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There's a bunch of neat stuff in episode 3, and that's not even going into the mythology! Here's some of what I noted: The icons that appear above the petrified villagers' heads look like Jizō statues... Those statues represent a buddhist divinity that's widely believed to be the guardian of children, in particular those who died before their parents. The divinity is also believed to watch over travelers. You can find these statues in many places in japan, with bibs or children's clothing put on as offerings. However, there are a lot of buddhist statues in Japan, so it's possible I mixed something up and that's some other statue that looks similar. Still, look at them:    When you draw the sun in the sky, it shows the kanji character 照, which means "illuminate". Not only that, it's part of Amaterasu's name in Japanese: 天照 (which is not her full name)! Gaining praise shows the kanji character 幸, which means any of "happiness, blessing, fortune". 8:35 - The traveler's charm is basically a charm that you can get at Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples in Japan. Seriously, they're everywhere, and will cost you anywhere from $5 to  . They're meant to be burned/discarded at the lunar new year if you want to be super picky about it. 9:29 - Some of the villagers have a weird face as their conversation icon. Those are henohenomoheji, and I'll let Wikipedia explain: Wikipedia posted:Henohenomoheji (へのへのもへじ) or hehenonomoheji (へへののもへじ) is a face drawn by Japanese schoolchildren using hiragana characters.  The blue sake bottle you give to Susano has, unsurprisingly, the kanji character for "alcohol" written on it: 酒. Susano's house has a scroll in the back, but that handwriting is way beyond my abilities. If someone has a bigger view, it might be decipherable. 26:55 - The merchant's shop has the characters for North, South, East, and West written on the cloth in the back, in their respective positions:
Finally, we've now been in a quite a few fights since last episode. You probably noticed that the walls of the arena are covered in kanji characters. It's hard to see all of them, but you can make out quite a few in the inner barrier such as:
Anaxite fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 9, 2017 05:49
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Yes, all of the good dogs. Love this game, hate that it hasn't had a rerelease on the newer consoles. Glad you're doing the HD version because the PS2 version physically bothers me to look at by this point.
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Feb 9, 2017 07:54
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Silver Falcon posted:I love this game to bits, but I disagree strongly with the thread title. Ammy is not a good dog. She is a great god. Anaxite posted:Susano's house has a scroll in the back, but that handwriting is way beyond my abilities. Sorry! If there's a bigger version I can have a closer look. His penmanship is TERRIBLE, but from memory, it's his family name.
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Feb 9, 2017 16:07
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Ryushikaze posted:Ammy is not a good dog. She is a great god.
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Feb 9, 2017 17:33
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This LP is being played in
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Feb 9, 2017 18:22
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Ryushikaze posted:His penmanship is TERRIBLE, but from memory, it's his family name. That's a cool detail. It's frustrating that nothing I'm finding references it! 
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Feb 9, 2017 20:41
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Ryushikaze posted:His penmanship is TERRIBLE, but from memory, it's his family name. I'd like to see you do calligraphy while wasted 
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Feb 9, 2017 20:43
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I would enjoy this LP so much more if I was able to actually read the conversations without having to constantly pause the video
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Feb 9, 2017 22:35
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I am psyched to see this game being LP'd by a cool crew, and annoyed that it's making me want to hook up my PS2 again.
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Feb 9, 2017 23:55
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Anaxite your posts are super cool, is it okay for me to quote them in the relevant updates for future archival purposes?
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Feb 10, 2017 23:05
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poorlywrittennovel posted:Anaxite your posts are super cool, is it okay for me to quote them in the relevant updates for future archival purposes? Sure, I was also thinking of doing a brief overview of Japanese deities based on their namesakes, but that might take a bit if I do it! Anaxite fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 00:50
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Part of me was wanting to do a write up of the animals of the zodiac that inspired the 13 brush gods, but that was done in another Okami LP and I feel like that would be copying.
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Feb 11, 2017 05:17
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Miz Kriss posted:Part of me was wanting to do a write up of the animals of the zodiac that inspired the 13 brush gods, but that was done in another Okami LP and I feel like that would be copying. 
