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O Child of the Great Sun...
Apr. 29th, 2011 10:43 pmNine months after the defeat of Yami and Amaterasu's ascension to the Celestial Plain a new evil appears in the land of Nippon. Its up to the sun god Chibiterasu, child of Amaterasu, to protect the land from the encroaching darkness.
Okamiden is the direct sequel to the fantastic* PS2/Wii video game Okami. Like the first game where the player controlled white wolf/sun god(dess) Amaterasu, Chibiterasu is a wolf pup whose orange/red markings can only seen by those with spiritual powers.
As the offspring of Amaterasu, Chibi also wields control of the Celestial Brush. He can--among other skills--dispel the dark sky by summoning the sun, cut boulders and other objects with a powerful slash, and even restore broken items to their former state. New skills are unlocked by meeting the young progeny of former Celestial Brush Gods throughout the game. But since Chibi is just a pup, he's weaker than Amaterasu and there are a few limitations on what he can do. He has a 30 second time limit (15 seconds in battles) when using the celestial brush each time, and his ink pots (equivalent to magic power) don't replenish themselves on their own. Similarly, the max amount of health and magic Chibi can have (10 health hearts and ten ink pots) is half that of Amaterasu. Experience points to increase your health/ink pots is achieved by collecting praise/karma by performing charitable acts, such as reviving wilted trees or helping lost travelers on their way. Collect enough praise and the reward is an additional heart or ink pot, occasionally both.
But besides the Celestial Brush, other weaponry such as rosaries (whips), reflectors (shields) and glaives (swords) are used during battle. These can be upgraded through the game by obtaining the leftovers from defeated monsters, such as livers, bones and hides. Not all monsters carry these items, and its up to the player to figure out through trial-and-error which brush technique on what monster will prompt them to drop an item.
Exploration and meeting with townsfolk make up a great amount of gameplay. Dungeons are less complex than in Okami with less backtracking, but they still employ puzzle solving. Boss battles often require creative thinking in order to beat them; its less about hack-hack-slash, and more about figuring out which brush techniques would be most helpful.
If you've played Okami, then Okamiden will be very recognizable in various ways. Although the sequel downsizes locations from the first game and placing limitations on how far you can explore, Kamiki Village, Ryoshima Coast, Hana Valley and a few others are all familiar. Yakushi Village, where the game starts off at, is one of the few new sites in Okamiden. Not all the locations make the transfer over, though, but a great amount of the inhabitants of Nippon from the areas that do, do. Issun, Amaterasu's celestial envoy who travels the land to keep the memory of her alive with the people, makes appearances throughout the game making references to Amaterasu in relation to Chibi, and numerous other people also make note of Chibi's similarity to "that white dog".
The strongest part of Okamiden is undoubtedly the various characters Chibi employs as his partner as well as the storyline. Chibi cannot go off on his adventure alone, for one he can't even read signs or talk to people! In the beginning of the game a young boy named Kuni, son of the warrior Susano and his wife Kushi from Okami, is first to pair up with Chibi. Kuni has no memory of his life prior to nine months before (coincidentally when Yami was defeated) and he sets off with Chibi--albeit rather timidly due to his fears of fighting monsters--to discover the mystery behind his true self. All of Chibi's partners throughout the game each have their own unique personalities and each contribute to the storyline in their own way.
Overall, Okamiden is a very fun game, and I hope this post has been helpful as a sort of basic look at it. If I've left something out that you'd like to hear about, please let me know.
* Obviously my opinion, but seriously, PLAY IT IF YOU HAVEN'T. If you enjoy Legend of Zelda games, you will probably enjoy Okami.
Okamiden is the direct sequel to the fantastic* PS2/Wii video game Okami. Like the first game where the player controlled white wolf/sun god(dess) Amaterasu, Chibiterasu is a wolf pup whose orange/red markings can only seen by those with spiritual powers.
As the offspring of Amaterasu, Chibi also wields control of the Celestial Brush. He can--among other skills--dispel the dark sky by summoning the sun, cut boulders and other objects with a powerful slash, and even restore broken items to their former state. New skills are unlocked by meeting the young progeny of former Celestial Brush Gods throughout the game. But since Chibi is just a pup, he's weaker than Amaterasu and there are a few limitations on what he can do. He has a 30 second time limit (15 seconds in battles) when using the celestial brush each time, and his ink pots (equivalent to magic power) don't replenish themselves on their own. Similarly, the max amount of health and magic Chibi can have (10 health hearts and ten ink pots) is half that of Amaterasu. Experience points to increase your health/ink pots is achieved by collecting praise/karma by performing charitable acts, such as reviving wilted trees or helping lost travelers on their way. Collect enough praise and the reward is an additional heart or ink pot, occasionally both.
But besides the Celestial Brush, other weaponry such as rosaries (whips), reflectors (shields) and glaives (swords) are used during battle. These can be upgraded through the game by obtaining the leftovers from defeated monsters, such as livers, bones and hides. Not all monsters carry these items, and its up to the player to figure out through trial-and-error which brush technique on what monster will prompt them to drop an item.
Exploration and meeting with townsfolk make up a great amount of gameplay. Dungeons are less complex than in Okami with less backtracking, but they still employ puzzle solving. Boss battles often require creative thinking in order to beat them; its less about hack-hack-slash, and more about figuring out which brush techniques would be most helpful.
If you've played Okami, then Okamiden will be very recognizable in various ways. Although the sequel downsizes locations from the first game and placing limitations on how far you can explore, Kamiki Village, Ryoshima Coast, Hana Valley and a few others are all familiar. Yakushi Village, where the game starts off at, is one of the few new sites in Okamiden. Not all the locations make the transfer over, though, but a great amount of the inhabitants of Nippon from the areas that do, do. Issun, Amaterasu's celestial envoy who travels the land to keep the memory of her alive with the people, makes appearances throughout the game making references to Amaterasu in relation to Chibi, and numerous other people also make note of Chibi's similarity to "that white dog".
The strongest part of Okamiden is undoubtedly the various characters Chibi employs as his partner as well as the storyline. Chibi cannot go off on his adventure alone, for one he can't even read signs or talk to people! In the beginning of the game a young boy named Kuni, son of the warrior Susano and his wife Kushi from Okami, is first to pair up with Chibi. Kuni has no memory of his life prior to nine months before (coincidentally when Yami was defeated) and he sets off with Chibi--albeit rather timidly due to his fears of fighting monsters--to discover the mystery behind his true self. All of Chibi's partners throughout the game each have their own unique personalities and each contribute to the storyline in their own way.
Overall, Okamiden is a very fun game, and I hope this post has been helpful as a sort of basic look at it. If I've left something out that you'd like to hear about, please let me know.
* Obviously my opinion, but seriously, PLAY IT IF YOU HAVEN'T. If you enjoy Legend of Zelda games, you will probably enjoy Okami.
