8 Underrated Video Games With STUNNING Art Styles

Okami may be about double the length that it probably should've been, but the slog of its second half is soothed considerably by the game's utterly enchanting aesthetic from start to finish.

Okami's watercolour-infused, cel-shaded style, inspired by Japanese ink-illustration (also known as sumi-e), is totally breathtaking, bringing Japanese mythology and folklore to life like never before in a video game.

The game's stylistic accomplishments go hand in hand with its central gameplay gimmick, whereby players can use the Celestial Brush to draw on the screen, in turn influencing both puzzles and combat.

As such it's fair to call Okami a love letter to the very transformative power of art itself, and though it's a firmly beloved game by most who actually bothered to play it, almost 20 years after release it remains a firmly niche title which has never earned the huge audience it so thoroughly deserves.

All the same, Capcom did recently include Okami in a survey for players regarding potential future sequels, so you never know...