The game's North American cover art.
Okage: Shadow King is a 2001 JRPG developed by Zener Works and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2.
The game follows a 16 year old boy named Ari, who on the night of the circus, finds his little sister Annie cursed by a ghost. In hopes to help her, his dad releases an Evil King named Stan and his butler James who has been imprisoned for 300 years.
This game, despite having low sales due to lack of U.S. advertising and being overshadowed by Dark Cloud and the 2002 releases of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X, as well as being criticized for it's battle system and load times (due to the game being on a blue bottomed CD-ROM), has a quite huge following. Though there are still no plans to make a second because Zener Works now creates mobile and handheld games.
Story
This is a story about an ordinary boy named Ari who lives in a remote village named Tenel. Everything starts as a normal day would. Ari is sent on an errand to pick up bread for dinner. The next night, the circus comes to town. Ari misses it, because he listens to his father. That same night, his sister is attacked by a ghost and falls under a curse in which she can only speak Pig Latin. The family turns to the bottle for help. Upon opening the bottle, Ari allows his shadow to be possessed by "The Evil King Stan", who was trapped in the bottle, in order to break his sister's curse. The curse is lifted, but his sister's shadow is turned pink for her troubles.
The next day, Stan attempts to terrorize the town and conquer it, but none of the townspeople are frightened. Stan and Ari learn of a "Map o' Evil Kings", which shows the locations of other Evil Kings in the world. Stan realizes that while he was trapped in the bottle, various people stole his powers and became false Evil Kings. Stan starts off on a journey to defeat these Evil Kings, reclaim his stolen powers, and conquer the world—dragging a reluctant Ari along with him. A circus ringmaster gives him a copy of the Map o' Evil Kings, starting the quest in the city of Madril.
On their journey, they are suddenly surrounded by ghosts, then saved by a mysterious "Pink Hero". Soon, they arrive at Madril, where a "Sewer Evil King" is terrorizing the town in the sewers. They then arrive at the Hero's Club to find out that the Pink Hero's name is Rosalyn. They meet up with Rosalyn, who then plans to defeat the Sewer Evil King alone. Eventually, Ari ends up going to the sewers, and Rosalyn decides to accompany him. After defeating the Evil King, who is actually a Giant Rat, some of Stan's power returns. The pair also finds a small, mechanical component of some object. Then, Ari and Rosalyn check into an inn. An amusing argument occurs, and soon after, Rosalyn tells Ari about a rumor that a princess with great magical powers is heading to the seaside town.
Now, Ari, Rosalyn, and Stan travel to the second floor of Madril. There they meet the cute-but-talentless singer Linda, who has a pair of two purple and yellow horns on the top of her head. Intrigued, she begins calling Ari her "coach". Upon leaving Madril, and entering the Rumille plain, they meet the strange scientist, Gutten Kisling. He joins your party. The unlikely trio next travels to a seaside town where the Princess Marlene and her butler Beiloune are staying for a festival. Unfortunately, the Princess has been seized by the Bubble Evil King, a giant fish-monster that is the second king on the map. Upon destroying him, Stan recovers more of his power, along with another mechanical component. Stan claims this power gives him the ability to control humans. He orders Ari to get close to Marlene. When Ari hesitates, Stan forces him to hug the princess. That hug only gained the evil king and his servant a slap on the cheek. The power didn't work at all. Afterwards, Stanley makes an interesting comment, saying when he tried to use the power, it seemed like the princess had "no soul." Ari begins to develop a crush on the mysterious Marlene. She remains distant, though, and says nothing.
Returning to Madril, the gang discovers that a strange corporation has been making underhanded deals and cheating townspeople out of their money. Further investigation leads to an industry where it is revealed that the third evil king in the batch-the Chairman Evil King-has taken over! The trio overruns his offices, but he threatens Marlene to spread a rumor about Marlene kissing her servant, Ari, if she doesn't cooperate with his schemes. They head to the Escapeless Abyss and track him down. After taking him down and claiming his component, he murmurs something about the "back of the sewers." This new clue stays with the group as they discover the Big Bull Evil King, a muscle-bound bull. His defeat reveals that a strange voice has been calling to him ever since he absorbed Stan's power, telling him to go to the back of the sewers to make his dreams come true. Intrigued, the Big Bull Evil King is offered a place in the group, offering his part of the strange machine.
