Crashes and Softlocks

A crash or freeze is some situation in which the game either forcibly closes (often with an error message) or gets frozen and won't respond to any user interaction other than closing the game or resetting the console/computer.

A softlock is some gamestate which can be reached in normal gameplay where you can still interact with the game, but from which you cannot escape or progress without resetting and losing progress. For example, being trapped inside some geometry with no access to loading zones. There are some situations which are effectively softlocks, except they can also be escaped by dying to an enemy or other damage source, though this still loses progress like resetting.

There are a number of crashes or softlocks in Okami that may affect a player, particularly when using certain speedrun strategies. Some of the softlock scenarios can be lockpicked using KT Glitch, but will permanently trap new game files.

Crashes and Freezes

Save Crash

Whenever you exit the Save menu (which can be opened by interacting with Origin Mirrors or by agreeing to save after boss fights), there is a small chance that the game will crash. This happens seemingly at random, regardless of whether you actually save or not. Because of this, runners should avoid ever opening the save menu during runs, being especially careful not to open the save menu after bosses.

Walking While Talking Portrait Unload

If you activate the Walking While Talking glitch, then initiate a dialogue which has a character portrait (e.g. talking to most NPC's), then move too far away from the source of the dialogue, most releases of the game will crash. This does not happen on the Wii version, which will usually substitute the character portrait with some other texture, often the Stray Bead icon. This is believed to be caused by the game freeing the memory associated with the NPC's portrait, but then attempting to access that memory to continue rendering the dialogue, causing some kind of memory-access error.

Canvas Overflow Glitch

If Amaterasu is able to open the Celestial Brush while she has less than 1 full Ink pot, she will have no limit on the amount she can draw in a single stroke. This is normally impossible, as using a brush technique to drain Ammy's ink below 1 pot will simply make her inkless, but many other things can drain her ink without this limitation:

• Cursed Zones
• The curse effect in Kusa Village before defeating the Blue Imp haunting Princess Fuse
• The ink-draining attack of the Tube Foxes

If you use this glitch to continue drawing a single stroke for too long, most releases of the game will eventually crash. This is believed to be caused by an overflow in the data structure used to store the shape of the brush stroke. The game may also crash if you use this glitch to draw a very long stroke which registers as some brush technique, and then release the brush.

Demonstration: https://youtu.be/q1NSMKG4WX0

ICB Scipted Fight Freeze

If you activate the Invisible Cherry Bomb Glitch, then run into a scripted fight trigger (e.g. the Poltergeist fight in Catcall Tower), the game will freeze on the last scroll transition before the fight begins.

Ryoshima Coast Brush Adventure Crash

The Ryoshima Coast brush adventure to waterspout the guardian sapling can activate a state enabling player control during cutscenes. This occurs when you waterspout the intermediate pool at the same time as the guardian sapling. During that state, certain actions such as blooming the sapling during the cutscene can result in a crash.

Wawku Nechku Crashes

If you perform Wawku Key Skip in order to skip the Scale Room puzzle on floor 1 of Wawku Shrine, then fight Nechku, your game will crash as you exit the Nechku fight arena. You can avoid this by either performing Nechku Skip, or by balancing the scales in the ice ball room prior to doing the key skip. In the latter case, you do not have to move the ice ball or actually obtain the lockjaw key. So long as you fully balance the scales, the game will not crash.

If you perform Nechku Skip and defeat Lechku & Nechku, then go back to Wawku Shrine and defeat Nechku, the game will crash after the dialogue where you show Oki the gold gear.

Softlocks

Pinch Locks

There are a variety of places where Ammy can get stuck between 2 or more pieces of collision, such that she is effectively stuck in places. In such situations, you can still attempt to move or jump, but Ammy will remain stuck in place. In some cases, situations which appear to be a pinch lock can be escaped eventually with sufficiently precise jumps/tackles/tackle bounds, or enough random wiggling.

Examples include:

• During Uppy Thingy, it's possible to slip between the geometry for the scaffolding and the stalagmite. Demonstration: https://twitter.com/feIIstinger/status/1326073070847627265?s=20
• North Ryo Early can result in a softlock if you land in a corner to the right of the gate, between the mountain and the fence. There is a piece of geometry where you can be trapped, unable to move.
• While very rare, it is possible to softlock during Nechku Skip by slipping between cracks within the stone door's collision (location)

Box Locks

There are other places where Ammy can get stuck in collision which surrounds her such that you cannot escape, even though you may be able to move around within those boundaries. Many box locks can be escaped via the KT Glitch if there is no solid ceiling.

Examples include:

• During Dojo Clip if you go too far North, Ammy will get stuck in a collision box behind the door which normally leads to the Dojo lesson room. This room has a ceiling and is inescapable.
• Also during Dojo Clip, if you slightly undershoot, it's possible to land in a collision box underneath the dojo room. This is escapable with KT's by clipping up through the floor.
• During Fireburst Early, if you go too far North, Ammy will get stuck in the restaurant's collision box (do note that this collision box extends to the cooking pot, which is just as inescapable).

Origin Warp Locks

Many Origin Warp locations are out of bounds, such that there is no way to reach solid ground before falling into the void plane. In many cases, these can be escaped via the KT Glitch, but without KT's, Ammy will be stuck in a void loop until she dies. In a few cases, Ammy respawns right onto the void plane without any time to act. In these cases, Ammy will be totally softlocked if she has the String of Beads equipped, as she will be stuck in a void loop forever. Specifically, this occurs in Tsuta Ruins and Wawku Shrine.

