A very charming Playstation 2 JRPG. I'm honestly surprised it got ported to the Playstation 4, since it feels like no one ever played this. I'm glad more people can now play it! Don't let this fall under your radar.

I don't want to get into spoilers, since I feel as though the game and it's twists are best experienced seeing for yourself. I will say it genuinely surprised me, as I didn't expect a game like this to pull the rug out from under me story wise.

The gameplay is good, but nothing all that special. Dungeons range from incredibly easy to absolutely tedious with nothing in between. Bosses are incredibly unbalanced. Battle system is fairly fun.

I think the game could use a good remake or remaster to touch up on some of it's faults and give it a good second chance.

Zener Works set Okage: Shadow King apart from the ranks of JRPGs by featuring bug-eyed, lanky characters and a goofy premise, where the protagonist must join forces with an evil spirit that nobody takes seriously. As the casual tone of its dialogue choices also prove, this work belongs to a long line of clownish and lighthearted JRPGs that mock the genre's love for bombast, 'cool' stereotypes and predictable story beats. Other fields of writing were even more emblematic, turning - for example, what would normally be anonymous villager chatter into odd remarks and funny tangents, in a tradition that stretches from Working Designs-ified Lunar to EarthBound, from Grandia to Marl's Kingdom. While no character particularly shines, their witty and sometimes cartoony approach pairs well with their equally crude early-PS2 look.

On the downside, combat is too slow and shallow to match that level of entertainment. Both the party members (whose archetypes borrow a thing or two from FFIV) and the strategy (attack command until it's dead, save resources for healing and crowd/boss fights) had more in common with the early 90s than 2001, while its battle start & victory scenes take forever to pass. These problems, along with a verbose and confusing second half, severely hurt a game that - for the most part, exhibits the humor and personality of the masters.

Very charming rpg that was surprisingly enjoyable. Pretty comedic story with a lot of oddities. And a very unique yet great soundtrack. The only thing lacking is the gameplay where it is very plain and basic with some dungeons being pretty tedious.

I would describe this as the most 7/10 game you can play. Does not mean it is bad and would recommend this if you want a unique experience.


I remember my sister got this game when I was a kid because the cover art looked cool. She did not get far, but somehow this game's uniqueness stuck with me. I vividly remember being in awe with the big green open world area in the beginning of the game. The industrial gear themed second town. And the weird shadow guy who helped you out throughout the game.

I forgot what this game was and relearned the name few years ago. To my surprise, it was on the ps4 classic games section in the online store.

Honestly I was blown away by the charm of this game. It has a heavy Tim Burton style, which is already unique. I found myself laughing at many of the jokes in the game. And the world design was so creative.

My biggest surprise was the music. Three songs stand out to me: Theme of Triste, Theme of Rashello, and Highlands. Especially Highlands. They are so catchy and so well strung together that it really makes me sad that this is such a niche and not well known game. What blows me away too is that there are indoor and outdoor versions of each town song that smoothly changes when in and out of buildings. The number of games that do this is extremely little.

The story was fun. In a way I can describe it as "what if Shadow of the Colossus was lighthearted and goofy". You have to defeat demon kings around the land to restore your shadow's power, who is actually the true demon king Stan who took possession of you. But, no one takes Stan seriously and there is some good comedy behind that.

It does get pretty meaningful near the end. The biggest theme of this game is the fear of being forgotten. And in my opinion the way it was done was really good (won't spoil).

The gameplay can be a slog. It is your basic turn based rpg, but with 0 gimmicks. It can be pretty difficult as if the main character dies in battle, it is game over.

I highly recommend you give this game a chance. It ended up becoming one of my personal favorites because of how unique and charming it is from a typical game. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if all this sounds interesting then give this hidden gem a shot.