...and that's saying something.
Hello and welcome to my latest Okami blog post. In today's post, Issun and I explore an incredibly simple dungeon, learn a new brush technique and defeat Crimson Helm! Woohoo! So without further ado, let's begin!
When we stepped into the dungeon, this was the first thing we saw:
I have no idea how to get to those treasure chests. There's a couple more like that near Princess Fuse's house. Hopefully that'll become more clear in the future.
So you can see in the above picture that there's a hallway leading somewhere else. On the right side of that room, there's another hallway, which led to a room containing only one thing: this.
It's an evil gateway! ZOMG! Let's go through it and see what's lurking in there.
A...cauldron of water?
A...cauldron of water with legs doing a backflip?
A...cauldron of water with legs and a blurry monkey's head?
Apparently a cauldron of water with legs, a monkey's head, and some kind of tail is this game's version of a chimera. Okay then. Fortunately, fighting a chimera is pretty similar to fighting those lion-flowerbud things that you have to Bloom to defeat, except easier.
And after we defeated the chimera, we got this!
You can't really see what is due to the poor quality of the picture. Sorry. Anyways, it's an Exorcising Arrow Key. I wonder what it could possibly be for!
So we grabbed the key and went back to the main room and through the other doorway. And this is what we found!
Those are little windmills on bridges. Unfortunately, we couldn't do anything with them. Interesting....so we carried on.
And the little bridges led to another room, which contained this, among other things.
That is some kind of structure being guarded by a Demon Lock, and also a save mirror. Well, good thing I have a key that fits that lock.
And once the Demon Lock was vanquished...
Some kind of door? Hmm.
Some kind of weird round room with symbols on the floor?
Oh, I get it. It's an elevator. Time to make a Cherry Bomb and go to the second floor!
Oooh, eerie. Through the doorway we go!
And directly through the door, we found a room with some demons in it. After we killed them, this showed up!
Another Exorcising Arrow Key? Uh, okay. Well, let's grab it and head to the third floor, then.
Looks like we've reached the top of some sort of structure. Why is it so dark outside?
Seriously. It's supposed to still be daytime, or the mountain outline would be black. What gives?
Oh, we're on the windmill. Cool!
See? Windmill.
Have I mentioned that Issun is an idiot? Because he is.
But then he did something moderately useful and noticed something strange about the wind.
So uh...that's weird.
Looks red to me.
Weird. Well, what do you think we should do?
NO, I THOUGHT IT WAS A TOTAL COINKYDINK THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LACK OF DIVINE WIND. Idiot.
So Issun suggested that we try to manipulate the breeze in the opposite direction of the evil wind.
I did it wrong a couple of times...
...but eventually I was successful.
Ooh! It's not so dim outside anymore!
What? Start spinning? SAY IT AIN'T SO.
You can't really tell, but the windmill started spinning. Joy!
Yay! We aren't failures after all!
I'm confident that it will. We are awesome, after all.
But then it went dark suddenly! OH NOES!
Another brush god? Well, bring it on!
That looks like either a dog or a horse. Well, let's dot in the stars...
And voila!
It's a horse! Yay! What do you have to say, horsie brush god?
Aww. Well, now you're free!
Cool! What does that mean?
No...really? Idiot.
So I can play with the wind to do...what, exactly?
But then Issun pointed out a miniature windmill nearby that was mounted over the (locked) exit door and said I should use my new technique on it. Fun stuff. I drew a little curlicue mark on it (like the one in the second picture of me drawing things opposite to the wind earlier), and the door opened! Yay!
After we were finished patting ourselves on the back, we headed back down to the ground floor (by falling all the way down the elevator shaft, amusingly enough), and found the little windmills we couldn't operate. A little wind, and...
Success! The bridge moved over to the previously inaccessible doorway! Whoo!
This is the room we found!
Looks like this room could use some TLC...
It turned out there were various treasure chests hidden in the rafters, as well as floating blossoms in the air. Presumably those were for getting back up into the rafters if you fell off a beam and were too annoyed to climb back up the one touching the ground. Or, you know, you could just skip climbing on the beams and just use the flowers, but whatever.
There were also mice in the rafters (that I could feed for Praise), strangely enough. And some banners hanging on the wall that looked like they needed a little "boost"...
Ooh, I see! Now I can jump on the banners and get across the gap!
This proved to be harder than it looked, though, and took me about three tries to get across. I mean, no it didn't. Once across the next gap (there were two sets of banners), I went through the nearby door and found this hallway.
