Okami was a “colossal failure” in terms of initial sales, said director Hideki Kamiya. Had it been more successful, its developer Clover would “probably have continued” – rather than shut down the following year.
Kamiya discussed the development of Okami with Ikumi Nakamura for her new studio’s YouTube channel Unseen. The pair first worked together on a Zelda-like adventure game.
Okami has gained a lot of cult recognition since its release on the PS2 in 2006, but was one of the few games made by the Capcom-owned studio before it was disbanded.
In the video, Kamiya discussed his recipe for success: “There is no secret recipe”. The pair agreed that they had failed purely in terms of sales.
“Even Okami, did 150,000 units do it?” Kamiya asked. “The initial shipment was 90,000. It was a huge failure. If it had been successful, Clover probably would have continued.”
He admitted: “For those of us who made it, it’s something to be proud of.”
The pair continued to chat about their collaboration in the video, with plenty of banter and anecdotes between them.
For example, Nakamura recalled a party near the end of Okami’s development where Kamiya said, “This team was the worst!”
Kamiya then elaborated further, explaining how Okami’s development team was meant to be a “dream team” and Okami “Clover Studio’s signature title”. However, he described the team as a whole as “weak”, due to varying levels of passion from the staff. Nakamura agreed and Kamiya stated that he could be honest “because we are friends”.
Later, Kamiya said, “If [enthusiasm] if he was a bit taller Okami would be even better. So, to be honest, I’m a bit torn about the voices saying the game is amazing.”
“We could have done more,” agreed Nakamura.
In another anecdote, Kamiya said that Okami was originally intended to be photorealistic, instead of the traditional Japanese art style that was eventually used.
“At the very beginning, before you joined, we tried to use a photorealistic style,” Kamiya told Nakamura. “But it was clear that it was impossible to create this huge natural environment on the PlayStation 2.”
Later in the discussion, Kamiya said that he was inspired by the GameCube remake of Resident Evil that Capcom was working on at the time. “When I saw it, I thought the sense of realism was amazing,” Kamiya said. “The level of photorealism was very high. I thought it might be nice if we used it for something lighter instead of horror.”
However, once character designer Kenichiro Yoshimura created the Skybrush, pieces of Okami’s style and gameplay fell into place. “That Japanese touch struck a chord,” Kamiya said, “so we decided to completely change the whole game.”
After its initial launch in 2006, Okami was ported to the Wii with motion controls before an HD version was released for PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. Despite its seemingly problematic development, it has become a beloved game.
After moving on from Clover, Kamiya left his other studio Platinum Games late last year due to “trust issues”. It is unclear what he is working on next.
Nakamura, meanwhile, revealed her first independent project, Kemuri, around the same time, though she currently has no release date.