What’s new… Still working on translating Tenra Bansho Zero, and things are starting to reach a critical mass: In seven days I should have most of the translations that I contracted out.  After that, it will probably take me one month to put together the rules sections and the other untranslated bits, and prepare to fill in the gaps with explanations and the like.

Last week I picked up the PS2 game “OKAMI”, and at eight hours in it’s blowing my mind.  It’s a perfect evolution of ZELDA: An action game with a story that focuses mostly on puzzles and less on fighting (though there is quite a bit).  It’s made by Clover studios, who did the Viewtiful Joe series and other interesting concept games (GOD HAND, etc). Basically, in this game you’re the reincarnation of the Goddess Amaterasu in the form of a wolf, and with a small insect companion you travel Japan bringing back life to the countryside. I think the thing that I like most about the game is that you get all of your “leveling up” power from healing the world. You restore sick trees, you give food to bunnies and pigs, you transform entire landscapes from cursed fields to lush pastures.  It’s really an awesome feeling to see how the world changes in response to the good things you did.

THere’s lots of little Zelda-like powerups and the like, in that you will see a magical-looking rock or tree or something early on, and think, “Oh, I bet later on I’ll get some trick that I can use to manipulate that thing”… then sure enough, sooner or later you get some item (in Zelda, you get various pieces of equipment: Hook shot, time ocarina, boomerang, etc; In Okami you get magical brush-strokes which you use Nintendo DS style (writing on the screen) to do various magical effects like blow winds or make the sun come out). Just like Zelda, I’m hooked on this thing and it’s really hard to stop playing- Once you get the “Water sprout” power, for instance, you’ll want to go back to all those water sprouts you remember and try to activate them, etc.

Back to Tenra for a second: On Saturday I ran another session of the game, and again it went well: Some things happened that made me think about reworking bits of the Harmony Coin/Aiki Chit distribution mechanic, but looking back into the text, it reminded me what the game is supposed to be about, and why it works the way it is.  Still though, there’s always room for optional rules.

More later on my personal life stuff, but for now I wanted to drop word on this PS2 game: It in fact is awesome, and if you’re waffling on whether to buy it or not, I highly suggest picking it up.