Though for some a trip down memory lane, there's plenty of enjoyment to be had in this return to Nippon.
The Okami series trademark is the use of brush strokes to draw on the screen like a canvass and cause some god-like power to activate (which in this case is powered by Chibiterasu, the pup of Amaterasu who was the main protagonist in the first title). Drawing is activated with the trigger buttons which pauses the action. In this title there's a timer that limits how long you have to draw your action (which varies from drawing a circle to bring about the rising sun to a simple slash to cut down opponents). From my experience, I never had a problem with running out of time, nor ink which is also limited in supply though you can obtain more by breaking nearby vases or buying ink pots. On some occasions there were issues with getting certain actions to register appropriately, but this was rare and a simple do-over would suffice.
The overarching objective is to heal the land by revitalizing sacred trees across the land and eventually slay what vile demon lay responsible for the atrocities cast upon the people of Nippon. Specifically, the story starts off like the former entry with a curse placed upon the land from an unknown source. Amaterasu left to fight evil elsewhere so it's up to Chibi to save the day! I'll leave the rest of the story up to you to discover on your own.
One notable difference is you'll typically have a human (err humanoid at least) companion throughout the adventure. I was surprised to find this companion will change several times (I believe five in total) Get used to being ridden like a horse Chibi! And getting cruddy nicknames to boot, poor Chibi. Just like the pup, all his companions will be little kids with their own mini-tales and adventures to pursue. So the character on the cover? The boy's name is Kuni, and he will be one of several companions you'll meet.
Though there are battles in this game they're not the focus so much and they basically work similar to other adventure games like Zelda. Slash, bash, and knock'em out. Likewise, the dungeons are well done and rival that of the recent Zelda installments. If you like LoZ games, pick this one up - you'll like it too. The game includes several treasures and items to hunt down including scrolls which when complete display a nice watercolor artistic image.
The games pacing is at its best in the first half and then slows a bit during the second half. My most pressing complaint is the overuse of boring fetch quests. It's always, for example, "I need a fishing pole," then it's "now I need bait," so on and so forth. The people of Nippon sure are needy.
Overall the game is quite under-appreciated though. It does a great job melding characters from the previous installment with that of the new ones introduced herein and they seem to fit quite naturally. There are several twists and turns so despite the annoying overuse of fetch quests overall Capcom deserves a great deal of credit for putting together one of the stronger DS titles, potentially the best adventure title on the system - rivaling LoZ.