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Okamiden
Topic Started: Apr 21 2011, 10:01 AM (241 Views)
TheGreg
Administrator
The 3DS may be getting all of the attention right now, but the DS has one last gasp of life in it with Okamiden.

A direct sequel to the critically acclaimed Okami (PS2/Wii), Okamiden is a satisfying follow-up that provides the kind of deep gameplay experience that the 3DS hasn't received yet.

The original Okami is a visually stunning adventure that owes more than a little to the Zelda series. By extension, Okamiden is much the same. In fact, it could be fairly criticized for being too similar to the first game.

Nevertheless, Okami's Japanese watercolor visuals look great on DS. It's easily among the best looking games on DS.

Gameplay is almost identical as well, with the celestial brush techniques working better than ever thanks to the touch screen. At any point, the player can pause the action and draw a symbol or connect line to perform different actions. This process was too slow with the PS2's analog sticks and too imprecise with the Wii's pointer. The DS proves to be the perfect medium.

There is a sizable overworld to explore, and some fantastic dungeons and boss fights.

Like the original, however, Okamiden goes on for a bit too long. The original game was extraordinarily long, and even though Okamiden probably isn't quite as lengthy an adventure, it does feel like it hits a wall towards the end of the game. There are far too many enemy battles near the end of the game where I would have preferred more dungeons.

The game does maintain its high standard of boss battles all the way to the end, however, so Okamiden is still a very satisfying experience.

The writing is also quite good, with a lot of fun dialog and quirky characters. The plot is hard to follow, but we like the characters enough to go along with it.

A word of warning if you haven't played the original, this series is very Japanese. So it has that goofy charm to it; love it or hate it.

And with that, I put down my DS and fully embrace my 3DS, which I suppose I should post some thoughts on soon. But Okamiden is a great swan song for Nintendo's hugely popular handheld and takes a place alongside the best games in the system's storied history.
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