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Feb 11, 2017 06:31
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The King of the Cosmos chat in the second episode inspired me to go hunt for this comic that someone posted in the previous Okami LP: http://rlf.smackjeeves.com/comics/443137/okami-damacy/ (That's a link instead of an embedded image, because when I tried to embed the image from the LP Archive, it didn't work for some reason.) BTW, that link is spoiler free as long as you've watched the LP through at least episode 2.
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Feb 11, 2017 13:56
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 And this is the end of our first session. Videos should start getting longer from here on out. Anaxite posted:Writing and culture notes for episode 4: poorlywrittennovel fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 18:01
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"When in doubt, use Blum" Yeah, this sure is an Anime alright.
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Feb 11, 2017 19:40
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First, I'm pretty sure you can Bloom some of those imps, I remember that every enemy has a way to get demon fangs from them and Bloom works on something. You had a green smoke effect around some of them before you slashed them. Also once you get Bloom your plant trail turned lush and golden. Do you run faster now?
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Feb 11, 2017 19:42
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YggiDee posted:First, I'm pretty sure you can Bloom some of those imps, I remember that every enemy has a way to get demon fangs from them and Bloom works on something. You had a green smoke effect around some of them before you slashed them. You're thinking of an enemy that's introduced in the first actual dungeon. And yes, Ammy is now able to run at her max speed.
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Feb 11, 2017 19:58
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I never noticed the change in running speed before. Guess it (sort of) makes sense since running leaves flowers in its wake. Looking forward to seeing y'all explore
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Feb 11, 2017 20:52
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poorlywrittennovel posted:
Writing and culture notes for episode 4: The cords around trees and objects are a Shinto tradition. I'll let Wikipedia explain this again: Wikipedia posted:Shimenawa (標縄・注連縄・七五三縄, "enclosing rope") are lengths of laid rice straw or hemp rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion. They can vary in diameter from a few centimetres to several metres, and are often seen festooned with zigzag-shaped paper streamers. A space bound by shimenawa often indicates a sacred or pure space, such as that of a Shinto shrine.   So yeah, all those in-game trees are holy or linked to spirits. Animism! --- 7:30 - A leaf on an animal's head is a pretty good indicator that it's some sort of magical creature. This may come from stories of tanuki that transform, and find it easier to do so if they place a leaf on their heads (so in a way, everything with a leaf may be a tanuki... according to some stories). 8:19 - The four kanji characters that appear, 素狭悩汚, can indeed spell out su-sa-no-o, but, uh... that arrangement is a bit unorthodox. The kanji roughly mean: plain - narrow - trouble - dirty. Sounds familiar? New god names:
15:18 - Hey, those are some of the Jizo statues I was talking about! They're like some you'd find in real life. --- By now, you may also have noticed the symbols written on the enemies' heads. Those are katakana, characters from one of the two Japanese syllabaries. At first I didn't know why they were there, but I learned that it's a power level indicator based on the iroha. The iroha is an old Japanese poem which was composed around the Heian area; its first proof of existence was around 1079. The iroha is special for using each of the Japanese syllables only once so, among other uses, people have used it as an alternate method of ordering syllables (much like we order the alphabet). We've now seen the first three power levels, fittingly イ (i), ロ (ro), and ハ (ha). Based on the poem, this is the order of enemies' power levels: quote:イ ロ ハ ニ ホ ヘ ト Anaxite fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 21:09
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I never really made the association of "Leaf on head" -> "This bear is magic" but it does make some stuff related to that bear make more sense. The thing about the "iroha" marking the power level of the basic enemies is really cool, and actually does seem to play directly in to a later segment.
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Feb 11, 2017 21:52
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Cool. I never watched further into the game, so I look forward to it. I also found out that there's more symbolism with the monkeys and instruments, but I'll wait until we see all three to point it out. If I remember. e: Also it looks like when I quoted wikipedia, it broke quoting me. I'll send you my raw posts!
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Feb 11, 2017 22:38
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Anaxite posted:Writing and culture notes for episode 4: And then there's Meoto Iwa, the Married Couple Rocks, that has a two thousand pound rope connecting them that is ceremoniously replaced many times a year. 
