Tremble in fear, mortals, for the king of evil has come and his name is…. STAN. Well actually that’s short for King Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV – a king of darkness summoned much like a warped genie from an arcane bottle brought home by your eccentric father. To save the life of your sister from the sentence of forever speaking in pig latin, you must strike a deal with Stan. Why you, you ask? Your shadow is of the perfect type and shape for this denizen of darkness to re-establish his place on earth. Too bad he also wants you to help restore his status as the king of darkness, and worse, there’s this small problem with no one taking Stan and his infernal powers seriously.

You think that’s weird? Well get ready for a whole lot more as you venture into this strange mix of Edward Gorey and the inescapable taste of Tim Burton: Okage: Shadow King. This game scores tons of points with it’s off the wall, out of left field, kind of sardonic humor and may throw you for quite a loop the first few gaming sessions. It’s narrated by one of those “this guy’s voice is everywhere” narrators who always has something objective to say in the most bizarre of situations. Meanwhile, whoever was in charge of writing your potential responses to character questions was definitely seeing how many people wanted to play Russian roulette with their chances of offending another character with a particularly rude, shocking, or just plain inane responses. Some comments are just too much to resist, but most of the time, no matter what you choose, the game will still guide you to the same course of action. It’s just a matter of how much fun you want to have along the way.

At it’s heart, Okage is an RPG in it’s simplest sense. While it’s not likely to satisfy the RPG community to it’s fullest, it is a great starting type game for first-timers to the genre – where it also doesn’t hurt to have a sort of slanted sense of humor. Collect stuff, fight stuff, save the world – we know the story and there’s a good reason the formula is still around. The battle is turn based and you will eventually have the help of allies, including Stan, if you play your cards right. While I tend to feel that RPG battles become repetitive almost 100% of the time feel (and I love RPG) – Okage saves you from the fate of incessant and unavoidable random battles which each take minutes and minutes of time. Curiosity will usually get the better of you though – because the storyline and dialogue is just so astoundingly different from what you’re used to you won’t want to miss anything.

The graphics of Okage are also in a category of their own. There’s a distinct style seemingly extracted directly from the aforementioned Burton reference with an Edward Gorey kind of “put some kids in a rather morbid but somewhat sickly-amusing situation” kind ambience. What it does manage to do at the same time is keep the whole game from looking dark and depressing to the point of sleepiness – which is a big plus as doom-and-gloom for hours on end can tend to lose some of its potency. Somehow, without using a wide range of color, the game is still bright. Not sure if that makes sense – you’d really have to see it.

Gameplay moves fairly smoothly and load times are kept to a dull roar – not unexpectedly longer or shorter than you’d expect. In other words, unless you’re doing a whole lot of room changing, you’re probably not going to notice it. Gameplay also does not leave you dangling around looking for a purpose or running off on those completely unrelated and insanely long side-quests that make you wonder what your goal was in the first place. Also, you can change the angles of how you see things, but this isn’t one of those games where you have to take all 360 degrees one degree at a time in order to be assured you’ve checked every nook and cranny in the room.  Most of the time the game automatically adjusts the view for the best result. Amen!

The menu system is not faulty by any means, but may be a bit more involved than you might be used to for long-time players. However, the on screen map is a big bonus as you don’t have to switch back and forth a whole lot. Call me lazy, but I left my fully involved mapping techniques back in the day when Zork was the highest-tech game around and I really HAD to document every move from that white house.

Gameplay: 7.5

Gameplay is based on RPG principles at their most basic – don’t expect any number crunching – so that may or may not appeal to you. The game does a nice job of keeping you on track without making you feel like you’re rushing through the game. Graphics and transitions run smoothly with respectable loading times even with its plenty of pretty (if a bit skewered) and distinctive looks. Momentum is the only problem – the RPG aspects are on the weak side and the novelty may wear thin after some time.

Graphics: 8.5

The graphics are an interesting echo to a “cartoony” Edward Gorey and Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Characters are a stylized 3D with a dark twist.

Sound: 7

The score is pretty typical for this atmosphere. There’s nothing out of the ordinary here and it might feel repetitive. Interesting to note is also slightly bears a slight resemblance to Burton’s sountrack staple composer Danny Elfman.

Difficulty: 7

In terms of RPG gameplay – Okage uses a great form of RPG for beginners. It really ends up feeling more like an adventure title with a few extra stipulations.

Concept: 9

One thing than absolutely cannot be said of Okage is that it’s just another run of the mill “boy-vs-world” RPG adventure. It’s definitely got a slick look, witty dialogue, and some truly unique characters.

Overall: 7.75

Eclectic, eccentric, and unconventional – that’s just the first words that come to mind when I try to sum up my initial reactions about Okage: Shadow King. If only the gameplay had remained entertaining and the novelty hadn’t worn off – Okage could have easily taken the game world by storm. Still in all, those who are interested in seeing the “artsy” and more “free-spirited” products of game making would do well to give this game a try.