Lone Wolf vs Evil

Oni island is what would happens if Bowser were to add a little Asian influence to his next castle.  There are your typical lava pools and stone walls but there are also samurai suits and teak doors.  No Persian rugs though.

Jump down from the end of the dragon and onto the brimstone.  Run up to the lava pool and draw a water spout.  Run to the next lava pool and jump down.  Lily pads will burn up in the lava, so be quick in swimming to the islands.  Swim to the northern most stone island.  From there, swim under the bridge and towards that flower bud.  As soon as you are close enough for the flower bud to open draw a vine to it to pull you out of the lava.  There is a chest on it.

From the island with the chest on it, double jump towards the island and flame spring.  Pull yourself up on the island, then draw a waterspout to bring Ammy up to the stone walkway above.  

Run west along the walkway to the front gate.  You will have to fight two stone faced horses.  The stone faces are impervious to frontal attack, so use the mist brush stroke to slow them and then run around back to attack them.  Drawing bombs helps too.  These guys also have the power to slow your PS2 frame rate to an absolute crawl, so be aware of that.  When they are defeated, run in through the main gate.
 
Head to the western-most room to fight two poltergeists. Once they are defeated, pickup the key.  Bring the key to the lockjaw located on the east side of the floor.

“Evil Being Tobi” is a small slip of paper that wants you to race him.  None of his races are that hard, the later ones may take a few tries though.  Start running and avoiding getting hit.  The first two races are quite simple, the more complicated ones are explained below.

Terraced Passage: The first major turn is down to the left.  The cat track thing is there to help you if you fall and should not be used if you want to beat the paper slip.

Passage of saws:  As long as you realize that Ammy has the acceleration of a ’91 Oldsmobile, you should have no problem passing it.  Run around the small room a few times to build up Ammy’s speed, then run over the trigger to start the race.

Demonic Wheels: This is another race that requires building up speed before starting it.  Watch out for the wheels that are located just around the first corner.  The stairs are best handled by making smaller jumps and hitting every other one. Don’t do double jumps.

Chamber of Delay: The name is funny because that is what I call the DMV.  You get jumped by baddies in this room.  Kill them quickly by opening your inventory and using an Exorcism Slip.

After the slip races, there is a room full of the laser shooting samurais.  Use the brush slash to temporarily halt the lasers then leapfrog to the small pedestals that are out of the direct path of the beams.

After weaving through the samurai, fight the Blue Cyclops. Attack the beast with beads.  If his pipe goes out he goes CRAZY and will be untouchable.  Use the nearby torches to relight it and continue the beatings.

Slip race Needles:  Warm-up start then jump over two sets of needles.  Bomb the end of the hall.  

Outer deck: Run to the right to the cat, draw a line and climb up to the next level and grab the key.  Go back through the hole over the needles and use the key on the lockjaw.  Past the gate, run to the end of the hall.

See the giant cougar statue.  Walk up next to it and draw a line from the bow string right up to the cats head.  You will get the celestial power of lighting from it.  Wonder what Sigfried and Roy’s tigers are doing now?  Staring in video games.  It’s name is Gekigami – ha what a geek.  Follow Issun’s explanation to unlock the door.

Continue through the door and use the lighting technique again on the sword that is located at the edge of the cliff. The bridge will continue to rotate so jump on it before it is completely level and run across to the other side.

Run through the golden gate and bomb the floor of the next room.  Turn around and jump through the blue hanging tapestry.  Pick up the key and the yellow terminals will glow and you can walk on them.  Carry the key and jump up through the other platforms.  At the locked door, draw a line from the key to the electrical sword.  The door unlocks.

This next series of rooms are quite spectacularly surreal.  Follow through the path as each rice paper screen opens in front of you.  The doors will get quite maze-y.  The last room will require you to bomb your way out.  This will drop you back to the entrance of this castle.  

Use the key on the central altar.

There is a huge statue that looks like Michelangelo got bored half way through sculpting David and decided instead to sculpt Satan.  Electrify the sword with the sparking object located in the right corner of the room.  Descend into the newly opened stair case.

In the next room, an alarm sounds and the floor drops.  Slash out every eye to turn off the alarm.  Then, turn around to slash the one on the right wall, then line up the four surrounding the trap door and make one long celestial slash.  Continue through the door at the bottom.

