Several changes were made to the basic elements of Ōkami to make Ōkamiden suitable for the Nintendo DS. With fewer controls on the DS unit, the player only controls the movement of the characters in the game, with the camera set in an "on rails" manner to make sure the player was focused on the right areas to head toward. One change made from Ōkami was the simplification of the combat system, a factor that some players had found difficult; Ōkamiden reduces the melee weapon attack features down to a single button, but the Celestial Brush can still be used alongside this for complex strategy. While the developers could have removed the melee attacks completely, allowing the player to defeat enemies with the Celestial Brush alone, they felt that the lack of melee attacks slowed down the game, instead opting for players to melee and then finish off foes with a Celestial Brush flourish. The idea of partners and using the stylus to guide them came about through the intention of having puzzles in the game that incorporated the use of the DS touchscreen. While there were significantly more Celestial Brush strokes and puzzles the team wished to add, they left these out in the final version, feeling they had added too much padding to the game. The number of polygons and the resolution of the artwork was prohibitively limited on the DS version, challenging the artists to convey similar imagery and emotions that were in the first game.