Ōkamiden

Template:New Content

General information
Publisher	Capcom
Genre	Action-adventure
Modes	Single-player
Ratings	Template:Vgratings
Platforms	Nintendo DS

Ōkamiden, also known as Ōkamiden: Chiisaki Taiyō​ (大神伝:小さき太陽, Ōkami Chronicles: Tiny Sun), is an action-adventure video game published by Capcom for the Nintendo DS set for release on March 15, 2011. It is a direct sequel to the PlayStation 2 and Wii title Ōkami. It is being designed by Kuniomi Matsushita, the director of the Wii port of Ōkami, and Motohide Eshiro, producer of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny. It was released in Japan on September 30, 2010, and with North American and European releases no later than 2011. It will star Chibiterasu, a small celestial wolf born from Amaterasu, the protagonist of Ōkami, as well as feature much of the same gameplay as its predecessor, including the Celestial Brush which allows players to freeze the gameplay and draw shapes or patterns using the touch screen.

Development began when Matsushita expressed an interest in creating a new Ōkami game, and showed Eshiro a technical demo of such a game in December 2008. Because the demo was so well-done, development began on a sequel. The Nintendo DS was chosen due to both it being the most successful platform of this generation as well as the touch screen being ideal for controlling the Celestial Brush.

Gameplay

Ōkamiden plays similarly to its predecessor, Ōkami, as an action-adventure game. The "Celestrial Brush", the ability to freeze the screen and draw symbols via the touchscreen with the stylus to effect changes on the game's world, remains central to the game for solving puzzles and fighting enemies. The theme of returning life to the world also returns from Ōkami. A new feature is the ability for Chibiterasu to team up with partners. They can be used to explore the overworld with, as well as battle enemies. The new Guidance technique, also called the "Shirabe" or "courage" brush by Daniel Feit of Wired, may be used to move Chibiterasu's partner independently across areas Chibiterasu cannot cross; this is often required to progress in the game. The game uses the face buttons to move Chibiterasu about the world, with the top display being the current third-person view and the bottom showing a mini-map of the area. By pressing either shoulder button, the Celestial Brush is activated: the game pauses as the top screen is moved down to the bottom and rendered as a parchment, and the player then can use the stylus and touchscreen to draw to activate various powers of the Celestial Brush. The game will sense the speed at which the player draws the stylus across the screen and reflect this in the weight of the stroke drawn on-screen; a quick motion will lead to a faint, partial line while slow movements will create bold strokes.

Plot

Much of Ōkamiden centers around the children of previous characters from Ōkami and their adventures and the relationships that form through the game's story, according to producer Motohide Eshiro. The storyline takes place nine months after the ending of Okami, in a new location called Yakushi Village. Although Amaterasu destroyed Yami, which would kill all the demons in Nippon, they mysteriously return. The Konohana Wood Sprite Sakuya, a character from the original Ōkami, tries to summon Amaterasu from the Celestial Plain to free Nippon from evil again, but instead a tiny wolf puppy called Chibiterasu, Amaterasu's son, appears in her place.

Chibiterasu's partners will be incorporated into the main plot as well. One of the partners that accompanies Chibiterasu is Kuni, the son of Susano and Kushi, two characters from Ōkami. He was born after the events of Ōkami, and appeared in the ending of the first game. They did not reveal how Susano had a son in such a short amount of time, but stated that they would reveal it eventually. Other characters from Ōkami return, including Issun, and Mr. and Mrs. Orange. The game will feature locales from Ōkami as well as new areas to explore as part of its adventure.

Development

Due to poor sales, Ōkami was considered a commercial failure on the PlayStation 2, and while it was widely believed to be one of the factors involved in the closure of its developer Clover Studio, Hideki Kamiya, lead designer of Ōkami, specified that producer Atsushi Inaba had an argument with Capcom management. Kamiya commented that he had an idea in mind for the sequel and would enjoy making it, but it was nothing more than an idea and beyond his control. In July 2007, Capcom employee Keiji Inafune commented that a Wii port was something he had considered, but it was easier said than done, and they have no plans as of yet. In spite of this, it received a port for the Wii. Capcom employee Chris Svensson commented that a lot more people would have to buy copies of Ōkami to warrant a sequel to be produced.

In August 2009, Capcom filed for a Japanese trademark on the name "Ōkamiden" for a video game, a few months prior to the Japan release of the Wii version of Ōkami, which led to speculation about an Ōkami sequel; Ōkamiden may be a shortening or pun for Ōkami Gaiden, translated as "Ōkami Sidestory", or possibly Ōkami Densetsu, which translates to "Ōkami Legend", thus fueling speculation that this may be the long awaited sequel. The September 2009 issue of Famitsu revealed that Ōkamiden: Chiisaki Taiyō was indeed another Ōkami game which will be released by Capcom on the Nintendo DS in 2010 in Japan, though no other release information was provided. The Famitsu articles shows gameplay, including combat, and graphics similar to the PlayStation 2/Wii game.

