Yeah, it is.
So I bought this game in September of last year and didn't play all the way through it. I started over now and I'm really blown away by how absolutely great it is. I would argue it's the best Zelda of the last ten years, but hey, that's me.
Things I am blown away by:
--Huge mega 5 disk soundtrack that reeks of awesome and amazing. Honestly, this is a great work. When you put this up against other games in the genre, it embarrasses them all. It's not even close. The composition embarrasses Twilight Princess' composition, and the overall sound is miles beyond due to fantastic instrumentation. High quality stuff here. The talking noise is annoying though. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much talking. At least it's not as bad as Super Paper Mario, which has oodles of dialog and no interesting or engaging gameplay inbetween.
--The visuals. Obviously. They look fantastic upscaled to HD on my TV through my PS3. Looks better than anything else from a last gen console in the "HD Era," excepting maybe Wind Waker. It's not just the overall visual style, which is of course impressive, but the small details. The flowers that pop up when Amaterasu runs around, the little clouds of dust that kick up, the petals in the air, the gorgeous effects, etc. I wonder how hardware intensive this game is on the PS2.
--Japanese delight. Sorry to say it, but it's true. It's not overtly "Japanese" in that there isn't any big animu eyes or animu titties. It's more of a mythological, historical, and cultural thing, I guess. I don't feel so dirty and slimy playing as a wolf and bringing foliage back, as opposed to say, touching loli or something.
--Streamlined design. I like how the dungeons aren't nearly as explicit as they are in Zelda. You kind of just move from area to area, solving puzzles and fixing things without explicitly being in the "fire dungeon" or the "water dungeon." Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that approach, but it just really makes things more cohesive overall.
--Fun mechanics that remove inventory management. I love drawing the stuff. I dunno what it is about it, but I really like it. It's fun to draw the vines that connect Amaterasu to things, or to slash through enemies, or make bombs. I don't have to go to my menu ever, unless I really need to heal or change divine instruments. That's pretty rare though. The momentary pauses for the celestial brush are not nearly as annoying or "inventory management"ish as is assigning things to a button.
--Just general charm. I KNOW I'M SO HOMOSEXUAL, BUT WHEN AMMY WAS ON HER BACK BEFORE THE SPIDER BOSS I WAS LIKE "OMG THATS SO CUTE MY BRAIN IS 'BOUT TO EXPLODE WITH DELIGHT." World is fully realized, the characters are totally hilarious and funny, the world doesn't take itself too seriously, etc.
--SIDEQUESTS. ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG there are so fucking many of them!!! And there's LEWT in chests EVERYWHERE! USEFUL lewt!
Areas where it needs work:
--Issun does hold your hand a little too much. He should only be there if you want to ask him shit on your own. That said, it's not too bad. And the fun is in the mechanics! So I don't mind it!
--Fetch quest. Ew.
--More dungeons.
YEAH SO OKAMI FUCKING ROCKS. THANKS FOR NOT BUYING IT, DICKWADS
Kamiya :bow
Inaba :bow