So, did anyone check out the playable "First Bite" Okami demo yet?  Pretty cool stuff; surreal, beautiful art style, and gameplay that looks to have a ton of potential.  The Inaba interview, in particular, showcases an excellent overview of what the game's about, and it all looks very exciting.

The music, in particular, is quite nice; heavily drenched in traditional Japanese, with lots of koto, taiko drums, and wind instruments akin to panflutes and the shinobue -- a musical style that perhaps can be most readily comparable to Asakura's more traditional work from the Tenchu series.  With the exception of the war-driven battle sequence theme, much of what's featured in the demo is calm, soothing, and almost dreamy. 

I made recordings from the demo, and put them up for download in a 19 MB zip file:

Okami Demo Recordings

I'm curious as to what happens in this demo... it might be the same one they handed out (in really beautifully cool packaging) at TGS last year.  If it is, I totally agree with you - the game seems *amazing* and I've been having a hard time coping every time the release date gets bumped further and further away.

Oh, wow, thanks.

Man, what an aesthetically amazing game. It'll be a shame if it gets ignored...

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This is a game I've been wanting to play for a long time now...

Gorgeous artistics + traditional Japanese environment = Mmm, Tasty!!

It's to my understanding that the demo is based off of the E3 2005 build, so I think it's nearly the same as the TGS demo - just with the annoying time limit that was specific for the showgoers, and a bit less polish as far as graphics go.  So, you basically still go through the two levels, the Cave of Naoi and Kamiki Village; unless the TGS demo has that extra third level as well?

Here's two more recordings, "Kamiki Village" and "Orange's Theme."  Kamiki Village follows a rather interesting compositional pattern; depending on what part of the village you're in, the music's instrumentation changes accordingly.  So say you're speaking to the half-conscious Orange, an off-kilt flute section pops up, but when you're in the main village area, the music swells into its gorgeous entirety.  I edited -- or tried to, anyway -- the three parts of the piece (the entrance version, Orange's version, and the main village version) into a competent whole for the download:

Okami Demo Recording 02

I picked up the demo today.  Has OPM always been such a huge rip off ($9.99!!)?  I flipped through the magazine over lunch and what a huge piece of crap it is.  Tossed that sucker in the recycling bag the second I got home.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing Okami again since I loved it the last time I tried it.

Gotta admit it's a throwaway publication, for the most part.  I nabbed a subcription once I'd heard that playable Snake Eater was to be included with the November issue back in 2004.  I canceled after a six-month run, but still pick up the occasional issue here and there from the newsstand if the demo warrants attention.  By the way, Ace Combat Zero is looking mighty tasty; definitely grabbing that..... in April, is it?  I really have to pick up a pair of Flight Sticks, too.

This month's issue of PLAY is worth checking out, though.  Okami graces the cover, and, of course, it's got a most excellent feature on the game.

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Some gorgeous stuff indeed, Angela. Thanks!

Ok, I sat down and played the demo.  The game still rocks.  I wish the demo didn't have the annoying time limit, but at least I can feel confident that this will easily be the best PS2 game of the year.  Interesting that two of this year's best games will star wolves (Zelda is the other), eh?

As for the rest of the demo disc, I learned that I really, really suck at Beatmania (of the three songs, the only one I could complete was the MGS theme -- ironically the one with the highest difficulty rating), and that Ace Combat still bores me to tears.  I didn't try any of the other games on there.