Chris and I spent the weekend playing ÅŒkami.

You play the game on two "layers" simultaneously. First, you are a white wolf manifestation of Amaterasu, the goddess of light and purity and all that stuff. You run around fighting things and moving the story along.

The second layer is where the game really takes off. The story is presented as a Japanese watercolor. It is cell-shaded with ink effects and the rendering surface maintains a semitransparent paper texture. Basically: the game looks like it’s being drawn on a piece of paper as you play it.

Any time you like you can drop into "calligraphy" mode and draw what you would like to happen, as if the game was a big digital buddha board. Watch the videos to see what I mean.

Both layers are aware of the other. Characters in the game layer say things like, “why don’t you draw a lillypad to float down the river on?” The drawing layer can be used to attack enemies by crossing them out. I’m not done the game yet, but it would be cool if powerful enough enemies could transcend the layering and mess with your brush.

As I write this, Chris is playing in the background. He’s just showed me a boss whose image in calligraphy mode soaks up any ink you try to paint over it.

Japan still makes all the best games: Katamari Damacy, Shadow of the Colossus, and ÅŒkami are probably the best "high concept" games of this last generation. Certainly they are the best PS2 games.

Shinto == Anime