Saturday, August 6, 2011

Okamiden, Day 19

The dog has got more fun out of Man than Man has got out of the dog, for the clearly demonstrable reason that Man is the more laughable of the two animals.
James Thurber 

The ending of Okamiden is all right; it's a bit of a let down after such an amazing game. I felt like it was trying too hard to set up Okami 3. Still, it's not too bad. 

Spoilers follow. 
Two days ago, I thought I would be able to go right to the boss battle against Akuro. Instead, I needed to gather three of my companions, and re-fight several of the bosses. In many video games this would be a chance to show how powerful the main character has become, but I didn't find these battles much quicker this time around, partially because I'd forgotten some of the tricks I used to defeat them.

Then I needed to fight Kurow. Then there were two fights against Akuro, one in his floating eyeball form, and the other after he used his powers (and repossessed Kuni) to form a dark Chibi:

Then, after Akuro has been defeated twice and is looking for another vessel, Kurow volunteers. And it turns out this was a trap; Kurow was some sort of living doll, a simulacrum of Waka (from Okami) made to help trap Akuro so Chibi could finish him off. Kurow orignally  turned on the puppy because he didn't want to acknowledge his fateful destiny.

Then there is a pretty long epilogue, which I'm not sure how to feel about. The only thing that really got me is that Susano is going to be a (biological)  father in nine months, and Kuni and he have a falling out because Kuni wants to go out and seek his own destiny. I'd actually been hoping we'd find out a little more in the game about that.

The closing credits do something smart. They're aware you're not really interested in who the assistant translators are, so they show a little movie for you to watch of the characters walking along:

I feel like I'm left with a lot of unanswered questions. Perhaps some answers are to be found if you replay it. Perhaps some are supposed to be answered in a later incarnation of the game. Still, it was a great game, even if the ending was merely decent.

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