That...is a lot of fire. Fortunately, I have a solution for that.
And the result?
I tried to take a picture of the flames blown away, but I was too slow and got a picture of myself set on fire instead. Oops. Oh well.
Beyond the corridor we found...this.
Ooh! A golden gate! That means we're almost done! Yay!
When we went a little farther into the room, Issun noticed something shiny.
Maybe it's the Serpent Crystal. Although you'd think it would look more serpent-like.
Like I said...it would help if the crystal was more serpent-like. Maybe it's a cluster of snake eggs? Ugh.
I REMEMBER, ISSUN. GOD, YOU'RE ANNOYING.
But when we tried to go grab the Serpent Crystal...
The torches all lit. I have a bad feeling about this...
That must be Crimson Helm! SCARY! Although his helm looks orangey to me...
It's definitely Crimson Helm. Well, let's get on with it!
SHUT UP AND LET ME FIGHT, YOU MORON!
It's the Power Orbs! They were there to protect me, but unfortunately I wasted most of them because I couldn't remember what to do for this fight. Here's a blurry picture of us facing off against each other, though.
Basically, I did a lot of running around and occasionally hitting the boss while trying to avoid his attacks. Eventually I managed to hit him enough times to make his armor fall off, revealing his bony skeleton, which was usually on fire. From there it was just a matter of using my new wind technique to blow the flames out, then either hitting him a lot or using Power Slash on him. But at long last (after burning through all of the Power Orbs and most of my Holy Bones), Crimson Helm was defeated...or so it looked. But then...he made some kind of unholy arena appear, along with a whole bunch of flaming serpent heads!
Confusing! How many heads are there? I don't know what to do now!
I highly doubt that!
Suddenly...a wild Susano appeared!
HEY! Who are you calling a cur, you...drunk!
NO NO YOU'LL JUST GET YOURSELF KILLED!
MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY!
Susano, being the brave fool that he was, charged right into the fray and started slashing. My task was to Power Slash each of the eight heads as he was fighting them. I have a feeling I'm going to end up doing this a lot. Amusingly, every time I failed, Susano got his ass set on fire...but eventually I managed to slash all of the heads. Achieving this was REALLY HARD the first time I played through the game, but I eventually mastered it. When I was done slashing all of the heads, Susano started winding up for something big, and started asking for wind. So I used Galestorm on him...
...which made him spin around faster and faster until...
OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIII-
And the terrible beast lay vanquished. That is Susano's ass hanging out of his pants, by the way, but try not to think about that.
Hey, he's finally getting a clue!
NO! Because it amuses me to see your bewilderment.
So he cried some more and asked if the gods were happy now, and asked why he had to bear the burden of being Nagi's descendant. Gee, I don't know. We don't choose our relatives...
Tee hee. I see what you did there!
But, predictably, Susano didn't get an answer from any of the gods, so he raged some more about how he didn't want the gods' power and the whole world could fall to ruin for all he cared.
And then, totally unexpectedly, one of the (vanquished?) fiery heads came down and apparently started talking to him. But Susano was the only one who could hear it.
Evidently he just couldn't handle the voices, so he ran off crying like a little baby.
That's right. Run away, you big baby.
With that, the fiery heads turned into a weird blue mist and disappeared.
Well, at least that's over with. Now let's get the Serpent Crystal and get out of here.
WAKA! When did you get here?! That Serpent Crystal is ours, dammit!
You tell him, Issun!
How would you know, smartypants? I bet we could use it just as easily as you!
Uh oh, it's the Plot Roar! Nooooo!
PLOT ROAR: YOU NEED TO GET BACK ON TOPIC, YOU GUYS. CAN YOU DIG IT?
GIGGITY.
I MEAN, GET BACK TO THE PLOT!
Giggity.
Okay, anyway.
Because Orochi needs to be dealt with, obviously. Are you really that stupid?
Before he left, though, Waka decided to leave us with another prophecy.
What does that mean? Ah, he's gone...well, we'll figure out what he's doing soon enough. Looks like we're done with the dungeon. Princess Fuse and the other Canine Warriors were waiting outside the Gale Shrine when we left. Something about the windmill spinning again, and a "most refreshing wind" blowing in the village. Yeah, yeah, I get it, we're awesome. Too bad we're probably never going to come back to your village...at least until we figure out how to open those other treasure chests.
And with that, I've reached my stopping point for today. Tune in next time, when we figure out who the "sweet little thing" is, and also the Kamiki Festival, if I remember properly!
Until next time, heroes!