Ōkamiden is directed by Kuniomi Matsushita, who was responsible for the Wii port of Ōkami, and produced by Motohide Eshiro, who has previously worked on titles such as Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. Yukinori Kitajima, writer for the critically-acclaimed Japanese Wii title, 428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de, will be the scenario author for Ōkamiden. In December 2008, Matsushita, who had a strong desire to create a sequel to Ōkami, led a small team to develop an advanced prototype. Matsushita showed this demonstration to Eshiro and his desire to go forward on the project, and the project was greenlighted. The team settled on the Nintendo DS due to its portability, allowing for players to pick it up and play wherever they wish, as well as the ability to use the stylus on the touch screen as a brush. Eshiro stated that:

The staff involved with this game has a real clear understanding of what was fun about the original Okami. They have a good understanding of what was important about the visual style and what aspects they need when making this new version so it will transfer well. The work Clover did was amazing; they were really talented people, and I think our staff now is motivated to make a game that lives up to the reputation of the previous Okami.

Motohide Eshiro, Okamiden Preview: Drawing on the DS in the Sequel to Okami, Shacknews, April 21, 2010

Eshiro further commented that he considered Ōkamiden more of a successor to Ōkami than a sequel, desiring to build upon the world for a franchise on the Nintendo DS platform. While Ōkamiden will be a DS title, Eshiro has considered to expand subsequent games to work with the Nintendo 3DS unit based on the game's reception. Similarly, Eshire does not rule out a high-definition version on a modern console or a version for the iPhone or similar touch-screen devices depending on the response to Ōkamiden.

Several changes were made to the basic elements of Ōkami to make Ōkamiden suitable for the Nintendo DS. With fewer controls on the DS unit, the player only controls the movement of the characters in the game, with the camera set in an "on rails" manner to make sure the player was focused on the right areas to head towards. One change made from Ōkami was the simplification of the combat system, a factor that some players had found difficult; Ōkamiden reduces the melee weapon attack features down to a single button, but the Celestial Brush can still be used alongside this for complex strategy. While the developers could have removed the melee attacks completely, allowing the player to defeat enemies with the Celestial Brush alone, they felt that the lack of melee attacks slowed down the game, instead opting for players to melee and then finish off foes with a Celestial Brush flourish. The idea of partners and using the stylus to guide them came about through wanting to have more puzzles in the game that incorporated use of the DS touchscreen. While many more Celestial Brush strokes and other puzzles the team wanted to add, they left them out in the final version feeling they added too much padding to the game. The number of polygons and the resolution of the artwork was significantly limited on the DS version, challenging the artists to convey similar imagery and emotions that were in the first game.

The game was originally going to feature Amaterasu, the protagonist goddess-wolf character from Ōkami; during character planning, one of the artists drew what Amaterasu's child would look like as a joke, but this spurred several ideas for Matsushita, such as the concept of a partner, and leading to Chibiterasu becoming the main character. As Chibiterasu was still a child, the team thought "it would take more than a child to save the world", according to Matsushita, and led to the inclusion of partners both in the game's story and gameplay. This option was selected over several arrangements of characters, such as having five different Chibiterasu's team up as a party. Using a story taken from a child's point of view as they explore and learn new things made the game much easier to visualize, according to Eshiro; he compared this to the movie Stand by Me. Eshiro also felt it was important to include making friends and having to say goodbye as part of this adventure, striking a strong emotional aspect to the game. As such, Chibiterasu is only paired with one partner at any one time, as Matsushita stated, "if you could switch between them any time you wanted, then they wouldn't be partners anymore". There will be the death of one of the major characters in the game, which Matsushita found necessary to improve the story's flow; the developers had looked to Ōkami and noted while characters also died there, they did not have any emotional attachment for the player, and there was resistance in the development team to have a major character die in Ōkamiden, but it was ultimately decided to do this for the betterment of the story.

The game's story takes place nine months after the events of Ōkami, which posed story problems for Yukinori Kitajima, the game's main script writer. The team originally thought to take the game several years in the future, but found by keeping a closer time frame, things would not change as much from the previous game, giving a familiar feeling to those that played Ōkami. Kitajima had to create rationales for some events, such as the reason why none of the characters remember the end of Ōkami, or why Susano's son Kuni is a young boy when, during Ōkami, he didn't even exist.

Ōkamiden was first shown in playable form at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2009 where it was reported to be about 25% completed. Release in Western markets was uncertain until it was observed that Capcom had trademarked the name Okamiden in both North America and European markets. In April 2010, at its "Captivate" event, Capcom confirmed the game would be released to North American and European markets no later than 2011.

Producer Motohide Eshiro revealed that a demo for the game would appear on the he Nintendo Channel. Eshiro confirmed that the demo will be available to download for Nintendo DS from Monday February 21st.

Promotion

A "Collector's Edition" of Ōkamiden will be released in Japan alongside the normal game; in addition to the game this version includes a soundtrack, DVD, storybook, a plush Chibiterasu key chain, and Ōkamiden-marked earphones. A series of television advertisements in Japan for Ōkamiden feature model Kii Kitano and a white Shiba Inu puppy named Moran-chan that bears a close resemblance to Chibiterasu. North American pre-order bonuses include an Okamiden stylized screen cleaner and brush-shaped stylus at GameStop and a plush Chibiterasu key chain (from the Japanese collector's edition) at the Capcom Store.

Gallery

The Japanese Okamiden logo

The Okamiden North American logo.

See Also

Okami

External links

• Ōkamiden: Chiisaki Taiyō official Japanese website