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Feb 11, 2017 22:39
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I love the combat music in this game. It sounds like someone in the background is having the time of their life. "Wheeeee!" As an example.
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Feb 11, 2017 22:46
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Anaxite posted:Cool. I never watched further into the game, so I look forward to it. Nah, don't worry about it, I'll just fix it and keep an eye on it in the future. And yeah, the music in general for this game is great, and it's part of the reason we're using such a weird and convoluted recording set-up. if anything though, this game is loud. Like editing the audio usually involves finding the fights and dropping the music volume down considerably so it isn't overpowering anyone speaking. It's only the combat too, everything else is relatively fine.
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Feb 11, 2017 22:50
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DoubleNegative posted:I love the combat music in this game. It sounds like someone in the background is having the time of their life. "Wheeeee!" Pretty sure that's supposed to be a demonic screech, any sound effects in the background are meant to be the noises of demons.
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Feb 11, 2017 23:14
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Mak0rz posted:And then there's Meoto Iwa, the Married Couple Rocks, that has a two thousand pound rope connecting them that is ceremoniously replaced many times a year. And I thought rebuilding the Ise grand shrine everyone 20 years was hard work! That's dedication. Chimera-gui posted:Pretty sure that's supposed to be a demonic screech, any sound effects in the background are meant to be the noises of demons. They may be going for that effect, though there's also a technique of using vocalizations to communicate rhythm and stuff to other performers. You can see it in a noh play, for example. Pay attention to the people in the background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hI8edPXNS0&t=2580s Anaxite fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 23:15
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poorlywrittennovel posted:
Gameplay note because I've noticed you doing the same thing I did when I was first playing Okami: I sometimes see you trying to get a Demon Fang out of an enemy, but failing because you've hit the enemy one time too often. How it works is: when you have killed an enemy, it starts floating up in the air. At that point, you can Power Slash it to get the Demon Fang, BUT if you hit it with a regular attack one more time, then you can't Power Slash it anymore. For example, the weakest enemies, the ones with the flutes (or are they blowdart pipes?) go down in five hits from your weapon. At that point, they start floating up in the air and you can Power Slash them for a Demon Fang. But if you hit them a SIXTH time with your weapon, and THEN try to Power Slash them (as I've seen you do a couple of times, like at 4:34 in this video), the Power Slash is ineffective and you get no Demon Fangs. (Thankfully, it doesn't use up ink either, so you don't get doubly-punished for failing to slash at the exact right moment). Hope that tip helps you enjoy the game more.
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Feb 12, 2017 01:39
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Ryushikaze posted:Ammy is not a good dog. She is a great god. You keep calling her a dog, but she's clearly a wolf. A wolf!
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Feb 12, 2017 03:36
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Bloom can be used on the drum goblins instead of slash if you want their Demon Fangs.
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Feb 12, 2017 04:21
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Gideon020 posted:Bloom can be used on the drum goblins instead of slash if you want their Demon Fangs. No I looked up the Floral Finishers for every enemy and it is indeed Power Slash for the Yellow Imp and in fact for all but one type of Imp we'll be seeing later. Bloom literally does nothing to Imps and is in fact a Floral Finisher for a completely different monster who is also the only one that has it as its Floral Finisher. Chimera-gui fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Feb 12, 2017 |
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Feb 12, 2017 05:02
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I wish you'd use the thick brush button for restoration. The quick line button is good for cuts, but it's a little easy to mess up with it so I'm not as fussed about that.
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Feb 12, 2017 06:51
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:I wish you'd use the thick brush button for restoration. The quick line button is good for cuts, but it's a little easy to mess up with it so I'm not as fussed about that. I actually forget that the thick brush exists half the time. It's basically useless outside of restoration so it just kind of slips my mind.
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Feb 13, 2017 17:02
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I really could've sworn bloom worked on imps. Sorry about that. I'll try to keep my mouth shut about game mechanic stuff I remember in the future since I really don't know a ton about the game.
