Okamiden (NDS) Review

Hey guys!

Finally another game review and this time it's Okamiden! I just finished it today and thought I might as well review it. This game is a continuation from the PS2 and Wii release called Okami. For those of you who've never played Okami or at least not know the story in it, then sad to say, many things will be new or lost to you.

First thing's first, I'll just recap what happened in Okami:

The world of Nippon is covered by darkness because of the return of the evil 8-headed serpent named Orochi. The Goddess of the Sun by the name of Amaterasu resurrects to bring peace back to the land with the help of Issun, her partner and voice (cos like, she's a wolf). As the Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu ("Ammy" as Issun calls her) has the power of the Celestial Brush, a powerful tool to remove obstacles and achieve things only a god or goddess can do. Examples of this include cutting down large rocks in one swipe, restoring items to their original quality, command the elements of fire, wind and water, cause a sunrise, cause a sunset, etc.

They travel the land to help those affected by the darkness and in this process, meet people as well as unlocking more and more of Ammy's full potential of the Celestial Brush. That is not all of her prowess! On her back she carries a weapon called a Divine Instrument beginning with a mirror but as she travels she finds a sword as well as a whip. All of them can be made more powerful. Areas Ammy visits that are cursed can be restored with a stroke of a brush but only in the presence of a Cherry tree which can repel the curse and cleanse the land. This is called a Divine Intervention.

End of recap

I thoroughly enjoyed Okami for the plot twists and amusing and fun side missions. If you still have a working PS2 or something, go play Okami before going on to Okamiden.

NOTE! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SOME, IF ANY, SPOILERS!!!

In Okamiden you play as the son of Amaterasu, cutely named Chibiterasu. As you would expect, the Child of the Sun possesses some of his mother's talents using the Celestial Brush and Divine Instrument. Nine months after Ammy saved the land, darkness comes back and Chibi needs to find the cause but he can't do it without a partner like his mom had. After finding a partner, they set off to right the wrongs.

Graphics-wise this game is very eye-pleasing and well done; especially taking into account this is the NDS. You have vast areas to run around and explore for loot, cursed areas look unwelcoming and dark and the Divine Intervention sequences are brilliant! It feels great to see a dark gloomy area converted to a bright, peaceful place.

In normal gameplay, your bottom screen will be for maps and hotkeys. In battle, your bottom screen will be for hotkeys and shows your enemy's life bar.

By pressing the L or R button, you enter the Brush mode, allowing you to use the touchpad to do brush strokes. I'm quite happy with this feature especially when I can draw amusing faces on pieces of paper which they use as a mask haha. My only quarrel is you obviously have to keep the pen down the whole way, and I tend to have stutters and this gives you nothing. Nonetheless I do enjoy playing with brush works.

Drawing a circle on a sakura tree will make blossoms come out, not only will it look better, it also earns you "Praise" which is basically the experience points in the game. However you only level up your HP and Ink pots. Then you must be wondering, "since I can just do random nice things to level up, what's the point of looking for baddies to whallop?" Well the demons drop money as well as, with the right circumstances, materials needed to upgrade your Divine Instruments.

As you go through the game, you'll encounter constellations, which when traced, will reveal to you masters of the brush to give you new brush skills. But since you're using the Pup of Ammy, your "masters" will be their respective offspring.

And they are really cute little critters!

Other than this, gameplay starts out feeling like an errand run but picks up once you can do cooler stuff with your brush. And play doesn't get boring because you will get more than one partners, each with a special ability and thus not allowing you to get bored that fast.

You also have to solve puzzles with your partners' abilities. And I have to mention some brush techniques are changed from the ones in Okami. Among them is the "Guidance" technique which you use to guide your partners to parts of the area you both can't go to at the same time.

There is a little side quest where you look for people from around Nippon to see if anyone is interested in living in a new village called Yakushi. It is kind of nice to see the village slowly shape and transform from an empty lot to an semi-empty lot lol.

The music in Okamiden is awesome too. It stays true to Okami's japanese style music and it doesn't get boring that fast I think.

Battles get old pretty fast if you are just aimlessly looking for demons to kill. But given a proper.... incentive to work for (like they're blocking the door to the toilet or treasure chest), you'll find it's quite fun to slay them. The battles play out pretty fast and is based on a you-know-what-you're-doing-and-when-to-do-it style. And as I mentioned if you know how to "cleanse" the demon, it'll drop materials for upgrading your weapons later on.

Story is top-notch! It picks up as you go along but I seriously recommend playing it just for the story. Humour is also abundant especially the character interactions are very amusing, like each partner you find will give Chibi a name shocking him and making him grief if only for a while. The game DOES refer a lot to Okami so if you didn't play it, you won't get about a quarter to a half of the story. There's even time travel but that's all you'll get out of me. But I'll just say these parts are pretty epic.

Finally
I give it a 5 / 5 because I totally love the storyline and humour. If you are a fan of Okami, then this game is just MADE for you! (literally)

Overall this game is not stressful and it won't test your limits (at least not mine) with satisfying story and gameplay.

Oh and by the by, there's a save game plus type save file after the credits. You get to retain your HP and ink levels as well as unlocking some nice goodies.

At last, I'll leave you with my favourite quote from the game:

"You need a name... Something tough but easy to remember... I got it! I'll call you... Mutt!" - Kuni


~Fox