I bought this new HD remaster version of Okami that came out on PS3 a couple days ago, and I've been ripping into it just like I did back when I got the original PS2 version. It's comforting to me that it still holds up, still feels intelligent and well-made. It's less surprising as a game now though, which is a testament to its refinements—lots of games have since borrowed elements that Okami introduced.
As I play it I'm kinda taken back to that pre-Wii mindset, when we all thought hey, you use the paintbrush in this game for actions, it sure would be neat to use the Wii Remote to paint your commands on the screen wouldn't it? But then they released that version and you know, it kinda sucked. Pointing at the screen and doing individual motions all the time when you sometimes have to just draw a straight line four times in a battle ended up not actually being all that fun after all.
It's kind of interesting, because this version for the PS3 supports its own Wii Remote, the PlayStation Move controller. And even though the thing is inherently more precise, the bungle of it is exactly the same—some kinds of inputs, even if they seem to be "emulating" real-life motions, are just better done with a more simple control method. I'm not a professional painter, it's hard for me to paint with my hand in the air precisely and quickly in the flow of battle. I am, however, good at using a video game controller pretty fast.
I'm not sure exactly what exactly it all means, thinking about this stuff now. In a way it's sort of a reminder of a more innocent time, when the idea of the "potential" of the Wii Remote was intoxicating, outweighed any sort of eventual reality, Goldbluming it (only thinking about whether or not we could, not if we should). Stuff like Red Steel, using a gun and a sword at the same time, how cool did that sound! But it wasn't that cool. The lightsaber type of gameplay we all clamored for turned out to not really even be possible until MotionPlus came out and once it did nobody really cared. What about the original Wii sizzle reel when we could hear the little Mario sound effect as the cute girl flicked it up in the air? That never happened because Nintendo knows it's stupid to flick the remote to jump, you use a button for that shit.
In a way, this sort of "high-concept" gameplay that Nintendo sold us on with the Wii could never have matched what our imaginations came up with. That's why I sort of love that the previews and ideas I've seen so far for the Wii U haven't exactly lit my brain on fire. There are so fewer immediate "duh" ideas on how to use the hardware that it's easier not to mentally construct "shit I wanna see on Wii U" like I did with Wii. Maybe it seems defeatist to admit that by not being able to have expectations you'll be pleased more easily, but in some ways it's the truth. I don't trust me to make games, I trust people with talent and aptitude in those fields to make things that are unexpected and interesting.
What would have happened if the Wii version of Okami came out and it controlled just fantastically and we never thought "man this sure is a pain in the ass?" I guess it would have ended up being just as good as we thought it would be, and there it would sit, just what we thought. Playing through this remastered PS3 Okami now though has reminded me of what it's like not to have any idea how things should be, just like the first time I played the game wide-eyed and curious, amused and impressed by each little event. I gotta say I liked the way it felt not knowing what was going to happen, instead of just wondering why what was happening didn't match up to what I was expecting.
I suppose it's a strange place to find an interested optimism about the Wii U, in a PS3 remake of a six year old Zelda ripoff. But there it is, however it happened. Tempered enthusiasm enabling greater surprises, kinda like this silly game about a goddess wolf that I knew nothing about when I bought it back in grad school—and which ended up being a major inspiration and one of my all-time favorites.