Okamiden

ITS JUST SO FUCKING CUTE!

If you haven't played the previous installment in this franchise, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?! Stop reading this. Go find it on either PS2 or Wii, and PLAY THAT SHIT, SON! I will take my time. Enjoy it.

...

Back? Good. Remember that shit? Now that is on a handheld! The same concept as the Wii, as far as the controls go what with the touch screen/motion controller.

Now, instead of Amaterasu, you're playing as her son, Chibiterasu.
Once again, there are demons afoot in the land of Nippon, and as such its your job to bring back the color and life from the drab helpless locals. This time around, Chibi is partnered with up to 6 other peeps that help in both combat and in story progression. Son of old partner, Susano, Kuni is the first for more than a fourth of the game, then a mermaid, a Moon Clan kid, some fat kid with a table, and two bug people round out the supporting roles.
 

In the combat, you get the same as the original, melee attacks and then brush strokes finish the abilities Chibi and posse have. From the throwing mirror, giant sword, and prayer beads, the Celestial Brush gives the combat a nice healthy feel before getting too mundane and boring. Divine Slash, Cherry Bomb, Restoration, are some of the ten strokes Chibi and crew may use, but the most familiar actions are the elementals.

See, you draw from the source of element, fire, water or electricity, and connect it to your object/enemy of choice and
 
TA-DA! Fire no more!
Same works for enemies where some are only affected by specific elements. Some grant you the use of the enemy's element or items used for upgrading your weapons.

But before you get to use all of your Celestial Brush up on dem baddies, you need to find and release the Celestial Guardians of each stroke you can use. I know that sounds tedious and downright bad gaming, but you get to enjoy each Guardian's entrance.
 It's a DRAGON!
Just trace the form of said Guardian, and BOOM! You get to look at this shit!
 
The dragon can't get up from rolling around. It's so fucking cute, look at it!

It's all good, he got it all handled.

I'm not going to lie. These little bastards have been my favorite part of the game. The comic mischief is great, and the whole look is fucking precious.

OWLS!!! AAHHHHH!

Now, for the bad.

• One case of bad localization. As shown here.
• This could be a really tiny problem and only a personal one, but, my hands cramped the fuck out on this game. Granted, I have huge man hands, and I was just using my DSi, but still. I do not like numbness in my hands when I like games! I tried different chairs, laying down, standing, changing play times, and so on but still my hands felt like jell-o when playing it.
• The story segments were unskippable per se, only having a 'skip this whole cinematic and not fast forward through this because you can read, like most real people, not some fucking dumbass which you think I am'. I mean, the regular conversations, you can do it to your hearts content, but not for the cinematics.
• The Banjo-Kazooie-esque voice acting can get really annoying, but then again, I only liked it in Banjo-Kazooie...
• The game holds your hand through most if not all actions you can perform if you don't do it in the time allowed, aren't paying attention, or just cause you set the machine down so you can I don't know like wash your hands or something?... Hey, draw a circle around that dude's chest to revive him...*nope*...HEY! DUDE'S CHEST!...*nope*...DUDE DOESN'T HAVE A CIRCLE AROUND IT!!!...*nope*...SEE THIS HERE RED FUCKING CIRCLE? ON THAT DUDE'S CHEST? DRAW THAT NOW!...*done*...Cool, thanks.
• The game doesn't tell you how to do any of the progression, much like the previous game, which is fucking weird considering how much it told you how to fucking draw.

All-in-all, I love this game. It brought back so many great memories from Okami, added so much more fun to my DS line-up of games, and was totally worth the hand cramps to play. Great game, action, story, music, just great everything. If you couldn't tell before, I'll tell you now; 4 cute-ass baby animals out of 5.