They weren't nearly so patient with Okami around that time. They barely communicated around it, killed the studio, then commissioned a port they...barely communicated around again, and then they complained the game was doomed to be a commercial failure because... I don't know.
It's basically like one of the better classic Legend of Zelda games, only with a unique universe and charm and about twice the size of those.
It was criminally overlooked on PS2, but they have zero excuse for not turning it into a major hit for the Wii. One of the best game on a console with an absurd install base and that had almost no competition for it at that point.