I thought to start a new thread for this new incarnation of Capcom's adventure as the old thread was hidden deep into the bowels of the forum's DB.
These are only quick impressions on the Wii build, much has been said on the game quality. I've played about 10 hours on the PS2 and I always felt that it dragged things a bit too much, so the introduction of the plus button to skip any cutscene is a welcome addition to the formula.
The game supports 16:9 and progressive scan. 16:9 is something that the original game needed, giving the player the freedom to look around without moving or playing with the camera. As a further change to the game's graphics Ready at Dawn chose to greatly reduce the paper filter on the whole game and increase color saturation to the point that some colors are almost too bright (component vs component, NTSC/US). I always thought that Okami was one of the more artistically accomplished games of its generation, and these changes, especially color, partially degrade the game's artistic value...although gray and "evil" places are still mostly gray, the brighter colors definitively how certain parts of the game are felt.
Probably it's a subtle difference that only who played the PS2 version will notice, but right now I feel that the PS2 version has an edge over the Wii version...artistically. Technically both versions are very similar, slowdowns seem to be exactly in the same places and there are no FPS spikes. At the very least, loading times are shorter. Saving and loading is lighting fast thanks to the Wii internal memory.
Now, controls. Again, it might be something that only PS2 players will notice, but the game doesn't really fit well with the Wiimote.
Main issue: camera control. On the PS2 it was assigned on the right anlog stick, on the Wii it's mapped on the Wiimote d-pad and 2 button. With environments build with a full (and easy) camera control in mind (just fiddle with the right analog), moving the camera around with the d-pad or using the palm of your hand to change the camera back to third-person is awkward and unintuitive. Probably switching between movement and camera control by, say, using the C button would have felt better.
A is assigned to jump and B to the celestial canvas, while attack is mapped to Wiimote waggling, being it the headbutt during exploration or mirror swinging during demon encouters. Minus brings up the option menu and plus the Fan menu...maybe ignoring the option menu and mapping the celestial canvas to minus (easily reachable with your thumb) and attack to either A or B would have made things better, as swinging the remote around to attack just doesn't feel right, as the motion has a relatively high chance to get ignored by the game.
I know that it would have required some more time, work and money to do, but giving players the option to use the GC or Classical pad would have won more points in my eyes.
"But", you would say, "the celestial brush must feel great with the Wiimote".
Well, yes and no. Basically, you're using the Wiimote in pointer mode. Af first, it feels strange: again, maybe it's just me and my mindset (when I first saw the celestial canvas, a brush and I felt pen-like object in my hand I set myself into "graphic tablet mode" and started to use it like I would with my graphic tablet), but it's something you must get used to, especially if you're expecting to draw immediately perfectly straight lines or perfectly round circles: the Wiimote is too sensible and you will end drawing...things. Luckily enough you can held down Z to have a perfectly straight line to help you during the celestial slash motion. Pattern recognition seems improved and now circles-that-aren't-really-circles are accepted and after a couple of times, everything feels better than with an analog stick, but I'd have preferred being able to use the Wiimote as a real brush...think Zack and Wiki or Warioware, Wiimote in vertical position, "head" pointing down and moving it like it was a real brush. That would have been pure joy.
And, yes, the cover features an IGN watermark near Amaterasu's mouth. When I first read about it I couldn't believe it, then when I saw that it was true I started ROTFLing.
These are only quick impressions on the Wii build, much has been said on the game quality. I've played about 10 hours on the PS2 and I always felt that it dragged things a bit too much, so the introduction of the plus button to skip any cutscene is a welcome addition to the formula.
The game supports 16:9 and progressive scan. 16:9 is something that the original game needed, giving the player the freedom to look around without moving or playing with the camera. As a further change to the game's graphics Ready at Dawn chose to greatly reduce the paper filter on the whole game and increase color saturation to the point that some colors are almost too bright (component vs component, NTSC/US). I always thought that Okami was one of the more artistically accomplished games of its generation, and these changes, especially color, partially degrade the game's artistic value...although gray and "evil" places are still mostly gray, the brighter colors definitively how certain parts of the game are felt.
Probably it's a subtle difference that only who played the PS2 version will notice, but right now I feel that the PS2 version has an edge over the Wii version...artistically. Technically both versions are very similar, slowdowns seem to be exactly in the same places and there are no FPS spikes. At the very least, loading times are shorter. Saving and loading is lighting fast thanks to the Wii internal memory.
Now, controls. Again, it might be something that only PS2 players will notice, but the game doesn't really fit well with the Wiimote.
Main issue: camera control. On the PS2 it was assigned on the right anlog stick, on the Wii it's mapped on the Wiimote d-pad and 2 button. With environments build with a full (and easy) camera control in mind (just fiddle with the right analog), moving the camera around with the d-pad or using the palm of your hand to change the camera back to third-person is awkward and unintuitive. Probably switching between movement and camera control by, say, using the C button would have felt better.
A is assigned to jump and B to the celestial canvas, while attack is mapped to Wiimote waggling, being it the headbutt during exploration or mirror swinging during demon encouters. Minus brings up the option menu and plus the Fan menu...maybe ignoring the option menu and mapping the celestial canvas to minus (easily reachable with your thumb) and attack to either A or B would have made things better, as swinging the remote around to attack just doesn't feel right, as the motion has a relatively high chance to get ignored by the game.
I know that it would have required some more time, work and money to do, but giving players the option to use the GC or Classical pad would have won more points in my eyes.
"But", you would say, "the celestial brush must feel great with the Wiimote".
Well, yes and no. Basically, you're using the Wiimote in pointer mode. Af first, it feels strange: again, maybe it's just me and my mindset (when I first saw the celestial canvas, a brush and I felt pen-like object in my hand I set myself into "graphic tablet mode" and started to use it like I would with my graphic tablet), but it's something you must get used to, especially if you're expecting to draw immediately perfectly straight lines or perfectly round circles: the Wiimote is too sensible and you will end drawing...things. Luckily enough you can held down Z to have a perfectly straight line to help you during the celestial slash motion. Pattern recognition seems improved and now circles-that-aren't-really-circles are accepted and after a couple of times, everything feels better than with an analog stick, but I'd have preferred being able to use the Wiimote as a real brush...think Zack and Wiki or Warioware, Wiimote in vertical position, "head" pointing down and moving it like it was a real brush. That would have been pure joy.
And, yes, the cover features an IGN watermark near Amaterasu's mouth. When I first read about it I couldn't believe it, then when I saw that it was true I started ROTFLing.
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