In the side angled room, light the prod then wall jump onto the rotating platform.  Proceed to the right and then navigate the various rotating platforms.  At the very top there is another electric key.  Use the brush slash to break through the barrier then pick it up.

Drop back down to the spinning platform with the spikes on both sides - a cat is there too.  Run to the right and the lock for your key is there.  Unlock it and go up.

Save and pick up the nearby electricity key.  Cary it up the stairs and across all the yellow platforms.  After crossing the swinging spider and reaching the highest platform, drop the key.  You and the key will fall through to the next room.

Explore the room.  On the east wall, bomb the green tapestry.  In that room, pick up the regular old exorcism key and take it to the lockjaw in the bombed out room.  There is another Tobi – I liked him at first but now I think this is wearing a bit thin – paper thin.

Tobi challenges you to one final, ultimate race.  First mist the spider, jump across the chasm and watch out for some random spikes.  This will take a couple practice attempts.  

Fight the red and blue stone faced demons in the next room.

Continue through to the next hallway, across some purple lava platforms.  A cinematic will show you a cat statue and some spiked wall hangings.  Draw a cat path along the side wall that does not have any spikes on it.  Jump to the top floor.

Run around to the outside porch then up the stairs.  There will be a blockhead that requires 5 hits.  The only tip I can give you is to see how the spots land in relation to his natural blemishes such as cracks, spots, and facial features.  If he is really tough I have heard that people use a digital camera to record the spot’s locations.

There at the top is another Tobi and he is going to do a final race.  Issun says “scrap…” but I think he really mean “crap.”  Before hitting the trigger, draw a bomb on the shelf across the room.  On the other side is a vine flower.  Hit the trigger, draw a line to Ammy, then cross the finish line.  Tobi tells you that because he was defeated he will be erased.  I would like to feel sorry for him but I really disliked most of his races.  Maybe we could just re-use him as toilet-paper, that would make me feel better about him.  

Issun then commemorates Tobi by saying something that I am sure the writers plagiarized from every high school valedictorian commencement speech: “I can now face the biggest challenge of my life so far!”  It still doesn’t make me feel sorry for Tobi – two words: Demonic Wheels.

Run across the bridge and climb the stairs to the roof of the palace.  Notice how the camera has pulled back showing Ammy as a smaller, more insignificant creature.  This is to make you feel weak and fear the upcoming battle.

Ever hear of Hanukkahmas?  It lasts eight days, and you get presents under a Christmas tree that is topped with a Menorah.  There are dredels and gingerbread houses.  The central figure is not going to be Santa, and not going to be David, it is going to be Ninetails.  She would make the perfect character.  Don’t believe me?  Look right at the constellation you have to draw - that’s a Menorah.  Then, Ninetails appears and says “Ho ho ho ho ho!”  Ninetails could be the perfect post Santa, covering both holidays, giving presents to kids of all faiths.  However, Ammy doesn’t like it, not at all, because she is an Okaminist and doesn’t believe in any of those holidays.

 BOSS: NINETAILS

• Dodge when it is just a wolf with ninetails. Run, dodge, and take some Steel Soul Sake to reduce damage.
• When Ninetails raises her sword, draw the electricity from a storm
  cloud to her sword and she will explode and some Christmas Elves will
  start attacking.
• Let the elves get close then use an Exorcism Slip to really destroy them.
• If you do not have any slips left, just attack them at will, mist helps too
• If you hold the celestial brush too long Ninetails will try to draw in a counter attack too (the red lines)
• Each elf corresponds to one of her tails so when you kill one, it removes one of her tails.
• When she is down to one tail you can attack her directly.
• Continue to draw electricity to her sword when she raises it.
• After several hits she will be stunned and loose her color, at that point draw bombs on her.

Cinematic: So that Okami ruined Hanukkahmas by killing Ninetails. Okami gets the Blade of Kusanagi.  Himiko’s death had been avenged.  Oni island crumbled into flower petals.  The queen stayed a dragon and returned to the Dragon Palace.  The black haze moves from Ninetails back into the sky.  Even Blight showed up, because he is a total party animal.  Ninetails and Blight joined together and went to the North.  A dark creature Yami lives in the north too.

Waka appears: He says that we were on a fox hunt over at Ani Island and that the queen had her time – for a Taoist he sure is utilitarian.  He says there is a storm brewing over Shinshu Field. Prediction: “A shocking zap and it opens!”  He shows us where to go by circling the map.