Okami was a 2006 Game of the Year winner, but never achieved sales success in line with its critical acclaim. Then it’s fitting, if still completely crazy, that there is a sequel Legend of Zelda-inspired adventure game would be announced at this year’s Game Awards. A musical medley on stage revealed what we were getting Okami 2 from the original director nearly two decades later.

What made players fall in love with the original game during the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii era was its striking art inspired by Japanese folklore and its innovative painterly mechanics, in which players mimic brush strokes across the screen to solve puzzles solve and fight enemies. Nothing like this has ever happened since then, perhaps until now.

Directed by Hideki Kamiya as part of Clover Studio. As a Capcom veteran, he had also previously directed the film Resident Evil 2 And Devil May Cry. After the game’s release, he and other creative minds left the company to form Platinum Games, where he developed the game Bayonetta Series and other action games. At the Game Awards, Keighley announced that Kamiya has returned to Capcom to lead a new studio called Clovers, which is working on the sequel.

“One thing I want to make clear is that I did not leave PlatinumGames to develop a specific game elsewhere, or that I left the company to work with a specific partner on better terms.” he told IGN in an interview last year after leaving his previous company. “I hear unfounded rumors that I will work with this or that person, but nothing has been decided yet. When I left PlatinumGames I really had no other plans. After I quit, I spent some time just laying around and watching movies and TV shows. But when I started thinking about it, I realized that I already had a clear idea of ​​a game that I would like to make. I can’t start putting these ideas into action yet, but I have started thinking about ways I could potentially make them happen. However, game development rarely goes as planned, so I want to explore my options and find the path that works best for me.”

In the years since its release Okami received a spiritual successor Ōkamids on the Nintendo DS and later an HD port, currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. We still don’t know much about Okami 2 and it sounds like it could still be in its infancy. The original game was so special and fans have waited so long for it that I’m sure they’ll be patiently content to play the sequel for a few more years.