Ookami-den for the Nintendo DS

It's been about a year since I found a used but in good shape copy of Ookami for the PS2. I had traded in a bass fishing game Mom bought but never played (probably due to not having a fishing controller if there was one) and got a paltry 63 cents for the exchange. I had to also go online to find the cover to print out and a PDF for the instruction manual. I am thankful that Capcom supports their games in that manner.

Now I find out about a sequel game for the Nintendo DS, Ookami-den. After about 10 hours into game play, I'm stuck. But some reflections on what I've played so far.

There's no longer this nit-picky annoying collecting of 100 strings of beads. You don't have to feed any animals. I like that there's still the blooming of trees. Most of the locations in the original game are here and some new ones as well. So if you're used to Shinshu Field and the guy who does pottery there, you know you'll see that again. There's plenty of signs that this is a sequel - time has moved forth and some things are slightly different. It's nice to see more of the story.

What I greatly miss is seeing this game on a big screen TV. I guess I could still plug the audio out of the DS into the Dolby unit with a patch cable instead of using headphones. The look and music of the PS2 game are re-created for the DS, though there are more areas per game part likely due to the less RAM in the DS. I was used to Shinshu Field being one area in the PS2 version.

Funny how a lot of the treasure locations are the same, and there's new puzzles to figure out. I decided to go the Greenhorn aka Easy route to play even though I know what to expect in this version for the DS.

Brush techniques have to be re-learned again. You have different friends accompanying you in various parts. I was able to get to a point where I'm going to have to backtrack a bit due to unfinished business in one part. At least now there won't be a feeling at one point going "Is this all there is?" like I did last time only to find out there's more.

Some control of the camera is lost but the user interface helps make up for it. I like one difference from the original: No Falling Off of Cliffs. Or at least less of it.

I have lost sleep due to playing Ookami-den. I was up until 3:30 am last night before I realized I was up that late. It was similar to last year while playing Ookami on the PS2, but not quite as late.

I doubt there's a walkthrough to help me figure out what I forgot in the previous spot...

I'm glad I saved the gift card to help pay for this.