Ōkami/YMMV

• Non Sequitur Scene: Quite a few. Kaguya is probably the most notable example, but her plot does make some sense at the very end of the game. Still very little albeit, but some
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The Dogu that you meet the first time in the past just before fighting Orochi, could qualify. They are very resilient, have some fast and varied attacks, and can do quite a bit of damage when you're not used to them. Of course they are even worse in the Ten Demonic Gates sidequest.
• Complete Monster: There's no other way to put it, Ninetails is a complete and utter scumbag even among other demons.
  • His boss Yami may be this, given that he is the essence of all evil and is responsible for the extinction of the celestials.
  • Akuro from Ōkamiden is even worse, as he is essentially behind EVERYONE's suffering in both games, is the reason why Yami and Orochi even did all the Terrible things they have done.
• Crossover Ship: Amaterasu/Wolf Link is a surprisingly common pairing on deviantART and ff.net.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Most of the soundtrack. "Shinshuu Plains" is particularly notable, as are "Kamiki Festival", "Ryoshima Coast", and "Shachimaru/Orca's Theme".
  • "Reset ~ Thank You Version" and "The Sun Rises" deserve special mention, since they play during the game's greatest Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Crowning Moment of Awesome, respectively.
    • "The Sun Rises" is also the theme of Yami in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and a remixed version is Ammy's theme in MvC3.
  • "Demon Lord Ninetail's Extermination" One of the most exciting boss theme's for the most action packed boss battle of the game
  • "Kushi's Ride" is comparable to Twilight Princess's "Midna's Lament". Both songs are played during urgent events, but while the latter is a melancholy solo piano arrangement of a character's theme, the other is more orchestrated and bass heavy.
  • "Hanasaki Valley/Catcall Tower"
  • "Kamui of the Northern Lands"
  • "Okami White Light" is awesome, in the sense that it inspires awe.
  • "Theme of the Celestials" is so beautiful it brings a tear to the eye.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Issun's speech at the end of the game.
• Designated Villain: Tobi's Boss Subtitles call him an "Evil Being". He never does anything evil. Ever. In fact, he's very polite. It seems to be a deliberate example though, as Ammy and Issun take a liking to him and are sad when he dies.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Ninetails has quite a fan-base, and a lot of people like him because of his Chessmaster characterization, the fact that he is a Kitsune, and the fact that he is a very cool villain.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Oki, for being a Badass, and a Big Badass Wolf. Tobi is probably the most popular piece of paper you'll ever find. Susano gets this too due to his character development through the first third of the game.
  • Among the bosses, Lechku and Nechku get this for their unique design (Clockwork owls, anyone?), bizarre yet awesome boss theme, and their equally fantastic boss fight which involves you teaming up with Oki to bring them both down.
• Evil Is Sexy: Rao... or at least Ninetails pretending to be Rao.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: People really like pairing Kai up with Oki.
• Game Breaker: Vengeance Slips render Amaterasu invulnerable to any combat damage, and they last a while too. Add this to that you can buy them at a price that's oddly low by the end of the game and you can hold 99 of them, and nothing can touch you.
  • The Thief's Glove Item allows you to use Issun as a weapon, never mind the fact that he can easily steal items such as Steel Fist, Steel Soul Sakes and the aforementioned Vengeance Slip, he also deals damage. The damage is minuscule at first and grows with usage, but the problem is that it doesn't stop growing. Which means if you have the patience to use it a few thousand times (getting tons of treasures in the process), he can One-Hit Kill bosses.
  • The String of Beads makes the game almost too easy, but you really have to Earn Your Fun.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Fish get really bad treatment in this game, being food and the objective of a mini game, as it turns out, Yami, the final boss, is a evil fish inside of an evil mech.
  • Wouldn't that actually be a Funny Aneurysm Moment?
• I Am Not Shazam: A lot of fan works, especially videos, seem to assume the lead character's name is "Ōkami." To be fair, it is part of her name (the caption when she's introduced reads "Okami Amaterasu"). It's just that Amaterasu is the most important part of the name.
  • It's not actually that her name contains Okami; it's actually a title. Okami translates directly to "wolf" - thus they are saying "Amaterasu the Wolf".
  • As noted under Punny Name, Ōkami can also mean "great god," rendering it as "Great god Amaterasu."
• Les Yay: Sakuya showers Ammy with hearts and praise, and Ammy starts panting heavily when she sees Sakuya's Stripperific powered up form.
  • She's also quite fascinated by Rao's cleavage when she's asking for the Fox Rods.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ammy is paired up far more than a non-talking wolf should be... Waka is at least a legit exception since he was with Ammy when she walked the earth as a god.
• Magnificent Bastard: Ninetails. As arrogant and smug as he is, he would have been completely successful had Queen Otohime not intervened at the last possible second.
• Magnum Opus: For Clover Studios (When with Capcom).
• Memetic Mutation: The sparrows in Sasa Sanctuary:

• chirp*
  

Uh-oh!
The boss is... delighted!