Constellation Locks

If you are able to activate a Constellation drawing state, but then somehow cause the camera to move such that the actual constellation is out of view, you will be softlocked. You will be unable to complete the Constellation, even if you draw stars in the right pattern, since the camera must be pointed at the physical constellation for it to work.

This is most likely to happen when performing Early Thunderstorm, where it's possible for Ammy to drown if you do not progress from the Gekigami statue Rejuvenation cutscene to the actual Constellation cutscene fast enough. This respawns the camera with Ammy, back at the front of the dungeon.

This can also happen if you watch a cutscene or start a dialogue after performing Pot Skip inside Tsuta Ruins, and use the resulting Walking While Talking to disrupt the Vine Constellation sequence. If you do accidentally trigger a dialogue after Pot Skip (e.g. by examining a Cursed Patch), you can avoid the softlock by going through a dialogue 1-2 more times to clear out any WWT or Cutscene Storage.

Sasa Sanctuary Elevator after Interior Clip

If you perform Early Sasa Sanctuary and fall into Jamba's room, the elevator will still be on the ground floor, leaving the elevator shaft empty. If you then enter the elevator cutscene trigger from Jamba's room, the elevator will get stuck in a halfway point at the top of the ground floor, with Ammy inside. This has been escaped once with double jump, but is believed to be inescapable with single jump. This softlock can be avoided by falling down the elevator shaft without triggering the elevator cutscene.

Sasa Sanctuary without activating any Mermaid Springs

Early Sasa Sanctuary will also result in a softlock if you perform it in New Game without activating any mermaid springs. The door to the sanctuary is closed without rescuing Chun, and you cannot use the mermaid coin provided by Mr. Bamboo unless you have another location to warp to. This can, of course, be escaped with the KT Glitch, or by dying to Take.

Gale Shrine Origin Warp without KT's or Double Jump

If you perform Gale Shrine Origin Warp, you will be softlocked unless you can perform Galestorm Platform Escape in order to escape from behind the Lockjaw on floor 1. Note that the Lockjaw key obtained from the blue Demon Scroll Chimera Fight will not work on the floor 1 Lockjaw, as keys are tied to the intended lockjaw. Because Galestorm Platform Escape requires double jump or KT's, but they are not technically required to perform the Origin Warp if done via Astral Pouch respawn, this is a softlock. The only escape is dying to either the Chimera or one of the flaming chests.

Boss Fights without required Brush Techniques

Fighting a boss without the required brush power will generally result in a softlock.

• Spider Queen and the Bandit Spiders cannot be damaged without Vine.
  • In theory, if you could get out-of-bounds during the fight, the spider bosses will eventually perform an attack where they draw a thread to the ceiling, then slam down on Ammy's position. This attack can follow Ammy out of bounds, at which point the boss will fall to the void plane and die automatically. Unfortunately, there is no known way to get out-of-bounds during these fights without cheats. Origin Warp does not work in fights, since Ammy's respawn point updates even when in mid-air.
• Crimson Helm cannot be damaged without Galestorm or Whirlwind.
• All variants of Orochi cannot be damaged without Waterspout. Furthermore, if you attempt to fight Moon Cave or True Orochi without obtaining Crescent, at the end of the fight, you will be unable to progress the Susano/Nagi QTE at the end. The game will endlessly wait for you to draw it, but will never recognize it.
• Ninetails cannot be damaged without Thunderstorm.

Tsuta Ruins Single Skip Fight Trigger

If you perform Single Skip, but then walk towards the Bud Ogre, you can start the fight without hitting the trigger which normally shows the Bud Ogre's introduction cutscene. If you then walk back into that trigger, the game will softlock after the cutscene with Ammy not responding to any input. This occurs because the game takes away your ability to control Ammy until the Bud Ogre fight starts, but because you've already cleared the fight, there's no fight trigger to clear away that state.

Inferno Tutorial Lock

In Moon Cave, if you use Fireburst to melt the ice block normally melted during the Inferno tutorial, the game will softlock. Issun will tell Ammy to melt the ice block, but you cannot comply because the ice block is already gone. It does not re-appear, and using Inferno (or any other brush techniques) during the tutorial just gives a try-again message from Issun.

ICB Water Dragon Loop

If you perform the Invisible Cherry Bomb Glitch and enter North Ryoshima by any means, you will be stuck in an infinite, inescapable loop of getting eaten by the Water Dragon, unless you have already killed him. There is a single frame after closing Issun's dialogue after getting eaten, during which you can open the brush, but there's no way to use this to escape. Normally, getting eaten damages Ammy, but during this loop, Ammy will never die, making it totally inescapable.

Igloo Turtle without Inferno/Fireburst/Deluge/Thunderbolt

If you hit the trigger for the scripted Igloo Turtle fight in Kamui, but don't have any brush power which can be used to damage it (Inferno, Fireburst, Deluge, or Thunderbolt), you will be stuck in the fight. The only way to escape is to die to the Igloo Turtle. This is a major risk during NG+ Any% runs, which don't obtain any of those brush powers. In such runs, it is necessary to perform Igloo Turtle Skip to avoid this softlock.