Okage: Shadow King is a title that, quite honestly, I had kind of forgotten about until it popped up on PSN a couple weeks ago.

For the uninitiated, in Okage, the player character, Ari (or whatever you want to name him…I called him Zardoz), is swept up in a raucous adventure that few could contemplate, and even fewer survive. And the force that will drive Ari down this perilous road is now his very own shadow.

Shadows and Demons and Kings, Oh My!

Around Ari’s home of Tenel and the neighboring villages, ghosts creep out of the dark forests to terrorize villagers. Some materialize into dangerous beasts that ambush unwary wayfarers. The truly unlucky are left stricken by ghostly curses that leave them in misery.

One night, Ari's sister Annie is found lying on the path to her house, stricken by such a curse. In a desperate bid to save her, Annie's family holds a séance with a mystical bottle that Ari's father acquired under mysterious circumstances. The ceremony resurrects a spirit from the bottle named Master Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV. Stan, as he likes to be called, is the spirit of a long defeated Evil King. And he is Annie's only hope.

The situation is grave…but a tough decision must be made. To save his sibling, Ari makes a deal with the demon. In exchange for lifting the curse, Ari will allow Evil King Stan to become his shadow and his master. In the candlelight, Stan comes to life and Ari soon falls under his thrall.

Shortly after this, Ari and Stan find out that there are many Evil Kings populating this world, and even a "Map o' Evil Kings" which details all of their current locations. Infuriated by these pretenders to this rightful throne, Stan decides to have Ari eliminate the “Fake Evil Kings.” Ari, being the unassuming young lad that he is, has little choice but to agree to Evil King Stan’s demands and takes up the quest.

Does It Hold Up?

I have fond memories of the game mostly because my son, Kyle (who was nine when it came out in 2001), really enjoyed it. I began the first few hours of Ari’s wild and wooly adventure to defeat the Evil Kings, but Kyle was the one who ultimately completed it.

Kyle, who is now 23, had this to say about the game, looking back on it 15 years later: “Okage is the rare kind of game that can leave a lasting impression upon a player without requiring a full playthrough or hours of investment. The game looks like an anime filtered through Tim Burton's mind, but plays like a fairly typical JRPG. This helps ground the player as they wander from strange city to strange city under the orders of your possessed shadow. Ari, the silent and forever overshadowed protagonist, is the perfect vessel for the player to soak in the crazy world and memorable characters. Truly, they are what make the game stand out.”

I downloaded the game a week ago to see how it holds up in 2016. The short answer is: Not too shabby at all! It is certainly worth the $9.99 price tag.

The longer answer is: It’s definitely indicative of early generation PS2 experiences. There’s a good amount of wonky camera wrangling and slow-paced (by today’s standards), turn based battles. There’s also the standard, archaic save system where you can only save at a static location (i.e. your room, an inn, etc.), and this cost me about 45 minutes play time at one point because I just wasn’t thinking about it, being used to auto-saves, checkpoints, and the like. I died without a recent save, so I had replay a chunk of the game. Annoying to be sure, but not end of the world.

What is still endearing (and really carries the experience) is the writing and/or story, particularly Evil King Stan’s dialogue and interactions with just about everyone. Most of these exchanges are still laugh-out-loud funny. The Burton-esque visuals were a revelation in 2001, and they are still quite cool in 2016. Okage is also my first recollection of using “E-Z” warp areas in an RPG, which allow you to fast travel between the various towns. I’m sure there was an earlier implementation of this feature in some other title, but I’m hard pressed to think of it right now.

At the time of writing this article, I’m about 8 hours into (in the midst of the 3rd Chapter) my second play-through of Okage: Shadow King. I think this time around I’m going to be the one who finishes Ari and Stan’s grand expedition. It is a shame that it only took me 15 years…because it is certainly a quirky, “last-gen” title that is worth revisiting.

OKAGE: SHADOW KING IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ON THE PS4 PLAYSTATION NETWORK FOR $9.99.