Saturday, February 9, 2013

Okami Chapter 14: Waka's Bad Prophecy Fulfilled!

Hello, reader(s)! It's time for yet another Okami blog post. In today's post, which I put off writing for two days because I was busy playing Fragile Dreams instead our intrepid heroes use their wits (and some convenient miracles) to defeat the horrible monster Orochi! Read it and weep, friends.

When I left off, Issun and I had just infiltrated Orochi's throne room. The minion at the top of the elevator shaft told us to just take a peek and come straight back down. Pfft, like we're really going to do that.


So...the throne room is just a room with a little building and a bell in


What? Do you see Orochi?


Oh, it's just Kushi lying under the bell. Well, at least she hasn't been eaten yet.

So we heroically sprang into action to save Kushi! But then something interrupted us...


I guess the throne room is bigger than I thought it was. And what's with the creepy red sky?


Whuh oh. Something's happening...


It's Orochi. Boy, all those heads look mean...



I guess that's Issun's artwork for Orochi. Are those bloodstains? Man, I don't think I like that at all...


That's right, Orochi talks. It just seems so bizarre. Do all eight of his heads talk at once?

Oh, and apparently the shrine and bell are part of his body, or on top of his body, I'm not quite sure. At any rate, the whole thing was floating in the air.


It was a miracle. You know, because I'm a god(dess)?


Oh, yeah? Well, you...you stink too! Grr!


You tell him, Issun! Let's hope the Thunder Brew does what it's supposed to!


It's hard to see what was going on in the above picture, but it's one of Issun's heads drinking the Thunder Brew (the yellow thing at the top) while two other heads presumably laugh at him. And then it was fighting time!


But we couldn't really do anything to the dastardly snake boss because he had some kind of invincibility shield going on.


Well, I wouldn't really call that cheating so much as using your self-preservation abilities, but whatever...


But at about that time, Kushi woke up and distracted all the heads.



We told her to run, but being Kushi, she just stood there. So Orochi decided to just eat her, appetizer be damned. But before he could put a tooth on her...


HOLY CRAP IT'S SUSANO!


HE'S NOT EVEN SHAKING! HE'S BECOME TOTALLY BADASS!



Oh, I'm sure he's "come" in your honor many a time, Kushi...WAIT, NO TIME FOR JOKES NOW!



Haha! I wonder if that's a purposeful reference to Underdog.


Well, I'm glad you found your backbone in time to help us!


I'm sure you have! Just as we've long awaited the opportunity to beat you again!


So Orochi prattled on about how the descendants of Nagi had kept him imprisoned for a hundred years,  but it was Nagi's bloodline who would "unleash [his] true power", apparently. Apparently Orochi would turn into, like, an Orochi-nuclear-bomb if he could managed to make a pact with a descendant of Nagi, and everything would be really, really bad for everyone else.


I don't think that's a good idea...


Right, because he lost his nerve. Well, in the long run, that was probably a good thing.




No! Don't do it, Susano!


Gee, ya think?


I love how Susano just stood there with his arms crossed the whole time. He's clearly Having None of This Shit.

So Orochi shouted at Susano some more to agree to the blood pact, and Susano responded with...


Yeah! You rock that bloodline!


...Even though I have to do all your work for you!



Yeah! Use your sword on that bitch!



Presumably the sword just bounced off the barrier we still haven't dispelled, but it's the thought that counts, right?


Sorry for the blurriness. Go Susano!



Yeah! You tell him!


I'm not so sure about that...



And then...a miracle happened!


That's the discarded empty bottle of Thunder Brew. What's going on here?


8 Purification Sake?! But I thought Susano drank it all!


I don't think that much sake would fit in the bottle, either...I guess this is a miracle we're talking about, though. Woo for miracles!


Apparently this miracle had nothing to do with me!

So then it was time for the battle to begin. Here's a picture of what I was up against.


The objective was to use my Waterspout brush technique to get the various Orochi heads drunk on Sake. By drawing a line of sake into their mouths, which gaped open conveniently every time they roared, which was often. Once I managed to get three of the heads drunk...


...all eight of the heads collapsed and made handy paths up to the shrine...


...where I used my beads to beat the shit out of the bell.

