Week 2 - Okami

"Okami" is a game that was released in 2008 for the PlayStation2 and Wii. Its based around Japanese folklore and myths.
When the design team started planning how "Okami" was going to look, they initially wanted the game to be photo realistic. Later on they decided having a lot of light and fresh colours would be better since the wolf in the game is meant to be giving life to the forest, and colours would portrait that better. They were also limited by the graphics of the PlayStation 2.
The whole game looks like an ink drawing or painting, and the pallet used is tinted, light colours. The art in "Okami" is highly inspired by Japanese watercolour and wood carving art of the Ukiyo-e style.
I think the game is very beautiful and original, and I like the extra touches they added such as letting you have control of the celestial ink brush. I also love all the pastel colours that the game is showing, sometimes there are scenes where the colours are saturated or dark, but most the time the light pastel colours are there to make you admire the world that the artists have created.
Lastly I found the bold black ink line that coats the character and environment is very powerful, contrasting and it draws your eyes in.