The draw distance may not have been as good as they had hoped so they did that to get past that. ocarina of time also did that though so it could be a homage to that too

Holy Deja Vu Batman!
 

::minor spoilers below::

I've played the game for about 2 hours, and I've seen lots of elements from other games...not in a bad way, of course, but...

Your home island = beginning of Kingdom Hearts...
The pirate ship looked right out of Skies of Arcadia...
Sneaking around spotlights and barrel hiding...right from Sly Cooper...

Maybe we've seen every original game idea already! :D

FS

Well I haven't got to play much yet, but so far I'm enjoying it. I think I spent about 20 minutes tormenting pigs. I like throwing them in the ocean.

I, like it seems a lot of others, was kinda skeptical of the cell-shading at first. Once I got to the first dungeon and started sneaking around in a barrel, I was sold. The graphics are great, as is the gameplay.

Anyone know how long this game is?

I don;t know if the blur was to compensate for any shortcomings. I thought it was there for added "realism" things are blurry far away but clearer when you get close....like real life ;)