I didn’t ever review Okami, I played it before starting the blog. But trust me, I loved it. This is back before we were married, my then-girlfriend bought it for herself because it looked so good, and she was in the position of many people of suddenly owning a Wii and not being sure what to do with it. She made me play it though because she found it too hard, which is fair enough. She loved to watch me play, all the way through, and it’s by no means a short game.

When we found out about the sequel on DS, of course we were interested. Especially because it was apparently a little easier. She was so excited to find a game that she was both interested in and was up to her abilities. In fact she did play through it, and despite putting it down for a few stretches (the boss battles in particular), eventually finished it for herself. I was very happy for her but of course looking over her shoulder every now and then wasn’t the ideal way to experience the game.

So finally after a long time, I also played it. Now apparently you can only have one save file, but that’s ok because I started from her New Game Plus and got the weapon that breaks the game. Cool beans. Even without that, you can consider it a cut-down, simpler version of Okami. Which is a great thing.

Clover went under, and came back as Platinum away from their awful Capcom overlords. But to their credit, Capcom actually made a sequel, farming it out to a little company called “Mobile and Game Studio”. Doesn’t exactly stand out, but look here, among all their cheap mobile games, it’s Okamiden: Chisaki Taiyo (aka Little Sun). In my opinion, this unheard-of studio did a fantastic job converting the Okami experience to the DS.

The art is just like how you remember, as is the music (although that gets repetitive). They even recreated many of the areas of Okami, albeit smaller and broken up by loading zones. They change them up though and their new content and environments fit right in. I wish there weren’t so many “points of no return”, which prohibit backtracking. But the price you pay for that is the new system of buddy characters. Throughout the game Chibiterasu (Amaterasu’s son, and the most adorable gaming protagonist bar none) meets five children that he befriends, who serve the Issun role of interpreting for you, dialogue and so forth. But having five distinct kids helps vary the personality of that companion role. Not to mention the help they give you in battle.

There are also new dungeon-type areas, which, to go along with the Zelda comparison that’s often stated of Okami, are presented similarly to the top-down 2D Zeldas. Using your partner is usually a big part of these zones. I appreciated the change-up of the gameplay here, and they are appropriate for the DS’s capabilities.

Another thing the DS is ideal for is the brush techniques, many of which return plus some new ones (plus the brush gods all have little babies now too! So cute!). Whether the recognition is better or whether it’s just much more accurate drawing directly on the touchscreen, I almost always pulled them off when I wanted to. Very gratifying compared to the sometimes spotty Wii drawing, although without the benefit of the coloured smoke before drawing which that version’s control scheme allowed.

In terms of the story, it follows on from Okami with events nine months later, although you also go back in time to set things up or alongside events of that game, as well as going back 100 years to the “backstory” portion, something Okami did as well. It gets a little confusing, but the story feels suitably meaningful and you meet many familiar faces and new ones too. Sometimes it feels like things or people are only there to reference Okami instead of serving the game in any important way, but taking both of them as a whole is probably a good way to look at them so the way it complements its mother(?) game only strengthens them as a unit, I suppose.

I should have said that the core gameplay is pretty similar to Okami too; traversing 3D environments, instanced battles, plot-focused, exploration and collecting. Of course, many mechanics have been removed or streamlined for this DS iteration. It doesn’t feel compromised though, the way it’s designed everything feels just fine. And the humour and charm is perfectly intact.

The additions are also very welcome, as I’ve said. There’s a new village you keep returning to that you can improve and grow by inviting people to live there. There are enemies that appear on the “overworld” so to speak, outside of the scroll battles. There are different materials to collect to upgrade your weapons, and elemental attack items. And the partners are great.

Basically, I had a lot of fun. It’s also fairly long for a DS game I suppose, it took me 24 hours. Although the broken-ass weapon helped some battles to go quicker (the battles are one of the things that gets tedious after a while). So I’d recommend playing it after someone had finished it once? There are some items to collect that remain collected on subsequent playthroughs though. It’s that annoying balance where you get rewards after completion, but it’s long enough and so plot-driven that you don’t want to replay it too much.

Either way, if you love Okami this game will certainly please you. Unless you can’t get past the low resolution or the gameplay simplifications. In my case, I swallowed those easily and found the perfect follow-up to one of the best games on the Wii (and PS2 and the HD one and whatever). Don’t write it off, it’s really quite wonderful. Once again I express my surprise that this unknown studio that makes so many “casual” games has lived up to Clover’s work. Play it! Even if only to see Chibi’s reaction to the silly nicknames his partners give him. It’s worth it.