Raggy Rant: Oh Okamiden...

WILL contain spoilers by the way for both games by the way, though will be kept to a minimum.

Make no mistake, Okamiden by itself is a decent game and possibly one of the last good games on the DS. Maybe I'll post my review eventually, but right now I'll just say it's decent and recommended for anyone that likes Okami. However, my main gripe is in the story and unfortunately things are kind of messed up among the Okami fanbase because of it. A lot of...stupid things that kind of existed in the fanbase before but Okamiden made it a whole lot worse.



A quick description of the game in question. This takes place 9 months after Okami and a new evil has spread to the land. While Ammy is twiddling her claws up at the Celestial Plain (I assume she's doing jack squat considering we never hear from her in this game), Issun is down on Nippon being her Celestial Envoy. Our little buggy friend finds a puppy with Ammy's markings and uses the brush, so Issun assumes he's Ammy's offspring. He's then named Chibiterasu, or "little sun". Chibi travels the land to destroy the evil creatures, partnering up with different children as he goes.

Lemme first say that Okamiden was NOT made by the same people as Okami. After Clover Studios released Okami, the poor sales of the game caused the studio to be closed by Capcom (many of the old Clover staff work for Platinum Studios who made games like MadWorld and Bayonetta). Hideki Kamiya (director) never intended to make a sequel, though the plot did leave a bit of possibility. Possible, though maybe not necessary. Still, the fanbase does what they do best and demand a sequel to the beloved cult classic. Capcom, holding the rights to Okami, decided to do so and created Okamiden for the DS. I don't know what team in Capcom made this game, but they fucked up badly on an arc of the game that could've been pretty cool. And by badly, I mean BADLY. Did ANYONE AT ALL play the original game? Game makers? Translators? Anyone?

The arc I'm talking about is towards the end of the game where the baddie goes back in time to two periods: The time of Ammy's first fight against Orochi, and then 100 years ago when Orochi was first sealed. The biggest no-no happened 100 years ago. For anyone that has played the original game, get ready to feel betrayed. You know how often video game time travel screws up with past canon plots? Or when people that take up an old series and screws up with past canon plots? Ya, it's like that. Chibi travels through the Calcified Cavern at the Moon Cave (which for some reason is made of ice?) and finds a wolf and a bouncing buddy. The pup frees them and lo-and-behold it's Shiranui and Isshaku. WOW, this is awesome! We haven't seen Ammy at all in this adventure and we FINALLY see her at the end of the game? Not so fast, rabbit!

Watch all of this. Be sure to go full-screen and read the text before reading on.

Ok, there are 2 things wrong with this scene. Did you catch them? That may be a trailer, but it actually made it through to the final version. Unbelievable.

1. In the brief time you see Shiranui, you see Isshaku refers to his friend as a MALE more than once. Before anyone comments, Shinto gods are referred to as sexless. Amaterasu in mythology is usually pictured as a woman, and more importantly the original game of Okami called Ammy female on many cases (most notably being called "Mother to us all" in the brush god cutscenes). My friend Kit (who has the Japanese version of Okamiden) said that the Japanese have no gender-specific pronouns, so that means this was strictly a translator error. Congrats to you, translation team. To the English audience (especially to the ones less familiar with Okami), you gave Shiranui a sex change. It's obvious that no one played the game...at all. Ok, so Ammy's sex in the original was fairly ambiguous at times. She would sometimes gawk and pant at big-busted ladies and she would urinate standing up (something male dogs and wolves usually do, rarely females) while doing Golden Fury. But regardless, there was more going for Ammy being female than male (and besides, have you LOOKED at the chests of some of the women in that game? Wowzers). I'm not going to touch the idea that Ammy is a lesbian 0_0.

Issun trailer screenie from Softpedia. Sorry I need to make it so big, but the text is tiny.

2. Another thing you might've noticed was a huge rape in continuity and the obvious facts presented in the original game (other than the sex change). You may notice that Shiranui was called Chibi's GRANDPARENT. This isn't a translation issue. It's a careless Capcom error. If you recall from the first game, Shiranui 100 years ago defended the villagers of Kamiki, died, and later gets revived to finish off Orochi. Shiranui = Amaterasu (Amaterasu being the real name of the god, and Shiranui being what the villagers named her 100 years ago. The difference in design and significance lies in how the Ammy we control was reincarnated from 100 years ago and how her powers were lost) so therefore where is all this "grandparent" stuff coming from? We don't know much about Chibi and where he came to be (something that REALLY irks me) but it was hinted that Chibi was the son of Ammy right at the beginning. The game either forgot that or decided to hang all canon plot points from the original game. I would buy the fact that MAYBE Chibi's grandparent is Shiranui/Ammy if they stayed consistent with that idea, but since we don't have any evidence of Ammy having any children (even Chibi but at least would be easier to believe) it's all just a huge mess that could drive any fan of the original game bonkers. To be honest, this isn't even the first time we have things unexplained or messing with canon. Most of them are in that one arc (and let's be honest, time travel in a plot can screw over canon without even trying), but it also happens outside of it too.

And you know what? I have read many major reviews of Okamiden and NO ONE touches on this. Perhaps they didn't finish the game (I know that it's a tight schedule, especially since Okamiden takes about 20 hours to beat), but it still bugs me about all the praise it's getting despite many careless and dangerous issues that mess with the canon plot. And besides, that cutscene was used as a trailer to suck people in. It risks alienating the fanbase who loved Okami and held it close to their heart. And let's face it, Okamiden was made for the fans.

Oh, speaking of the fans, some people consider the game as canon, INCLUDING the idea that Shiranui is a different character and is male. I was even shown a conversation where someone insisted Shiranui is Chibi's father and Ammy is the mother *facepalm*. And that was the main reason why I posted this: The errors in the game as well as some potential confusion (that shouldn't have occured anyways if you know anything about the original game).

Okamiden really isn't that bad of a game. Comes nowhere near the glory of Okami, but it's not horrible and really might be among the better games on the DS (and for sure one of the last good ones). It's just the victim of poor writing and no consideration to the one before it. Unfortunately, those parts (and more) just leave a bad taste in your mouth if you loved Okami. Kit and I and many others are more or less hoping this is a mere spin-off...or fanfic.