Upon returning to Madril, the foursome discovers that people are now obsessed with Linda's songs. Everyone, including the local scientists, are talking like her and listening to her music. It is discovered that Linda herself is the next evil king on the list -the Teen Idol Evil King! Her hypnotic songs begin to affect even Stan a little, so the group travels to a snow-bound plain to defeat her. It is revealed that Linda has been calling Stan her coach the whole time; she apparently thought that Ari was "some weird doll" and thought Stan was hiding as a "camouflage". After fighting her, Linda relents, and joins the party with more information about the sewers. She also offers up her piece of the odd machine, and it is fused together to become a magical music box! The box is the key to breaking the seal on the gate to the back of the sewers, so they travel there. Upon solving the huge puzzle that guarded a weird machine in the area, Ari steps onto it without result.
Except that he is now invisible! Everyone seems to have forgotten about him, and is ignoring the fact that he ever existed; even his own family members lost their memories of him. As he walks through Madril he sees Marlene going into a hotel with her butler Beiloune. It seems Marlene cannot fully forget Ari but is unable to recall exactly who he is or how he made her life fun. Beiloune remarks about how he is glad that Ari left the world, but things are not going as he planned. In desperation Ari heads north. Ari discovers that his condition is not unique; there is a whole town, called Triste, full of people like himself. He seeks advice from the circus ringmaster who first bequeathed him the map, and is told that the only way to save himself is to force people to recognize him. Ari must then walk up to conversing people and force his own opinion into their talks. After doing this enough, he returns to the town, and the ringmaster helps restore him. There, Stan and Ari reunite, and meet the Phantom Evil King (Epros). He announces that the circus ringmaster was once an Evil King himself, but that he sacrificed his power to the Sewer Evil King. After that event, Ari tracks down the missing party members. After that, they follow the hints and track him down. After a war of words, they defeat the Phantom Evil King, and the five manage to persuade him to join the group.
By this time, it is revealed that "Princess" Marlene is actually just a doll made to look like the princess. The real Marlene is trapped in an alternate dimension. Beiloune is actually her father, the creator of the world the game takes place in. He created the world to let his daughter have fun, but he lost her and became obsessed with the doll. He plans to destroy the world that defied him and ruined his daughter's adventures. Beiloune then announces that he will create the ultimate evil king to destroy them. Determined to stop Beiloune, the six heroes track down and destroy the Vampire Evil King, the last of the seven. After being defeated the Vampire Evil King agrees to open the bridge to the World Library. There, the gang bands together to defeat Beiloune, who becomes a giant monster to destroy them. Thankfully, the group's teamwork brings him down, destroying the classification system, freeing Marlene, and making Stan a true Evil King again-but he decides not to destroy the world after all. Instead, he decides to rule it, but Rosalyn chases him off. Whether or not he actually accomplishes this, we may never know. Afterwards Ari reunites with Marlene at his house and they hold hands as they enter the house.
Characters
- Ari - The main protagonist of the game. A quiet, 16-year-old boy with an overshadowed destiny. His shadow is so thin, that most people ignore him and it is what enables Stan to take him as his slave. Seems to be without note, but... He reluctantly takes on the responsibility of being enslaved by the Evil King Stan in order to save his sister from the ghost's curse—and once that's done, to save the world from the Fake Evil Kings and restore Stan's true power. In the beginning of the story, his weapon is a branch. He obtains a sword, which is upgradeable, as he progresses through the game. In the Japanese version, his eyes are wide open. They were toned down in the US version.
- Lord Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV - Better known as Evil King Stan, or just Stan, possesses Ari's shadow to appear in this world. He is short-tempered and has a childish personality, but has moments where he picks up on things that even the other group members miss. He has built his identity on being evil and desires to be feared by the world as the Great Evil King. He claims to be the reincarnation of, and therefore the heir to, the Great Evil King Gohma, who was defeated by the Great Hero Hopkins three hundred years previous to the story. Apparently, Hopkins also sealed Stan away into a bottle, which is found by Ari's father.
