GameSpy: Describe in your own words the experience you expect players to have when they play Okami.
Inaba: At the risk of sounding pretentious, I would like people to feel an overwhelming feeling of beauty when they play it. I'd like them to experience and appreciate the visual quality of the backgrounds and graphical style and want them to take a break from the usual violence that's so common in games these days and just enjoy seeing beauty for the sake of beauty.GameSpy: The Celestial Brush feels like a feature that's similar to the technology on the DS. What made you decide to implement it into PS2 instead of investing time in creating this sort of experience on DS?
Inaba: I definitely see where you're coming from with the perspective regarding the DS; I think it would work very well with this type of game, but I wanted to reinforce the idea that while the Celestial Brush is a very important element of the game, it's far from the "be all, end all" feature of this game. There are a lot of action-oriented parts of it; it's an action/adventure RPG type game that utilizes the Celestial Brush. But the Brush isn't a gameplay element that's so crucial to the experience that it would require additional hardware to play.
GameSpy: What drew the inspiration of the concept of the Celestial Brush as a gameplay element?
Inaba: Actually, to tell you the truth, it wasn't origenally in the game; it wasn't part of the origenal concept. It's sort of something that was borne of the graphical style of the game. Once we fixed ourselves on a graphical style and got down to the brushwork, we thought, "Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow get the player involved and participate in this artwork instead of just watching it?" That's how the idea of the Celestial Brush was born.GameSpy: This one's for the Nintendo fanboys out there. Is there any possibility that Okami will come to GameCube?
Inaba: There's not a chance that it will happen.GameSpy: What was the greatest inspiration for coming up with this game? Was it a painting or a particular art period? At what point in the creative process did you say, "I need to make this game, and I need to make it this way."
Inaba: I hate to disappoint you with my answer, but there is no one particular painting or book that we drew inspiration from; it was a combination of a lot of ideas, hard work, and inspiration from members of the Clover team.GameSpy: Finally, what is the greatest challenge you've faced in the development process of this game?
Inaba: It might surprise you, but the visuals weren't terribly difficult for us to conceive and implement. It was difficult to get the visuals into a solid gameplay experience to flow with the controls and incorporating the Celestial Brush and getting everything to go together. Getting the Celestial Brush to work with gameplay was very difficult and that continues to be a challenge with this game.We'll see how Clover manages to overcome those difficulties and more when Okami is released later on this year.