• Moral Event Horizon: Ninetails crosses it long before we ever meet him, but we don't find out until he murders Queen Himiko that he also killed Rao, assumed her form, and was trying to get Amaterasu killed the whole time.
  • Yami also crossed this long ago as well when he slaughtered all the Celestials, pretty much driving them to extinction.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The little chord of the Celestial Brush can be very comforting, especially in stressful areas.
• Nightmare Fuel: Oh God, the Water Dragon, the damn haunted ship, too.
  • There's a particularly cruel instance of this early on in there. When our heroes find a lot of treasure chests just lying around, Issun comments on it. The Genre Savvy player naturally assumes at least one is a Mimic, and checks using the power slash. The mimics are the ones at the back and sides, by which point you might've already started checking them in the usual fashion.
    • The worst part about the ship is the ghosts of the two previous bosses that come out of nowhere, that nobody else reacts to, and come straight up and make faces at the player. They keep moving even if you go to use your brush to get rid of them, which you can't. This troper jumped out of his chair and shut the game off.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Cutter.
  • That giant green seaweed hand from the deep. At 10 PM. * sigh* And things were going so well.
  • Before the Water Dragon, there's Blight. At least with the Dragon level you're not inside a human.
  • Those demon locks.
  • Those goddamned giant spiders that literally go down on you without a warning.
• Nightmare Retardant: Arguably Yami, God of Darkness AKA Fish fetus inside a mecha-orb.
  • Akuro, however, is not, and BOY HOWDY!
• Player Punch: (Go on, visit the secret passage behind the Ryoshima Coast's Ankoku Shrine after finding out the truth about Rao's fate).
  • Seeing your past self on its last legs, fighting along side you to protect a future and using the last of its energy, is a fairly big Tear Jerker as well.
• Porting Disaster: Averted with the Wii port, though a couple things were lost in transition (as Clover Studios no longer existed at the time).
• Power-Up Letdown: Considering all the awesome powers your past self Shiranui demonstrated, you'd think that you'd also get to use them when your Eleventh Hour Superpowers activate during the final phase of the final boss, but nope, all you get is a fancy glow.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: And how!
• Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The game is approximately as subtle as a shotgun in the way it presents its lessons, but they're lessons that need learning. Two of the biggest ones are that people shouldn't be selfish with their prayers, and they also shouldn't rely on the gods to fix everything for them. You can usually count on Issun to deliver one of these.
• Sugar Bowl: Once you erase major threats, Nippon is a near utopia where everyone is nice, life is slow, simple and peaceful, kings are generous and benevolent, landscapes are heavenly and preserved, war and misery do not exist, and the most dangerous people you will meet are Bratty Half Pints, Jerks With A Heart Of Gold and Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains. Including the minor yōkai!
• Tear Jerker: Kaguya going back to her true home.
  • The Gale Shrine ghost who mentions that he is Fuse's husband before departing. Queen Himiko 's death. Shiranui dying in front of Amaterasu. Amaterasu going home.
  • Even Tobi gets one when he dies, despite literally being a scrap of paper. At least you have something to blow your nose on.
• That One Boss: Okikurumi, despite not even being an enemy, let alone an important boss, is surprisingly hard the first time you fight him. Especially when he starts using his ice clones. Even more surpriing since you meet him not long after defeating Kyūbi and make your first steps in the northern region. Talk about a welcome!
  • Blight as well, his attacks are quick and hard hitting, and his weakness isn't readily apparent at first. If you haven't gotten the hang of your time-stopping powers yet, he puts up one hell of a fight.
• That One Sidequest: Blockhead Grande & Black Devil Gates.
  • A common (and easy, if semi-cheaterish) strategy for Blockheads is to film the screen with a camera or phone, then play it back as you use the Celestial Brush.
  • You can also tape a piece of cellophane over the screen and use a marker.
  • Also pausing with home button every two dots and writing down on paper.
  • Catching the Marlin, winning the race to get the Gimmick Gear, or the race against Kai in Yoshpet to earn a Stray Bead will also cause you to throw your controller.
  • That STUPID NUT BALL in Agata Forest. Here's the situation: You have to push a spherical object up a hill so Sleepy Bear will jump on it and give you some Praise. The ball will slip to the side after you push it a few steps, and then you have to chase it before it rolls all the way back down the hill. If you so much as bump it the wrong direction, it will FLY back down the hill, and you'll have to start all over again. The camera will constantly turn as you're running back and forth trying to control this damn ball, and you will inevitably lose sight of it at some point. By the time you turn the camera to see it again, it's already rolled back down. If you manage to get it ALMOST to the top, you have to navigate it across a narrow path with a cliff on one side and a dropoff on the other. Bump it off the drop, you're back to square one. Did we mention that the cliff is a low overhang, so the camera suddenly whips around and does an awkward close up just as you're passing the most difficult part? This could be renamed, "Camera Screw: The Mission". Oh, and to get all the praise from ol' Sleepy Bear, you have to do this THREE TIMES, with a cabbage, a giant walnut, and a beehive.
    • I still have nightmares about running that goddamn beehive up that hill...
    • Hell, every sidequest that involves pushing a ball. That kid in Uepekere never seems to find the snowball big enough…
  • Trying to draw the shapes for Mr. Chic. You spend literally dozens of tries getting it to accept the right shape, but then it accepts something that looks just like the others. Aaaaaaaaaaugh.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Any time you revive a Guardian Sapling, it releases a flurry of foliage, and everything The Corruption has tainted springs alive again, capping it off with a wide shot of the purified area. It's quite a sight to behold, be it on PlayStation 2 or Wii.
• Wide Open Sandbox/Metroidvania: With the inconceivable number of sidequests and secret items, the enormous size of the map and the freedom of movement, the only thing that stands between the game and a Wide Open Sandbox is the fact that the main plot is just as huge and that you have to unlock access to most areas with power-ups first. But it's quite too big to be a mere Metroidvania. So it would be somewhere between these two…
• The Woobie: Waka, once you learn his backstory.
• You Fail Religious Studies Forever: Mythical!Amaterasu was associated with ravens, not wolves.
• You Fail Biology Forever: The sun will make mushrooms grow to an enormous size.
  • According to Issun, tickling the "thing that hangs inside the mouth" (the uvula) will make you sneeze. That's not quite what happens in real life… of course, seeing Ammy and Issun coming out of the Emperor covered in that would have been a bit out of place in a Sugar Bowl universe.