- James - The cheerful ghost butler to the Evil King Stan. He is seen quite a few times in the game, mostly with just info on things you should know about, but he is often too preoccupied with something (or someone) else to follow his "almighty" master's orders.
- Rosalyn - A 22-year-old heroine, a master of the rapier and the reluctant devotee of the parasol. She and Stan have a history of conflict which began upon releasing him from his bottle three years previous to the game's beginning; Stan took over her shadow for just long enough to insult her figure and her to threaten to kill herself (thus killing him), before he retreated back into the bottle. Rosalyn used to be an elite hero and was at the top of her class, but ever since her shadow became pink she has been a laughing stock and forced to hide her shameful shadow under a parasol. She never forgave Stan for this mockery and has been hunting for him since. She feels she needs to prove her strength and skill as an expert swordswoman and caster of spells. She is also a magnet for ghosts.
- Princess Marlene - As a spoiled princess, She is snobbish and pompous before truly getting to know Ari and his family. Later in the game the player finds out that the Marlene they know is actually a doll, and that the real Marlene's body is trapped elsewhere in the world of her father's creation.
- Beiloune - Marlene's butler. It is revealed at the end of the game that he is Marlene's father as well as the game's main antagonist. He has a massive 9999 HP and resides in the world library. He also uses a devastating spell called Channel. He also doesn't have any minions with him. But if underleveled, it may take multiple tries to defeat this massive boss.
- Gutten Kisling - An extremely eccentric scientist who has devoted his life to the ghost research, while enjoying such hobbies as stalking pretty girls and collecting toenail clippings. Upon meeting the party, he is enticed by Rosalyn's ability to attract ghosts and joins the quest without a single party member's approval. Despite his behavior, the forty-five-year-old Kisling seems to be quite intelligent, and he wields powerful offensive magic.
- Big Bull - Formerly the "Big Bull Evil King", a fighter with great physical strength who loves exercise and battle. He excitedly joins Ari's party to help defeat the other evil kings after he, himself, is defeated. His dream is to someday open his own athletic gym. His idiotic and unwitting personality disagrees with Rosalyn and Stan but he's too cheerful and loving of the party to notice or care. He has a crush on Linda.
- Linda - She is an aspiring singer from Madril who unfortunately lacks talent so later uses Stan's stolen power to become the "Teen Idol Evil King" and loved by her brainwashed fans. Though she is somewhat subdued when Ari first meets her, after she joins the party her truly cheery and very bubbly personality comes out. initially, she seemed to have a crush on Ari, but it is later discovered that she actually had a crush on Stan who just happened to have the "dorky" "doll", Ari, attached to him. Further down the line, Linda's crush on Stan seems to fade in favor of one blossoming for the reluctant Epros. She attacks using her microphone as a weapon and supports the party with magical chants.
- Epros - Using Stan's power, he is known as the "Phantom Evil King" and throws playing cards and casts magic to attack his enemies. He is sophisticated and well dressed, though his interests in magic and the "truth" of the world, as well as his ability to float about and his strange speech pattern make him as peculiar as the rest of the cast. He always speaks in rhyme and with Shakespearean words, which confuses the team and annoys Stan to no end. Like the other "Evil King" party members, Epros joins the group after he is defeated, late in the game. Epros is the main love interest of Linda, but only after she gets over Stan.
Trivia
- The game's original title in Japan is Boku to Mao (ボクと魔王), which can mean:
The game's Japanese cover. Notice how Ari and Stan are apart of the background, instead of being the main part of the U.S. box. It also seems they are drawn the same way as the other characters, and the hill seems to be much larger, showing quite a lot of empty space between James and Kisling.
- Me and the Devil King
- Me and the Satan King
- The Devil and Me
- The Evil King and Me
- Me and the Devil
- This game was never released in Europe due to low sales in North America, however, the game was re-released in Japan under Sony's "The Best" brand.
- There are a set of figures made around the time Okage got released. This set included Ari & Stan, Rosalyn, Big Bull, Linda, Marlene, and James. However, a complete set of these figures can go up to $200.
- There exists only one commercial for Okage: Shadow King which was only in Japan.
- The game's narrator is J.S. Gilbert, who is also known for doing Sweet Tooth in Twisted Metal (2011) and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
Okage Shadow King commercial
