What can I say about Okamiden? Well, it sure ain’t Okami,
that’s for sure.
I mean, when you have a sequel to something,
you can expect to say, “it was the same, yet different”. But Okami was a huge cult classic. There
were fan expectations to meet. Okamiden
could never be its own game, it’ll always be the sequel to Okami. And when I heard about what was in store, I was intrigued.
Playing Amaterasu’s kid makes sense for a sequel. You could be this
just-as-epic-but-slightly-smaller version of Ammy. There was so much potential.
Instead, you play as a little chibi wolf…
seriously they even call you Chibiterasu. It’s not like it doesn’t work at all.
The game’s still going with the Japanese theme. It’s just not traditional Japan
now. It’s cutsie stuff. And I’m sure some people loved it. But it was enough to
make me put down the game for a while. Once I picked it back up, I wasn’t
completely disappointed though.
This game would never live up to my obscene
expectations. I realise this now. Part of what made Okami great was its originality, so of course I don’t know what I
could have been expecting.
So, other than the fact that you can never
duplicate the awesomeness that was Okami,
especially with Clover Studio gone and chibis running around everywhere, how
good is Okamiden?
It’s pretty cool. They brought back a lot of the right stuff, and changed things in interesting new ways. Like, the world is pretty much the same layout as before, but now there are new places, and certain characters have had kids, which is really fun to see. Maybe some people won’t like that it’s much of the same world, especially since there can be some backtracking, and you start to wonder how many times you’re going to see certain parts of Nippon. Then again, some might like that. We’re brought back to that beautiful world that we love, with slight changes. For example the beautiful Yakushi Village. Certainly, the world has the same beauty as last time, whether you’re in the new or old parts.
It’s pretty cool. They brought back a lot of the right stuff, and changed things in interesting new ways. Like, the world is pretty much the same layout as before, but now there are new places, and certain characters have had kids, which is really fun to see. Maybe some people won’t like that it’s much of the same world, especially since there can be some backtracking, and you start to wonder how many times you’re going to see certain parts of Nippon. Then again, some might like that. We’re brought back to that beautiful world that we love, with slight changes. For example the beautiful Yakushi Village. Certainly, the world has the same beauty as last time, whether you’re in the new or old parts.
Of course they brought back the Celestial
Brush and the whole painting objects into existence thing. If that weren’t
back, I couldn’t have done the review, because I would have thrown the game out
the window then demanded my money back.
And it works just as well as the Celestial
Brush did in the PS2 version of Okami,
and way better than the Wii version, which gave me enough trouble that I
stopped playing the game on the Wii. I sometimes found the simple act of
running to be tough. You’re playing as a puppy and I feel like maybe they made
the controls just a little bit difficult on purpose, which is cute but also
hellish. I learned to walk properly twenty-something years ago, and I really
prefer it to derping around.
The fight mechanics are also a little
clunky. It can be hard to point your character in the right direction, for
example. And this isn’t really the game’s fault, but my right button is
starting to crap out, so using the Celestial Brush can be tough, which can
makes the battles slow and sometimes make me lose a good hit or combo.
The characters and story were pretty fun,
though. There’s still a lot of charm, like there was in the first one. A little
less of the tranquil beauty brought on by playing a wolf with a long, flowing
gait, but lots of people who aren’t me like cutsie stuff. It’s forgivable in
most cases.
The Nintendo DS is really the perfect fit
for the game, too. No, you can’t see glorious Nippon on your giant flatscreen
this time, but since it’s already a chibi version of everything else Okami was,
why not make the screen and console smaller, too? The only real flaw with the
DS is, like I said, that buttons tend to stop working, and one of the main
parts of the game, the Celestial Brush, uses them. Can’t blame the game for
that, though.
So all in all, Okamiden isn’t Okami. I
played Okami every single day until
it was done. It took me months to get through Okamiden. This is not the same cult classic. But it’s not a bad game. A
little rough around the edges, maybe. But not bad. Not bad at all.
Find it on Amazon
| ebay
Released: 2011-03-15
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Find it on Amazon
Released: 2011-03-15
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
0 comments:
Post a Comment