10 reasons why Okami is a mad masterpiece

5) Climbing the catcall tower

Far in the distance to the north of Ryoshima Coast is an enormous tower stretching for miles into the sky. Travel there and you’ll see paw marks printed on the side, which let Amaterasu cling to the wall and climb up. What follows is ten straight minutes of climbing. There are platforms every now and then to give you time to rest, but it’s still an ordeal. Get to the top and you free a crying cat from its lofty prison and earn a new brush power - but the best bit is jumping off the side. You fall for about a minute and we actually felt our stomach churn a little as the ground drew closer.

6) Brush attack the locals

You can use Amaterasu’s brush to infuriate the residents of Nippon. You can draw all over them and cover them ink, which they’ll angrily shake off. In fact, most of the brush powers have an effect - toasting people with fire, blowing them backwards with wind, knocking them into the air with cherry bombs… you name it, you can use it to annoy folk. You can also grab onto their asses with your teeth and drag them along the ground.

7) Fighting Ninetails

Up until this boss battle you’ve always felt unstoppable, but then Ninetails rears its nine ugly heads. Whenever you go to paint an attack another red ink-tipped brush comes in and scribbles over your strokes - and he’s a faster and better painter than you. Luckily his sword is vulnerable to lightning attacks, and there just so happens to be a storm brewing in the skies above.

8) Gone fishin’

Fishing in games is notoriously rubbish, but in Okami it’s a bit different. This fella here is Benkei and he used to be a master swordsman, but gave up that to pursue a life of fishing. To begin, you actually draw in the fishing line from the end of his rod to a passing fish. You then yank the little sucker in and slash it with your celestial brush to catch it when it rears its head. There’s an exhaustive “fish tome” in the pause menu that you’ll find yourself religiously trying to fill, and some towns offer lots of money for rarer fish - especially if they’re large. This is one of the game’s biggest money-spinners, but hooking the bigger fish is a real struggle.