When I managed to defeat the bell, it turned into a blazing inferno on Orochi's back.


Sorry for the blurry photos. It's hard to keep your hands steady amid all this confusion.

Anyway, after I destroyed the bell, my objective changed. Now I had to kill all eight of Orochi's heads one by one, using the same technique as before.



Except this time, once I got the heads drunk, I just had to beat them up.

Here's a blurry picture of me beating up one of the heads!


And here we are with all the heads but one vanquished.


Are we done yet? Are we done yet?


Yes! The last head is down! Wait, what do we do now?


So apparently Susano's been standing off to the side just watching the whole thing, I guess?



Wait! Is it time for Waka's prophecy?


Speaking of your sword, why is it made of wood?


Well, let's look at the sky!


Uh oh, there's no moon. We should fix that.


Ta-dah!


Look at that beautiful moon!



And then a ray of moonlight came down and somehow turned Susano's sword gold. Interesting. Unfortunately, my picture of it is all blurry, so you'll have to be satisfied with this:
















I guess that picture isn't much better. Oh well.

At some point in here, all of Orochi's heads got up again and were all grouchy and RAWR. So Susano, being the badass he is, used his sword to individually slice all of their heads to kill them again. And by that, I mean I Power Slashed all of Orochi's heads individually to kill them again (I couldn't get pictures because there wasn't time). And then this happened!


Fido? Oh, I am so kicking your ass later...


What? You say a silly name and I do your work for you?



Okay, I'll get ready to Power Slash...


Holy crap, I think he actually did something for himself for once.



He cleaved that serpent right down the middle! Let's hope he doesn't have to do the same thing to the other seven...


Aww, and then Kushi fell out of nowhere and landed right in Susano's arms. How romantic.


Uh oh! Let the sappy romance begin!


Way of the sword? HA! Now, if you'd said "way of the bottle," I'd have believed you.



See, it's right there in the picture! Way of the couch potato, maybe?


Wait a second. All you need is to change your ways a little...


Whoa, hold up! All I'm saying is...


Why so serious, indeed...


Uh, that's an old joke. What I mean is...

Yeah! I mean, you did just defeat Orochi and all...















And then a really big sword appeared and floated toward me. Sweet! But before we could really start celebrating, that nasty blue mist showed up again.



Oh, wait, the narrator is trying to talk. Fine, do your narrating!


...Everybody just stood there staring at it?



Didn't that already happen?


Oh. Well, that makes sense.



Wait a second. You're telling me the game isn't over yet? But...but...Orochi was the big bad and we killed him...


Oh, right, the blue mist.


But nobody knew what the evil mist was, so the game ended in an flurry of sunshine and rainbows! Right?


I guess we'd better resign ourselves to the fact it's not over yet.


Which is good, because the game completely forgets about them from here on out. Well, after the Kamiki Festival, I guess.


Shut up, Issun.


Fine...


I guess it would be nice if I could hold the camera straight.



Bwuh? What's going on now?


Okay, I don't really know what's going on here, but clearly we're supposed to think whoever is talking IS EVILLLLL.



You know, since Waka keeps acting all suspicious. What situation? What's grown urgent? Are you pissed that I defeated Orochi? And is that the phoenix statue in the Moon Cave?


What city? This is getting interesting.


WHOA! He's talking to me! Hey, I didn't know I was eavesdropping!


What are you saying? That I'm going to have to defeat Orochi at least twice more? Now that would just be ridiculous.

So we wandered out of the Moon Cave. Apparently we took a different path than Susano and Kushi did, since there's no sign of them anywhere. Oh, who am I kidding? They're probably back in the cave making out on a pile of snake entrails.


Starry?


Those are fireworks, you idiot!


Or, maybe they're just celebrating their festival they were about to have right after we left?



Where's that new sword I just got? I want to bonk you over the head with it!


And with that...


...we were left with pretty images of fireworks and an option to save the game. Sure, why not?

Well, that brings me to my stopping point for today. I think that's the first time I've encountered a boss fight that took a whole post to document. And then it wasn't even the last boss! I don't know what I'm going to do for the actual last boss, but it'll probably be a few months before I get that far, so I guess I'll deal with it then.

Check back next time to see the Kamiki Festival, heroes!

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