The Dark Lord Yami is a nippon symbol of evil, which descends to the ground in terrible visionary guides. About the coming of the Time of Troubles in Nippon, heaven signals the spirit living in a magnificent tree. Then a good spirit in the flesh is sent to save the world. When Yami appeared in the world of mortals for the last time, to help people was sent to Amateras, the spirit of the goddess of the sun in the body of a lively wolf. The lord was plunged, Amaterasa returned to heaven, but very soon a new evil appeared on Earth, this time in the form of an aggressive lizard, a strange estimate of the classic Asian dragon and a snake Gorynych (compared to Yami – a miserable lizard). The Sakuya Tree again sends a signal about the danger to good deities, but there is still no Amateras. Instead of it, a smaller wolf appears, young chibeters. Apparently the son. By the villain and hero.

Do not rush to look at the cover, you were not mistaken by the magazine: all this extremely important and useful information about the universe Okami You will have to keep in mind if you suddenly take a chance to get acquainted with its portable with a sequel, or spin-off-off- Okamiden.

Lay out wolf

PS2 Adventure Okami was not lucky. Perhaps due to the fact that she managed to go out in 2006, when only sports series and guitar simulators remained on PS2, and all attention was already given to PS3. Perhaps due to the reputation of the dense, even by Japanese standards, the reputation of the dense, arthouse around her. As always in such cases, the game with a bang failed in sales, but deserved crazy press ratings, a bunch of titles “Game of the Year”, became a natural cult and, in general, one of the best games on PS2 (and this is with wild competition). Subsequently, it was even ported to Wii, where Okami sold several times better than on PS2. Largely due to the fact that the game was as if created for Mousen Controllers. The she -wolf amateras quickly ran, jumped high and even knew how to fight, but the main tool for interaction with the world was a magic brush, which in the right places was proposed to finish reality, gently circling objects along the contour. And the time free from drawing was clogged with gameplay plugs: schematic fights and no less schematic quest existed only to bring the poor animal to the next beautiful cut-scene, the frames of which were as if printed on celluloid.

The strange beauty of the game was the second (after drawing) reason to love Okami: the style of the game was like a cross of modern Japanese animation (see. Cartoons of Hayao Miyazaki) with the traditional Asian style of large strokes and a kind of Cel-SHADING. It seemed that a thousand invisible artists were finishing up the game behind you right on the go. Well, secondly, Japanese folklore-perfumes, caricature houses and evil celestial matters, as if who had come down from ancient paintings-still bribed: even if there were no gameplay in Okami, she could go for an interactive art project (which, in fact, was). We sincerely hope that the fashion trend is to reissue not the old games on HD-consoles will someday come to Okami, especially since Move and Kinect for her are just what the doctor prescribed. But instead, Capcom continue to promote the game on Nintendo platforms, releasing Okamiden for the outdated Nintendo DS just when the whole world is already sweeping away from the shelves of its successor.

The main intrigue associated with Okamiden was not at all whether Chibitheras was the son of Amateras (the authors on this occasion cunningly took the eyebrow for the past year and a half). The fact is that, unlike most other games, the Okami world is not a continuation of mechanics, but a fundamental link around which everything else is built. Therefore, the question of whether he was enough for the normal existence of a small DS cartridge, was much more interesting for fans of the Japanese arthouse more interesting.

But the internal team Capcom ( Clover Studio , The original developer, we remind, no longer exists) Pretty unbearably copied the first game. In professional, dryly, accurately and skillfully, but not too inventive.

Destroyers of myths

After reading the first paragraph of our review of Okamiden, you could decide that Japanese mythology is completely special, and the concentration of game and non -corazis there is not an example more than in the legends of other peoples. In fact, amazing and incredible can be found in absolutely all ancient legends.

Dry and does not smell at all

According to German-Scandinavian mythology, a man and a woman did not appear from any clay or other banal region like a rib, but from sweat. And more precisely – the sweat of the giant Imir, who, in short, was torn to pieces and created the world from his jacks. During his lifetime, Imir was not easy: he ate milk, which he sucked directly from the nipples of the ice cow. And so that the milk was quite nutritious, this same cow tirelessly licked salty humanoid stones.

But the most terrible things from the Scandinavians begin when it comes to the structure of the world. According to their ideas, the Universe is a gigantic ash of IS. At the top of the tree sits a huge (and, as legends assure, very wise) hawk, next to it are four deer and dragon, and a high -speed protein serves a messenger between the dragon and the hawk.

Let's go on a campaign

The Aztecs have a curious legend about the founding of their capital Tenitcitlane (now it is Mexico City). Aztecs lived well on the island of Astlan, but once their leader in a dream came the gods who said that it was impossible to stay on Astlan, evil would come here soon, so prepare the drypack and twist the tents. To the logical question, where can we go, the gods answered: “If you see an eagle sitting on a cactus and squeezing a snake in claws, then you are in place”. The leader Tenoch raised the tribe to his ears, and they went on a journey until they found an unfortunate eagle.

