Review: Okage - Shadow King

From...

By Brother Buzz

(IDG) -- What do you do when your shadow's evil? That's the conundrum facing Ari, a young kid who's saddled with a sinister shadow named Stan. Okage (pronounced "oh-kah-geh"), loosely translated from Japanese, means "shadow king," and this solidly crafted RPG is all about Stan's quest to become just that.

If you think Okage is starting to sound a little strange, don't worry... it gets stranger. Ari becomes "attached" to Stan in order to relieve his sister of a weird curse: Her shadow is pink. Moreover, this entire game is rendered in an abstract, stylized polygon look that's an admitted homage to The Nightmare Before Christmas. Want more?

Mad cow, move over! In early versions of Okage, creature combat included encounters with such "ferocious" fauna as Chicken Chicken, Airy Bunny, and Fierce Goat. Harvest Moon gamers are no doubt shakinâ in their booties, but the preview version revealed some interesting twists to the turn-based combat system. You can recruit a six-person party and use three at any one time. For some magic attacks, the first-string trio pool and share magic points, which adds flexibility to your offense. Also, prior to some confrontations, Stan asks you three questions. Depending on how "evil" he perceives your answers to be, he may allow you to launch preemptive strikes.

Okage looks like a by-the-numbers RPG with a wacky sense of humor. Your main compadres will be a female knight who wears a dress and carries a parasol and a geezer professor who whomps enemies with a book. The running gag will be Stan the wannabe Shadow King's continual, power-mad rants against humans... who find him very entertaining. Get ready for Okage. You may never look at your shadow the same way again.