Difficulty:

Very Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

September of 2006 saw the release of the original Okami on the PS2. Originally appearing to be a Zelda clone with a stunning visual design and little appeal to mainstream gamers, Okami sold little despite an overwhelmingly positive critical reception. But as word spread and the game was released on the Wii, Okami has slowly become one of the most admired games of the last five years. And considering its beautiful Japanese watercolor visuals, engrossing story rooted in Japanese mythology and drama, and exceptional overworld exploration, it's not hard to see why. When all is said and done, the original Okami is one of the greatest games of all time, which begs the question: why put its sequel on a handheld? Can a handheld really produce a worthy sequel to such a fantastic game? I waited for the answer to the second question with borderline apprehension, but my hopes were high. Alas, Okamiden is a fun adventure that is definitely worthy of a purchase, though it won't blow you away like the original.

Okamiden kicks off about 9 months after the conclusion of Amaterasu's story in Okami. At some point within those 9 months, Ammy has had a child, Chibiterasu, who will be this adventure's protagonist. Who fathered Chibi is a mystery, which Issun (making a comeback for the early portions of the game) humorously points out. Many other familiar characters return alongside a slew of newcomers, and this cast is a very faithful follow-up to that of Okami, with many unique and likeable personalities. The opening text is very interesting and a good way to start up the game. You get to choose between the difficulties Greenhorn and Old Hand, of which Greenhorn is basically "very easy." I don't understand the point of it, honestly, considering that Old Hand is already ridiculously easy (even giving you an arrow to follow early in the game at times). A lot of humor and poignancy is inserted into the storyline, but to be honest, the first 10 hours is very discombobulated and inconsistent. After the world is once again thrown into darkness, Chibi must revive guardian trees to clear the land, and eventually defeat the monster causing this mayhem. While clearing the tainted areas only lasts for about the first third of the game, Chibi is constantly called on to perform fetch quests that are usually not mandatory (though they result in items and praise).

These can be tedious, and many other side-quests appear (varying in quality) including a stretched-out quest to help a dying girl, which is mandatory, but very intriguing nonetheless. Also tedious can be the sometimes too stretched-out cut-scenes. Plagued with bad translations, misspellings, and bad pacing that sometimes sees the text disappear before you can read it or take forever to move on, the dialogue is a huge disappointment. From beginning to end, Chibi must battle through dungeons and defeat bosses to progress in the main story. These dungeons are a bit disappointing in that they are clearly cut away from the rest of the overworld, unlike Okami and its dungeons that were seamlessly melded with the rest of the game's environments. Not only that, but none of the puzzles, from beginning to end, provide any semblance of challenge at all. You will almost never spend more than a few seconds contemplating how to progress to the next room, and honestly, the puzzles of the second dungeon of either DS Zelda game are tougher than anything you'll see in Okamiden. Most enemies are about as easy. The battle system plays out almost the same as in Okami, with some enemies able to be fought on the overworld, but most taking you to another screen in which you battle it out with differing monsters. You can still slice/burn/damage the "slips" that take you into battle to incapacitate them, but once you get into battle, you either make a hole to escape (like in Okami, and if it's available) or you take on your foes.

There are several different partners that join Chibi at different points in the game and help him in these battles. They all attack with unique powers and have their own special abilities. These battles, despite being very easy, are hectic and fun. Early on, there isn't much variety at all, which leads to some stale battles around five hours into the game. However, many different enemies begin to appear, resulting in some very fun and pseudo-epic battles. The problem with the difficulty is that you can spam the celestial brush and do away with the majority of enemies within seconds. If you have the right partner, there are no enemies that can really last against you for long, even late in the game. With the wrong partner (or none), there are just a few enemies that put up a good fight, and even these shouldn't be able to defeat you. You gain back most (if not all) of your health and ink after every battle, and hitting enemies can have them drop health and ink too. Not only that, but you get so much money that you can fill up on healers and ink-restorers to the point that this game's battles become a farce (and that's disregarding all the items you can get that do stuff like badly damage enemies). This isn't even mentioning the fact that there are pots and breakable objects everywhere to restore health/ink and entering a save portal restores you fully.

