I face off with Yami, the origin of all darkness and a very malicious goldfish, and just get brought to tears by this last act.

I love Ōkami so much. For all of its many problems (particularly with the Wii version), there isn’t a game quite like it. The story, the gameplay, the sheer aesthetic of the art… There’s never been a game that can elicit such an emotional response from me. Ōkami is always going to be at the top of my list of favorite games.

I enter the Ark of Yamato, leaving Issun behind as he had both finished copying all Amaterasu’s Brush Powers and was barred from entry regardless, and fight all the boss demons that we had defeated previously (excluding Lechku & Nechku).

It makes perfect sense for there to be a boss rush in this game, as the bosses had never been truly killed but simply driven back to the Ark; it doesn’t make it any less annoying, though.

This episode is just me looking at all the entries in the fan menu. I’ve missed feeding a boatload of animals, missed a few treasures and fish, and I don’t quite know if I’ve gotten all the scrolls.

I’m also not super keen on trying to find everything I missed, though, so I’m just going to settle for this.

As it turns out, I had forgotten that there’s a REASON the lights on Blockhead appear in a certain order: it’s that you need to place your dots in that specific order to complete this… thing. It’s still the worst element of this game and it was never explained, but at least it’s not the pixel-perfect accuracy issue I thought it was.

Anyways, after dealing with… that, I finish Yoshpet, Ponc’tan, Wepkeer, and the base of Ezofuji.

I start clearing out Kamui of the things that I’d missed by hanging out with Kokari and fishing for a bit before completing the area’s Hunt List and the Devil Gate Trial… which ends with a fight against THREE copies of NAGI who throw infinite knives at you forever and I hate him.

For some reason, I had decided to listen and sing along to music while recording this, so that’s something you get to listen to while I clear out the North Ryoshima Coast area and buy the ability to poop on demons.

I finish up everything in Sei-An City that I missed, collecting the last two Stray Beads from the Faith Sisters, Camille and Camellia, and Fashion Girl and completing my collection of weapons by buying the ultimate Rosary Beads from the store because reasons.

I continue working my way through the game, collecting and doing everything that I’d missed initially, and clear out Sasa Sanctuary, the City Checkpoint, and Ryoshima Coast. After a brief input glitch, I wind up doing the first of the three Devil Gate trials that replace the Bandit Spiders after you beat them.

I set out to clear Taka Pass, Kusa Village, and the Gale Shrine of everything that I’d miss… and get thoroughly savaged by a bunch of dogs who should really be out in the world helping people instead of hanging out in a cave all day.