The demo features a wolf cub, Chibi, and Susano’s young son, Kuni—although use of the term “partner” in the battle system implies others will ride Chibi’s back too in the final game. Like the Zelda DS games, during exploration Okamiden is usually presented in an angled overhead camera perspective, although the camera adjusted itself to other angles as I moved around. You control Chibi with the D-pad and can attack with Y, Jump with B, and summon the celestial brush with either trigger button. The menus for selecting items and equipment are on the touch screen, as well as arrows to nudge the camera left, right, in and out.

Although I encountered a few minor skirmishes in this exploration mode, most battles take place a more dynamically 3D arena just as in the console original. These battles started without warning when exploring, since no enemy was on screen when the game switched to battle mode, but seemed predetermined and not random. Combat is very close to the console game, and you can still apply the celestial brush in battle. Two of the celestial techniques I learned from deities in the training arena, the Power Slash and Bloom, were the same as in the original (drawn a line & circle, respectively). During the boss battle against a demon frog creature, the camera dynamically moved in and out as appropriate, feeling somewhat distinct from the action in either the pure battle or exploration sequences.

The game’s graphics are fairly impressive. Although the textures are nothing special, the cel-shaded art style is faithfully reproduced on the handheld, with black lines of varying thicknesses that make the game look like an interactive Japanese painting. The music, which employs traditional Japanese instrumentation and tropes, is equally impressive—there are also musical callbacks for fans of the original.

My complaints largely involved the application of the celestial brush, especially during exploration. Kuni can mount and get off Chibi with a press of the X button. Once separated, you can use the celestial brush to draw a path for Kuni to follow, a la Zelda on the DS. This quickly becomes tedious, as the game action stops for about two seconds while the game action moves from the top screen to the touch screen and back. While a little distracting during battles, the constant back-and-forth to control Kuni got old very quickly in the demo, in which I had to direct him and Chibi through a series of switch puzzles and then direct him during the boss battle. This mechanic will be a problem if these puzzles are prominently featured throughout the game. This delay was also annoying when something I wanted to interact with using the brush was not quite on the screen, since adjusting the screen (still) requires you to exit the brush mode. Players adept at swapping between stylus and face button controls on-the-fly will be especially frustrated with having to wait for an animation.

Other than some issues with the brush gameplay, Okamiden is very promising and should scratch the Zelda itch quite nicely.