CLOVERS / CAPCOMAfter nearly twenty years, Clover Studios’ and Capcom’s Okami is finally getting a sequel. Here’s everything we know about the highly-anticipated game so far.
Okami first released on the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It was a sleeper hit; although a commercial flop, the game would go on to garner a passionate and dedicated fanbase who have waited nearly two decades for the rest of the story.
Then, at the 2024 Game Awards, they finally got their answer. An emotional Jeff Keighley kicked off a mystery announcement that began with a drummer stoically hitting a taiko drum as a trailer played on the big screen in the background.
Fans’ jaws dropped as Amaterasu emerged from a shadowy forest into a sunlit field, ‘The Sun Rises’ flowing out from a live orchestra. Hideki Kamiya, the original game’s director, sat in the audience as his name flashed on the screen. Finally, Okami was back!
Who is developing the Okami Sequel?
On February 14, 2025, director Hideki Kamiya, along with Capcom producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and Machine Head Works producer Kiyohiko Sakata, sat down with IGN to spill the tea on Okami’s long-awaited sequel.
To start, not much is known about the title thus far. It is being handled jointly by M-TWO, Machine Head Works, and CLOVERS in association with Capcom.
Okami Sequel story
In the interview, Kamiya opened up on what fans can expect from the game’s narrative, which ended off with Amaterasu and Waka flying off to rectify things in the Celestial Plain.
The team revealed that Okami 2 will pick up where things left off in the first game, with Kamiya saying that he’s had an idea for the story for many years now.
“I do have a general idea or a big theme for the other story, and it is in my head,” Kamiya explained.
“It’s been building in my head for several years now, and it’s something that I really want to be able to get my hands on and work and visualize to give to the fans. I have a detailed idea of how I want this game to turn out.”
Yoshiaki Hirabayashi chimed in, confirming that the sequel is a “continuation of the story that we saw in the original game.”
However, Kamiya quickly clarified that their job “isn’t to create the story that people request of us,” saying they are “working hard to achieve a game that achieves the fun people are expecting from the Okami sequel.”
CAPCOM / CLOVERSOkami Sequel graphics
As told by Kiyohiko Sakata, it appears that the Okami Sequel could be made, at least in part, with the Resident Evil engine, something that was also done with Street Fighter 6.
“With the original Okami, of course it came out on the PS2,” he admitted. “There was no concept for us to create the soft, hand-drawn style of the game, and that was the visual the team wanted to show. But with the hardware back in the day, this was a hard thing to achieve.
“…we had certain aspects we had to drop because of that. With today’s technology, we are able to achieve what we were trying to do back in the day and perhaps even greater, now that we have the RE Engine working with us.”
What does this mean for the Okami Sequel? Well, looking back at the first showcase for the title in the 2000s, the team had initially aimed for a more realistic style — something that can be seen in one of the Karmic Transformers earned at the end of the game.
However, due to technical limitations at the time, they opted for the Viewtiful Joe-esque style fans have come to love over the years… but with the graphical capabilities of the Resident Evil Engine, it seems fans will be getting a more realistic, hand-painted style that was first teased so many years ago.
At present, it’s unclear if the final product will look anything like the Game Awards trailer, but it’s a good starting point for fans to set their expectations for moving forward.
Okami Sequel controls
The original Okami tasked players with using the PS2’s joystick — and later, the Wii remote — to draw slashes, bombs, winds and more to defeat enemies.
It was a revolutionary idea at the time and remains a highly unusual control scheme, which the team commented on during their interview. According to the devs, they are looking into new ways to showcase Amaterasu’s powers to better suit modern games and consoles while still maintaining the essence of the original iteration that fans know and love.
“You have to remember that what was best back in the days isn’t perhaps what is best for modern games,” Kamiya said. “So we always have to look at what’s best for games coming out now.
“Of course, we won’t ignore everything that we had for Okami, but we will also look into new controllers. Not only that, but the various ideas we had for the base game, and see what we can improve and adapt.”
Okami Sequel release date
Thus far, no release date or window has been announced for the Okami Sequel project. However, Kamiya and the teams at Capcom and Machine Head Works assured fans that they won’t be waiting forever for the game to come out… but they aren’t rushing things, either.
“We will work towards having the game come out before people start banging on the door too loudly,” Hirabayashi said.
“Faster isn’t always best, and we will not give up quality for speed, but do know that we won’t drag our feet for this title.”
Ultimately, the team and Clovers and Capcom urged fans to “trust” them that they are working “as hard as we can to create the game that people are expecting” — one that they’ve patiently waited for, for a lifetime.
