I really liked it for how ambitious it was. I mean, there have been plenty of Zelda-esque games but none have come as close as Okami.
It does have some advantages over any Zelda game (story, new gameplay aspects, puzzles). But the final quarter of the game was a bit slow and felt drawn out- the pacing is one thing that the game failed to do right.
Took me like 38 hours but I didn't do any sidequests besides a few here and there.