The Okami sequel will be a continuation of Amaterasu’s story developed in Capcom’s RE Engine, it’s been confirmed.
In an interview with IGN, director Hideki Kamiya, Capcom producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, and Machine Head Works studio head Kiyohiko Sakata discussed the early-in-development sequel first revealed at last year’s The Game Awards.
Hirabayashi admitted Capcom had “always wanted to create an Okami sequel” because the IP was “something that we all love and we wanted to see it continued”. With Kamiya leaving PlatinumGames in 2023, now was the time to discuss a sequel.
Kamiya also always wanted to create a sequel. “Thinking back to about 19 years ago when I first created the game, you have to remember that the story itself isn’t really complete, and I always wanted to complete this game,” he said. “But of course, as I was in Platinum, I couldn’t do that. But even back then, I was often meeting with my friends, specifically with Takeuchi, and going out drinking. And we always talked casually about one day being able to do it. Then I ended up leaving Platinum. So now as a creator, I’ll be able to actually make this come true now with Takeuchi.”
In a video with Ikumi Nakamura last year, Kamiya noted that Okami was a “huge failure” commercially, though he admitted “for us who made it, it turned out something we can be proud of”. Why, then, is he making a sequel now?
Hirabayashi noted there are “millions of fans out there that we know”, due to sales of the game remaining a steady stream over time due to various re-releases.
Kamiya detailed further: “So in the beginning for Clover, we perhaps saw that from a development perspective that it might not reach users in such a wide area as we were planning. But moving on throughout the years, we released later versions that people enjoyed. Since then, we’ve received messages on social media of people enjoying the game, and we’re realizing that people are liking Ōkami a lot.
“Now with the announcement at TGA, being there live within the audience and hearing people react there, and not only that, but also seeing people reacting on social channels after, there are so many people waiting for this title. And I was very surprised and happier than I thought I would be to hear people so looking forward to this game.
“Even now, I look up the YouTube reactions to the announcements and looking at the people reacting to the video, and I find myself crying with the fans. And I’m just so happy to see that, oh, people are so happy to see this game come true.”
He added fan reaction spurred him on. “And so, with everyone cheering on and our desire to create, it was that that led us to the actualisation of this project. So without everyone’s voices out there, without everyone cheering us on, we wouldn’t have moved forward with this. So thank you so much.”
What can we expect from the sequel? Hirabayashi confirmed it’s Amaterasu in the teaser trailer and the game will be a continuation of the story in the original game.
Added Kamiya: “I do have a general idea of a big theme and the idea of the story, and it is in my head. It’s been building in my head for several years now, and it’s something that I really want to be able to get my hands on and work and visualise to get to the fans. And I have a detailed idea on how I want this game to turn out.”
The pair also confirmed it’s being developed in the RE Engine, used in Capcom’s Resident Evil games, as well as Devil May Cry 5, Street Fighter 6, and Monster Hunter games.
Hirabayashi believes that “without RE Engine at this point we wouldn’t be able to realise Kamiya-san’s artistic dreams for this project”, while Kamiya noted how the engine is “famous for showing the best of the games” and is “very, very good expressively”.
Sakata also discussed how the hand-drawn style of the original was hard to achieve back on the PS2. “With today’s technology, we are able to achieve all of this that we were trying to achieve back in the days and perhaps even greater now, now than what we have the RE Engine as well working with us,” he said.
Still, the Okami sequel is very early in development with no release information yet.
“We will not give up quality for speed, but do know that we will not drag our feet for this title,” said Hirabayashi. “It’s something that we will put our efforts into.”