So before everyone lines up to burn my house down from the title alone, let me just state that this is, of course, 100% opinion. It is totally ok to disagree with me and to argue against any and all of my points, preferably without swearing, but I'll take that if it's all I can get.
With that out of the way, I'm basically going to be arguing that Clover Studios' 2006 cult hit "Okami" is better than any of the 3D installments of the Legend of Zelda thus far, which include Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword. I've played all of these titles through to completion, some numerous times over. So no, I promise I'm not doing this to troll Zelda fans.
So with that established, let's get started.
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Structure: Okami shares quite a few similarities with Zelda; clear distinctions between overworld and "dungeons," bosses found at the end of almost every dungeon, a number of sidequests involving wacky characters, various towns found throughout the landscape, etc. In fact, the similarities have been enough for some people to claim that Okami "blatantly ripped off" Zelda. Despite that, there's one particular area that the two differ that I feel sets them apart significantly, and that is the structure of the game. Okami is far less formulaic than any 3D Zelda installment, which is a very good thing imo. Adventure/exploration games thrive off a sense of discovery, and there is no quicker way to ruin that sense of discovery than to become predictable. 3D Zelda games have fallen into a notorious pattern of finding a new area, performing some task in the area to enter the dungeon, tackling a dungeon, and then moving on to the next area. Even the dungeons themselves have become fairly predictable endeavors; you complete roughly half of it, fight a miniboss, obtain some item that opens up the rest of the dungeon, then kill the boss, usually with the item received in the dungeon. Okami never falls into this trap; areas may have no dungeons at all. Or you won't tackle the dungeon until much later in the game, usually after you've been to some other area. The dungeons themselves are often far less structured as well and are far more innovative, ranging from a ghost ship to a windmill to a religious shrine. Sometimes the dungeons will have bosses, sometimes they won't. And while most dungeons contain at least one new brushstroke (basically the equivalent of a new item), bosses will often require use of far more than just the new upgrade to take them down. Okami manages to stay unpredictable and keep its players guessing about what will happen next, which is an area Zelda has really struggled with, especially in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess.
Engaging Characters: Okami has what I would argue are much stronger characters all across the board. Amaterasu, despite being a silent protagonist, is far more enjoyable to be around than Link, although WW Link certainly isn't bad. Perhaps a lot of this comes from Amaterasu being a wolf, and therefore having an excuse not to talk, but much of it comes from how expressive she is. Whereas Link is pretty much a blank slate, rarely showing any emotions or reactions outside of ocassional anger (with the exception of WW Link), Clover wasn't afraid to define Amaterasu as a character. We see her angry, happy, sad, and excited throughout the game; we learn what she likes and dislikes, and all without needing to speak a single word. The same goes for Issun, Amaterasu's sidekick, who fills his role much better than any 3D Zelda partner (even Midna). Issun arguably butts in just as much as Navi does, if not more, but he never becomes as annoying because his reminders always have a bit of personality to them. There's no "Hey, there are monsters around here, so watch out!" or "Master, I detect that there is a 75% chance that there are enemies in the region." Issun will give his own commentary on things, and they give some insight into his own personality and his motivations. More often than not, they're humorous, too, which is never a bad thing. The side characters in the game are all very well fleshed out and expounded upon too; compare the amount of characterization of someone like Waka or Susano to just about any NPC in the Zelda series, and they'll stack up favorably.
Narrative: Okami also outperforms 3D Zelda games across the board in the narrative department. Okami has a long and winding narrative, and one that isn't afraid to take a few risks. Perhaps most importantly, it does leave any plot threads left unresolved. The game isn't afraid to tug at your heartstrings by killing off someone, but it will never beat you over the head with their sacrifice, either. With the exception of MM and again possibly WW, Zelda stories take relatively few risks and are pretty predictable affairs. Okami takes the exact opposite approach to storywriting.
Item Swapping: Okami's combat system has a major benefit over any 3D Zelda installment in one important manner; item swapping. In previous Zelda titles, item swapping is something of a hassle; more so in OoT, MM, and WW, where the game has to be brought to a standstill and a menu brought up to swap to an item you didn't have in your quick select inventory before. Over the course of the game, this can really add up, especially in OoT where boots cannot be put onto the quick select menu. Okami manages to deal with this issue by having its "items" integrated into the Celestial Brush mechanic. If you want to use an item, you simply draw it on the screen. Drawing is much, much faster than having to select an item from a menu, and in battle, its especially useful. It allows for the player to obtain more "skills" than any 3D Zelda title without ever having to worry about a menu system at all.
A World Full of Things to Explore: One thing that every 3D Zelda title has struggled with is filling its world with interesting stuff to do. OoT and TP's Hyrule Fields were notoriously devoid of content, the sky in Skyward Sword has been critcized consistently for a lack of content, and WW's Great Sea has relatively little to find compared with Okami. Nearly every area in Okami has a number of NPCs, quite a few of which will have some kind of sidequest to become involved with. The areas themselves all have far more to find in them as well; whereas something like Hyrule Field only has a couple holes in the ground with treasure chests at the bottom, Okami's "overworld" areas contain optional brush techniques, optional "trial gates" that serve as gauntlets, a few optional bosses, Holy Artifact traders that will sell you things which can upgrade equipment, and various minigames as well, and this isn't counting the side quests and minigames that can be found in the various villages throughout Okami as well. Okami just does a much better job overall of rewarding exploration by the player.
So that's my opinion on Okami and Zelda. I do think there are things that Zelda does better than Okami; I wish Okami would've taken some cues from older Zelda games and made their puzzles a bit harder, but ultimately I would argue that Okami is a much better game. With that said, I know there's plenty of room for disagreement, so disagree away if you feel so inclined. Or agree. Or neither.
