Game: Okamiden

Platform: DS

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

ESRB: E

Genre: Brush wielding action adventure

Players: 1

What's Hot: DS stylus makes an exceptional Celestial Brush, endearing and adorable characters, varied boss battles

What's Not: Hardware struggles to keep up at times, finding where to go can be a chore, game sticks around a little too long

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Review by: Brandon "Ink Pot" Cackowski-Schnell

As an immensely successful console prepares to move aside for a newer, more technologically advanced replacement, a beautiful story appears about a canine god on a mission to save Nippon from an unspeakable evil. Sound familiar? It should as this describes the setting for the PS2's beautiful Okami and, oddly enough, for its sequel Okamiden.

Replace the PS2 for the DS and Ameterasu for her offspring Chibiterasu and you have yet another instance of the fan favorite Capcom property helping to usher a console off of the gaming stage. Luckily for Okamiden, it shares much of what made Okami so wonderful, namely a beautiful visual style, endearing characters and satisfying brush-based combat. Unfortunately a sense of sameness as well as a story that goes on a tad bit too long mar the experience but even with these marks against it, Okamiden is a wonderful way to experience the twilight of the DS.

The story starts off nine months after the events of Okami. Strange happenings are afoot in Nippon and guardian saplings, the huge, protective cherry blossom trees scattered throughout Nippon are turning lifeless and dull. Before long Chibiterasu, son of goddess Amaterasu appears and armed with the same weapons and celestial brush powers, you begin your journey of guiding Chibi on a quest to destroy yet another evil source bent on taking over Nippon. The story is a familiar one and it takes some time for it to get going but once you team up with your first companion Kuni, son of legendary hero Susano, and head out into the wider world, the story moves into the background as the problems of the individual people you meet take precedence.

Like Okami before it, the game follows a structure similar to one found in a Legend of Zelda game where moving forward in the main story requires solving the more immediate problems of the people inhabiting your current whereabouts usually culminating with a new weapon, or in this case, a new brush power, that helps you defeat the big boss at root of all of the local problems.

The theme of children is carried throughout the story in lots of adorable and endearing ways. Chibi is a child himself and as he travels across Nippon, all of his companions are children, sometimes of heroes from Okami, sometimes not. Even the gods that grant him his various brush powers are children of the gods that granted Ammy her powers, appearing in incredibly charming cut scenes complete with the playful goofiness found in the original game. Chibi isn't nearly as powerful as his mom, making up for his lack of combat prowess with additional help from his companions, all of whom have special abilities that help Chibi traverse dungeons and obtain collectibles. One companion can walk on air, allowing Chibi to connect to him via a magical vine, traversing chasms in the process while one companion can douse torches while still another can exorcise demonic spirits. The constant switching up of companions works to keep the story interesting as each companion has their own distinct personalities as well as reasons for helping Chibiterasu.

Folks who played the original Okami will recognize many of the game's settings, even if they have changed some in the nine months between games. Unfortunately the changes aren't enough to keep a feeling of sameness from pervading your travels, that is when you're not wandering around wondering where to go next. At the beginning, an arrow guides you to your next goal only to disappear for a large chunk of the game, reappearing for one brief instance and then disappearing again. As a result, knowing where you're supposed to go next becomes a matter of randomly guessing, traveling to an area and hoping a cut scene tells you you're where you're supposed to be. Later in the game, Chibi gains the ability to warp via save points, but even that isn't as useful if, like me, your ability to recognize long, Japanese names is severely hampered by an age addled brain.

Once you've arrived at your destination the joy of transforming a blighted world via the celestial brush is the same joy that it was in the first game, only now the DS's stylus makes it easier than ever. Drawing a swirl on a tree brings it back to life while slashes cut boulders and enemies. With the brush, Chibi can return the sun to the sky, summon firecracker bombs and bring forth powerful blasts of fire as well as lead columns of water to put out fires, connect vines between obstacles and guide his companions to switches. I found the use of the stylus a huge improvement over both the PS2 controller and the Wiimote from Okami's two releases, if only because you can put the DS down for more control. The DS still had a problem with registering brush strokes at times, particularly when guiding companions, but I felt like I had much more control this time around. For younger players, the game can be played on easy mode where running out of ink, the penalty for errant brush strokes, is removed entirely.

The story clocks around a very generous 20 hours and encompasses traveling back and forth through time as well as physical space. It's a whopper of a tale, to be sure, but towards the end I couldn't help but develop a little story fatigue, wishing that things had wrapped up a few hours earlier. Granted, game length and the enjoyment thereof is a subjective beast and there certainly enough changes to the gameplay experience to keep things interesting, it just stayed around a little too long for my liking which is odd, given how much I love this world and these characters.

The DS has been my favorite console for a long time now and I'm glad for all of the things I got to experience with it. It seems fitting somehow that Okamiden be one of the games that closes out the DS's reign as the game's themes of youth combined with tradition seems to mirror the current transition from one console to the next. Maybe I'm just being nostalgic and attributing too much to hunks of plastic and wires but many of the endearing yet somewhat archaic traits of Okamiden are shared by the DS and I loved both the game and the gaming system for them.

Brandon Cackowski-Schnell is a regular contributor to GameShark and is the cohost of Jumping the Shark , GameShark.com's official podcast and co-founder of No High Scores.

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