal television specials. OKAGE: Shadow King is not a holiday story, however, but a dark tale of polar opposites that questions basic notions of identity and essence. Players take the role of Ari, a young man with a remarkable affliction. A powerful demon -- calling himself "Stan" -- has taken refuge in Ari's shadow and is becoming infused in the boy's life. To free both his demon and himself, Ari embarks on a dangerous and involved quest to rid the world of seven other rival demons. Though he suffers under the burden of playing host to Stan, Ari is also aided from time to time by his demon's powers and the two begin to forge a symbiotic relationship.
Reviews View More
I would describe this as the most 7/10 game you can play. Does not mean it is bad and would recommend this if you want a unique experience.
I remember my sister got this game when I was a kid because the cover art looked cool. She did not get far, but somehow this game's uniqueness stuck with me. I vividly remember being in awe with the big green open world area in the beginning of the game. The industrial gear themed second town. And the weird shadow guy who helped you out throughout the game.
I forgot what this game was and relearned the name few years ago. To my surprise, it was on the ps4 classic games section in the online store.
Honestly I was blown away by the charm of this game. It has a heavy Tim Burton style, which is already unique. I found myself laughing at many of the jokes in the game. And the world design was so creative.
My biggest surprise was the music. Three songs stand out to me: Theme of Triste, Theme of Rashello, and Highlands. Especially Highlands. They are so catchy and so well strung together that it really makes me sad that this is such a niche and not well known game. What blows me away too is that there are indoor and outdoor versions of each town song that smoothly changes when in and out of buildings. The number of games that do this is extremely little.
The story was fun. In a way I can describe it as "what if Shadow of the Colossus was lighthearted and goofy". You have to defeat demon kings around the land to restore your shadow's power, who is actually the true demon king Stan who took possession of you. But, no one takes Stan seriously and there is some good comedy behind that.
It does get pretty meaningful near the end. The biggest theme of this game is the fear of being forgotten. And in my opinion the way it was done was really good (won't spoil).
The gameplay can be a slog. It is your basic turn based rpg, but with 0 gimmicks. It can be pretty difficult as if the main character dies in battle, it is game over.
I highly recommend you give this game a chance. It ended up becoming one of my personal favorites because of how unique and charming it is from a typical game. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if all this sounds interesting then give this hidden gem a shot.
I don't want to get into spoilers, since I feel as though the game and it's twists are best experienced seeing for yourself. I will say it genuinely surprised me, as I didn't expect a game like this to pull the rug out from under me story wise.
The gameplay is good, but nothing all that special. Dungeons range from incredibly easy to absolutely tedious with nothing in between. Bosses are incredibly unbalanced. Battle system is fairly fun.
I think the game could use a good remake or remaster to touch up on some of it's faults and give it a good second chance.