When asked to make a follow-up to one of the greatest games of the last decade, there's a lot of pressure to live up to the expectations of your niche fan base, the worse of all fan bases to design for. Capcom might have dodged the issue by making Okami den for the DS and thus, comes with the inherent notion of 'this game won't be as good'. Fact is: Okami den isn't as good as Okami and it won't escape the wrath of this gamer.
I have a few minutes, let's talk about what's good. The graphics. Usually there's not a lot to stay about graphics, but one thing Okami and Okami den do well is represent the concept the games stand for, Japanese-style paintings set in the era they were popularized in and mix the concept of painting into the game play. And that's what Okami den does, it manages to take that style and shrink it down well. The DS does very little to hinder the graphic style from Okami which is quite the impressive feat. Though some of the areas aren't as big as a result, its still nice to look at.
And that's a theme Okami den establishes, not as big. Everything has been shrunk down for this game which is on a smaller platform. Usually a game doesn't try to draw attention to the fact that their handheld installment isn't as grand as it's console counterpart, but it works well enough for the most part. Okami had Amaterasu, Okami den has Chibiterasu, Okami had a lot of fun things to do, Okami den doesn't have that much to do, Okami had a huge country to explore, Okami den has a smaller world, Okami had a lot of innovation and good ideas, Okami den has those same ideas and almost none that are original.
Chibiterasu, fittingly named because she is just a smaller version of Ammy from the first game, is a nice twist on an established formula. Chibi animates well and has a similar personality, but it doesn't come out as much through the plot. The best thing you'll get is reactionary cuts when the game's various partners give Chibi a nickname, or dance with her. Go ahead and YouTube that if you have the time. It's adorable. The supporting cast mostly comes from the various partners you'll cart around the lands and dungeons. Okami left you with Issun for the entire game, but Okami den will rotate partners out which is refreshing. All the characters have their own personality and contribute something different to the game play and combat, but only in a minor way. The rest of the cast is a mix of old characters and people that really one have 1 scene before not being noticed for the rest of the game.
The plot suffers from similar symptoms of Okami, in that, it doesn't start up right away and drags for a while before everything gets going. Okami den's real plot doesn't start halfway through the game, the first half is spent doing miscellaneous tasks and fetching things. Even then, nothing is really ever built up or conveyed as dramatic. Okami did a good job of building up the villains and the evil that they were spreading over the land, Okami den tosses in some bad guy and, due to the lack of characters or elements effected by the evil, you really don't feel the destruction of Nippon like you did in Okami.
Speaking of the evil, combat has taken a step back. Due to the technical limitations of the DS, combat is sluggish. Chibiterasu doesn't control as well as her mom. Turning is cumbersome and attacking seems inaccurate when you're trying to combo. While this all might make the game sound hard, it really isn't. Combat doesn't get challenging until the final bosses, otherwise, its just going through the brush strokes to take care of the limited amount of types of enemies running around. Now would be a good time to mention one of Okami's selling points is, you're a sun god and use a celestial brush to fight and interact with the world. Need the sun to rise? Paint it. Need the wind to blow? Paint it. Need Namco to release Tales of Vesperia for the PS3 in the US? Tough luck.
Over the course of the game, other gods will give you their abilities to aid you on your journey. Unfortunately, Okami den cuts down on new brush moves to use. You'll see a lot of repeats from Okami and not a lot of new entries. You'll have the standard bomb, wind, sun, and slash; but those will be mixed with magnetism and that's it. It's a little disappointing that Okami was brimming over with such new ideas and Okami den doesn't offer as much or any. Magnetism isn't exactly applicable to a lot of areas and not really fun to use. There are some upgrades you can get for brush moves, which is nice, but they don't really add too much to the game, and aren't necessary.
Brush moves aren't the only thing you'll be missing in this game, side quests have been trimmed down as well. In Okami, you could feed animals, play memorization with those blocks, bark at stuff, fish, etc. Okami den gets rid of all that, barking included, and replaces it with nothing. You can collect items but that's just as fun as it sounds.
The dungeon, puzzle-solving game play of Okami was inspired from Zelda's formula but had a few new twists. Okami den's dungeons took the partner-based mechanics from Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, and were about as twisted as a straight line. It would've been nice to see new ideas for controlling a partner's movements via a stylus and your own movements with the d-pad, but it was not meant to be.
Overall, the game doesn't have any deal-breaking moments, until the final dungeon. The game not only makes you fight every single boss in the game again, Capcom tradition at this point, it makes you go through waves of enemies in a copied and pasted twice room which accumulates to about 1 more hour of game play you didn't need to experience. Then you fight a disembodied head with two hands. I don't enjoy pointing out this cop out final boss set up. I really don't. It bothers me that people keep using it when the idea barrel reaches the bottom. And I can forgive it if a game makes up for it with a plethora of ideas along the way. But Okami den doesn't justify its existence in any way.
Okami was a game that needed a console sequel to do it justice. The touch-screen controls feel right, but so would a Wii mote. Okami has proven that its formula does well on the Wii, and the Wii can support its graphic styling while not limiting the game play.
On its own merits, Okami den is just ok. It's not a terrible game by any means, but it doesn't come close to matching the greatness Okami is. It feels like Capcom wanted to capitalize on the underground, niche success Okami had, thinking it would drive sales towards Okami den when Clover Studios had closed down, making any more games feel like an impossibility. And all I can say is, it worked. I bought the game. It will always be a shame Okami never sold as much as it should have. In an industry where mediocre sells better than great, Okami was just another casualty. But it'll be less of a tragedy when Okami den doesn't sell a lot, mediocre status and all.
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