I recently started playing Ōkami (HD on the Switch) for the first time because I've always heard great things about it and a sequel is in the works. I just beat the 8-headed dragon, which I'm guessing is the halfway point of the game.

I really want to like this game because the art style and general vibe of the game are so cool, but the other elements of the game just feel a bit... lacking.

The combat is very easy and I haven't needed to use any of the powerup items for assistance. Really, the only difficulty comes from the celestial brush not properly recognizing what I drew.

The puzzles are super simple and often rely on the same celestial brush-based mechanics repeated ad nauseam.

Does the game get better and should I keep playing? Or is it just gonna be more of the same with a few added brush techniques (I see I have 4 more to unlock in the pause menu)? I always try to give highly regarded games a fair chance, but the fact that I already feel like I'm just going through the motions this early in the game is concerning. Idk, I'm a huge Zelda fan and I feel like they tried to copy the Zelda formula but fell short of making the puzzles engaging and giving the brush techniques more than one purpose.