Like my brother Geoff Keighley, I too cried at the Okami sequel trailer

During Thursday night’s Game Awards ceremony, founder and host Geoff Keighley surprised everyone by looking like he was going to burst into tears as he revealed that Capcom is working on a sequel to its PlayStation 2 classic Okami with original director Hideki Kamiya.

It’s one of the most human and relatable things I’ve ever seen Keighley do, and I was right there with him. As I watched the simple teaser — which consists of little more than stirring music, footage of a wolf running, the Capcom logo, and Kamiya’s name — I too did a little cry.

Let me explain. Okami, which came out in 2006, is a good game. It’s a Zelda-style action-adventure about a celestial wolf god who runs around fighting spirits with her flaming disc and fixing things for flummoxed villagers. It has beautiful visuals inspired by traditional Japanese illustration; the characters are outlined in thick, inky black brushstrokes and filled in with delicate washes of watercolor.

I reviewed Okami for Edge magazine at the time and gave it a 9 out of 10, a score I stand by. I wouldn’t call it one of my favorite games, though; it’s overlong and can be clunky, and I wouldn’t choose it over at least a half-dozen of the best Zelda games.

But here’s the thing — Okami represents a very special time in gaming, when major Japanese studios in particular were challenging themselves to expand the artistic vernacular of video games. It also represents the partial failure of that dream, because it didn’t sell very well and sunk the unique Capcom studio that made it, Clover. Clover’s fall prompted the departure of Kamiya, Shinji Mikami, and others from Capcom to form PlatinumGames.

For Capcom to seek redemption by reuniting with Kamiya (who has named his new studio Clovers) and funding an Okami sequel tells me that the spirit of those days wasn’t completely stamped out. It also tells me — because Capcom is a business, after all — that the various reissues of Okami have sold well enough over the years to justify this move, and to prove to Capcom how short-sighted it had been.

Watching the announcement of the Okami sequel, I was moved by the great music, performed by a live orchestra. I was wowed by the striking new visual direction, which ditches the ink outlines for warm splashes of painterly color. I was thrilled by the animation of the wolf god Amaterasu pelting across the landscape. But, like Geoff, I really was emotional because of what this announcement means.

The Game Awards livestream cut from a glowing Keighley to Kamiya in the audience, looking on impassively from behind his red shades. No doubt the infamous Twitter troll was mentally blocking Geoff for his sentimental weakness. I guess he’ll have to block me too, now.