Original Source: https://www.deviantart.com/demonml/art/Sun-Guardian-793836249

Original Artist: https://www.deviantart.com/demonml/gallery

Diret Link: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/920500-okami/faqs/45047

author: ranmafan @ gamefaqs

Original source: https://imgur.com/t/okami/2V4tVQn

Posted by groundedkush @ imgur

Sadly I don't know which studio did this, but they have at least one talented artist ;)

Original source: https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/molehills-out-of-mountains

Original source: https://www.facebook.com/TheToonyLink/photos/a.1517689661830909/1718484075084799/?type=3&locale=zh_CN

Original artist: Kitsune23Star

Direct link: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/wii/943732-okami/faqs/47486

Some of the timed minigames can be a little stressful if you don't know about the little quirks and tricks to make them easier, like drawing a circle around the NPC to make then run faster or slashing them to make them turn around - and the game does a bad job of explaining these. You're expected to find that out on your own ... or read a guide about it ;)

Video of an early trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWlNUIH-KRA

Personally, I'm happy they went with the stylized version, especially since it also fits the whole "drawing on the screen with a celestrial brush" gameplay gimmick a whole lot better if the entire world already looks like an ink drawing in the first place.

You can still unlock a bunch of "Karmic Transformers" after your first playthrough, one of which can turn Ammy into a "realistic" version of herself ....

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... but frankly, it looks horribly out of place, since the rest of the world does not transform along with her.

Every time I replay this game, I am absolutely determined to unlock all extras, only to then not use any of them anyway as the game is already a masterpiece as it is ♥

A lot of the characters in this game are heavily influenced by IRL japanese folklore, and even minor side characters are no exceptions to this. In case of Kaguya and Mr.Bamboo, they're based on the 9th story in "The Japanese Fairy Book" (1908) by Iwaya Sazanami.

You can read the full story here (translated into English by Yei Theodora Ozaki)

...and I'm always a bit bummed that Ammy just discards the mask once you start the bossfight. Would be cool if we were allowed to keep it IMHO.

On a related note, whatever you draw on this mask later appears on the walls and on the ground in Sei-An City's commoner's district, scribbled by a young girl. That beckons the question of whether she might have found the discarded mask ...?

EDIT: ok, apparently autoplay is a bit wonky today .... hope this works better:

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Direct Link: https://www.artofokami.com/

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Random fun fact:

The game was developed by Japanese Clover Studio and published by Capcom. The development studio does not exist anymore but the three Japanese artists that have been mostly responsible for the visual style of Ōkami are Takeyasu Sawaki, Kenichiro Yoshimura and Mari Shimazaki.

This isn't even a design mistake or in-game joke, but actual Japanese folklore.

Here is a comparison picture of a common Tanuki statue in Japan:

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The Japanese raccoon dog (Tanuki), just like foxes (Kitsune) is widely believed to be a shapeshifter and prankster with human intelligence and certain magical abilities, one of which is that he can enlage his testicles to stretch over eight tatami mats (approx. 12.4 m² / 133.4 ft². ). There are classical depictions of shapeshifted Tanuki basically teabagging humans to death, using their own dangly parts as drums or carrying them over their shoulders like backpacks.

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(more of these can be found at https://jonellepatrick.me)

But where did that unusual ability originate from? It's not like some Japanese scholar woke up one day and went "Y'know what folklore needs? Huge friggin furry BALLS!" or something like that.

The origins of the Tanuki testicles are rather mundane:

That myth is thought to have developed during the Kamakura era, where goldsmiths used to wrap chunks of gold in tanuki testicle hide to pound them into the thinnest of gold leaf. Tanuki leather is extremely tough yet flexible, so it was said to be able to stretch the gold into a sheet large enough to cover eight tatami mats without the leather breaking. Wallets made of tanuki hide became popular (often made out of that leather because it was conveniently bag-shaped anyway), as it was believed they could stretch other kinds of money as effectively as they stretched gold, and the depiction of the tanuki’s bodacious ballsacks stretched along with the legend.

Since the creators of Ōkami thoroughly researched the IRL lore they wanted to use for the game, it is no surprise that the Tanuki statues in the game also look as well-endowed as their real world counterparts.

Direct Link: Guide and Walkthrough (PS4) by chris-williams

In-depth guide for pretty much everything, including enemies, collectibles, secrets, upgrades and missables. The guide states that it is for the PS4 version, but as of now, I haven't found any noticable differences between that version and the one for the Switch.

Direct Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1279774582

> A guide to all the stray bead locations within Okami categorized by area, divine brush requirements, availability, etc!

Original Source: https://www.weasyl.com/~f0xhunt/submissions/1681004/amaterasu

Original Artist: f0x-hunt @ weasyl.com

Sorry for the bad quality, but I couldn't find better videos/pictures. If the animations don't load on Lemmy, you can watch them directly in imgur here: https://imgur.com/a/x8xJYmI

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Cut Gameplay Mechanics:

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• Companions (other than Issun or NPC's riding Ammy)

It might have been possible to travel with companions, like for example the Canine Warriors. Whether this would only apply to overworld travel or also to fights, isn't exactly clear.

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• Frogs

Ammy could startle small critters by walking through high grass, possibly also while mowing it with the Celestial Brush.

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• Fireflies

I have no idea why these were removed, when they would have added a nice nighttime atmosphere. The hardware back then (PSII) could definitely handle smallish flying objects all across the screen, as there are segments where cherry blossoms and/or leaves float through the air.

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• BARK BARK BARK smack!

Funny but probably useless: while Ammy is still able to bark in the actual release, there was a gameplay mechanic to annoy people at night with the noise (even with a small "annoy-o-meter" on the screen) until they come storming out of their houses, trying to clobber Ammy. In the final release most (if not all) houses are accessible at night anyway so there is no need to wake up the residents.

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Cut Areas:

Early gameplay trailers showed a lot of environments that never made it into the game, like for example a grey, rocky shoreline, an underground mine, a birch forest and a riverbed in a deep chasm. None of these appear in the finished game.

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(Riverbed)

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(Grey Shore)

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(Mine)

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(Birch Forest)

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Cut Enemies:

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• Gotouryu

This one wasn't even deliberately scrapped - the dev responsible for imcluding the enemy somewhere in the game simply forgot to do that. Oops![^1]

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• Sanmenkubi

This enemy would likely have been a boss, and is similar to Orochi: a fixed, broad "base" with a bell on top, and multiple heads acting individually. Pictured here are only the heads atop long "necks", front view.

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Cut Characters:

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• Kuni

That little tyke was meant to be Susano's and Kushi's son. An illustration of him appears during the ending credits, but the in-game model wasn't actually used.

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All in all there is a lot of stuff I would have loved to see in the game, but Ōkami is still a cool, relaxing game (and one of my all-time favorites) even without these "extras".

[^1]: https://tcrf.net/Ōkami_(Wii)#Gotouryu - actual statement is on twitter and linked here, but I am not willing to link that site directly.

Original source: https://www.gamerebel.net/mythtakes-amaterasu/

Original Source is TikTok, but here's an imgur link instead: https://imgur.com/t/okami/XmpiQl3 (video)

The link cites twitter as a source, but I didn't want to link that site.

https://amayensis.artstation.com/projects/oAdQEw