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Feb 14, 2017 20:17
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 Fae tells a story about a badger. Also a quick note, I'm aware of the weird visual glitch in this episode, it only happens the one time and I'm still looking in to ways to work out the back-end so stuff like that doesn't happen. Anaxite posted:Writing and culture notes for episode 5: poorlywrittennovel fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Feb 16, 2017 |
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Feb 14, 2017 23:15
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Oh my god; gently caress crossing things off of that list. I played the Wii version, and most of the time it just would not register. I'd loving dread doing bounty hunts just because knew it meant I'd have to try and get the name-crossing to work one more time. One time I went to do it and realized I forgot which monster I'd killed and 
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Feb 15, 2017 02:27
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Oh, hey. Not to tread on Anaxite's toes, but Tama's firework showed patterns of a Boar, Deer and Butterfly. Either that's a reference to the Inoshikacho yaku in Koi-Koi/Hanafuda, or they're both references to something mythological. I'd have confirmed which via Google if I didn't just get results about Naruto. 
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Feb 15, 2017 05:34
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Oh yeah I forgot there is a good reason to know what button is the quick line brush. It can still be done wrong that way but it's better at this than freehand if your freehand tends to veer off course.
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Feb 15, 2017 05:40
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I am surprised you did not point out that the dojo master's head literally rotates 180 degrees while he's instructing you. The eyebrows and moustache are the same thing. I find it incredibly amusing.
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Feb 15, 2017 05:40
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Writing and culture notes for episode 5: 05:10 The gates you enter to fight demons have this written on them: 羅城門 - Rajōmon. The Rajōmon, also called Rashōmon due to some plays, was a gate from the ancient Japanese cities of Heijō-kyō (Nara) and Heian-kyō (Kyoto). There was one in each city; it was built at the southern end of the central avenue leading to the Imperial Palace from the south, laid out according to Chinese grid patterns. The characters just mean "main city gate", and I'm wondering if that texture was even readable in the PS2/Wii versions. For more info, you can read on Wikipedia, or if you're feeling lucky, in Japanese on the Kyoto city website. 10:39 The sign on the dojo reads 色即是空. It means "Matter is void/All is vanity." 11:19 Your Jolly Dougnut-san comment is apt, since his name is literally Teacher Rice Ball!  I want one bad. 12:39 This is just something that feels weird to me after being in Japan. I know tatami mats are soft enough you'd prefer to use them when you do things that involve hitting the floor, but... still! Tatami are things you actually need to care for a bit, so why wouldn't you train on, say, wood? And why would you let the dog on them after just coming from outside? What the hell, teacher? (This peeve comes from having to remove shoes and indoor-only slippers to get on tatami mats inside bedrooms. Yes, I know it would be different in a dojo) 15:51 Demon purification or exorcism arrows are a thing. You can even buy amulets or charms in shape of arrows, though they're more costly than the small portable charms shown earlier. Here's one ritual ceremony in Japan that uses arrows to symbolize purification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JYUpCVkSJg 16:00 Why do so many demons come with bells? Good question. That may be a stylistic choice, borrowing from Shinto and Buddhism; bells do feature in both those belief systems, and demon monks are not unheard of in stories. 17:56 Your new enemy is named 骸金魚 (むくろきんぎょ, mukurokingyo), so "corpse goldfish". 19:23 On the diagram, at the top left, you can see that Tama wrote 花火玉 (はなびだま, hanabidama?). It just means "firework ball", so a cherry bomb. If you spoke Japanese it might be one more clue to tie to the symbol. New god name:
AlphaKretin posted:Oh, hey. Not to tread on Anaxite's toes, but Tama's firework showed patterns of a Boar, Deer and Butterfly. Either that's a reference to the Inoshikacho yaku in Koi-Koi/Hanafuda, or they're both references to something mythological. I'd have confirmed which via Google if I didn't just get results about Naruto. That's cool! I was wondering the significance and you delivered. For others, Ino-Shika-Cho is a 5-point scoring combination of hanafuda cards, in the Japanese card game Koi-Koi, featuring animals as AlphaKretin says: A boar (猪, いのしし, inoshishi), a deer (鹿, しか, shika), and a butterfly (蝶, ちょう, chō）. You can see an example here. Anaxite fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Feb 15, 2017 05:58
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