I owned the original on PS2, the wii port, and now this port. I don't really remember the ps2 port that well since I only played it once on that system a long, long time ago in a town far away. But I have played through the wii version several times.
One thing I will say about the wii version, with the drawing mechanic, this game seems custom designed for the wii-mote even though it came out probably well before the wii was released. There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get it combat really feels great on the wii version. You feel like an absolute combat power house raining devastation upon all those who vex you. There was/is a bit of a problem with it not always recognizing what you were trying to draw. For the most part it wasn't a big issue in combat, but a number of mini-games and stop-time events it could be annoying. And I am fairly good at it saying this.
compared to that, I am trying to use an 8bitdo controller here, then have the mouse available for brush drawing. I know I could use mouse and keyboard entirely, and maybe that is the best way to play this in this port, but this kind of game I want to play it with a controller except for maybe brush work. But its a bit awkward switching back and forth so far, I think I will get used to it. I'll provide an update later once I have had time to practice more. Time taken isn't really an issue since the game pauses during brush powers, but it is slower and thus slows down the combat compared to the wii version and that seems like a downgrade for combat. Its hard to describe the swift and efficient destruction of your enemies. I suspect that they can be destroyed very effectively in this version, but that maybe the satisfaction of doing it skillfully and almost instantly won't be as available.
I kind of wish I could leave the mouse only to the more complicated drawings, but drawing with the joysticks is really slow. Way slower than it needs to be and I couldn't find a setting to increase the sensitivity when using the celestial brush. It should be fine to do a sword cut with the joysticks, but its slow slow slow that switching to the mouse is till better and faster even for something as simple as a straight line. It shouldn't be like that. There should be a setting letting you adjust the brush speed with a joystick (if there is let me know in a comment).
All that said, and even compared to the wii-mote, I must emphatically say, drawing with the mouse is absolutely pinpoint accurate and the easiest way to make drawings that I remember from any of the three versions I have played. That precision is nice and I hope with more practice that transition from regular combat to brush power will come to feel as seamless as it is with the wii-mote. That is a me issue though, I am going to try for it.
The other most important thing is the graphics. The graphic upgrades I have seen so far are absolutely flawless. It is the exact same visuals but sharp and clear instead of blurry and yes I did a direct comparison to the wii version. It is exactly what I want from a remaster, at least so far. Don't try to change everything and add in weird pronouns. Just take the original, keep it as much the same as possible but with higher resolution and sharper graphics. Perfect, perfect perfect. An absolute homerun in this department. Devs did this right they deserve their credit.
I wish I could play this version with the wii-mote for combat and have mouse availability for mini-games to get the best of all the versions. That won't happen though. : <
There are some technical problems with getting the controller to work with this version. So far getting the controller right with this version has been a bit of a pain. Without steam controller input it doesn't work at all, with it, it does work if you leave it at the default settings, but glitched out when I tried to switch the setting of the left and right bumper. It is better to use the left bumper instead of the right to start the celestial brush if you plan on moving your right hand to the mouse for the actual drawing. to their credit it is pretty smooth to duel use a controller and mouse at the same time for drawing. I don't know how hard that was to set up, but it is probably far more impressive than we realize. To actually do this remapping I had to go in to 8bitdo controller settings and trick the game into thinking I was pressing RB when I was actually pressing LB and vice-versa. That got combat how I wanted it, but now the fan screen is on opposite land. I can tolerate that later part but I feel this port would be a lot better with better controller support. Is remapping and joystick sensitivity settings really too much to ask for? Yet, with some effort I was able to get it almost how I wanted it, and the drawing probably isn't any worse than the original ps2 version.
Two controversies I remember about the shift from ps2 to wii was the paper effect filter being removed and the removal of the mini-"game" on the loading screens.
This version lets you set this paper filter effect to be like the ps2 version (heavy in the options). Frankly, after watching several cutscenes in heavy and in normal I think they were right to tone that down. Its a little too strong on heavy, but normal in this version seems about right to me. This was a good choice by the devs, and also it was a good choice to let people set it high or low depending on their preferences. I think probably the people who whined about its subduction in the wii version were protesting a bit too much. Its fairly subtle in any case.
The mini-"games" aren't even really that. It is just something to let the player do something during longish loading screens on the ps2. And really its not a mini-game its press A to get a different picture on the loading screen. If you don't have long loading screens the mini-games aren't needed. I tried it a few times and turned it back off. Ports with shorter load times were right to do away with this, it was the fans who were wrong. Despite being wrong, the devs went out of their way to make this available for people who wanted it in this version. That was nice of them.
I wish they would do an update fixing controller support and settings, but overall, the devs remastered it really well and listened to fan complaints no matter how absurd. Its worth a get.
