"Dude, it's Mike, Bob's little bro. I'm in town for a few and was wondering if could crash at your place?"
You think, sure, why not? Bob is great. Mike has to be as cool as Bob, right?
"Sure Mike. Come on over."
And that's how it starts, you let this guy you only half sort of know into your house to stay for a "few."
You see Mike is Okamiden, the plucky Nintendo DS sequelish of Bob, the beloved PS2 (and the slightly less beloved Wii) title Okami. You with me? Good.
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*SPOILERS*
Okamiden has plenty to live up to when being compared to Okami. But it seems to be up to the task from the start. The touch screen and stylus work better than the Wii remote could ever hope in Okami. The PS2 controls work well for Okamiden's predecessor, though it seemed to be fully realized as you portray the deity doggie in pocket form. There is a sense of satisfaction that I felt as the unspoken consciousness of the sun goddess's progeny, striking foes with a celestial brush. It just makes sense. It is almost as if the original game should have been on the DS had it the ability to capture the truly beautiful visuals.
Okami won me over with this key premise. That art can be used as a tool to make sense of the world. It can make it beautiful and frightening. It can be dangerous and renewing.
Okamiden also honors Okami by maintaining a semblance of its vivid visuals and sounds. It looks similar to Okami and plays similar than Okami, but there is something hiding beneath the surface. It just takes a while for it to rear its head.
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You let Mike sleep on the couch. The first night is actually a lot of fun. He ponies up for pizza and beer. You hang out, share some stories, tell a few jokes. Bob's little brother is pretty cool. How long can a house guest stay? Right? A day or two and he'll be on his way.
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So now begins your venture into Nippon. As the diminutive child god-dog of the heroine of the previous iteration you befriend other child heroes and travel across the land kicking up the sand.
Is it because this is a handheld game that the heroes have to be children? I moved forward, seeking out new powers for your god brush and helping the hapless as one does in adventure games.
But seriously. The adults in this game allow a puppy and children of the age of no more than eight years to help them. Fetch you your pottery old man? Whilst slaying all of these demons, you want me to also look for your earthenware? Okay. Fine. You better pray real hard if I find your bowl.
Ahem. Sorry. I did enjoy cleaning up the land. I loved helping the characters with there task mostly because the damn game is so cute. Draw a circle around a tree and blossoms appear, boom. Draw a circle around a patch of evil looking turf, bam. I am cleaning up Nippon. I feel pretty good.
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You head out to work the next day and Mike assures you he will look after place while you're at your place of employ. You head home expecting to say adieu to Bob's little bro, but he has ordered pizza and bought some more beer. Great.
Another evening of similar jokes, stories and forced brouhaha. There were worse ways you could imagine spending the evening, but it feels a little disingenuous to keep laughing at the same jokes. He keeps referring to last night.
"Remember how funny that was when I said that thing, last night?"
"Yes, Mike. That was funny."
It's fine. He'll be gone tomorrow, right?
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I make no qualms with sequels using what works in what defined the previous game. That wasn't even an issue. Out of nowhere this game about mysticism and magic, nature and faith, the truly charming stuff about the universe of the game, is dumped on. By the sloppy writing of one character. One character brings this admirable title to it knees.
Like most of the characters in Okamiden, this character is roughly a miniature version of a similar character in Okami (see Waka). But the Moon Tribe character Kurow annoys me. He took me completely out of the game. And the character isn't even a a kid. Its a doll.
This game is about an evil little Pinocchio. It was about a son of a goddess helping the land of Nippon, but now it is about a selfish little doll who jeopardizes everything because he is lonely. This is what happens when you try to write a story in a universe that was aptly conceived by someone else.
Hideki Kamiya has some chops. Great big chops. He is writer and director of Okami, he also directed Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe.
Yukinori Kitajima wrote Okamiden. I can find nothing else that he has done. I am sure he is a fine individual. But he has no chops as far as I can tell. Why was this chop-less person allowed to write Okamiden? Why!?! <shakes fist>
I can see not investing time and effort into a DS title. I can see it not being worth their time over there at Capcom. But the lack of effort shows. I will say what I heard from all of my teachers in grade school. "He would do so much better if he would just put forth the effort."
Okamiden, you could have been something grand. You just needed a little polish.
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You come home from work and the house is empty, but something is not right. You can hear the toilet running and water pooling outside the bathroom door. Mike took a monster dump and destroyed the toilet. He left your house like this.
Bob would be so disappointed.
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Well fine. Okamiden isn't really like someone took a dump in your toilet and let it over flow. It does have a lot of the charm of its predecessor. But not its weight. Not its beauty. It neglects the narrative of a deity that is trying to save the world through reviving nature. It is a thrifty version of its original title, but it didn't have to be.
Final thoughts: Okamiden is a valiant effort and emulates glimpses of the original's heart, however like boy puppet in the game who wants to be loved, it dies an empty death. Being forced to have compassion for a character so selfish, is trite. I wish I had a celestial brush to be able to erase this portion of the game, getting it closer to the majesty of the original.
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