Issun, your sidekick, ruins anything good about this game.

Issun is introduced as a cocky and perverted bug, who quite literally pops out of the top of the Wood Sprite Sakuya's kimono during the insanely long introduction cutscene. He's meant as a comic relief character while also being informative, but isn't funny and overexplains everything.

The writers of this game think that you're genuinely an idiot (I guess this game was marketed towards kids upon release?) so Issun goes to the trouble of laboriously explaining things to you several times in the most annoying Banjo-Kazooie-esque voice possible. Any subtlety of moments or possibility for accomplishing tasks via exploration is instantly removed with a long drawn-out explanation that MUST state the obvious and MUST put a big arrow on the screen showing exactly where you should go. I had moments where I wanted to revel in the silence and explore the beautiful environments myself, but my immersion was destroyed each time.

Within the hour that I played of this game, I experienced around 6-7 moments where I had to put the controller down because I found Issun so insufferable; both because of his perversion and tendency to obliterate any peaceful moments.

If there was a mod to remove Issun entirely from the game and replace him with something more subtle, I'd be willing to try this game again. Given that that's probably not a thing, it looks like this is where my journey ends with Okami.

EDIT: Since it wasn't clear, the main thing that bothers me in this game is Issun's regular creepy and disgusting comments/actions towards women. Constantly sexualizing them and being gross completely shattered the experience for me, to the point where I felt I could not play anymore because I was so put off by his degeneracy.

Received for free as a gift from a friend.

Issun, your sidekick, ruins anything good about this game. Issun is introduced as a cocky and perverted bug, who quite literally pops out of the top of the Wood Sprite Sakuya's kimono during the insanely long introduction cutscene. He's meant as a comic relief character while also being informative, but isn't funny and overexplains everything. The writers of this game think that you're genuinely an idiot (I guess this game was marketed towards kids upon release?) so Issun goes to the trouble of laboriously explaining things to you several times in the most annoying Banjo-Kazooie-esque voice possible. Any subtlety of moments or possibility for accomplishing tasks via exploration is instantly removed with a long drawn-out explanation that MUST state the obvious and MUST put a big arrow on the screen showing exactly where you should go. I had moments where I wanted to revel in the silence and explore the beautiful environments myself, but my immersion was destroyed each time. Within the hour that I played of this game, I experienced around 6-7 moments where I had to put the controller down because I found Issun so insufferable; both because of his perversion and tendency to obliterate any peaceful moments. If there was a mod to remove Issun entirely from the game and replace him with something more subtle, I'd be willing to try this game again. Given that that's probably not a thing, it looks like this is where my journey ends with Okami. EDIT: Since it wasn't clear, the main thing that bothers me in this game is Issun's regular creepy and disgusting comments/actions towards women. Constantly sexualizing them and being gross completely shattered the experience for me, to the point where I felt I could not play anymore because I was so put off by his degeneracy. [i]Received for free as a gift from a friend.[/i]