It would seem that there is an end to the fairy tale, if it were not for one layering, a kind of “alternative ending”, which is found in a number of sources. According to her, the Aztecs wandered around America for so long that they managed to give birth to children and die, and the first to go to the best world to Tenoch himself, to whom the gods were dreamed of drunken delirium. The tribe chose a new young leader, but he did not find an eagle with a snake on a cactus. And so more than one generation. Finally, the exhausted Aztecs agreed that old Tenoch had got excited, and stopped at the first turned out place.

Fathers and children

According to the Sumerian myths, before the world consisted only of fresh and salt water. To rule the waters, the main god of the Aps with his wife Tiamat created the younger gods who did not like to live in the ocean. The younger ones complained for a long time by the APSU, until he, annoyed, decided to destroy his descendants. The gods learned about this and attacked the first: the god Enki pierced the APS belly with his fist and took out land, water and fire from there. These were obviously vital organs, because the lord died. But the landscape became richer.

Tiamat did not forgive the murder of her husband with mischievous kids and created eleven terrible monsters in revenge. The younger deities and it was found to answer: they equipped the god Marduk onions, arrows, a network and a club, as well as eleven elements: seven storms and four hurricanes. Marduk killed monsters and Tiamat herself, after which he became a heavenly king.

Eskimo

You may have never heard of the mythology of the Eskimos, and they are extremely imaginary people and still with respect for all the things described in ancient legends, and they are terribly afraid of them. “Afraid” is a keyword, because there are practically no good spirits and they do not worship Jackpot Charm Casino anyone. The reason is simple: the life of the average Eskimos is quite harsh.

But the Eskimos believes that a powerful aglucle lives under the ice, which must be crushed by rituals, otherwise hunting and fishing will not be bored. And here the surprises begin. For example, a Demon Kigatylik may devour the shaman conducting the ritual of the shaman; As an option – the poor man can grab a large smooth -haired dog Keelut and drag him into the underground kingdom.

Work is not a wolf

All the few fresh Okamiden finds are connected primarily with the fact that the little Chibitheiss is really … small. He is not so fast and dexterous, so he often needs assistants who ride a wolf coat, wave a sword in battles, help to cross over bridges and solve spatial puzzles. Surprisingly, the continuation of such a meditative game as Okami turned out to be the most interesting exactly when someone fights or pulls the levers in the frame. Although the puzzles are elementary, and the combat system is very conditional: Chibi methodically clogs everyone, throwing a solar disk (then another weapon will appear, but the essence will not change). At the same time, battles occur at the levels only with small boys, and during serious battles the hero is teleported to a special arena, which is one for the whole game.

The secret is simple: even the simple arcade is able to charm if it looks like Okamiden (which recalls calligraphy of the V-IV centuries. BC.e). Rarely what portable versions of the “big” games are not much worse than a full-size original, but Okami itself is so specific that even in a crippled form it still fascinates the look, turning the multi-colored Beat 'Em Up in half with adventure into something majestic and mysterious.

Chibi fights, runs around the villages, listens to long monologues of statists, and sometimes lifts down the ears in a quest swamp for good forty minutes. Often this process is diluted with mini-players with a brush, from which you expect all the main revelations: after all, the DS stylus as a replacement of a brush is much more convenient than a gamepad and even vimutes.

But nothing new in Capcom did not come up with. All visual creativity here is furnished in the same way as before: by going into a special mode, you should circle the object in the contour in 30 seconds (as an option – draw a line or draw a simple figure). There is no more point in this than in similar episodes from Rayman Raving Rabbids. Why it was difficult to somehow link the waving with a brush with fights and puzzles-a mystery.

As, however, why the team did not find a place for a decent director. Throughout the game, the creators of Okamiden give their story about fairy-tale magicians and are worried in one single way: with the help of helpless, stupid, ongoing chatter in the spirit Dragon Quest. And this is in the game that feels best in complete silence, because here, as in ICO or Shadow of the Colossus , The whole story is in the frame.

* * *

Okamiden status itself was muddy, which at different times and different sources was called sequel, port, adaptation and spin-off. In fact, Okamiden is such a not too costly way to feel the soil and understand what to do with the franchise next. CAPCOM, obviously, simply cannot come to terms with the fact that they own rights to one of the brightest games for PlayStation 2, and there is nothing to do with them: the original was sold badly, and to port it on HD consoles, it means guaranteed to stay on beans.

But for those who play Nintendo DS, Okamiden is still good news. Sweet, simple, beautiful and a little boring game – this is how you can describe almost the entire Nintendo DS library. Therefore, here she will clearly be her own, especially for those players who have already played Okami and knows what threatens them.

Gameplay: 6

Graphics: 8

Sound and music: 8

Interface and management: 7

Waited? A set of levels for Okami with a young wolf cub instead of a formidable she -wolf. If you want to see Okami 2 someday, you have to fork out for it.

Mania rating: 6.5

"Above the average"