Okami Wii finished, March "possible"
"Little lag" between US and Euro versions.
Capcom strategy bigwig Christian Svensson has said Okami Wii is playable all the way through and could come out as soon as March in the US.
However, speaking on the official publisher forums he revealed there would be "a little lag" between the American and European releases, because Nintendo production times take a little longer here.
"We haven't given an official date - we've only ever said 'spring'. But March 25th is a possible date for the US on the current schedule," said Svensson.
"That said, it's a huge game with a lot to test, and while [Ready At Dawn] has been kicking *** on it, I don't want people freaking out if it's not exactly on that date. It's completely playable all the way through now on Wii, optimisation and bug fixing is where it's at in the process right now."
Importantly, Svensson went on to talk about the new paintbrush motion-sensing controls, singing its implementation praises for speeding up gameplay and lending the title an action-feel.
"It takes about 10 minutes to get used to using the Wii drawing, but once you do, it's effortless and as fast as the PS2 version," he said. "The act of physically drawing also has an amazing feel to it and really changes the pace of the game, just as we'd hoped it would.
"It's really quite amazing and gives the combat and puzzle segments much more of an action feel than existed on PS2. That and the game is even more beautiful than it was on the PS2."
Svensson also confirmed you will now be able to skip cut-scenes, but mentioned little else the Wii version would have that the PS2 original didn't; no major new content for starters, as "40-60 hours of content is plenty for anyone".
However, "there will be a couple of reasons" to splash out, apparently, and we are promised more on this very soon, as well as finding once and for all if it will have16:9 support.
Late last month a man on the inside told us Okami would be out on Wii this summer, after retailers had supplied the initial 25th March US forecast.
We shall see.