Okamiden Message Board

Even dogs took part in the cosplay activities at this year's Otakon convention, with Dante the dog here dressing in the divine garb of Okami's heroine, the goddess Amaterasu.

If you have a white dog you'd like to style as Amaterasu (and who is a good boy like Dante -- good boy!) his owners detailed the process of making the costume on their blog. Happily, the whole thing was conceived from the perspective of what would be best for Dante; even the decision to bring him to Otakon in the first place was explained as "this was better for him than leaving him in a boarding place for five days." The whole post is full of tips and disclaimers about ensuring your dog's happiness and comfort while also making it look like a video game character.

Basically, our hearts were warmed twice by this story. And then a third time when our eyes drifted back up to the picture.

The producers of Okamiden realized they were in a pickle, marketing-wise, when they were finishing up the Western version of the game just as the 3DS and Pok émon Black and White were being announced for the same release window. Capcom decided to thread the needle and send Okamiden out right between these two.

"Even though the news of the Nintendo 3DS was a bit earlier than we had expected," said producer Motohide Eshiro and director Kuniomi Matsushita in a postmortem on Gamasutra, "we decided that releasing the pan-Western versions of the game after Pokémon and before Nintendo's 3DS would be our best bet."

The developers also revealed the inspiration behind Okamiden's partner system, which pairs the tiny Chibiterasu with young swordsboys, mermaids, Moon Tribe aliens, and others. "A child version of Amaterasu would only have half the abilities of the adult Amaterasu," they said. "It would be rather difficult for half of a god to save the world, but if there were a partner, then the two of them could work together to save the world."

#review It is no catharsis to use a Nintendo DS stylus to restore beauty to the ravaged mythical Japan of Okamiden, not while the real Japan stands bruised by natural disaster. Recent events, however, have transformed the simple video game adventures of Okamiden's spirited wolf cub into an unintentional tribute to a nation's magnificence. More »

Does Okamiden manage to capture the essence of its predecessor, or is it unable to step outside of its looming shadow? Find out in our official Okamiden review.

If I were to overthink Okamiden, I would suspect its premise is a subtle commentary on the game's own development. The world of Nippon as it appears in the DS game is filled with the small children of the people and gods found in Clover Studio's 2006 PS2 game Okami. It's tempting to say that this is the developers' subversive way of comparing themselves to children at play in the world Clover created. But it's more likely Capcom realized a cute puppy would sell games.

It is a really cute puppy.

Following up on the critical and commercial success of Okami, Capcom hopes to reclaim some of the original's magic with Okamiden for the Nintendo DS, a sequel that is hopefully the start of an enduring franchise...

The Thunder Lady spreads her joy of Rainbows to help Chibiterasu in Okamiden.

The men of the Thunder clan reveal some helpful hints for little Chibiterasu in Okamiden.

The Thunder Band gets into a serious groove in this gameplay clip from Okamiden!

Aji and Umami review their inventory.

Charity can't reach the soup. How will she pay for such insolence?

It's time once again for us to remind you that the Wii's Nintendo Channel exists and is occasionally useful. This week, Capcom is distributing an Okamiden demo through the channel's DS download service in North America. Just select the demo on the Wii, load up Download Play on your DS, and you'll summon an adorable puppy god for a playdate.

DS demos are only guaranteed to be available for a week -- they might show up on the list again the next week, or they might not. What we're saying is that if you want to try Okamiden now, you should try it now.

#capcom While the story of Capcom's upcoming DS adventure Okamiden is that of tiny wolf god Chibiterasu, it's the characters the young deity meets that paint the picture of a Nippon worthy of being saved from rampaging demons. Let's meet some! More »

Three trailers combined into one…. function getVideo() { var so = new SWFObject("http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/xplayer/yo033.swf", "mplayer", "420", "340", "8", "#000000"); so.addParam("wmode","transparent"); so.addParam("swliveconnect", "true"); so.addParam("allowscriptaccess", "always"); so.addParam("allowfullscreen", "true"); so.addVariable("pid", "goni001"); so.addVariable("siteId", "485"); so.addVariable("videoId", "252561"); so.addVariable("autostart", "false"); so.addVariable("file", "http://cms.springboard.gorillanation.com/xml_feeds_advanced/index/485/3/252561/"); so.addVariable("pageUrl", document.location); so.write("flashcontent_485_goni001_single_252561"); } getVideo(); • Kokari and Ume (dog) - Though the son of the hunter, Karude, Kokari has become fascinated with fishing. Once a timid boy, he has matured physically and mentally alongside [...]

Oh hey, someone's fishing! Go forth and investigate with Kokari and Ume.

Mushi finds lightning creepy--perhaps a sign of things to come!

Karude blames the demons for floods in this gameplay trailer from Okamiden.

This underwater diety proves to be a formidable foe.

Get another taste of the gameplay in Okamiden in this montage of footage from the game's many environments.

Okami, in addition to being a beautiful and technically impressive game, fulfilled the role of Zelda substitute for PS2 owners. The exploration and gradual acquisition of new abilities gave Clover Studios' adventure a similar feeling to 3D Zelda games, on a console that didn't have any Zelda games. By hewing to the same formula, Okamiden acts as a surrogate 3D Zelda for the DS, a system that has Zelda games, but only nontraditional, stylus-controlled ones.

I bring this up because it's a pretty simple shorthand for understanding how the game works: there are large field areas connecting towns, there are a series of upgradeable abilities, dungeons filled with puzzles that require the use of the abilities you just picked up, and partners who do all the talking for you.

Ryo This demon is the sum of all those who lusted after worldly pelf. At some point this demon traded the pursuit of riches for human souls. He is always calculating the best ways of luring new souls to his clutches, and will use any means he can to obtain them including lending out souls in [...]