Considering how incredibly easy the battles are, you probably will never see the "game over" screen unless you want to. If you do decide to see it, you'll get nice-looking screen and some enjoyable music, and you're teleported back to a very recent checkpoint (in other words, you don't really have to save as often as Issun suggests early in the game). Your health goes by eighths, so falling off of ledges doesn't mean much, and only a few enemies can take out more than one health meter at once. Once again, accumulating praise levels you up, this time giving you more health and ink bars. Helping people/animals/imps in need (an early request will have you directing people to a village, people you can check on later) and restoring things like cherry trees and blighted land are the best ways to gain praise, and you should have a huge amount of health and ink by the end. As the game progresses, people not familiar with Okami should start to appreciate the brilliant references to Japanese mythology and theater. Much of the story is taken from Japanese myths, from the One-Inch Boy Issun to the Sun Goddess. A look into Japanese Kabuki Theater is also provided with one of Chibi's companions. Needless to say, the game's storylines are rich and beautiful. It also helps that all the aforementioned characters all have unique and interesting personalities and backgrounds, and it's easy to feel connected to them in and out of battle.

There are multiple boss battles in Okamiden, which force you to use regular attacks, your Celestial brush, and your partners throughout. The boss battles are still too easy, but provide some good variety to the gameplay, and are fun for the most part. The part of the gameplay everyone wondered about, though, was the Celestial brush controls. Would they really be better on the touch-screen? And yes, they are. You can pull off brush skills faster than ever, and this is heavily emphasized in the final boss battle. There are a few annoyances, like the game not detecting what you're trying to tap and sometimes mixing brush moves up, but for the most part the brush controls are outstanding. There are still many brush skills to learn, and they're all fun to pull off and useful in their own ways. Other aspects of Okamiden have been stripped down from Okami. You can gain two other weapons from the original (that can be upgraded near the end), but that's about it. You can dodge, but there is no place to gain many new moves like in the original. Not only that, but there's much less to do in the overworld this time around. In this sense, the game feels a bit bare despite still having a fairly large world to explore. There are some things to collect though, like artifacts that can be sold (though you really don't need the money) and pieces of masterpiece portraits drawn by Issun. As the game progresses, the storyline fortunately picks up steam. After a tedious first half of the game, it really becomes much more enjoyable and comparable to its superb predecessor. Time travel is interestingly added near the end, and some good plot twists will keep you on edge.

Early on, you should have definitely noticed the DS cartridge's limitations as the game is cut into many pieces in each area. This cuts into the flow of the game even though the loading times are almost nonexistent. This does allow for some much better visuals though, and both technically and artistically, Okamiden is one of the best-looking games on the DS. The sumi-e style graphics are still gorgeous and there are some seriously beautiful environments that can even be seen clearly from far-off. The character models are still awesome and really look awesome. The draw-distance is terrible though, as pop-in occurs everywhere, sometimes just a step before you. The textures are horribly pixelated as they are in most DS games, but the coloring of the world is so nice that at times the pixelated textures can be ignored. The world is still massive, and the ability to warp appears again late in the game to help you get from place to place. Another problem would be the frame-rate, which dips constantly. This is especially true when there's a lot going on on-screen, and sometimes the frame-rate dip lasts a long time and can be annoying, especially when it occurs in battle.

The animations are well-done and many things from Japanese anime/manga are inserted, like the big sweat drop or raincloud over the head of characters. The interactions between the characters are often heartwarming and help you get into the game. There are some technical hiccups, like sliding off of the edge of ledges when you shouldn't, but the game is mostly sound in this department. The sound effects are really nice, and I still enjoy the little tunes that play when earning praise or reviving a tree, not to mention Chibi's bark and the sound of people talking. The music is still absolutely phenomenal, and really speeds up the story in its own right, especially in the second half of the game. I really can't express how much I love the tunes when the game picks up pace, or you step into a save portal, or during some of the cut-scenes. The Japanese music is simply awe-inspiring, though sometimes it gets cut off too quickly, especially at the end of cut-scenes. The game wraps up beautifully, even though the last area leading up to the final boss fights drags a bit. But the final bosses themselves are long and satisfying, as is the final cut-scene.

After the final cut-scene is over, you can start up the game and play through again as you please, though Okamiden doesn't have great replayability. It should take over 20 hours on a first play-through as long as you don't rush through, so it's of a good length for a handheld game. While disappointingly tedious over the first 10 or so hours, Okamiden really picks up the pace in the second half and becomes an excellent game to end the DS's dynasty and pave the way forward to the 3DS. Many minor flaws, watered-down aspects of the gameplay, and an outrageously easy difficulty cut into the fun, but the fast and furious battles system, likeable cast of characters, gorgeous visuals and music, beautiful look into Japanese mythology, and an excellent second half to the storyline really make Okamiden a great DS game that should be picked up, especially by adventure fans. And of course the touch-screen is the way the Celestial brush should be used. Okamiden won't blow you away like its phenomenal predecessor did, but there is still a lot of fun to be had in Nippon.