Okage: Shadow King | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Zener Works SCEI |
Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
Director(s) | Noriyuki Henmi |
Producer(s) | Tetsuji Yamamoto |
Designer(s) | Shigeru Goto |
Programmer(s) | Yasushi Takeda |
Writer(s) | Masahiko Yokomizo Akira Nemoto |
Composer(s) | Jun-Ichi Doi Takamitsu Kajikawa Yoshikazu Kawatani Toda Kazuhide Toshiaki Murata |
Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Role-playing |
Mode(s) | Single player |
Okage: Shadow King, known in Japan as Boku to Maō (ボクと魔王, Boku to Maō, literally "Me and the Devil King"), is a role-playing video game developed by Zener Works and co-developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released on March 15, 2001 in Japan, and October 2, 2001 in North America, exclusively for the PlayStation 2. It was never released in PAL regions until the PlayStation 2 classic lineup for PlayStation 4 was released on March 23, 2016.
In Okage: Shadow King, the player character Ari proceeds through the game by visiting towns, traveling across the overworld and exploring dungeons. The game contains warp pillars that can be used to quickly travel to other locations once they have been discovered.
The combat is similar to that of many role-playing games, with characters having health points (HP) and magic points (MP). Battles generally commence when the player touches an enemy on the overworld. In addition to party members engaging in combat, Ari's shadow Stan, although not playable, may use powerful magic attacks on the enemy. Each fight is turned based, and a character can opt to wait in order to perform a more powerful combo attack with other characters. Characters have innate elements that are visible to the player during battle. This determines the types of spells they learn and what spells are strong against which enemies (for instance, lightning magic is strong against ice characters). If Ari is defeated at any time during battle, the player suffers a "game over" and must return to their last save.
The story stars a quiet, 16-year-old boy named Ari who lived a peaceful life in the town of Tenel. One day, his grandfather comes to his house with an ancient bottle, in order to save his sister from a curse inflicted to her by a ghost. They perform a ritual summoning an ancient evil, Lord Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV, or "Stan" for short, who merges with Ari's shadow. They then embark on a journey to defeat the fake Evil Kings who stole Stan's powers and take over the world.
Okage: Shadow King was co-developed by Zener Works and Sony Computer Entertainment, the latter of which was also the game's publisher. Programmer Yasushi Takeda, one of the founders of Zener Works, recalled that the company was producing a game for the Panasonic M2 prior to the system's cancellation. [2] Sony contacted them in June 1997 about making a game for the original PlayStation. Okage thus began development but the project was moved to the PlayStation 2 when Sony requested Zener Works do so the day before it announced its next-generation console on March 1, 1999. [2] All the graphics and coding was redone in order to be compatible with the newer console's Emotion Engine. Takeda stated that debugging was a challenge due to the company working with the console in an early state and the absence of such tools. [2]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | 70/100 [3] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
Electronic Gaming Monthly | 5.83/10 [4] |
Famitsu | 30/40 [5] |
Game Informer | 8/10 [6] |
GamePro | [7] |
GameRevolution | C [8] |
GameSpot | 7.8/10 [9] |
GameSpy | 79% [10] |
GameZone | 7.8/10 [11] |
IGN | 7.2/10 [12] |
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | [13] |
The PlayStation 2 version received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [3] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 30 out of 40. [5]
Okage: Shadow King | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Zener Works SCEI |
Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
Director(s) | Noriyuki Henmi |
Producer(s) | Tetsuji Yamamoto |
Designer(s) | Shigeru Goto |
Programmer(s) | Yasushi Takeda |
Writer(s) | Masahiko Yokomizo Akira Nemoto |
Composer(s) | Jun-Ichi Doi Takamitsu Kajikawa Yoshikazu Kawatani Toda Kazuhide Toshiaki Murata |
Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Role-playing |
Mode(s) | Single player |
Okage: Shadow King, known in Japan as Boku to Maō (ボクと魔王, Boku to Maō, literally "Me and the Devil King"), is a role-playing video game developed by Zener Works and co-developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released on March 15, 2001 in Japan, and October 2, 2001 in North America, exclusively for the PlayStation 2. It was never released in PAL regions until the PlayStation 2 classic lineup for PlayStation 4 was released on March 23, 2016.
In Okage: Shadow King, the player character Ari proceeds through the game by visiting towns, traveling across the overworld and exploring dungeons. The game contains warp pillars that can be used to quickly travel to other locations once they have been discovered.
The combat is similar to that of many role-playing games, with characters having health points (HP) and magic points (MP). Battles generally commence when the player touches an enemy on the overworld. In addition to party members engaging in combat, Ari's shadow Stan, although not playable, may use powerful magic attacks on the enemy. Each fight is turned based, and a character can opt to wait in order to perform a more powerful combo attack with other characters. Characters have innate elements that are visible to the player during battle. This determines the types of spells they learn and what spells are strong against which enemies (for instance, lightning magic is strong against ice characters). If Ari is defeated at any time during battle, the player suffers a "game over" and must return to their last save.
The story stars a quiet, 16-year-old boy named Ari who lived a peaceful life in the town of Tenel. One day, his grandfather comes to his house with an ancient bottle, in order to save his sister from a curse inflicted to her by a ghost. They perform a ritual summoning an ancient evil, Lord Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV, or "Stan" for short, who merges with Ari's shadow. They then embark on a journey to defeat the fake Evil Kings who stole Stan's powers and take over the world.
Okage: Shadow King was co-developed by Zener Works and Sony Computer Entertainment, the latter of which was also the game's publisher. Programmer Yasushi Takeda, one of the founders of Zener Works, recalled that the company was producing a game for the Panasonic M2 prior to the system's cancellation. [2] Sony contacted them in June 1997 about making a game for the original PlayStation. Okage thus began development but the project was moved to the PlayStation 2 when Sony requested Zener Works do so the day before it announced its next-generation console on March 1, 1999. [2] All the graphics and coding was redone in order to be compatible with the newer console's Emotion Engine. Takeda stated that debugging was a challenge due to the company working with the console in an early state and the absence of such tools. [2]
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | 70/100 [3] |
Publication | Score |
---|---|
Electronic Gaming Monthly | 5.83/10 [4] |
Famitsu | 30/40 [5] |
Game Informer | 8/10 [6] |
GamePro | [7] |
GameRevolution | C [8] |
GameSpot | 7.8/10 [9] |
GameSpy | 79% [10] |
GameZone | 7.8/10 [11] |
IGN | 7.2/10 [12] |
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | [13] |
The PlayStation 2 version received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [3] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 30 out of 40. [5]