Alright, I've put about an hour into it, and so far I'm torn. The presentation is as amazing as ever, but the graphics look pretty damn rough to my eyes. I wasn't brilliantly impressed with the execution on the PS2, but I haven't played that version since it came out, so maybe I just remembered it being prettier than it really is. I'm running the game via component, on the same 480i 4:3 SDTV as I did when I was playing it on the PS2 (also via component). I've seen the comparisons between the PS2 and Wii versions, and the blur filter is definitely in and visible. The effect looks intact. Framerate seems to hitch more than before, and even slowdown occasionally! I could be wrong on that last part. I need to play more.
I'm guessing that Ready at Dawn figured that at least a few of us would be double-dippers, and so they mercifully allow us to skip each and every cutscene, individually. But it seems like we still can't speed up the text, and it's still as frustratingly slow as ever. It doesn't help that the gobbledeegook speech effects are as bad as before. At least for the opening narration.
As to the controls... I have a problem. I'm one of the rare fools that preferred the controls in the Wii version of Twilight Princess over the GCN game (and I bought both!) A large part of what made that work was the surprisingly excellent automated camera and the much, much improved archery. It was enough of an improvement that for the first time in a 3D Zelda game, I had felt that the bow and arrow was a viable weapon, and not just a puzzle-solving tool. I felt that the waggle was inoffensive enough to not offset the archery gains.
That said, maybe I just don't recall how the weapons work in Okami, but I can't seem to pull off any combos with the default weapon. I waggle, and maybe I get one hit, but maybe I don't. And I can't chain at all. This was NEVER an issue at any point in the 80+ hours I put into TP. I know different weapons for Amaterasu later on allow different chaining opportunities. But didn't even the first one allow at least a basic 3-hit combo? What the hell? If it's not the weapon, then it must be the controls.
TP's archery is this game's painting. So the painting feels WAY better now than it did on the PS2. But one thing I'm not digging is the camera. It doesn't feel like they changed the camera at all, and the Wii-mote's top-size dpad is merely a servicable replacement for a second (camera) analog stick. It's not particularly comfortable... and it's digital. I would NOT want to play the GCN version of TP without a second analog stick... and the same is true here. The Wii version of TP had an adjusted camera that worked really well most of the time. Something of that sort should have been attempted here.
I put 30 hours into the original Okami before getting bored of the adventure and turned off by all of the game's little problems, which kept on mounting the longer I played. I'm shutting the game off for now, and I'll return to it tomorrow, but if I'm already this annoyed with the Wii version, I'll have to give this one a pass, put it back on the shelf, and give the nod to the PS2 game as the "definitive" version. Which is a shame, because I was hoping to finally be inspired enough to finish this game. We'll see.
Edit - The 9.5 stamp on the box is fucking lame. And to make it lamer, it was actually covered up by a same-sized sticker on the wrapping seal. I was happy to see that sticker go when I unsealed the game, but once that stamp on the box was unveiled, I could only stare, aghast.
Edit 2 - My recollection may be flawed, but I'm pretty damn sure that the load times are significantly diminished, especially when saving the game!