First teaser:

http://kotaku.com/5352267/first-okamide … small-cute

So cute!  And the art style holds up surprisingly well on the DS.

Chibiterasu wins for most adorable character design of the year.  Well, assuming the game is coming out this year -- which it probably won't.

Let's hope Capcom can carry on Clover/Platinum Games' developing prowess for this one.

Yeah, I think it's scheduled for 2010 in Japan with a full reveal coming in a few weeks at TGS.

I wonder who started "chibiterasu", because it's taken off like a bat out of hell.

(I wonder who started "bat out of hell")

I really wanted this to be a top-down/isometric game ala Ganbare Goemon DS, with much less platforming and more interesting combat/puzzles, but I guess I'll remain optimistic.

I keep wanting to say "Chibiteramisu".

Now I'm hungry for cake.

Game looks nice, kinda cute.

Agreed: so cute!!  My only gripe is that they'd better step up the speed of the gameplay.  That look like it was a little sluggish. (This is probably an early build, so they'll more than likely have it fixed by release.... hopefully)

If the first video was a teaser, then this can be considered the trailer:

http://www.true-gaming.net/home/?p=3598

The framerate is looking much smoother here.

Well, it came from the original Famitsu article reporting on the game.  I don't know if a Famitsu staffer made it up or if it's actually what Capcom is calling the character, but it came from that article.

A Chibi Okami sequel?

I better go finish my Wii version... I love the art/graphics to bits, but something about the gameplay or slow progression made me put it down for a while.

That trailer is adorable.

My main concern though, is how the controls will be. Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble's always-have-the-stylus-out setup killed my hand after a while, and it's not too much of a stretch to see this game playing in a similar way.

Capcom's got the official site up now:

http://www.capcom.co.jp/o-kamiden/index.html

My expectation was low, but looks terrific to me.

My major grips with the first game are related to its difficulty (too easy), its story (too long!) and its presentation, and hopefully they are fixed.

New trailer:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-0 … 4?type=wmv

Just finished listening to the soundtrack.  In a word: great.  That said, I'm pretty sure this isn't the actual DS music since the sound quality seems way too high.  Anyone know for sure?

http://www.squareenixmusic.com/features … iden.shtml

I still can't get into Okamiden, partly because of the overuse of voice samples.

Just as I suspected.  Thanks for the link.

U.S. demo has been released: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/22/okami … asu-today/

I just put the aforementioned demo through its paces.  It's a very short affair that simply familiarizes you with the game's mechanics.  Capcom has wisely put brush use on toggle so you just tap L or R when you want to go into brush mode which pauses the action so you have time to get your stylus ready.  Other than that, the only real difference between this and the PS2 game from a mechanical standpoint is that the d-pad definitely doesn't feel as precise as the analog stick; in the opening top-down section of the demo, diagonals were a bit tricky.  Graphically, it looks decent for a DS game, but very muddy when compared to the PS2 original.  Battles seem especially chaotic from a graphical perspective, but I'm sure we'll get used to them.  The music sounds good through headphones and is a pretty decent approximation of the original as well.  As for the touch screen, it is also used for a couple non-brush related activities: when on the field, you can pan the camera by tapping arrows on the side of it and when in battle it displays your enemies’ health bars.  While the demo certainly shows the compromises that had to be made to cram a sequel to Okami onto the DS, I'm still very much looking forward to picking up the full game in a few weeks.

Nice impressions on the demo, XLord.  The tag team puzzling looks like it has a lot of gameplay potential.  I'm just hoping there will be a 'smarter' camera in place when it comes to the battle sequences.  Maybe they can make broader sweeps instead of chaotically zooming in on the action?

Think Capcom is merciful enough to include a voice-off option?  Or would that make too much sense?

And I've finally got the Original Soundtrack on order.  It only took a few choice Youtube samples to convince me that I need to have this one in my collection.

I'm not sure why, but apparently this was released four days early.  I thought it was due out the 15th, but I got a text from GameStop yesterday saying that it would be in Friday afternoon, and it was.  I haven't had time to pop it in yet, but it came with a brush shaped stylus and screen cleaner with some pretty art.

Thanks for the heads-up!  Went ahead and picked up the game this afternoon.  Didn't preorder, though, so no stylus or screen cleaner for me.

Haven't opened the game yet, but I really like the back cover's art work.  Chibiterasu's gonna melt my heart into goo.

Okamiden reminds me of what I didn't dig about the original Okami; it's just so damned WORDY.  Dialogue spews on and on, and you're forced to either slog through the slow text crawl of scripted events, or skip them all together.  And for such a story-driven game like this, skipping them would be a bad idea.

I've put about five hours in so far and I'm enjoying it quite a bit even though it is rather slow-paced.  I just got to the part where they reminded me about having to do the special deaths strokes to get the monster parts which is one of things I really didn't like in the first game, but I guess I'll figure it out again.  I'm playing on the 3DS simply to use the circle pad which feels a lot better for this game than the d-pad.

I finally beat the game after about four months of real life and 35 hours of game time (according to the 3DS' activity log; 31 by the game's clock).  In short, it's a great game, and a worthy sequel to the original.  I'm particularly impressed with the myriad gameplay improvements the new team made over the original: dungeons are better designed, puzzles are more interesting, side quests are less frequent and more straightforward, and there's mercifully less collection and grinding elements.  It's still a very deliberate, slow-paced experience, but it also still features beautiful art, music, and storytelling, though the latter is hurt a bit by some sloppy localization.  Although there are still a few big DS releases on the way, Okamiden should be remembered for being one of the best games in the system's library.  When the original came out in 2006, I compared it directly to Twilight Princess and I ended up giving my game of the year nod to Zelda simply because it had much better gameplay and dungeon design than Okami though Okami bested Zelda in every other regard.  On the DS, there is no contest.  Okamiden is far, far better than either the somewhat enjoyable Phantom Hourglass or the dreadful Spirit Tracks.  If you own a DS and like action/adventure games, you should absolutely pick this up.

For those wondering, Okamiden does unfortunately subscribe to the FIRST LAW OF CAPCOM: A boss worth fighting is worth fighting more than once.

Are there?  Aside from Professor Layton and the Last Specter, I'm hard-pressed to think of any more worthy titles coming to the DS.

The two I was thinking of are Kirby Mass Attack and Aliens: Infestation.  Before you scream "licensed title," please note that the latter is from WayForward and will be Metroid style exploration.